Experiments in Meal Planning

One of the ways I’m trying to make healthy changes in my life is to get better at meal planning. I used to buy the same ingredients every week without any specific meals in mind and wing it. What resulted was a lot of hodge podge meals and sometimes sticking to snacking when I didn’t have enough to put a “real meal” together.

Before grocery shopping this week I surfed the internet for some healthy meal ideas to help plan my shopping trip. Here’s my Trader Joe’s haul:

Meats and Cheeses
Salmon
Garlic Herb Chicken Sausage
Chicken Breast
Mozzarella

Fruits and Veggies
Apples
Heirloom Tomatoes
Grape Tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Lemons
Sweet Potato
Cucumber
Mixed Veggies – Frozen Bag

Miscellaneous Items
Quinoa
Vegetable Broth
Canned Black Beans
Greek Yogurt
Granola Bars

And for dessert my favorite Trader Joe’s guilty pleasure:

Dark chocolate covered pretzels dipped in peanut butter! Yum.

Obviously, I have other items in my kitchen already including brown rice, whole wheat pasta, canned goods and some vegetables and fruit left over from my last grocery store trip. I have several meals planned for these items including a caprese salad, pasta with chicken sausage, kale and garlic, and chicken with chickpeas and grape tomatoes. I hope that having these meals planned in advance will help keep me on track.

Here’s what I made last night:

Salmon cooked in oil, garlic and lemon and quinoa with basil, cucumber, feta, grape tomatoes and lemon. The first night of meal planning was a success!