Every day one of my responsibilities is to make sure that there is food to eat.
Early on in my married life this was a big problem. I grew up at home, where Mum did the meal planning, and usually the cooking. Then I boarded with people who looked after it. Then I lived in the nurses' home while I was training (yeah, I know that makes it sound like sooooo long ago!). During that time I would wander over to the hospital dining room and eat whatever was on the menu that day. I just never had to think about it, so I never learned.
Then I got married.
Many of the lasting memories from our honeymoon ( in a campervan in Tassie) are around lack of meal planning -eating granita biscuits for breakfast because that was all we had, not knowing how to cook eggs and bacon, buying an evening meal at the hydro electricity cafe on credit at crazy prices because we had no other option. Neither of us had learnt to plan around food, or to shop for it...and so the learning curve started.
These days I've had a few years of practice and it's not a problem - but it's still something that needs to be done every few days. If I don't know what the plan is for meals I get stressed and I hate to be heading out the door from work in the evening, and still not knowing what I am going to do for dinner.
My solution is to make myself stay ahead of the game, by planning. I'm OK if things change later (and they often do - after all , we still need a little spontaneity in our lives) but I need to know that there is a plan. So I sit down and make myself do it, and then make myself shop in order to make things easier for the days to come. I try to plan a week at a time -which means that I shop once (less impulse buying and less time taken) and then just top up on fresh stuff part way through the week.
Over the years I've developed a method which works for me, and as I sat down to plan the week ahead yesterday, the thought struck me that since I have a blog I might be able to help someone else out by sharing - so here is the Erica method of meal planning. Take it or leave it. I put together a document showing how I lay out my planning.
This is the basic plan that I use. First I go through putting in our commitments, who is coming to share meals with us (including the number) and any special meal needs. If we are eating out I put that in, and I know that I don't need to plan for it. Then I check the weather forecast and put that in, as that will often influence the type of meal that I want to make. I usually start with the big meals where we have guests planned, and then work on the others.
As I go I plan the recipes, write down where to find them again, save them to my pinterest page if they were on the net (so that I can find them easily) and record the KJ per serve if it is available.
Then it comes down to trying to get a balance of meals with good variety, not too much of the same style or meat type. Using up what is in the fridge, any produce that has been gained from kind friends who have green thumbs, and planning to buy food on special at the local stores (good old junk mail helps there).
The shopping list is this list on my planner, plus anything that we need which has been written up on to a whiteboard on our fridge (this system works pretty well.)
UPDATE ON THE RECIPE (following on from yesterday's entry)
It worked out really well, and has been promoted to "recipe hits" which means that I will make it again some time.
The blueberries cooked up beautifully and the crunch of the crumble with the cheesecake was very yummy.
I used granita biscuits as I have never found graham crackers in Adelaide
I also used more butter for the crust and cooked it for a little less time.
I also used 500g of Philly light
Here is what mine looked like.
And here is the recipe (Thanks to Life made Simple)
Blueberry Crumble Cheesecake Bars
Filling ingredients
12 oz. cream cheese ( I used 500g)
½ c. sour cream
½ c. sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp. salt
1½ tsp. vanilla or vanilla bean paste
Blueberries:
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 c. fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
Graham cracker crust:
10 graham crackers, finely crushed ( I used 1 packet of granita biscuits)
3 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. (½ stick) butter, melted ( I used more like 8)
Crumble topping:
1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. brown sugar
¼ c. sugar
7 tbsp. butter, cold
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (180) . Line an 8×8 square (30cm) baking pan* with parchment (baking) paper, leaving an overhang on at least 2 sides for easy removal.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl combine crust ingredients, then spread into prepared pan, creating an even layer. I pressed mine flat with the bottom, of a measuring cup. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool while preparing the remaining components.
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine all blueberry ingredients, toss gently to combine, set aside.
4. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for crumble topping. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender until the mixture is coarse, set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together cream cheese, sour cream and sugar until smooth. NOTE: it’s really important that the cream cheese, sour cream and eggs are at room temperature, otherwise you’ll end up with a clumpy batter! With mixing speed on low, add vanilla, salt and one egg. Mix until combined, then add the remaining egg, mixing until incorporated.
6. Pour the cheesecake batter over the baked (and slightly cool) crust. Spread evenly with a spatula. Carefully place blueberry mixture over top, evenly covering the cheesecake. Finally, top with crumble. Place in oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cheesecake has set and the crumble is lightly golden brown in color. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1½ hours or until it reaches room temperature. Place in refrigerator and chill for at least 4 hours before removing, cutting and serving.
NOTE: *The pan will be completely full almost to the top, so make sure it’s 2″ in height! Also, this can be baked in a 9″ round cheesecake pan… although the baking time may vary and the result will be a thinner cheesecake. I have not yet tried this, so I can’t give exact time amounts.
Adapted from Tyler Florence, Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars | Makes approximately 12 bars
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