Meal Plan; Week of 1/25

This week is more of a cleaning out the fridge and cabinets! Not many new recipes this week!

Monday 
B- Pumpkin Waffles from Trader Joes
L- Veggie wraps (cucumber, carrots, tomato)
D- Cheese burgers, avocado

Tuesday
B- Cheerios w/ banana
L- Almond butter and jelly sandwiches, carrots
D- Spaghetti and meatballs

Wednesday
B- Moosli
L- Left overs
D- Rice, beans, egg, tomato, avocado bowl

Thursday
B- Cheerios with raisins
L- Left overs
D- Shrimp, muscles, roasted potaotes

Friday
B- Moosli, blueberries
L- Almond butter and banana sandwiches, cuties
D- Lemon Garlic Chicken (Crock pot) Recipe
    
Saturday
B- Oatmeal with raisins
L- Left overs
D- Shredded chicken tacos, avocado, tomatoes

Sunday
B- Waffles
L- Veggie and lunch meat wrap
D- Homemade pizza

Meal Plan; Week of 1/18

Better late than never. Juliana's first birthday party was yesterday so I didn't have a chance to plan our meals out. We also have a TON of left over chicken, beef and fruits so that will be the theme this week!

Monday
B- Mommy Moosli Website (the girls eat this too)
L- Goat cheese and apple butter sandwich with raisins
D- Ground beef quesadillas, avocado

Tuesday
B- Cheerios w/ banana
L- Elbow pasta with roasted broccoli
D- Mini pot pies Recipe

Wednesday
B- Eggs and turkey bacon
L- Pita pocket w/ turkey and cucumber
D- Spaghetti w/ meatballs, mixed veggies

Thursday (nanny)
B- Mommy Moosli
L- Left overs, EVOL frozen burrito (me)
D- Black beans, rice, egg and tomatoes

Friday (nanny)
B- Double Protein English muffin with goal cheese, eggs
L- Almond butter and banana sandwich
D- Chicken Chili (possibly done in the slow cooker)

Saturday
B- Cheerios with Raisins
L- Left overs
D- Oatmeal with banana and raisins

Sunday
B- Eggs with English muffins
L- Lunch meat (turkey) sandwiches
D- Steak and roasted veggies (potatoes/carrots/asparagus) Handy Guide for roasting veggies

Snacks throughout the week will be; avocado, cuties, apple, pear (a ton of fruit left over), veggie tray (also left over), mixed nuts, healthy banana muffins.


Thursday A will be with Dustin all day so he'll be taking care of her breakfast and lunch. I'll have J with me and she'll have what I'm having. Friday I'll likely need to make breakfast at my friends house while taking care of the children. It's too much of a rush to get out of the door after feeding both girls and my self, getting us all dressed and to my friend's house by 7:45/8am. (I'm even thinking I'll leave little J in her jammies and dress her there!)
Thursday and Sunday Dustin is off so he'll be having dinners with us then. And I'm still planning on sticking with my slow cooker meals every Friday. (Though I just broke my BRAND NEW crock pot after using it only once so there is that...)

This weeks meals

Monday
Lunch - Turkey burgers and mixed veggies
Dinner - Spaghetti and bell peppers

Tuesday
Lunch - Almond butter and banana sandwiches
Dinner - Steak and roasted veggies

Wednesday
Lunch - Humus pinwheels
Dinner - Black beans with rice and over-easy eggs

Thursday
Lunch - Left Overs
Dinner - Pasta Salad with cucumbers and tomatoes Recipe

Friday
Lunch - Almond butter and jelly sandwiches
Dinner - (Crock Pot Day) Basic Pot Roast Recipe

Saturday
Lunch - Left Overs
Dinner - Baked Lemon Chicken Recipe

Sunday
Lunch - Lunch meat and cucumber pitas
Dinner - Juliana's 1st birthday party - Taco Bar!

Snacks throughout the week will include - 
Avocados, hard boiled eggs, sliced bell peppers, baby carrots with humus, mixed nuts, home made healthy muffins Recipe

About my meal planning;
For the next several months I am babysitting my best friends 2 children, at her home, as well as my 2 little ones. I'll be at her house Thursday's and Friday's. I kept that in mind while making my meal plan. Friday's will be a longer day as all 4 children will be with me so I'll be making crock pot meals on Fridays. Being that we'll be at their house I need to bring lunches that are easy to assemble while taking care of two 1 year old's, a 3 year old and a 4 year old.

Sunday's my husband is home so I'll be cleaning out the fridge and meal planning while he is here to occupy the girls long enough for me to get that done! I plan to do my shopping on Monday's and preparing our Thursday/Friday meals on Wednesday.

Wish me luck!

Meal Planning

If you Google "meal planning" or look into Pinterest you'll come up with dozens of different ways to create a meal plan. From note books, to chalk boards to using your cell phone; there's something for everyone and the hardest part is figuring out which will work best for you.

For meal planning to work in your favor you need to choose a system that you'll stick to. If the cool chalkboard looks like a lot of fun but the thought of chalk going across the board gives you goose bumps...you're probably not going to get much use out of it. I do think there can be some trail and error involved, often times we don't know what will work for us until we give it a try. If you're going the white board/chalk board or bulletin board route you may want to do a mock up first and see if it's actually something you'll like using.

One thing I know I don't like using is my phone. I've downloaded more apps for meal planning, grocery shopping and list making than I care to admit...and I don't EVER follow through on using them. I do like having pen and paper, something I can hold onto, write on, mark up, something more substantial than my phone or laptop.

What I ended up with is a 3 ring binder. This certainly took some trial and error and it's still evolving but it's what I've found really works for me right now.
I bought a 3 ring binder (1 inch) and page protectors. I downloaded a calendar template from Google that just showed a weekly view. And lastly I downloaded The Ultimate Grocery List from www.grocerylists.org both of the downloads are free so all I paid for was the binder and page protectors.

To set up I just started with that first week. I went through recipes I had saved  on my lap top, looked in magazines I already had at home and Googled others that I thought sounded good. Then I got it in paper form, so if it was in my magazine I just tore out the page, if it was online I printed it out and into the page protectors they went. I just add recipes as I go. I don't have 100's saved in this book.

To start meal planning for the week, I open up the calendar I downloaded and type in the meal I want to make. You'll see in the photos that I plan, or at least have space to plan, Breakfast - Snack 1 - Lunch - Snack 2 - Dinner.
I don't always use all the spaces but I like having it available. I made this with my daughter in mind who was being watched at our home by her grandma so it helped having everything laid out.

The great thing about the calendar I use is it saves frequently added words, just like am excel document ( I think that's pretty much what it is) so as I use the same thing often it was easy to fill in the slots. Once I know what I'm making for the week I take the corresponding recipe and put them in order in the 3 ring binder. So each week my binder changes. It's incredibly easy to open up, change around the protected papers and put them in order of the week. I've also tried just tabbing them with numbers and not moving them around but it was just easier for me to open it up and move them.

The next step is going through my kitchen and making sure I have what I need for the week. I bring my grocery list, mentioned above, in the kitchen with me and start marking off what I need. With this particular list I've found it best to just highlight my list since they've already written it out. That way I can see it better when I'm going through the store. Really when I'm on top of things this list is already in my kitchen, on the fridge, and as we run out of things I highlight them on the list. Then when I need to add things for my meal planning it's a bit faster because I've most likely already added it to the list if I ran out of it. Does that make sense?

I staple or tape (depending on what's available) the grocery list to my meal plan and take them both to the store with me. That way if I forget why I needed something I have the meal plan with me and I just like keeping them together. 

Easy 1" 3 ring binder

Inside

I usually have a magazine or 2 floating around in here

Snack ideas and recipes that I haven't used yet and aren't in protectors. Saved for another day.

Some examples of past planning. You can see I write/type and move things around as needed.

Sometimes I add how long it'll take to cook or if it's a crock pot meal. I make notes if I need to do prep the day before.

This meal plan corresponds to the list below

Can you tell I had the help of a toddler?

Close up of my grocery list

That's pretty much it! Let me know if you have any questions or if anything isn't clear.