I usually plan to cook 4 dinners per week. I don’t want to cook 7 days a week and there’s always leftovers, take out, and frozen/premade/pantry/easy food to be eaten. Before the week of cooking starts (it’s not always at the beginning of a week), I will plan out what I’m going to make.

I take out my cookbooks and binders of printed recipes/magazine recipes. I ask Brandon if there’s anything he wants that week. I look at my phone for any notes I’ve made about food I want or want to make. I look at ingredients, difficulty, and time it takes to make each of these and decide on a few. I remove these recipes and write the names and locations down in a notebook.

 

In the notebook, I write down the names of the recipes or ideas, if I’ll be going recipe free. Then I’ll write a shopping list. I go through each recipe and write down items I do not have at home. I sometimes forget something, but usually, I manage to get everything I need. Sometimes I need to go double check in the kitchen before writing things down.

During the week I’m talking about, I planned on making the Hoisin Chicken first. I realized I actually didn’t have any bottled hoisin sauce. I looked up recipes for homemade ones, but the one I chose did not come out as expected, and I decided to just make something else instead. I went with the Steak & Sweet Potato Salad. It’s always a good idea to go with meat recipes first. Vegetarian ones later.

Steak & Sweet Potato Salad w/ Goat Cheese : The Dude Diet 

CLICK HERE to see the recipe and my changes and suggestions in another post

Hoisin Chicken Thighs with Broccoli and Farro : Real Simple

CLICK HERE to see the recipe and my changes and suggestions in another post

Grilled Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches with Sauteed Mushrooms and Spinach

No recipe. Just a few slices of turkey, a slice of swiss, dijon mustard, cooked onions (only on mine) and whole grain bread. I had a side of sauteed spinach, mushrooms, and garlic, and some chips.

Thai Peanut Soba Noodles 

CLICK HERE to see the recipe

I had leftover Thai Peanut Sauce from some grain, protein, veg bowls I had made the previous week. I also knew that there were soba noodles in my pantry and I’ve been wanting to use those up for a while as well. The rest just sounded good.