We are back!
After 9.5 hours in the car, 3 coffee stops, and pouring rain and wind we made it safely.
I am exhausted. I need sleep and have a lot of work to catch up on not to mention our house looks like our cats decided to have a big party while we were gone.
Oh, and my cats decided to take advantage of the food I left out for them (I usually feed them 2x per day) and completely gorged themselves. Needless to say they are going on a diet now that momma is home! They are not pleased.
I need to get back on track with my eating too. I have done the best I could while traveling, but I am in need of some good home cooked meals and less eating out! I am so excited to get some normalcy back in my life for a little while.
I honestly never thought I would say that I am sick of eating out, but I am!
I am in the process of doing my first round of meal planning.
I have to keep a couple things in mind when planning our meals for the week:
1. Healthy/Clean Recipes
2. Budget friendly recipes
3. Husband friendly recipes (he tends to be a pretty bland eater)
Balancing out meals when one of us is recovering from an injury and the other is running over 100 miles a week is definitely something I have to keep in mind.
Of course I can practice portion control, but there are certain things that Wes needs for his high training that I just don’t.
I have divided my meal planning into 4 sections:
1. Dinners (3) – I am assuming the other nights we will eat leftovers.
2. Side Dishes (2-3)
3. Healthy Snack (1)
4. “Treat” Snack (1)
I am starting out slow to get the hang of it and then once I get better I can expand my horizons.
All my main dinners need to contain a protein and healthy carb.
The healthy snack will consist of something sweet that is healthy and can be used to combat sweet cravings.
I know my husband is a big sweets man so by cooking 1 not-so-healthy treat per week it will limit it some, but still allow him to enjoy his favorite things!
After I have the meals picked out I list everything I need to buy at the store and make sure to go to the store and shop on Sunday night so that I have everything ready to go.
My favorite meal planning resource websites so far:
Pinterest (duh!)
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Pinterest is one of my favorite websites to use to find new recipes. It takes some time and can become very addicting, but you can find some awesome and easy meals.
ZipList
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I actually just came across this site recently. You can store recipes, create grocery list, find local grocery coupons and deals, and meal plan for the week all in one place! This is a great way to keep myself organized.
You can also store recipes directly from your favorite blogs to reference later.
My first week of meal planning is planned and ready to go – let’s see how it works! I will check back with you all later in the week and let you know how it goes!
Do you meal plan? What are some of your tips?
With two teen boys … you can bet we meal plan! Planning a menu and making a shopping list before going shopping is critical for us in terms of making sure we have stuff on-hand and also maintaining a budget!
We had read stuff that ‘careless’ shopping leads to multiple extra trips, which in turn is a budget buster. Yet at the same time keeping flexibility in the plan is a key.
Yesterday Lisa and the boys ended up with later lunches (Lisa was working and boys doing homework just lost track of time while I was running errands). As a result the nice big roasted whole chicken I cooked was 90% sent to leftovers … making this week suddenly easier!
Balancing across different people is always a challenge – with me running 50-60 miles, Lisa with her injured ankle, and two boys with very different eating habits … whew, exhausting!
Thought of you as the emergency alert on the TV notified about the Buffalo area including Erie County for severe thunderstorms. Out our way we just heavy winds … which was quite enough!
I can imagine it is even more difficult at your house balancing out the meals! I have never tried meal planning but like you said I can see we end up spending more than we should and with meal planning I think it will avoid this and safe us money!
Yes we had some CRAZY winds last night and are still here! We always have wind though so nothing too out of the ordinary but it made unpacking the car quite challenging 🙂
Oh I totally hear you on being sick of eating out! Glad you did the best you could do, though – that’s amazing! I try to meal plan when I can, but sometimes my schedule doesn’t allow it. It feels SO good when you can get in some nice food prep to start the week off right, though! Let us know what you’re cooking and if you find any “keepers”!
Good point Megan – because there are some foods that are even better when they have a chance to sit … and others that most certainly are not! 🙂
Will do Megan! yes I am thankful to be able to cook at home again even though I’d much rather be in NC sometimes it is nice to have things back to normal! 🙂
I plan meals for roughly 3 nights a week….with church on Wednesday nights and one night of meetings for hubby we usually have 2 nights of “winging” it (by that I mean E.A.S.Y) cereal, eggs, man N cheese, or simply pb&j….the other planned meals usually involve meat, veggies, and sitting down family style.
😉
Yes I am only planning 3 meals because with only two of us in the house usually the other nights we will make something easy like you mentioned OR we will have so many leftovers we just eat it again!
I have a whole spreadsheet that I use for meal planning. I’ve got a tabs for: a pantry checklist – things that I like to have on hand all the time, a list of dinner, side dishes, and snack ideas, and for creating the actual grocery list! Once I got it set up, it has made menu planning so much easier!
Wow! That sounds like something I need to do! Though I have to say it does seems a little bit overwhelming at first 🙂
Meal planning is definitely a must in our household! It keeps us on track of healthy eating and is easier on the budget too 🙂
Yes the budget aspect is very big in our household too! Healthy eating is much easier if planned ahead of time! Keeps me from snacking on junk all the time!
I like to have a few “go to” meals that make it easier when planning for the week. If I’m keeping a recipe simple, I try to include a lean protein, like chicken or fish, with a veggie and starch like brown rice or sweet potatoes.
Yes I have a few go to meals as well and I am hoping this will expand my horizons on those!
Oh my goodness!! I LOVE your handwriting!! It is absolutely perfect.
I do not meal plan perse, but I always have chicken prepared so that all I need to do is add lots of veggies. But it is so much easier just cooking for one. When you have to think of other people it gets a little more tricky. Like I am perfectly happy having chicken every night, but most people like a little more variety than that!!
I am pretty happy with Chicken every night too but I am trying to find other options! 🙂 I have never meal planned before so we will see how this goes!
Thank you 🙂
I’ve recently started meal planning too and it really helped cut down on the amount of money and time I was spending at the grocery store! Good luck with your first week!
I am hoping that happens with me as well! Any way we can save some money will be GREAT! 🙂
I can’t wait to see how this goes. I’m an awful cook..wait, let me rephrase, i don’t like to cook. My fiancé is amazing at it, so i don’t even want to bother. BUT i do want to learn how to bake and bake healthier options!
I am trying to learn to become a better cook! I am definitely not the greatest but I am trying to improve – hopefully this will help!
I’m definitely going to have to check out ziplist! That sounds super helpful! I always meal plan and batch cook on Sundays for the entire week (I live alone so I eat leftovers pretty much the entire week) otherwise I will be completely lost. I work full time, workout everyday, and try to go to sleep early so I can get in my 8 hours – there just never seems to be enough time in the day to cook a meal every single night!
I need to do more batch cooking! It seems like it really helps and saves so much time! The weeks can get so hectic! Ziplist is an awesome site! I just found it and have already found so much use from it!
How perfect is your handwriting?!
Thank you 🙂
I go back and forth with meal planning. I definitely buy at least enough for three solid dinners a week (and then all bfast and lunch stuff), but we kind of wing it a few nights/week too. Definitely makes life easier though!!!
Yes it does! I have done OK with it this week. We have some unexpected stressors so it hasn’t gone as easy as planned, but it has helped!