Dinners This Week
If you’ve been following this program for a few months, some of this week’s recipes will be familiar. As a time-saving strategy (I needed to get this post out the door before noon!) I selected some favorites from the past several weeks of meal plans and made a few tweaks to fit this week’s schedule. Hope you like it! (If not please do let me know in the comments below.)
Sunday
- Make 2 pounds to produce enough for 3 meals. Use one portion (2 5-oz pieces) tonight.
Roasted Carrots and Brussels Sprouts
- Recipe is from Food Network. Substitute the sugar with honey, or omit it.
- Time Saver Tip: Purchase pre-cut vegetables
Monday
Roasted Salmon
- Leftover from last night, gently reheated in the oven.
Brown Rice
- Make some brown rice in the rice cooker with chicken or vegetable stock instead of water. I usually have a bag of previously made brown rice in the freezer for those OMG-I-need-brown-rice-stat! occasions.
- Trim the beets by cutting the greens off one inch from the root. The greens will be used for tonight’s meal and the roots for Thursday night’s meal.
- Store the roots in an airtight bag in the refrigerator. Do not wash.
Tuesday
Tossed Salad
Wednesdays
Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Spicy Black Beans
Thursday
Salmon with Lemon Sauce
- Here’s a very easy recipe for the lemon sauce. Simply mix the following ingredients together and let sit on the counter while preparing the rest of the meal.
- 4 Tbsp plain whole yogurt or sour cream (or blend 2T each)
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder (optional)
- A pinch of dill (optional)
- 1 tsp capers
- Fresh ground pepper
Brown Rice
- Leftover from Tuesday, gently reheated.
Roasted Golden Beets
- Scrub beets and place in a small pan (8 x 8) and cover with foil. Bake at 375F for 60 minutes. Test for doneness by piercing with a small knife — it should slide all the way through with minimum resistance. Let cool. Pull the peel and tops off by hand (they should come right off).
- Refrigerate leftovers and use in tomorrow night’s salad.
Friday
Salad Bowl with Leftover Chicken
- Use up chicken leftovers from Tuesday night.
- Use your favorite (non creamy!) dressing or make my favorite quick vinaigrette
Shopping List
Purchase organic, GMO-free if at all possible. Your produce group should always be the list with the most items!
Produce
- 4 cloves garlic (Sun, Mon, Wed)
- 2 limes (Sun, Wed)
- 2 lemons (Mon, Thu)
- 1 bag baby carrots (Sun, Tue, Fri)
- 1 lb brussels sprouts (Sun)
- 2 bunches golden (or red) beets with greens attached (Mon, Thu, Fri)
- 1 head fresh leafy red or green lettuce, or romaine (Tue)
- 1 cucumber (Tue)
- 2 lbs sweet potatoes (Wed)
- 1 bunch scallions (Tue, Wed, Fri)
- small bunch cilantro (Wed)
Healthy Packaged Foods
- 1-1/2 C brown rice (Mon, Thu)
- 1 small can diced tomatoes (Wed)
- 14-oz can black beans (Wed)
- 1 sm jar capers
Meats and Dairy
- 2 lbs salmon (Sun, Mon, Thu)
- 1-1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (Tue)
- 1 sm container greek yogurt or skyr (Wed, Thu)
Pantry Staples
These items are probably already in your pantry but check your inventory just in case.
- Olive oil
- Honey
- Salt
- Pepper
- Red pepper flakes
- Adobo seasoning
- Cumin
- Paprika
- Cayenne
- Garlic powder
- Dill
- Italian seasoning blend
- Red or white wine vinegar
Breakfast and Lunch
The quantities can be modified as needed in order to generate some additional leftovers, which you can take for lunch at least one or two days. Save extras in lunch size containers and mark them with the date you made them. Put the oldest ones in the front of the refrigerator. Eat or freeze within 4 days.
Take a look at this post on how to automate breakfast and lunch to review the variety of options available for easy healthy breakfast and lunch meals.
Talk to us!
Did you find an error? Tweak any recipes? Skip or swap any? C’mon over to the Facebook Community and tell us about it.