Well, guys, you’ve kinda failed me on the whole… submitting-your-meal-plans-to-me-so-I-can-put-them-up-here-in-my-cool-new-series-I-was-so-excited-about thing! 😉
Nah, I’m just kidding. I know that most of us are meal-planner wannabes, not meal-planner pros, so there might not be many of you out there with a weekly plan to contribute yet.
Also, my bribery list of goodies to give you in exchange for a submission is pretty lame as of right now — ten entries into a contest I haven’t put up yet, plus an IOU for a free book that I haven’t yet published — LOL. I know. Sorry. I’m working on it!
Anyway, I did want to pass along this week something extra cool to share with y’all. My friend Lydia, over at Divine Health from the Inside Out is doing meal planning posts every week too! How cool is that? So this week, let’s just all head over to her meal plan post and check out what she’s got cookin’, k?
Here’s a little sneak peek of the post from Divine Health:
Dinner #1
Spaghetti and Meat Sauce (with brown rice noodles for the kids – I used a variation of the recipe that I linked to for the Meat sauce, I’ll be posting my version soon!)
Zucchini ‘Pasta’ (for me – I use this handy little tool to make zucchini noodles)
Grated Raw Parmesan Cheese
Mixed Baby Green Salad with whatever veggies I have on hand chopped up and thrown in
Homemade Salad Dressing (my kids love my Poppyseed dressing, but usually it’s just a very basic vinaigrette)
Dinner #2 (for a busy night!)
Applegate Farms Grassfed Beef Hot Dogs, pan fried in lard and served on skewers with no bun. Organic ketchup and mustard for dipping.
Sliced veggies (we always have carrots and celery, sometimes cucumbers, peppers or snap peas)
Popsicles (made from leftover smoothies)
…
There’s several more full dinner plans listed with links to some more of Lydia’s amazing recipes, so go check it out for some menu inspiration!
Just a reminder though, I still want to hear from you all! Here’s a recap of what I was thinking:
Now, it’s your turn!
To be featured in this series, submit a week’s worth of meal planning from your meal calendar — preferably with links to recipes if they can be found online — to me by email: emily @ butterbeliever . com (minus the anti-spammy spaces.) Of course since we’re all about real, traditional food around here, your meals have got to be legit. So obviously, no toxic, fake, or processed ingredients. If you’re not sure what counts as real food and what doesn’t, dig around here a little or just ask me.
Your weekly meal plan could be as simple as just a list with days of the week and what you’re feeding your household for each day — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and hopefully even a few snacks or dessert thrown in there. Or you could get fancy, and submit an image from your meal calendar, or a spreadsheet, or whatever. We just wanna know what you eat!
Also, feel free to include your take any of the other topics I discussed last week. I want to hear more about your real food lifestyle! Pictures are great, too. (More info about all that can be found in the original announcement post, too.)
(What’s in it for me?)
If your submission is chosen to be featured, you’ll get some goodies!
- A free e-book. My very first e-book to be sold on the site is coming shortly, and each featured Meal Plan Monday submitter will be getting a free copy. (as soon as it’s ready!) It’ll be worth like, lots of money of course.Â
- 10 bonus entries into the next giveaway. Whatever the next prize giveaway is here at BB, you’ll get 10 bonus entries for free!
- Promotion of your blog or website. You’ll of course get a link and I’ll write you a little blurb, but you could also include links to your own recipes in your weekly meal plan!
So, if you’d like to participate, send in your submissions and I’ll start posting them — and giving you your goodies, of course! I can’t wait to see what you’ve all got planned in your kitchens. See you back here next week!
I swear we’re going to send you meal plans!!! We wanted to post the recipes first, so people could go to them… got busy… well, you know how it goes!
Kelsy studies her planner and plans meals for each week religiously! Then she transfers the basics to a whiteboard on the fridge so the kids (and I) can answer “what’s for breakfast/dinner/lunch/snack” questions ten times a day without pestering her too much 🙂
Meal planning is a good thing. And Kelsy will write it up much better than I ever could 😉
When my kids were home, and both DH & I working, it made sense to do meal planning this way. With just DH and I now, and only me working outside the home; I shop once a week for fresh items (milk & eggs & farm market items) but everything else is here in bulk at the house via pick up at the farm (meat), grown here (fruits and veggies), or delivered by UPS (spices, flour, coffee, paper goods). We decide daily what sounds good for dinner that day. We have bone broth or bacon and eggs for breakfast with coffee and KT, left overs and salads for lunch and so the only meal we “plan” is dinner. Friday is either pizza or soup. Sunday is a large roasted fowl (duck, chicken or turkey). The rest of the week is impromtu based on what is pulled out of the freezer that morning. Hubby cooks on nights I work. I cook on the weekends and holiday and vacation days.
I, too, was so hoping for a multitude of submissions because I really struggle with meal planning. Although I am an organized person (almost obsessively so), I cannot seem to get meal planning down… perhaps it is the multiple food allergies or our ever-changing food preferences, but I just cannot stick to a plan. However, I am motivated enough to win the e-book that I might just sit down and look at next week… it is the end of the month anyway and I’ll need to get creative to keep within our budget!
I’ll definitely send you an email as we provide healthy and delicious REAL FOOD Meal Plans every week at The Better Mom, which includes links to all of the recipes. We hope you’ll give us a shout out sometime! Blessings, Kelly
http://www.thebettermom.com/bi-weekly-meal-plans/
I do weekly meal plans but I don’t do it the way you do it. I see diet as a very individual thing for everyone and each family is very different in their needs and likes. I do a meal plan every week for 5 dinners. For breakfast we usually do things like smoothies and eggs, and lunches are typically left overs. We do 5 meals a week that gives us enough food to enjoy leftovers for lunches and dinner one night a week and then the 7th night we leave open to wing it or occasionally enjoy a meal out. If you’d like I can send you my meals although you may not view ours as complete.
I just sent you my meal plan for next week for my husband and I. It’s only dinners, as he works during the day and packs the same thing (sandwich, diet dr pepper, crackers. He’s a work in progress.) and I eat leftovers or smoothies, or whatever during the week. It’s also not perfectly real food, there are some store bought compromises (organic tortilla chips, organic BBQ sauce, etc.) but it’s where we’re at. I don’t have a blog (yet!) but it has some links to other website’s recipes.