I try to meal plan for the coming week, so that I can make my grocery list and have a plan. Frankly, as the type-A person I am, the plan helps me keep my anxiety in check. I tend to plan meals Friday – Thursday and try to grocery shop either Thursday night or Friday afternoon. This allows me to plan my weekend without just completely throwing caution to the wind (or, if it’s a particularly stressful week, we know to plan takeout/delivery and push things back a bit).

Being sick, I’ve not started planning great breakfasts yet but that will come later in the month. Breakfast and lunch are the first things to always fall off when I’m busy but I’m consistent about planning healthy, vegetable-filled dinners.

This week, we are having the following:

Friday — buffalo chicken salads with fries.
I know, I know — this doesn’t SOUND healthy but my husband makes the buffalo chicken with tapioca flour and we bake potato fries for a healthy carb. The rest of the salad is loaded with vegetables and we like to toss a boiled egg or two on it as well! The kids LOVE these salads, which is also great!

Saturday — Chrissy Teigan’s mac & cheese.
I’ve read the ingredients. There is nothing healthy about this. We will have a healthy side of beets to add to it! It’s great to splurge and this is definitely going to be a rich meal!

Sunday — fried pickles; buffalo chicken balls; carrot sticks; shrimp quesadillas
We LOVE making football food for game-day but we don’t like feeling sluggish, so we use a few tricks to keep things lighter. The fried pickles are made in the air fryer with simply an egg wash and crushed kettle chips — simple ingredients; nothing wild. We like to make a big batch of chicken in the crockpot on some Sundays and use the meat for meals/lunches through the week. It makes things so much easier! For the buffalo chicken balls, we will use chicken, a little mayo to bind, and roll in chips. The chips serve the purpose of our carbs and the kettle brand only use potatoes, oil, and salt. Our quesadillas are made largely with goat cheese, shrimp, mole sauce, and GF tortillas (made with tapioca flour). This allows us to enjoy the typical ‘bar food’ at home with ingredients we can pronounce. We are throwing in some floats as a surprise to the kids!

Monday — slow cooker turkey, vegetables & potatoes
It’s easy and warm.

Tuesday — chicken sausage, peppers, and roasted potatoes
This is one of those ‘sheet pan meals’ that make meal prep easy and largely mess free. I don’t handle raw meat, so my husband will have to chop the sausage in the morning and I’ll throw it all in the oven when he and the kids are heading home for the day.

Wednesday — unstuffed cabbage & mashed potatoes
As you’ve probably gathered, we love carbs. I will buy a big bag of potatoes and use them for a few recipes through the week. We make our mashed potatoes with almond milk, a little grass-fed butter (room temperature), and then add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parsley. My love of cabbage runs deep and this is a great slow-cooker recipe for a cold day!

Thursday — date night
We try to have weekly date nights but the holidays and illness kept us from having one for the last few weeks. When we have date nights, the kids get a special treat too — sometimes, a pizza or homemade pepperoni/spinach rolls — this week, I think I’m going to make them homemade ramen with spinach, boiled egg, and thin beef! What a special treat!

What are your favorite meals to make during the week?

Next week, I will try to add breakfasts — this week’s breakfasts are oatmeal and boiled eggs. I try to make the kids egg sandwiches or something more substantial for breakfast but we also have cereal bars and belvita crackers on hand for the days where that doesn’t happen as easily.