Meal Planning
I’m often asked by coworkers at lunch time how I find the time to cook every night or how I come up with the different things I make. To be completely honest, it all started with Pinterest for me. I loved trying new recipes and am fortunate being married to a husband that likes to try as many different types of food as I do. Cooking every night of the week can sound daunting, but when you plan it out on Sunday and do all of your shopping on that day, it really isn’t all that bad. Granted, we do not have children that are involved in everything from sports to dance, etc., but I feel that even busy moms out there can benefit from some planning ideas!
First of all, I like to have certain nights set aside for particular types of meals or at least have different types of meals to have each week. For instance, I try and have one night of the week be a salad night. I like to make a salad that is filling enough to be a main course. This chopped salad https://fitasafoodie.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1220&action=edit is an easy staple that comes up in our weekly lineup often or you could make a nice grilled chicken and strawberry salad during the summer months like the one below.
Another night of the week we like to do some sort of tacos or anything Mexican like these quinoa and black bean tacos https://fitasafoodie.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2102&action=edit or something like I will be making tonight with our leftover roast chicken. This is a simple Chicken Burrito Bowl that you can make with ingredients you probably already have at home.
We like to make one of our nights be a vegetarian night. This could be something like this Roasted Veggie Pasta Salad that’s filling enough to be served on its own.
Or maybe some Beyond Meat Burgers and these Zucchini and Sweet Potato Fritters https://fitasafoodie.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2006&action=edit
So there are three of your weeknight ideas. The fourth kind of depends on what time of year it is. If it is during the warmer months, then we may do another type of salad night or more likely, something on the grill. We love to do different types of Turkey Burgers with some sort of salad for a side.
If it is during the cooler months then we would probably do some sort of pasta night or soup/stew night. It’s entirely up to you!
Of course, our traditional Friday night meal is PIZZA and who doesn’t love a good Friday night pizza meal? As you have seen we like to make our own pizza, but you could choose to do take out or delivery. We love the process of making our own and make it fun coming up with different types of toppings. We have a traditional staple pizza of red sauce, italian turkey sausage, roasted red pepper, sauteed onion and some arugula or we also like to venture out like this one below!
Once we’ve made it through Friday we just kind of go with the flow. We sometimes save Saturday to go out somewhere or maybe choose to make a special meal at home. Sundays we like to either choose something to go in the crock pot all day or make something together that may be more of a process that we wouldn’t want to do during the week. The biggest thing is to plan ahead, make your grocery list and head to the store before the busy week starts so you are ready for the craziness you may have in store for the week. Hopefully just a bit of this helps you the next time you are struggling to think of some meals to put together for the week. If this has given you some ideas, or you have some for me, please leave me a comment below! Happy meal prepping!
