Here’s my weekly meal plan for the week of July 15th to 21st!
Each weekend I make a meal plan for the upcoming week. This helps me to (1) stay organized, (2) stay sane, and (3) save money. I was listening to this episode of the Homemaker Chic podcast earlier today. In it, they were talking all about meal planning. At one point Shaye said that she sends out a biweekly meal plan to her subscribers. I immediately thought that that was such a great idea and decided to start doing something similar myself.
The Lost Art of Cooking from Scratch
Because so many families are so busy these days, it seems to be a rare occasion that they actually have a real meal for dinner. And by real meal I mean a meal made with real food and real ingredients. Not a frozen or prepared meal. You can check out this post from last week to get an idea of why I think eating from scratch is important. If that doesn’t convince you, don’t worry. I’ll be talking about it a lot in the future.
In defense of these families, many women have been led to believe that cooking from scratch is hard and takes too long. Not to mention that it’s expensive. They believe they don’t have the time or skills, and they certainly believe they don’t have the money for it in this economy.
But I’m here to tell you that that is not the truth. Cooking from scratch can be not only simple and quick, but also cheaper than buying pre-prepared foods from the store. I’ll talk more about this in depth in my post on Tuesday. But for now, let’s just talk about the basics and get into next week’s meal plan.
My Plans for Sharing my Weekly Meal Plans
In hopes of showing you how simple cooking from scratch can be, I’m going to start sharing my weekly meal plans on here every Friday. This will hopefully give you ideas for things to make each week. And also hopefully show you that cooking-from-scratch-recipes aren’t all that difficult or time-consuming.
Use these plans as you see fit. You can either use them to get ideas to add to your own personalized weekly meal plans. Or you can literally use these exact meals plans each week. And if you do follow the plans exactly, you can obviously switch the recipes around so they fit your schedule better.
I’m going to try to make it super easy and straight-forward for you. I’ll share the meal schedule, links to the recipes I use, how long each meal will take you, and also a complete ingredient/grocery list.
Like I said, I’ll share more about meal planning in general on Tuesday, but without further ado, let’s get into next week’s meal plan. I’m only going to share dinner recipes for each day. My snacks and breakfasts are typically a mixture of the same things every week. And I typically try to eat leftovers for lunch each day, but do still have several lunch options on hand in case I need them.
Weekly Meal Plan for July 15th to 21st
Monday:
Mediterranean Chicken Zucchini Bake w/ roasted potatoes. (Dice potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for ~40 minutes at 400* F. Start these before the chicken since they take longer so they get a head start). PREP TIME: 20 min. | COOK TIME: 40 min.
Tuesday:
Carne Asada Tacos w/ Cilantro Lime Rice. PREP TIME: 10 min. | COOK TIME: 25 min.
Wednesday:
BBQ Turkey Meatballs w/ Baked Potatoes & Sauteed Zucchini (melt 1 tbsp. of butter in a skillet & add the chopped zucchini until it’s cooked.) PREP TIME: 15 min. | COOK TIME: 60 min.
Thursday:
Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs w/ Rice & Steamed Broccoli. PREP TIME: 5 min. | COOK TIME: 15 min.
Friday:
Leftovers, take-out, or restaurant
Saturday:
Grilled steak, baked potato, and asparagus (easy enough & no recipe required!)
Sunday:
Sloppy joes (also easy enough!) & sides of choice. (We have family dinner on Sundays with our parents, so I typically supply the main dish and then everyone else brings sides).
Grocery List (adjust to the amount of servings you need for each recipe!)
– produce
- zucchini
- tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 3 limes
- cilantro bundle
- russet potatoes
- garlic (you could buy the pre-minced containers if you want)
- asparagus
– meat
- 2 lbs chicken breast
- 3 lbs flank or skirt steak
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 8 chicken thighs
- steak of choice
- ground beef
– dairy
- shredded mozzarella
- grated parmesan cheese
- butter (I always use salted)
– etc.
- olive oil (ALWAYS use in place of vegetable or canola oil. read this post for more on that!)
- honey
- chicken bone broth (I use bone broth instead of chicken stock for extra nutrients and protein)
- rice vinegar
- soy sauce
- salt & pepper
- garlic powder
- paprika
- red chili flakes
- fresh or dried oregano
- fresh or dried parsley
- small corn tortillas
- long grain white rice
- panko bread crumbs
- corn starch
- eggs
- bbq sauce
- sloppy joe sauce
- hamburger buns
I know that seems like a lot of groceries to buy. But once you get your from-scratch kitchen established, you’ll most likely have most of the “etc.” ingredients already in your pantry. I also like to buy things in bulk from Sam’s Club or Azure Standard so we have things “in stock” for a while. And we also buy beef in bulk from a local farm as well so we always have various cuts of meat on hand.
That’s all for today, folks! Hopefully this helped you in some way when it comes to your weekly meal planning. Let me know if you try any of these recipes! Check back on Tuesday for a new post from me 🙂