One of the most important things to help me stick to the Paleo diet is to meal plan. I take an hour or two out of my week (usually Thursday night) to plan out my meals for the next week. This helps get me excited about cooking, trying new recipes and ensures that I always have healthy meals and snacks on hand for the week to come. I always budget in extra portions of dinner so I have leftovers for the next day’s lunch. I also usually have a few back-up meals in the freezer for those nights I really don’t want to cook.
I have small dry erase boards on the fridge where I write out our meal plan and also write a list of what we have in the fridge (mostly for Joe so he knows what there is to eat). This helps a ton! I’m working on my meal plan for next week tonight so I thought I’d share what I have planned so far:
Sunday – Cinco de Mayo! We are having Steak Fajitas (recipe to come) with bell peppers, onions and guacamole. I’m thinking about making these Paleo margaritas too.
Monday – Chicken Meatballs with Spaghetti Squash. We are getting some homemade Italian sausage from Joe’s boss tomorrow and I’m excited to use it in that recipe.
Tuesday – I have yoga class so I’ll be home late and need something easy. Chipotle Chicken Salad with tomatoes and avocado (another new recipe to come!).
Wednesday – Hawaiian Burgers. I’ll probably alter the recipe a bit because I already have some local ground beef in the freezer to use instead of turkey. I also might not make the salsa but we’ll see.
Thursday – Leftovers. I know I have some shredded pork in the freezer and some steaks. I’ll just add some veggies like roasted Brussels sprouts or asparagus and some sweet potatoes.
Friday – We usually go out on Friday nights or I come up with some new recipe to try that day. This one’s still up in the air.
Our Farmer’s Market opens on Saturday and I’m super excited. I’m really hoping to walk away with some farm fresh eggs and some good local meat. I’m not sure what the veggie selection will be like yet but we’ll see. Well get to it and get your meals planned!