So often I share my meal plans (check out all my meal plans here!) on Mondays, the week after we eat all the food, so I have pictures to share with you of my meals. This week I want to switch it up a bit and start on the front end of things. Since Friday is my shopping day, I set up my meal planning station after the girls went down last night.
I actually scooted the other piles of “stuff to get to” aside, so believe it or not, this is “neat.”
I pulled the 10 day forecast up on my computer. I opened my planner to next week. I opened my Whole Foods app on my phone (to see sales and coupons).
I’m pretty excited about that guac coupon!
Then with my meal planning notebook, I got to work. Roughly 30 minutes later (maybe a few minutes longer because I got distracted by the news of I85 collapsing in Atlanta- so glad no one was hurt but wow, what a transportation nightmare) I was ready with next week’s meal plan.
I put asterisks by the items that have coupons to remind me to snag the right version of an item while I’m shopping.
Since the notebook is a little hard to read, I’ll breakdown the dinners.
Friday (tonight): Pizza night! We’ll pick it up from Papa Murphy’s
Saturday: Grilled Chicken Sausage (on sale) with Summer Vegetable Barley Salad
Sunday: Gyro Pitas with Vegetables and Hummus
Monday: Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup (probably with quesadillas on the side for the kids)
Tuesday: Soft Tacos with Guacamole and Chips
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad
Thursday: Spicy Carrot Soup* and Grilled Cheese
*instead of using an , I’ll use , which is the same thing
The gyro recipe is so versatile, so I might throw mine over some zoodles like above.
I’m breaking own rule of no more than 1 new recipe a week, but both the BBQ quinoa salad and the carrot soup look fairly simple, so I’m hoping I don’t regret it.
I placed a pick up order from Walmart for a lot of the pantry items (they carry Dave’s Killer Bread and Eureka, both bread brands I love) and the cheese (they have Cabot, a brand I like and trust at a good price) and La Croix (which I forgot to write on my list). I’m staying with my effort of being more budget conscious.
If you haven’t done Walmart pick up before, it’s super easy. You order online then pull up and they come put it in your car. You can use this link and get $10 off your order, and I’ll get $10 as a referral too.
I spent $75 at Walmart and will head to Whole Foods for my produce, meats, bakery items, and beer.
Oh, I’ll also probably snag some tzatziki and which I forgot to put on the list.
Let me know what you think about sharing the meal plan ahead time and have a fantastic weekend!
Montessoriishmom says
Yay, I always love seeing your meal plans! The bbq chicken bowls and gyro burgers both sound so good. I normally grocery shop on Fridays too, but we’re all out of schedule from having people visit, so will probably go on Sunday instead this week – plenty of time to incorporate some of these recipes, thanks!
Heather Warner says
I like after just because we get the photo and your reaction to how it went over with the fam/did the new recipe work/subs in ingredients or cooking time 🙂 I love your meal planning details lists though!
Brittany Dixon says
I’ll make sure to switch it up so I’m reviewing recipes too. Just wanted to try it this way 🙂 Hope you have a great weekend Heather!
Carrie this fit chick says
Love getting inspiration for meals! Gyros are so dang good. I haven’t had one in AGES.
kAREN says
Looks great! I love before so I can get ideas because I try to meal plan on Friday since I typically shop on Saturday, now I can (copy haha) some of your meals for the week. The BBQ chicken quinoa salad might just be on my list to make. I love after too though because I love the photos and the discussion of how it went over, but hopefully you will post pics on Instagram stories or snapchat so I can see them.
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Brittany Dixon says
Oh great idea Karen! I’ll recap the meals on insta this week. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Emily K says
I love this. I do something similar, online pick-up from Walmart (my husband loves that he can just add things directly to the list) and then pick up from Whole Foods. My whole foods concierge allows me to email her my list and then pull up in front of the store and they bring out the groceries (they use the online coupons and everything). It has been a game changer since baby number two last year. Since I can pick them up on my way home from work. I love your meal plans and liked this different take on it!
Brittany Dixon says
You’re my grocery shopping twin! Now tell me about this whole foods concierge… does every store have them?!
Emily says
I know all the ones out here in Dallas do. It does cost a $5 shop fee sometimes (I get charged about once a month), but is really worth not having to drag my girls into the store on the weekends.
Kimberly says
I love these posts. The gyros always look so good! I want to try them but buying lamb totally intimidates me. In fact, the entire meat/seafood department at the grocery store intimidates me. I typically just stick to our boring chicken breasts and ground beef. Maybe silly but I’d love for you to do a little run down on buying meat. I look at all those packages and I have no idea what to buy for what recipe! Or how to tell if something would be good for grilling. I am dying to branch out from chicken and hamburger. Also- side question- when you have buns for hamburgers or hot dogs and you only use a couple that week, do you freeze the rest? I always end up with extra buns since there are only two of us here that eat them. Then the rest get stale and wasted.
Brittany Dixon says
Do you have a meat counter at your grocery store? Go and chat with them! Mine are always so friendly and help guide me towards the best cuts for what I want to make, as well as giving me tips on how to cook it. We don’t eat out much, so instead we sometimes buy something fun/different to cook up on Saturday just to try it out and experiment. I’m not willing to get too crazy on a weeknight, but on a weekend with wine, it is always a lot of fun!
Great question about the buns- if I buy them, I try to plan 2 meals that need buns for the same week to use them up. Otherwise I make the girls pb&js for lunch on the buns. I’ve even made bread crumbs out of them. Clearly I’m a little nuts about food waste 😉
JOHN J STATHAS says
Pass the gyros, please!
Leah says
I like meal plans either before or after. It all sounds great!
Jess says
Love your meal planning skills and hope one day I will actually follow through with mine own! Question- do you plan anything for desserts, snacks, etc? or do you just buy them in the store depending on cravings?? Cheers to IPA being on the beer list 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
We don’t actually do dessert on the regular and don’t snack much either. Don’t we sound like fun- ha! If we do snack, it’s usually either popcorn, yogurt, or bananas and almond butter with chocolate chips, all which I typically already have on hand. And yes, cheers to IPAs! 🙂
Sarah says
Great post! How do you decide what you’re going to eat each week? Do you just write down whatever ideas pop into your head at the time? Or do you have a master list of your go-to recipes as well as new recipes you want to try? I feel like I am always planning the same old meals and I kind of feel like I need to create a master list of all of our go-to meals so I don’t forget certain ones.
Brittany Dixon says
I have a mental bank of all my easy go-to meals (tacos, spaghetti, etc) to use as fill ins. As for the new recipes, I save recipes to my recipe collection on bloglovin, pin the on pinterest, or bookmark them. When I’m in the mood for something new, I go scroll. I almost always love recipes from peanutbutterrunner.com, what’s gaby cooking, wholefully, and pinch of yum, so I check their archives too!
Britt B says
I am on the same wavelength and planned on posting about my meal plan for next week 😛 I typically shop on Monday or Tuesday though (but I am starting a new job this week so that will probably change). I haven’t heard much about Walmart’s pick up service, though I have used Harris Teeter’s when I was under the weather and sent my hubby to pick it up 😛 I may need to check that out!
Brittany Dixon says
Congratulations on a new job!! That sounds exciting 🙂
Ali says
I like the before list because I get to get ideas for my own meals the following week. I too often look at my schedule for the week, factoring in weather, kids activities, hubby traveling, visitors, etc and try to plan smart!! I usually shop Saturday or Sunday and try to limit stops midweek. Totally broke the rules this last week- no list on Sunday and didn’t get enough food, nor did I account for visitors!
Haley says
How do you like shopping on Fridays? I started seriously meal planning at the beginning of March in an attempt to get a better grasp on my grocery (non)budget. But I was planning (and ordering) groceries on Sunday to pick up on Monday. I like the idea for Friday though because at my grocery store the meat and produce are delivered Wednesday so they are fresher. But with this pickup approach on Monday I feel like I’m always stopping by the store by the time we get to Saturday.
Thanks for the meal ideas. Trying to jump back on the bandwagon yet again for April!
Julia @ Drops of Jules says
The asterisk with coupons is such a smart trick. I will be all on my own next year in terms of cooking for my boyfriend and I (we are moving in together EEK), so I have it on my to-do list to now scour your site. You’re the role model for me when it comes to eating well, so I’m hoping to try out your recipes!
Annie says
That gyro recipe looks so good! I love seeing your meal plans!
Elizabeth says
What do you do about snacks? Do you normally have leftovers? I find that if I plan more than 3 real dinners per week that I overbuy and we waste food.
I do basically the same thing, but I do it on saturday & normally pick up my food on Sunday morning. I list everything out very similarly and get what I can from Walmart pick up (so easy!) – only buying the normal brand name pantry items that I would buy anywhere elese, and then I swing by Sprouts on the way home for meat & produce.
This week, I bought some extra things at Walmart and was so happy that they found EVERYTHING and I didn’t have to walk the aisles. I got: hairdryer (the only one I’ve ever remembered having just died), small toiletries for upcoming hospital stay (come on baby!), 30# charcoal (who wants to lift that at 9m preggo?), and a few other odds & ends.
My total bill was $119 at WM and $81 at Sprouts. I know we’ll go out to eat a few times. What is your average weekly bill and how often do you guys go out to eat?
Brittany Dixon says
We don’t really snack much at all (unless its popcorn with a movie or a busy afternoon when we’ll eat a larabar or something) which is probably why we never have leftovers. In fact, we are now running out of dinner before everyone is even full so I need to start making more.
As for eating out, we budgeted $400 a month for that, which usually allows for a weekly pizza pick up from papa murphy’s, a nice date night out, then about $100 of wiggle room (a coffee on the road, juice bar, etc). Other than that, we eat at home.
I can’t wait to hear the baby news!!! <3
Allison says
This meal plan saved me on Friday when I didn’t have one Of my own! We loved the BBQ quinoa bowls!! I also used your barley salad as inspiration for a pasta salad to use up some extra rotini we had. Tonight I’ll make the gyro burgers – unfortunately we are using ground turkey since Trader Joe’s didn’t have lamb 🙁 right now since baby # 2 arrived in January I can’t manage going to to many stores so I try to just get everything at TJs which is my favorite store anyway. I’ll have to look at that Walmart pick up though! I have used Target pick up but they don’t do groceries 🙁
Brittany Dixon says
Oh I’m so glad you liked the BBQ Quinoa bowls- that makes me excited to make them this week! I know Trader Joe’s has such a loyal following, but there isn’t one near me so I totally miss out. I can’t really complain though since here in the ‘burbs there is no shortage of shopping options. I hope the ground turkey works out for you. I would think with all the seasonings it would. Let me know! It’s a favorite around here 🙂
Allison says
Ground turkey was perfect! Thanks for the recipe!