It's Snot Easy

This is the time of year when I find meal planning difficult. Though there is a huge variety of produce available, there is little that I want to buy.  I joke that I don't want vegetables that are better-travelled than I am, but the reality is that it is expensive to buy fresh veggies in February.

I work around that as best as I can. Carrots, potatoes, celery and onions were my vegetable purchases for the upcoming week.  I also splurged and bought a basil plant, and I'm growing alfalfa sprouts beside my kitchen sink.  I'll supplement these fresh items with canned tomatoes, frozen peas and pumpkin in the form of soup I made and froze in the fall.  There will be lots of legumes and a variety of fruit to add plant power to our meals. 

Part of me feels that there should be more variety, but that would be expensive in terms of dollars and time. For the price of 2 pounds of carrots I could have had a head of romaine lettuce.  In our house the carrots will go much further, are generally quicker to prepare, and can be used in more ways than the romaine.  The carrots will also still look like carrots at the end of the week.  The romaine will look like something found in a used tissue.  

Of course, my sister thinks peas look like boogers, and we'll be eating peas more than once this week.  At least, according to the ads, the peas are frozen at the height of freshness, whereas there is no way to get truly fresh romaine in Canada in February.