Week 1 of the Trim Healthy Mama Challenge ~The Menu~

Well I have finally finished reading the entire Trim and Healthy Mama book. Man did that take some time! Such a large and informative book!  I was a bit overwhelmed with the idea of planning out our menu for this month. I decided that until I feel more secure in planning out S and E meals I would do a weekly menu instead of a monthly one. This means changing up my normal monthly grocery shop into a weekly one. Since my husband is home from his deployment that isn't a big deal....actually it could be kind of nice to get out of the house alone for a bit. (I am sure all you mama's of many young children understand where I am coming from!)

Once I got started making our meal plan for this week it actually went pretty easily. I decided to alternate meals each day between the S and E's and also to start each day with the opposite of the day before. The result was that one days dinner worked well as the next days lunch. Such a time and money saver! I used this weekly meal planning template to help me keep track of what I was making for each meal.

Day 1
Simple fried eggs with zucchini (S meal)
Waldorf cottage cheese salad (E meal)
Creamy Cheesy Chicken with steamed broccoli (S meal)

Day 2
Egg white omelet with toast (E meal)
Leftover creamy cheesy chicken and broccoli (S meal)
Italian Chicken (E meal)

Day 3
Cheesy omelet (S meal)
Leftover Italian Chicken (E meal)
Meatloaf with califlower mashed potatoes (S meal)

Day 4
Oatmeal with berries (E meal)
leftover meatloaf and califower mashed potatoes (S meal)
Chicken yogurt bake with quinoa (E meal)

Day 5
Simple fried eggs with zucchini (S meal)
leftover chicken yogurt bake with quinoa (E meal)
Whole chicken with zucchini fries (S meal)

Day 6
Oatmeal with berries (E meal)
Leftover whole chicken with zucchini fries (S meal)
Mexican style chicken (E meal)

Day 7
Cheesy omelet (S meal)
leftover mexican style chicken (E meal)
Cabbage rolls with green fries  (S meal)

Next up is as trip to the grocery store. Lets see if I can  stick to our budget and bring this meal plan in under $100  for the week. It might be a little tight this week since there are some larger basic purchases I will need to make. Things like switching to coconut oil and sea salt will take an investment at the beginning of the month but will last the entire month (or several months).