Next week's menu and Sunday Dinner

I have found the best way for me to stay on track for any diet is to plan my menu for the week and add the items I need to my shopping list at the same time. Otherwise I will have those nights where I am just too tired to think of anything for dinner and I start thinking about fast food instead.

I have just added a free shopping list app to my Android phone - it's called ListOn that makes it really easy to add grocery items and delete them as soon as I pick them up in the store.  That was step one.

Next, I made a weekly menu planner sheet (see below - I know popcorn isn't Paleo, but it's a cute picture for snacks) that I complete on Friday night or early Saturday morning, with my Android beside me so I can add items to my list as I plan to make sure I have everything I need - again, no excuse to go for fast food if I have everything I need.

This is what the menu planner looks like for the coming week.

I have always like the flavour of beef short ribs and when I was a child my Mom would make them often as they were a cheap cut of meat for feeding a family of six.  Unfortunately, they are no longer a cheap cut of meat ($7.99 a lb.), so it is not something we have too often.  The cold winter weather (cold being a relative term as I live in Vancouver!), makes me want some hearty short ribs.I had 3 lbs. of good quality short ribs from Seafair Gourmet meat, but I picked up another package at Save-On so we would have more leftovers.  Can you see the difference?

The square short ribs are grocery store; rectangular short ribs from Seafair

I like anything sweet and savoury, so I opted to make Practical Paleo's Balsamic Braised Short Ribs, with a few minor modifications.