Chicago Dispatch: There is a Jewel Osco in my neighbourhood that's open 24 hours
There is a Jewel Osco in my neighbourhood that's open 24 hours. Its wonderful because one day after watching a movie that ended at 12:30, I realised I could buy groceries that night instead of waiting for the next evening which is when I had scheduled my trip. Since I had my list on my phone and the store was open, what the heck? So Jewel Osco is the Publix of the Midwest, Meijer of Chicago, uh Metro/Big Bazaar of the USA. Except its 24 hours. Did I already mention that? 24 HOUR GROCERY STORE.
But for this post and the relevant incident I am about to discuss I didn't buy the ingredients last night. I bought them on a Sunday evening, the hour when supermarkets are most crowded because EVERYONE remembers they have to buy groceries and this is the one evening they can do it at peace. So I joined this mad crowd of people too, patiently and politely "excuse me-ing" my way through supermarket family reunions, past baby strolling moms and frozen pizza hoarding bros. My list was short and concise this time. No room for getting distracted by the offer on Hershey's chocolate syrup and multiple ice cream combo offers. Nope, none of that.
It has been week 3 of my weekly meal planning system. No particular post or blog inspired me to do it. I just found myself wondering at work one morning, what if instead of hating myself for waking up late and not packing lunch I made an entire week's meal schedule. This way I'm not baffled at what to cook when I rummage through my fridge half asleep in the morning or return exhausted from work in the evenings. It could be awfully predictable and boring OR save me money, keep me from hating myself and spending all my money eating out and throwing my groceries in the thrash because I couldn't think of what to do with them before they expired.
Week one was exciting. I had all these recipes bookmarked, some handwrittern, some hastily typed into the notes app on my phone and some typed on my Whatsapp chats. It would be fun to finally try them out. Granted it took more time than usual, chopping, prepping, washing, blah blah everyday. But it was worth the effort. I truly hated eating the same food more than three times a week and this was a reasonable solution.
Week three, day three, I'm making pepper chicken and steamed rice with boiled peas (for which I used a combination of this recipe and this video). A dish I planned to cook 4 days ago, shopped for 3 days ago, a recipe I found a few hours ago. Amazing. I've never cooked either of these dishes before.
Just kidding. After tasting it, I definitely need some practise with Pepper Chicken. For one it needs WAY more pepper. But before I get off track. Living in big cities can get expensive and the prospect of shopping for the right produce, right quantities of food, the right combination of ingredients and so on can be daunting. But over time you get better at it. For example I have mastered none of those aforementioned things but I have figured out how much I need to cook just for myself and this way I don't have to throw out any excess.
Some great places to begin besides this wonderful 24 hours Jewel Osco in Lakeview are Trader Joe's for the frozen food, Costco for their frozen chicken patties and potstickers for less and large quantities, Whole Foods for their salad and clever veggies mixes (why waste your money experiementing on salads when you can just buy their successful and tested versions?). Of course youa are allowed cheat days when you just want to be like $%##* that, I'm eating out today.
Before I end this post here is a column by the New Yorker that I used to affirm my weekly schedule system. Just going to leave it here for you. This too; its a 'how-to' piece on meal planning.
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Over and out
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