Confession time. I spent the weekend with some of the women whom I love the most. We dove into God’s word. We talked into the wee hours of the morning. We broke bread. We cried. We laughed. We learned from wise speakers. It was a great weekend. I also gorged myself full of treats and delicious food. It was fun while it lasted but today I have only desired water and vegetables, friends. My body will reject candy at this point. Honestly, this makes me very sad. I like candy. And this week is Valentine’s Day, the high holiday of chocolates. At least for the beginning of the week, I have no desire to eat bread, pasta, or ANY sweet treats. So the meal plan is going to be pretty bland and veggie laden. I think we’ll all be better off. We’re also better off when we have a meal plan.
Because we don’t have a plan, we don’t even enjoy the meal. But planning to dine out builds margin into our life so that we determine exactly where we’re going, how much we’ll spend, and maybe even the opportunity to look over the menu and choose a favorite item. The experience becomes what it was meant to be – a luxury! That means it’s time to plan our meals for this week at home so we can truly splurge and enjoy it.
If I don’t have a plan, I know I’ll fail when it comes to best using our resources, money, and time without a meal plan. I don’t always follow our meal plan to a T but there’s a relief in knowing that we have all of the items to make meals all week long that we need. That way, we use the groceries we have and stay out of the drive thru (obviously saving money!). Regular meal planning was one of the many keys to us paying off $127K in 4 years. Simply paying attention made huge waves in our finances. Did you catch my segment on WTHR a couple of months ago? It focused on tips & tricks for meal planning. Check those out for some of my best tips!
Don’t forget I have a newly designed Meal Planner to help you in your meal planning and grocery list endeavors. And you can always find it (along with other great resources) on the FREE Printables Tab on Queen of Free.
Without further ado, here’s what’s for dinner on the Royal Table this week:
Monday:
Chili
Fresh Cut Veggies
Apple Sauce
Tuesday:
Crockpot Rotisserie Styled Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Crockpot Apples
Wednesday:
Chef Salad
with Ham, Egg, Cheese, Cucumber, Tomatoes, & Avocado
Toast & Olive Oil
Thursday:
Ham and Soup Beans
Corn Bread
Mac-n-Cheese
Fresh Cut Veggies (Yeah, I’m going to focus in on this only)
Friday:
Ham, Egg, & Cheese Casserole
Roasted Potatoes
Gluten Free Pancakes
Apple or Orange Slices
Saturday:
Soup & Baked Potato Bar
Dinner: Leftovers
Sunday:
Pizza
Dinner:
Valentine’s Day Dinner Out
Planning meals was definitely one of the biggest keys for success in our paying off over $127K in debt. Often I swap days or side items to make our menu plan work but the main purpose is to make sure I have everything on hand I need for meals throughout the entire week. The less you go to the store, the more money you save!
What are you having on your Royal Table this week?
Gain inspiration to pay off debt! Check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free on Kindle.
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Jackie says
Thanks for sharing the link to my recipe. I hope you like it. 🙂
Queen of Free says
It was awesome! Anna was a huge fan. I actually just used boneless skinless chicken breast, seasoned salt from ALDI with a bit of sugar & plain salt mixed in with it. I had to make a double decker of aluminum foil in my crockpot because it’s teeny but it did the trick! Thanks for sharing.