making dinner

do any of you struggle to have just the right ingredients on hand for the recipes you want to make?  i plan a menu, i shop accordingly, and yet i still find myself, time after time, missing an ingredient when it is time to make dinner.  take tonight for example.  i've wanted to try this thai beef noodle recipe for a while.  it called for sprouts, cucumber, and cilantro.  not to mention noodles, beef, and flavorings.  anyway, i couldn't find sprouts for sale in the stores i normally go to so i finally decided to grow my own.  i bought cucumbers and cilantro.  well, by the time the sprouts grew enough to make me give up on having them be long tall sprouts like i've seen at salad bars, i decided i needed to make the dish.  i dove into the crisper only to discover the cucumber was slimy.  yep.  well, by this time the beef was thawed and i was determined to make it.  i decided i could use celery and carrots in their place - after all, it's basically a noodle stir fry type dish - all vegetables are good.  as i got making it i discovered it also called for fresh ginger.  i had some on hand at the time i first decided to make this recipe, but apparently somewhere in between it went bad and i threw it out.  so guess what i used instead?  pickled ginger - like the kind you eat with sushi.  i figure it's just a bit more flavorful, and being pink won't matter much since there are carrot shavings in there too.  it all blends.  and truth be told, it's rather delicious.  i just hate thinking of the fresh produce i wasted.  i really need to be better organized with my menu planning i think.