Meal Planning: Post 1

I love to cook...I however, do NOT like meal planning. However, meals must happen! :) Here are a few tips I employ each week (when I'm on top of things)...I have plenty of off weeks!

Last night we had a delicious dinner, that didn't look pretty (like most weeknight meals!). It was salmon cakes, baked sweet potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly squeezed orange juice, steamed broccoli. I experimented with the salmon cake recipe to see if I could omit the bread crumbs and I substituted crushed almonds/cashews. It gave extra flavor to the salmon cakes. See this post here, for the recipe (link here).

What my 7-day meal planning looks like:
2 Days of a Break for Me:

• 1 Takeout Meal
• 1 Meal Out

5 Days of Cooking:

• 2 Crockpot Meals
• 1 - 2 Casseroles + salad
• 1 "Fresh" meal

How I Prepare for the Week of Meals:

1. Online Grocery Shop/Order Process - either via Walmart Grocery Pick-Up or Kroger Clicklist (I usually place my order on Saturday for Sunday pick-up or place it Sunday for Saturday pick-up). This saves me so much time in driving, parking, getting the kids out, making it through the store...STRESS, STRESS, STRESS! You get the picture ;)
2. Prep as much as I can before the week starts, such as:
1. Wash all fresh fruit & vegetables and let it dry. It's so nice to know everything I'm putting into the refrigerator is clean and ready to go!
2. I chop/store as many of the same ingredients as I can - if I know I'll be using yellow squash in several dishes, I'll slice it, put it in the food processor, etc and store until using it that week
3. For any grains, you can go ahead and make a large batch of it and add it to dishes/reheat the night you're serving them
3. Try not to stress over a complicated meal on a weeknight - keep it simple. Let a fresh, green salad be your key side dish every night. If you vary the toppings and dressings, it will seem new each night.
4. Rotation of Favorites - I typically don't repeat the EXACT same meal more than 1x per month. I have a rotation of favorites that I do a variation on but don't do a precise repeat. I'll share more recipes through more of my meal planning posts.
5. STUFF each recipe as full with veggies as you can! My favorite go-to secret veggie is yellow squash. Due to its color and texture once cooked, it's incredibly easy to disguise in almost any dish.
6. Let your slow cooker take care of the meat! I absolutely hate cooking meat during the weeknights, it takes too long and it's too easy to ruin (if you get distracted, etc.). You can put almost any cut of meat into the crockpot and its perfectly ready by suppertime!

Rotation of Favorites, Ideas*:

• Pasta - boiled noodles, any sauce (red, white, pesto, olive oil), topped with meat or roasted veggies
• Vegetable noodles with your choice of sauce, meat and vegetables
• Chicken casseroles - chicken poppyseed, chicken spectacular, chicken soup casserole, chicken cordon bleu
• Casseroles - taco casserole, chile rellenos, rigatoni pasta bake
• Baked salmon - I like to get the large cut at Costco and it acutally can be used for 2 meals! The first, you bake or grill the whole fish fresh (portioned of course) and then save at least 1/3 to use for the next recipe, the best salmon cakes you'll ever make! 3 easy ways to prep & bake in oven: cover salmon with pesto & bake, cover salmon with apple butter & bake, cover salmon with lemon juice, salt & pepper then slice lemon slices and place on top for baking.
• Salmon cakes - of course, you can use salmon from the packets, if you are in a hurry or didn't buy fresh salmon that week.
• Lasagna - traditional, chicken or veggie
• Slow-Cooker Meat made with any variety of sauces: BBQ, rotel, balsamic blend, Italian Dressing, kahlua; over any variety of meat: pork tenderloin, turkey tenderloin, chicken breasts
• Slow-Cooker Meals: beef stew, chili (white bean with chicken or red beans with beef)
• Single Sheet Pan Meals: chicken, green beans & potatoes, paella
• One-Pot Meals: featuring pasta of your choice, vegetables of your choice, meat of your choice (optional) basil, olive oil, chicken broth, salt & pepper.

*These are the ones I can think of right now, while I have a quiet moment to type this out :) I'm sure I will remember more later, when I look through my recipe books!

Side Dish Options:

• Roasted vegetables: thinly sliced zucchini, yellow squash tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper
• Baked Sweet Potatoes
• Baked Potatoes
• Sauteed vegetables: sliced zucchini and yellow squash with diced onions
• Green beans, boiled in chicken broth
• Steamed broccoli

More to come!!! But now, it's bedtime! :)