My menu this week contains food I already have in the house. I don’t want to have to go shopping after my weekend away. A big grocery shopping trip was done last week. I may have to get some produce and/or bread/ milk. Other than that, we’ll be good to go.
I have not included any lunches in my menu. I don’t know what I’m going to eat just yet.
Sunday – My birthday! Whoop, whoop!
Breakfast – Granola bar with cheese
Lunch – Out to eat
Dinner – On the road
Monday
Breakfast – Cottage cheese with jam
Lunch –
Dinner – Steak, rice, and roasted veggies (I got a bag of frozen roasted veggies during my grocery shopping.)
Tuesday
Breakfast – Cottage cheese with jam
Lunch –
Dinner – Bacon and cheddar hamburger patties (freezer), Garlic Parmesan fries, and mixed veggies
Wednesday
Breakfast – Cottage cheese with jam
Lunch –
Dinner – Out to eat – It’s both food truck and farmer’s market Wednesday in my town.
Thursday
Breakfast – cottage cheese with jam
Lunch –
Dinner – Hot dogs, chips, and raw veggies
Friday
Breakfast – either cottage cheese with jam OR granola bar with cheese
Lunch –
Dinner – either of the frozen gluten-free pasta kits or out to eat – My town is doing a Friday the 13th party.
Dinner – Spaghetti with sausage, roasted broccoli (Ronzoni is the best gluten-free spaghetti in my opinion. I can get my gluten-eating family to eat it.)
Thursday
Breakfast – either cottage cheese with jam OR granola bar with cheese
Lunch – Left-overs
Dinner – Soy sauce pork chops, smashed potatoes, mixed veggies (The soy sauce is gluten-free.)
Friday
Breakfast – either cottage cheese with jam OR granola bar with cheese
Lunch – Left-overs or a salami and cheese wrap
Dinner – Dinner on the road – I have a black bean salad, peanut butter plate, and other snacky foods. It’s hard not knowing what options will be available to me when I travel. I am gluten-free, so I have to pack food with me.
Saturday
Breakfast – granola bar with cheese
Lunch – Out to eat with a high school classmate
Dinner – Out to eat – I will be packing my pho as a backup meal. I also have meat sticks already in my bag to eat if I also need something else.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a meal plan. My children will still ask me what’s for dinner. However now they are teenagers, they have started to cook for themselves. I just provide the ingredients for them. They’ll also eat what I’ve cooked.
Oldest has decided he wants to learn to cook before college which is soon. Mind you his first two years will be done at a local college, so he’ll be still at home. He wants to make sure he knows how to make basic recipes.
This week’s dinners are all from our pantry/freezer to use up some of the food we already have in our house.
My mom used to do Chinese for Christmas. I’m going to make it on Christmas Eve this year. Our Christmas Eve service is at 6 pm this year, so we are going to have a small meal after the service. My mother-in-law and I are still planning that meal.
Christmas dinner has not been planned yet. We have invited over 2 members of our church to eat with us. Last night, we began talking about the menu. I’ve ordered some gluten-free desserts so that is covered. The rest of the menu is to be determined.
I’ve been going to a dietician for the past 6 months because I was having health issues. Even though my weight is stable, I’m losing fat percentage which is good. Yeah for progress!
When I met with her yesterday, she asked me what I needed help with and I told her shelf-stable lunch ideas so that I can keep those in my classroom. My life changed once again where I’m leaving for work 15 minutes earlier than normal. On days I’m running behind, I won’t have to worry about packing a lunch because I know I’ll have something already at work.
Here’s the formula for lunch:
Protein/ Healthy Fat + Carb/ Fruit + Veggies
Protein Sources:
Beef / Turkey Meat Sticks (EPIC, chomps, Thrive Market has a good turkey one.)
Peanut butter / Nut butter – Get squeezy packets if you don’t a whole entire jar in your workspace.
Trail Mix – Make your own, so you don’t have chocolate or other sweets in your mix.
Tuna / Salmon packets
Almonds
Roasted chickpeas
Jerky
Protein bars
Pumpkin Seeds
Healthy Fats
Peanut butter / Nut butter – Get squeezy packets if you don’t a whole entire jar in your workspace.
Trail Mix – Make your own, so you don’t have chocolate or other sweets in your mix.
Almonds or other nuts
Carbs
That’s It Bars – I tried the apple/cherry one yesterday. It’s not bad.
Fruit leather
Larabars
Kind bars
Squeezy applesauce / unsweetened applesauce cups – Keep a container of cinnamon in your workspace.
Crackers
Popcorn – I love the Safe & Fair chocolate drizzled kettle corn.
Rice rollers
Rice cakes
Fruit cups (juice – not heavy syrup)
Granola – Be careful that it’s not full of sugary goodness. Make your own.
Freeze dried fruit
90 second rice packets
She also suggested I keep shelf-stable fruit and veggies in my classroom. Ideas are apples, oranges, mini peppers, and carrots.
If I have the basics in my room, I can just grab supplemental items in the morning. It makes it easier for me to get going in the morning.
Here are some of the basics I can grab in the morning.
The last few weeks have been crazy. Thanksgiving week was spent visiting Columbus and Cincinnati, so we didn’t eat many dinners at the house. We also ate at our favorite spots. Last week, we were both feeling poor. I didn’t cook dinner at home because I was just trying to survive.
This week we are back to eating at home.
Monday
Smoky Tomato Soup (Budget Bytes)
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Tuesday
Chicken stew (Budget Bytes)
Wednesday
Million Dollar Chicken (Easy Family Recipes)
Pan Roasted Green beans
Ranch Smashed Potatoes
Thursday
Left-overs or you are on your own
Friday
Salsa chicken
Sauteed Peppers and onions
Mexican Rice
Breakfasts
Smoothies
Lunch / Snacks
Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Sugar snap peas with hummus
Kalamata Olives
Yogurt with blueberries
I also have chocolate-drizzled popcorn at work that I can eat as a snack.
I hope these give you an idea of what to eat this week.
To create this meal plan, I went through the recipes on my blog and tried to find ones that I wanted to cook during the month of November. Each week, I have listed 4 meals. We can have leftovers or eat out for two of the days. The other day is our Sunday dinner.
Ideas for Sunday dinner: Roast – I have a new recipe that I need to cook at least one more time before I put it on the blog. Pork Roast – Chicken – Soy Sauce Pork Chops
A year ago yesterday, we drove down to the New River Gorge area. Hubby, my sons, my niece and nephew, and a few of their friends were going white water rafting. I was just there because my niece was going.
I took over cooking for the group of kids. We had a small fridge, a microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. That’s it. No sink, so everything needed to be disposable if we had any dinner.
There was a sink in the bathroom of our cabin, but it was so small that it was hard to clean anything there.
I brought my Instant Pot to cook the dinners while my nephew brought something to cook pancakes on for one of the breakfasts.
So what did we eat during the 2.5 days we were there. I had 2 dinners and breakfast to consider. Lunch was on the river when they went white water rafting.
The two dinners we had were spaghetti and hot dogs with Mac and cheese.The hot dogs were frozen before we left for the trip. Even driving the 4 to 5 hours to New River Gorge did not defrost the hot dogs. They tried roasting them over the fire, but they remained cold inside. Ugh!
The favorite meal was the spaghetti. There was nothing left after the meal. I believe we had some sort of bread with it.
Breakfast was pancakes and cereal. They had milk and juice to go with their breakfast. We forgot to bring a spatula, so that was interesting using my wooden spoon to flip the pancakes.
We also had lots of snacks for the boys. Plus the boys brought their own food. One brought MREs to share with their friends.
Hubby and I were able to sneak away for a while. Since the teens we took were older teens except for Youngest, we didn’t need to watch them constantly. We went to Sheetz for coffee and their snack packs. We ate it while walking to the overlook.
After walking under the New River Gorge, we left. We needed to get food before leaving. Our original plan was to go to Sheetz for cheap eats. Instead we went to the Secret Sandwich Society for good burgers and pimento fries.
Five months after to visiting the Secret Sandwich Society, it burned to the ground.😭 I can just picture us sitting there on the patio waiting for the food. The teens just talking about whatever popped into their head. We were saddened to hear of it’s demise.
So why am I sharing this menu with you? This started a trend for me. I went on a few pandemic trips where I needed to plan out the meals for the trip. In a week and a half, I’m leaving once again for a trip. I planned out the food for that trip. I’ll share it with you once we get closer to the trip happening.
I’ll also share the menu from my Epic trip with my friend Molly last July and our menu from our beach trip last December. I can plan meals like nobody’s business but can’t keep a meal plan to save my life.
Menu:
Breakfasts: Cereal, French toast muffins, cheese, applesauce, or fruit cup – Juice and milk
Lunches: On the river and at Sandwich Society
Dinners: Hot dogs with Mac and cheese Spaghetti with Hawaiian rolls (favorite meal)
Dessert: S’Mores on the campfire
My coffee that I got at Sheetz on the way down to the campsite. Meals that were eaten on our trip.
I planned out the meal for Memorial Day. Then Oldest needed to make sure it was an American meal. I don’t know what an unAmerican meal would look like according to him.
Here is our menu for the week. As you can see most of it is easy meals to put together. I think Friday’s is going to be the hardest meal because I’ve got to make the crust. I have a pizza crust kit, so that shouldn’t be too hard.
Monday – Memorial Day
Burgers (Impossible burger for me), Corn on the Cob, Chips, Baked Beans, Cucumbers
Tuesday
Rice and Beans, Roasted Cauliflower & Broccoli
Wednesday
Tacos, Roasted veggies
Thursday
Shrimp scampi on gluten free pasta, chicken from freezer for the family
Friday
Pizza and cheese bread
Breakfasts for this week keep changing. I ordered Kodiak’s gluten free protein pancake mix which came yesterday. So that is going to be some of my breakfasts. Another breakfast idea is to have smoothies with chia seeds and hemp hearts, if I can find them. They were not at Aldi’s when I checked the other day.
Lunches are often difficult for me. I’ve been on a grilled cheese kick lately since I have some gluten free sour dough bread. I’ll eat the grilled cheese with either a salad or a veggie. Another lunch idea is a snack plate of cheese, olives, nuts, maybe a hard boiled egg, and crackers. I may add some tuna to it. I eat a mostly vegetarian diet with the exception of seafood.
If you would like some other breakfast ideas, please click on this link. Here are some lunch ideas. And dinner ideas
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