Meal Planning Mondays
Do you meal plan? Not meal prep per say, but meal plan? I just started at the beginning of the year and it’s been a game changer for us on several fronts.
First, we’re eating better than ever. Food we enjoy, all made from scratch, and healthy-ish. I say healthy-ish because we aren’t trying ton eat Paleo, Keto, Whole30, or any other food diet out there, we’re just trying to eat organic, mostly home made food.
Second, we have so much less food waste. By planning out our meals each week, I’m only buying food what we will use. In the past, I would go to the market with a few ideas in mind of what I wanted to make and then I would buy all this other random stuff that I “might” make something with. Almost always, that would lead to waste - or better yet, food for our dogs.
Third, I now look forward to making dinner and don’t think of it as a chore because I have a plan.
And Finally, we have leftovers for lunch everyday! Which solves the what am I going to pack for lunch dilemma.
Every Monday I sit down and make a list of the meals I want to make. I have a few cookbooks that are my go to for this: Half Baked Harvest, Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, The Sprouted Kitchen, The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon, and It’s All Good. Lately I’ve been making mostly meals from Half Baked Harvest. She has this incredible ability create easy recipes that layer on the flavor. I haven’t made a recipe of hers that isn’t amazing (as you’ve seen on my IG if you’ve been following along).
image from Kartotek
When I’m planning out my week of meals, I love to use my Weekly Planner Pad that I got at The Foundry Home Goods. This way I can write lunches and dinners and account for the left overs. With it being just the two of us, most meals I make have enough for us to take to lunch at least one day, maybe two. I can also account for when one of us has plans or we will be going out. I use the tasks area at the bottom to list out all the food I’ll need to pick up at the market.
There you have it. How I meal plan each week. What are some of your favorite cookbooks or blogs for recipes? I’m always on the hunt for more!