Meal Plan for Week 1 is Posted!

Printable Version of Meal Plan with Recipes and Grocery List

The first meal plan has been posted!!!  Are you as excited as I am?!  It took some time to figure out how best to present this information and you may see some changes over the next several weeks.  Please feel free to comment or give suggestions!  For now I’ve created a page called “Meal Plans” and there are four documents posted there under “Week 1” - the Meal Plan in table format, the Recipes (2 pages) and the Grocery List.  This way you can print just the sections that you need.   If you’re using the Grocery List you’ll probably find that many of the items are staples that you already have on hand.  I’ve highlighted in red text the items that are needed for suppers since I assume some people may not be following for breakfast/lunch.  I also decided to NOT include snacks other than fruit and veggies, so make sure to add your favorites to the list.

Week in Review -

This wasn’t really a typical week in my house – first, it’s not very often that we have not one but two parties in one week and both falling on week days.  So that was 2 days I didn’t need suppers.  Also, we only worked the second half of the week and since I didn’t know exactly what we’d be doing on our stay home days my mind set was to have a few simple recipes that could be stretched over a few days.

Sunday – this was a stormy day with hubby in the kitchen cooking his famous spaghetti and meatballs!  Does it get any better than that? 

I’m even going to go out on a limb and say this was his best batch ever – maybe because he used my new KitchenAid Mixer for the meatballs.  I’m guessing most of you have your own favorite spaghetti and meatballs recipe but for those of you who don’t I have his permission to share this one and you can find it in the recipes document.   You could also use frozen meatballs and jarred sauce – I won’t tell anyone ;-)  I’m really wishing I had taken a picture, especially since it’s the first ever recipe to be featured on this blog, but that wasn’t on my radar as I was inhaling it.

Monday & Tuesday – super easy days.  Other than breakfast we just reheated the meatballs for lunches both days.  We mixed it up a bit on Tuesday with meatball subs which were extremely tasty!  I used pear and hazelnuts as add-ins for our oatmeal.  Oatmeal is an easy one to customize with whatever you happen to have on hand.

Wednesday – the Pad Thai recipe I use is not necessarily ‘authentic’ but it’s really easy and pretty tasty too I think.  I’m trying to cut back on sugar though so this one is a rare treat.  You’ll probably find similar Tofu stirfry’s in the weeks to come but with less sugary sauces.  The coconut chicken turned out pretty well but one mistake I made was that I cut the chicken into thick strips which took so long to cook through that the coconut coating started to burn.  I would recommend cutting the chicken into thin cutlets so they are more ‘fast-fry’.  I also made a Honey-Dijon dip which is just equal parts Mayo and Sour Cream (I use Plain Yogurt if I have it), and then Dijon and Honey to taste.

Thursday – If you try one recipe this week the Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken should be it!!  First of all it’s SO easy!   I love the slowcooker recipes that I can throw together really fast in the morning, turn on low and have supper ready when I get home 9 hrs later.  The only thing I had to do was make the corn tortillas – which again are so easy.  While I was doing that Dave shredded the cheese and made the guacamole (mashed avocado, garlic, lime juice and we add a little sour cream to stretch it because we all love it so much, including Marin). 

Back to the tortillas, I first read about making them on 100 Days of Real Food and they sounded easy enough.  I really wanted to try them, mainly because I haven’t been able to find corn tortillas anywhere!  My only worry was that she cautioned that you really need a tortilla press, otherwise they can tear easily.  I tried it anyway using a cutting board for a flat surface and my cast iron pan as a flat heavy object to use as the press.  Works great!  I don’t know why I love them so much because they are actually quite tasteless on thier own, but they are so fresh and chewy and when topped with all those delicious toppings I just can’t get enough!  I found the corn flour (Maseca brand) by the Mexican food at Atlantic Superstore and I follow the recipe on the bag.  1c of flour makes 8 little tortillas which is about enough for one meal for us.  Here’s a pic of what they look like when they’re cooking.  They're done when they start to puff up a bit and get golden like the one on top.

This meal is easily one of my favorites!!  We brought everything to the table and had a little Mexican Fiesta!  Mmm,mmm,mmm!  This meal is also gluten free and if you omit the cheese and sour cream, dairy free too!

Friday – we usually call Friday ‘Convenience Food Friday’ or CFF for short.  It started out that it was going to be a chicken fingers and fries type meal, then it evolved into eating out every Friday.  I’m turning it back into a cook at home night but it will almost always be something quick and easy.   Tonight it’s maple-soy salmon – I make this one from time to time.  It’s super quick and easy so it fits the CFF criteria.  I have asparagus on the menu but I actually ended up making roasted cauliflower and carrots.  I experimented with sprinkling some Nutritional Yeast Flakes on them thinking it would get Marin to eat the cauliflower... it didn't, but I enjoyed it!

Happy cooking everyone!  

Sandra