Salads, Sandwiches, and Smoothies - A No-Cook Summer Meal Plan for One

Since it's been so hot lately, unusually hot this summer, I haven't felt much like cooking, so I'm devoting this week to foods I don't have to cook, in other words, salads, sandwiches, and smoothies. My plan starts at my local farmer's market.

I'm Going Shopping

I get excited when my local farmer's market opens on Wednesday in the summer for a five-day week. They're closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so when Wednesday comes along I'm waiting at the door first thing in the morning, eager to stock up on freshly pulled and picked produce from their farm and from produce they stock daily from the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market for their customers' convenience. So here's what I'm buying tomorrow and then I'll tell you what I'm going to do with it all.

Ease into Meal Planning for One - Start with Lunches

A simple, hearty sandwich for lunch.

When I finally got serious about meal planning for one, after my daughter left the nest, I felt uncomfortably adrift in a sea of confusion. I'd been cooking and meal planning for most of my adult life, but aside from a few years of being on my own before marriage, always with others in mind. With my daughter off on her own, I found I'd have to break the old habits associated with cooking day-to-day for others and make some new habits that centered only on me. At first I bought too much, cooked too much, and wasted too much. But over time, I developed a few successful strategies for planning meals for one, and this is one of them: start meal planning with one category of meal at a time--breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks (yes, snacks are meals!).