Your Local Bites

This Week’s Menu Plan

Have you ever seen anyone this happy to be grocery shopping? This wasn’t the look on anyone’s face at the store yesterday, I assure you. Never, ever go to Shoprite on the Sunday starting their “Can, Can” sales. I should be on meds for that decision. I have never seen it so busy and that’s including all Holidays. No wildly grinning patrons like this guy were milling about, but, he makes me smile, so he’s heading up my story today.

In preparation for my hellish trip to Can Can land, I spent hours Saturday on the Shoprite website combing the online circular and looking through the one in print. I definitely recommend having both handy. There were items I spotted in the print version that I would not have found online.

The online circular is really a cool service and a very easy system to use. The recipe links are extremely handy. For instance, zucchini is on sale this week. I clicked on the recipe link right next to the zucchini and up pops a zucchini and green chilies recipe that I will serve with the Oven Baked Flounder recipe (also found on the site.) The recipes even include check boxes next to the ingredients so you can add those you need.

I wonder how many people are aware of what grocery store websites offer these days. An older woman saw me looking at my printed out list which is divided into shopping departments in the store and said, “Wow, you’re really organized.” (Boy, she sure doesn’t know me.) I told her that Shoprite’s website does this for you. The site also has a ton of click and print coupons. And, did you know that Shoprite has a “personal shopper” service They’ll hand pick all the items on your list and you just come and pick it up? Oh, man, I should have taken them up on this service yesterday.

Shoprite is not alone here. Most of the major Food chains offer online services, so explore your favorite stores and see what tools are offered. I think you will be surprised.

Thanks to the help of SR’s online features, my final meal plan is as follows:

Monday: Barbecue Turkey Loaf with Green Beans and Baked Potatoes
Tuesday: Pasta and Chicken in Pumpkin Cream Sauce with a Salad**
Wednesday: Wasabi Crusted Cod with Butternut squash and Kale
Thusrday: Date night, no cooking
Friday: Italian Chili (Sausage and Beans) with salad and bread (not on site yet)
Saturday: Chicken Enchiladas
Sunday: Oven Baked Flounder with Zucchini and Green Chilies and Cous Cous.

I’m going to make an adjustment to the cream sauce by omitting the cream and adding low fat cream cheese. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

My goal with this meal plan, as discussed in a previous post, is to stop my habit of going to the store every day. So far, it has not worked as planned. I still had to run to Foodtown for a few forgotten items. Hopefully, the rest of the week will be “supermarket free” for me.

Monday, January 5th, 2009, by Deborah Smith, Executive Editor and is filed under "Uncategorized ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.