This week I followed a food mag’s already-planned meal plan…

Had in kitchen (leftover from other recipes/cooking staples): butter, flour, lentils, spinach, rice, almond milk, olive oil

Bought: Beef broth, sour cream, Brussels sprouts, red potatoes, ground pork, garlic, eggs, Panko breadcrumbs, red beets, carrots, feta cheese, lemon, tzatziki, pitas, red cabbage, slicing tomatoes, rice vinegar, grated cheese, Honey Bunches of Oats, strawberries

Daily Breakfast: Cereal and fruit

MONDAY

Lunch: Leftovers from Sunday night dinner

Dinner: Swedish meatballs with smashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Comments from Claire: COOKING LIGHT recently had an issue devoted to Easy Weeknight Meals, so I couldn’t resist trying this “week” out. I simplified the recipes a little since I didn’t want to buy a lot of random ingredients. For the meatballs, I used this recipe but with ground pork because it was cheaper (and, like the magazine, used them for recipes throughout the week). For this night I roasted the potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Just make sure you time the meatballs with the veggies correctly…I accidentally started roasting my potatoes and brussels early and the meatballs took longer, so I ended up with quite well-done vegetables and slightly rare meatballs.

TUESDAY

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Lentil beet salad

Comments from Claire: This was another that was in this issue of COOKING LIGHT, but I made some edits for budgetary reasons. Kept the spinach, grated carrots, cooked lentils, beets and feta; left out the walnuts and tahini dressing (both were like $8 each!) and made my own simple red wine vinegrette (which I already had the ingredients for). I actually just realized the recipe called for raw beets and I actually bought cooked ones…still really delicious though!

WEDNESDAY

Lunch: Lentil beet salad

Dinner: Greek pitas

Comments from Claire: So easy and yum yum yummy! I have a store near me that makes really good tzatziki so I grabbed a small container of that instead of making my own.

THURSDAY

Lunch: Leftover pitas

Dinner: Banh Mi Bowl (see top photo)

Comments from Claire: Ok, I took a lot of liberties with this one because I didn’t want to buy the extra ingredients, but even with all of my cheats it came out really good (to my surprise honestly). Switches I made: swapped the radishes for red cabbage since I already had that from the other recipes and it only comes in a big head; left out cilantro (everytime I’ve bought it in the past I just never use enough of it and end up throwing most of it out); used sirracha instead of chili paste to add the kick; used chunky peanut butter instead of creamy since that’s what I had (and then left out the chopped peanuts because it basically is already peanut butter with chopped peanuts mixed in!); cooked fresh brown rice since I already had it in my cabinet.

FRIDAY

Lunch: Leftover banh mi bowl

Dinner: Pita pizzas

Comments from Claire: So easy and good! Mini pizzas are one of my go-to ways to use up bits of leftovers ingredients (link to article?) but I usually use whole wheat wraps. I had a lot of Pita (gyro bread?)  left, so I used it instead and they came out even better. Paired with some more of that leftover pesto from last week, some sliced mozzarella I picked up from the Italian deli, random grape tomatoes and spinach and feta, it was a tasty meal that also helped clean out my fridge for the weekend.

See you next week! To see what I’m eating in the meantime, follow me on Twitter or Instagram @ClaireLeaden