Try it — Meal Planning

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Try It

The words “meal planning” have always given me the creeps. You mean you want me to plan out what I’m going to eat every single day of the week? What if I’m not in the mood for my pre-planned recipe?! What If I just really need a pizza day? Or what if I want to go out to eat one night and then my whole system is out-of-whack. The INSANITY – STOP THE INSANITY!

I tend to get over drammatic.

Reigning myself in…

In short, meal planning scares me a little. Is anyone with me on this? No? Cheese stands alone?

Well in any case, the Mister and I have been relying on take out way too much and our wallets and shrinking waistbands are suffering. It’s time to get down to business. Time to stop relying on expensive take out and time to — you guessed it — meal plan.

Remember when I used to cook all the time? What happened? Oh yeah, this guy…

He’s kinda high maintenance.

Well, my friends, enough excuses. This week, I’ve planned three meals (you have to account for some take-out, no one’s perfect!) that are healthy, affordable and best of all — only require 15-30 of my precious minutes (not counting cook-time) in the kitchen.  

I cannot WAIT to share the recipes — you may just kiss my feet with gratitude, they are that delicious.

Best of all? They require ONE roasted chicken that you simply modify for all remaining dishes.

Without further ado, I give you the meal plan…

Last night (I’d typically recommnd this on a Sunday, due to cook time): Oven Roasted Chicken with Mushrooms Ragout; which was, in a word — amazing. You might die.

Tuesday (Tonight) – Thai Chicken Lettuce Cups

Wednesday – Indians Game — dinner out

Thursday – Chicken Taco Salad

Friday – What am I? Superwoman? Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Did I mention all dishes are less than 500 calories? And my Superwoman title is back ;)

Do you meal plan? What are your tricks?

8 Responses to “Try it — Meal Planning”

  1. Liz @ Tip Top Shape said:

    All of those recipes sound fantastic!! I don’t meal plan. I’ve tried a few times but felt that it took some of the fun out of cooking for me. It does help reduce food waste, though. I can’t tell you how many times I impulse buy ingredients and find them weeks later in the back of my fridge.

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  2. Shelly said:

    I totally meal plan. I usually come up with 5 potential meals per week so I have a little wiggle room in terms of takeout. I then start with one or two “fun meals” I want to try that I may not have made before, are time consuming, or require perishable ingredients. The other meals revolve around staples like salad, frozen veggies and meat, things in the fridge that I need to use up, and pantry items (like canned tuna in olive oil- it’s so good!)
    I also LOVE to roast a chicken and use the meat all week- same goes if we grill- we’ll grill up enough meat for several nights and then I just have to make sides (ahem, frozen veggies and/or salad).
    This week’s meal plan was roasted seabass with potatoes and onions (a fun meal I saw in the NYTimes Magazine on Sunday- I got fresh fish from the fish market especially for this)and brussels sprouts (from the freezer); chicken tacos (using salsa I needed to use up and some chicken thighs I had frozen, but I did buy avocados and shallots for a fresh component); roasted chicken (I’m roasting tonight- I find an hour isn’t too long for a weeknight dinner prep since it’s so hands off) with salad (salad greens, clementines I need to use up, and olive oil in the salad); chicken barley bowls with barley (hello pantry item!) garlic scape pesto (I need to use up) and brocolli (from the freezer); and finally tuna pasta with canned tuna in a tomato sauce made with canned san marzano tomatoes, white wine, basil (from the squeeze bottle), and capers over whole wheat pasta(all of this keeps so if we go out to eat- I’ll make this next week). I also have some frozen black bean cakes so if we stay in more than I anticipate, we’ll eat them. Otherwise I’ll be throwing together something with the leftover chicken- maybe chicken noodle soup since tomorrow I’m making stock with the chicken bones from tonight- I’d probably do an asian spin on this and use sesame oil and soba noodles I have on hand and spinach (that I need to use up, although my hubby also puts it on sandwiches) just to be a little creative.

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  3. joie said:

    I, too, mealplan! It started when the closest grocery store was a 20 minute drive from the house, and continued when I realized it’s pretty much the only way I can stay on top of eating reasonably and cheaply. I don’t do very well at the ‘complicated’ stuff like cooking enough meat to last for 3 meals, but I always have leftovers for lunch. Typically my plans start at Monday night and go through Sunday night, but I usually leave 2 meals unplanned. This week we’re having: homemade venison sausage with peppers and onions, with a salad; goat cheese linguine with squash; beef tacos with salad; beef enchiladas with salad (look, ma, i’m cooking extra meat one night!); and, um, potatoes and something and salad.
    The best lesson I learned was definitely – cook meals requiring perishable foods early in the week. I had to go through way too many bunches of cilantro to learn this.

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  4. Make it – Weekend Roast Chicken | The Daily Balance said:

    [...] bird. But with my renewed commitment to the kitchen and delicious recipes that re-use chicken, my meal planning this week was dependant on my [...]

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  5. Make it – Chicken Lettuce Cups | The Daily Balance said:

    [...] tuned for this week’s meal plan. Also in the works — how to travel with a baby — any specific questions you’d [...]

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  6. Make it – Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Roasted Chickpeas | The Daily Balance said:

    [...] told you I was taking this whole “meal planning” thing seriously! After our roasted chicken dishes last week, I figured I’d switch [...]

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  7. Make it – Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Roasted Chickpeas | The Daily Balance said:

    [...] told you I was taking this whole “meal planning” thing seriously! After our roasted chicken dishes last week, I figured I’d switch [...]

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