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How to Plan Some Awesome Meals

How to Plan Some Awesome Meals

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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18 Comments

  1. SMM

    OMG! This is PERFECT!!! This is EXACTLY what I needed!!!! Thank you so much!!!! I have been wanting to be more effective and plan better, and the knowledge that I can have a fulfilling mean with a protein and veggies is super relieving and inspiring!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      My pleasure! I really hope it can help you. 🙂

      1. SMM

        it totally helps! Also, there is an awesome iPhone app that I love for recipes–Epicurious–super awesome!

  2. Leah @ L4L

    Oh, I am the queen of mealplanning. I mealplan every Friday. Usually, I start by thinking of what we already have on hand then I go through my bookmarked recipes. Variety is key for me – I tend to get bored. I always try to have a couple of meatless meals in there and at leasst one seafood. Lunch is always leftovers so we cook dinners that feed 4+. My fav sources for recipes are AllRecipes.com, blogs, Foodbuzz, and just Google. 🙂

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Good tip! I like alternating fish and meat too. Even though we vary the type of meat we eat (pork chops, steak, chicken, turkey burgers) I get sick of eating it every day. Salmon is great and we’ve been eating shrimp a lot lately. We have some scallops in the freezer we need to figure out how to prepare next.

  3. Karen@WaistingTime

    I don’t like to cook and I don’t like to meal plan. But, both are necessary at times when I am eating well. I have tons of recipes bookmarked. Every so often I go through them and print off a bunch and try to get around to trying some. I just printed of a new one today that is very interesting and I’m planning to try it this week. My “diet” forum, 3fatchicks, has the most amazing recipes in each different diet section. I also LOVE allrecipes.com. I haven’t tried the frozen salmon at Costco; we buy the fresh when the boys are home and the frozen burgers all the time for just hubby and me.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I was skeptical about the frozen fish but I also love having it on hand at all times. Fresh fish is nice in the summer time as a treat. I love allrecipes too! Their app is good.

  4. Deb

    I try to plan at some some of our meals, and make do with what we’ve got most weeks, but it would be nice to not run to the store so often!

    We always have a supply of chicken thighs and breasts, ground turkey of beef (whatever was on sale last) and some kind of fish. Veggies are whatever they sent us in that week’s produce box, and we are always stocked up on different rice and pasta based mixes and plain.

    I’m also trying to try three new to me recipes each month this year, so that means pre-planning a bit more on weeks I want to try something new. What I need to do it start menu planning!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      It sounds like you have a really good system down. I hated how often we had to go to the grocery store. Meal planning makes it so much better.

      1. Deb

        I had an Ah-ha! moment right after this. I have a friend who drops her recipes into a hat, then lets her kids draw them out. That’s how she plans her menus for the week. Random selection, basically.

        I opened up excel, made 3 columns. Main dishes, Veggies Sides, Carb Sides. Entered the food we always have on hand plus recipes we’ve both liked into the appropriate columns. Then I went to the random number generator and started picking numbers.

        I think I’m going to try this for a few weeks and see how it goes! Some of the combos are a little weird though… lol.

        1. Lisa Eirene

          That’s cool! Let me know how your system works for you. Give it some time to work out the kinks.

          When Michael and I first started meal planning we did something similar. We’d use an Excel spreadsheet and plan each evening’s meals, complete with the recipe link and all the ingredients we had on hand, plus what we had to buy. It was super involved and we have since simplified it.

  5. Roz@weightingfor50

    Hi Lisa, this is excellent info, thanks. I’m in “use up what we have in the fridge, freezer and cupboard mode” right now, so have made an inventory, and am planning accordingly. I actually really enjoy meal planning and also trying new recipes and combinations of protein, veg and grains. Have a great Monday.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I go through that phase often, too. It’s a good way to use stuff up and save some money.

  6. Tricia

    Didn’t you say that you were going to be on television & that you were going to put the links up?

  7. Lori

    I don’t plan meals too much in terms of grocery shopping. We have our staple things we have and just prepare them simply most times. On weekends when we have a little more time is when we tend to do recipes, particularly John. He does longer cooking stuff on weekends.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Us too, Lori. Weekends there’s just more time. During the week I look for quickie and easy recipes.

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