Estrella Publishing.
From Your Neighbors, For Your Neighbors

From Me To You . . .  April 2026

I have friends who meal plan. Good for them. Truly. They sit down on a Sunday, write out a menu for the entire week, build a shopping list, go to the store, buy exactly what is on that list, and then, here is the part that gets me, they actually follow through with it.

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Every single day. Like it is nothing. That is not me.

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I could never decide on a Monday what I want to eat on a Thursday. I do not know who that future version of me is, but I can tell you right now she has different feelings about salmon than I do today. The whole system falls apart the moment I walk through the door, open the fridge, and think, I do not want any of this.

 

The problem is that the person who goes grocery shopping and the person who actually eats the food are two completely different people. The shopper is optimistic, organised, and apparently very into roasted vegetables. The eater is tired, standing in the kitchen at 6 p.m., staring at a bag of zucchini like it has personally let her down, and would like someone else to handle this entirely.

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I am also, it must be said, an impulsive person. I might write a list. I might even take it to the store. But somewhere between the entrance and the checkout, I have lost the plot entirely and come home with three things that were on sale and absolutely nothing that goes together.

 

So I have made my peace with it. After thirty years of cooking for other people, planning meals, catering to preferences, remembering who does not eat onions, I have earned the right to a different approach. My meal plan now consists of opening the freezer, identifying something that can go in the oven, and calling it dinner. Is it a culinary adventure? No. Is it on a menu board with little handwritten labels? Absolutely not.

 

But it is on the table. And at this point in my life, that

is enough to make me a five-star chef.

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Catherine Uretsky

Editor in Chief, Estrella Publishing