Any of you who know me probably know that I don’t cook very much. So, you may be a little shocked to read this post. But, yesterday I was watching a vlog on YouTube where a girl was talking about how she does meal planning each week, and I got inspired. So, I printed off the meal plan sheet she uses (found here) and got started thinking of things we could have for dinner each night this week.
I started by looking in the freezer and pantry for things we already have on hand in hopes that we could eat some of them up first before going out and buying new things. That accounted for about four full meals for the week, and a couple side item choices for a few other meals. So, I was left trying to decide what main course type items we could have for those other three meals.
Jake helped me come up with some ideas for the other three nights. My goal for the week is to make dinner for us every night this week, with the exception of one night where we have plans with a friend for dinner. So, one of our meal ideas will just get pushed to next week.
Once we had the meals all decided, I made a list of the groceries we would need, and we actually made a trip to Publix yesterday, when we usually don’t go until Sunday. We bought everything we will need for the week, and can you believe I am actually a little excited to make dinner every night this week?! I can’t. I was a little worried that my motivation to do that would be gone by this morning (haha!) but so far it hasn’t left me. We’ll see as the week goes on.
I also decided I wanted to make a dessert for us to enjoy throughout the week… a pie specifically! For our wedding shower, my mom made us the cutest pie plate with a purple dragonfly on it. If I had a picture of it, I’d show you. It can’t be put in the oven though, so she had given me a few pie recipes that don’t require baking to use with it. I’ve been wanting to try out the pie plate and recipes and make a pie with it, so I included the ingredients for a peanut butter pie on the grocery list yesterday, and I whipped it up last night, complete with pie crust! Haha, I am super proud of myself.
Here is a picture of me making it, and a couple pictures of it this afternoon before I cut a slice out to eat.
It was delicious, by the way. Only problem was that it wasn’t solid like a piece of pie should be. It had a thick consistency, but just kinda falls apart when you try to scoop out a piece. My mom says she thinks it was probably because I used reduced fat cream cheese.
I’ll have to keep you posted on how the rest of the cooking goes this week! Wish me luck.
Do you plan out your meals for the week in advance or just ‘wing it’?
