The Leen

Here we go, week one of my meal plan. My hope is that I can get it posted by Friday so that you can print it and shop over the weekend, with the meal plan starting on Sunday evening.

Some notes, first, before I get started. First, this plan will pertain to dinner only. In general, we eat simple things for breakfast: yogurt, toast, granola, or, if Brett’s feeling fancy on the weekend, he’ll make some eggs or waffles or something. Same goes for lunch; we generally eat a lot of leftovers, although I try to keep a few boxes of Annie’s Mac stocked in my cupboard for Elanor and me to share if we don’t have leftovers. I rarely make something special for lunch; the fanciest I get is something like a baked potato or some roasted winter squash or something.

My general approach to meal planning is that I have a few staple meals or convenience items that are easy and don’t really have a recipe. I try to have the ingredients for at least one of these on hand at all times, and usually plan at least one easy meal a week. These are things like pasta with red sauce, burritos, frozen pizzas, and Annie’s Mac, essentially they are very simple things that require little to no effort to cook if we’re tired or it’s late and we don’t want to follow the meal plan. While each of those meals can be made more special or fancy, something I hope to highlight in future posts, at the basic level they are quick and simple and don’t require a lot of cleanup.

I also try to include a new recipe every week or two. I love sitting down on a weekend with my cookbooks and reading them to get ideas. I try to mark recipes that I’m interested in with a sticky note, or, if I’m looking at recipes online, I bookmark things that look good to a folder in my bookmarks called, well, recipes. I find that if I go through those recipes every couple of weeks, I can usually find some really good things. True, some are duds, but more often than not, I find really tasty things that get added to the regular rotation.

One more note before I dive in: I’ve had a bit of a conundrum with how to organize the meal pan and shopping list, so if you have a preference or would prefer something different, let me know. I’m open to suggestion. As it stands now, I’ll do this: I’m going to list out the recipes, including a link to a PDF of each one that you can print. I’ll then include a PDF of a shopping list for the week’s meals. This will NOT be broken down by meal, and it’s a complete list for all meals for the week, so if you are going to be selective about which meals to make, you’ll have to keep that in mind as you shop and as you view the amounts of things.

For example, if three recipes call for onion, I’ll just list Onions, 3, in the list. So if you know you aren’t going to make one of those, just note that you only need two onions. (Sorry if I’m overexplaining this…it’s been kind of a lot to wrap my head around as I’ve tried to figure out how to organize it. Call it Mommy Brain, I guess.)

So, without further ado, here is the meal plan, week one.

• Sunday: Burritos
• Monday: Channa Masala
• Tuesday: Ginger-Roasted Veggies, Fresh Herb Dinner Rolls, Salad
• Wednesday: Black Bean Soup & Cornbread
• Thursday: Potato Soup and Whole Wheat Beer Bread
• Friday: Sundried Tomato Risotto
• Saturday: Waffles, Hash Browns

Here’s the shopping list: Shopping List, Week 1.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments. I hope you enjoy it!