a really simple meal plan v.22
treat yourself to a week of delicious food!!!
Another month, another meal plan! This month we focused extra hard on finding recipes from the archives with overlapping ingredients to keep your grocery list as tight as possible. You’ll use breadcrumbs, eggs, garlic, Parm, arugula, cabbage, and a bunch of oils, spices, and fresh herbs multiple times. Even so — like always with these really simple meal plans — you’ll be getting a wide variety of nutrients and flavors throughout your week.
Like we discussed on Monday, we’re all for meal repetition à la The Menu to keep weeknight cooking doable and grocery bills reasonable. But we hope this meal plan helps you step outside of your normal rotation for a week and try some new meals. Report back if you do!!
As always, we’ve provided a shopping list organized by aisle. These meals are written to feed between four and six people, so, if you’re feeding one or two, you can halve the recipes or cut a few meals from the line up. To modify the grocery list in any way (like if you’re using vegetarian proteins, cutting gluten, skipping or swapping a meal, etc.), copy and paste this master shopping list into a new Google doc (or phone Note) and edit away to make it perfect for you!
link to printer version
LUNCH PREP: curry roasted chicken and cauliflower salad
Instead of arugula (which would wilt), thinly slice half a head of cabbage for your salad base. It’ll stand up well dressed in the fridge all week. We’re going to use the second half of cabbage later this week.
Optional: If you want to stretch the salad further (or just add some extra nutrients!), chop up a bunch of kale (either lacinato or curly kale work) and add it to the cabbage base.
Unless you want to buy two types of nuts, use cashews since you’re already buying them. (You will need to have 1/4 cup left for dinner on night #4.) Wait to add the nuts to each individual serving so they don’t get soggy in the fridge.
The apple might brown a little bit but that’s nbd to me, I’d go ahead and mix it in!
DINNER DAY #1: sheet-pan miso-ginger salmon
You can use cilantro, basil, and/or a thinly sliced scallion as your garnish since you’ll have them in the fridge.
DINNER DAY #2: steak, salad, + garlic frites
Go ahead and cook all the steak you bought tonight! Eat 2 steaks for dinner and let the other 2 cool, then store them in an airtight container for dinner later this week.
DINNER DAY #3: fried egg pasta with garlicky crunchies
Boil half of another box of spaghetti noodles along with the whole box you’ll use for tonight’s dinner. When the noodles are done, reserve a third (-ish, no need to stress about being precise here) of the noodles for tomorrow night’s dinner. Let the reserved noodles cool then store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
DINNER DAY #4: thai-ish steak and noodle salad
You’ve already cooked the noodles and steak for this meal — rewarm them in a skillet over medium heat until heated through (or in a 250°F oven for about 10 minutes). Make your dressing, chop your veg, and mix!
Leftovers of this meal would be amazing for lunch tomorrow, if you’ve run out of your meal-prepped salad.
DINNER DAY #5: sesame schnitzel
Save a handful or 2 of arugula for…
BONUS: A fancy breakfast for one
At the end of the week you’ll have 2 eggs leftover — make yourself a fancy omelet with those + leftover fresh green herbs + absolutely any cheese you have in your fridge + a side arugula salad. Everyone else in the fam can eat milk and cereal or frozen waffles or whatever they want. You deserve this!
Want more meal plans? Cook through these next, or browse all past meal plans here.
a really simple meal plan v.14
I would like to echo everyone's appreciation for these meal plans. I honestly wish there was one a week rather than one per month. This right here is why I got a subscription and tell all my friends they should subscribe.
If I could ask for one thing it would be for more vegetarian dishes. For various reasons I try to eat less meat and I was doing pretty well until my second was born and I couldn't spare the bandwidth to meal plan accordingly anymore. I know you always provide a modification for it, but it would be even better if that was the original vision for the dish :)
LOL cooking a special breakfast just for you is what the mom does in the movie Friday and I have always LOVED that scene. This looks wonderful - thank you as always for these meal plans!!!!!!