Meal Planning This Week

It's been a while since I've meal planned BUT that's going to change.  I always find it so easy with so much less stress.  Plus, I LOVE seeing other mamas meal plans for ideas because we tend to make the same thing every.single.month.  So hopefully this will give you all some inspiration and ideas to think outside the box from your usual go-to's!

SO, here she blows:

Give it a try and let me know how it worked out for you!

xo,

Jen

First Meal Plan of The Year

Our meal plan for the week:

It's been so long since I've meal planned.  I think it's safe to say that this is the first one of the year. Gasp!  I've totally been slacking.  But over the weekend, Jer and I were talking about how it's so much more cheaper/less stressful.  Having your meals planned out requires no thinking.  Plus, you know exactly what to get at the grocery store so there's less "extras" thrown in your basket while shopping.  I'm the queen of that.  I see something and throw it in.  Now, I can take my list for my meal plan and only get the things we will need for that week.  PLUS, I'm not rummaging through the fridge or cupboard at 4pm trying to find something in a hurry to make before the hubs gets home!  That in itself is worth it.  Ha.

I'm also going to be meal planning Navy's meals each week.  Once I do, I'll post that here, too!  We try to have him try out a new food each week so meal planning his meals makes sense.  :)

xo

Meal Plan For The Week

It's a new year which means it's the best time to start taking charge of my family's meal planning each week.  I did this a few times last year and then I got burned out/forgot/didn't have time.

Buuuut, since one of my resolutions this year is "getting healthy".....part of that means I have to be prepared.  It's so much easier for me to eat healthier when I have planned things out and I'm prepared.  This means I don't have to wonder what to make each day and end up vegging on some unhealthy food because the healthy stuff took too much time to make.

After our trip to the grocery store which you saw on instagram I came home and packaged some veggies and fruits for our week.  Many of these veggies will be used for our meals throughout the week, dinners, breakfast (omelette's) and smoothies.  Not shown, I also packaged up some pineapple, mango and cantaloupe.  

Plus, another up-side to my meal planning is saving Jer's hard earned coins.  If I have my list at the grocery store of exactly what goes into each meal then that's all I get while shopping.  No more chunking things into the basket that won't get eaten.

Anyway, here's our meal plan for this week.

Oh wait.  One more thing.  I'm starting Weight Watchers today!  I went Saturday and weighed in (and let's just say it wasn't a pretty number for this 5 footer....5ft and 3/4 actually).  So each Saturday morning I'll get my toosh up to go weigh in.  I chose Saturday because:
a) I can go first thing in the morning while the boys are asleep and before I eat anything.  I don't eat or drink anything before I weigh in each time so it gives me a more accurate number.  Oh and I make sure I pee (yeah TMI) right before I leave the house and
b) I'm pretty terrible on the weekends so I have all week to get back on track before my next weigh in.
**Each month I'll try to give an update and let you know what did and didn't work.  Plus it'll help me to review in later months.  By letting you all know, hopefully this will keep me accountable!  :)

First meal plan of 2013:

Breakfast

- waffles (dry for Boston.  peanut butter or banana for me)

- cereal

- coffee (for me, of course)

- veggie omelette's

- oatmeal
- turkey bacon

- banana

- fruit

- pancakes on Saturday
(B still eats his pancakes and waffles dry meaning no syrup. and devours about 3 huge pancakes.  as far as not introducing him to syrup...."what he doesn't know won't hurt him."  

Lunch

- grilled cheese
- rolled up deli ham
- veggie chips
- leftovers from dinner the night before
- avocado mixed w/a little bit of sour cream (B's favorite)

- frozen meal (for me)
- cheese sticks
- veggies

- fruit

- salad (for me)

- pistachios

- yogurt w/granola (Boston's favorite snack)

- smoothies

**Breakfast and lunch are typically the same each week, plus or minus a few things.  Breakfast always consists of a banana and some type of fruit.  And both will become part of my breakfast now, since they are both 0 points with WW.

Dinner
Monday 1/7 - Pot Roast/buttered bread/fruit
Tuesday 1/8 - BLT/chips/fruit
Wednesday 1/9 - leftover pot roast
Thursday 1/10 - Spaghetti/garlic bread/salad
Friday 1/11 - Fish/short grain brown rice/veggies/fruit
Saturday 1/12 - Out To Eat
Sunday 1/13 - Steak/sweet potato/salad/fruit

A few things about our diets:

* we've been horrible the past few months about eating veggies.  so I'll be adding more veggies into our dinners.  Plus making it a point to have a piece of fruit with every single meal for all of us not just B.

* we are toying with the idea of introducing peanut butter to him this year.  

  

* we still eat mostly Organic like I explained in this post back in the summer except I've changed a few things for Boston.  He eats more non-organic foods unless they are considered to be "the dirty dozen" aka the most contaminated.  Here's a list you can print out.  His snacks (cookies/goldfish/yogurt/etc) are no longer organic.

* Boston drinks only water and organic milk.  Not sure when we will be introducing him to juices.  My fear is that he'll end up preferring juice over water once he gets a taste of it.  But I have friends whose children still like water just as much so we'll see!  :)

* but with that being said, now that he's 2 he does get cookies, cake, ice cream and suckers (dum dums) on occasion.  He's definitely not deprived. Ha.  Everything in moderation.  :)

Do you guys meal plan?  Or do weight watchers?  I'd love to hear all about them.  I love getting meal planning ideas from other bloggers.  It might be just because I'm nosey and like to see what other people eat.  :)

2 week meal plan - #2

This is my 2nd time preparing a "2 week" meal plan and I L.O.V.E. it!  

It's so convenient to just pull out my journal of dinners that I have listed and see what to pull out/prepare for dinner that evening.  No thinking involved = happy momma.  

Plus, it's always nice saving some cash since I'm not throwing unnecessary items in my shopping cart.  I go strictly by my list (meal plans).  

For breakfast and lunch....we eat the same things that I listed in my first meal plan.  Those typically never change.  Except for on some Saturday's when we make some blueberry pancakes or french toast or omelettes, whatever suits our fancy that morning.   

I haven't gone outside the box with making "new" meals just yet.  I'm still on the hunt for some really good recipes.  So for the next two weeks, I'll be serving some of our favorites.  Nothing special or fancy, just stuff we like.  

If you have any referrals on good recipes to try, I'm all ears.  I'd love to try them out!  

Linking up with:

Carissa.

Our First 2 Week Meal Plan

Since I now follow about a billion awesome blogs, I have seen a few of them do meal plans for their families.  Mostly, 2 week meal plans.  Where they go through their pantries and try to make as many meals out of what they have on hand.  They complete their meal plans by jotting down breakfast-lunch-dinner meals and making a grocery list of all the ingredients they will need to make those meals.  

I was inspired.

So I tried it myself.  2 Sundays ago, I did everything above.  Here's my breakfast and lunch list of things we eat and thing to get:

Then I made a list of all of our dinners that we would be having for 2 straight weeks.

I even threw in 2 new crock pot meals (found here) that I wanted to try.  Friday, we had the Santa Fe chicken meal and it was so so.  Kinda bland.  Probably won't make that again unless I can find a good seasoning to make it more tasty.

I went through each dinner and made sure to add all the ingredients to my list that I needed for those meals.  It was pretty simple and didn't take me long at all.  Roughly 30 minutes.

I have to say the last two weeks went almost perfect.  Tuesday got messed up since Jer traveled that day and didn't get home until after dinner so I made me and Bos something that wasn't on our menu.  Then Sunday was a little wacky since my brother was here and we had lunch with my cousin.

I love it because all I have to do is pull my list out of my kitchen drawer to see what's for dinner that evening.  No thinking involved.  Thinking and me don't get along.

Jer likes it too because he's actually getting something decent for dinner every night.  Typically, I'd forget to pull something out to be thawed so that resulted in either him stopping to get us food or having us scavenge around in our pantry looking for something to make that wouldn't take forever.  Because we are usually starving by then.

Another plus to planning 2 weeks ahead, is.....it allows me to only have to go to the grocery store twice a month which means we save mula!  Instead of 4 times, once every week.  Even though I actually like grocery shopping, this will save us money because I'm less likely to throw unnecessary things in our basket.  Now.....I have a list and I'm on a mission.

Saving money = earlier retirement for Jer.  Win win.

So I give it an A+ and would suggest trying it, too.  :)