Here’s my actual meal plan for this week:

Friday (last night): Rotisserie Chicken + Salad (from a tub) w/ chopped cucumber and radish with homemade ranch dressing + strawberries and cherries.

Saturday: Bolognese sauce from America’s Test Kitchen *& spaghetti + Salad (from the tub) w/ chopped cucumber and radish with the same batch of ranch dressing

*(I will be making a double-batch and freezing half of it. This recipe takes 4 hours to make but it’s my favorite thing pretty much ever and has ruined meat sauce for me at most restaurants…)

Sunday: Chicken Parmesan (trying this keto recipe for the first time- no idea if it will be good or if it will work at all, fingers crossed) + steamed broccoli *using spaghetti sauce from Saturday’s recipe to top the chicken parm

Monday: Gazpacho w/ a cheese plate. The internet tells me a cheese plate is an acceptable summer dinner plan so I’m going with it. Ours will be salami, cheddar, havarti (I will be cutting presliced slices into 4’s) roasted almonds and ciabatta bread

Tuesday: Garlic-Lemon Tilapia (trying this recipe) + salad (from the tub and dressing if there is any left- otherwise we’ll use olive oil/vinegar)

Wednesday: Chicken (trying this recipe- don’t know how it will be) + brussel sprouts with bacon

Thursday: (or another day we’ll swap out) We’ll probably be out on a day trip so dinner will be out.

 

And here’s my commentary:

I’m putting my commentary AFTER my content because I’ve been so frustrated sifting through recipes on the internet and having to wade through all their pop-up ads and stories about their dogs just to get to the ingredients list. I’ve toyed with the idea of actually printing out recipes like it was the early 2000’s- it’s gotten that bad.

This meal plan above took me like 2 hours. I don’t feel good admitting that. I get so frustrated with how much time and mental energy it requires to come up with meal plans every week. My husband’s on keto so everything I do has to at least have a no-carb option (he’s eating a bowl of the sauce w/ cheese for the bolognese night…).  Keto eliminates most casseroles, all pasta dishes, and most soup (he can’t eat carrots… or beans… it’s ridiculous). We get very bored with the same thing over and over again. I’ve been especially frustrated with cooking large amounts of meat just to have them be kind of bland and dry and then we have to eat them for leftovers later? We get so bored we end up getting take-out instead and that defeats the entire purpose of meal planning.

What I’d really love is a place where actual people- not chefs or food-bloggers or whatever- post their actual meal plans. I’ve looked for this on the internet, and of course, the chefs and food bloggers and whatever have optimized themselves to be at the top of search results for “meal plans by actual people” so I just get more food bloggers. But pretty much EVERYONE meal plans… you ALL have to eat something and you have been succeeding in feeding yourself somehow. I want to know how you do it- especially if you’re very happy with how you’re doing it.

So I’m throwing up a Facebook page. I’m keeping that wording because that’s all the energy I have at the moment: Actual Meal Plans that Actual People Use. Please join it and share your knowledge with us. You can always also post comments here.