Can we call it something else? It feels like adding a full time job to my already overloaded life to call myself a Meal Planner. And an extra full time job just adds negative connotations on top of the way I’m already feeling about the daunting, never ending but essential task of meal planning.
I’d like to call it “Life Prep,” because that’s what it really is. We all know that you can do Life without it, but if you prepare, you’re going to be able to face whatever Life throws at you, a little easier. And if you believe in the awesome power of preparation (like I do), then it begins to feel like a task worth doing. So, I’m sitting down to do some Life Prep, this early Saturday morning, and I thought I would share my thoughts with you.
What do our lives look like next week? Well, we have a family cookout tomorrow, school (the countdown in the last three weeks of the school year is brutal), work for all four of us, running, yoga, paddle boarding, gym and sailing, end-of-year sailing party (to which we are bringing food), and some work at the condo. As always, we will need three or four real, sit-down dinners, tons of grab-and-go high-octane lunch and snack food, and a great make-ahead breakfast idea that will last all four of us, all week (cause no one likes making breakfast at a morning hour that starts with an “F”).
Alright, so we’ll start with breakfast. I’m sick of English (or Portuguese) muffins with peanut butter, banana and granola. I don’t even eat them every day, and I’m sick of them. Let’s make a couple dozen egg cups this week. (Add: LOTS of spinach or kale, 2 dozen eggs, cheddar x 3 and bacon to grocery list if they are not already stocked in your fridge/freezer. You’ll use the greens and the cheese all week, so make sure you get enough for a week of lunches and recipes below.) Will make those tomorrow.
Lunch food… well, lunch food has a lot to do with what we are having for dinner the night before, so we’ll come back to that.
Dinner this week: since we are grilling tomorrow, I’ll put a few extra pieces of meat on the grill for Monday and Tuesday. I thought I would also make some grilled cheese and roasted tomato soup tomorrow, since it’s supposed to rain. Maybe we’ll do flank steak that can be sliced over greens or grains, and a couple chicken breasts that can be re-used the same way. That means marinating the meat tonight. (Add: plum tomatoes, basil, onions, chix and flank steak to grocery list. You’re already getting greens, and you have canned tomatoes, vinegar, dijon, Worcestershire, olive oil and herbs/spices for the marinade in your pantry.) That brings us to Wednesday (and the sailing party on Thursday)… I think I’ll make a huge, double-double batch of pasta salad (pasta, spinach, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts and basil) and serve half on Wednesday night for dinner (add jalapeno-chicken sausage) and bring the other half to the sailing party cookout on Thursday night. (Add: jalapeno-chicken sausage, artichoke hearts, grape tomatoes to grocery list…you already have the spinach–I told you to get a LOT–and the basil on your list, and you have the pasta and stuff for dressing the pasta salad–red wine vinegar, oregano, basil, garlic powder and olive oil–in your pantry.)
Dinner Friday night? It’s probably fair to let Friday night be an “eat the inventory” kind of night, but if there aren’t any leftovers kicking around, let’s go ahead and make pizzas. BBQ chicken with cilantro and grilled corn and a regular mozzarella, tomato, basil. (Add: pizza dough, BBQ sauce, a dozen ears of corn, cilantro, mozzarella and tomatoes to grocery list. You already have grilled chicken from the other night and cheddar cheese, some to be used for egg cups, some for grilled cheese, some for snacking, the rest for the BBQ chicken pizza.)
Now just look at all of the wonderful things we will be eating for lunch this week: roasted tomato soup, marinated, grilled steak and chicken with greens and pasta salad with chicken sausage! Maybe add an avocado or two to slice into your salads! Squeeze a lemon over your avocado-flank-steak/chicken-over-greens salad with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and you/we will be happy campers! (Add breakfast and lunch support items to grocery list: yogurt, avocado, apples, berries, cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, dried cranberries and almonds/walnuts for trail mix, seltzer. Also add Life support items: coffee, milk, lemons, fresh bread, and birdseed for the six goslings who are growing up in your backyard, if applicable.) Maybe the mood will strike me to make some granola bars this weekend, or some flaxseed muffins… if you want to have granola bars on hand but can’t wait for my runaway recipe to come out, add to grocery list for now.
And there it is: one week of hearty, healthy, no-frills, grab-and-go, easy-peazy, lemon-squeezy meals to support all that Life will ask of us this week. Now I’d better get to the grocery store while the getting is good! Have a delicious and happy week!