Meal Planning & Desserts

Now that things have begun to slow down at school as we move toward the end of the year, and my personal life seems to be leveling off from the recent roller coaster that it has been on, I figured now is as good a time as any to get back to this blog.

When I thought about what to write for my "come back", I knew that I could post about what I have been cooking/baking (and I will be doing that, no worries), but I also thought that I would try to start something that I could make a little more regular: meal planning.

Since 2015 started, I have been meal planning each week. Now this may not be as "hard core" as some meal planning, but I sit down on Saturday or Sunday morning, and I plan out all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for the whole week. I try to account for eating the leftovers as well, so that we have less waste. Then once I have all the meals planned out, I put together a huge list and go to the store. I think I may have written about this process before, but what I want to try and do now is give you guys my weekly meal plans (and recipes). I have had a few friends that have asked me to share, so I figured I would share with you as well!

April 26th - May 2nd (I plan Sunday to Saturday)

So each week this gets printed out and hung on my refrigerator. It keeps me on track and honest, and it also prevents a lot of frivolous spending throughout the week.

I get the majority of my recipes and ideas from Pinterest, so feel free to follow my boards (here). I will warn you that I am in the process of reorganizing my recipes so that they are easier to get to. I used to pin all recipes to my "Food" board. Well this was fine until I realized that I had over 700 recipes pinned, and no sort of organization. So I am not working on breaking them down into a better system.

Here are direct links for the recipes for this week's dinners:
Port Tenderloin w/Sweet Potato Fries
Meatballs (for Ziti & Meatballs)
Quinoa w/Black Beans - for the grilled chicken I just season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook them on my George Foreman grill.
Hamburger Recipe (also cooked on the George Foreman) - I make these regular sized, it is really just the seasoning combination that I use from this recipe.

I wish I could share the Greenwood Chicken BBQ with everyone, but it is a local treat and they keep the recipes very close to the vest.

As you can see, other than dinner, we really keep it simple. Eric likes eating the same meal every day for lunch, and breakfast is just quick and easy (we aren't super human, and we don't drink coffee).


As far as the shopping list, some weeks are smaller than others. Since I have begun this meal planning journey I have really developed a solid pantry with most of the staples that I need on a regular basis. My spices cabinet has also begun to overflow, and so at this point, I am pretty well established for the majority of the recipes that I find. Occasionally I will have to do a larger shopping trip (especially when the staples run low), but I typically try to spend between $40-$60 a week. I know this is high for just two people, but I do my best to budget as best as possible. Eric and I like to have nice dinners, and so we are ok with spending a little more than we maybe should.

Now, I do not have many pictures of dinners that I have made recently, but this past week I did quite a bit of baking (thank you Pinterest) and so I wanted to share the two sweet treats that I made!

First I made coconut cupcakes. Now I am not a huge fan of the Barefoot Contessa, but these turned out AMAZING. 

 

I did make a mistake with the frosting, that actually ended up working to my benefit. I was doing about a million other things while making these cupcakes, and when I went to make the frosting, I completely forgot to add the powdered sugar! I was extremely upset at first because I thought that I had ruined them. However, the sweetness from the cupcake, and the sweetness from the coconut on top made it so that the tartness of the frosting without the sugar was actually a good balance! If I were to make these cupcakes again, I would likely add the powdered sugar, but it is something for you to try out if you are super into sweetness.

My second baking adventure for the week was strawberry shortcake cupcakes from Sally's Baking Addiction.

  

The homemade strawberry whipped cream was to die for. I really think that I will make the whipped cream again anytime I need whipped cream for something (as long as it goes with strawberries of course). These were the perfect amount of sweetness and were light enough that you could enjoy them without feeling stuffed.

I will try to come back next week with a new meal plan, and new cooking/baking adventures.

Leave me a comment if you try any of the recipes, and let me know how they worked for you!

Happy cooking!

~C