Organized Weekly Dinners

Sometimes the simplest organizing steps can make a tremendous impact on your day-to-day routine. This week, I'm sharing a little tweak I've made to my weekly schedule and how it has reduced stress, saved time and a little money.

First, let me explain why the change was necessary. Every week, Brit and I try to make dinner at home at least 4 nights, with Friday being our "big night out" {which basically consists of ordering pizza, watching a movie, and forgetting all the struggles of the week}. During the week, I would go to the grocery store probably 3-4 times. If you're doing the math, yes, you're correct. I was basically at the store Mon-Thurs after work. If you've ever stopped by the store during the hours of 5pm and 7pm on a weekday, you know this is the WORST time to venture there. Yet I did. Everyday.

See, I was only planning one day at a time. I would forget that I needed to prepare for all of the other days in the week. And of course there would always be that one day when I just can't deal with the stress of the store and either ask Brit to stop on his way home, or we would just order some last minute dinner. Some might think why don't you always order, you live in NYC with every cuisine at your fingertips. True, but I don't have a disposable income or the metabolism of a 12 year old boy.

For the last few weeks, I've been implementing my new, organized plan, and it's actually been quite successful! Here's how it works.

Pick your meals:
On Sunday night or sometimes Monday morning, I sit down and pick out at least 4 meals to have throughout the week. So far, I've really only been looking at my Feed Me Pinterest board for meals. I pin all of these delicious looking dinners and often times forget about them. So I've been having some fun experimenting. I have created a separate board called This Week's Dinner for the recipes I plan to make for the week. This has really helped as well. It allows me to easily pull up the recipe without having to scroll through a bunch of other pins. And, once the week is finished, I'll move the recipe into yet another Pinterest board, I've Made That, where I keep all of the recipes we've made and want to make again. I try to write little notes to myself in the description so that I can remember just how much I liked it or other tips I might use for next time. If we don't really enjoy the recipe very much, I simply delete the pin.

Prepare your list:
I've shared my grocery list organizer before, but I'll share it again just in case you're interested. I prepare a grocery list based on each recipe I've picked and organize the list based on the store layout. For example, most grocery stores have produce right when you walk in, so that is the first section I put on my list. Here is a link to the grocery list for the recipes shared below {however you probably already have a lot of these items in your kitchen}

I've started trying to pick recipes that use similar ingredients so that I don't have to waste anything or worry about something going bad. This also helps with reducing spending. If I know a recipe calls for 1/2 a sweet onion, I'm going to keep my eye out for another recipe that calls for the same thing.

Once I've decided what's for dinner, I write it up on our freshly emptied chalkboard {quite possibly my favorite part}. I absolutely love being able to use these boards, again.

Go shopping:
My shopping day is currently Monday. Most of the time the store I frequent is not too bad on a Monday, so I don't feel like gouging my eyeballs out once I step through the doors. I pick up everything for all four meals in this one trip. The only hiccup with this is that in NYC you carry what you buy. I bring a large shopping bag of my own {go green!} and try to buy as few jars and cans of food as possible.

By planning ahead, I am also able to allot enough time in my day to venture to the inexpensive grocery store. It's a little bit further than the other store in my neighborhood, but because I know I'm only going once, I'm perfectly happy walking a few extra blocks.

Eat dinner:
Of course I wouldn't write a post about meal planning without sharing some of the meals we've had. I took some pictures, but I used my phone so the quality is pretty bad, and I'm not good at cooking and capturing all at once.

This week I made:
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

- Greek Tortellini Salad

- Buffalo Chicken Quinoa

- Roasted Red Pepper Pasta 

Chicken Bacon Ranch - recipe from TasteandTellBlog

CBR pizza is typically something we'd order on a Friday night, but the Browns had a preseason game on Monday, so we had to make something special for the big night. 

It was absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making this one again! I used Pillsbury pizza crust, because it's super easy and super delicious.

Greek Tortellini Salad - recipe from TwoPeasandTheirPod

This is the second time I've made this recipe. Obviously, I love it. It's super simple, the worst part is chopping up the ingredients but that can be completed in the time it takes the tortellini to be ready. This will

definitely become a go-to for us. 

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa - recipe from HalfBakedHarvest

This is another one I've made before. Buffalo chicken is a big hit in our home, and we both love quinoa so when I originally saw this recipe I was all over it! I do make a few alterations, because if Brit even smells broccoli in our apartment he complains that it smells like farts and leaves. So I take out the broccoli. I also have never added the cabbage, mainly because I'm too lazy to buy a cabbage and shred it, and the grocery store I use doesn't sell any prepackaged. Maybe one day though. 

I don't have any other pictures of this one because this is really all it takes. Prepare quinoa, throw in the rest. Enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta - recipe from CravingsOfALunatic {how amazing is that blog name!}
If you like spicy, you'll love this. I was getting a little nervous as I was making it that my mouth would catch fire because of all the spiciness in the air. But it was truly the perfect amount of spice.

I used green onion instead of shallots for this recipe, since I was already buying the green onion for a couple of the other recipes. This meal could be prepared quite quickly as long as you plan ahead {have food processor out and ready}, it still didn't take very long but I probably could have finished faster if I read ALL of the recipe first.

We had leftovers with all of these recipes {just 2 of us, but eating enough for 3-4}, which was great because I was able to take them into work for lunch the next day. Saving even more $$. Happy wallet, happy me.

With the extra time I had from not going to the store so much this week, I was able to prepare some homemade pita chips and hummus {my favorite "meal"}.

Since I started planning meals in advance, I really so much more relaxed and I don't dread my commute home as much knowing that I don't have to stop at the store. It's amazing what a big difference and small change can make.

So, now I'm starving. I would never survive as a food blogger. How do you plan your weekly meals?

Thanks for visiting!