Now those of you who know me know that I like a well-stocked pantry in normal times. I don't feel comfortable without it. I had an amazing pantry at my disposal in CT and frankly, I think I have a pretty incredible pantry in my studio apartment as well, considering I have a fraction of the space. After my week of fried chicken, pizza, spaghetti-o's and Dinnerly box meals (kung pao chicken w/rice, crispy shrimp tacos, and sesame ginger beef with string beans) (there were some salads in there as well, never fear), I continued to utilize my Fresh Direct groceries along with my pantry/freezer stash. One tool that I use (and have used even in the before times) for grocery lists, recipe clipping, and some meal planning (to the extent I do it) is Plan to Eat. It's not free (maybe $20/year?) but it's worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. 

Since late last week, I have been using it to meal plan, partially just to ensure I'm not letting things go bad that need to be cooked and partially so I don't overcook -- I really feel like I went a bit haywire there with the VAT of spaghetti-o's that I had to eat more of than I wanted because I had no room in the freezer for leftovers.  Now that things have calmed down, I think it will be helpful to see when I really need more food, what exactly I need, and how to best incorporate what I have. Another thing to note as I talk about my planning/eating is that my breakfasts are generally minimal -- a slice of toast and some fruit; fruit and yogurt, etc. Sometimes I don't even eat breakfast because by the time I get around to it it's already 11:30 and I might as well wait a tad longer and have lunch instead. On weekends I'll make more of a brunch. At one point prior to the pandemic, however, I had made waffles from the Trader Joe's protein pancake/waffle mix and had frozen a few waffles -- so I had a waffle with strawberries and raspberries (2nd FD order) Saturday morning, and a full on spinach, mushroom and cheese omelette with hash browns (shredded Trader Joe's potatoes from freezer) and bacon on Sunday.

Last Friday night, I used the cod that arrived that morning to make roasted cod with tomato cream sauce (I had gotten grape tomatoes in both my Fresh Direct orders, plus heavy cream from the spaghetti-o's recipe) and served it over sauteed spinach (from first FD order; had also been using it for salads and omelette filling). Weekend dinners were Dinnerly stir-fries. Monday I cooked a Butcher Box NY strip from my freezer (used Plan to Eat to remind myself to thaw it), with creamed spinach (gotta use that cream and spinach up), sauteed mushrooms (from 2nd FD order), and some herbed horseradish butter I had in my freezer. Amazing. Lunch that day was the small bit of leftover cod atop some white rice. The leftover steak will be repurposed as well -- stay tuned!