After Max was born, we had a good couple of months where we didn’t cook so much. We got into the habit of ordering food to be delivered – Mealeo.com just made it too easy! Unfortunately, that habit was a bad one that was no good for our waistlines or our wallets. So we had to break it. But getting to the grocery store and cooking everyday now that I was back at work proved to be no easy task. What were we to do?

I decided it was time to take advantage of the services offered by Shop Rite. I’ve been aware that Shop Rite offers online grocery shopping with the option of scheduling a pick up at the store or delivery at your house for a while, but going to the store didn’t seem like such a big deal before Max arrived. Now the idea of trudging around a grocery store, fighting crowds while trying to keep a baby happy sounds like torture. So I decided to give online grocery shopping a go and I am in love! It’s so easy to search for an item and then filter down to see just the items that are on special or to narrow down by brand to see the items that you have coupons for. Oh, and matching up coupons to stuff you’re buying is so much easier while you’re shopping online, versus trying to shuffle through clipped coupons in a coupon organizer in the aisle at the store! Combine the ease of finding items on special and/or items that you have a coupon for with the fact that you’re not wondering the aisles picking up impulse buys and I’ve got to think that we’re saving money versus going shopping at the store.

I’ve also gotten more organized about meal planning. Now that we have cable again, I discovered the show, “Rachael Ray’s Week in a Day”. In that show, Rachael presents five recipes that can all be started in one day and finished (quickly) later in the week on the day that you serve it. Alex is not a Rachael Ray fan (he hates that she says things like “yummo”‘, “EVOO”, and “sammie”), but he’s always enjoyed her recipes. So we’ve been picking an episode a week and just going with the recipes that she has for the line up of that show. And OMG there have been some winners. Her “French Onion Soup French Bread Pizza” was fan-freaking-tastic. Now, these aren’t the healthiest of recipes, but they are certainly tasty and satisfying! And it’s nice to just pick an episode and to have your menu planned out for the week!

We’re pretty psyched about our grocery and cooking system – it’s definitely taken the stress out of the process (no grocery store trips!!) and we no longer are stumped by the eternal question of “what’s for dinner?”