Meal Planning 101

As part of Meal Planning Monday, along with my meal plan for the week, I wanted to start a mini series dealing with the how’s and why’s of meal planning. I have more recently gotten back into the swing of meal planning, and I am already greatly reaping the fruit of this practice. With a little bit of concentrated time spent planning, I am able to save a lot of time and energy later in the week. This will also give you an opportunity to see how simple we eat sometimes!

Balancing Excellence with Reality

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This site was born out of my desire to pursue excellence in the foods I feed my family. I am striving to feed my family the very best I can with the resources available to me. I am trying to expand my knowledge, my skills and my menu. I delight in feeding my family food that is both nourishing and delicious. I find working with foods very rewarding and think that serving healthy foods should be given the time commitment it needs.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy or perfect. We have gone through many different seasons where morning sickness, illness, hospital stays etc, where the food I made and ate were not up to the standards I aspire too. It was okay, though, because I knew that we were doing the best we could under the circumstances.

Your Needs are Unique

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Realize that where you are, and where your family is, is going to be unique. What serves me best, in this season, may not serve you the best. While I want to encourage you to join me in pursuing excellence in planning meals, I also know that you will be joining me in an imperfect world. The important thing is that you pursue what is best for your family.

So the first point I want to make in this series is this: Find the balance between striving to achieve better health for your family through the food you prepare for them them, while allowing yourself the freedom to be content with your imperfect best.

On to my Meal plan for the week:

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Speaking of an imperfect best….. here it is!

Monday: Chicken with Gravy (This was set aside and frozen from my roasted chicken dinner the other week), served over Brown rice. Vegetable side dish, either carrots or spinach.

Tuesday: Soup with muffins or biscuits (I often don’t decide exactly what type of soup or muffins I am going to serve until that day or the night before. As long as I know it’s a “soup” night, it works for me!) Salad with Everyday Dressing

Wednesday: Curried Lentil and Rice dish with boiled eggs on the side, Salad with a lemon/sesame seed dressing

Thursday: Potato Rosemary Soup with buckwheat croutons, Green Salad with Everyday Dressing, Bread and butter

Friday: Baked Salmon, Brown Rice or other grain side (I often give myself options on my meal plan), Cauliflower.

Saturday: Breakfast -Soaked Pancakes or waffles (making extra to freeze for breakfast next week) Lunch-Leftovers Dinner-Quinoa Millet Patties with sauce (this is a recipe I am trying to perfect right now), veggie (salad, carrots, or spinach))

Sunday: Lunch: Chicken and Quinoa Crockpot, Dinner: Leftovers

Check out Menu Planning Monday, here.