Meal-planning is an important part of our week. �It allows us to be more prepared and relaxed with regards to our nightly meals and reduces stress. �As locavores it makes eating locally much easier because we take the time to figure out what seasonal foods are available and how we can use them. �If you live in a similar climate (we�re in Southern Ontario, which is a pretty classic upper-midwest climate) then you should sign up for email updates or check out the�facebook�page or�twitter�feed and compare what you�re eating with us!

For me, meal planning is easiest when I look at old meal plans.� This is why it�s so helpful to make a meal plan and keep the plan�I can go back to one year ago and look at what we ate (or planned to eat).� That gives me ideas and soon the creative juices are flowing and I�m getting excited about what great things we�ll be cooking in the week to come.� When I worked as a teacher this would give me something to look forward to on Monday mornings when I might otherwise be a little less than excited about the weekend being over.

�

We�ve been busy with lots of apples from a friend with a tree! �Here the assistants are working on sauce.

Since food is such a routine part of the day it seems quite important to take the opportunity to make it not feel routine.� A meal should be anticipated not just because of hunger and necessity but also because it�s a new experience waiting at the end of the day (or in a lunch!).� This is one of the big reasons that we don�t repeat too many meals (although this week includes two classics, Eggplant Parmawesome and Beet Black Beans!).� In any given week there are probably only one or two meals that we will eat that we�ve made before.� It is a bit more work to cook new meals from scratch but it makes the process more of a challenge and more interesting.� Yes, a few of the meals are sort of fails, but most are successes, and a few are amazing!� So now I will stop writing and starting flipping through old meal plans (that are all in this same Word document I�m typing in now) and figure out what we�ll eat this week�.

The plan for September 16-22.� Linking up at Menu Plan Monday.

New Ferment to try making this week to enjoy the following week: Kimchi!