A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew

So I've been crazy busy these last few weeks (hence the lack of posts).  School has started back up and it's going great - but has definitely kept me on the go.  So although I have no new books to review just yet, I thought I'd share this little project that J and I are doing.

I have a subscription to Real Simple (if you're not familiar, check out the website here, it's AMAZING) and the October issue contains a 4 week menu plan - complete with shopping lists and recipes.  Because we're not busy enough (Sarcasm? Check) we've decided to try this out in hopes that it will keep us fed, with little to no planning on our end AND that after the 4 weeks are up, we will love the lifestyle so much that we can start planning our weekly menus ourselves.  I'm going to try to write about the experience (is the food good?  is it expensive? were the ingredients impossible to find?),as well as take pictures of the completed meals for the next month, hopefully in addition to squeezing out some book reviews.

Week of September 27th 

We did 1/2 of the shopping for this week's menu at the Farmers' Market at the Western Fair, so this week's cost might be a little cheaper than if we shopped only at the grocery store.

The meals are:

1. MONDAY Roasted tilapia, potatoes and lemons
2. TUESDAY Penne with tomatoes, eggplant and mozzarella
3. WEDNESDAY Turkey burgers with creamy romaine slaw
4. THURSDAY port cutlets with spicy noodles
5. FRIDAY Steak with roasted carrots and onions

The shopping lists are available on pdf at www.realsimple.com/dinnerplan.

The cost for Week One is $100.00 on the nose!  It was $65.00 at the market (fresh, local veggies and beautiful free range meat) and $37.58 at the grocery store (but included was a pack a gum and a chocolate bar for today, so really $35.00).  This seems pretty reasonable, but keep in mind, these are dinners only, but because they are meals for four people, they will also serve as leftover lunches for me and J.  Also, apparently the people of Real Simple don't eat during the weekend, so that will be extra money out of your pocket too.

ps - I hope this goes without saying, but JUST IN CASE, I claim no ownership of the recipes or meal plan / shopping list.  It was found in the October 2010 issue of Real Simple.