Sometimes I don’t feel like doing our weekly meal plan. I don’t want to take the time to look at the calendar, see what our family is up to for the next week, and plan our meals and then write it all down. Whenever I think about skipping this 10-minute process, I picture what my week will look like. I know I’ll be scrambling, going to the grocery store more often, or dreaming of carry-out.
By taking a few minutes out of my morning to plan ahead, using what food we have at home, and only buying what we need, our week goes so much smoother. No, I can’t always predict all of the ever changing activities of a busy family or who might actually be home to eat dinner, but by meal planning, I do save money, time, and resources.
Weekly Meal Plan
This meal plan is from Monday, November 5, 2012 to Sunday, November 11, 2012.
Monday: chicken noodle soup (from freezer) with fresh spinach
Tuesday: pork chops, brown rice and vegetables
Wednesday: pinto bean (from freezer) and cheese burritos with salsa and chipotle sour cream sauce
Thursday: pan seared fish, quinoa, green salad
Friday: homemade mac and cheese with cabbage salad
Saturday: homemade mac and cheese (leftovers) and cabbage salad
Sunday: whole wheat pasta with myzithra cheese and carrots – for the kids – the adults had dinner group and you’ll read about that deliciousness soon!
My daughter made dinner on Thursday night. Without school the next day, she had a friend sleep-over and they made the dinner together. It was very tasty and my daughter taught her friend how to cook fish, quinoa and make salad dressing. It was fun to listen to them cooking up a storm!
My son made dinner on Friday night and Saturday. I honestly don’t remember how he got scheduled for 2-nights in a row but there must have been a good reason. I could ask him but I’d rather not alert him to this fact – in case he tries to get out of cooking this week!
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
Go Gingham related links:
More meal plan ideas are here
Sour cream chipotle sauce that is an excellent dip
Grilled vegetables – on the grill – great for summer
The tangiest, yummiest BBQ sauce ever!
Egg salad sandwiches – you’ll wish you had backyard chickens
Spicy, homemade hummus that you make from dried beans
Go Gingham 
Do you always manage to stick to the plan? Our plan is just something in my head, a loose idea to use food that I have in the fridge and freezer, but because of aging family living nearby, we will often cook something different in order to invite them over and take some cooking burden off of them (especially when they are unwell). Sometimes things get put off for more than a week.
I guess we are lucky to be able to be flexible. I’d like to be better at meal planning though.
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Heidi, I’m laughing because if you could see the sheet on our refrigerator, you’d know that we are very fluid here! I find that if I have a plan I can count on us eating a healthy meal at home but if I truly have no idea – it’s a gamble. We have to switch things up regularly but it still works.
Here are 11 reasons I do it regularly:
https://gogingham.com/2012/11/meal-plan-every-week/
Thanks, Heidi!
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I have noticed that you often use pinto beans from the freezer. I decided to try that last week. I made a big pot of pinto beans from dried, soaked overnight. With part of them I added a package of cooked at the factory turkey, pork and beef skinless sausages. I also made cornbread in the big cast-iron skillet.
Later in the week I made turkey, bean, and guacamole burritos.I seasoned the ground turkey primarily with chili powder, red chili flakes, cayenne powder, and cocoa powder. The cocoa powder wasn’t much, and mainly used for color. The inside of the beans are white when mashed up, and with the turkey being so pale I needed a little color.
Both meals were well-received, so I guess I succeeded in getting the family to eat the food I prepared.
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Way to go, Karen! Very well done. I would not have thought to add the cocoa for color so that was a good idea. I will sometimes toss in some salsa for the same reason. It can all look a little beige once the beans are mashed with turkey or chicken.
Great job, Karen. Thanks for sharing that.
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