Menu Plan: September 22-28

Hey there and happy Friday! I am so excited to be sharing a menu plan for this week. I am really, really going to work at posting these each week. I think without the pressure of having to add a bunch of pictures, I can make this routine stick. Also, if you want to see pictures, you know where to find me on instagram 😉 I want to talk a little bit about our way of eating and then will dive into what we will actually be eating for the week.

I get asked quite often if I am vegan. I have never been one to label the way that I eat, because I know that what I enjoy ebbs and flows and who knows how I will want to eat in the future. I eat what will FEEL good to my body. Lately, it has been almost 100% plant based. During the summer months, I find myself gravitating towards lots of raw and cooked fruits and vegetables. It could be that it has been about 100 degrees for what feels like 3 months straight. However, during the fall and winter, I tend to lean on wild seafood and pasture raised eggs because my body craves some animal protein.

Our children get exposed to everything we make, but I always make sure they have familiar foods on their plate, too. My goal is to give them incredible food experiences that keep them wanting to try new things. And, they know that they don’t ever have to finish something that they don’t like. We do not fight food battles in our house, but they do respect that our meals are made with love and you need to try everything once before passing judgement.

We are all different and eat different ways based on our moods, the season, food sensitivities and personal choices. When you think about planning your meals, always ask yourself: What will make me smile if I see it on my plate? That is a key driver in our weekly meal planning. So, use what I share as a guide and know that if you need support or have questions, I am always available!

Menu plan for this week:

Saturday: Minimalist Baker: Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

  • I have never made this dish, but Dana has never created a recipe I don’t fall in love with. For the kids, I am going to make organic chicken parmesan and I bought a box of organic linguine to serve with it. I am craving this sort of dish in a major way and can’t wait for our Saturday night family dinner.

Sunday: Grill out a big feast!

  • We try to do some sort of batch cooking on Sunday to give us good leftovers and we have quite the plan on Sunday! We are going to grill a massive basket of veggies (we use zucchini, summer squash, red bell pepper, purple onion and mushrooms marinated for 3-4 hours in aged balsamic, olive oil, pink salt and pepper), grilled lemon potatoes (will share this process on Sunday), I am going to hit the fish market to see what is fresh to grill (Evan fell in love with snapper when my best friend made it for our family over the summer, so will try to get some fresh, wild snapper) and we will serve all this grilled goodness with juicy mangoes and ripe avocado. I may also batch cook a big thing of rice for the kids, too. Just need to see.

Monday: DeAnna’s Roasted Tomato Soup

  • I am going to attempt to do this soup in my new instant pot. Do any of you have an instant pot? I practiced it last weekend, but have not made anything in it yet. Will have to do some research on this one- ha! Evan will want his with a grilled cheese and Edie will probably want homemade sourdough turmeric croutons.

Tuesday: Love Real Food: Spinach and Artichoke Quiche

  • First of all, this cookbook is on sale for just over $11.00 and is usually over $27.00! Scoop it up if you don’t already have it!
  • The kids have had this before and they liked it “ok”. It is definitely my favorite egg dish of all time, so as a back up for the kids they can have scrambled eggs. I am also going to do a small salad and some fruit for this take on “breakfast for dinner”.

Wednesday: Smoothie Bowl Night

  • Once a week we have smoothie bowls for dinner. The kids adore them and love to come up with their own creations, toppings and even have little Polaroid cameras to take pictures of their bowls. This is a fun way for them to feel independent and creative. And they literally freak out when I tell them it is smoothie night, which I adore!

Thursday: Clean out the refrigerator night.

  • By this point in the week, we tend to try to use up some of what we have leftover. I end up roasting veggies, spiralizing zucchini and making some kind of a sauce. Kids will have whatever we roast up and I will usually see if they want some kind of protein. This refrigerator cleanse really helps me to use what we have so that nothing gets wasted.
  • We try to plan one night like this each week.

Friday: Pizza Night

  • I have visions of our cauliflour foods pizza being topped with fresh pesto, sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. That combination sounds so amazing to me! But, by Friday that may change!

The beauty of menu planning is that you don’t have to stick to the plan each day. If we wanted to do the smoothie day on Monday, we can. There is just so much comfort in knowing that the food will all be at the house for any of these meals.

I hope that this helps you all- wanted to share it today, because so many of you told me that you shop on Saturday and having this list of meals earlier would be helpful. Keep me posted if you have questions and have a FABULOUS weekend! xx

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  1. sabrina ott

    Thank you for sharing your menu for the week. You have the best collection of cookbooks so I treasure these curated weekly meal plans!!!

    September 24, 2018 • 3:30 pm •
  2. Thank you, Sabrina! I do adore cookbooks! Working on next week’s menu now!

    September 24, 2018 • 4:05 pm •