I have returned, and this post is about food

Hey everybody. Sorry about the long hiaitus. I have had a harder time establishing my rhythm since I've moved here, but things are starting to roll right along now. I think the feeling of being "new" is wearing off, as are my excuses to put things off.

So I've got my apartment more squared away. I'm finding things to get involved in. I'm meeting new people and trying to become a part of my community--both in my building and in Belltown at large.

There are tons of things to catch up on, but in true Nebraska spirit, I'm going to toss it all aside and concentrate on food.

I've noticed grocery shopping has become a lot harder. I've always enjoyed shopping for food--in fact it's one of the few ways I can shop that doesn't make me uncomfortable--and I love to cook. The problem is that I live by myself, and I can't often find one person sizes of everything at the grocery store. I've never had to cook for just one person, so this is new and it's kind of an issue. I can't eat fast enough to preserve the food I do buy.

I've also been considering my health a lot more lately. Suddenly, I guess I'm in charge of that kind thing so maybe I should step up. I don't know what it is, but lately I'm highly interested in preserving what potential my body has left.

So I think I need to get better at planning. I would like to have a planning system where I know what meal I'm making for every day of the week and then shop accordingly. I've done this before when I lived with 3 other guys and it worked well. This planning system would be nice if it also encompassed some nutritional analysis. It would be even better if it were smarter than I am, because I know nothing about nutrition--as in, it took me forever to realize carbohydrates and calories aren't the same thing.

Like any good nerd, I looked to see if there were any web apps that could do those things.

• Relish!
  The site looked good and it had a clean design. But it also has a subscription fee. Maybe this service would be something I'd want to pay for in the future, but the knowledge that I could really just sit down and do this with a pad and pen makes it a tough sell for me. I didn't get to learn more about this one. Perhaps a "lite" or "bachelor" version would be useful (*cough* HINT *cough*).
  


• Plan To Eat
  This one looks pretty cool, and it seems like something that would almost persuade me to pay for it. The ability to drag in and import recipes and break them down into grocery shopping lists seems awesome. It also looks like it has Amazon Fresh integration, but I'll spare you my idealogical rants regarding that. Again, it looks like it's subscription based, so I'll pass until I decide this service is worth money to me.
  


• H-E-B
  This one has me very excited. If you're from Texas, you know what H-E-B is. It is the grocery store of all grocery stores! Yes folks, I'm this excited about a grocery store. Anyway, H-E-B has a service where they just plan weekly meals for you and they provide the grocery shopping list. I suppose the more clever name for it is "weekly suggested menus." Either way, the food looks great, and it's free, and it's awesome. On the H-E-B exclusive meal days, I can find my own things to eat. I'm going with this for now.
  

Ok, well that was my triumphant return to the blog scene. And it was about food. I'll run with this for a week or two and see how it goes. Ideally, this makes my grocery shopping more efficient and saves me money while keeping myself fed and healthy.

If you have any suggestions, by all means let me know. It seems like this "living by myself and pretending to be an adult" thing has uncovered lots of places for me to learn and grow.

Cheers!