It is Monday morning and I need to work on a task I hate more than grocery shopping with two children, one of whom is really a grouchy monkey in disguise. I need to go through my cookbooks and figure out what we are going to eat this week, figure out what we have and what we need and write a grocery list. I sometimes try to involve Justin in this task, but generally speaking it is my baby. With a real baby coming soon this is especially true, because I'm mostly looking for recipes that can be made with less than 15 minutes on my feet and that I feel like eating -- and I don't feel like eating anything these days -- except when I feel like eating everything (but nothing we happen to have in the house, of course).

I love trying new recipes, but right now is not the time to play the gourmand. I also feel compelled to make as many things as possible that will have freezable leftovers for later when no one wants to cook. I have plenty of good fast recipes, but all the old stand-bys are old, tired and or at least I'm tired of them.

There are plenty of places out there where you can buy cookbooks and meal planning services that will give you your grocery lists and all your recipes in a package so you don't have to plan. The problem is I've never found one that offered an entire week's worth of things I actually want to eat. So back to planning.

Will we do penne and pesto again for the umpteenth week in a row? Are quesadillas ever off the menu? Who knows what exciting adventures await? I suppose some day I might be organized enough to create a cycle of meals that I actually like and their corresponding grocery lists, but until then anything goes.