After months of promising, it is finally here – my first weekly meal plan! As most of you know, I did this a little backwards. Most people blog or post recipes and then write a book. I wrote If I Could Just Cook In My Car and now I am blogging. Just proves the point that everyone is different and needs to find what works for them.
Which leads to how these weekly meal plans are different than others you may see. My goal is to help you figure out what to feed YOUR family! So each week I will be sending out the meal plan I put together for my family the week before, with a brief explanation of how and why I came up with it. Then I will let you know what actually happened in the Sanderson House. Sometimes the plan needs to change on the fly, things happen but by telling you our story I hope that you will see how to re-purpose, re-organize and not stress out!
I guess I should take a minute to let you in on how I eat which might explain a lot about the menu. I eat a mainly plant based diet – almost vegan, but I eat fish so fegan. My family eats meat, eggs and dairy so I often cook meals that work with and without meat. Like when I make Chili, I make it vegetarian and then I cook the meat on the side for them to add. I don’t cook twice – if I cook something specific for them like beef stew, I have leftovers or something for me.
I hope you enjoy this blog! Please let me know what you think!
This week’s meal plan
My CSA share, and the fact that I need to finish some assignments for the online cooking school I am currently taking, heavily influenced this plan. Luckily the two played off each other and my shopping list wasn’t actually that big!
Monday
Gym night for my husband and daughter, so I need something that can cook once and be eaten whenever… For class I had to make a salad dressing, and there was a recipe for Caesar and then I had a bunch of potatoes from the CSA that I baked a few days ago. Menu –Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with baked potato wedges. (PS – My family will probably use the store bought dressing, and I won’t have the chicken!) Actual… Forgot that my house was getting cleaned in the afternoon, so I couldn’t cook, and that my daughter had a Dr appointment that got us home late, so… ending up picking up Chipotle and pizza for dinner.
Tuesday
I am actually around on Tuesday and except for a later music lesson we are open. I have Acorns Squash from my CSA. Menu – Acorn Squash stuffed with wild rice, Broccoli and grilled salmon Actual – I made the Acorn Squash stuffed with wild rice and broccoli, but instead of buying salmon I cooked the chicken. I looked online to find a recipe for orange chicken since orange sounded good with rice!
Wednesday
Girls are busy after school and then I actually have an evening client plus a busy day – so this will be a quick easy dinner Menu – Pick up Chipotle for the girls Actual – Quick Cesear Salad for the girls since they can do it themselves – using up the leftover chicken and making some potato wedges – few days late, but Monday dinner ingredients used.
Thursday
Again another gym night and an assignment to make Tuna less salad. Menu – I am thinking of making some egg salad and using leftover chicken for chicken salad getting some yummy bread and having sandwiches with chips and cut up carrots, cucumber and jicama! Actual – well I finished my assignments during the day – made the cesear dressing and the chicken less salad, but since used up all the chicken decided to sub in Friday night’s dinner a garbage stir fry with all the veggies in the fridge and shrimp (from the freezer)
Friday
I couldn’t resist the tsaoi and shitake mushrooms at the farmers market on Sunday so looks like stir fry and I have some shrimp in the freezer. Menu – Garbage stir fry with udon noodles. Stir fries are great end of week meals because you can throw any unused veggies in there from the week and have lunch leftovers for the weekend. Actual – One of the girls went out with friends and we needed to run some errands, and since I used the tsaoi and mushrooms the night before, I actually got the night off and we ate out!
During my Sunday prep I made a Cabbage Soup (also an assignment) and roasted sweet potatoes and beets for lunch for the week . I also washed and prepped all my greens and cut up some veggies for snacking and made a batch of seed crackers my weekly staple.
Finally my first Blog Post!
/0 Comments/in Meal Plans /by joy639After months of promising, it is finally here – my first weekly meal plan! As most of you know, I did this a little backwards. Most people blog or post recipes and then write a book. I wrote If I Could Just Cook In My Car and now I am blogging. Just proves the point that everyone is different and needs to find what works for them.
Which leads to how these weekly meal plans are different than others you may see. My goal is to help you figure out what to feed YOUR family! So each week I will be sending out the meal plan I put together for my family the week before, with a brief explanation of how and why I came up with it. Then I will let you know what actually happened in the Sanderson House. Sometimes the plan needs to change on the fly, things happen but by telling you our story I hope that you will see how to re-purpose, re-organize and not stress out!
I guess I should take a minute to let you in on how I eat which might explain a lot about the menu. I eat a mainly plant based diet – almost vegan, but I eat fish so fegan. My family eats meat, eggs and dairy so I often cook meals that work with and without meat. Like when I make Chili, I make it vegetarian and then I cook the meat on the side for them to add. I don’t cook twice – if I cook something specific for them like beef stew, I have leftovers or something for me.
I hope you enjoy this blog! Please let me know what you think!
This week’s meal plan
My CSA share, and the fact that I need to finish some assignments for the online cooking school I am currently taking, heavily influenced this plan. Luckily the two played off each other and my shopping list wasn’t actually that big!
Monday
Gym night for my husband and daughter, so I need something that can cook once and be eaten whenever… For class I had to make a salad dressing, and there was a recipe for Caesar and then I had a bunch of potatoes from the CSA that I baked a few days ago.
Menu –Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with baked potato wedges. (PS – My family will probably use the store bought dressing, and I won’t have the chicken!)
Actual… Forgot that my house was getting cleaned in the afternoon, so I couldn’t cook, and that my daughter had a Dr appointment that got us home late, so… ending up picking up Chipotle and pizza for dinner.
Tuesday
I am actually around on Tuesday and except for a later music lesson we are open. I have Acorns Squash from my CSA.
Menu – Acorn Squash stuffed with wild rice, Broccoli and grilled salmon
Actual – I made the Acorn Squash stuffed with wild rice and broccoli, but instead of buying salmon I cooked the chicken. I looked online to find a recipe for orange chicken since orange sounded good with rice!
Wednesday
Girls are busy after school and then I actually have an evening client plus a busy day – so this will be a quick easy dinner
Menu – Pick up Chipotle for the girls
Actual – Quick Cesear Salad for the girls since they can do it themselves – using up the leftover chicken and making some potato wedges – few days late, but Monday dinner ingredients used.
Thursday
Again another gym night and an assignment to make Tuna less salad.
Menu – I am thinking of making some egg salad and using leftover chicken for chicken salad getting some yummy bread and having sandwiches with chips and cut up carrots, cucumber and jicama!
Actual – well I finished my assignments during the day – made the cesear dressing and the chicken less salad, but since used up all the chicken decided to sub in Friday night’s dinner a garbage stir fry with all the veggies in the fridge and shrimp (from the freezer)
Friday
I couldn’t resist the tsaoi and shitake mushrooms at the farmers market on Sunday so looks like stir fry and I have some shrimp in the freezer.
Menu – Garbage stir fry with udon noodles. Stir fries are great end of week meals because you can throw any unused veggies in there from the week and have lunch leftovers for the weekend.
Actual – One of the girls went out with friends and we needed to run some errands, and since I used the tsaoi and mushrooms the night before, I actually got the night off and we ate out!
During my Sunday prep I made a Cabbage Soup (also an assignment) and roasted sweet potatoes and beets for lunch for the week . I also washed and prepped all my greens and cut up some veggies for snacking and made a batch of seed crackers my weekly staple.