Adventures in Domesticity: Meal Planning

Y'all. I meal planned this week-- and it was amazing! I am SO pleased with all the meals I made AND with how incredibly efficient our dinners were this week!

I just wanted to share in case anyone else has been thinking of trying this. I'm going to try and a make a habit of this, because 1) my daughter isn't getting any less mobile, so I need to maximize my efficiency at everything and 2) because it made my *grocery shopping day WAY less stressful. As in, I actually stayed UNDER budget for once because instead of buying a bunch of things we might eat for dinner, I only bought what I needed for these meals.

Thanks to Pinterest, it's a new dawn, it's a new day. :) Here's my meal plan from last week:

MONDAY- I'd planned on cooking this (via one lovely life), but Todd brought home Bread Co. leftovers from a late meeting and we had that instead. So we'll be eating this NEXT week. :) And I'm excited about it because I've never had quinoa before!

TUESDAY- Chicken Gyros (via The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Todd made the marinade (which is delish) on Monday night and we threw half a package of chicken tenderloins into it and let it marinate till Tuesday evening. We cooked it all up in less than 30 minutes and had enough left for lunch the next day. Also, we didn't make our tzatziki-- Trader Joe's sells a yummy one for like $3.79, and  I'd bought it last week in anticipation of making these. (And also ended up eating it with beef quesadillas and on pretzel thins. Yay fusion!) This super easy meal will definitely become a staple in our house.

WEDNESDAY- Garlic Parmesan Chicken & Noodles (via BHG)

Before work, I threw a package of 3 chicken breasts into the crock pot, submerged in water with a bit of salt and cooked them on low all day. When I got home, I shredded all three for use over the next few days. Tuesday night, I made this super easy one pot meal. I used half and half instead of cream and I did not make my own bread crumbs, because I had a box of panko-- and I love panko. It was yummy, and since we didn't have company, we had 2 portions left over.

THURSDAY- Sweet Potato Topped Chicken (via BHG) 

Rather than using canned yams (and because I knew I'd need more later in the week) around 4pm on Wednesday, I peeled, chopped and boiled 4 smallish sweet potatoes. I mashed them up with a bit of butter, put half in a tupperware for use later in the week and then used another 3rd of my previously shredded chicken for another yummy one pot meal.

FRIDAY- I had planned to cook, but ended up being treated to dinner at City Diner with the in-laws. Yay meatloaf and mashed potatoes!

SATURDAY- We had a pool party/cookout to attend during lunch, but for dinner, we finished up the leftovers from Wednesday and Thursday.

SUNDAY LUNCH- Sweet Potato Burgers with Avocado (via Healthy Happy Life)

Y'all know I love meat. So the fact that I didn't miss it at all while eating these burgers is really saying something. Truth be told, I've been looking forward to making these since I pinned the recipe 2 weeks ago so I had high expectations-- and this did not disappoint one bit! We didn't have lettuce, so we went without. And I didn't have white beans, so I used black. It didn't matter. Also, we halved the recipe and had enough for 4 patties. I used dijon mustard on mine, like the recipe said, but Todd chose to slather his with BBQ sauce (which is what he always uses as dip for sweet potato fries) and said it was delicious too. 

Addendum

SUNDAY DINNER: Chicken Noodle Soup & Grilled Cheese (via Cooking Classy)

I had leftover ingredients from the week (a bit of shredded chicken, some onion, baby carrots, a few stalks of celery, egg noodles and grape tomatoes) and I found this recipe on Pinterest tonight. So, I adapted it, using what I had in the cupboard. It turned out delicious! Todd insisted on having grilled cheese as well, but we only had two slices of bread because I'd forgotten to take a new loaf from the freezer. However, I still had one pita left-- hence the modified grilled cheese you see in the pic. :)

I'll be trying to meal plan again this week-- but this time WITHOUT going grocery shopping. Our food budget is maxxed out till next month. But fortunately, we're stocked with frozen veggies and fodder for side dishes-- and one of our amazing friends brought us back a cooler full of grass-fed beef cuts, courtesy of Southern Farms (her Daddy's farm) in Louisiana. So we'll manage. :)

*That's right. I have a grocery shopping day now. I'll share my life-changing chore schedule in another post.