Kim - Thank you! I really try to plan ahead so I have meals scheduled for each night of the week and plenty of stuff around for “Plan B”s. My husband and I generally sit down on Friday nights or early Saturday to talk about our schedules and figure out what we want to eat in the coming week. Monday dinners are generally meatless, and we try to eat seafood dinners 2-3 times a week.

As far as shopping goes, I’m really lucky that my husband works just a couple of blocks from the big Greenmarket at Union Square, so it’s easy for him to swing through and pick stuff up on the days it’s there. We also get deliveries from FreshDirect 2-4 times a month for pantry items and such. They have great seafood, and we often buy local and/or sustainable fish and shellfish from them and freeze it for future use. We also do what our favorite cheesemonger dubbed “Food Safari” on most Saturdays - we head out into the city or down to Ft. Green, hit the Greenmarket and a few of our favorite specialty and wine stores to stock up on things for the week. It’s a bit of work up front, but it’s nice to have a game plan for the week so we’re not scrambling at the last minute.

I try to keep meals pretty simple during the week, and I also try to keep active prep/cooking time (i.e. time on my feet over the cutting board or a hot stove) to a minimum - I think most of our dinners come together in 30-45 minutes or so. The fact that it’s grilling season is a big help, too, since that means I just need to prep our proteins and my husband does the actual cooking.