A Sample Meal Plan

Here's a sample meal plan:

After looking through the ad circular (most stores also put these online so you don't have to run and get the paper), I saw that broccoli and yummy Yukon Gold potatoes were on sale this week. Squash is in season and I like it, so I thought it would be fun to do a dish or two with that. I try to keep easy dishes to weeknights and save new or time consuming recipes for Friday or the weekend. Here's what I came up with for the week:

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: BBQ salmon, steamed broccoli, sweet potato oven fries

Wednesday: Pot roast with carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes

Thursday: Balsamic braised chicken, green beans, quinoa

Friday: Butternut squash lasagna, green salad

Weekend: Butternut squash and kielbasa foil packets (we tend to cook just once on the weekend, and munch on leftovers or go out to eat the rest of the time).

On the grocery list, I just write the ingredients that I need to purchase for these meals, plus any other items I may need, like for breakfasts, snacks, beverages etc. We like to have fresh fruit around for snacks, especially for the kids, so we choose these seasonally (i.e. what's on sale). This week, I bought apples, kiwis and bananas. I buy meat in bulk and freeze it (thank you, Costco) or I use wild caught salmon or game meat so I don't usually have to add those items to my grocery list, and the starchy items I just buy as needed in larger sizes. I try to keep a couple kinds of veggies in the freezer too so we don't have an excuse not to eat them. The same day I shop I also try and pull the meat I need for the week out of the freezer and put it in the fridge.

Tuesday night is BBQ salmon, and my favorite way to fix salmon for the grill is to brush it with BBQ sauce before and during cooking. The big winner in our house, sauce-wise, is a raspberry-chipotle sauce we buy at Costco (if you see this stuff, stock up! It's not always there. It's also good with chicken and REALLY good with baked brie). The more you like the taste of salmon, the less flavorful sauce you will want to use. If you are not really a salmon fan, you might try a stronger tasting sauce, like one you would like to use on ribs. I steam the broccoli in the rice maker. The sweet potato fries are super easy, you just slice the sweet potato into fry shapes, rub with a bit of olive oil, add some salt and pepper (they are good with some heat too, like cayenne, if you like spice), and cook in the oven at about 375 for maybe 30 minutes.

Wednesday is a convenient day to do a crock pot dinner at our house. I load the crock the night before and put it in the fridge, then in the morning pull it out and put it on low. Pot roast is easy because it's not prep-intensive. If you buy baby carrots, you don't even have to wash and chop anything but the potatoes. And it's a really good way to do game, since game meat tends to be so lean.

Thursday's braised chicken is super fast. If you haven't braised before, it's a really easy way to make really moist, flavorful chicken. And it's quick, which is nice for weeknights. For a balsamic version, I just do half balsamic vinegar and half broth for the braising liquid. I buy green beans frozen, and the quinoa can be cooked on the stove top or in the rice cooker. I like to make it with broth instead of water; it makes it much more flavorful that way.

I have two days, both weekend days, with squash. Squash is kind of a pain in the butt to prepare, so buy a big one and use it multiple days. Or buy it frozen and already cubed and save yourself some time. If you have a couple screaming kids latched onto your leg or a good game on, sometimes it's nice to not be fighting a squash peel.

The weekend foil packets are ridiculously easy, you can do them on the grill or in the oven. You are putting cubed and peeled butternut squash, sliced kielbasa (I usually buy the turkey variety, but the real stuff is obviously a much tastier option), and maybe some sliced onions if you like them in a foil square, salt and peppering them, and adding maybe a 1/4 c. of orange juice to each packet. Each packet should be a serving size, so however much your family members eat (at my house, that's about 5 pounds per person). Seal up the packet and grill or bake until the squash is tender, so start checking at about 30 minutes or so.