Meal Planning Monday {April 22}

Hey y'all,

I know deciding what to make for meals for the week can be a struggle. I start to sit down on Thursdays to brainstorm for the week ahead. I also hosted friends over for lunch yesterday so I wanted to keep meals simple this week and use up any leftovers. We were just hanging out and watching Hallmark movies so I wanted to keep foods simple and healthy. We had a cheese tray, salami, crackers, biscuits with jam, fruit salad, a veggie tray, and some Reese's eggs. We snacked, chatted, and watched Hallmark for almost 8 hours yesterday. I would consider it a perfect Easter weekend.

meal planner notebook

Here's my meal plan for lunch and dinners this week. As a single gal, I often cook a meal and eat the same things over a few days. With the FWTFL this is really helpful as I can just copy over the meal from one day to the next:

Monday-low carb day in FWTFL

Lunch: Big Mac Salad.
I cut up romaine, cherry tomatoes, onion, pickles, some of the leftover cheddar that is lactose free and grilled up a Trader Joe's turkey burger. I will be serving the salad with Sir Kensington's special sauce as my dressing.
Snacks: Strawberries and 1oz of cashews
Dinner: Shrimp Scampi and Spaghetti Squash
I went ahead and roasted my spaghetti squash last night while cleaning up my kitchen. Today all I will have to whip together is the shrimp scampi. I am using Danielle Walker's recipe here.

Tuesday-low carb day and a repeat of Monday.

Lunch: Big Mac Salad.
I already prepped Tuesday's lunch when I made Monday's last night so I am all prepped
Snacks: Strawberries (the other half of the pint) and 1oz of cashews
Dinner: Shrimp Scampi and Spaghetti Squash
I will eat the other half of my spaghetti squash and shrimp scampi. I don't love reheating seafood so I am only planning on making enough for two meals.

Wednesday-regular macro day

Lunch: Buffalo chicken dip with mashed potatoes
I discovered the Paleo Running Momma's blog when prepping for a Whole30. I made her buffalo chicken dip and I love it! I am not a huge spice person so I did reduce the Frank's sauce to 1/4 cup instead of a 1/3. I love serving this with veggies on top of mashed potatoes. Yum! I will prep this on Tuesday night after B3.
Snack: Green smoothie.
Spinach, collagen peptides, 1 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen tropical fruit, protein powder, and water.
Dinner: Pasta Salad and Grilled Turkey Hotdogs
I love a good summer dish and pasta salad is one of my mom's go-to for cookouts. While I love my mom's recipe I am tweaking her recipe to be healthier. I am using a mix of whole grain rotini, this chickpea rotini, and red lentil rotini as my base. This adds a lot more protein to the dish. I will chop up the extra veggies from Sunday's veggie tray, add in some olives, and toss with the Primal Kitchen's Italian dressing. I will serve the pasta salad with grilled Applegate hotdogs, the turkey hotdogs are my favorite.

Thursday-regular macro day

Same as Wednesday:

Lunch: Buffalo chicken dip with mashed potatoes, and a side salad with my favorite DF ranch.

Snack: green smoothie

Dinner: pasta salad and grilled hotdog

Friday-low macro day

Lunch: buffalo chicken dip with mashed potatoes, celery, and carrots
Snack: banana. carrots with hummus.
Dinner: Turkey burger with pasta salad and fruit.

Saturday

Treat: The last two weeks I have treated myself to a Chick-fil-a chicken biscuit after Barre3 on Saturday mornings since I have had to stop by the mall for returns. I'm not sure if I will continue with that treat or grab a cinnamon white chocolate scone from La Farm before hitting the grocery store.
Lunch: Cobb salad or Ceasar salad depending on what I have left in the fridge.
Dinner: out with friends after church

Sunday-low macro day

Sunday I have not prepped for as I will be headed out of town for the night. I will probably eat any leftovers hiding in my fridge for a quick lunch and prep for my meals for the week before my quick night away.

What are you making for meals this week?