Weekly Meal Plan 011
Weekly Meal Plan 011
When I first started meal planning years ago, I remember the hardest part was finding and learning recipes. I found that making things I knew how to make and adding in a new recipe or two each week allowed me to slowly build up my recipe stash and helped me gain the knowledge of cooking and confidence I needed to be more consistent with meal planning. I have enjoyed sharing these weekly meal plans with everyone and I hope having the links and some tips and modifications makes finding meals and learning a little easier!
This week’s menu includes:
Meatloaf, Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes
Grilled Chicken, Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli
Chicken Lettuce Wraps
We’ve been making these specific lettuce wraps for years, since before we had kids. We loved them then and we still love them now! This recipe truly is a 30 minute meal and now that we’ve made it so many times, it’s more like a 20-25 minute meal for us.
https://lilluna.com/chicken-lettuce-wraps-2/
Modifications:
- I don’t use fish oil, but extra soy sauce instead. It’s just not worth buying when I’m not going to use it in anything else.
- I have used different lettuce if on hand but the butter lettuce is the best because of the shape of the leaf and the mild flavor.
- I always use more mushrooms and water chestnuts than it calls for and it’s just as good.
- I use a minimal amount of sriracha because my kids eat this, too. When it was just my husband and me, we loaded it up!
- I’ve used ground ginger instead of fresh because I didn’t have fresh on hand. I usually keep a big ginger root in the freezer now so I’m never without the fresh.
Breakfast – Casseroles and More
There are so many different options when it comes to making breakfast for dinner. Most nights we do this we use whatever we have on hand and usually end up making pancakes, omelets, biscuits and gravy, bacon, eggs, breakfast tacos, etc. When I plan ahead we like to make a breakfast casserole! I love a good breakfast casserole and since you can prep them ahead and let them sit overnight it’s nice if you don’t feel like making something the night of. Below are two of the breakfast casseroles we’ve made most recently, one is savory and one is sweet.
Easy Sausage Breakfast Casserole
https://thefoodcharlatan.com/easy-sausage-breakfast-casserole/#wprm-recipe-container-28994
This is a pretty standard base recipe I’ve used several times. I like the sausage in it but have also done chopped bacon. I also typically use whatever veggies I have on hand or leftover, a “kitchen sink” version, if that makes since.
Berry French Toast Casserole
https://www.joyousapron.com/wprm_print/2578
There’s nothing about this I changed because it is just DELICIOUS.
Lipton Souperior Meatloaf, Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes
My parents have been making this meatloaf for as long as I can remember! It’s really easy, good and moist. (Because nobody likes a dry meatloaf!) I like meatloaf made differently as well but this is the recipe we use for a standard meatloaf dinner. The key is to make it the day before so it can sit in the fridge overnight! As for green beans, sometimes I get fresh ones and blanch or roast them and sometimes I get them out of a can and heat them in the microwave! Same thing with the mashed potatoes, sometimes I make them homemade and other times I am not beyond cooking some instant mashed potatoes. It really depends on what we have going on that night. This particular night we had a sports practice so we went with canned and instant.
https://www.liptonkitchens.com/recipes/souperior-meatloaf-3/
Modification:
- Mix 2/3 ketchup, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 tsp of dry mustard
- Spread on top of meatloaf after forming loaf in pan
Make Your Own Pizzas
We love making pizzas. I have found that when I let the kids be involved in making dinner they are more inclined to eat their dinners. My kids are actually really good eaters but sometimes they just aren’t interested in their food. It’s usually either because they’re not that hungry, and that’s fine, or because it weirds them out to look at it! So if they can see what is going into their dinner, they seem more interested in at least trying their food.
Sometimes I like to make my own pizza crust, sometimes I buy crust but usually I buy naan flatbreads for the crust. Here is the gist of what we do:
Naan Pizzas
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Naan flatbread
- Pizza sauce
- Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Toppings (pepperoni, peppers, onions, mushrooms, sausage, olives, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Place naan on baking sheet.
- Lightly coat naan with olive oil.
- Spread pizza sauce to cover naan.
- Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over sauce.
- Put on your toppings of choice.
- Top with a little more mozzarella.
- Bake until pizza is cooked through and the cheese is melted.
Grilled Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli
I honestly couldn’t tell you what we did to the chicken because my husband made this dinner, but it was perfectly moist and delicious! Usually he raids the spice cabinet and comes up with some concoction. Whatever he did, it worked! He also grilled the broccoli and baked the sweet potatoes but I’m still going to include some recipes that I’ve either used before or are similar to something I’ve done before.
Grilled Chicken
For the chicken I have used a couple of these marinades and they were good:
I also recommend getting a good meat thermometer if you don’t have one already! We used to always overcook our meat but having one of these was a game changer and takes the guesswork out of it.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
I love sweet potatoes in any form, my husband can take or leave them and my kids like them for the most part. Knowing this, I’m always trying to find a new recipe or way to make them to try and convince everyone else to love them as much as me! Most recently, this has been my favorite recipe:
https://www.julieseatsandtreats.com/roasted-sweet-potatoes/#wprm-recipe-container-66173
So simple, so good. And everyone liked them.
Modification:
I used half of the pepper recommended (as I always do in any recipe) because I’m sensitive to taste and it really doesn’t take much for me!
Roasted Broccoli
This recipe came from the back of a Taylor Farms broccoli floret bag:
Garlic Broccoli
Ingredients
- 6 cups broccoli florets
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tsp sriracha
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling water, blanch broccoli for 3 minutes, until tender. Combine cooked broccoli, garlic, soy sauce and sriracha and stir to combine.
So easy, so good.
Modification:
Instead of blanching, I like to roast the broccoli! It takes longer though so when I’m limited on time, I blanch.
Savory Hand Pies
These hand pies were a new recipe I tried. I like to try new recipes frequently and I usually make those on Sundays. We just tend to have more down time on that day of the week and new recipes can take longer than anticipated because I am just unfamiliar with them. These were really good! Think chicken pot pie, only ground beef, and instead of a pie crust, a pastry puff with less mess because they’re contained in the pastry puff. They were time consuming so if you’re looking for a quick recipe, this is not it! Very delicious, though.
https://thecozyapron.com/savory-hand-pies/
Modification:
I mistakenly only bought the one package of pastry puff but had a package of Pillsbury Mini Pie Crusts in the freezer. I made 4 pies with the pastry puff and then used the mini pie crusts in a muffin pan to make actual mini pies for the kids. They were a big hit!
I hope including all this is helpful! Follow along on my Instagram page @mountaintopsmama for the weekly menus, updates on blog posts and so much more!
Happy cooking!