Victory over Spoiled Food

I love food.  I log onto Pinterest, search under Food and Drink and salivate over all the delicious pictures.  I read somewhere that looking at pictures of food activates the same portion of the brain involved in addiction.  I believe it.  My problem is that I like food, but when I'm faced with the prospect of going to the grocery store and planning meals, all of my cooking motivation disintegrates.

I've tried online meal planning programs where I input all my recipes and the site generates a grocery list.  It's fun the first week, but then I lose interest.  Meal planning is just not my forte.  However, I'm not one to give up, so last week I signed up for an online service called EMeals.  I tell EMeals which grocery store I shop at and the type of meals I like (Healthy and Organic menu for me).  EMeals then emails me a weekly menu and shopping list with price breakdown.  I can even delete meals I don't like and the shopping list automatically changes.  Foolproof, right?

The first week I tried it, half of the meat I bought went bad.  Apparently it takes us a week and a half to go through four meals.  Four meals over 14 days!  Definitely an indicator of how little we eat at home. This week, I needed a plan of attack.  Here's the meat I bought on Monday:

And the list of recipes for the week:

I prepped and cooked 3 meals on Monday! First I took the ground turkey and cooked the hamburger casserole.  We ate that after Cam's dance class on Tuesday.  Then I marinated the chuck roast and stuck that in the freezer.  Finally, I made the gnocchi for Monday night's meal.  What a very pretty meal it was:

Tonight is pork chops and they are still fresh!  I successfully navigated one week of family meals with nothing spoiling!  This is a huge accomplishment for me. I should celebrate by going out...

Bonus points for cooking with a five week old.  Awesome picture by my daughter.