Well Hi friends! Do you meal plan in your house? Meal planning should simplify your life. I am always looking for ways to improve this process. There are different ways to meal plan and customize it for each household. Next week I am going to try out theme nights. This will be where each night has a similar meal each week. Here are some examples of what I am thinking~
Meatloaf Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Leftovers Wednesdays, Crockpot Thursdays, TRYday Friday (try a new recipe)
Some tips that I have learned along the way are:
- Prep ahead of time what you can
- If you have extra time on the weekend cook up taco meat or assemble a meatloaf
- Double up the recipe
- Freeze one for another night
- Wash and chop veggies ahead of time
- If you are short on time- buy shortcuts
- Frozen Cauliflower rice, Frozen veggies that you can microwave in the bag, pre-sliced veggies
- Buy all of groceries that you need for the week at one time
- Check your fridge, freezer and pantry when planning. Use up what you have & don’t let things expire
Here’s whats cooking in our kitchen this week:
Monday:
Sausage & Gnocchi Skillet dish (click here for the recipe)
A friend brought over this dish & it was really yummy! It went really well with a salad & a glass of wine 😉
Tuesday:
Left overs
Wednesday:
This one is one of my favorite and most “go-to” recipes. I don’t do any pre-cooking here, everything just goes in the crockpot in the morning.
Cool Ranch Tacos (I make a few edits to her recipe)
These are super, super easy & here is what you need~
- Chicken Thighs
- 3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
- 2 Tablespoons of Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 Taco seasoning packet (or click here for a homemade version)
- 1 Ranch seasoning packet (or use a homemade version-1T dried parsley, 1tsp garlic powder, 1tsp onion powder, 1tsp dried onion flakes, 3/4tsp dill, 1/2tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt)
*Throw everything in the crockpot, Cook on low all day, at least 8 hours
Holy Cow- it doesn’t get much easier than that!
Thursday:
Chicken Rice bowl
- Using the Chicken from the Chicken Ranch Taco meat (or you could use Rotisserie Chicken)
- The base of the bowl pick a rice (Cauliflower, White rice, Brown rice, etx)
- Add veggies, cheese and avocado
Friday:
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Saturday:
Chicken salad~
- Lettuce
- Veggies
- Cheese
- Chicken- left over from Cool Ranch Chicken, Rotisserie Chicken or Chicken lunch meat
- Ranch dressing
Sunday:
Lasagna~
This is my mama’s recipe and I LOVE it. I started making it with a healthy twist. Instead of lasagna noodles I sub zucchini noodles.
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 TBL parsley
- 1 TBL basil
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 can tomatoes
- 2 six ounce cans tomato paste
- 10 ounce lasagna noodles **** subbing zucchini noodle for a healthy swap!
- 3 C cottage cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 beaten eggs
- 2 TBL parsley
- 1/2 C shredded parmesan
- 1 lb mozzarella sliced
- Brown meat, add next 6 ingredients. Simmer, uncovered until sauce is thick (approximately 30 minutes)
- If using traditional noodles cook them & drain. If using Zucchini noodles thinly slice zucchini
- Combine cottage cheese with egg, seasonings, parmesan cheese
- Place 1/2 noodles in 9 x 13 pan
- Spread 1/2 cottage cheese mixture
- Then 1/2 of mozzarella cheese
- Then 1/2 meat mixture
- Repeat layers
- Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes
- Let stand 15 minutes
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I’d love to hear your meal planning tips or share with me your favorite recipe. Wishing you a happy week and with the first day of spring I hope you have lots of sunshine coming your way!
Thanks for stopping by & Happy Meal Planning!! If you need even more meal planning ideas- check out Organizing Junkie by clicking here.
Faith ♥
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