Food

Meal Plan Week 6 – When There’s No Time for Meal Planning

Photo credit: www.100daysofrealfood.com

Photo credit: www.100daysofrealfood.com

So things have been a little busy around here. New to the blogosphere, I’ve been working on keeping balance between the blog posts (related to Purim) and real life (prepping for Purim) while looking keeping everything running smoothly in the house (in anticipation of Purim). Purim is one of the most festive times of the year, and with this joyous holiday approaching, mayyyybe I’ve let my meal planning slide a bit??

Well, as I’ve said it’s all about accountability. You folks are graciously anticipating the meal plan, and so I’ll create it for myself and the world out there. And my family will benefit throughout the week from my being that little bit more prepared.

Truth be told I did my shopping for this week with no meal plan in hand, and so this week’s meal plan is inspired by the ingredients I did pick up at the grocery store, as well as items I keep on hand in the pantry – for occasions such as this!

Friday night: Challah, chicken soup, roast chicken, brown rice pilaf, green beans, and hamentaschen.

Shabbos Lunch: Invited out 🙂

Sunday: Roast chicken, green beans, rice.

Monday: Big hearty vegetable soup – single bowl meal.

Tuesday: These fantastic crockpot baked beans and rice, and chopped veggies.

Wednesday: Vegetable soup from Monday

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner – eggs, pancakes, veggies.

What’s on your weekly meal plan this week? Please share below!

Meal Plan Week 5 – Spicing Things Up

Happy Sunday Everyone! I must have been thinking of warmer weather when I drafted this week’s meal plan, because there’s a distinctly Spanish feel to the menu. Please join me in turning up the heat. Many of us Northerners can use it right now!

Meal Plan Week 5:

Friday: Chicken soup, cajun salmon, roasted root veggie sticks, savory baby spinach salad, crockpot applesauceIMG_20141024_161450

Shabbos Lunch: Honey mustard salmon, cholent, roasted root vaggie sticks, spanish rice, mango strawberry baby spinach salad, strawberries for dessert

Sunday: Loaded hot dogs with baby spinach salad

Monday: Family get together

Tuesday: Squash pear soup, quesadillas with crockpot refried beans

Wednesday: Squash pear soup

Thursday: Oat cranberry pancakes, cottage cheese, fresh veggies

What are you making this week to beat the cold?

Please share in the comments below!

Meal Plan Week 4 & Why My Meal Plan Begins on Friday

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I struggled for quite a number of months to get into the flow of meal planning. I found that whichever website I was turning to for tips and inspiration, I wasn’t happy with the printables, although I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why.

Some ways in, it hit me – my week starts on Friday, not Sunday as for so many within the world of meal planning. I generally do a once per week grocery shopping trip on Thursday. Before I can sit down and plan meals for the week, I need to know whether we’re home alone for Shabbos, having ten people over for the meal, or we’re invited out. Since the bulk of my week’s cooking is done for Shabbos, with the most effort being put into making these meals special, I need to set out their structure before I can plan forward into the rest of the week.

Once I started beginning my week on Friday, things began to flow for me. I sit down on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to plan my Shabbos meals, and then have some idea of whether there will be leftovers stretching into the week or not. I know how many meat or dairy meals I was to serve during the remainder of the week, and most important to me, I have the closure of Shabbos not just hanging as an unknown, but rather as an intentional, integral part of my meal planning.

Meal Plan Week 4

Friday Night: Challah, chicken soup, gefilte fish, green beans, beets, couscous, oatmeal craisin cookies

Shabbos Lunch: Challah, gefilte fish, cholent, green beans, roasted potatoes, cauliflower popcorn, oatmeal craisin cookies, cantaloupe

Sunday: Shabbos leftovers

Monday: Mexican black bean soup, french toast

Tuesday: Tomato feta pasta and sliced veggies

Wednesday: Mexican black bean soup

Thursday: Tomato feta pasta and sliced veggies

What day does your meal planning week begin on, and why have you chosen such a structure? Please share in the comments below!

Meal Plan Week 3

As a mom who’s only recently begun meal planning, I know that consistency is my biggest challenge. Building meal planning into a habit is one of my curent goals and I’m doing my beset to stick with it. While last week I was away and thus didn’t have the opportunity or perhaps the need to plan, I did come back thinking a great way to work on continuation would be to build accountability for myself. So here it is. The (hopeful) plan is that I’ll be posting my meal plans on a weekly basis. Feel free to grab ideas, comment, or ask for recipes. We all seek inspiration in the kitchen, and I hope this offers you some. Enjoy!

A note on leftovers. Cooking for a relatively small family, and being someone who tends to overshoot quantity (better have too much rather than too little!) we eat plenty of leftovers. To keep monotony at bay, I do try to change things up from meal to meal, or I’ll serve dairy one night and meat the next. So long as the food is good, we’re good with it!

Eggplant parm

Shabbos – out both meals! 🙂

Sunday – Homemade mac & cheese + veggie julienne salad

Monday – Homemade mac & cheese + eggplant parmesan + veggie julienne salad

Tuesday – Tomato soup + whole wheat biscuits

Wednesday – Homemade mushroom stuffed hamburgers on whole wheat bread + toppings

Thursday – Pancakes + cottage cheese + fresh cut veggies

What are you making for dinner this week? I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.