Tag: Meal Planning

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Weekly Meal Planning Inspiration

Last week went pretty well, I think! Let’s just say dinner was on the table each night. Sometimes boring. Sometimes cooked hours before it needed to be. But it was there! And we are fed! Phew, postpartum with 3 littles is totally different! 

This week, I’m trying to keep it simple and cheap by using what we have in our fridge and freezer so we don’t have to buy much. Monday isn’t really a meal, but more of a mash-up of random foods in our fridge from the weekend, which gives me a clean slate for the rest of the week. So forgive me, but this is a shorter week of plans!

Tuesday: Slow cooker chicken tikka masala (I’m adding spinach)

Wednesday: Easy roast chicken with vegetables and potatoes

Thursday: Pot roast with steamed broccoli

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Weekly Meal Planning Inspiration

My first weekly meal planning postpartum. Phew.  baby is a month old. I didn’t plan on it taking so long to find some kind of routine. Part of this is because my second baby slept all the time and I was able to resume normal activities so quickly. Part of this is because my new baby ended up needing frenectomy procedures at 5 days old, my milk supply suffered and I didn’t have any free time. When I wasn’t nursing, I was pumping. When I wasn’t pumping, I was changing a diaper. When I wasn’t changing, I was helping baby go to sleep. When I wasn’t rocking or soothing, I was using the bathroom and tending to my own healing. When I wasn’t tending to my immediate bodily needs, I was trying to see my other two children, who were missing me to the point of my heart cracking inside of me. It was just a nightmare. I didn’t think having my new baby would be so hard… I pictured a beautiful time of cuddling, nursing, and snuggling with all 3 of my babies. Not the tears, exhaustion and stretched beyond my limits that I experienced… 

Anyway, that’s a story for another time, one that I’m excited to share, from the birth to the postpartum, but for now, meal planning. Remember? I did it!! I planned meals and I plan on preparing them! Since the meals my father and mother-in-law made for us in the freezer have been used up, I’m forced to figure this stuff out! Even if it means chopping vegetables in the morning and trying to find as many slow cooker recipes as possible without boring my family to tears! 

So, enjoy!

Monday: Frittatas (doubled the recipe to use up our spring oversupply from our chickens) and GF biscuits

Tuesday: Teriyaki quinoa, chicken and vegetables in the slow cooker (this is not an all day cooker recipe)

Wednesday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli

Thursday: Baked swai, kale salad (mix from Costco), and steamed rice

​Wish me luck this week – making dinner and caring for my THREE children now! And meanwhile, welcome our son, affectionately called Little Man until his nickname comes to him….

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Weekly Meal Planning Inspiration

Weekly Meal Planning Inspiration

For the week of July 28, 2014.

I was telling some friends today that I can remember the first time I “meal planned”. My baby was a few months old and my husband was working. We only had one car and I was struggling with a baby who needed to be held, bounced and shushed around the clock. I couldn’t even think of dinner half the time. I felt proud to be able to throw something easy together in the evenings.

One Sunday, my husband offered to go to the store and pick up some things for the week and he asked what we needed. I pulled out a scrap piece of paper and scribbled down some meal ideas. Then I pulled out another piece of paper and wrote down the ingredients for those meals. What a difference! It didn’t even matter which day I made the meals. What mattered was that I had a list of meals and had the ingredients needed to make them. And so, meal planning began in our home.

It’s a little more involved now as I hunt for sales, try to use leftovers and eat out of the freezer to reduce the impact of shopping on our budget, but in reality it’s remained very much the same. If meal planning helps you feel sane and not going to the grocery store every day, I say, “Do it!” I hope viewing our meal plans can inspire you to try a different recipe once in awhile or help you figure out what to eat when you’re in a rut!

Here are our plans this week:


Monday: Baked swordfish, fresh corn on the cob, salad from our garden and cornbread

Tuesday: Chicken stir-fry with mushrooms, celery, carrots and onions with quinoa (adapted from this recipe)

Wednesday: Southwestern ground beef casserole

Thursday: Black beans and rice with lots of garden veggies
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Healthy Meal Planning on a Budget

I don’t know about you, but meal planning didn’t come naturally to me for a long time. I didn’t like planning what I was going to eat a week in advance. Sometimes I’d get an idea for a meal and go out and buy all the ingredients and it would be wonderful, but I couldn’t do that every day. I also got to the point, when I had babies, that I couldn’t just run to the store any time I wanted to make a new recipe. As a family we had a to figure out how to get enough groceries in each week so we weren’t making multiple trips to the store and we had to do that within our budget.

A budget is a loose term here. I can’t say I only spend $50 a week on groceries. I’d like to say that, but I can’t. Instead, I will be completely honest and say that the majority of our money goes to food. When I go over our bills each month, I see our grocery store and Amazon (subscribe and save) as the biggest numbers. I firmly believe that you either pay now or pay later when it comes to health. With that said, paying now means literally paying now, every day for foods that are more expensive because they are healthier. We stay away from the dirty dozen (produce with the most pesticides) and purchase meats that have not been given hormones or antibiotics. Most grocery stores have a line of meat and poultry that follow these guidelines.

When we moved to Virginia, we had to find a grocery store that carried what we were used to and it was disappointing at first until we realized that we might have to get creative. We discovered Martins (which is a store linked with Giant) and they had a natural section. Within that section and their Nature’s Promise line, we’ve found many new favorites that fall under our idea of healthy. We also use Amazon Subscribe & Save for many regular purchases that were getting too pricey at the grocery store (things like toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, deodorant and gluten-free Pamela’s Pancake Mix). Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are 45 minutes away, so we shop there every six weeks or two months and stock up on things we can’t find here or afford here, like organic brown rice pasta, goat cheese, healthier pet food and some condiments. Gluten-free flours I buy directly from the website or Amazon. Pamela’s Pancake Mix I use for pancakes, cookies and quick breads:

Better batter flour I use as an all-purpose flour:
Jules gluten-free flour I use specifically for breads (not available on Amazon).

I’m going to lay out for you what I do each week. Maybe it will inspire you to find your own way to make meal-planning work for you so you can stick to a budget and not run to the grocery store every other day. I’ve found that our grocery store puts out a new ad on Sundays. Since Sundays are our day at home together anyway, it makes sense to do our grocery shopping for the week and then settle in for the week with our plan in place.
Here’s a snapshot of the ad for Martins this week, specifically showing you their very small Nature’s Promise section. As you can see, there was hardly any meat on sale and very little else to speak of. This is when I turn to my freezer. Whenever something is on sale, I buy 2-3 of it, whether it’s chicken, steaks or roasts. These come in handy on the poor sale weeks. I took one glance at this week’s ad and began meal-planning out of my freezer. Usually, we purchase fish and I cook this on Monday because it’s fresh and I don’t want it to go bad. We also usually purchase chicken, which I will cook on Tuesday, also because the thought of chicken going bad makes my stomach turn. Meat just seems to have a longer shelf life. Generally, I have 1-2 vegetarian meals a week, one fish, one chicken and one meat. I also rotate rice, quinoa, potatoes, bread and pasta as our starches. Friday is take-out. This keeps us all sane and it stops us from grabbing take out just because it’s easier. Those dollars add up if we get food elsewhere on a regular basis. We also don’t feel great when we eat takeout regularly so we limit it to one day. And the weekends? I leave those up to my incredible husband! Sometimes we travel, sometimes we have company and sometimes it’s just us, so we play it by ear.
Here’s a snapshot of the meal plan for the week. I always consider my week before planning. For instance, Wednesday I’ll be very busy and don’t know how much time or energy I’ll have to cook, so I have some soups stored in the freezer that I can pull out and serve with some fresh vegetables. Because I have chicken and meat in the freezer, I can turn to those items this week for meal ideas and use this shopping trip to stock up on things that we’re running out of: capers, olives, red wine vinegar, cat litter and frozen fruit. You can see it all on my list here (don’t judge the typos!):
This may all seem like a lot and I guess it is, but it has become a ritual for me. I sit down with my coffee after breakfast and pull up the ads. I also use Pinterest and store up my favorite recipes and recipes I want to try so I can find some inspiration when I get bored. You can follow me on Pinterest here if you’re looking for some inspiration too!

I’m also not an extreme couponer by any means, but I do save coupons for items I know we buy. Many of the brands we use offer coupons on their site, like Stonyfield, Simply Organic spices and Almond Breeze. I’m on the mailing list for Martins and they send coupons monthly that we use when applicable. The hardest part about couponing is the lack of coupons for things that we buy, especially organic items and gluten-free items. That’s why I’ve subscribed to some e-mail lists that send out e-mails about coupons for these items and every once in awhile I find one that we definitely use! Organic Deals and Coupons and Gluten Freely Frugal are my favorites.

I don’t have a desire to become a blog that’s all about coupons and deals, but I’m happy to let you know about organic deals if I find them and if you’d like that? Let me know! Please feel free to let me know if you come across any either. We’re in this together and it’s easier that way!

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Easy, Roast Chicken

When I met my husband, I was a raw foodist (consuming only raw vegetables, fruits and nuts). I admit a big part of that lifestyle was my need to control my food intake, to control what I consumed by limiting what I allowed myself to eat. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with raw food diets, Paleo, veganism, vegetarianism, or any of the food choices that so many people make. For me, though, it was less about health and more about control.

As I learned to listen to my body and trust my cravings, I started craving eggs. So, being the excited extremist that I am, I went out and got myself some baby chickens. My future-husband was in shock! A few weeks later I craved fish and while I didn’t go buy an aquarium, I did start incorporating it into my eating habits. Slowly but surely, I began eating fish, eggs and eventually beef. Once I got pregnant, I was eating several hamburgers a week! What a change…

Poultry and pork were foods that I didn’t crave or desire for a long time and I still don’t eat pork, but poultry I’ve eased into over the last few years. It was hard at first, after years of being a vegan, to allow myself to touch, cook and eventually eat something that I had kept out of my reach for so long. I can’t say it’s always easy. My body feels better with clean proteins in it, but my mind shudders a little at times.

All this said, I have to find really creative and yummy ways to cook poultry in order for me to enjoy it; roast chicken is one of those ways. I wanted to share this really easy and delicious way that I prepare a chicken. It’s really easy to make and everyone loves it. Once I got past touching a raw, whole chicken, this became one of my favorite meals to prepare for my family! I hope you’ll try it and enjoy it as well.

Final note: We do not consume poultry that contains hormones or antibiotics. We don’t want to feed those to our children and I, personally, cannot stomach the conditions the chickens might be raised in. I recommend local farms, free-range, hormone- and antibiotic-free chicken only. 

Easy, Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
2 lemons cut in fourths
2 onions cut into chunks
4-7 potatoes chopped
3 celery stalks chopped
5 carrots chopped
Any other vegetables you have on hand
4 TBSP butter melted
½ cup of wine (I prefer white, but will use whatever)
1-2 cups of water
1 TBSP oregano
1 TBSP parsley
1 TBSP sage
½ TBSP thyme
salt & pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425. Wash the chicken thoroughly and remove the insides. Immediately transfer to a roasting pan with the drumsticks pointing up. (I have a really old pan, so I line it with foil. Hope to remedy that one day.) Squeeze one of the lemon fourths all over the chicken and shove the rest of them inside with half of the onion pieces. Pour the melted butter over the chicken and arrange the other vegetables around the chicken. On this particular day, I had a huge zucchini from the garden and I added that to the array as well. Sprinkle the spices all over the chicken. Pour the wine over the vegetables and then add water to the pan – this will create a wonderful juice to pour over everything when served.

Place in the oven for one hour. At the one hour mark, baste the chicken in the liquid. I use a small ladle to do it because we don’t have a baster, but a baster would probably be easier! I’ve tried using a thermometer but it wasn’t reliable and I can tell you that it is beyond frustrating to serve dinner and find out it’s not cooked all the way! So, what I do, is cut into a breast all the way to the bone, making sure juices run clear and the meat is white. If not, return to the oven for 10-minute increments, checking each time to make sure the meat is cooked all the way through.

When it’s finished, set it aside for at least 10 minutes and cover with foil. Then serve! I love that it’s a one-dish meal and it comes together so quickly. Between the chicken, the potatoes and the vegetables, we don’t need anything else. It makes great leftovers and I often use the carcass to make an incredible chicken broth, but that’s a blog for another time!