After lots of talk about planning meals, here is my menu plan for this week. Next week, I’ll be back to tell you how it went! I do my planning on Thursday nights, shop Friday and then start the plan with dinner Friday night. That’s just what works for me and my family.

My Menu Plan

Friday Whole Wheat Pasta with roasted vegetables and pine nuts
Saturday Gazpacho [Daisy pg 67] with grilled cheese sandwiches (on homemade no-knead bread [Bread pg 52])
Sunday Pizza with whole wheat crust topped with sauce, cheese, spinach and sautéed mushrooms
Monday BBQ sandwiches on whole wheat buns with cabbage slaw [Veg pg 261]
Tuesday Pork tacos with celery, olives, Monterey Jack cheese and salsa
Wednesday Quesadillas with more pork, peppers, and arugula salad
Thursday Pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs OR leftovers

Shopping List

Produce

cabbage bell peppers mushrooms carrots celery scallions arugula tomatoes (+ other veg to roast for pasta) spinach bananas grapes cherries + 1 other fruit

Dry Goods

pine nuts green juice chocolate candies all-purpose flour whole wheat flour black olives 1 can tomato sauce spiral pasta x 2 tortillas hamburger buns

Cold

milk butter cheese (for grilled cheese) Monterey Jack cheese plain yogurt

Frozen

ice cream meatballs

Other

1 bottle lager beer (1 cup for bread)

Items already on hand

Onion, shallot, cilantro, olive oil, cucumber, mozzarella cheese, lime, vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder

Some notes on this week’s menu plan

  1. This plan took me a bit longer than usual. I knew it was going to be published ;-)!
  2. It appears this week is pork week… it’s involved in 3 recipes which is not typical. We have a freezer full of pork from a local farm and I wanted to use one of the larger pieces. On Monday I am making a 4-1/2 pound shoulder roast in the Crock Pot. My kids are still small so we don’t blow through a ton of meat at one meal. Also, when a meal is balanced with other options, meat goes a bit further.
  3. Along with lots a pork, this week includes lots of baking. I want to try at least one new recipe from my Bread Illustrated cookbook. I am 3 recipes into it and loving it so far. If you follow along with my meal plan, you can easily skip all the baking and pick up bread and pizza dough at the store. (Baking is just something I enjoy when I don’t have to be anywhere.)
  4. Pasta is in the menu plan twice which is unusual for me. But with summer tomatoes in season, I want to make the roasted veggie “sauce” and need a super-fast no-brainer for Thursday night before I leave for a 6pm running class.
  5. I don’t have a night off! Being my first published plan, I am being ambitious without a night off from cooking. We’ll see how that turns out…

Cookbooks used in the plan

Affiliate links:
Daisy = Daisy Cooks! By Daisy Martinez
Bread = Bread Illustrated by America’s Test Kitchen
Veg = The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen

Next, see how the week went with some pics. Here’s the full report starting with grocery shopping.

Happy eating!
Sandy