Happy Monday! It is the start of a new month and a new week. Whew! We are doing it....And, Wow! Did you fill out my instagram story survey? An overwhelming number of responses for my meal plan is an understatement! I am here to help. A lot of people do meal prep and meal plans on Sundays to get organized for the week. While, I try to do that, I usually don't get to it until late Sunday night or early Monday morning and I usually change my mind. Between summer time, quarantine and the 100 + degree weather in Austin, it is just hard to think ahead these days. But, what I can share is what I've been up to today and how it is going to help me plan out our meals for the week. My absolute numero uno favorite kitchen appliance to talk about is my Instapot. I literally use this thing so much and it helps me to prep large quantities of oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, rice and chicken. Today, I did both rice and chicken to have on hand for our meals this week. I cooked 8 chicken breasts with chicken broth and some seasoning and shredded it to have on hand for lunch or dinners this week. To cook the chicken, I used 8 non frozen chicken breasts, 1 cup of chicken broth, a few dashes of salt and garlic powder. Put them on high pressure for 15 minutes and then let the steam release naturally. Once I took off the top, I shredded the chicken with two forks and placed in the glass dish. To cook the rice, I used 4 cups of dry basmati rice and 4 cups of water for 12 minutes and let it naturally release for 10 mins. Once it was ready, I put it in the glass dish to save it. The Instapot makes this so easy! And I love the cleanup - the insert comes out and you just clean it with warm soapy water. Create a blog post subtitle that summarizes your post in a few short, punchy sentences and entices your audience to continue reading.
Which brings me to my meal plan. We are going to talk lunch and dinner in this plan today. I will dedicate an entire post to breakfast later in the week. Almost all of my meals will include the shredded chicken or rice that I made earlier in the day. I store both the chicken and the rice in glass pyrex containers and keep in the fridge. And the million dollar question that I know I will get is, "your kids eat that? " And the answer is always YES! and NO! ...but I always offer it. The backup to our lunch option is always a tortilla with cheese or a turkey sandwich with fruit ( summer fruit is our favorite) - both take very little additional time and I always have those ingredients in my kitchen. The backup to dinner is a discussion for another post. You can also check out my other post on Short Order Cook in My Own Kitchen.
Lunch This Week
Tuesday: Chopped Salad with Shredded Chicken
Wednesday: Smoothie Bowls with Homemade Granola
Thursday: Chicken Quesadillas and Homemade Guacamole
Friday: Build Your Own Sandwich (Turkey, Veggies, Cheese)
Dinner This Week
Monday: Grilled Beef Fajitas with All the Sides
Tuesday: Veggie Fried Rice
Wednesday: Veggie Frittata with Roasted Potatoes and Simple Green Salad
Thursday: Salmon with Roasted Veggies (and rice if we have extra)
Friday: Grilled Chicken Kabobs from Well Plated
The last thing I always prep on Mondays is a ton of cut up fruit. Today, I cut up a ton of Melons: Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Watermelon and placed them in storage containers that will make it easy to grab and assemble a delicious fruit salad like this one.
I hope these ideas will help you this week. Let me know! xo, Jules