Meal Planning at my House

So, I LOVE to cook and explore new and exciting recipes - if you didn't already know. I focus mainly on providing my family with healthy, colorful (translate: healthy), flavorful, and a wide variety of meals.
{Old picture below - but it is cute!}


When I sit down to prepare our weekly (sometimes 2 week - if I am feeling ambitious) menu I do a every other vegetarian meal schedule. My husband used to bock at this when I initially implemented it into our dinner plans saying it was a slippery slope and he won't stand for us becoming Vegans no matter how much research and convincing I do. I told him that I love a well seasoned and medium-rare slab of meat just as much as he does! Not that I don't disagree with the reason for people eating vegan, I just really like meat! I also really love chocolate and I know that it can make me fat but that doesn't stop me because I LOVE CHOCOLATE (especially good dark chocolate....)

Anyway, not only do I switch off between meat meals and vegetarian meals but I also try not to eat the same type of meat in a week. Sometimes I am not completely successful but usually we eat a chicken meal once, a beef meal once, a pork meal once, and a turkey meal once. I wish we ate fish more frequently (and I do sneak it in here and there) but my family doesn't like fish all that much and for now it tends to be out of our price range.

A typical menu looks as follows: [the V stands for Vegetarian]
Monday: Chicken with Sweet Corn and Mashed Potatoes with a Green Salad
Tuesday: Spinach and Ricotta Rolled Lasagna bake [V]
Wednesday: Cafe Rio Pork Salad (knock off recipe)
Thursday: Tai Curry Veggie Rice Bowl [V]
Friday: Mini Burgers with Yam Fries and Green Salad
Saturday: Butternut Squash Risotto with Green Salad [V]
Sunday: Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti and Cream Sauce

I love this meal plan because it accomplishes all my goals in feeding my family the healthy, colorful, flavorful, and variety that I long for. It also gives me a structure to follow so I am not constantly trying to figure out what to make for up coming meals. I can almost get an entire weeks shopping done in one trip (with the exception of a few perishables that will be eaten at the end of the week.

Our family (like I am sure yours) has our favorite stand-bys which I throw into my menu plan at least twice a month. One of those favorites is a vegetarian dish - Black Beans and Rice Your Way from Epicurious.com. (See photo above - sorry for poor quality...) It has roasted yams with a delicious black bean recipe (which in a rush I sometimes just open a can and add a little salsa and heat it in the microwave.) I have made this recipe so many times I have it memorized now and it whips together in a flash! I keep my pantry stocked with the ingredients I need so if my plans go awry I can fall back on the classic beans and rice recipe. The other benefits are that all the members of my family will eat it (or most of it, C-man pretty much just picks out the beans) and it is SUPER cheap! Dried beans, rice, yams, cilantro, and limes... Hello, can you make something so healthy and delicious for dirt cheap? I submit that you cannot! It really is a pity that Americans don't eat more beans and rice (without a tortilla) like many countries throughout the world - it is so delicious and good for you. A friend of mine who lived among people native to various South American regions turned me on to the concept of eating just beans and rice! I will forever be grateful to her!

I will continue this discussion along with some of my favorite recipes, cookware, apps, and chefs/cookbooks in future posts. Until then, where do you get your favorite recipes? How does meal planning go in your house?