Week 2: Steal My Meal Plan! {4 Week Meal Plan Series}
If you want someone to tell you exactly what to eat, what to shop for, and to give you a whole one-week meal plan in detail with recipes and notes then this post is for you. Actually, if I were you, I would go read the first post in this 4-week series, Week 1: Steal My Meal Plan, and then come back to this one. Then you will have 2 weeks of meal plans to steal!
Okay Mamas, let's start with me the enticing part, the part where you...
Steal my meal plan!
Yes, that's exactly what I said. I'm giving you the very meal plans that I have made and used for my family. Tried and true. You can do whatever you want with them but what I hope you will do is either:
Copy it exactly and see how it goes. Then make modifications based on what went well and what did not. Trial and error.
OR copy part of the meal plan. Maybe preparing dinner (no matter how easy) isn't in your game plan for 5 nights of the week. Take 2 or 3 nights and leave the rest. However, keep in mind that in order to save time (and money) I often integrate the weeknight meals. (Example: cook chicken on Monday for that night and Wednesday night.)
OR just study my meal plans and analyze how I save time and energy by batching tasks, cooking once to eat twice (or three times), using similar ingredients, etc. By learning these techniques you can try and make your own meal plans that will be more efficient, get yourself out of the kitchen more, and save time and money on groceries.
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Let's get started: Week 2 Meal Plan
This week I'm happy to say that the meal plan is so smooth in its execution. There is so little work involved with this meal plan. You might even feel guilty for eating so well while doing so little!
The secrets in constructing such a beauty of a meal plan this week were two-fold; buying premade ingredients when possible (like pico de gallo and guacamole) and using the technique of cooking once and eating twice.
For example, the ground beef used in the meals for Monday and Sunday can be browned the same way - so why not cook it all at the same time? Also, the meat used for both the Tuesday and Thursday meals is cooked in the slow cooker all at once (on Tuesday).
It will all make sense soon. Take a look...
Pesto Salmon and Italian Veggies in Tin Foil from CookingClassy.com
Week 2 Meal Plan
Sunday: Slow Cooker Chili Spiked with Veggies, (optional - serve with cornbread if I'm feeling fancy!)
Monday: Healthy Asian Lettuce Wraps
Tuesday: DIY Burrito Bowls using Pulled Beef in the Crock Pot served with rice, pico de gallo, guacamole, cheese, and shredded lettuce.
Wednesday: Pesto Salmon with Italian Veggies baked in parchment paper with Roasted Sweet Potatoes (video on how to make this meal included below!)
Thursday: Beef Quesadillas (with Pulled Beef in the Crock Pot), GF tortillas, pico de gallo, guacamole, cheese, and Simple Arugula Salad
Friday: eat out or take-out
Saturday: FFY (Fend For Yourself - empty the fridge of all leftovers)
Watch Leah make the Pesto Salmon with Italian Veggies recipe!
Remember - if you are already a LWL Tribe member you always get FREE access to everything in the Free Library!
Healthy Asian Lettuce Wraps from AppleOfMyEye.com
General Tips & Advice for Meal Planning
(This is more or less a repeat from Week 1, so if you've already read it then you can get a refresher here. Or, skip it if you are a stellar student and know it all already!)
KISS
Keep It Simple (Stupid). For many of these meals, by now I know how to make them by heart and without a recipe. They are simple and they are regularly featured on our family's weekly meal plan. But because I like to help make healthy easy, I have included all the links to each of the recipes so you don't have to search and wonder 'which is the better potato recipe??'
When planning your own weekly meal plans, don't use more than one new recipe per week! KiSS!
Using the same ingredients and recipes more than once
As you can see, I like to use similar ingredients throughout the week and double up on a recipe when I can. For example, I use ground beef in both the Sunday and Monday meals. Even better is the fact that the meat is prepared the same way for both recipes! I love it when simple stuff makes me so happy!
Another trick is to cook once, eat twice. I've done that with the Tuesday and Thursday meals. Cook the pulled beef once but use it for two different meals. All these little tricks save time and energy.
Consult your calendar
As you may have noticed, I do more of my cooking on Sundays. I also choose easier meals on nights when we have baseball or swim practice, or a busy evening for whatever reason. Make sure you consult your calendar and choose either very simple, easy meals on your busy nights or make it a "leftovers" night.
Seasonal
This meal plan is very much getting into the fall and winter season. I don't particularly enjoy eating salads in the winter so now that the weather has started to turn cooler, I have fewer salads and more warming meals on the menu.
Give yourself a night off
I also firmly believe in giving yourself at least one night a week off of cooking or preparing dinner. Unless you absolutely LOVE being in the kitchen all the time (not I!) then give yourself the grace to not be. I usually choose Fridays as our "eat out" or "take-out" night because it works well for our family's schedule.
FFY (Fend For Yourself)
No matter how much I try to calculate how much food to cook, there is always more food than we need. Much of the time I actually make an effort to cook more than enough so we can have leftovers for lunches or whatever. By Saturday, whatever didn't get eaten throughout the week is on the menu for dinner! Fend For Yourself is a great way to clean out the fridge and make room for all the groceries and food for the upcoming week.
Notes on this Meal Plan
On the second page of my weekly meal plan I have it divided into 3 sections so that I can get food prepped and cooked ahead of time. I either build this time into my day or if I have some free time I will take a glance at my notes and I know exactly what needs to be done without spending precious time thinking about it!
For this reason, I love doing my meal plans on paper. I find taking notes to be so much easier on paper and then I can hang the meal plan up in the kitchen. Now everyone knows the plan and I can also more easily assign kitchen help tasks. Sometimes just referring to the Weekly Meal Plan is enough for my husband to know what he can help with. On paper, I can also cross off the prep tasks that have been completed.
Here is what my "notes page" looks like for this meal plan:
I've added some more detailed notes for your benefit. If you want to see the exact page as I use it, you can download the free printable document in the Free Resource Library.
Marinades/Sauces/Dips/Dressings I can Make Ahead:
salad dressing for Simple Arugula Salad - store in a sealed glass jar in the fridge
Food/Dishes I can Prepare/Cook Ahead:
ground beef for Lettuce wraps - I cook this at the same time I cook the ground beef for the chili. Since they both get browned with only salt and pepper this makes it super easy. At this point, I also just make the rest of the recipe for the meat portion of the lettuce wraps since it's halfway done. Then we simply reheat the next day, super easy!
Veggies/Produce I can Prep Ahead:
sweet potatoes prepped for baking - I prep the sweet potatoes, add the oil and seasoning and store in the fridge in a Ziploc bag.
Additional Notes for this week's meal plan:
SUNDAY - when browning meat for chili, ALSO brown meat for Asian Lettuce Wraps (you can also finish the meat portion of the recipe for the lettuce wraps and just reheat for MONDAY'S meal)
SUNDAY - freeze extra chili for a future meal (the recipe serves 10-12)
TUESDAY - double the Pulled Beef Recipe to use in Thursday's meal
buy PREMADE guacamole, pico de gallo and shredded cheese to save time
Bake salmon in parchment paper (not tin foil) - less toxic
REMEMBER to add rice to rice cooker and set the timer in a.m. !!
side note - if you don't have a rice cooker with a timer then you are living in the dark ages! Get one, it is SO helpful! Especially when using a slow cooker for the rest of the meal - everything is done at the moment you walk in the door! We use this one.
Prep slow cooker recipes in the morning and get them cooking!
For salmon and sweet potatoes, bake all together in the oven at 425F (25-degree adjustment for each recipe so they can bake together)
buy GF tortillas if eating gluten-free
Remember - if you are already a LWL Tribe member you always get FREE access to everything in the Free Library!
Do you prefer to meal plan digitally?
My friend, there is a digital answer to EVERYTHING! Meet my new digital friend, Plan to Eat. This amazing app can do so much I'm going to have to write a whole different blog post on how incredible it is.
See how I did this week's meal plan on Plan to Eat? You can watch my Plan to Eat video tutorial here.
You do need a subscription to use the service but it's like $3.25 per month. You could save more than that per meal just by meal planning and saving money! If you are a digital person, this app is SO worth it! If you are interested, click on my link here. (That's an affiliate link and I may earn a very small commission at no extra cost to you!)
You can watch my Plan to Eat video tutorial here.
Stay tuned for week 3!
You can also go back to Week 1 if you want to use that one again. I think it's a great idea to use meal plans over and over, especially when you are just learning how. You can understand how the meal plan flows, get faster at making the recipes, and learn what works for you and what doesn't.
So come back here next week to steal another week of meal plans! And, could you do me a favor? Can you share this with a friend who is struggling to get healthy meals on the table because life is crazy busy? Sharing is caring ❤️.
Happy meal plan stealing,
P.S. When it comes time to make your own meal plan, be sure to read The 9 Worst Mistakes People Make When Meal Planning. Yeah...avoid those! Also, check out No Time? 9 Easy, Quick Weeknight Meals for some great (easy) recipes to add to your meal plans.
P.P.S. Get your own blank Weekly Meal Planner template in the Free Resource Library.
