Grocery Shopping And Meal Planning

Grocery Shopping is this week's WW meeting topic.

I will admit I am not always a really great meal planner before I set out to do my grocery shopping.  As I said in my previous post, planning really is key to my WW success.  Sometimes the task of grocery shopping and meal planning can be exhausting.  It is worth the effort and if I am prepared it can make my WW week that much smoother.

This week I sat down and did some rough meal planning.

I often eat four meals a day and most of those meals are consumed at work.  It helps if I can plan meals with leftovers so I can take those leftovers to work for another meal on another day.  I also like to make sure I have a rough plan where the items I need are already in the house so when I want to prepare something all the ingredients available.  I also loosely plan the meals because I never really know what I am going to feel like on a particular day.  It allows me to be flexible. 

This week I am making Skinnytaste’s zucchini lasagna.  It is delicious!  If you have not tried it I would highly recommend it.  This is the time of year that zucchini is in abundance and I have already been given a few huge ones.  My only gripe with cooking/baking with zucchini is the extra water.  Skinnytaste’s recipe does suggest grilling the zucchini first.  This can feel like a bothersome extra step but it is important.  I actually grilled mine using the George Foreman and it worked great!

I am also planning to make some chicken pot pies but instead of a biscuit-type or pie crust topping I am going to use mashed potatoes.  It is sort of like a Sheppard’s pie but it is chicken.  I picked up a can of cream of chicken and will add in some mixed frozen veggies.  I am just sort of doing my own thing with this meal.

I cut up some zucchini (see above where I said this was the time of year that it is in abundance) and also a patty pan squash my Mom gave me from their garden.  I sautéed it in a mix of olive oil and garlic.  I added 4 ounces of chicken sausage and some cabbage.  All I do is turn the burner down to about two and let it simmer until the flavors are mixed and the cabbage is soft.  It is quite delicious.

I picked up some pork chops to grill in the George Foreman.  Sometimes I wrap them in bacon for some extra yummy flavor.  I usually serve them with some frozen veggies, green beans, or even baked beans.

I love the AmyLu chicken burger patties sold at Costco.  They make a really great burger.  I wrap mine in lettuce instead of using a bun and add pickles, mustard, and ketchup.  I serve my burger with some sweet potato “fries” I make with a sweet potato and seasoning and then roast it in the oven with some olive oil.

I have some left over scalloped potatoes that I mixed in some ham and broccoli from last week.  I need to make sure that gets eaten up.  I am bad about wasting food sometimes.

I have one serving left of a frozen PF Chang Meals At Home Beef Broccoli.  It is in the freezer and will make a quick and easy meal.  It was really good when I made half of the bag a few weeks ago.  I bought some broccoli to bulk up the dish.  I will also probably add carrots too.

I bought some hummus for our picnic at the winery last weekend.  I like to spread it on Melba Toast and either top with Boars Head turkey breast or cucumbers.  I added this to this list since I have it on hand and it is an easy snack or meal if I add some veggies and dip and also a string cheese or fruit.

Egg salad is always easy to make and good for any type of meal.  I can spread it on the Melba Toast or just eat it with some veggies.  We always have eggs on hand so all I have to do is boil some and I am good to go.

Lastly I added black beans/sweet potato to the list.  I have some black beans that I opened a little while ago (they might already be past their date though…..).  I also have an extra sweet potato on hand and some whole wheat tortillas in the freezer.  I could make an easy burrito by just adding some cheese so I put this on the list as an idea if needed.

This is just sort of a loose meal plan that at least gives me some ideas.  I already know we are eating out on Sunday night and also Monday night.  As long as I have the correct meat thawed I should be able to make any of these meal ideas.  I also will often make a couple of meals at a time and have leftovers ready to go.

What is your meal planning like?