Supper Planning

My wife tends to the cat and makes sure the two Waste Management bins get wheeled to the edge of our driveway each Thursday evening. We each do our own laundry, though hers includes the bedding and mine includes the towels. Most other household chores fall to me, some done better than others.  Our dishes get washed every day. And we have supper every evening, almost never having to acquire it by going out or ordering a pizza.  When I do the shopping, or perhaps even when I read the Thursday Shop-Rite ads and log the digital coupons on Sundays, it is with menus in mind.  Some standards like Macaroni & Cheese in the style of Horny Hardart or Lasagna last four meals, two the week made, two the following week. Quiche, another staple fairly easy to make, lasts two. Shabbos Dinner is usually set as a chicken breast seared, then baked with some accompaniments or a crockpot melange known as cholent or dfina or stew depending on cultural origins.  A crockpot shabbos meal gets half frozen for another shabbos.  The availability of phony meat, from garden burgers to ersatz chicken supplies other meals, determined by what's on sale as I move my cart along the frozen cases.  And the freezer also has its share of fish, easily portioned, thawed the day before, pretty much nature's fast food.  We eat pretty well, especially in the evening, more often than not either without a lot of effort on my part or an investment of effort for later.  Just have to remember to thaw the fish, though some authorities claim this can be compensated by longer cooking.

Not very fast food but convenient just the same have been add-ons.  I like making kugel but it is a multistep process, though good for more than one meal.  More typically baked potatoes go with everything, wash and in the oven.  Frozen potatoes I only get when on sale, those have to be turned mid-heating.  Rice, barley, quinoa, and couscous take little effort, kasha a bit more with addition of mushrooms or bow pasta. Vegetables come fresh or frozen.  Easy to slice a tomato or an avocado.  Adding a variety to cholent, some fresh, some frozen, takes little effort.  Vegetables need only be boiled, sometimes peeled.  Squash can be sauteed if small, baked if larger.  This is generally more spontaneous than planned, though I know what is on sale for produce and incorporated into supper menus.

I like making desserts, though just not very often.  Apple Walnut Pie a la Fish Market in the fall at peak apple harvest, but generally labor-intensive desserts are for special occasions like birthdays, Thanksgiving, or Seder.  More often there is no dessert, or minor munching on ice cream or a banana.  Meals don't need much afterthought if given forethought.