Menu Planning

If there was one task I really stressed over during the first few months of being a wife, it would definitely be MENU PLANNING. You see, browsing through cookbooks may seem fun and exciting for other people--but definitely not for someone with zero skills in the kitchen.

I would hysterically flip through page after page of every single cookbook I owned, searching for a recipe that looked simple enough for me to attempt on my own. Recipes using ingredients that were completely foreign to me were a no-no, which limited my options drastically.

It didn't help that I wasn't gifted with a palette that allows me to just cook by feel and create sumptuous dishes without the aid of a cookbook. I NEEDED a recipe and I still do.

A few days before our first trip to the grocery store as a married couple, I painstakingly researched for dishes I could cook for our meals over the next few days--dishes that would impress the husband and make me the best wife ever. I worked on that week's menu for... a long time. When Sunday finally arrived, I brought my list with me and hoped for the best.

What I didn't foresee was that going to the grocery store on a Sunday night wasn't such a great idea. NONE of the meats I needed for my dishes were available, leaving me extremely close to tears because I had no idea what on earth I was going to do next. My grocery list was composed of the ingredients needed for that week's meals. Suddenly, my list was useless. I cannot accurately describe to you how frustrated, stressed out and utterly clueless I felt as I stood in front of the meat station.

In the end, we resorted to purchasing pre-marinated meats from my soon-to-be best friends, Magnolia Chicken Station and Monterey Meatshop. I learned a valuable lesson: to never grocery shop on a Sunday night again! :P

I'm happy to say that after several months, I've finally learned to enjoy menu planning. I've gotten ever so slightly more confident in the kitchen, and am always on the lookout for yummy (and easy) dishes to try. It helps greatly that my husband will eat anything and everything I put on his plate. :)