What's Cooking

Every Saturday I sit down and plan out my weekly menu, make a grocery list and go grocery shopping.
Every Sunday I prep snacks and lunches for the week.

I will give you a minute to get over your jealously at how truly amazing my weekends are...

I certainly don't enjoy this routine some weekends BUT my life would go either three ways if I didn't do a little meal planning.

one. I would spend hours on pinterest searching for the perfect recipe and never actually cook anything for dinner. Stupid time sucking website that I love so much.


two. I would spend a fortune at the grocery store buying a unreasonable amount of fruits, veggies and meats that a normal person could never eat in one month let alone one week.


three. When I exit the freeway after school I pass eight fast food joints and sometimes after a long day of dealing with the minions and sitting in traffic the inviting smell of fried shit is mouth watering...
but in reality I would probably look like...


I use my trusty meal planning sheet and try and balance my weekly after school meetings with how much time I actually have to cook. My rule of thumb is to always plan to have leftovers when I know I will be staying late.


So today I thought I would share my weekly meal plan and maybe offer you a few new recipes to add to your cooking routine.

Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Skinny Orange Chicken with Brown Rice and Green Beans
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Leftovers

Snacks: Greek Yogurt with Strawberries and Granola, No Bake Energy Bites
Lunch: Turkey Meatballs with homemade Marina Sauce and whole grain pasta and veggies

And I am a sucker for pictures of food when I am planning my meal planning...


How do you do meal planning?
What are some of your go to recipes?

- The Babbling Box!

4 comments

  1. HAHA! Love those pictures ;) I agree-meal planning is the way to go or else you just end up spending wayyy to much money going out to eat! This week I prepped a ton of veggies that I got in my monthly produce box so that I can quickly stir fry them up with some chicken breast or pasta on a night I'm extremely tired. It's so convenient to have everything cut, clean, and prepped so that you can just toss them into a dish.
    Courtney
    Teaching in Paradise

    ReplyDelete
  2. In addition to chopping up all my fruit and veggies immediately, I also like to cook all the meat for the week at once, since that's the part I hate the most and takes the most time. I just divide it up into containers for each meal and add the necessary seasonings. It takes forever on Sundays but makes the rest of the week a breeze. Oh... and I would starve without my crockpot.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sitting over here dying laughing at Honey Boo Boo's mom. Oh-em-gee. They come here often to vacation. Lots of sightings of them. SO...I had to pin all those recipes. I put one of your Weekly Menus in a frame for Jerm for his birthday. He has it on the kitchen counter. I am notorious for pinning pins and sending them to him because you know I won't be making any of it. It's gotten worse lately because I want one of everything I see while eating healthy...so I pin it. Lol!

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I was working, I did the same as you. I went on Sunday to the store and bought everything I would need for the week and I had every meal planned. But I didn't make it all on Sunday. Now that I've been on maternity for nearly a year I am just beginning to meal plan again because Alina eats real food now. I have to plan her lunches and dinners around what we eat too.. Some stuff she can have, other things she can't. So it does take planning. Plus, when I'm back to work I'm really going to have to plan ahead and probably start making suppers ahead of time, so that it's really easy for me after work.
    It's really the best way to do things.. AND I had a notepad with the days of the week and the grocery list too. Those are the best.

    ReplyDelete