Bi-Weekly Dinner Meal Plan for August 22 – September 4

August 20, 2011 By

Welcome to The Better Mom’s bi-weekly meal planning schedule!

As women striving to serve the Lord and our families better, meal planning is a wonderful strategy to help you provide a healthy, home-cooked meal with the awesome added benefit of saving time, money and stress!

Below are links to many of the recipes featured on the bi-weekly dinner meal plan. Our hope is that this will be a great resource and encouragement for you to “keep on truckin” with your meal plans, or get started if you haven’t yet.

For details about meal planning, please check out: Mastering Meal Planning.

Week of August 22:

 Monday, August 22
• Zucchini-Feta Pasta
• Spinach Salad w/Homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette

 Tuesday, August 23
• Grilled Herb Turkey Breasts
• Mashed Potatoes
• Sauteéd Green Beans

Wednesday, August 24
• Power Pancakes
• Cheesy-Basil Eggs
• Nitrate-free Bacon
• Fresh Mixed Berries

Thursday, August 25
• Meatball Sub on Sourdough w/Marinara and Mozzarella Cheese (Meatball Recipe)
• Fruit Salad

Friday, August 26
• Grilled Fish w/Peach-Mango Salsa
• Wild Rice
• Steamed Asparagus

Saturday, August 27
• Chicken Enchilada Casserole
• Dessert: Grilled Peaches w/Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Sunday, August 28
• Shepherd’s Pie
• Garden Salad w/Homemade Ranch Dressing

Week of August 29:

 Monday, August 29
• Penne w/Shrimp & Spring Veggies
• Garden Salad w/Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

Tuesday, August 30
• Taco Salad (with ground beef)
• Crockpot Pinto Beans
• Homemade Guacamole
• Lacto-fermented Salsa

Wednesday, August 31
• Grilled Grassfed Steaks
• Summer Veggies Risotto
• Spinach Salad w/Honey-Mustard Dressing

Thursday, September 1
• Zucchini-Tomato Frittata
• Mesclun Salad w/Balsamic Vinaigrette

Friday, September 2
• Oven-baked Chicken Drumsticks
• Healthy Homemade Potato Salad
• Baked Beans
• Fresh Fruit Salad

Saturday, September 3
• Sourdough Bread Grilled Raw Cheese Sandwiches
• Tomato Soup
• Cultured Garlic-Dill Pickles (we like Bubbies brand)

Sunday, September 4
• Veggie Stirfry w/Leftover Grilled Steak & Brown Rice
• Dessert: Strawberry-Almond Shortcakes

Always a treat to share ideas and healthy recipes! Let’s give thanks to the Lord for providing us the opportunity to nourish our families in this way! See you in two weeks!

Blessings, Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

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12 Comments | Filed Under: Food, Healthy Eating, Meal Planning, Real/Whole Food, Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,
About Kelly Smith

Kelly loves the Lord, her family, and sharing her passion for real food cooking and meal planning with others. She is a full-time homemaker who loves spending time with her awesome hubby and two sweet boys. Kelly's real food journey began four years ago when she was diagnosed with a chronic auto-immune disorder. Since then, the Lord has blessed her with an amazing recovery - a testament to His grace and the health benefits of eating real food. Kelly shares her knowledge and love for whole food cooking at The Nourishing Home, Facebook and Google.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks so much for doing this Kelly! All of these meals look soooo yummy!

    • Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

      My pleasure! Thank YOU for the opportunity! Love, kel

  • Katrina

    Oooohhhh…. EVERYthing looks wonderful for these two weeks! Thanks so much for posting this – it’ll give me some great ideas.

    • Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

      You are so welcome! I am so thankful for the opportunity to share ideas and offer encouragement! Blessings, kel

  • Nancy

    Can you please tell me where you are getting the nitrate-free bacon and the namebrand? We haven’t seen that in our stores yet but maybe I’m not knowing where to look. OR if I know the information – I could request to see if they will carry it. Thanks for the yummy ideas.

    Nancy

    • Jennifer

      Nancy, we’ve noticed in our stores that Oscar Meyer is beginning to package nitrate/nitrite free meats. I like their Angus Hot Dogs. I don’t know if their bacon is nitrate-free, yet, because I tend to just pick the cheapest bacon I can find, I don’t usually brand shop.

    • Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

      Hi, Nancy, I don’t know if you have a Trader Joe’s near you, but they often carry nitrate-free bacon. Applegate Farms brand also has a nitrate-free bacon that is available in a lot of healthfood-type markets. Hope this helps! Blessings, kel

  • Jennifer

    Thanks for the reminder!! Mine is done and hanging on the fridge (and even a tiny bit of prep done) now, too.

    • Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

      Great job, Jennifer! It really makes the rest of the week so much easier when you have your meal plan and grocery shopping done – especially when you can get in some prep time too! Blessings, kel

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rachel-Hodges/737934619 Rachel Hodges

    I just found your page and LOVE the planning and great healthy recipes. I was wondering if you did anything with planning out a shopping list for the week so you knew how much to buy of each item, etc. and what it costs you on a weekly budget? I am wanting to do a better job of meal planning and find myself getting frustrated when I don’t so I started doing some research and found your page. I like the set-up of the Kraft Foods 1 bag+5 meals link where they list the recipes and shopping list, because it is budget friendly, but I’m not crazy about all of the ingredients because they aren’t as healthy. I know I’m rambling, so I will stop, but any suggestions you have for this frustrated mom would be great! Thanks so much!

    • Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

      Hi, Rachel. Apologies for the delay in responding. I have considered doing a shopping list, but here are my excuses, are you ready (ha ha) … but seriously, maybe they will help, because I understand completely what you mean about striving to be frugal and healthy at the same time. I just said a prayer for you that the Lord will help you find balance and guide you in your journey to plan and cook healthy meals for your family! (big e-hugs and blessings to you!)

      As far as my meal plan and resulting shopping list goes … first, I always look and see what I have left in my pantry, frig and freezer from the week(s) prior and build my meal plan around using what I have on hand already. So once I see what I have – maybe it’s a little leftover fresh zucchini, some frozen precooked chicken, etc., then I look at my master meal plan (a list of all our favorite meals) and select meals to use those remaining ingredients. From there, I try to do some meal grouping (similar to the Kraft example). For instance, I might plan to grill a double portion of chicken or steak and refrigerate half of the cooked meat for another meal later that week. That helps to save time and money. Then I work it all out on my meal plan. Again, check to see what I have on had regarding the ingredients I will need, then I make out my shopping list to fill in the gaps of what I’m missing.

      The recipes on my FB page typically serve four. So another excuse as to why I haven’t provided a shopping list with the bi-weekly meal plan is that everyone has different sized families, so my shopping list may not include enough food for larger families or it may be too large for a family with less kids or kids that are much younger. I hope that makes sense.

      But with all my lame-o excuses aside, I do love the idea of a shopping list and I will definitely put more thought into it. I really appreciate your kind words and taking time to write. Have you checked out my post on “Mastering Meal Planning?” The link is right above the meal plan chart graphic above. It explains how to create a master meal list and the basics on meal planning and within that article there is a link to another post I wrote on how to group meals to save time and money, I think you’ll find that beneficial as well. Please feel free to post questions on my FB page as well. Many blessings to you, Kelly

    • Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

      Hi, Rachel. Apologies for the delay in responding. I have considered doing a shopping list, but here are my excuses, are you ready (ha ha) … but seriously, maybe they will help, because I understand completely what you mean about striving to be frugal and healthy at the same time. I just said a prayer for you that the Lord will help you find balance and guide you in your journey to plan and cook healthy meals for your family! (big e-hugs and blessings to you!)

      As far as my meal plan and resulting shopping list goes … first, I always look and see what I have left in my pantry, frig and freezer from the week(s) prior and build my meal plan around using what I have on hand already. So once I see what I have – maybe it’s a little leftover fresh zucchini, some frozen precooked chicken, etc., then I look at my master meal plan (a list of all our favorite meals) and select meals to use those remaining ingredients. From there, I try to do some meal grouping (similar to the Kraft example). For instance, I might plan to grill a double portion of chicken or steak and refrigerate half of the cooked meat for another meal later that week. That helps to save time and money. Then I work it all out on my meal plan. Again, check to see what I have on had regarding the ingredients I will need, then I make out my shopping list to fill in the gaps of what I’m missing.

      The recipes on my FB page typically serve four. So another excuse as to why I haven’t provided a shopping list with the bi-weekly meal plan is that everyone has different sized families, so my shopping list may not include enough food for larger families or it may be too large for a family with less kids or kids that are much younger. I hope that makes sense.

      But with all my lame-o excuses aside, I do love the idea of a shopping list and I will definitely put more thought into it. I really appreciate your kind words and taking time to write. Have you checked out my post on “Mastering Meal Planning?” The link is right above the meal plan chart graphic above. It explains how to create a master meal list and the basics on meal planning and within that article there is a link to another post I wrote on how to group meals to save time and money, I think you’ll find that beneficial as well. Please feel free to post questions on my FB page as well. Many blessings to you, Kelly