I don’t know about you, but I like starting the week with a full fridge and ending it with an empty one, without having to throw anything away in between. But the only way I can manage to do this is to make a plan, shop for it and then eat it as planned. It sounds mildly obsessive, and perhaps it is, but it works. And it certainly doesn’t limit what we eat.
Before heading to the supermarket, we decide what we feel like eating each evening of the week, write it down like a menu, and then create a shopping list for those specific meals. Obviously some stuff gets bought every week – cucumber, cherry tomatoes, seedy bread, milk and cheddar cheese are always on the list, amongst many other things. But everything else on the list is destined for specific meals, so there’s no waste. Nothing is bought on a whim, so nothing lurks forgotten in the back of the fridge getting hairy and slimy before being thrown out while you breathe desperately through your mouth to avoid the smell.
We have a whiteboard in the hall which serves as our shopping list and record of reminders of the week’s appointments and chores. And the bottom of it is always reserved for the list of our evening meals.
It gives me a sense of comfort to know what delicous dinners are coming up – and of course that we have the ingredients in stock to make them. I contentedly observe the quantity of food in the fridge reducing as we eat our way through the week.
No question, this way of planning leaves little space for improvisation, but at the end of a long day at work (and they are all so long at the moment), it makes my life much simpler to not have to decide what to cook on the spot.
I usually make something slow cooked on Sunday for eating later in the week, but almost everything else will be something either easy (jacket potatoes) or quick (egg fried rice) or both.
Of course, it really helps that I like cooking. It’s a bit like meditation for me. The state of absorbed concentration, the creative nature of changing ingredients into food, the happy passing of time at the stove. And of course, at the end, there’s something delicous to bring to the table (or, slightly shamefacedly to the sofa) and share with my people.
Sophie cooks 