Another week at home, another meal plan. In case you haven’t been following along since the beginning, my purpose in providing these looks at what I’ve been cooking each week is to 1. provide meal inspiration (which we all need) and 2. show you how I’m making do, getting creative, being flexible, and still trying to maintain our healthy, anti-inflammatory way of eating.
If you want to catch up, you can see the other weekly meal plans here:
I always begin each meal plan post recapping what I had planned for the previous week and showing you what we really ate. Then I provide the next week’s plan with details such as why I chose that meal, how I procured the ingredients, and suggested substitutions.
Here’s how our meals shaped up last week:
Sunday was Mother’s Day and my people did an amazing job of treating me like a queen, which included a delicious dinner. They do get off easy in the meal department because of intermittent fasting, since I only eat one meal a day most days, but they did this one meal just right! We had burgers and dogs on the grill, buttered and toasted buns (the only way to get gluten free buns to stay together well), green beans (made by my dad), fresh strawberries, pound cake and whipped cream. It was deee-licious!
Monday was my 18th anniversary! Our favorite NC beach had just re-opened to non-residents and we took the opportunity to get out of town for the day. Usually we would not include the kids on an anniversary outing, but we didn’t have a choice this year and it served as an end of school year celebration and just an all around treat for all of us. As soon as we rolled into Holden Beach, we stopped at the Provision Company for takeout, headed over to the beach and enjoyed our feast. My favorite thing there is the house salad with grilled tuna. It is so good, I think I could eat it every single day.
And just because we could, we stopped on our way home for more of this yumminess for dinner. This time I got grouper instead of tuna, but my husband had the tuna and we ended up sharing. We do that on our anniversary. 🙂 We also stopped for ice cream at Beaches-n-Cream. Twice. Forgot to get a picture of that one. We had Pina colada and salted caramel cashew. Yuuu-um!
Tuesday was back at home and reality. As planned, we had chicken fingers, roasted potatoes and roasted cauliflower. The cauliflower and potatoes were my very last remaining fresh veggies from almost three weeks ago. For some reason, I was really craving onions, so I caramelized some and then added just about three cubes of potatoes to the onions and ate that, leaving the rest of the potatoes for my family. This was an extremely white/tan meal, so it’s not very pretty. It did taste really great though.
Let me share a tip regarding the breaded chicken tenders: Whenever I make a batch of the breading flour, I almost always have a little leftover. Sometimes I’ll add flaked coconut, sometimes toasted nuts, sometimes seasoning like my cajun seasoning, and I just keep collecting those little bits of leftover breading in the fridge. So when I make my chicken tenders now, there’s almost always some additional ingredient in that breading which 1. tastes great and 2. I’ve not wasted a thing. This batch of chicken looks a little darker than normal because there was a lot of paprika in my breading flour.
My sauces for the chicken were:
- honey mustard: mayo, yellow mustard, honey, a sprinkle of onion powder and a dash of coconut aminos
- spicy remoulade / thousand island sort of sauce: mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, sriracha, coconut aminos, zucchini relish for sweetness – I just start adding things in and tasting as I go until I get a flavor I like. No science to this really.
Wednesday: This was the meal that was totally up in the air due to availability of produce, but I thought I might surprise my family with berry pie for dinner with a side of bacon. I know that sounds strange, but it would be awesome. Pie = awesome. Bacon = awesome. Dinner of pie and bacon = awesome. But alas, I ended up with meetings from 2 – 5 PM and just did not have time to get the pie made for dinner. So we had pancakes and I sacrificed one of my bags of frozen berries as a topping. You’ll be relieved to know that we did not have to endure a spinach and water smoothie. I was also able to make waffles from the same pancake mix and they turned out great. Yes, I did eat that big bowl of “melted” berries and it was delicious! This is simply frozen berries, defrosted on the stove, brought to a boil and cooked until the level of softness you like. I added about a tablespoon or less of maple syrup to sweeten just a tad. If you keep boiling the berries, it will thicken a lot, just like syrup. This time, I simply chose to keep it a little more liquid. I decided at the last minute to scramble up a few eggs for added protein.
Thursday – evidence that I went shopping! We had tuna “noodle” casserole and a fresh green salad. This casserole is chocked full of vegetables, so a side dish is not really required, but I was so excited to have fresh greens, we just had to go ahead and eat some. The salad dressing is just the leftover sauces from chicken fingers on Tuesday. I had to thin it out with just a drop or two of water.
Friday: Pizza night and camping! The kids have been asking to camp in the backyard and we figured – why not! It was forecasted to be a relatively warm night with no chance of rain and we had nothing else to do! They gave me a fire pit for Mother’s Day, I bought firewood at the hardware store and made paleo graham crackers, so we were all set.
The kids had Costco frozen pizza (I can’t eat that crust now with Invisalign, my teeth are too sore because it’s a little tough – but tastes great and I do recommend it) and I made a Simple Mills Crust Mix for Chris and I. I do recommend that crust because it was very easy to put together and it tasted great, had a nice texture too. But something in it upset my stomach. I do have a sensitive digestive system so there’s that. I will say that I can eat any of my homemade pizza versions with no trouble so I know it’s not the cheese or other toppings. I keep trying these convenience versions hoping for the best, but alas, I think I am going to have to make my pizza homemade when I want that treat. Oh yes, and I had a great big salad with a simple balsamic dressing (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey and a pinch of salt).
Saturday: Shrimp Salad and Cheesecake! – we picked up some fresh shrimp on our way home from the beach Monday and I planned to enjoy them on Saturday so I would have plenty of time to peel and devein them without having to rush.
Here’s the backstory on this recipe – whenever I’m waiting at the deli counter at Whole Foods getting meats sliced, I look at all the prepared foods in the case next door. There is always a big pan of shrimp salad and it looks so good. I really don’t know what it is about it that is appealing to me because it’s just shrimp, celery, some seasonings and mayonnaise, but I always think, “I need to make that.”
I looked at a few recipes online for ideas for the different herbs and spices to use and came up with this combination that is delicious! Don’t worry, that recipe is coming to you in the next few weeks.
I will be honest and tell you that my children prefer simply boiled or steamed shrimp with some Old Bay seasoning so that’s what I made for them, but this shrimp salad was divine! With a big bed of fresh greens underneath and a slice of cheesecake for dessert, this was a delicious and decadent meal we all loved!
My husband is the cheesecake cooker in our house and he whipped this one up using the leftover campout graham crackers for the crust. We served it with some of the leftover pancake berries on top and it was sooo good! My body didn’t like it though, so no more of this for me, but I really enjoyed that piece!
Sunday was a combo of leftovers and frozen foods (Costco tacos for the win). I was actually feeling quite unwell by the time dinner rolled around so didn’t eat anything at dinner time. I was feeling better later so ate one of those little cups of mashed avocado from Costco with some plantain chips. Not very exciting, I know, but I aim to be honest.
And here’s our plan for the coming week:
Monday: Fish tacos with tropical salsa slaw, sautéed squash and AIP tortillas
- frozen Cod from Costco, which I will quickly pan sauté
- tropical salsa slaw made with a mango and pineapple from my Aldi haul at the end of last week
- sautéed squash, but you could easily substitute any other vegetable you have or like
- AIP tortillas – really, really yummy and hold up great for tacos, but a pain to make (just being honest). I recommend setting aside an hour and making a double batch
Tuesday: Carnitas, leftover slaw or I may make a fresh batch of plain slaw and roasted sweet potatoes
- Bought pork last time I was at Whole Foods – they didn’t have the pork butt I usually buy, but they did have “country style ribs” which are a cut of pork that has both dark and white meat and make good carnitas as well. This is a really easy Instant Pot meal that takes only basic ingredients.
- Got a really big head of cabbage at Aldi so more slaw. 🙂
- Sweet potatoes just sounded good to me so that’s why we’re having those. Mama’s appetite often dictates the meal choices. I’ll cut these into cubes instead of fry shape because they’re just easier that way.
Wednesday: Jambalaya with rice
- Whenever I can, jambalaya follows carnitas because the carnitas produce a really flavorful broth, which I save and use for the jambalaya. The jambalaya is delicious with even store bought broth, but if it has all those carnitas spices in it, yu-uuum-y!
- Totally out of cauliflower rice so we’ll be serving this with regular rice. There are lots of veggies in the jambalaya, so a vegetable side dish is not necessary.
Thursday: Hawaiian Chicken Bowls and Roasted Cauliflower
- Another day, another experimental meal. I’ll be saving part of the pineapple from Monday (which is no small feat because my family will eat a whole pineapple in one sitting if I let them) to make a pineapple avocado salsa to top a super flavorful (and easy) shredded chicken prepared in the Instant Pot.
- Again, this is an experiment so we’ll see how it turns out.
- I will have extra rice from Wednesday night so people can choose to serve their bowl with rice or roasted cauliflower.Â
Friday: Pizza night, of course
- Friday pretty much has to be pizza night or I will have a revolt on my hands.
- Again, I’ll probably make a Costco Pizza for the kids (they love it, it’s easy and it frees up space in my freezer) and I’ll make a homemade version for Chris and I. Probably this one.
- Side will be more salad or whatever vegetable needs to be eaten first.
Saturday and Sunday: I haven’t gotten that far in my meal planning. I’m starting to lack inspiration. I do have a long list of meals made up that use protein I have on hand so I’ll consult that list and come up with something, but when I planned the rest of the week, I ran out of planning steam as I got to the weekend. I did stock up on ground beef and hotdogs when I last went to Whole Foods so we’ll be ready to cook out on Memorial Day. This weekend, we may end up getting takeout once, which would be a real treat. You’ll have to come back next week and see what ended up on our plates.
That’s it for this week’s meal plan. I hope you go out (or stay in) and make it a great week! If you’ve had some amazing meal inspiration, please do tell!