Meal Plan Week 3

meal plan, red beans, red beans and rice, meal planning,

 

#thehollidaysmealplan2017 week 3 correct
The meal plan for the week is underway and I’m just getting around to sharing it on the blog. This week got a little busy but I do still have a plan for meals.

There was a big issue with this week’s meal plan. I was unable to meal plan on Sunday like I normally do. Sunday is normally the day I plan out the week’s meals and make grocery lists. However, we were busy all day Sunday. We left the house after 9:00 AM and didn’t get home until after 5:00 PM. That’s a late Sunday! Needless to say, I didn’t have time or inspiration to meal plan for the week. I had no brain power to think of what I wanted to cook, what groceries I needed, etc. Asking for trouble right? Maybe so, but it happens.

It’s never too late in the week to meal plan.

So, now it’s Friday. I’m finally getting a chance to share my meal plan on the blog. I started the week off with with chicken thighs and drumsticks in the freezer. Not much, but I figured the meal plan could start with that. But guess what? The day got busy and we ended up ordering pizza. Meal plan fail? Brandon always convinces me ordering pizza is not a meal plan fail. However, guilt normally ensues for me. Since Monday didn’t play out like I wanted, I accepted that having pizza delivered was perfectly okay. But I told myself – “You have got to get it together tomorrow!” 

Tuesday, I made a home-cooked dinner and so that made me feel good. I used the chicken that I had already and made rosemary / garlic chicken. Several sprigs of rosemary, fresh garlic, and gravy made this a classic meal. For a side, I cooked sliced carrots.

Woo-hoo for dinner comebacks!

Brandon stopped at the local grocery store Wednesday to pickup some essentials for us. Finally, I made it to grocery store on Thursday. I took some time and went to my local Walmart Neighborhood Market. Finally, enough groceries to plan the rest of the week’s meal plan! For starters, yesterday, I cooked red beans and rice. Plus, the neighbor brought a few fresh shrimp over so I fried a few of those. They were the perfect complement to my planned meal. We don’t eat much fried food so when we do, it’s a treat. Shrimp also don’t take long to cook so it worked our perfectly. I’ll share pics on IG story tomorrow.

meal plan, red beans, red beans and rice, meal planning,

You should not leave the Walmart Neighborhood Market without checking out their awesome snack section. They have an array of gluten-free, organic, and healthy snacks. My family is always looking for snacks so I try to pickup things that everybody loves. I stumbled upon these sour cream and onion Popchips.  The nutritional value was really good. They are gluten free, cholesterol free, and have no artificial preservatives. The best thing about these popped potato chips is a serving is 22 chips! A serving size for fried potato chips is about 12 chips. Who can eat just 12 chips? 22 chips per serving is my kind of chips. They taste really good to me. It’s hard to mess up sour cream and onion chips, but I think these work. I’ll try them out on the family this weekend to get their feedback too.

sourcream-bag.png_b48512a1f7df3f9ca85da8f04db1ef8c

Regarding snacks, my son and I love popcorn. I will eat an ENTIRE BAG of popcorn and he’ll help me. Butter popped popcorn is pretty fattening amongst other bad nutritional value. That’s why there are so many other popcorn snacks on the market now. While I was in the store, I compared the nutritional value of Orville Redenbacher Butter  popcorn to Skinnygirl popcorn (made by Orville Redenbacher as well). At 160 calories per mini bag, I figured I’d give this popcorn a try.  It’s one of the first snacks Sebastian asked for when he got home from pre-school. We transfer our popcorn into bowls so he doesn’t even realize the packaging changed. Sebastian and I both happily approve of Skinnygirl popcorn. It tasted like flavorful popcorn, minus the dripping butter. Winning!

skinny girl popcorn

I don’t have time to share many recipes on the blog. Occasionally, I use Pinterest for recipes. I share my family’s meal plan in hopes that someone is motivated or inspired to cook dinner. Maybe you’ll even go the extra step and plan some meals ahead of time. We all have to eat so it doesn’t hurt to put some time into it.

Meal planning will reduce frustration, guilt, and save money. Go for it!

-Crystal 

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