Dinners This Week
It’s kind of a mixed bag this week with beef stew, a turkey lasagna, one vegetarian dish, and one seafood dish. All of these meals are easy with most of the effort spent on chopping ingredients, which you can do while watching TV or chatting on the phone. If you have an extra 30+ minutes free on Sunday you could do the chopping in advance and your meals during the week will be super-quick.
Sunday
This meal could be cooked in the oven as directed in the recipe, or you could use a slow cooker instead.
Monday
This lasagna recipe is light and comforting at the same time. Don’t let the tofu scare you off! The creamy texture gives it a ricotta feel without packing the caloric punch. But if you’re really freaked out by the tofu go ahead and use ricotta instead.
- Hint: In step 2, you will cook double the amount of turkey (2 lbs). Then divide the meat into 2 portions and package up one portion and put it in the frig for use later in the week. Continue the recipe with the other portion as directed.
- Use the remaining tofu in smoothies for breakfast or lunch.
Tossed Salad with Vinaigrette
- Start with fresh crisp lettuce (romaine is my personal favorite) and add whatever veggies you’ve got on hand — onions (thinly sliced), carrots (chopped), cucumbers (chopped), tomatoes (diced), etc.
- Try this easy homemade vinaigrette.
Tuesday
I still haven’t gotten around to posting my personal version of tonight’s Black Bean Stuffed Peppers but here’s a link to a recipe from delish.com that comes pretty close to my version.
Tossed Salad Leftover (optional)
- You don’t really need anything to accompany the stuffed peppers, but if you want a bigger quantity of food, just add a salad or a high-quality packaged soup. I always keep a couple of boxes in my pantry. Pacific is a good brand.
Wednesday
This meal literally takes just a few minutes to make, so have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you put those scallops in the pan.
Garlicky Scallops and Spinach on Toast
Steamed Carrots or Green Beans (or combination) – Make extra!
- Here is a great way to make steamed carrots in your rice steamer. If you don’t have a rice steamer you can use a sauce pan with a little water and cover and steam for 10 minutes or until tender but still slightly firm.
Thursday
This is leftover night. Here’s a reminder on the best way to reheat leftovers.
Leftover Skillet Lasagna (from Monday)
Leftover Carrots and/or Green Beans (from Wednesday)
Friday
Weeknight Turkey + Avocado Lettuce Wraps
- Follow the recipe using leftover ground turkey (from Monday) instead of the chicken.
Shopping List
Purchase organic, GMO-free if at all possible.
Produce
- 2 cloves garlic (Mon)
- 1/4 cup (chopped) fresh basil (Mon)
- 2 heads fresh leafy red or green lettuce, or romaine (Mon, Fri)
- 4 bell peppers (Tue)
- 1 bunch fresh scallions (Tue, Fri)
- 2 cup baby spinach (Wed)
- 1 bunch fresh parsley (Wed)
- 1 lemon (Wed)
- 1 lime (Fri)
- 1 avocado (Fri)
- 3-4 oz cherry or grape tomatoes (Fri)
- 2 lb baby carrots (Sun, Wed)
- 1 lb parsnips (Sun)
- 1/2 lb fresh green beans (Wed)
Healthy Packaged Foods
- 8 oz GF lasagna noodles (Mon)
- 3 cups (24) or more of marinara sauce (Mon)
- if you have homemade sauce, omit this from your shopping list
- 1 can black beans (Tue)
- 1 can whole gmo-free corn (Tue)
- 1/2 loaf whole grain bread (Wed)
- 1 pkg 8″ corn tortillas (no flour) (Fri)
- 1 package (pouch) Red Fork Slo Cook Pot roast sauce (Sun)
Meats and Dairy
- 2-3 lb chuck roast (Sun)
- 2 lbs ground turkey (Mon)
- 1/2 cup (shredded) fontina or provolone cheese (Tue)
- 1/4 cup (shredded) parmesan cheese (Tue)
- 6 oz silken tofu (Sun)
- pepper jack cheese (about 4 oz) (Tue)
- 1 lb bay scallops, fresh or frozen (Wed)
- 4 Tbsp butter (Wed)
- 1 sm container greek yogurt or skyr (Fri)
Pantry Staples
- Red wine (Sun)
- White Wine (Wed)
- Red pepper flakes
- Olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Chili powder
- Tabasco sauce
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cayenne pepper
Breakfast and Lunch
Wondering about breakfast and lunch? 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.
Also, if there’s only two of you the meal plan will generate enough leftovers for you to take them for lunch at least one or two days. If your meals have to stretch to 3 or more people, the easiest thing is to double one or two of your recipes during the week, and save the extra in lunch size containers. Mark them with the date you made them and put the oldest ones in the front of the refrigerator. Eat or freeze them within 4 days.
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.