How to meal plan for the week ahead when you didn’t go grocery shopping

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We normally pick our groceries up on Wednesday or Thursday. This week it didn’t happen. So when I started looking in my fridge for menu inspiration for the week, there wasn’t much to work with.

Fortunately my freezer was looking adequately stocked up, so I got to work planning.

You can see I wrote down some ideas based on what I found in the freezer and started making some notes for what we will need for groceries, when we finally get around to it. It took a bit of trouble shooting. We realized that we were out of chick peas, so our plans for falafel on Wednesday got changed to chili . We have lots of red beans.

Next weeks menu

Just in case that photo is too small for you to read, here is our menu this week, made up almost entirely of foods in our freezer:

1. Paneer and Spinach Curry with Steamed Rice
2. Perogies, Sausage and Roasted Beets
3. Red Bean Chili (we got our red beans soaking even as I type)

This menu is going to be fast and easy, so I didn’t actually pre-cook anything today. However, I still find that having the plan in place takes a huge burden off my mid-week mental load.

A change of locations for dinner tonight

We typically have dinner at our kitchen table – however tonight our kitchen table was otherwise occupied…

So we ate at the kitchen island.

We had a super simple menu of left over Thai food and half a gigantic watermelon.

Should I worry if my kid doesn’t eat much at dinner?

My one son had some Pad Thai, Spring Rolls and 2 slices of watermelon. He tried a little bit of the green curry and lemongrass chicken that I ordered last night, but he didn’t try. He told me he liked everything. He didn’t eat much though – leaving most of his pad Thai and having only a few bits of everything else. He told me he wasn’t feeling that hungry and I said “No problem, just listen to your body.”

Should I worry if my kid only eats fruit for dinner?

My other kid ate 1 bite of spring roll and then had 90% of the half watermelon I cut up. I think I can count about 13 slices of watermelon on that plate. This made me think of my blog post from the other day. In this post, I wrote out a fictious diet history to demonstrate how each day could be different but that on average a kid can still get enough fruits and vegetables to eat.

This day will be a huge help to my kiddos weekly average fruit and vegetable consumption – because he had like 6 servings of fruits and vegetables tonight!

So what?

If you haven’t gone grocery shopping and your fridge is looking a little bare – start looking in your freezer or pantry for meal ideas. Our menu this week might not be fancy but its going to get us through until our next grocery shop and coming up with a plan is half the work.

Also – if all your kid wants to eat is watermelon, let them! Its ok! Consider it their bulking up day for their weekly fruit and vegetable installment. Tomorrow maybe they won’t eat any fruits or vegetables because they will be too busy eating 7 slices of toast for breakfast. Its the averages that matter not each day.

Also, if your kid tells you that they just aren’t that hungry today – thats OK too. They may just not be that hungry. Maybe its because they aren’t growing as much this week or maybe because they ate more the day before. Whatever the reason – they know their body best.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments – leave me a note here or send me an email at contact@kellypicard.com