As you may know, I’m not normally a meal planner.
I like to cook by the seat of my pants and just make what speaks to me on that day. I’m the same way with my blog posts too. I rarely know what I’m blogging about until I sit down to write and I don’t often plan specific posts ahead of time. I usually just sit down and type! It feels more natural to me when I don’t force something.
…and that’s the same way I like to cook, but sometimes I need to plan meals to get out of a cooking slump. Now that I am on the road to recovery with this flu, I decided to plan out my meals this week and bid my cooking slump farewell!
Step 1: Plan The Meals:
The meals I chose:
- Enchiladas with Cilantro cream sauce & salad
- Creamy Sweet Potato Bake and biscuits
- Veggie Burgers with Moroccan spiced root vegetable fries
- Tahini Lemon Rice and beans
- WILD CARD (this can be leftovers, a meal out, or spontaneous recipe)
Don’t be fooled by this simple looking list- it actually took me over an hour to figure out what I wanted to make for the week. Also, I don’t like to specify what day I’m making each recipe! I will decide the night before most likely. :) I think the thing I love about planned dinner recipes is that you automatically have a lunch ready for you the next day!
Step 2: Make List and Grocery Shop:
After I picked out my meals for the week, I checked what ingredients I had in stock and then I went grocery shopping for the rest.
Step 3: Prep veggies and Grains
After meal planning and grocery shopping, I did prep work by slicing veggies (cucumbers, carrots, peppers) cooking grains and beans (chickpeas and brown rice), and made a fresh batch of Spring Fever Lemon Dill Hummus.
This whole process took up half the day, but I’m hoping that it will pay off with time savings throughout the week.
Keeping my May veggie goals in mind, breakfast today was a yummy Green Monster blended with 1 cup frozen kale, 1.25 cups soy milk, 1 large frozen banana, pinch or two of cinnamon, Vega Choc-o-lot protein powder, and Amazing Grass wheatgrass powder.
I topped it with almond butter, cacao nibs, and 1/2 an Endure Glo Bar. It was delish…but gave me goosebumps!
[Can you tell it is a gloomy and rainy day by the low lighting of this photo?]
Lunch today will probably be similar to yesterday’s lunch…
I had cucumbers and carrots with Spring Fever Lemon Dill Hummus, along with sprouted grain open-faced, toasted sandwiches topped with tomato paste, avocado, and pepper. I love this voluminous lunch as it takes a long time to eat.
Stay tuned for a great week of dinner recipes!
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
The tomato/avocado combo sounds AMAZING!
Your breakfasts always look so girly and cute!
Ahh, those look amazing!! I WISH I had time to eat that well! I do my meal planning almost exactly the same way – I don’t assign days and I leave a day open for leftovers or eating out or whatever. Breakfast is usually instant oatmeal and lunch is usually a vegan cup-o-soup since I’m too busy to make those meals ahead. Dinner is my one nice meal of the day. :)
I’m such a huge fan of meal planning. It saves me time, energy, money and calories.
Oh my goodness I still can’t quite bring myself out of my cooking slump! I have re introduced exercise and am hoping it will follow naturally!? It definitely doesn’t help that someone is drilling through my kitchen floor right now! :/ Your lunch looks delish btw! And if I use some store bought humous it will be simple enough for me to throw together minimal fuss involved! Many thanks for the idea! :)
Your green monster looks delicious! If that doesn’t heal you….
I just LOVE your site! I love your positive energy and attitude towards nutrition. I am in college and sometimes struggle with healthy eating (sweets, especially anything chocolate, are my vice). Please tell me where I can find the recipes from this post! I want to make em all!
Having a general idea but not truely defining which day I’l make a meal works so much better for me too. It’s awesome having a plan, but I like to play it by ear too. That lunch looks wonderful!
I’m usually a meal planner, but I have definitely been slacking lately! All of those meals sound delicious!
I don’t know how you do it, Angela. You never plan and yet, you manage to cook all those magnificient meals AND blog about them? Wow… do you have superpowers or something? I want me some of that! Me, I always have to plan AT LEAST a week in advance, sometimes even 2… Certain meals I need to get started the previous day, so I almost have to keep a schedule.
That beet salad looks absolutely fantastic by the way! Do you have the recipe somewhere on your blog?
I agree– I don’t plan meals (nor does the rest of my family). Sometimes, if I want out of a rut, I’ll write down lots of ideas or just walk into the kitchen net day and be like: “I’m getting out of a breakfast rut, I’ll make muffins for everyone instead!”. Funny– I like to have a semblance of a plan in most other things, but I’m more flexible with cooking (not necessarily eating though– gottat eat when I’m hungry– otherwise you have one cranky girl!).
VEGirl
What amazing meal choices! I try to plan but it doesn’t always work out so well:)
Wow those meals sound so amazing! I think our current cravings are incredibly in sync right now.
How long you store cooked food?
Hello,
I’m looking for meal plans(weight loss) for vegan and gluten free.
Thank you