Although I’m not a hard core meal planner, I can’t deny that every time I do it I succeed feeding my family better meals and I manage to have a less stressful “what’s for dinner?” time.  Planning at least part of our weekly meals saves us much needed money which we end up allocating to much needed wine and ‘take outs’ when meal planning doesn’t happen.

I don’t have a formula or “steps to successful meal planning’. The one thing I’m consistent with is basing my planning on what’s on sale for the week (mostly main ingredients like poultry, meat or fish) and cooking ahead at least 2 dishes on Sundays that I can serve on a busy day. Most of the times I just rely on quick fixes with easy prep.

This week I’m sharing some of our meals with a friend who just had a baby so planning is a must.  Today I made some simple veggie and tofu curry, which we’ll eat for dinner with brown rice on Monday and it’ll be lunch for me throughout the week.

Have I mentioned how much I love my Pressure Cooker? Made this curry in 15 minutes (including prep time)!

Ta-da!

Tuesday: Using the Foster Farms Drum Sticks (89c/lb. @Smart and Final, ends 03/04) to make for the first time this quick and easy Apricot Chicken from Jessica Seinfeld with veggie fried rice (using leftover fried rice from Monday)

Wednesday: We’ll have and share ‘Ropa Vieja’ with roasted potatoes. I’m not using any weekly deals for this one since I need to cook a big batch so I’m going to Costco later for the meat. Here is a really good recipe similar to how I make this dish (minus the pork).

Thursday: It’s Costco time again. Chicken Caprese. This is one of my client’s favorite (personal chef gig) but I’ve never made it for my family.  I’ll post recipe here soon.

Friday is blank for now.

I’d love to know if you have some staple dishes you make often and/or make ahead. How about meal planning? Do you plan your meals or cook/prep/buy as you go?