Grocery shopping and meal planning used to be a task I dreaded every week. I always felt like I didn't have a cohesive plan, and food was ending up being thrown away. Adjusting to meal planning/cooking for two people can be a bit of a learning curve when most recipes are really designed to feed 4-6 people. When we first started living together, Anthony and I would cook as if we were feeding a whole family, and always had a ton of leftovers. Now, we try to cut most recipes in half, and our leftovers are just enough to have lunch(es) for the next day. In this post, I want to share an example meal plan for five meals, a grocery list to make them all, and a few tips and tricks as well!
The purpose of this post is really to show the planning process of meal prep, rather than the recipes themselves. However, I do want to mention a few key things. For this meal plan specifically, I pulled from three actual recipes linked here: tortellini caprese salad, black bean burgers, and caprese chicken. For us, I cut all the recipes in half (the tortellini caprese salad I cut all the ingredients in half and used a 10 oz. package instead of a pound like the recipe called for) and that is what the plan/grocery list reflects.
Monday: The sandwiches are pretty straightforward, but one thing to note is that we'll usually cook all the bacon at once, and use it throughout the week. We Just lay the bacon on backing sheet and cook at 400º for about 14-16 minutes, flipping halfway. The tortellini caprese salad is best if left in the fridge overnight, so I try to prepare it on Sunday so it's ready to go on Monday.
Tuesday: We'll follow the black bean burger recipe (just cutting in half) and have leftover tortellini caprese salad on the side. We'll also use our leftover half of the avocado from Monday night on the burgers.
Wednesday: No specific recipe for these, just follow the instructions on the box! Packages of ground turkey are always packaged as about 1 pound, so for the tacos we freeze half, and cook the rest. A great tip is to buy meats when they're on sale, and throw them in the freezer, and just defrost them the day you plan to use them. For the pico and guacamole, we like to make these in larger batches and use them in multiple recipes because they do require a little bit of time with all the chopping. For the pico, we just chop everything up, add the juice of two limes, and salt and pepper to taste. We really like adding mango to our pico for a little bit of sweetness, but it's also great without it. For the guacamole, same process (just mashing the avocado). If you like your guac chunkier, just spoon some of the chopped tomato from the pico into the mixture! Like the pasta salad, these are best if refrigerated overnight, but at least a few hours in the fridge is really all you need.
Thursday: We don't follow a specific recipe for the salads, but all you need to actually cook for this recipe is a chicken breast and the corn. For the chicken, we usually bake it in the oven at 375º for 20-30 minutes (just make sure internal temp reads 165º). Don't forget to allow the chicken to come to room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking, and allow it to rest before slicing it up for the salad. To roast the corn, we just take about a cup of frozen corn and spread it evenly over a baking sheet, toss with ~1 tbsp. of olive oil, a couple dashes of chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, and salt and pepper. Toss everything and bake at 425º for about 5-7 minutes. When the chicken is sliced, we coat it lightly in barbecue, and assemble the salads. We'll use the rest of the red bell pepper from the black bean burgers here!
Friday: We'll follow the caprese chicken recipe closely, again just cutting it in half. Since we bought mozzarella pearls for the pasta salad, we'll just cut those in half and melt over the chicken, instead of using slices. You can also just buy sliced mozzarella, and cut into chunks for the pasta salad, either works! For the roasted baby potatoes, we just cut the potatoes in half, coat with EVOO (~1 tablespoon), and add a few dashes of garlic powder, salt and powder. Spread over baking sheet, and bake at 375º (cut side down) for about 30 minutes. We check them about halfway through, and move them around in the pan for even cooking.
Before you read the shopping list, I want to preface it by saying I've included all items you'll need to make all five meals (except salt, pepper, and a few optional condiments). Because I've included ingredients that most people will already have at home, your shopping trip may very well end up costing less than $100. Something that I have found really helpful is to have a set budget that you try to adhere to weekly. For us, we try to aim for $100 or less every week. Some weeks vary, but when we are intentional with planning, we're almost always able to stick to our budget. Another tip that works for us personally is to plan and shop for five meals at a time. Generally, we eat out one weekend night and have leftovers the other night. Trying to coordinate too many meals in one trip would always lead to things going bad before we could use them. When I'm doing this out, I always start by planning meals based on ingredients that can be used in multi-purpose ways. If I am using an actual recipe, I will jot down what ingredients are required, (noting that I'll typically want to cut the recipe in half) and then plan the week based off of like ingredients. Another good tip is to write out your list in the order that you would walk through your grocery store. This way, you won't forget anything, and can get in and out quickly!
I also wanted to mention that I try to be intentional with the order in which I plan the meals. For example, I know Monday nights are the best night to have something that's super easy to throw together (ergo sandwiches). The tortellini caprese salad is easy to throw together on Sunday, and pop in the fridge. When Monday night rolls around, all we have to do is cook the bacon, and assemble everything. We also then have plenty of leftovers for lunch, and can use the bacon with breakfast too (or crumble on the barbecue chicken salad). The components of the tortellini caprese salad are all incorporated with the caprese chicken recipe we'll be making later in the week, so nothing goes to waste there. If we don't finish the pico and guacamole between the tacos and salads, we'll always finish it off with tortilla chips as a snack throughout the week.
This process is a bit of a learning curve, but I have found it to be 100% worth it. For me personally, I prefer to invest the time upfront creating a cohesive plan, rather than scrambling to come up with things the day of. Another tip I would add is when you find a recipe you really enjoy, print it out and put it in a sheet protector and keep them in a binder. This way, you have a decent sized collection of recipes readily accessible when you're doing your planning. Overall, planning is definitely key in this process. It takes me about 30-45 minutes on Saturday/Sunday to plan everything out and make a list, but that investment of time saves me for the rest of the week.
Let me know what your favorite meal planning tips are/recipes that you love for fall!
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