As a food lover and recipe junkie, I enjoy sharing my weekly meal plans, complete with pictures and family feedback. You can find past weeks’ plans on my weekly meal plans page and see more of what we’re eating on instagram and snapchat. Happy eating!
We are in the midst of a wonderful snow weekend over here, which is rare enough to constitute full fledged little girl shrieks and giggles. We’ve gone sledding, built a snowman, made a fire, and sipped (chugged) hot cocoa. I think there is enough for a round 2 of sledding (and probably even better sledding with things a little icier) but before my crew wakes up, I wanted to share with you our meal plan with pictures and family feedback, since that seemed to be helpful last time!
After the indulgences of December I was really looking forward to a week of regular meal planning so I took my meal planning notebook and got a little crazy with the organization of this week’s menu.
For some reason those little boxes surrounding each list category made me ridiculously happy. Kaitlyn and I hit up Whole Foods to stock up for the week.
Anyone else’s toddler beg for a kid cart then ask to walk or be held the entire time?
I was set to do some prep this week, so at home I boiled 10 eggs, made quinoa in the rice cooker, and made a batch of blender muffins (swapping sweet potato puree for the pumpkin puree and making them mini).
If you check the meal plan, I was intending to make breakfast cookies that the kids could just grab and eat in the morning but couldn’t find a recipe that fit what I was looking for– any links to good ones?
Ok, on to the dinners!
Sunday
Mediterranean Salmon Parchment Packs
Family Feedback: David and I love these grab-n-go packs from the Whole Foods’ seafood department. We usually snag these when we are coming back in town (like we were this week) and want something healthy without having to cook. I get one for the girls to split as well and they enjoy the flavors, especially the kalamata olives.
Monday
Roasted Chicken with Veggies and Sauteed Red Chard
Family Feedback: I skipped the crockpot and opted for my favorite lemon rosemary roasted chicken recipe instead, making the chicken a huge hit for all family members. The girls loved the roasted veggies too, especially the carrots for Kaitlyn. I was the only one who ate the chard. Nobody else really wanted to try it and I didn’t push it. I sauteed it with a little soy sauce and ginger and thought it was pretty good!
Tuesday
Lemon Chicken Picatta over Linguine with Roasted Broccoli
Family Feedback: The girls thought it was a little sour (I accidentally poured the capers in with the brine instead of straining), but ate it anyway. For David and me, it’s one of our favorite meals. I could eat a bowl full of capers just plain- so good! Roasted broccoli is our go-to veggie here. Everyone always eats it up and asks for more.
Wednesday
Chicken Tortilla Soup with Chips and Salsa
Family Feedback: I love love love this soup! Does loves it too. The girls sometimes comment it is too spicy, so I give them a small, mostly strained portion and a hearty spoonful of sour cream to mix into it (they love sour cream like their mama). I also usually melt some cheese on chips to round out their dinner.
Thursday
Easy Baked Chicken with Quinoa and Kale Pilaf
Family Feedback: I was totally distracted while trying to make dinner tonight and ended up overcooking the chicken. It was a dry and I gave the girls ketchup to cover my mistake. This kale and quinoa pilaf recipe is so delicious, but being distracted, I also mixed it up a little bit (I used baby kale and should have put it in while cooking the quinoa so it would wilt a little bit). Luckily for David and I it worked as a tasty salad but was hard for the girls to eat so they had grape tomatoes, blueberries, and toasted pine nuts on the side instead.
Lunches
I could eat these quinoa and kale bowls (salads?) everyday. I need to roast a larger amount of butternut squash or sweet potato because it totally makes the bowl. I added goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, and Garlic Expressions dressing too. Delicious!
[Tweet “A Mom’s Weekly Meal Plan (with family feedback!) #mealplan #momlife”]
As always, please leave any meals you’ve tried and love lately in the comments! I love finding new dishes to try with my family and share the feedback with yall. xoxo!
Lynn Thow says
I love the way you organize your meals in the notebook. I’ve started doing something similar. I like how you include the name of the meals on top of the sheet. I used to only right the ingredients down, and then I would sometimes forget what I was planning on making.
Your meals always look delicious!!
Enjoy another snow day!!
Nadia North says
Those blender muffins are on my to-make list this week! I usually have left-over sweet potatoes, as I am the only true sweet potato lover in my family.
Roasted broccoli is also a favorite here! Roasted cauliflower is also delicious. If I have left-overs of either one, I will mix them into scrambled eggs the next morning. So good!
Nadia North says
This breakfast cookie recipe just popped into my mailbox, so I thought I’d share. I also plan on making these, too!
http://mywholefoodlife.com/2017/01/08/healthy-trail-mix-cookies/
Brittany Dixon says
Thank you for the recipe and I loved clicking over to your most recent post because I just did the bubble clay mask for the first time yesterday too! Love it!
Cathy says
I love your organization!! It inspires me to make my list neater…LOL
When I read about your Quinoa and Sweet Potato bowls, I realized I am having that this week as well. It’s Evol’s Single Serve Veg Out meals. I add more quinoa and cooked spinach to mine to stretch it out, but Evol’s meal is the base of two good meals for myself this week. Thought you might like to check it out. Could be very convenient for a mom!!
http://evolfoods.com/our-food/single-serve-meals/veg-out-single-serve/quinoa-roasted-veggies
Brittany Dixon says
Oh yum! I have not seen those but they look fantastic! I’ll keep an eye out now. Thanks 🙂
Therese says
These cookies, minus the jam, are my go-to breakfast cookies. So easy and so good! http://ohsheglows.com/2012/05/02/raspberry-almond-thumbprint-cookies-gluten-free-vegan/
Brittany Dixon says
Oh yum! You can never go wrong with one of Angela’s recipes!
Laura stern says
I love how you showed the meal and then gave the family review and adjustments, when needed!
Tracy says
I need to make that tortilla soup!
I just came across this recipe yesterday:
http://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2017/01/02/healthy-oatmeal-raisin-breakfast-cookies/
Brittany Dixon says
Oh those do look good!! Thanks 🙂
Nadine says
Breakfast cookies:
http://findyourbalancehealth.com/2016/03/carrot-cake-breakfast-cookies/
Brittany Dixon says
Going to check these out- thanks!!
Megan says
These breakfast cookies are the BEST!
I made them for the first time last week and will be making them again this week, they were such a hit and are packed with lots of healthy ingredients!!
https://www.loveandlemons.com/carrot-quinoa-oatmeal-breakfast-cookies/
Brittany Dixon says
Clicking over now- thank you!!
Kat says
I like these two recipes for breakfast cookies, especially the fitnessista one. I usually sub more nuts for the protein powder.
http://www.theclevercarrot.com/2016/01/fast-healthy-nut-seed-breakfast-cookies/
http://fitnessista.com/baked-breakfast-cookie/
Also I would love a post on your potty training experience. We are in week 2 with my 2 year old daughter (she’s a few months younger than Kaitlyn) and it’s stressful! She’ll be accident free and no need for prompts for most of the day then accidents and it’s making this Type A mama insane!!
Brittany Dixon says
We really lucked out with Kaitlyn that she took it upon herself to learn how to use the potty. At home she does well with telling us when she needs to go but I do ask her more often if we are out because she can get distracted. Do you have your daughter in underwear or pullups? K wears pullups at night and if she wears it during the day she is less likely to tell us she needs to go potty. Wish I could be more help!
Heather says
I make these 2 ingredient (bananas and oatmeal) cookies for breakfast for my girls allll the time. They go especially nuts if there is peanut butter or mini chocolate chips in there. Better for a snack though! http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/09/2-ingredient-healthy-banana-bread-breakfast-cookies-with-delicious-add-ins/
I’m going to read through the comments and see if anyone left you any others – seriously they go crazy if they are given cookies for breakfast, haha.
Skye says
Hello! I think we shop at the same Whole Foods (I live in Huntersville right by that Whole Foods)… and you just made me want to RUN there to get those grab-n-go salmon packs. I have not noticed those there but will be checking that out when I go next (probably today lol – I am there quite often sadly!). And I am laughing at the grocery ‘car’ cart because my kids beg me to get it, and what’s the first thing they do? Yup, they get right out and want to walk, then fight over who gets to sit on either side lol. I try to do my big shopping alone when I can – I call it ‘my time’, which I get so little of it seems. We all do. Anyway thanks for sharing, I love all your recipe ideas – have a happy New Year!
Brittany Dixon says
I’m surprised we haven’t seen each other there before 🙂
Yes, try the salmon packs!! Two times ago we got a disappointing batch where they used black olives instead of kalamata (huge no no!), but since then they’ve been back to their delicious glory!