When You Fall Down, Get Back Up Again

So, after my all the cooking I did during Lent, I pretty much crashed and burned. Things got pretty scary around here, as evidenced by the punk rock onion I posted a few days ago.

On Saturday evening I was reading a blog I check once in a while called Penelope Loves Lists, and she had a review of a menu planning service called Relish. They were offering a two week trial to her readers, so I signed up. The picture above is for the first meal I made from one of their recipes, Rosemary Buttermilk Chicken and Broccoli with Orange Zest. It was good and easy. I know a normal person’s weekly menu should start on Sunday or Monday, but my organic fruit and veggie coop pick-up is on Tuesdays. So I started yesterday, since I picked up coop and went grocery shopping.

By the way, I really hate grocery shopping. The smaller the store, the less I hate it. Yesterday I went to Sprouts, so it wasn’t too bad. Also, the last time I went to Kroger I did the Michael Pollan thing and tried to stay out of the center aisles. That wasn’t too bad either. If you can eliminate 1/3 to 1/2 the aisles in the store, it’s much less stressful. 🙂

I took this picture:

Because I wanted to show my husband that I actually used this tiny pan he got me. He was shocked by it’s size when it showed up because it’s so small and it was not cheap! I found out about this pan on the blog Smitten Kitchen. Of course, she cooks in a tiny New York kitchen the size of my walk in pantry. And she doesn’t have a microwave. But I still thought it looked like a useful pan to have. And I was right!

Can we talk for a minute about what’s in the pan? It’s a tablespoon of butter and the zest of half an orange. I don’t know how I got to be this old without knowing how awesome orange zest is on broccoli! Try it! If you are one of those people who can only eat broccoli covered in cheese, you need to try it! Okay, I think that’s enough exclaiming about broccoli and orange zest.

If you want to read the review of Relish menu planning, click the Penelope link above. Then you can click the Relish link on her site, if you want to do the free trial. I like how everything is set up and how the grocery list is labeled and organized. Of course, I still need to actually cook the food every night. Which tends to be a problem for me. So many problems, so little money for therapy!