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So I'm here to report back on how we did with the June Meal Plan. While it went better than I expected, it was not perfect. However, between travels (we spent a long weekend up in New England) and life, we didn't miss out on too many of our planned meals. Unfortunately, what we did miss out on were the black bean burgers and black bean burritos. Which means they are going back on the plan for July.
Expect to hear about our trip soon.
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Remember those "Words of Wisdom" posts I did for a while? Well, they definitely fell by the wayside, mainly because I didn't always have the right words to say about why I found them so wise. However, while de-cluttering the office (see 40 while 40 list) for the umpteenth time I came across a notebook of quotations I've collected over the years that are important to me. I've decided I want to share them. Most of them are book/reading in nature. Does this really surprise you? Knowing me??
As Ray Bradbury recently passed away, I thought I'd start with one of his:
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a civilization. Just get people to stop reading them."
Ouch!
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While I didn't get all 40 items from my original list accomplished by the time I turned 40, I didn't hold it against me. I also decided I would not create a whole new list of 40 items to accomplish while being 40. However I'm still interested in how many of those original 40 I can finish this year. Instead of updates every three months though, I'm going to update every four months. So here we go:
So, of the fourteen remaining, I have finished three of them. Now for the next eleven.
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So, I have the month of June all planned out. However, I realized that it would not be smart of me to tell the world when we might not be at home. So I've come up with a solution in which I tell you everything we plan on eating, but I don't tell you when. I feel a lot better about this.
Some additional background before I get into the meals we have planned this month. We are omnivores. We eat meatless and we eat most types of meat as well. I hope you won't be offended by some of our choices, I'm not offended by what you choose to eat (or not eat). Also, I'm only mentioning the "main" dish here. There are always side items of fruits and veggies that don't get written out in advance. Mainly because (especially this time of year) we frequent the farmer's market and our garden and those side dishes are planned by what looks good.
More background: I also like to vary up what we eat so I have this elaborate spreadsheet that lays everything out and I move things around so we aren't eating three cow recipes one week, and five chicken dishes the next. Balance is good - everything in moderation. However, because there are just two of us, leftovers are very much an actuality in our lives and sometimes a recipe makes more servings than we realize. If it is not freezable, and not everything is, we are not always as varied as I would like. Such is life.
Now, while I do have all of June planned, in order to balance my meals, I have worked in a four week rotation. Luckily, with June 1 being a Friday, it wasn't too hard to know June 1-2 last week, and then I created my rotation around June 3-30. These are the plans:
Breakfast for dinner (1)
Cow (2)
Lamb (1)
Leftovers (8)
Meatless (4)
New recipe (2)
Pig (2)
Poultry (2)
Restaurant (2)
Seafood (2)
Wiggle (2)
That adds up to 28 dinners. As for what they are, I'll let you know in just a moment.
So, backtracking to Friday . . . you already know we had French Dip for dinner. That was served with balsamic onions, roasted potatoes, a fabulous salad brought by the stupendous company, as well as chocolate chip cookies upgraded with layers of peanut butter and/or nutella. Yum, nutella. Last on the menu was wonderful conversation that lasted quite some time.
Saturday, the weather was fantastic, so we headed up to Centennial Park for music, dancing, and a picnic. We'd picked up some sourdough bread and prosciutto at the farmer's market and supplemented that with good cheese, melon, and almonds/cashews for a simple meal on the lawn.
Now for those meals. We will have:
Bar Louie (new restaurant in town)
Black Bean Burgers
Chicken Korma (new recipe)
Lamb roast
Leftovers
Pork Carnitas with Cranberry Chipotle Sauce
Tortellini Salad with Zucchini and Tomatoes
Scrambled eggs with minced ham (cheating a little bit here, my second "pork" meal is also my "breakfast meal" which gives me 3 "wiggles" this month - we need it due to the fact we'll be with family this month which makes planning in advance difficult)
Seafood recipe of family's choice
Spicy Chicken Wraps with Basil Pineapple Salad (Aaron can't wait for this one, we've been waiting for our basil to come in)
Tequila Lime Shrimp with Cilantro Brown Rice
??? (new recipe)
??? (restaurant of family's choice)
Three Wiggle Nights
Wow! this is a really long post. If you read all the way through, good for you. Anything catch your eye? Let us know.
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