A week of meals

I have been snowed in for too long and my eating supplies were reaching the slim pickin' level. The nature center where I work was closed Wednesday and Thursday due to this most recent blizzard that contributed more snow to our record-breaking winter. Before leaving work Friday to do some grocery shopping, I made a meal plan for the coming week. I chose many items that can be used for multiple meals in an effort to reduce leftover bits of veggies, etc.

Here's what's on the menu:

• Falafel with tomato and avocado in a whole wheat pita
• Ground turkey burritos and guacamole
• Pita pizza topped with green pepper
• Ground turkey chili
  
• Cream of broccoli soup with potatoes
  
• Grilled chicken and veggies
• Frittata
  

I'm excited to get these meals cooking because the soup, falafe and chili will produce enough extra that I can package single servings to either freeze for later, or bring to work for lunches. I also just bought a food processor! Meal prep is about to get infinitely easier!

How did I cut down on purchasing? I am sharing the bell pepper and tomato sauce with the chili and the pizza. The pitas will be stuffed with falafel, and serve as the base of mini pizzas instead of using dough. I'm going to add potatoes and cheese to both the cream of broccoli soup and the frittata. I also am sharing onion and garlic in the frittata and chili, and black beans with the chili, frittata and burritos.

While I can always compost leftover pieces of vegetables, I'm also irritated with myself if I let something go to waste unnecessarily. My goal with shopping this week was to find multiple uses for a single produce item that wouldn't normally be totally used in one recipe. I feel pretty confident that I will achieve that with the meals I've planned.

I feel a little like a chump about doing my shopping for this week, because none of it was done at the co-op. An email was sent out earlier in the week that the deliveries would be slim, so there may be a lot of items out of stock. I didn't want to chance that (plus since Friday was the first day most people were out and about, everyone was restocking fridges and pantries), so I stopped at the grocery store and even Target to meet my shopping needs. Try as I might, I can't win 'em all.

P.S. I have a new (to me) product that I'm excited to try for the cream of broccoli soup!