My 4 Top Steps to Meal Plan Success
1. Taking a survey of what’s in my pantry, fridge and freezer.
Goal- use what I already have- because it’s already been paid for and there is nothing worse then having to throw away something because it didn’t get used before it’s expiration date.
2. Review our schedule –
- this helps to have meals that are realistic for what activities are going on
- looking over the scheduled for the week helps me plan which meals I should make a crockpot meal for, or that I need to cook something ahead of time
3. Plan the grocery list at the same time as meal planning and surveying fridge/freezer/pantry
I have tried many different grocery lists. This is my favorite and what we are currently using. On Google Keep making lists and sharing them is super easy! Then multiple people can add to lists and if they pick items up they can select it so that it gets taken off of the list!
4. Prep ahead of time
- Cook or prep meat
- Wash and cut veggies
- Separate things into containers as needed
Basically anything that will take a step or 2 away the night of your meal is helpful to do before hand!
Monday:
Chicken Thighs
- Boneless chicken thighs (because who wants to deal with bones)
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Season chicken thighs
- Add oil, cook them all up in a large skillet
- Cook about 7 minutes on each side (but obviously until they are no longer pink and done!)
- Cauliflower “Mac & Cheese” from Skinny Taste
Greenbeans
Tuesday:
Spaghetti with Spaghetti Squash Noodles
- 1 lb of hamburger
- 1 lb of sausage
- 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
- oregano, parsley, garlic
- Spaghetti squash
Cook Spaghetti squash
Easiest way to prepare Spaghetti Squash
- Wash your squash
- Pierce it several times with a knife
- Put it in the crockpot with 1 cup of water or broth
- Cook on low for 4-6 hours
- Remove from the crockpot- it will be hot so BE CAREFUL!!
- Cut it in half and shred the noodles
Cook hamburger and sausage in a skillet until done.
Using pork sausage in Italian dishes like spaghetti or lasagna, gives it such a great flavor!
Wednesday:
Leftovers
Thursday:
[ultimate-recipe id=”1436″ template=”default”]
Friday:
Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole by Fed and Fit
Saturday:
Dinner out with friends
Sunday:
Chicken Cauliflower Loaded Casserole
Found in Fed and Fit’s AMAZING Cookbook- Cook Once Eat All Week
Cook Once, Eat All Week by Cassy Joy Garcia It has 26 weeks of meals, with really easy to follow instructions on how to simply make 3 full size meals in just a few hours. Then you just assemble the meal on the day of.
So if you get the book- and you definitely should 🙂 You pick the week you want, it has 3 main ingredients. We picked week 25 to start. Mainly because we had the ingredients already. Brisket, Brussel Sprouts and Rice. (Just click here to order from Amazon)
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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