Meals & Groceries: Week 2
How to Incorporate Meal Planning In Your Life
Meal planning is one of my favorite parts of my weekly routine! I love picking out the meals I’ll eat for the upcoming week, making a list of groceries, and grocery shopping to prepare for the new week. It’s a weekly reset task that makes me feel so put together and like I’m starting the week off on a good note!
I think that meal planning is best when it’s simple, fun, and realistic; but what does that really mean? Well, let’s break it down.
Simple meal planning is straight to the point and not overdone. For me, I meal plan dinners only and then adjust the ingredients in each recipe so I have leftovers for lunch the next day. Some people might think eating the same meal twice is boring, but I value the simplicity in it. It reduces the variety of groceries I need which is super helpful.
Fun meal planning means that I’m incorporating different recipes that spark my interest or maybe even look challenging to recreate. My husband and I both love to cook and think that food is one of the most enjoyable parts of life. Because of that mindset we like to cook delicious meals and play around with plating to make it seem like we’re eating super fancy meals!
Realistic meal planning takes into account the ebbs and flows of life. Some days you’re not going to feel like cooking, which is why I never pick 7 recipes for a week. For me that’s not realistic. I know I’ll go out for dinner once a week and I usually plan a “low-cook” meal (think Trader Joes Kung Pao Chicken) for each week too.
What My Meal Planning Looks Like
Towards the end of each week, I set aside some time to meal plan for the upcoming week. It usually takes me about 20 minutes or less to check my weekly meal planning routine off my to-do list!
A typical meal planning session looks like this:
- Assess my schedule for the week ahead
- Pick out delicious and healthy dinner recipes
- Check the pantry/fridge and make a grocery list
The part of meal planning that used to easily overwhelm me was actually picking the recipes. There are millions of online recipes, so it can be hard to make quick decisions about what to include in your meal plan. I have found that having some sort of loose structure can make choosing meals way easier.
I created the below template that helps guide me towards what recipes to pick for dinners based off the protein source. This helps me in two ways: one being that it ensures I’m incorporating a variety of meats into my week and two being that it keeps me creative and trying new recipes! I simply look for a recipe with the protein source being my guide.
Things to Keep In Mind
There are a few things to keep in mind if you’re going to use my meal plans as inspiration for your life.
- The first thing is that I’m usually cooking for just two people, myself and my husband. Sometimes we’ll have friends or family over for dinner, but most nights it’s just the two of us.
- The second thing is that I don’t do all my grocery shopping at one store. This might sound inconvenient, but usually it’s worth it financially. We have a Costco membership and once a month we will buy meat, protein powder, and a few other items as needed in bulk. The rest of my grocery shopping I do at any local grocery store. Sometimes I’ll check the grocery ads to see if what I need is on sale anywhere, but usually I go to Trader Joes, Jewel Osco, or Target.
- A third thing is that my husband and I really center our life around food and that healthy, homecooked meals are important to us. We love connecting at the end of the day over a tasty meal and think that dinners are the perfect vehicle for catching up and planning our future!
This Week’s Meal Plan
After following my “protein picking” meal template, I’ll decide which days I want to eat those meals and usually accompany each meal with a vegetable if the recipe does not include one already. This is a simple step to ensure you’re getting your daily dose of vegetables!
Here’s my meal plan for this week! I’ve included a list of recipes where applicable below!
- Sunday – Pan Seared Tilapia
- No recipe! Just simply pan searing it this Sunday to keep it simple!
- Monday – Pork Chop & Mushroom Stroganoff
- Tuesday – Chicken Breast Cutlet w Bell Peppers
- Wednesday – Asian Pineapple Ginger Beef w Broccoli
- Thursday – Chicken Thighs in Shallot Butter w Asparagus
- Friday – Dinner Out w Friends
- Saturday – Dinner Out w Friends
As I mentioned earlier, my meal planning is dinner-centric, meaning that I only specifically plan what I’m going to eat for dinner. For lunches, I do one of two things: I either eat leftovers from dinner the night before or I’ll eat one of the below simple lunches. I try to keep ingredients for these quick and easy lunches on hand.
- Eggs & English Muffin
- Chicken Tenders
- Tuna Salad
- Chicken Wings
- Dumplings
- Pasta Salad
The Grocery List and How Much I Spent
Now it’s time to make the grocery list! This part of the meal planning process is pretty important because being disciplined with your grocery list means that you will have quicker grocery shopping trips with less impulsive buys and a smaller grocery bill.
Here’s the all-inclusive grocery list for this week’s meal plan! I’ve separated seasonings/pantry staples and listed those at the bottom since you probably already have those on hand. It’s also worth noting that I usually buy two types of fruit each week at the grocery store so that I can snack on it throughout the week.
Recipe Ingredients
- Tilapia Fillet – 1 lb
- Parsley
- Pork Loin – 1.5 lb
- Onion
- Mushrooms – 3 cups
- Chicken Broth – 2 cups
- Sour Cream (I always replace this with greek yogurt)
- Wide Egg Noodles
- Chicken Breast – 2 lbs or so
- Eggs
- Panko Breadcrumbs
- Parmesan Cheese
- Garlic
- Lemon
- Ground Beef – 1.5 lbs
- Ginger
- Broccoli
- Pineapple
- Green Onions
- Sesame Seeds
- Persian Cucumbers – 4
- Cilantro
- Thai Basil (I’m using regular basil)
- Limes – 2
- Peanuts
- Chicken Thighs – 4+
- Shallot
- White Wine (I’m using pinot noir since I have it already)
- Milk (Not needed for the recipes but needed for my morning coffee!)
Pantry Staples
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Soy Sauce
- Thai Chili Sauce
- Salt
- Pepper
- Paprika
- Dijon Mustard
- Chili Flakes
My total grocery bill this week was $26.37.
This might seem low, but that’s because I did my monthly Costco trip last week and already have all the meats I need, which is usually the most expensive part of the grocery list. If you want to see everything I bought at Costco last week, check out last week’s meal plan guide where I included a photo of my receipt: Meals & Groceries: Week of March 2, 2025!
This week I did half of my grocery shopping at Jewel Osco and half of it at Trader Joes. It’s unusual for me to split up my “non-meat” grocery shopping between two stores, but this week Jewel Osco had really good deals on most of the produce I needed, so I decided it’d be worth the extra trip.
At Jewel Osco, my total was $10.35. Below is a photo of the receipt:
At Trader Joes, my total was $16.02. Below is a photo of my Trader Joes receipt:
Enjoy a Week of Tasty Meals!
I hope this meal planning guide is helpful to you and that it can take off some of the mental load that comes with making sure your family will have healthy and nutritious meals for the upcoming week! Ever since Samuel and I got married, I’ve loved my weekly reset where I meal plan for the upcoming week, but I realize not everyone enjoys meal planning.
If you’re someone who dreads meal planning, whether it’s because of decision paralysis with picking recipes or overthinking if you’ve got all the groceries you need, hopefully this weekly meal plan series can help alleviate some of that stress!
See you next week with another meal plan!
-Leah
