Kitchen, meal planning, groceries, OH MY!

It seems many of the women folk want to know how two women could possibly live with sharing a kitchen. Here's how:

Janell and I unpacked our boxes and set up the kitchen together. We started a couple of boxes to pack away with surplus stuff like extra dishes and glasses, but we ended up keeping all of our pots and pans in the kitchen. I can’t tell you Janell’s reasoning but I was (and still am) picturing a cooking extravaganza in which we would need all of them (and there’s a lot of them). Just the other day I decided we probably didn’t need five mesh strainers in the kitchen so I put them in an easy to get to cupboard in the basement, not a box, because we just might need them for the cooking extravaganza that I have been picturing. But yes ladies, we mixed all of our stuff. What’s ours is theirs and what’s theirs is ours. We both love our surplus of cooking wines, vinegars, and oils, and we have a plethora of cookbooks to now choose from! I gained a pasta machine and Janell gained a mandolin and Food Saver. We also came with a chest freezer, which we plan to fill with produce, and scrumptious sauces, soups, and other home made delicacies.

We all agreed on an amount to spend every month on groceries and each week Janell and I each plan two meals and take turns making the list and going to the store. This hasn’t been a completely seamless process. The first week my two meals were strikingly similar to Janell’s two meals. There have been some disagreements over quality versus price on some grocery items, salsa being one of them and we are in the process of testing out a new brand, trying to find one of acceptable price and flavor. If a Downing cooks, an Anderson cleans up and vice versa, if Janell and I cook together, then the boys clean up and sometimes we are all cooking, and we all kinda help clean up. It seems to be working out pretty well. I think we all hate the current dishwasher and stove, especially me.

Having a degree in nutrition and being a couple weeks away from being a Registered Dietitian, I definitely have some food preferences. When it was just Jay and I, I planned all the meals so I could make sure each one was nutritionally adequate. Now for a few meals a week my nutritional fate is left in the hands of another! What if I develop a nutrient deficiency or don’t have bowel movements as often as I am used to?!! I’m willing to give up a lot in this process but not my nutrition! How will I cope?! I remember a couple meals early on that didn’t have *non-starchy veggies with them, something I almost always fill half my plate with at lunch and dinner. I’m not going to lie. I had a little anxiety on the inside over it. Here’s how I cope. I started just grabbing some spinach or baby greens from the fridge. I was worried this would make Janell feel funny when I did it but it doesn’t so we’re good. I remind myself that the recommendation is to make half your grains whole grains, so I don’t stress when we have (GASP!) white pasta. After all, there are certain things that just don’t taste as great with whole grain products anyway. For example whole-wheat pasta totally overpowers olive oil and fresh herbs so even I make it with white pasta. I also made an awesome risotto the other night with (GASP again) white rice. I try to plan most of my meals using whole grains that everyone likes or can’t really taste and enough of a non-starchy veg for everyone to fill half their plates with should they so choose. We always have both white and wheat pasta, rice, tortillas, and English muffins on hand so everyone is happy. I feel like there has been some definite give and take on everyone’s part with the food. Janell and I recently had a discussion on how we choose different brands and certain items that we didn’t want to budge on. There’s definitely been some compromise on both sides and while our natural tendency may be to want to hold on tightly to what we want, because, it’s what we want, it turns out the butter and mayonnaise may be some of the things that God uses to make us better.

*non-starchy vegetable: ALL veggies but corn, potatoes, peas, and hard winter squashes. I still eat these I just count them as a starch J