🍋 August Meal Plan

I can't believe it's almost AUGUST! We are on our way home from the beach right now, and will quickly be gearing up for school. Wowzer! When school and sports start ramping up, these meal plans will really help us stay on track without thinking too hard. Winning! Currently loading all my groceries in my Kroger cart for grocery pickup.... :)

1. Hamburger foil packet
2. Summer cavatelli with corn, tomato & zucchini (I'll also add chicken sausage)
3. Kung pao chicken
4. Grilled kielbasa kabobs with a balsamic honey glaze
5. Turkey black bean enchiladas
6. Air fryer chicken "fried" rice
7. Southwestern stuffed chicken breasts with rice & veggie
8. Chili lime turkey burgers with okra
9. Turkey taco burrito bowls
10. Buffalo sweet potato & chicken casserole
11. Chili lime cod with rice & veggie
12. Sesame encrusted chicken with potatoes & veggie
13. Taco stuffed zucchini
14. Kielbasa sheetpan
15. Meatball burgers
16. Spaghetti with meat sauce over spaghetti squash
17. Air fryer garlic parmesan pork chop with baked potatoes & veggie
18. Taco casserole
19. Grilled pesto chicken & tomato kabobs with rice
20. Sausage & veggie foil packets
21. Lobster rolls
22. French onion soup burgers
23. Poblano pepper quesadillas with guac and mexi rice
24. Margarita pizza grilled cheese with cesar salad
25. Fish florentine with rice and veggies
26. Green chile chicken enchiladas (use my verde chicken)
27. Tomato pie
28. Pork carnitas bowls
29. Bacon & bleu cheese burgers
30. Air fryer chicken parmesan
31. Breakfast

🍋 July Meal Plan

Hello, friends!! How are you doing? How is quarantine and corona life treating you? Hopefully better than our house! HA! Actually, now that distance learning has come to an end, we're getting into a really nice summer routine. The boys are older now, so they can entertain themselves a lot better and the fighting isn't as bad as last summer.

It has been so long since I've logged into this blog! I got sidetracked with life, and sadly with a lot of self-doubt. I started questioning whether this little corner of the internet was even important, whether people found my meal plans and recipes useful, and whether it was worth my time. I've had a LOVE for nutrition for a few years now, and HUGE SCARY BIG dreams within that field. And I'm here to tell you, that I'm sick and tired of watching other people chasing their dreams, I'm sick of sitting around waiting for an opportunity, and I'm sick of worrying about what other people think. This blog is important to ME because it helps me stay on track, gives me accountability and it's one step in the direction of my dreams. My hope is that it helps YOU stay on track and gives you accountability, as well!

I love sharing tasty, easy meals that fuel our bodies correctly and make us feel good! So that's what I'm going to do. And maybe somewhere a long the way, I'll take a leap of faith and tackle my big dream of getting my nutrition degree so I can help you out on a personal level.

So here we go...my meal plan for the entire month of JULY!

Why a month, Kate? That seems really aggressive.
A few reasons...planning a month at a time helps with variety. I don't know about you, but I get stuck in meal ruts so often. It's very easy to copy/paste from week to week, so this allows us to look at several weeks in a row and add variety. I also like it because you get it all done, and you can move on! There is no worse feeling on Sunday morning than meal planning for the next week....again. It seems to happen way too often! And lastly, because it allows you to use similar ingredients throughout the month without them going bad!



1. chili lime shrimp tacos with jasmine rice and mango salsa
2. air fryer chicken parmesan with zucchini noodles
3. verde chicken burritos (use my verde chicken)
4. bacon & bleu cheese burgers
5. green chile chicken enchiladas (use my verde chicken)
6. kielbasa sheetpan
7. mexican beef & zucchini skillet (I double zucchini and rotel)
8. BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potatoes
9. korean beef bowls with jasmine rice
10. teriyaki grilled pork chops with green beans
11. verde burgers (beef burgers topped with guacamole, green chilies and lettuce)
12. shrimp pesto packets
13. gnocchi sheetpan
14. turkey meatball subs with peppers & onions (Trader Joe's turkey meatballs, Rao's marinara sauce, sliced peppers & onions on sub rolls. Top with mozzarella and broil for a few minutes to get crispy!)
15. coconut shrimp tacos with island salsa (Trader Joe's frozen coconut shrimp on corn tortillas with TJ's island salsa.)
16. rigatoni with sausage, tomatoes & zucchini
17. skinny orange chicken with jasmine rice
18. buffalo turkey burgers
19. mexican stuffed peppers
20. blackened chicken with fiesta salad
21. chicken shwarma with jasmine rice and fresh veggie
22. italian sausage  & veggie sheetpan
23. gnocchi, sweet corn & arugula with cream sauce
24. creamy buffalo chicken stuffed sweet potatoes
25. bacon cheeseburgers
26. lemon butter tilapia with jasmine rice
27. grilled pesto chicken with tomato kebabs
28. taco casserole
29. grilled santa fe chicken packets with white rice
30. breakfast tacos
31. grilled pork tenderloin with baked potatoes and fresh veggie

Shrimp pesto packets

I originally got this recipe from Kathleen over at Carrie Bradshaw Lied. Her mom introduced us to these last summer, and its become a staple in our home! Unfortunately, it's not on her website! So, I decided to publish it here for quick reference.

These packets are super easy, fresh and light for summer evenings. I enjoyed it over Banza chickpea noodles, but Kathleen suggested linguine.

Ingredients for 1 packet
1.5 lbs. jumbo shrimp (I use a bag of frozen, cooked shrimp)
1 tbsp. pesto
1/3 cup grated parmesan
4 thin lemon slices
4 small green olives
lemon juice

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 500.
2) Spray inside of parchment paper with non-stick spray.
3) Lay 8-10 shrimp overlapping in each pack. Top with pesto, parm, lemon and olives. Sprinkle with a little pepper and squeeze a little lemon juice on top.
4) Cook on 500 for 7-10 minutes.
5) Serve over noodles of your choice with another squeeze of lemon and more parm.

ENJOY!

September Meal Plan

I was looking at our family calendar for September and quickly realized that I needed to meal plan the entire month, or we'd be eating Taco Bell 30 nights in a row. HA! I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I'm serious when I say October will be here before we know it because our month is CRAY CRAY! Lots of baseball on week nights means easy meals that can be prepped over the weekend and re-heated before heading to the fields. I've added in some new meal ideas, which I think we're all excited about!

1. crockpot ribs
2. air fryer chicken parmesan (I plan to use Rao's marinara as the sauce w/ zucchini noodles)
3. turkey tacos
4. air fryer chili lime cod w/ rice and mixed veggies
5. italian sausage sheetpan
6. OUT
7. meatball burgers w/ homemade air fryer fries
8. million dollar spaghetti
9. chicken sausage, red onion, butternut squash and brussel sprouts sheetpan (this doesn't have a recipe; I just chop it all up and and bake on a sheet pan for 40 mins at 400*)
10. verde chicken burritos (use verde chicken with rice, black beans and pico)
11. sandwiches
12. grilled pork tenderloin w/ roasted potatoes and veggies
13. leftovers
14. jalapeno cheddar burgers w/ homemade air fryer fries
15. white chicken chili
16. turkey tacos
17. meatloaf
18. leftovers
19. BLTs
20. OUT
21. bacon & bleu burgers w/ homemade air fryer fries
22. chili
23. leftovers
24. mini turkey meatloaf w/ roasted potatoes and veggies
25. grilled cheese
26. protein pancakes
27. mini turkey meatloaf w/ roasted potatoes and veggies
28. jalapeno popper burgers w/ homemade air fryer fries
29. verde chicken enchiladas
30. quesadillas

If you make any of these, please let me know! I love it when I know people are utilizing these meal plans. XO

Verde Chicken Enchiladas

I've had a lot of requests for this recipe after posting a sneak peek of my September meal plan on Instagram. Unfortunately, I hadn't actually made it before to share the recipe quickly. HA! My family loves verde chicken and enchiladas, so I thought - let's combine them!! So, I actually tried two different combos of sauces and I loved them both equally, so there's actually two versions here...

   

  

Ingredients
2lbs. chicken breasts
2, 16oz jars of verde salsa (my family prefers the Joe T's verde salsa)
Can of red enchilada sauce
10 corn tortillas
Mexican cheese, shredded

For the filling
Follow my verde chicken tostada recipe for making the filling. Cooking your chicken in the crockpot makes it SO EASY, tender and effortless. Once the chicken has simmered for 4-6 hours, shred with a hand mixer and set aside.

For the enchiladas
1) Preheat oven to 350, spray 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick spray, and warm corn tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds to make them soft.
2) Fill each corn tortilla with the shredded chicken.
3) Roll tortilla up and place seam side down in dish.
4) Continue to do this until you've filled your dish. Pour salsa or enchilada sauce on top of enchiladas (depending which you prefer, or do both!), and top with cheese.
5) Bake on 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.
6) Top with diced green chilies, pico de gallo or even guacamole.

ENJOY!

A few pointers...
This is the enchilada sauce I used. It didn't taste so great right out of the can, but it was delicious on top of the enchiladas!

            

This is about how much filling you want in each tortilla:

Verde Chicken Tostadas

I'm always on the hunt for crockpot meals that are easy, delicious and healthy. My sweet friend Kamber shared this with me a year ago, but I never made it until a few weeks ago! Kinda sad I waited that long because this meal is AWESOME! So awesome I've made it 3 times in 3 weeks! Ha!

I like to serve my verde chicken on tostada shells, but you can do tacos and salads too. The chicken isn't nearly as runny as some chicken taco meat I've made in the crockpot, so it makes delicious tacos and burritos.

Ingredients
2lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
16oz. salsa verde
garlic powder
cumin
oregano
salt/pepper

Directions
1) Place chicken on bottom of crockpot, sprinkle with all 5 seasonings.
2) Pour jar of salsa verde over top the chicken.
3) Cook on low for 6 hours.
4) Shred and enjoy! (don't forget my easy shredding method using the hand mixer!)

I told y'all it was easy, and I promise its delicious!

February Meal Plan

I found the January meal plan to be incredibly helpful for my family, so I'm sticking with it! There's a handful of new recipes in February's meal plan, plus a bunch of staples. I've had some interest in a Meal Planning 101 and/or Meal Prepping 101 series, so if you're interested in this- will you please comment below and let me know?!

I've been eating my Cream of Wheat Bowl for breakfast almost every single day (subbing the C.O.W. for oatmeal) and eating these delicious crunchwraps with Cut da Carb wraps. I'll have to do a separate post on those because they deserve it! Alright, here we go...

1. BLTs
2. out (we eat out every Saturday for lunch, and then eat something very light for dinner)
3. Zuppa Toscana
4. Cajun cauliflower rice
5. BBQ chicken sweet potatoes (this link is for the BBQ chicken, just shred and add to a sweet potato)
6. Leftovers (bunco night- boys are on their own)
7. Turkey tacos
8. Leftovers
9. out
10. Skinny chicken fajita soup
11. Chili lime cod with rice
12. Sloppy joes with sweet potatoes
13. Turkey burritos
14. Sushi for Valentine's Day
15. Leftovers
16. out
17. White chicken chili
18. Ground turkey cauliflower & veggies bowls
19. Grilled pork chops with potatoes and veggies
20. Sausage sheet pan
21. Turkey burgers with air fryer fries
22. Leftovers
23. out
24. Tuscan tortellini soup
25. Turkey tacos
26. Beef stir fry
27. Breakfast
28. Cauliflower gnocchi with pomodoro sauce (I plan to use Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi with this sauce)