My Weekly Meal Plan

Preparing meals at home is key for enjoying a healthier diet. It also saves money.

But it takes too much time, true or false?

FALSE.

If you take a little time to plan your meals in advance, it will actually save time in the long run. If you plan ahead you will have the foods handy that you need to make healthy, quick, easy meals that will also save you money.

Spend a few minutes considering what you would like to eat for the week. If you are nice, like I am, you will ask for input from the other folks sharing the meals. Consider if you will have leftovers, and whether some of the ingredients can be used in more than one recipe. For instance, if you are going to buy some veggies but you only need a small amount maybe you can use the rest of them in a meal the next day. Then make up a list and hit the store.

This week we are making:

• Vegetablarian stuffed peppers. I got green peppers on sale. Since they came in packs of 2, and there are three of us, we have an extra for using in other recipes. We will stuff the peppers with Norlins style rice and beans and bake with a little cheese and tomato sauce on top. There will probably be rice and beans leftover, which I will eat for lunch along with some fruit and some type of easy veggie.
• Vegetable Soup from the crock pot. We will put stock (bouillon + water) in the crock pot tomorrow morning along with carrots, celery, leftover green pepper, red pepper, red potatoes that were on the discount shelf, local cabbage, bean sprouts (cost $.16 in bulk), a few shrooms, onion, some canned, chopped tomatoes we have leftover from a previous recipe, and frozen corn. You can use fresh, frozen or canned veggies when making a simple soup like this. I don't recommend canned in general, but use what you have! And use what you like. You can put in whatever veggies you like and leave out the ones you don't. I wanted to put in some broccoli, for example, but was overruled by my sis who doesn't like it. I also could've put in some peas, but ewwwwwwwwww!
• Homemade pizza. Will will use the same sauce from the stuffed peppers and some of the same cheese. Sir Cakewalk is making enough for us each to have our own pizza so we can add whatever we want. For his, he will be adding some sopressata I got from the deli section. You can ask them for just a few slices and it won't cost very much. And it tastes so much better than packaged pepparoni. I will be adding sliced tomato, spinach leaves (from the bag that I also use for lunch salads), and olives. My sis will probably keep it simple with some spinach and green pepper. Again, you can add whatever you want and you can control the amount of sauce, cheese, etc. So much cheaper, healthier and tastier than anything you can get from a delivery guy or frozen.

That's all we have planned so far. We have been going with three solid meals a week because we know we will have leftovers and to account for possible social plans revolving around food.

I'll let ya know how they turn out!

What are you planning on making?
If you aren't planning your meals but you'd like to, what's holding you back?