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I have phases where I really just don’t cook from recipes–no, I fling things in a pot, sauté whatever sounds good, and wambamthankyouma’am, I’ve got dinner on the table. There’s too much to think about or do or pay attention to, and dinner just doesn’t make the cut. Instead, I have to disconnect from the busy day and zen out over the stove, letting my creative juices flow when pricked. I’ve been cooking from recipes long enough to understand how much are going to go, even if I’ve never made that particular dish before.

And do you know what that means? Anyone?

Yeah, like.. nothing to blog about. I want to; I do! I want to want to bake something, pencil in hand, scribbling down all my notes and changes and measurements. I want to want that, but I just don’t want that. What I want to do is furiously throw together dessert during the commercials of the playoffs. Or better yet, gas station layer cake.*

But one thing has not change: I still budget and meal plan, and I still freaking love it. I get so many people asking about tips and tricks and ideas for the week that I figured I would start sharing what we do. I’m not changing anything or planning in a certain way just to post here–it’s almost laughable just how lazy I am these days!–but sharing exactly what we’re eating and why. Ready? Cool! Let’s do it, friends!

The Meals

We’re excited to take our first cooking class together at the Whole Foods cooking school, Salud!, on Saturday, so we only need to plan for 6 dinners for two people. Both O and I will be eating most of our lunches homemade but still probably going out some, so let’s say 4 lunches for two people. All breakfasts are eaten at home, bien sûr.

That’s a total of 34 meals we need to plan for this week.

Dinners

1. Penne à la vodka

I’m certifiably crazy over vodka sauce, and I love having a large batch in the fridge. Great for lunches and incredible on pizza! So I figured I would start with a classic pasta dish, side of maybe sautéed spinach or salad. Lots of veggies to balance out the richness of the main course.

2. Grilled pizza with vodka sauce

Need I say more? This is our favorite pizza ever. It even got a pretty serious mention in my grilled pizza recipe and interview with O. Like the penne à la vodka, we’ll balance the main course with sides heavy on the green and healthy. Plain shredded mozzarella to top.

3. Tofu sofritas bowl

Tofu is cheap, and tofu is delicious. Especially tofu sofritas! I truly think I’m able to budget so haphazardly because we don’t eat meat at every single meal, and it’s healthy to boot. I picked up a few cactus paddles [nopales] at the Asian market last week, so I’ll serve the rice-and-sofritas bowl with lots of guac and sautéed nopales on the side.

4. Tofu sofritas tacos

My sofritas recipe makes enough for 4, so for just the 2 of us, we’ll save a little less than half for tacos later. Top with chopped onion and cilantro. Serve with lots of greens, since we get plenty of beans from the sofritas. Rice would work well, too.

5. Sous-vide steak frîtes

My I-just-want-it meal! Steak is my utter downfall every time I’m vegetarian, and my love for it cannot be overstated. I cook super cheap chuck-eye steaks sous vide (in my Crockpot with a Dorkfood sous vide temperature controller) with smashed garlic cloves at 136º, then sear them in a cast-iron skillet, finished with some frothy butter. You can also use a beer cooler to mimic the process! Served with a side of fries from frozen (let’s just be real here.. homemade fries take 1000 times more effort and are hardly ever as good!) tossed with truffle oil, freshly grated parmesan, and minced garlic plus oven-roasted broccoli. omg. Steaks this way are crazy cheap – I think these were something like $3/pound? Any time you find them at your grocery, stock up!

6. Shrimp zucchini noodles

Last week we had Ina’s shrimp scampi with linguine for our anniversary dinner, so we have half a bag of frozen shrimp leftover. Since we’re doing pasta and pizza this week, I wanted to trade out semolina pasta for zucchini noodles in this dish. Garlicky and lemony – nom.

Lunches

I have a hard time eating lunch at home unless I have lots of good ideas stocked and waiting for me. O could eat chicken salad sandwiches every single day and be happy.. me? Not so much. I came up with a few things that sounded good this week and bought the ingredients I needed to make it happen, like..

tofu ramen made with rice ramen noodles, soft boiled egg, kimchee, and spinach
super easy black bean soup
loaded omelets
loaded salads
creamy cauliflower soup
organic PB&J

Breakfasts

Breakfasts are pretty simple around here. O makes smoothies every single morning and drink creamer in his coffee. I do half-and-half in my coffee and vary breakfasts.. sometimes green smoothies, sometimes blueberry granola yogurt bowls, sometimes unsweetened cereal with a bit of maple syrup. We had enough on hand to do yogurt bowls or cereal, but I had to buy everything for our coffee and at least 10 smoothies.

Sides

We buy a ton of organic kale, which is super cheap, as well as other seasonal veggies, to keep things cheap. I buy what makes sense, make sure it’s varied, and abide by the EWG’s guide to pesticides (the “Clean Fifteen” and “Dirty Dozen”). We buy those huge boxes of organic baby spinach and lettuce, too, since it’s just too damn convenient. If we did spinach and lettuce from scratch, we would probably save quite a bit each week! But you know.. lazy.

The Receipt

A few of the things we needed for this list we already had – like fries and shrimp in the freezer, the ingredients for pizza dough and dried pasta in the pantry, but there were several excellent sales going on at the time, so I stocked up on a lot of extras while I was there. This is how meal planning goes – you check for great sales and stock up when it makes sense, then balance those larger receipts with cheaper ones down the road. Need tips on getting started with meal planning? Check out my how-to post!

There was an awesome sale on jarred baby food (so convenient!), cheese, and chuck eye steak, so I loaded up on that. I’m leaving the baby food–along with a couple other super weird things I bought for Leo–out of the receipt total. I mean, does a singing remote for baby really count?

On everything else, though, I spent a total of..

$87.83

Click here to check out the actual receipt!

A little higher than I like normally, but again, I stocked up on a lot! And at 34 meals that week, that’s a total of $2.58 per person per meal. That’s, how do we call it, crazy cheap. That’s about as much as we’d spend on two dinners out together!

What are you making for dinner this week?

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*When I lived downtown, there was a swanky gas station next door that pressed their own juices in the mornings and made fudge- and cream-filled layer cakes. To this day, still my favorite cake. GAH! I have to pick up a slice anytime I’m down by the bridge.