Groundhog Day

Do you ever feel like you're living in the movie "Groundhog Day," the one with Bill Murray who just keeps reliving the same thing over and over again?

I sat down with my healthy, packed lunch (yay me!) to do a little lunchtime blogging. The subject at hand is food: boredom with it and lack of it. As I began to formulate the post in my brain, it started sounding familiar. So I did a little searching on my own blog and found this:

How much is my time worth?

Yes. That's what I wanted to say. Except that great 3-week dinner menu I created is gone because I foolishly wrote it on paper and didn't save it electronically anywhere. I had forgotten about the weekly dinner "formula," which would come in super handy right now because it calls for 2-3 meatless nights -- perfect for Annie's continuing vegetarianism.

Oh, and I'm thinking maybe I'll make my own hot chocolate mix. I bought hot chocolate in the little packets at the store last week and they were gone in a matter of a few days. Again, been there, blogged that.

I'm thinking I should make some of my own other things, too. Things the kids (and the grown ups) can snack on. I try to keep apples and bananas in the house. Carrots are another staple. But foods like granola bars and graham crackers, yogurt and pretzels seem to have a shelf-life of about 30 minutes once they cross the threshold of the front door.

Each person has his or her favorites, so there's not one person to blame. Charlie will plow through the fruits and veggies (and almost everything else that's not nailed down). Annie downs the yogurt and the pretzels. Robbie is the milk and cereal man. He would eat cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios, usually) for every meal, guzzling almost a gallon of milk a day, if I let him. And Mike likes to dig into the lunchmeat and bread. Of course, I'm not without guilt. Apples, graham crackers and peanut butter, and tortilla chips and salsa are my go-to snacks.

But the point is, we seem to go through groceries so quickly that what I'm going to is the store or the pizza delivery menu. Too often.

Getting back to the pre-planned menu is one solution. I think that once-a-month cooking might be another one. But what about those snacks? Are there healthy and economical snacks you keep on hand? Do you buy them or make them? Do you lock them up or just give your family the evil eye when the pantry door's been opened one too many times? Help a mom out so we're not both reliving this post in another six months.