On Eating

When I lived in Key West I participated in this organic vegetables co-op called Annie's Buying Club. The theory was that sourcing organic food in bulk reduces the cost, so a bunch of people pool their money, Annie orders bulk organic items, and then distributes a box every week. Or in my case every other week. I didn't care so much about the organic part (I think that organic farming has it's own tradeoffs), but when I joined I was looking to add vegetables in my life, and I was sick of broccoli. The co op forced me to learn new cooking techniques and to use tons of different vegetables, some of which I'd never even heard of.

The thing I liked most about the box was the Iron Chef like element to it. Here's a pound of green beans, kale, and and an eggplant... Go! Annie's provided an extensive list of recipes for the produce in the box and it was fun to scour the Internet to find a recipe because all I had left was, say, carrots and kale. It actually made menu planning really easy because I had to plan around the box.

By the end of my time in Key West, though, I was starting to feel like I wanted a little more control. I discovered that I'm not a huge fan of most root vegetables (though unlike many people, I do like beets), and I learned that I have exactly zero skill with Asian cooking which means that daikon radishes and bok choy were a major cooking challenge for me. So while I did look into the CSA option when I moved to maintain that same "here's a bunch of ingredients, go!" thing, in the end I decided that I didn't want to join one, first, because I wanted more control, and second, because CSAs source from a limited geographic area (unlike Annie's which sourced globally) which limits the kinds of produce you get.

It's been kind of hard, though, to make the shift between "here's a bunch of ingredients, plan a menu" and "here's a menu, go buy a bunch of ingredients." I'm still learning how you decide what to make, because there are SO many yummy looking recipes in the world, it's hard to decide what I want without any limiting factors. So, all of you people who regularly make menus and then go shopping, how do you decide what your menu is going to look like? Where do you get your inspiration from? How do you avoid getting stuck in ruts? How do you sort through recipes?

Tangentially, here is what I'm planning to make this week (totally stole this idea from Erin):

Tropical Black Bean and Collard Green Soup

 by Fat Free Vegan

Pesto Stuffed Zucchini

by Simply Recipes

Zucchini, Corn, and Poblano Tacos

on Serious Eats

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Charred Chile and Corn

by Serious Eats