Welcome back for another great week of meals! This week Kyle and I were trying to get back into a workout routine, so I was trying to watch our carbs a little bit more closely. I HATE to count carbs, instead I focus on nutrition, and work in some tricks I know that keeps the carbs low. Don’t worry we still had a “pasta” dinner and potatoes. We have tried just about every diet, paleo, Mediterranean, keto, and a gut health diet. Now I feel like I look for foods more in the paleo or mediterranean style. These diets are the most sustainable long term, are the least restricting, and feel healthy while you are eating them. I look at fitness and diet more through the eyes of how I feel, rather than my weight. The scale can be very misleading, so if I eat well, feel good, then what else can I ask for.
A quick reminder of how the meal plan works. There will be 1 meal prepped lunch for the week, 3 dinners intended to have leftovers every other night, the 7th night we either have extra leftovers, a family meal, or take out. 1 dinner will be vegetarian/ vegan, it is a small step we are taking to try and reduce our impact on the planet. Another thing to note is that I am only cooking for a family of 3 so you may need to adjust portions for a larger family.
What’s on the menu…..
- Crunchy lentil salad (lunch)
- Pasta and meatballs
- Sheet pan shrimp boil
- Sweet potato & black bean burrito bowl
The shopping list…..
Below you will find a full shopping list for everything you’ll need to make all these meals. I separated the groceries by recipe so there are repeat ingredients. So obviously don’t buy a bottle of olive oil for every meal
😂.
Crunchy Lentil Salad
Double recipe for 10 lunches
This lentil salad is simple, fresh, and yes…crunchy. I love the grapes in it and the simple lemon dressing is delicious. I did not peel my cucumber, I like to leave the skins on all my fruits and veggies if possible. The skin on foods is PACKED with nutrients and we just peel that off and put it in the trash. Not in my house! The recipe says it makes 12, but that seems way off to me. I doubled it to make 10 lunches. I felt like the portion sizes on this was great, but this salad is definitely light. I recommend adding some fat to make it a bit more sustainable. Kyle added some feta to his, and I added some avocado to mine.
Pasta and Meatballs
4 Adult meals, 2 toddler meals
https://turtlelion.com/2021/04/07/weeknight-pasta-and-meatballs/
So excited to be able to have one of my own recipes for the meal plan this week! Who doesn’t love pasta and meatballs! In this recipe I’ll show you how to simply spice up a store bought sauce, a low carb pasta option, and the meatballs are super easy. This meal is always a hit.
Sheet Pan Shrimp Boil
4 adult meals, 2 toddler meals
https://www.aberdeenskitchen.com/2019/08/sheet-pan-shrimp-boil/#tasty-recipes-14676-jump-target
I love creole food, and I’ll call this creole light. I picked this dinner specifically because Asher loves shrimp, but for whatever reason in his little toddler world this week he wasn’t having it. The second night I served his dinner all mixed in a bowl and he still pulled the shrimp out, but he did eat a few bites. It is normal for your toddler to love a food one day and hate it the next. Tiny little monsters 😜. You’ll also notice that I didn’t serve him any sausage. The andouille sausage is pretty spicy so I left that off. You could substitute it for a mild Italian sausage or a kielbasa. I also made my own creole spice, as store bought can be spicy. I just gave a nice sprinkle of onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil, thyme, paprika, salt, and pepper. If you’d like a more structured recipe I will post one bellow, leave out the cayenne pepper if worried about spice.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/38214/creole-seasoning-blend/
Vegan Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burrito Bowl
4 adult dinners, 2 toddler dinners
https://eatwithclarity.com/sweet-potato-black-bean-burrito-bowl/#wprm-recipe-container-7645
This vegan bowl has simple ingredients and was colorful and yummy. We are big fans of sweet potatoes, they are rated as the MOST nutritious vegetable! Most people peel them, but again you are peeling away valuable nutrition, so I leave the skins on. The recipe above calls for a cilantro lime cauliflower rice, but I made a coconut lime rice. I will post the recipe bellow. I made the tahini sauce the recipe has listed and it was delicious, they also have a link for a vegan cashew queso that sounds amazing! I will for sure be trying it later on.
Coconut Lime Cauliflower Rice
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 3/4 can of full fat coconut milk
- 1 lime + zest of 1 lime
- Salt and peper to taste
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- Roughly chop cauliflower, then pulse in the blender until a “rice” like texture is achieved
- Heat olive oil in a large pan, add cauliflower, and coconut milk. Bring the milk up to a boil and then allow to simmer until the liquid has reduced and the cauliflower has softened.
- Add the lime juice, zest, salt, and pepper.
- Enjoy!
I hope you enjoy this weeks meals! I’d love to hear from you if you tried it out. Please like, share, and enjoy!
Turtlelion 