Dinners This Week
It’s kind of a mixed bag this week. Some beef, some vegetarian, some seafood… all easy with most of the time effort coming from chopping ingredients, which you can do while binge watching This Is Us. If you have an extra 30-40 minutes handy on Sunday I recommend doing the chopping in advance so your meals during the week can go uber-quick. Otherwise we’re pushing the edge of the 30-minute target time on several of the recipes this week.
Sunday
This meal is going to knock your socks off. It’s delicious and incredibly easy. The recipe has it cooking in the oven although you could use a slow cooker as well. I love these easy one pot meals on a Sunday. You cook, eat, get ready for the week and relax for the rest of the evening.
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. Ok but if you’re really freaked out by tofu go ahead and use ricotta instead.
- In step 2, cook double the amount of turkey (2 lbs). At step 3 divide the meat into 2 portions and package up one portion into a separate container (or a quart-size ziplock bag) and put it in the frig. Return the rest to the skillet and continue the recipe as directed. The extra turkey will be used on Friday night.
- Use the remaining tofu in smoothies for breakfast or lunch.
Tossed Salad with Vinaigrette
- The most important thing here is a good crisp lettuce. Everything else is a bonus. Start with lettuce and add whatever you’ve got on hand — onions (thinly sliced), carrots (chopped), cucumbers (chopped), tomatoes (diced), etc.
- Use a homemade vinaigrette, such as this one.
Tuesday
I had every intention of posting my version of this recipe and haven’t quite gotten to it yet (maybe by Saturday afternoon). In the meantime, use this recipe from delish.com because it comes the closest to my version and it’s one of the recipes I referred to when I was creating my own 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!
- You probably don’t need a recipe for basic steamed vegetables, but here is a great way to make them in your rice steamer.
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.