meal delivery service - product confusion

hi all -

im a zen-cart newbie, running 1.3.8a - i'm working on a meal delivery service (they cook you dinner and deliver it to your house). i've been able to customize much of zen-cart by searching the tut's and this forum.. i have now hit some confusion on how the client would like to set up their products (the meals) and im looking for some insight from all you experts out there. here it goes....

• they want 2 weeks worth of their meals available to be ordered at any time (mon-fri). No problem, i set up the "week" to be the product category, and put their "meals" as products within that category (e.g. category=week of 1/21 and products=chicken, steak, etc)

..here's where things get tricky.

• they want to have 3 entrees available for choices on each day (e.g. chicken, steak, fish) - and the customer can order an quantity of these.
• for each 1 entree, you have a choice from 3 side dishes (but can only choose 2)
• for each 1 entree, you get a salad (only one to choose from, but it's different each day).
  --- so a single "meal" is 1 entree, 2 sides, and a salad - and it's a flat fee of $50

:blink:

..im trying to figure out:

• how can i lay this out so its clear to people choosing an entree and sides. if they order 2 chicken and 1 steak entree, their entitled to choose up to 6 sides (and they 'get' 3 salads)..
  ...my initial thought is to use javascript: track an entree, sides, and salad counters in local variables for each day.. and tell them how many sides they are entitled to order (e.g. "you ordered 2 entrees, please order 4 sides from the choice of 3 below").. anyone got a better idea?

• how should I handle the side dishes and the salad? Should I make them attributes of the product? ..but they are the same for all products (meals) of the same day (currently I have the "day", mon-tue-wed-etc.. coded to the product's model)

• how can I handle the flat fee? ..it's $50 for 1 "meal" (entree, 2 sides, 1 salad)..

• I'm not shy with mysql, php, or javascript.. so any pointers, suggestions, or insight would be greatly appreciated.

thanks - javaMonk();