03 Dec Meal planning for my new job
It is so exciting. I start my new cooking job tomorrow. Three shifts a week, cooking meals for a man who has a vision impairment and his father. It feels like a different pathway, possibly in the direction of nutrition, and I am excited to find out where it leads.
I have been researching recipes for the first week of my new job, and have found some good ones, I think. To be serious though, about delivering the kind of flavour that would delight the senses of a person with no vision, I feel like I need to road-test these recipes before I serve them. And so, tonight I am making this one-pot salmon and orzo dish to try it out.
What I am trying to achieve
The main constraints are that the meals are healthy, and I think that they need to be not too fussy to bring from prepped to the table. My client’s Dad has some stuff going on, so probably won’t be able to follow complex instructions. Or at least, I think this is what the situation is, or what I have gathered so far – we might get a bit more sophisticated as we go on. And my client doesn’t have a lot of independence, so his Dad will need to serve the food to him.
The other consideration is budget – and this might be challenging. I have $200 to work with for 6 dinners and 7 lunches. But I am thinking that over half of the lunches can be sandwiches, which will be cheap. It makes me look at my receipts a lot more closely to work out if I am going to be able to deliver these meals under budget!
Speaking of a budget
As I am getting paid a couple of hours a week for meal planning and research, it seems like a good use of time to make sure that the planned meals are under budget.
I am so excited.
The (tentative) menu this week is:
Lunch
– Sunshine slaw with quinoa
– Roasted beet and orange salad (with grilled chicken) -will need to road test
– a selection of toasted sandwiches
Dinner
– Chicken, eggplant and roasted capsicum pasta – have already road-tested this one – it is delicious
– One pan salmon and orzo – I wasn’t happy with how this turned out. It was not such a taste sensation (although it was a tasty way to cook salmon!). The vinegar gave it a kind of acidic aftertaste that was not that nice, and I am not sure how easy it would be to reheat the dish with the feta, tomatoes and spinach added at the end. Also, there is quite a bit of pasta in this dish, and if L wants to lose weight, pasta for dinner probably is not the thing (too often)
– Grilled steak salad (apparently there is some steak left in the freezer at their place) – will need to road test, perhaps this week
Under budget!
The total is estimated to be: $186.62 – which is under budget and gives me a little spare if I need to buy yoghurt, milk etc.
Also, this includes stocking up on some staples like olive oil, salt and pepper, honey, sugar and vinegar that they might have.
So I am DELIGHTED!
This is going to be fun 🙂
The costs involved
I think for a while I am going to need to be cooking quite a few meals before I serve them, so it will probably cost me a bit in buying ingredients, but it is all good data.
And it gets me thinking more about meal planning, which is what I want to be doing! Awesome to be getting paid to do it!
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