I try to plan meals at the beginning of the week—but it IS hard!!

I like to use Pinterest... I pin recipes during the week, and then I'll do a quick inventory of my kitchen and pantry to see what I have. Then I'll browse what I've pinned and pick out the things that work with what I already have! I'll write them down on a magnet pad I got from Target that has a meal schedule on one half and a shopping list on the other. Then, I'll add to the list whatever ingredients I don't have.

I like to pick what I feel like eating for that day, so I actually don't stick to a "this what I eat on Monday, then this on Tuesday... etc" sort of plan. I'll make a plan for the week, with 7 days of dinners, then just pick from the list each day. That way I still feel like I'm eating what I want to eat and feel like on any specific day. I'll save leftovers for lunches so I don't have to spend time packing in the evening—and I'll often freeze more than one lunch, so I can have sometime in the future. I hate having the same leftovers more than one day in a row!!

Sometimes I'll do a bunch of cooking on a weekend day, like Sunday, and pack or freeze those meals. I usually pick intensive recipes for the weekends—I really enjoy cooking, but just don't have enough time in the evenings on weekdays after work and Zumba! So I'll pick salads or quick meals for evenings, leftovers for lunches, and fun, extensive recipes on weekends.

I think it works pretty well!

Here's a link.

http://cleaneatingmag.com/Meal-Planning/Meal-Plans.aspx

I totally agree with the others in that I ABSOLUTELY MUST meal plan. About a month ago I subscribed to a website that sends me weekly meal plans (5 days), a shopping list to cover the meals (it even breaks down the meals so you know the cost), and the nutrition facts. It was a groupon @ $24/year. I bought the Gluten meal plan (not that we have gluten issues but it just looked so yummy). I recently bought another one (same company) for Vegetarian (again, not that we're vegetarians just that the meals looked sooooo good). So far I’m VERY pleased with the Gluten menus. They deliver an em to me every Friday morning; I print it out and do the shopping (according to the list they send). Then I put it in a binder so that when evenings get crazy with schedules whoever is home first can just open up the binder and start on dinner. It’s only been 4 weeks and the theory behind the menus is using only fresh ingredients so I rarely have to swap out recipe items b/c they’re really pretty clean to start with. I love the convenience of it and I really love the variety in the recipes. It’s definitely moved us beyond our same old, standard, fall-back recipes. This upcoming week's menu includes: (M) Rosemary Chicken with roasted potatoes & carrots; (T) Sole Gremolata with brown rice pilaf and spaghetti squash; (W) Spicy sausage spaghetti squash; (Thrs) Chicken with wild rice pilaf and balsamic roasted pears, and (F) Savory pear & apple soup with cheddar and apple quesadillas... can't wait to try 'em

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Can you share the website? Do they have raw food meals?

Sorry heroyalslimne - it didn’t send me any notification to let me know there had been more activity on this thread.
I totally agree with you, zephyrindc – we don’t have kids in the house either so the menu plans are perfect for four meals (dinner and lunches the next day). I think in our case, we have eaten clean for a long time; but portion control had become an issue for us. It’s nice that these are “fresh” so I’m still able to stick to “clean eating”. Also in our case because portion control had gotten soooooo out-of-whack that now that we’re eating the correct portions we’re still adjusting to some hunger pangs like you in DC. I too get hungry a few hours afterwards so I just have a piece of fruit or something that’s approx ~15-20 carbs. For me that works out b/c I try to do 3 meals at 45-60 and 3 snacks 15-25’ish. I absolutely LOVE the prepared “Shopping List” – I just add whatever extra items I need to it.

I ordered the “Gluten Free” plan. I see that they now offer a “Lunches” plan – for a total of 4 plans offered: Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Classic, and Lunch. I bought mine on a Groupon at a cost of $24/year (I think it was). The website for anyone interested is: TheFresh20.com - I don’t work for them or get anything for promoting it; but if you’re looking to jumpstart your eating, particularly portion control, with flavorful and not the run of the mill meals (at least in my case – I needed something different than my nightly broiled chicken, fish, or pork with a steamed vegetable). I found it interesting when I started putting my meals in daily that others MUST be receiving the meal plans too b/c almost every recipe is in the database. Hope this info is useful - Enjoy

I can speak to the Gluten Free plan - for this week dishes include:
(Mon) Rosemary Chicken with roasted potatoes & carrots;
(Tues) Sole Gremolata (they also include directions for making this meal with chicken instead of fish) with brown rice pilaf and spaghetti squash;
(Wed) Spicy sausage spaghetti squash;
(Thrs) Chicken with wild rice pilaf and balsamic roasted pears, and
(Fri) Savory pear & apple soup with cheddar and apple quesadillas.

The goal of her plans, whether you have the Gluten, Classic, Vegetarian, or Lunch plan(s) is to make 5 meals (that each serve 4) using 20 fresh ingredients. I think you can still go to the website and download sample plans; that’s what I did when I saw the groupon - and that's how I decided which plan I wanted to try. The website is: TheFresh20.com
Hope this helps - let me know if you have any other questions.

The Super-Market Diet book has great meal plans! I got the book from library! And the meals are good too!

I've been eating clean for about 2 months but just recently began trying to monitor portions to lose weight. Meal planning is key! I had no idea how "large" some of my meals were and my ratios of carbs, fat, protein were way out of whack! It is hard but the only way to go until you really get the hang off it. Especially if you want to lose weight!

I use Fresh20 too and I love it - the weekly prep does keep weeknight time to a minimum, the food is flavorful and it makes it easy to follow a clean diet, and because of the limited ingredient list it's actually fairly economical. I've tried a couple of others - Six O Clock Scramble (nice flexibility, kid-friendly, but sort of bland meals) and eMeals (super-yummy gourmet Clean meals every night, but it took sooooo long to cook and the groceries were fairly pricey). I find the meal planning helps me stay on track both with eating well and my budget - if I have all the ingredients for a quick tasty healthy meal at home, it sort of removes the temptation to go out for trash.

I meal plan
I usually try to prep my meals for Monday-Wednesday on SUnday nights.
Usually I made a "clean" dessert for a snack. I get my inspirations from www.getfitfeelsexy.blogspot.com

I also make hard boiled eggs, bake/grill my proteins (chicken, pork chops, steak)
Steam/season my veggies and pack everything in tupperware.

THis week i'm eating grilled chicken breast and steak for protein as well as steamed broccoli, asaparus and butternut squash(which I seasoned w/cinnamon).

Hope this helps.

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