meal planning Archives - My Inner Shakti

This Week’s Meal Plan + Recent Favs from Trader Joe’s

Some of you may have noticed that I don’t share my own recipes all that frequently anymore. It’s not that I don’t cook at home. It’s just that I don’t have the energy or patience to measure out ingredients, write everything down, and type it all up. Not my forte I suppose!

With that being said, if I make something that’s too good not to share, I will (well…maybe!). And I definitely want to share more of the recipes I come across during my weekly meal planning process. There are some great dishes out there just waiting to be made!

This Week’s Meal Plan

I’m not exactly sure what day these meals will be made on, but I like to plan for four meals and then adjust as we go.

Lentil Tortilla Soup via Vegan Richa
Veggie Shepherd’s Pie via Life as Lauren
Black Bean Burgers via All Recipes
An Indian veggie stir-fry via my mom and homemade Indian flatbread via me

Recent Favs from Trader Joe’s

Cilantro salad dressing – This dressing is now a favorite in our household. Even for me, the cilantro hater! I love that you don’t need a ton to get a experience the strong flavor. While Vishnu often uses it as intended (and as a sandwich spread), I use it as more of sauce – on top of nachos, eggs, veggie bowls, etc. I don’t see us expiring this product any time soon!

Nutritional yeast – I think I mentioned that TJ’s now sells nutritional yeast in a previous post. What a fun discovery! I love using this stuff on top of everything, as it packs a big nutritional punch. More info here.

Lemongrass and sage hand soap – I absolutely love this hand soap and keep a bottle by my kitchen sink. I am a huge fan of herbal scents, and this hits the spot.

Well, I hope you had a great weekend. Other than meal planning and shopping at Trader Joe’s, mine included a fun brunch with friends, hanging out with Aekta and Adarsh, and odds and ends at home [Vishnu worked a Saturday 12p- Sunday 8a shift at the hospital].

Happy Monday!

My 4 Step Meal Planning Process

written by Parita 10 Comments

Meal planning is a necessary evil around these parts. Necessary because it helps us save money and prevents food waste. Evil because sometimes it’s just a pain to figure out exactly what to make week after week, especially when you’re trying to keep it healthy and interesting and varied.

Now I know how my mom felt all those years! Week after week, she would ask, “What should I make?” And week after week, our response was always the same, “I don’t know.”

Sorry, momma!

To avoid the above situation (for the rest of my life) and keep my frustration at bay, I devised a simple four step meal planning process, and I plan to stick to it as much as possible in 2016. Especially when things get a little crazy!

Ok, so here goes…

1 – Open up to a clean page in your meal planning notebook (yes, you should have a notebook just for this!). On the left hand side, list out the days of the week in one column and across the top list out all the meals you are planning for (breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner).

Carefully think through the days of the week and what meals you will need. For example, breakfast is always the same for us, so I only have to think about my lunches (99% of the time Vishnu eats at the hospital) and our dinners. Consider potential leftovers, meals out, etc.

2 – Now that you know exactly what needs to be made and in what proportion, you can start browsing through cookbooks (The Oh She Glows Cookbook is my absolute favorite!), Pinterest, and blogs. Personally, I like to make one or two new dishes every week and stick to my own tried and true favorites for the rest.

Note: Make sure there’s some overlap of ingredients between meals. This will help save money and eliminate food waste!

3 – Before heading to the grocery store, survey the contents of your fridge and pantry. You guys have no idea how many cans of chickpeas we now have all because I thought we were out!

4- In order to make this whole process worthwhile, STICK TO THE LIST when shopping! I was just telling Vishnu what a huge difference this makes. Take this past week as an example. I ended up almost $15 under budget! All because of a plan and a list!

So there you have it, my four step meal planning process. It doesn’t get any easier than this!

How do you plan your meals for the week?

Cook Smarts + A Giveaway

written by Parita 11 Comments

I love to meal plan. In fact, Sunday mornings are dedicated to just that. Here’s how it works: wake up, make breakfast, sit down with my laptop, a few cookbooks and a notepad, ask Vishnu if there’s anything particular he wants to eat, plan out meals for the week, make a grocery list, shop, and repeat every Sunday. I LOVE IT!

With that being said, you can imagine how excited I was to get an email from Jess Dang, the founder of Cook Smarts, a weekly online meal planning service. Jess was kind enough to gift me with a 3 month subscription so that I could try it out for myself. One more healthy meal planning resource at my disposal? Yes please!

Last week was my first week using Cook Smarts, and I absolutely love it. I even told Vishnu last night that I plan to continue subscribing after my current plan expires. Essentially, after you sign up, you have access to a “database” of recipes that are all healthy and simple to make (most require 30 minutes or less). Jess releases a new weekly meal plan every Thursday, so you can opt to follow it to the tee OR do what I do and pick and choose meals from different plans and create your own unique mix.

What I love about Cook Smarts:

The #1 most amazing feature is that you are able to select different dietary preferences (paleo, vegetarian, and/or gluten free) to match your needs. And when you do, the ingredient list and recipe change as well. LOVE!
As I stated above, the meals are healthy and chock full of fresh ingredients.
You have the option to “favorite” or “heart” different recipes, so that they are easily accessible when you sit down to meal plan.
Each recipe comes with a prep tab so you know exactly what needs to be done ahead of time.
If you decide to follow a given weekly plan (which includes four meals) and make only those meals, you have the option to create a customized grocery list, which you can then print out and take with you to the store.
For those who are just beginning their culinary journey, Jess provides lots of tips and video tutorials to help along the way.
Cook Smarts is affordable, with plans starting at just $6 a month.

As I mentioned earlier, I made two Cook Smarts meals last week, and they both turned out great. And as an added bonus, both dishes were pretty much one pot wonders, so not only was the cooking process easy, but cleaning up was also a breeze!

First up was the Tofu and Green Curry Noodles dish. The only thing I did differently was add a little bit of fresh ginger, chili and garlic. Seriously, this was fantastic. I loved the flavor combo and the simple ingredient list. I will definitely be making this again soon!

I guess I was in a very Asian inspired mood last week because I also used Cook Smarts to make Green Curry Lentils. I am a huge lentil fan, so this was right up my alley. This dish was hearty, healthy, and really unique (avocado cubes were used to finish off this dish). And again, all I did differently was add some fresh ginger, chili and garlic. It was perfection! And I’m really sad because I just had my last bowl for lunch yesterday. So basically, this one is also a keeper!

Trust me when I say that this is something you definitely want to try. It has made the whole “what should I make” dilemma non-existent for us because now we have tons of meal ideas all in one place.

So aside from purchasing your own meal plan subscription or signing up to receive access to 3 free plans, there is one more potential way to experience Cook Smarts…

It’s giveaway time!! Jess graciously agreed to gift one of my readers with his or her very own 3 month subscription to Cook Smarts (thanks, Jess!!).

To enter (feel free to pick one or all, but please leave a separate comment for each entry):

(Open to everyone regardless of location!)

1. Follow Cook Smarts on Instagram (@cooksmarts)
2. Follow my inner shakti on Instagram (@myinnershakti)
3. LikeCook Smarts on Facebook
4. Like my inner shakti on Facebook.

The giveaway will close on Sunday at 9:00 pm, and the winner will be announced in Monday’s post! GOOD LUCK!