You guys who shop at farmers markets...

meganinmaine

or eat a lot of produce...do you make a meal plan and then seek out what you need or do you pick up what looks good and find recipes/make something up to match it?  I'm terrible at sticking to meal plans because I'd rather have for dinner whatever we feel like eating, but I'm also pretty bad at coming up with recipe ideas on the fly, so I'm inevitably left missing some key ingredient because I didn't shop with a list. 

I could eat tomatoes and roasted garlic on crusty bread for dinner every day in the summer, but DH prefers something more closely resembling an actual meal.

hikingnclimbing

I get our CSA literally right down the street from us. So I go almost every day during the week (at least it feels like it). I typically get an email a week that tells me what they are picking and sometimes it tells me what they have a bunch of. Whenever I'm in there, I usually get new potatoes, lettuce, and (lately) a bunch of kale or two since they apparently planted a TON of it this year. I chop the kale up and add it to anything I'm making (tonight it is going in to stir fry). The rest of it I just make up. I hardly ever follow a recipe and generally make everything up as I go.

shuga_23

I mostly pick up whatever is at the market and then use it for meals. Mostly it ends up being a side dish anyway (grilled veggies, roasted potatoes, sauted greens).

 

MrsHahn11062010

The Gardiner market is on Wednesday and I do the rest of my shopping usually Friday morning. I usually have an idea in my head of what I want to do when I head to the FM, if something isn't there or if I forget something then I can pick it up at the store. If I find something fabulous that I can't pass up at the FM then I can come home and revise my thought out meal plan when I write everything out for my grocery trip.

I also sometimes pick up in season fruits and veggies without knowing what I am going to do with it, a lot of times I just steam veggies as a side dish or cut up fruit for a snack.

 I'm pretty flexible with my meal planning, I am usually prepared for up to 8 meals (I typically cook 6 nights a week, one night is out or take out) which helps with "I planned for this but the weather is too hot" or "I planned to grill but don't really want to stand out in the rain"

 I don't know if any of that is helpful or not.

 

meganinmaine

MrsHahn11062010:

I don't know if any of that is helpful or not.

These were all super-helpful.  I think I just need to work on my cooking without a recipe...not that we're eating any fancy, complicated dishes.  We just end up eating a lot of takeout because I planned poorly.

danieleandwayne

I do the same-- see what looks good and then come home and cook it up.

One of my favourite resources is allrecipes.com-- you can go to the "ingredients" tab and put in what you have available and it will present you with some recipes that include a few of those ingredients... It's a good starting place, I find.

Happy cooking!

maeghan21

I typically know what's going to be ripe and always have a few standby side dishes ready whenever I go. If I see something that I wasn't planning on I'll grab and then figure out what to make. If I see a great deal or some beautiful produce I may try a few other recipes for them or can them etc.

csaucier

We go and see what is there and buy what I think I would use during the week.  I am not good about planning out my meals.

lauram730

I usually try to meal-plan first and then, depending on my schedule for the week, I'll either hit up the farmer's market or the grocery store first and get what I can, saving the rest for the other option (I try to get to FM first, so I can use as much as possible from there).

I actually just found a great app (I'm new to the smart phone world...) for Epicurious and it's convenient to have on hand when you find something intriguing, but you're not entirely sure how you would prepare it - once you come across a recipe you like, you can add the rest of the ingredients you need to your grocery list then and there.  Allrecipes.com also has an app, but I haven't used it as much.  

jgreg29

MrsHahn11062010:

The Gardiner market is on Wednesday and I do the rest of my shopping usually Friday morning. I usually have an idea in my head of what I want to do when I head to the FM, if something isn't there or if I forget something then I can pick it up at the store. If I find something fabulous that I can't pass up at the FM then I can come home and revise my thought out meal plan when I write everything out for my grocery trip.

I also sometimes pick up in season fruits and veggies without knowing what I am going to do with it, a lot of times I just steam veggies as a side dish or cut up fruit for a snack.

These are my strategies too.