Sunday Meal Prep- Steal a Full Week of Meals
Happy Sunday! I’ve decided to start a new monthly series (possibly more frequently if I can make it happen) where I share our full week of meal planning, including links to recipes, a full grocery list, and tips.
Lately, I have been shopping at Aldi, and I have to say that it’s been saving us quite a bit of money! Who doesn’t love that? Especially as we all have noticed the constant increase in prices, this was one way to help cut back a teeny bit on costs, while not sacrificing quality of our foods. Of course, there are other stores I prefer for certain items (I really prefer Kroger Amish brand all-natural air-chilled chicken, it just tastes sooo much better to me), but I would say that we can purchase 90-95% of our items at Aldi.
I’ll share the full grocery haul below including a detailed list of what we bought this week. However, for reference, I was typically spending between $175-200/week on groceries at Kroger on a weekly basis. This grocery haul was just about $ 125 in total. I will acknowledge that this did NOT include the cost of chicken breast, which I had already previously purchased at Kroger, as well as any other staples that we already had at home.
My Method for Meal Planning Each Week
It’s important to have at least some type of strategy when you go into planning your meals and grocery list for the week. I know that it can get a bit overwhelming trying to determine what to make, ensure that it meets all your family’s needs, etc., so I wanted to touch a little on my process and what’s been working for us.
I keep a running list of groceries in my Google Keep app. My husband and I have access to the note, which means we can both update it throughout the week when we notice items that need to be purchased. I use the checkbox feature as well so that as I’m shopping or making plans, I just check off the items already in my cart so I can see exactly what’s left. If I’ll be shopping in person, I like to organize my list based on the layout of the store, which saves a lot of time.
We have set aside Wednesday or Thursday night each week as our designated ‘meal planning’ night. By doing this, we know we have the time to sit down together, go over what our week looks like, and what items we’ll need. Of course, there are a lot of staple items that we always buy, so those are typically already added to the list. At this point, we’ll go through a few of our trusted cookbooks, food blogs, etc. to find meals for the week for lunches and at least 1-2 dinner options.
Lunches are the most important meal for us, as we both work full-time and will not have time during the week to cook and prep these meals. With this in mind, we always account for a total of 10 lunches and ensure that we pick up any extras (like lunch meat, etc.) in case we were to run out. This makes the work week run so much smoother!
For dinners, we often try to use up what we have from the freezer options first. We’ll pick a protein, a moderate amount of carbs, and then a veggie. Fats are typically used during cooking, so we often don’t need to account for that in the planning process (think cooking with butter or oil, adding butter to potatoes or bread, etc.).
We also have 1 year old son, so we also have to account for his meals for daycare as well. I keep a pretty basic rotation of staples for him so we don’t need to think too much about it: milk, eggs, yogurt, fruit, sourdough, peanut butter, lentil pasta, applesauce or veggie pouches, cheerios, Kodiak cakes (for pancakes and muffins), etc. We try our best to offer him whatever we are eating for dinner each night as well.
Cookbooks and Food Blogs I love:
There are so many good ones, but we tend to come back to these ones over and over again. Most already include the nutrition facts as well, which is a huge help!
- Macro Friendly Foods (I prefer the cookbook over the full monthly subscription)
- Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table (editions 1-3; definitely more of a comfort food option and you’ll need to calculate macros if that’s your thing)
- Lauren Fit Foodie (great macros and her food is always delicious)
- Jordo’s World (very practical, easy options, with great macros)
- Lillie Eats and Tells (I love her cookbooks, but she also has recipes on her website as well, very macro-friendly)
- Pinterest (I often just search on here for what’s sounding good that week and try to find healthier options, or use the general basis of a recipe and make my own tweaks based on what ingredients I have on hand. Here’s a link to my food board)
- Erin Lives Whole (whole based meals with great macros)
- Madeline Moves Meals Made Simple (I actually don’t have this one but use all her past Tighter Together recipes and this would be very similar. Also has lots of swaps for gluten/dairy free needs. Macros included!)
This Week’s Meal Plan:
We have been sick for the last 10 or so days, so the goal of this week’s meal plan was to be comfort food, protein focused, and must be EASY meal prep. With that in mind, we went with some warm, rich meals like pot roast and chicken pot pie! We get high protein from the roast and chicken, and sneak in some veggies with both meals. Bonus- they were both pretty easy prep!
Joanna Gaines Sunday Pot Roast
Sunday Pot Roast Recipe – Magnolia
I LOVE this recipe and have made it a bunch of times at this point. I often do it in the crockpot, but Nick recently bought me a Dutch oven, which is the intended method for the recipe. I tried it this time, and it turned out great! Honestly this was easier, because with the crockpot, I tend to have to cook it for much longer (about 8-10 hours on low). I’ve linked two options below for the Dutch oven I have- I’d highly recommend it! Also comes in different size options and lots of other pretty colors!
Essential Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven | Shop Online | Lodge Cast Iron
I have the Evergreen color in a 6 qt, and it fits the full pot roast recipe above very well! If I needed to add anything else, I would need the 7.5 qt option.
Pillsbury Classic Chicken Pot Pie
I do make a few small changes to this recipe to boost the protein content. In almost every recipe, I like to swap plain chicken broth with bone broth. This has significantly more protein without changing any of the qualities! I also added a little extra chicken to plump it up a bit per serving and ensure we can get a good serving!
Classic Chicken Pot Pie Recipe – Pillsbury.com
Full Grocery Haul:
- Produce:
- Raspberries, 3 packs
- Strawberries, 2 packs
- Blackberries, 2 packs
- Brussels sprouts, 2 bags
- Baby Spinach, 1 container
- Fresh Ginger, 1 bag
- Apples, 1 bag
- Yellow Onions, 1 bag
- Celery, 1 bunch
- Baby Potatoes, 2 lbs.
- Baby Carrots, 1 lb.
- Meats:
- Sirloin Roast, 3-5 lbs.
- Deli Ham, 2 lbs.
- Bacon, 1 package
- Dairy/Refridgerated Items
- Whole Milk, 1 gallon
- Vanilla Greek Yogurt, 4 pack of individuals
- Large, Cage-free Eggs, one dozen
- Pie Crust, 1 package
- Shredded Mozzarella, 8 cups
- Shredded Cheddar cheese, 4 cups
- Grass-fed Butter, 2 sticks
- Miscellaneous Items:
- Tomato Sauce, 5 oz.
- Frozen Mixed Veggies, 3-10 oz bags
- Low Sodium Chicken Broth, 32 oz.
- Protein Pancake/Waffle Mix, 2 boxes
- Sourdough Bread, 1 loaf
I hope this post is helpful to you! I know I have loved reading other posts like this in the past when I was overwhelmed with meal planning and trying to navigate healthy eating habits for the whole family! Let me know if you have a process you follow, or another food blogger/cookbook that you love in the comments 🙂