It’s week two of the meal planning challenge, and one issue I had with my meal plan last week was that there were several days where, for one reason or another, I didn’t make the dinner meal that was on the schedule. The reason this is a problem, is that with meal planning I am actually prepared ahead of time with things like thawing meat and buying produce from the farmer’s market. But then when you don’t make the meal, you can ending up wasting that food if you don’t use it soon enough. How do you make sure that your food doesn’t get wasted when you don’t follow your plan?
You’ll see I have several meals leftover from last weeks menu, I guess that is one nice thing about meal planning though, if you don’t make a meal the week before, you can move it to your new meal plan and you already know you have everything on hand to make it.
Here’s my menu plan for this week:
Monday
- Breakfast – Pumpkin Pancakes (the ones I made from Kitchen Stewardship didn’t go over so well last week, so I’m trying another recipe, still hoping to get some veggies into my kids for breakfast!)
- Lunch – Sloppy Joe leftovers
- Dinner – Steak Stir-Fry, Rice
To do: Make zucchini muffins
Tuesday
- Breakfast – zucchini muffins & fruit
- Lunch – PB & Banana Wraps
- Dinner – Crockpot Indian Chicken Curry
Wednesday
- Breakfast – Green Smoothies, Eggs
- Lunch – PB&J, Fruit
- Dinner – Home Group – Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken & Rice, Lentil Soup
Thursday
- Breakfast – Oatmeal & blueberries
- Lunch – Egg Quesadillas
- Dinner – Mashed Potato Veggie Enchiladas from Veggie Delights Recipes
Friday
- Breakfast – Eggs & Fruit
- Lunch – Creamy Veggie Wraps
- Dinner – Skillet Chicken Chili Mac
Saturday
- Breakfast – Yogurt & Fruit
- Lunch – PB&J, Fruit
- Dinner – Grilled Pizza Sandwiches
Sunday
- Breakfast – Oatmeal & blueberries
- Lunch – Ground Beef Vegetable Soup in crock pot
- Dinner – Leftovers/Easy Dinner
Snacks: fruit, air-popped popcorn with salt & butter, yogurt & fruit, hummus and veggies
Head over to Keeper of the Home for more Plan It-Don’t Panic meal plans!
What’s on your menu plan this week?
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I’ve been having the same problem with food going bad if it doesn’t get eaten. My husband has been working late almost every night for a couple of months now, so without him here, I don’t cook much. I’ve learned that if he’s going to be gone I need to stop meal planning and just try to make things that are easy and healthy (green smoothies, wraps, etc.) and that the kids will eat. He’s finally done with all of his projects now, so its back to meal planning this week. I’ve missed it!
THANK YOU for the amazing Crockpot Curry recipe, I will be trying that out next week. I LOVE my crockpot and just made the cream cheese chicken last week and it was delicious! Here is what’s on my menu for this week! http://www.oboyorganic.com/blog/week-2-meal-planning-challenge
Wow. You really plan your meals out well. I never do that, but you gave me inspiration that if I try maybe i can eat healthier and save money.
Mmmm…pumpkin pancakes! I might have to steal this recipe. It’s hard for me to stick to my family’s meal plan too. I HATE throwing out food that was perfectly good just a few days ago.
I gave you a fun award on my blog today! Of course, you’re under no obligation to participate. I just want my readers to know how great your blog is. 🙂
When we don’t cook a planned meal, I try to convert the ingredients ASAP into some form that will last long enough to be eaten. With fresh veggies or fruits, this usually means freezing or cooking. With thawed ingredients, transferring to an airtight container until incorporating them into the next possible meal works pretty well. Sometimes I’ll stay up late to bake something (you can substitute just about any pureed beans, fruits, or vegetables for the liquid in cornbread, with appropriate seasoning; see this recipe) which can then be frozen if we’re not going to eat it right away, or can be served at church coffee hour. 🙂
Since there are only 3 people in my family, most of our meals produce leftovers, so all my menu plans list “leftovers” at least one night a week. We eat them for lunches, too.
Mashed Potato Veggie Enchiladas sound fantastic! We love enchiladas and I think this would be a great way of meeting our goals to cut back on meat. Yay!
Looks like a great menu! Do you mind saying what didn’t turn out w/ the KS pancakes? I’ve been wanting to make them, but I am hesitant because I am going to have to find a way to sub the eggs. The recipe you posted looks great, but my daughter is GF/egg free, so it wouldn’t work.
I am really bad about letting produce go bad. I’m working on it, too!!
@Erin, It wasn’t that they didn’t turn out, it’s just that my daughter didn’t care for them. My son and I liked them though, they weren’t quite like regular pancakes but with a drizzle of maple syrup they were yummy. My daughter is just picky and won’t eat a lot of stuff that I make, but she’s the one going to school and needs to eat before she goes, so I need to make sure that I’m making stuff that she will actually eat!
Subbing eggs is a hard one, I think I’ve heard you can use flax seed? There are a lot of eggs in the KS recipe so that might be difficult to do. Hope you find a recipe that works for you!
I need to get on track with my menu plan but we moved, then kinda) unpacked, and now we are in AZ for 2 weeks… sooo once things settle down around here I plan on getting back to menu planning! You whole menu sounds so awesome! Want to make some pumpkin pancakes.