Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Clean Eating Low Cost Weekly Meal Plan 4/11

I am SERIOUSLY psyched for this week's meal plan!! My kids LOVE mangoes and sweet potatoes and they are both on sale this week. Plus there's a sale on honey which always makes me do the happy dance. My great friend, Barb, and I are working on a very detailed report on natural sweeteners and honey is one of the best. Stay tuned for that article.

This week I'm particularly excited about the Salmon with Pineapple-Mango-Strawberry Salsa over Orange Lentils. I'll serve this with Kale Chips which are just too cool for words. The fact that you can make chips out of kale is up there with cauliflower becoming bread sticks. As far as the salmon goes, if you're not regularly cooking your fish in the crockpot, you are seriously missing out. You know I love my crockpot because it saves me hands-on time during the pre-dinner hour and doesn't heat up my kitchen. But in this recipe I love it even more because it makes perfectly cooked fish with lentils that my kids will happily eat. What could be better?! Plus, you can make the key ingredient for Last Night's Veggies Cookies while you're cooking the lentils. I know that sounds crazy but, once you see the recipe, you'll understand :)

Next up is seriously the most delicious Dutch Baby Pancake you've ever had in your life. My boys literally dance with joy when I make these. Then we're trying something new with the Moroccan Lamb Stir-Fry. As you may have noticed, I'm not all that creative when it comes to my protein sources. I rely pretty heavily on ground turkey and chicken breasts. This is something I've been working on and this week lamb is on sale so I thought I'd be a little adventurous and move out of my comfort zone. I think you'll like it. Finally, two of our family's tried and true (and willingly eaten by the toddlers) recipes: Lasagna and Sweet Potato Quesadillas.

As I mentioned last week, during the Summer I teach Survival Swim Lessons so I spend a lot of my day in the pool. I have an absolutely WONDERFUL helper, Danielle, who mommies my boys and helps me with the million and one other things that us moms do all day. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever met and I am eternally grateful for her help. Danielle is the ONLY reason I'll still be able to continue this blog during the summer so I would like to publicly shout, "Thank you, Danielle!!!! You are the BEST!!!"

Step 1: Find out what meat and produce is on sale for the week
This week at Publix Lamb and Salmon are on sale. In the produce section kale, sweet potatoes, celery, orange juice, strawberries, and mangoes are also on sale.

Step 2: Take an inventory of your pantry and freezer, check out what other items are on sale, and pick several recipes that use those ingredients.
There are good prices for canned tomatoes, ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, honey, raisins, canned pineapple, and chicken broth.

Step 3: Take a look at your calendar for the week and see which nights you’ll have more time to cook and which nights you won't and plan your menu accordingly.
This will be different for every family but, in general, I cook 3 or 4 nights a week and we eat something from our freezer stash the other nights. To learn how to build your own freezer stash go HERE.

Step 4: Get all of the recipes together and make a shopping list of what you’ll need.
Meals-
Sneaky Lasagna (with Spinach!)
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas
Salmon with Pineapple-Mango-Strawberry Salsa over Orange Lentils and Kale Chips - Coming Soon
Moroccan Lamb Stir-Fry - Coming Soon

Healthy Breakfasts/Snacks/Desserts-
Pina Colada Dutch Baby Pancakes
Last Night's Veggies Cookies

Here is a shopping list for the complete list of meals (not including snacks and desserts) based on you having nothing in your pantry or freezer. You will obviously omit the items that you already have. Go HERE for an explanation of the couponing abbreviations. The top list has all of the coupon matchups. There is a second list at the bottom that just lists the items with no match-ups and is a little easier to read.

Coupon Matchup List - Coming Soon
Non-Coupon Matchup List - Coming Soon

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