My Weekly Meals, on The Real

It’s easy to get the idea that bloggers are not humans.

We take pretty pictures, write a funny or heartfelt story to go with the pictures, and we share the blissful moments.

But let me reassure you, I am human and so are all the other bloggers you love. I struggle with balancing work from home, my child, my husband, the loads of dishes, and all the other things you struggle with on a daily basis, too. I even struggle with food from time to time and making sure my family is well fed on a low budget.

Since you are on the outside looking in, it may be discouraging to you and overwhelming to put real food on the table without taking your whole paycheck and thinking you have to cook elaborate meals to feed your family well.

When I asked if creating a post with all my meals for the week would be helpful to Naturally Loriel readers, I got an overwhelming YES.

First, I want to share with you my initial meal plan for the week so you can see how that played out for the rest of the week:

This week was an unusually “off” week for me, and as you can see, our meals consisted of the most simplest ingredients and cooking methods. Lots of leftovers and the same food over again. Some days we ate better than others, and there was lots of snacking involved.

I also want to make note that since I’m responsible for everything else in the house, Scott is responsible for making his lunch for work. 🙂

So here it is, my weekly meals, on the real (aka in it’s most authentic form).

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Monday

Breakfast: Andrew woke up really late so he had the remaining portion of his madeleine breakfast cookie and a glass of raw goat milk. I had an over easy egg seasoned with salt and pepper on a toasted piece of sourdough bread with lots of butter and ketchup.

Lunch: Andrew stayed at school for lunch (per his request) so I made him half a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich, dried cranberries (which he hardly ate), and a rice sticks. When he got home from school, he had roasted red pepper hummus and crackers, goji berries, a couple bites of dried apple rings, a glass of kombucha, and frozen peas when he was helping me make dinner.

I had a couple slices of salami (a treat I bought for myself), cheese, and crackers. I snacked on Andrew’s cranberries he didn’t eat and some rice sticks.

Dinner: I had leftover shredded chicken from my slow cooker easy chicken recipe, so instead of tacos, I decided to make a huge stove top meal. I froze half of it so we can eat it at a later time. You can find the recipe here. I mashed butter and seasoned heavily with salt and pepper. Andrew had a few bites but I’m pretty sure he was full from snacking all day. Andrew had a strawberry coconut popsicle, as well.

Scott and I enjoyed a square of leftover homemade chewy chocolate chip einkorn brownies (I made these for my photo shoot last week).

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Tuesday

Breakfast: Initially Andrew wanted crackers first thing in the morning and I made a negotiation with him that he could have a cracker if he dipped it into an over easy egg. He ate the egg, didn’t eat the cracker, and wanted half a slice of sourdough with butter and jelly. For me, my breakfast was the same as yesterday; I ate an over easy egg on sourdough with butter and ketchup.

Lunch: Andrew asked for 2 Bubbies pickles, two dates rolled in coconut, and he had a cracker. That’s all he wanted (plus a glass of elderberry lavender kombucha). I ate a pickle, dried apple rings, and was testing out my french onion dip with chips.

Dinner: The family ate the stovetop chicken, rice, and veggies leftovers again.

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Wednesday

Breakfast: Andrew and I both split 3 scrambled eggs; Andrew dipped his in mustard and we both had a slice of sourdough with butter and jelly

Lunch: Whenever Andrew goes to school, he requests half a sandwich with sunflower seed butter and jelly so that’s what he had. I put a pickle, date, and dried apple rings in his lunch as well but he didn’t eat the apple rings or the pickle so I did.

I snacked on more french onion dip and chips. This day I watched my friend’s two kids so when we were at their house, Andrew had grapes, 1/2 an apple pie lara bar, and ….. a couple goldfish (I cringed, by the way).

Dinner: Scott and I took our first of six salsa lessons so Andrew stayed with my inlaws. He had cous cous while he was waiting for the rice, chicken, broccoli to be done, plus a few chips at Grandmas. Scott and I quickly scarfed down homemade tacos (without the tortilla) with sour cream, salsa, and avocado. We ate them with organic corn chips. Find my homemade taco seasoning here.

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Thursday

Breakfast: Andrew and I split scrambled eggs again.

Lunch: We went on a play date with some new crunchy mama’s and kids so lunch consisted of a lot of snacks: Enjoy Life seed mix (this has become Andrew’s favorite on the go snack which consists of pumpkin & sunflower seeds, cranberries, raisins, dried apples, chocolate chips), apple slices, and rice sticks.

When we got home and Andrew took a nap, I ate leftover taco meat with a few chips. This day I watched my friend’s two kids so when we were at their house Andrew had more grapes and an organic fig newton bar.

Dinner: I defrosted leftover tomato soup, made grilled cheese, and a simple lettuce salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil as the dressing. I topped my salad with seaweed that I had in the pantry. Andrew got in quite a few bites of leftover taco meat but then I turned my head and he dumped a tablespoon of salt in there. Then I reheated some rice and chicken for him which he had a few bites of, plus he had some of my grilled cheese and ACTUALLY dipped it into my soup (which he didn’t like). But I was proud of him for trying. He had a cup of raw goat milk with dinner.

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Friday

Breakfast: Andrew requested a cup of frozen peas (really?) and had a few bites of granola before school. I had (of course) an over easy egg on toast with butter and ketchup.

Lunch: Andrew went to school today, so he had his norm: sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwich  plus some apple slices and a cup of raw goat milk. He snacked on some stove top popcorn as well (take 1/4 cup popcorn kernals and put it in a pot that has a lid, with 2 Tbl coconut oil or olive oil. Turn the burner on high heat; shake until you hear popping. Continue shaking until you don’t hear popping anymore. Sprinkle with melted virgin coconut oil and unrefined sea salt).

It was photographing day for me, so I made my homemade french onion dip again, and snacked on that with some chips. I had more dried apple rings, a few slices of cheese and salami.

Dinner: I had to watch the kids this day so I decided to be easy on myself and drop Andrew off at Grandma’s after he was done with school and soccer because he was overly tired and extremely cranky. He stayed for the night and had dinner at Grandmas (I’m not sure what). Scott and I decided to treat ourselves and go out to dinner. We had pasta, a caeser salad, and tiramisu.

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Saturday

Breakfast: Andrew was at Grandmas. I ate an egg on toast and Scott went to breakfast with his buddies because he was going to be gone all day with them (a Wobtober fest drinking olympics…).

Lunch: I went over to Grandma’s to put a garden in for her, and I brought my leftovers which I reheated (and then it gave me a stomach ache). Andrew snacked on crackers and hummus, goat milk, and a few other things.

Dinner: Andrew stayed at Grandmas again. Scott came home around 5pm from his drinking festivities and passed out until 9:30pm. My stomach was hurting a little from earlier, so we each ate a couple meatballs that I had frozen, and that’s it.

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Sunday

Breakfast: We skipped breakfast

Lunch: Scott and I picked Andrew up from Grandmas and went to spend a few hours at a park with a playground and nature walk (we saw 2 gators!). We bought a cuban sandwich that we all split, plus Andrew ate his Enjoy Life seed packet.

Dinner: We all munched on the remaining french onion dip and chips, plus I made taco meat and we ate it with sour cream and salsa.

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So what do you think? Did this help at all? I know it didn’t consist of a lot of recipes per say, but I hope it showed you that getting real food on the table doesn’t mean having to cook an elaborate meal. Sometimes eating well means stretching what you have, eating leftovers, and keeping it extremely simple.

If you want to learn more about eating well but spending less, you’ll definitely want to snag yourself a copy of Eat Well, Spend Less where you’ll learn 15 money saving techniques, how to meal plan, and how to evaluate your budget. Purchase Eat Well, Spend Less here.

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