Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,247, Doing Meal Planning.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1,247.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Donnie and Elin about planning what you're going to eat this week.
I'm hungry already.
Let's get started.
Have you ever heard of something called a meal plan?
Sure.
I make one each week before I go grocery shopping.
It saves time and money.
My mother suggested I make one now that I'm staying home with the kids and Sydney is going back to work.
See this?
This is my meal plan.
I map out the dinners I'll be making each day.
It helps me a lot.
It seems like a lot of work.
Well, for one thing, I only have to go grocery shopping once a week.
I buy a week's worth of groceries in one fell swoop.
I guess that's helpful. but it still seems like too much work.
Here's what I do.
I look at each week's store circular to see what's seasonal and on sale.
I pull out my recipes that include those items.
I still don't see how I can save much money.
I also use the sale items for more than one meal and make enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day.
It works like a charm.
I think I'll stick to my original plan.
Which is?
To plead ignorance and ask my mother over to our house to give me cooking lessons.
By the time I cook well enough on my own, the children will be nearly full grown.
Our dialogue begins with Donnie asking, Elen, have you ever heard of something called a meal plan?
A meal, M-E-A-L, is what you eat at a certain time during the day.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are three meals that most people eat each day.
A meal plan is something you write down describing what you're going to eat in the next say, week or even month.
Elan says, sure, I make one, meaning I write a meal plan, each week before I go grocery shopping.
Grocery, G-R-O-C-E-R-Y.
Shopping refers going to a store to buy food.
Groceries is another word for food that you buy in a store to eat and or prepare at home.
Elan says it saves time and money.
That is, having a meal plan saves time and money.
Donnie says that his mother suggested that he make a meal plan, since he is now staying home with his kids, his children and Sidney.
His wife is going back to work.
Elan says, see this?
She's obviously showing something to Donnie we can't see.
Well, you can't see it.
I can see it because I'm right here.
Elaine says, see this, this is my meal plan.
I map out the dinners I'll be making each day.
To map MAP out here is a two-word phrasal verb that can mean simply to plan and describe something in detail by writing it down.
People will sometimes use this expression in business.
Let's map out our future.
Let's plan what we're going to do in the next month or two months or year.
Literally, to map out would be to draw on a piece of paper or to take a map and indicate where you are going to travel.
Dani says, how?
How does this help you?
It seems like a lot of work.
Elin says, well, for one thing...
I only have to go grocery shopping once a week.
I buy a week's worth of groceries in one fell swoop.
Elaine says she only goes to the grocery store once a week.
She buys a week's worth.
W-O-R-T-H.
A week's worth of something would be enough, of something that would last you, that would be enough for you to use for an entire seven days.
A month's worth would be enough for a month, and so forth.
She buys a week's worth of groceries in one fell, F-E-L-L, swoop, S-W-O-O-P.
The expression in one fell swoop means all at once at a single time.
Donnie says, I guess that's helpful, but it still seems like too much work.
Elan then explains what she does.
She says, I look at each week's store circular to see what's seasonal and on sale.
Here in the United States, grocery stores will often include in a local newspaper or mail to you something called a circular.
C-I-R-C-U-L-A-R.
The word circular is just a special term for an advertisement that shows all of the discounts, all of the sales at a particular store.
Elan looks for seasonal food.
Food that is seasonal, S-E-A-S-O-N-A-L, is food that is fresh.
We're talking here about fruits and vegetables.
Elin says she also looks for anything else that's on sale.
To be on sale, S-A-L-E, means it is being sold at a lower price than usual, than normal.
She says, I pull out my recipes that include these items and I see if I have any coupons I can use.
A recipe.
R E C I P E is a set of written instructions or steps on how to prepare a certain kind of food.
A coupon, C-O-U-P-O-N, is usually a small piece of paper that gives you a certain discount, a lower price, when you bring it to the store.
Nowadays, people have coupons that are electronic that you can have on your phone or in an email.
Donnie says, I still don't see how I can save much money, meaning a lot of money.
Elan says, I also use the sale items for more than one meal and make enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day.
Leftovers L-E-F-T-O-V-E-R-S refers to food that you prepared for one meal but didn't finish and therefore are able to eat at a later time.
So if you make something for dinner and you have some food that is left over that is extra, you can eat that food tomorrow for lunch.
Elan says it works like a charm.
That is, her plan works like a charm.
C-H-A-R-M.
The expression to work like a charm means it works very well.
It's an excellent solution to a problem.
Donnie however, doesn't seem convinced.
He's not persuaded.
He says I think I'll stick to my original plan.
To stick S-T-I-C-K to something is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to continue doing what you have been doing.
To continue doing something without changing it.
Donnie's going to stick to his first or original plan.
Elen says, which is, meaning what is that plan?
Donny then explains to plead ignorance and ask my mother over to our house to give me cooking lessons.
To plead, P-L-E-A-D, ignorance, I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E, means to say that you don't know something or understand something even though you may, in fact, know it or understand it.
If someone pleads ignorance, they say, I didn't know or I don't know something.
Maybe that person is telling the truth and maybe he isn't.
Donnie wants to plead ignorance about cooking and ask his mother over to his house.
That is to say, invite her to his house to give him cooking lessons, to teach him how to cook.
He says, by the time I cook well enough on my own meaning, by that point in the future when I am able to cook without my mother's help, the children will be nearly full grown.
To be full, F-U-L-L hyphen grown, G-R-O-W-N, means to be an adult, to no longer be a child.
If we say someone is full grown, we mean that person is now no longer a child.
They're 18 years old or 21 years old.
Or it could also refer to an adolescent who has stopped growing, who will no longer get any taller, for example.
Full-grown could also describe a plant or a tree that will no longer grow anymore or get any bigger than it is now.
Here it refers to Donnie's children becoming old enough so that they are adults.
Donnie is saying that because he will learn to cook so slowly from his mother, his mother will in fact do most of the cooking for his children until they are practically adults.
It sounds to me like Donnie's plan is better than any meal plan.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Have you ever heard of something called a meal plan?
Sure.
I make one each week before I go grocery shopping.
It saves time and money.
My mother suggested I make one now that I'm staying home with the kids and Sydney is going back to work.
See this?
This is my meal plan.
I map out the dinners I'll be making each day.
It helps me a lot.
How?
It seems like a lot of work.
Well, for one thing, I only have to go grocery shopping once a week.
I buy a week's worth of groceries in one fell swoop.
I guess that's helpful, but it still seems like too much work.
Here's what I do.
I look at each week's store circular to see what's seasonal and on sale.
I pull out my recipes that include those items and I see if I have any coupons I can use.
I still don't see how I can save much money.
I also use the sale items for more than one meal and make enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day.
It works like a charm.
I think I'll stick to my original plan.
Which is?
To plead ignorance and ask my mother over to our house to give me cooking lessons.
By the time I cook well enough on my own, the children will be nearly full grown.
Listening to ESL Podcasts to improve your English works like a charm.
You should try it more often, especially when you listen to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
