A few months ago I became completely dependent on meal planning for sanity. “What should I make for dinner?” doesn’t mesh well in a pregnant head-especially after chasing a toddler all day. It’s funny, because I wrote an article on healthy meal preparation about two years ago (hmmm…funny, before kids!) but I didn’t really do much specific planning-just made sure I had healthy ingredients ready. Now my philosophy has changed completely, I still have healthy ingredients, but I know exactly what they will be turned into.

I’ve begun a couple posts where I share my weekly meal plan(because I’ve been so helped and inspired by dear Stephmodo’s…), but it’s a lot of work to transcribe a bunch of recipes from cook books onto the blog. So, rather than share every recipe, I’m going to go ahead and give you the run-down of meals for inspiration-sake. I love finding a new meal idea to try. If I use an online recipe, I’ll share the link. How does that sound?

Seriously, if you’re a stranger to meal planning, get on board and watch your life get just a bit easier:)

As we plan, we try to include different proteins-fish, meat and legumes. We also use ethnicity as a guide “oh, we’ve got a Mexican, so let’s do an Italian…”

Here’s last week:

Monday: Summer Veggie Kabobs with rice. I used zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, tomato and sweet potato-drizzle with italian dressing and grill:) Easy peasy.

Tuesday: Chicken Club Sandwiches (roast chicken, applewood bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheddar, avocado and deli mustard) on Challah rolls with salt and black pepper potato chips and watermelon. We planned this as a picnic, and it rained. So, we picnicked on the porch:)

Wednesday: Mediterranean Salads with Salmon. Seriously the perfect, fresh, complete meal.

Thursday: Trader Joe’s Green Curry Tuna over rice. A perfect quick meal for the nights I worked and Dave was home with Milo for dinner (past tense because my last day of work was last Friday!).

Friday: Goat Cheese and Zucchini Pizza with a green salad. We have pizza every Friday. Fun and easy to plan:)

Saturday: Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas with shredded lettuce, tomato and onion in lime juice. One of our favorite meals ever.

Sunday: Slowcooked Southwestern Brisket sandwiches with red onion slaw and roasted potatoes. We get out of church at 6 p.m. these days, so slowcooked or make-ahead meals will be staples on Sundays.