07/24/2009 Meal Planning Lament
mmmmm yummy! Homemade chicken enchilada with rice. Eh never mind. Who am I kidding? This is a Lean Cuisine. For several years I have prided myself in the fact that I have not caved in to having a frozen meal for dinner. Don't get me wrong- I am a big proponent of using a frozen meal for work lunches. And frozen pizzas for dinner I'm all about (especially Newman's Own, California Pizza Kitchen, or Gino's East frozen pizzas. Even Digiorno pizzas with the self-rising crust are good). Yet individual frozen meals, in the little plastic containers with the separate sterile side dish holders, don't exude the warmth of the social dinner experience that I so enjoy. Sadly, this week that all fell apart. With my husband away at a music festival last Sunday, I found myself with a newly organized bookcase but no plan for dinner. And so I heated up this meal that you see above. And yes, I plated it because doing so made me feel like less of a slacker. Now, I can forgive myself for this, but it happened again last night when my husband was off chasing President Obama around Lincoln Park. For the past few weeks I have fallen into a meal planning slump. Yes I posted the Jerk Chicken recipe last Friday, but that was a true anomaly compared to how I've felt for most of my dinner plannings. Heck, we even went to the grocery store a couple weeks ago WITHOUT A LIST. We walked around with my coupon book, and actually did pretty well on our produce, cereal, yogurt, and other staples, but no true meal planning was had. I guess it's been one of those months. I've been swamped at work, and that's even with having a fairly routine clinic and no complicated patient issues this week (thank goodness). In attempts to prioritize my work load, I came up with 4-5 options that all tied for the top. Wednesday evening rolled around and in considering my "to do" list I thought, Oh no, how can it already be Thursday tomorrow? ! We had family in town earlier this week, and I didn't even have munchies to set out for them! It gets worse. I laid on the couch contemplating a nap until 8: 30 this evening, when my husband and I decided that, indeed, we needed to eat. While getting ready to head out to the Mayan Palace, Dateline NBC came on with Keith Morrison. "It was a happily ever after ending. . or was it? " he squeaked. We looked at each other and decided, yes, we would rather spend our Friday evening on the couch watching an investigative report on a man who may have killed his family rather than sip margaritas on the rocks in a room full of jovial and energetic Friday night-Chicagoans. Absolutely. And so this was our dinner tonight:
11/8/25 note- I wish I knew what that dinner pic was!
