I like seeing what everyone else is making for the week. I try to do my meal plan on the weekend so I can grocery shop on Sundays and have things ready for the week.
I have 2lbs ground beef hanging out, and some smoked turkey sausage, and our chickens are laying a ton of eggs still so I'll work with those for protein sources for a couple meals.
Sheet Pan smoked turkey and veggie roast
Red Beans and rice with smoked turkey
Penne with vodka sauce and ground beef
Burritos with ground beef, black beans, rice, pepperjack and fajita veggies
Date night, frozen pizza for the boys at home
Egg and cheese burritos
Family dinner out, probably olive garden because our son has a crush on the waitress (who is also his friend) there and it's fucking hilarious to watch them
So basically for my shopping list I just need some lunch items, some salads and veggies for the veg roast, beverages, and trash bags this week.
Here are the meals I bought stuff for this week. I’m terrible at following meal plans, but making a list for grocery shopping and I just do what I feel that night works alright.
Miso peanut ramen with tofu and bok choy
Tilapia with capers and green olives with broccoli and couscous
Dip night: we pull out cut up veg, crackers or bread, chips, cut up fruit; and any dips we have, hummus, ranch with sour cream, yogurt honey and cinnamon. Sometimes I’ll make a hot dip if I’m up to it
Chicken with cabbage and potatoes, pan fried makes it so good
Home made hamburger helper
Lentil and carrot soup.
I'll be RIGHT over! Damn Bromo, this all sounds absolutely delicious. Do you have recipes for these or do you make stuff up?
The miso peanut is sooo good. Recipe from pinch of yum. https://pinchofyum.com/miso-peanut-ramen-bowls#tasty-recipes-140490-jump-target
For the fish, I just pan fry, then add chopped up capers and olives, little lemon juice at the end. Roasted broccoli, boiled water and couscous 1:1 ratio with a bit of oil at the end. My kid only eats carbs so I add chopped nuts and dried fruit for her.
Lentil soup is from a book, but it’s basically this, I add feta sometimes https://theclevermeal.com/carrot-lentil-soup/
Chicken done this way https://www.wholesomeyum.com/pan-fried-chicken-thighs/ I add cabbage to the pan at the end
I forgot how much my family loved homemade hamburger helper! Thank you for reminding me!
Made biscuits and gravy this morning. Will probably do another night of chicken and potatoes in the crockpot/instantpot. Currently still working on holiday sugar cookies with my mint tea.
Maybe some homemade fry bread tacos going into the week. Going into the month, I'm trying to get us back on track to with our macros. Lots of protein + veggie + complex carbs.
I need to lean on the crock pot more after this week! Those cookies sound intriguing!
Our macros are supposed to be similar haha. Oh well, once in a while being off isn't so bad.
What’s your chicken and potatoes recipe, if you don’t mind?
No worries. Here's a basic recipe that inspired my own. I'm not super strict about anything in my kitchen. If the recipe calls for breasts, thighs, whole chicken it's based on what I have and what I feel like cookin'.
Thank you! I’m not strict either (whatever is on sale) but I always like a good foundation/inspo.
For lunches, we love doing breakfast - eggs, sausage, hash browns and tomato slices. For quicker lunches, can’t go wrong with sander wraps.
Not sure where you are, but for dinner veg, Brussels sprouts are oddly good right now and pretty versatile - though many kids won’t even entertain them being on their plate (which is fair! I only did as a kid cuz they were smothered in cheese sauce 😆)
I’m lucky to be off this upcoming week so I’ve only got a couple meals planned since we can pop over to the store for whatever strikes our fancy. Tomorrow will be ground beef nachos, then chicken stir fry, leftover Bolognese and penne pasta (I bull cooked it a couple weeks back), and a beef roast with all the fixings on New Year’s Day.
Oh I love your idea of doing breakfast for lunch. My 19 yr old is just getting up then (he works semi-night shift), my 10 yr old (homeschooled, so at home for lunches) and I aren't super hungry in the mornings, and we used to have big breakfasts together before the kids got older so that would be a nice change. I may start doing that. :)
I usually get a precut root veggie mix that I keep in the freezer with sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, carrots in it which is great for sheet pan roasts. I like the idea to add in some brussels sprouts for something green too.
I don’t have a meal plan for the week per sè, but when I have a chunk of time off (week and a half), I like to fill the freezer with easy foods meals to reheat/eat until my next time off. I will make a double or triple batch of something and we will eat one and I’ll stash the others for later. These bonus meals are what I rely on at the ends of weeks instead of ordering take out.
Here’s my goal in the next week:
Meatballs- used for pasta nights or quick sandwiches
Breakfast burritos - they freeze and reheat so well.
Mini chicken pot pies - I’m using already made puff pastry, frozen veggies and tiny foil tins I bought on Amazon.
Zuppa Toscana - this is gluten free, grain free, dairy free and delish. It is actually one of our favorite recipes. Freezes and reheats like a champ.
Spanakopita - instead of little squares, I make a pie in a disposable foil tin. Makes us feel fancy when we reheat it.
Enchiladas - chicken and black beans.
Butter chicken- you can even freeze this with rice if you want but we make the rice fresh because we have a rice cooker and it’s easy.
Cottage/shepherds pie- again, frozen veggies and left over holiday mashed potatoes for the win.
Tortellini soup - I’m trying this for the first time. I really like tortellini, I hope it works out.
Panko/parm chicken cutlets - this is to get the hardest messiest part out of the way. Freeze flat on a baking tray while still raw but coated and then they cook up pretty quick, even from frozen.
Buttermilk biscuits - frozen as dough, put a few in the oven when needed to round out a meal.
Muffins - base batter, mix a variety of things to change it up.
French toast casserole - this works best if you let the casserole sit in the fridge for an hour or two then freeze.
Bacon cakes (pancakes with bacon cooked into them)- cook half strips of bacon ahead of time. Put two of the cooked pieces down on your pan, pour batter over and cook your pancake like normal. Reheats nicely with 2 mins in the airfryer and portable handheld for the kids in the car on the way to school.
Does Zuppa Toscana reheat well?! I never knew that. I always make too much, and wondered if itd freeze well. Do you have a way you freeze/store it?
The recipe that I have freezes well- I don’t know if I feel confident to say they all do, but give it a shot. I have silicone molds I use for freezing soup. I tried the flat bag method, hate it. I also have used tall deli containers and those work pretty good too, but create awkward space on the freezer.
I do egg bakes for my kids and husband. I got those silicone cupcakes molds and assigned everyone a color. I toss in all kinds of things-sausage, bacon, spinach, cheese, peppers, onions, garlic, pesto, tomatoes, beans, olives, all kinds of combos and they will eat 2 cups a morning.
Breakfast for dinner is a big hit around here. I can add protein powder to the mix for pancakes or batter for the French toast.