sam's grocery & meal plan

I've had a lot of questions about how I plan out meals for every night and only grocery shop 20 minutes a week, so I wanted to share a quick post on my methods. I usually browse Pinterest for the recipes I have saved from my favorite food blogs (see this post), or I dive into my cookbooks for inspiration. We plan out 3-4 meals for us to have at home on weeknights and then expect one day to eat out or have a meal at Bradley and Karissa's house. On the weekends we either eat out, or grill up any frozen fish/shrimp and veggies we have laying around.

Zach and I would probably eat Mexican food every single night if we could, but I usually try to mix it up and have a nice variety. Skinnytaste's cookbook Fast and Slow is one of my favorites and I have nothing against using crock pots in the summertime. I come home on my lunch break to prep everything in the crock pot, then once I'm home from work I know dinner is ready.

This week I chose Hamburger Stroganoff from Skinnytaste.

I like to test out cookbooks from the library before purchasing because I'm very particular about my cookbooks having pictures. I recently got this (below) book and will be purchasing! It is written by the Cooking Light magazine editors and uses classic recipes but cuts the fat and sugar to make them healthier.

This week we wanted to try out the enchilada casserole which was really good!

If I don't write down the recipes I planned in my agenda I will literally forget what I bought the ingredients for. I also like to write down the cookbook name and page number or whether I got the recipe off Pinterest.

Our typical grocery list would then look like the one below. Three dinners - we eat leftovers for lunch, and our snacks consist of energy balls (recipe here), celery and peanut butter, pistachios, and lots of cheese sticks. I don't eat breakfast (ahh!) but Zach has a smoothie and hard boiled eggs.

Typical Grocery List:

2-3 lean meats (chicken, shrimp, or ground sirloin)

Canned Tomatoes, Diced Tomatoes, tomato paste

Artichokes (I snack on these)

3-4 Vegetables (asparagus, broccoli, peas)

Cheese Sticks

Yogurt (for my dog Oz)

Almond Milk

Cereal

Tortillas

Beans

Eggs

3 Onions & Scallions

To get through the grocery store quickly I star* all the produce and then draw lines together for similar items like canned tomatoes. I'm that girl that blazes through the store and is always wrecking into other peoples' grocery carts.

I always have brown rice on hand and my favorite sauces.

If we run out of food - below is an example of just throwing together what we have left in the fridge/freezer. Avocado pasta with broiled tomatoes and shrimp.

Hope this helps!