If you ever wonder if I try and trick my family with meal planning the answer is yes, I do. With weekly meal planning, I’m able to keep track of how many times a week we eat fish, greens, and meat. Weekly meal plan #48 and weekly meal plan #49 each included 6-days in a row of meat-free meals and we are not vegetarians. But, limiting the meat intake in our diets is good for both our health and the food budget.
The truth is, I’d love it if we gave up meat entirely, but my husband is quite the opposite. He’d like to have a grilled rib eye steak in one hand and a fried chicken drumstick in the other for dinner every single night! And, pretty much the same for our kids. That’s what I mean about tricking my family with meal planning. It wasn’t until the 5th or 6th night in a row of meat-free dinners that someone said, “Hey, when’s the last time we had meat for dinner around here?” See what I mean about tricking?
Weekly Meal Plan
I meal plan at the beginning of each week, before heading to the grocery store. Weekly meal planning saves money, reduces food waste, and keeps me from saying, “Let’s go out to eat!” If you need more reasons to meal plan every week, check HERE. Both of my kids cook dinner once-a-week and do the clean up after the meal. If you want to learn how to pull that off at your house, check HERE. If you’re looking for more meal planning ideas, check HERE.
This meal plan is from Monday, February 18, 2013 to Sunday, February, 24, 2013.
Monday: pizza (dough was in freezer) with spinach and veggies (my daughter made dinner this night)
Tuesday: whole wheat pasta with pesto (from freezer), ground pork, and green salad
Wednesday: lentils vegetarian version (from freezer)
Thursday: pinto beans, brown rice with fresh salsa
Friday: seafood stew (from freezer)
Saturday: roasted chicken (from freezer) with barbeque sauce (from freezer), quinoa and roasted cauliflower (my son made dinner this night)
Sunday: whole wheat pasta with garlic sauce and carrot sticks (kids cooked dinner and my husband and I went to a very fun Oscar party!)
What didn’t work:
- I’m trying to clean out our freezer (can you tell?) and we’ve been eating all of our freezer treats. I will not be re-freezing seafood stew with potatoes ever again. The potatoes ended up mushy and the meal sort of lost it’s oomph.
- The pasta with pesto meal was to be made without meat but when the realization hit that I had starved my carnivores, we added ground pork to the dinner.
By the way, that’s 48 and 49 weeks of eating meals cooked at home. We skip going out to dinner so that we can pay for travel instead.
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
Go Gingham related links:
Homemade pesto – that can be made and frozen
Sour cream chipotle sauce that is an excellent dip
Grilled vegetables – on the grill – great for summer
Go Gingham 
We are in freezer clean-out mode too, and like you we’ve come across a meal that just didn’t work out in the freezer. But you have to try..
I couldn’t manage to trick my raised-on-a-beef-farm husband into eating more vegetarian meals – he’d flat out revolt. One or occasionally two meals a week without meat is the limit for him. I’ll take what I can get. Like you said, it helps cut down on the food budget.
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Yes, Heidi, it’s true – every bit does help on the food budget.
I’m almost thinking about actually cleaning – or at least wiping down – my freezer since it’s so empty right now. I’ve never done it and now’s the time before the summer harvest begins.
Thanks, Heidi!
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Limiting meat intake is not only good for your body and your budget, it’s good for your planet!
http://earth911.com/news/2012/04/09/how-vegan-and-vegetarian-diets-help-the-environment/
Well done, Sara!
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So true, EFB! And yes, it is. I forget to point that out but that is the other reason we do it.
I admit that I’m looking forward to dinner tonight. It involves roasted organic chicken that was on sale at New Season’s recently. And, of course we’ll be having it in some sort of leftover way tomorrow.
Thanks, Erin!
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Since you have previously written that Week 52 will be the last of your Weekly Meal Plans, I am suggesting that you compile all, with recipes, into a printable e-cookbook. At least that way your readers could print all for use, or pick and choose which weeks they would prefer to try.
My imagination for meals ran dry this week. We had very plain meals, not worth sharing.
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Karen, great idea about the ebook. I keep wanting to put something together but never seem to get to it.
What I’m thinking I may try is to post once a month about meals we’ve eaten. That way, it’s still there. We’ll see….I have so many ideas and so little time!
Thanks for the excellent idea and I find it hard to believe that you had plain meals.
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Since my mom was diagnosed with cancer, we are in need of weekly menu plan for her. That’s the only way we make sure she eats right balanced diet with little variations everyday.
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Cristina,
I’m sorry to hear about your mom’s diagnosis. Yes, keep her eating right. That’s how meal plans can help us all stay on the right healthy track.
Thanks for leaving a comment.
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How do you cook your pinto beans and rice? I’m always trying to incorporate more meatless meals and would love to try this but have never had it before.
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Hi Sarah,
I cook them separately the first night. Today, we had them mixed together for lunch/breakfast. I have made them together before but usually I make the beans and then freeze and add them to a meal. Last night for example, we had pinto beans and leftover pulled pork (mixed together) over brown rice with fresh tomato salsa. Wow! My stomach just grumbled thinking about it.
Beans are a great non-meat meal and really fill up bellies. Good luck, Sarah! Let me know how it goes…
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