time for a grocery trip

It's been a week since my last grocery trip and the pickings are getting slim, so here I sit with my recipe box in front of me and my notepad at hand. We've been wasting much less food since I started meal planning, as we're buying only what our recipes call for instead of whatever looks good when we happen to be at the grocery store.

This week's dinners are:
- Tempeh and Spinach Pasta Bake
- Taco Casserole
- Lentil Burgers
- Slow-cooker Split Pea & Potato Soup
- Tofu Mutter
- Zucchini Quiche

Last week, several produce items went bad before I got around to using the recipes that called for them, so this week I'm going to try making my recipes based on how long the ingredients will keep. That means the zucchini quiche will be one of the first meals, as I find that my zucchini typically goes bad before other veggies. The tempeh and spinach pasta bake is right up there too, as spinach doesn't tend to keep very long before going wilty. The split pea and potato soup will most likely be the last meal.

I don't plan lunches as thoroughly as I do dinners, because we're often out and about during the day and I don't end up with the time necessary to prepare what I had in mind. Some of our quick staple lunches that I plan for every week include:
- Avocado Sub Sandwiches
- Spinach and Egg Scramble
- Rice Macaroni Noodles with Cheese

A home-made snack mix is essential around here - I usually throw in dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dried cherries, pecans, almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, and wheat square cereal. My son loves to pick at that throughout the day, and without any sugar or salt added it's not something that needs to be limited. We also keep rice crackers and cheese on hand for quick snacks, as well as sunflower-oat bran bread with cashew butter and home-made mulberry jam for fast sandwiches. Organic yogurt is an essential for quick fixes as well.

Breakfast is typically either a bowl of granola with rice or almond milk, eggs, or oatmeal with quinoa - nothing fancy there and easy to plan for.

My shopping list is ready. Now it's time to tackle the feat of shopping with a 23-mo-old and 4-mo-old in tow. Wish me luck!