Monday Meal Planning

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you're all well-recovered from your weekends and resting comfortably in your office chairs. Hey, we can all dream. Realistically, I just hope you haven't fallen asleep or bashed the coffee pot over your co-worker's head yet. Oh, Monday.

I am recovering from a weekend of bachelorette fun with my family and girlfriends - it's safe to say that we celebrated in style, but I'll save you the details. The short story is that we started a conga line around a tiki bar and made out-of-this-world blueberry pomegranate margaritas. That's all you really need to know.

But since it's Monday and weekends away can't last forever, I figured what better way to get myself back on track than to give you my weekly rundown? I had to make this week's grocery list after I got home yesterday afternoon, and after a weekend of carb-indulgence, I wasn't ready to go back to my low-carb reality. Some of you found last week's post on meal planning helpful, and since I managed to sneak out of the grocery store again having only spent $62, I figured I'd share this week's menu. I will admit, this week is a little light since Rob won't be around next weekend, but we still bought enough for five meals at home. In addition, one of this week's meals is a semi-leftover from last week. We ended up not eating our spicy sausage pasta and Rob used half the ingredients for other things (I call this "man cooking," when he "creates" new things while I'm away). Instead, we went out to dinner with friends (see, this is why meal planning every night of the week is always a huge fail). Even though I had to pick up more of those ingredients he ate, it did help to have some of the stuff at home already.

Sunday

Dinner: Chili cheese dogs with macaroni and cheese (I told you I wasn't ready to go back to healthy yet)

Monday

Lunch: leftover hot dog, small salad from grocery store salad bar

Dinner: Garlic & herb chicken, corn on the cob, roasted asparagus

Tuesday

Lunch: leftover chicken and corn/asparagus

Dinner: BLT wraps with avocado, roasted zucchini and yellow squash

Wednesday

Lunch: leftover BLT's - I usually make it a BLT "salad"

Dinner: Breakfast for dinner (eggs, hash browns, rest of bacon from BLT night)

Thursday

Lunch: TBD (if I'm bacon'd out, which is almost impossible, I'll grab a salad from the salad bar)

Dinner: Emily Bites spicy sausage pasta (re-do from last week)

Friday

Lunch: TBD

Dinner: leftover spicy sausage pasta

This week's breakfasts: Southwestern scramble in a mug, oatmeal

This means that this week's grocery list looks as follows:

Produce:

1 package sweet corn

1 bundle asparagus

1 melon (fruit for the week)

1 avocado

1 tomato

1 iceberg lettuce head

2 zucchini

1 yellow squash

Dairy:

1 small block pepperjack cheese

1 1/2 dozen package eggs

1 small block sharp cheddar (for chili cheese dogs, duh)

2 containers Southwestern Egg Beaters

1 package Laughing Cow Queso Cheese

1 package fresh shredded hashbrowns

Meat:

1 package chicken tenders

1 package hot dogs

1 package chipotle chicken sausage

1 pound bacon

Aisles:

1 can Rotel

1 package Applegate chicken sausages

1 box macaroni and cheese (don't judge me)

hot dog buns

Misc:

1 bowl of chili for chili dog night from the hot bar

Things I already had at home: Land O'Lakes Saute Express cubes, low sodium chicken broth, 1 box high fiber pasta, green onions, and high fiber wraps for BLT's. 

Since I wrote about my meal planning last week, I found myself paying more attention when I do my lists. Here are some things I'm noticing that I LOVE, and a few that I wish I did better. 

- Using one meat more than once during the week helps tremendously with my grocery bill. The one pound of bacon I bought this week will be used for at least two dinners, if not more during lunch. 

- I highly recommend going meatless one night to help save money. Rob refuses, but if I were on my own, I'd take advantage of at least one meatless opportunity to save some cash.

- This may be bad, but I visit the salad bar at the grocery store sometimes instead of buying salad stuff in bulk. I get salad'd out SUPER easily, and can't really predict when I'll want one and when I'll be totally over them. Sometimes, I buy bags of lettuce or fresh heads of romaine, only to have it go bad - and same with several of the goodies I like in my salad. Instead, I'll pass on all the stuff up front, but swing by Kroger when I want a salad at lunch. Mine have never cost me more than $3 (I get the small size), and honestly, the price works out about the same as if you were to buy all those salad goodies every week. 

- This week's purchase of hot dogs, buns and boxed macaroni and cheese made me harshly aware of how much cheaper it can be to eat processed foods sometimes. I'm a big believer that healthy eating can be inexpensive, but knowing that one package of hot dogs and one package of buns could theoretically give us dinners for an entire week makes it easy to understand how people can be swayed to make unhealthy choices more frequently. 

- Boxed macaroni and cheese, regardless of who makes it, is delicious. And disgusting. All at the same time.

- Take inventory of what you've got before you go shopping. Go through your fridge and your pantry before heading out - or, if you're me, make your fiance do it while you sit on the couch and "menu plan." Don't buy doubles, and if you've got some produce leftover from last week that you know won't last another full week, plan a recipe within the next couple of days to utilize it instead of throwing it out. 

I think I'll post weekly menus for you guys on Mondays. It helps hold me accountable for what I'm eating, and it forces me to plan well so I can share with you my plans without snipping a single coupon. 

Happy Monday, and happy eating, friends!