March, the Month Without Meals

This month has been flying by in a haze of long workdays spent in the city. The boys like a good guys' night now and then, so they can eat hotdogs or other food items only a guy could love, but there are only so many guys' nights even a guy can handle.

Usually, I plan the guys' nights into the menu so there's only one (or maaaaaybe two) per week, with regular meals (still fast and easy to prepare, but featuring actual food) otherwise. We stock up at the weekend and Chris makes whatever the menu lists. Lately, though, we've been busy or away at the weekends, so shopping gets pushed off to Monday, when I work at home and Chris goes to the lab. Which means shopping gets pushed off until Tuesday, when I'm in the city and Chris is facing a string of guys' nights, for which the stuff we have laying around (pasta and cheese or chicken nuggets and tater tots) will service. Not being home, I can't complain much and we muddle through with maybe a midweek milk run.

Yesterday, with a half-hearted start to a grocery list in my hand, I found myself standing in the kitchen feeling lost. I'd surveyed the provisions on hand and had decided to make the best of a bunch of lasts - last of this kind of spaghetti, last of that kind of spaghetti, last of frozen corn, last of frozen peas, etc. We're starting the third week of not having a solid meal plan and I'm feeling as if we are wandering the abyss. Who knew how attached I've gotten to meal planning? It's been a good long time since the cupboards were bare enough that I couldn't scrape up something in the way of a meal I'd serve to sudden guests. It's not a financial predicament; only a calamity of time and motivation.

Tune in tomorrow when we'll probably feature pancakes (we have eggs and bisquick) or Thursday, when the ground beef might have defrosted and we could chop up some more lasts to manage tacos. Wave to us on Friday as we head out for the weekend again and look for my sorry self wandering the kitchen again on Monday, wishing the grocery fairy would hurry up and figure out where we live. If you're wanting more than some blue cheese stuffed olives and a bowl of Cheddar Jack Cheez-Its, you might want to wait until April to drop by.