Meal Planning

**A few people requested this info - do not read if you do not care about meal planning!!!!**

I am an avid meal planner.  I fell of the meal planning wagon before Christmas, and then we were away  for two weeks, but now I am back in business.

The trick for me and meal planning is to plan one week at a time but to have a lot of built in flexibility.  And - I try to make big batches of things so that I can freeze meals to incorporate into future weeks when we might be strapped for time.

This all sounds so very, very nerdy (even to me!), but it does a few things for us: we save a lot of $$ on groceries because I only go to the grocery store once a week, we eat healthy and nutritious meals, we do not waste food and I don't spend a lot of time in the evenings figuring out what to eat.  Wins all around.

Here is the meal plan I made for this week (this week randomly started on Wednesday):

Wednesday - homemade thai turkey burgers (I made turkey meatballs for the kids) w/ whole wheat buns and a big veggie tray plus some fries for Loic.

Thursday - homemade beef, tomato and veggie pasta sauce (I froze two portions for future meals)

Friday - delicious beef short ribs in the crock pot (I think I posted the recipe at some point) w/ brown rice and peas - I made apple pancakes for the kids because Loic isn't a fan of beef short ribs; he had pancakes and peas...a delicious combo.

Saturday - we are having people over to watch hockey so I am doing a roast in the crock pot to make some shredded beef to put on buns plus a big tray of fresh veggies and a salad

Sunday - Homemade pizzas w/ pesto, ham, sauteed onions, veggies and cheese

Monday - steaks (from our cow in the freezer, last ones) home made fries, salad OR perogies (freezer) and a veggie if I don't feel likes steak

Tuesday - Pasta w/ pesto and peas or a salad

Ok, more nerd talk.  I try to keep stuff on hand to make dinners in a hurry - I always have pesto in the house (either in the freezer or cupboard) for a quick pasta meal, Loic loves pesto.  I also try to keep my tiny pantry/closet stocked with pasta, rice etc.  Oh and I usually have a lot of beef in the freezer but I am running low - I need to order more beef.

Next week I am cooking a few things from my new Fine Homecooking magazine - low fat baked mac and cheese using steamed and mashed cauliflour for the sauce and a few others.  Oh and I am going to make a batch of double stuffed potatoes so that I can freeze some because they are easy to freeze and then bake whenever you need some.

Oh and Loic and I made granola bars today.  They were so very easy to make, tasted amazing AND are not loaded with sugar or fat!  We had some for dessert and (surprise) I even froze some for Rob's lunches.

Nerd talk over :)

-E