Meal Planning

I just began the meal planning process of freezing 2 weeks of meals at a time. It's actually not even for me but for my brother who hired me to make his meals and do his grocery shopping for him so he can focus on other things and eat healthier and better than eating out. I've had a lot of people ask me how I do it and what meals I make so I'll share with you this section of meals I made for this 2 week period. I don't do every 2 weeks the same. Because that would be boring to keep eating the same stuff every single week...although I could totally do that! My method is that I choose 7 meals/dinners and I make each one twice so that for two weeks the meals are the same for each day of the week. My brother was having too many meals left over because he is often gone on the weekends so this time around I only did 12 meals/ 6 different meals..They are:
1. Grilled Chicken Breast/ Rice with black and red beans/Asparagus
2. Grilled Chicken Breast/Sweet Potato Mash/Broccoli
3. Meat Loaf/ Sweet potato Mash
4. Salmon Foil packs
5. Steak/Asparagus/Sweet potato mash
6. Jambalaya Type of Meal (Don't know what it's called)

These are the meals that my brother picked out and I made each meal up in a foil pan and covered it with foil and stacked it in the freezer. So when it was all said and done, he had 12 pans stacked in his freezer that he could just take out the night before and put it the fridge to thaw and then microwave it. Keeping the same sides makes it easier to meal plan because then you just need to make a big batch of it and then measure it out. He also wanted to me count the calories of each meal and the protein count which took a lot more time than it normally takes me to plan.

My "helper" She likes eating all of the meals. She tells me "just a little bit mom," 

Some of the many groceries it took!

Foil Packets...the easiest meal ever! 6 stalks of asparagus...top with Salmon...season with salt, pepper, and garlic. Place 2 slices of lemon on top and 1 TBS of butter and 6 cherry tomatoes. Fold up and freeze. When you want to eat it place it on a pan seam of the foil side up and bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. 

This is the steak meal. It looks worse than it tastes. Lol it tastes so amazing! The sweet potato mash is my new favorite thing! I just boiled potatoes then drained the water...add as much butter as you want and mash. Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste!

I didn't take a pic of the Jambalaya stuff I made but here is the recipe

4 Polish sausage links

1 14 0z can of black beans

1 14 oz can of red kidney beans

1 can of chopped chili and tomato

2 C white rice

4 C chicken broth

Cut the sausage up in bite sized pieces and fry in some coconut oil until browned. Make sure you're using a saute pan. Add rest of ingredients and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook on medium low heat until rice is cooked. Serves 6

This dish is so easy and so so good! But if you're watching carbs...this isn't the meal for you. I also make his breakfasts which is sautéing a 1/4 of an onion in coconut oil until browned and soft. Add 1/2 of a small zucchini chopped in bite size pieces. Add 1 breakfast sausage link chopped up ( I like to get mine at Aldi that don't have any junk in them) In a separate bowl while that is cooking scramble up 5 eggs. Once mixture in pan is cooked and zucchini is soft add the eggs..season and cook until done. Super delicious...600 calories and 46.5 Grams of protein :) 

I put the breakfasts in quart sized freezer bags and laid them flat to freeze for easy storing space. 

Hope this helps you moms out there a little with some meal planning for yourself. I browse pinterest a lot for meals to cook and that freeze well. Stay tuned for the next meal planning trip! 

Until next time.....Janel