Well, it’s here. We are all just stuck at home, outside of those of you are essential workers or making a quick run to the store for groceries, restaurant food, and the household essentials you can’t live without. And, if you are like me, your meals are stuck on repeat. So, its time to mix it up and share ideas for Social Distancing Meal Plan Solutions while you have to shelter in place.
Over recent months, I’ve been sharing our monthly meal plans and new ideas to incorporate into your weekly menus. I feel like sometimes I get into a rut and I hate a food rut. For me a food rut is just eating the same things over and over and frankly, I’m just not that kind of home cook or eater. I call myself a foodie, for Pete’s sake (whoever he is!). So, these monthly meal plans have served as accountability to add variety to our menus, capture how many times we are eating out (which is totally ok), and record what recipes we love so I can come back and repeat it as often as possible.
I must confess, last week I heard a rumor that our state might go on lockdown, so I raided the freezer section at my local grocery store. I just grabbed things that I knew we liked or that I could use in our “regular” recipes and were less likely to spoil. When I got to the register, I totally surprised myself with how much I had grabbed. I was afraid people were judging me for being “that lady.” But, we have foods that I can prepare with just a few fresh things added each week.
How do you make meal planning easier when you can’t go to the grocery store every day?
I have always looked forward to the time in life where I could prepare meals for a family. Growing up I couldn’t wait to be a wife and mom and now that I”m in that stage/phase of life, I really love cooking dinner and planning meals for my family.
For me, that usually means I want to have a
- well prepared and flavorful meat protein
- healthy sides – that include green vegetable
- a starch or alternative
- expected/usual pairings, like bread and salad with Italian or chips/dip with Mexican, or a couple of sides with a Sunday roast
I know its weird that I have placed this box on myself, but I like to serve a fully prepared meal. So, when times like the ones we are experiencing now come along, I tend to struggle when I don’t have the frozen bread to offer or I’m unsure if we will be able to add a salad to the side of the frozen lasagna. My number 2, enneagram heart wants to take care of my people and feed them and fuel them (insert reward them) for the day.
To combat this, I”m having to just give myself some grace. We may not have the perfect, typical, usual, expected meal on the table every day, but we will have food that fills our belly and is good! And, that may mean we have to get a little creative from time to time.
And, I’m committing right now, right here, today, to cook and meal plan based on the things I already have here at the house! Each week, we are making a short grocery list for basic things like milk, fruit, tea, and grocery replacement items we used up, but I am determined to not waste food, and use up the things I’ve already purchased to round out the feeding of our herd.
So, what has been on our social distancing menu?
Social Distancing Breakfast Ideas
- Omelet Egg Muffins
- Monkey Bread
- Biscuit donuts
- Breakfast Egg Sandwiches – and one week I just cheated and bought the Jimmy Dean kind!
- Pancakes
- Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole
- Big Breakfast – biscuits, eggs, bacon/sausage – you know since you have the time
- Eggs Benedict – Whole Wheat English Muffin, chicken bacon, poached egg, everything bagel seasoning
- Instant Oatmeal – I’ve not always loved oatmeal <insert least favorite texture> but I”ve discovered Reduced Sugar Instant Oatmeal and I prepare it with almond milk and sliced banana a couple of days a week
Social Distancing Lunch Ideas
- chicken salad – using canned chicken, made to your liking or just buy a tub in the deli section
- pimento cheese – make your own, or just buy it pre-made at the store
- Quesadillas with leftover grilled chicken and frozen 3 pepper onion blend
- single serve freezer meals of foods your husband doesn’t love to eat – a girl has to get her organic tamales and tikka masala sometime!
- single serving leftovers from dinners
Social Distancing Dinner Ideas
- Grilled chicken, mac ‘n cheese, green beans
- Quesadillas from leftover meats – great for Sunday night
- Sausage and Peppers Sheetpan Meal
- Cresent Sandwich Braid with sides or chips – we did a Reuben braid for St. Patty’s day but want to repeat with ham and cheese
- Spaghetti – whatever variety – I usually go ahead and brown double the meat when I make something like this so I have it ready for a recipe like tacos later in the week
- Chicken Spaghetti
- Picadillo Bowls – 2lbs stew meat, taco seasoning, pineapple, green chilies or Rotel – cook all day in a slow cooker and serve street taco style with cilantro and diced onion over rice or with taco shells/tostadas
- Asian (Indian) Chicken – sauce from a jar, frozen meal, a quick stir fry of everything left in the veggie drawer – served with roasted frozen Stir Fry veggie blend and cauliflower rice
- Pulled Pork Tostados – using up leftover meat in our freezer from the GuacStar party and Little Man’s birthday party. I’ve been seeing some of my Hispanic neighbors buy tostadas in my regular weekly grocery runs and I thought it would be a fun alternative to our usual taco nights. I just warmed the meat, put tostada shells on a sheet pan, topped the meat with cheese and baked for 5 minutes. Then I served them with salsa and fresh chopped cilantro. We have totally surprised ourselves how much we loved these!
- Tacos – curbside pick up from a local restaurant or homemade – keep it simple, everyone loves taco night (this is when I use the other half of the spaghetti meat I browned)
- Frozen, bagged Italian dinner meals – one-pot meals or sheet pan, add bread and salad (or not, if you don’t have it!)
- Shepherds Pie – use leftover Sunday Roast
- Stockpile Stew (aka Shut-in Soup) – use things you have leftover in your fridge, freezer, or pantry to make an easy and hearty soup
- Homemade Pizza
- Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Freezer Meals – the Freezer Family is my favorite resource and she has so many meals we eat on the regular. If your freezer isn’t full, do yourself a favor and get one of her meal plans and prep this weekend so you don’t have to stress about eating in the coming week.s
- Sheet pan fajitas
- Slow Cooker Turkey Tacos
- Lasagna – do like I did this time and cheated and bought the whole thing already made and frozen
- Hawaiian Chicken – a friend recently introduced this to us and we love it.
- Salisbury Steak/Swedish Meatballs, rice, and confetti corn or Brussel sprouts – funny it doesn’t seem that the green produce is running out in the stores, so I’m picking up something fresh each week. Also, I made homemade meatballs with lean ground beef and ground turkey, but you could totally buy frozen ones and just make the sauce.
- Grilled burgers
- Breakfast for dinner
- Egg casserole/frittata – using up all kinds of leftovers and random things in the fridge – hashbrowns/french fries/tator tots, sausage/bacon/meatless patties, veggies, cheese, scrambled eggs
- Pork Tenderloin, roasted potatoes/frozen hashbrowns, broccoli or corn
- Slow Cooker Soups! – pick one anyone that you’ve been eyeballing on Pinterest, this is your time!
- Chicken Pot Pie – mine can be made with canned chicken and canned or frozen veggies
- Everyone’s FAVORITE – FFY – Fend For Yourself – and you thought you were the only one doing this!
And, above all else when you are just sitting around, make yourself a batch (or two!) of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies you’ll ever eat!
What’s been on your menu? Are you trying some fun recipes from Pinterest or pulling out your cookbooks?
