How I Meal Plan

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This last week, LB and I successfully meal planned for the first time in what seems like months. I am so proud of us! I have gotten a few questions about how we decide what to eat and basically the answer is Pinterest. I go to my eats and sweets board and spend about an hour with this print out and jot down what sounds good for the week and what ingredients we need. Then I plan all of the snacks. My rotating list comes mostly from the 21 Day Fix Meal Plan thing, but I don't do portion control. I just eat and eat and eat. 

The one piece of "gear" I recommend are these containers for lunches. It made parsing out food so easy!

So here are my quick and dirty snack and meal planning lists:

Snack List

  • Sliced squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes drizzled with EVOO and salt and pepp in oven at 425 for about 15-20. I take this with all of my lunches everyday to work. 
  • Grilled peaches
  • Blueberries, strawberries mango-- all pre-cut and put into little baggies for the week
  • Apples, Oranges, Whole peaches or nectarines
  • ANY OTHER VEGGIES just stir fried together with some oil and salt and pepp
  • Whole wheat bagels and almond butter
  • My vegan chocolate shakeology... been having one a day for about 6 months now and I am still obsessed. 
  • Vegan Perfect bars
  • Mint Chocolate chip vegan NUGO dark bars (THEY ARE SO SO SO GOOD)
  • Baggies of carrots and cucumbers to dip in some HUMMUS!
  • Stacy's pita chips (for dat hummus)
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Almonds
  • Dairy free, greek style coconut yogurt 

Meal Plans

The really work intensive part, obviously, is dinners. I save the more complicated recipes for the weekend, when I don't feel the pressure of early bedtimes for myself. So this last week here is what we ate:

  • Saturday: Sweet potato quinoa salad (THIS WAS SO SO SO SO SO SO good. It is going in to permanent rotation.)
  • Sunday: Grilled up a ton of salmon for dinner but also for lunches during the week as well as some extra chicken breasts. Also roasted up oodles of veggies. INSTANTLY separated veggies and chicken and salmon for lunches into the containers. 
  • Monday: This one pan, super easy, chicken with lemon and potatoes thing that I have been making for years. 
  • Tuesday: Crock Pot pulled pork and side salad with avocado and tomato
  • Wednesday: Kale, edamame, and quinoa salad (would have been filling enough on it's own, but with me back working out I also had a grilled sausage). 
  • Thursday: LEFTOVERS!!!
  • Friday: Fancy sushi dinner for our anniversary! 

When I build in leftover days or eating out days, meal planning always feels a little less restrictive. Instead, we get to look forward to Friday as an eating out night and plan accordingly!