Meal Plan Monday (7/31-8/6/17): Dutch Oven Freezer-Session Meals

Meal planning can be hard. Especially during the hustle and bustle of the upcoming back-to-school season. Especially when you are trying to prepare healthy meals for your family at home. So today I want to share a little secret with you. Even though this week is starting off to a sunny, humid, and unseasonably warm start here in Dixie, I’m taking this week to create freezer-ready meals for later this fall during the back-to-school season! And as there’s no better way to start a week off than a well-thought out meal plan I can’t wait to share with you all what we will be having this week why not combine our usual meal prep and planning with an easy-to-make freezer cooking session too!

Also, this week’s menu will again reflect a little bit of a change. For the past six months, we have made a point of eating our freezers down to zero. Now we will be switching gears and making a priority out of eating down our home pantry stockpile. As with last week’s plan, this week’s menu will seek to utilize excessive pantry staples to feed our family of three for one week for a total of $38.91.

As with last week, for the next few weeks, I will be experimenting with themed menus for the last ten weeks of Summer. This week’s theme: Dutch oven dinners. While it may seem contradictory to cook in your dutch oven in Summer, I find it a real cost-effective way to dine this time of year. I use my cast iron dutch oven on my gas grill’s propane side burner. Each dish is cooked on low. I check each dish hourly with a preset timer, and if needed, add vegetable stock to keep ingredients from sticking to my oven.

An added bonus? As my family is away this week, and I’m currently consuming a 28-day meal plan from Personal Trainer Food, I’ll be able to prepare and cook the follow planned meals in my dutch oven and freeze them for quick back-to-school meals later this fall. So for me, the cast iron (I’m aiming for zero-waste cooking, after all) Dutch oven presents easy-to-fix, affordable, low-meal that’s table ready in 1-2 hours, which is a win-win in my book! 

Now to turn each meal into a freezer ready meal, I simply cook each meal, allow it to cook for one hour, and then pack the meal into labeled freezer-ready Pyrex lidded baking dishes. I’ll cook all six meals over the course of two days and then I’ll have a week’s worth of meals ready for the fall. This is also a great time to check your freezers and pantries for staples that need to be used up and to organize your pantries too. Now let’s look at this weeks meal plan.

Here’s this weeks freezable meal plan:

Monday
Breakfast: Pecan Cinnamon Muffins with almond milk and grapes.
Lunch: Olive spread, with crackers, grapes, and almond milk. 
Snack: Strawberries and String Cheese.
Dinner: Dutch Oven Chicken with Lemongrass and Coconut Milk with steamed broccoli and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Strawberry and banana smoothie jars.

Tuesday
Breakfast: Avocado, Banana, and Almond Milk Smoothies.
Lunch: Olive spread, with crackers, grapes, and almond milk.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas with Lemon and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Peach and pineapple smoothie jars.

Wednesday
Breakfast: Pecan Cinnamon Muffins with almond milk and grapes.
Lunch: Grilled cheese sliders, grapes, and ice water.
Snack: Strawberries and String Cheese.
Dinner: Vegan Curry Cauliflower Soup and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Strawberry and Banana smoothie jars.

Thursday
Breakfast: Avocado, Banana, and Almond Milk Smoothies.
Lunch: Pumpkin Mac and Cheese, steamed broccoli, and ice water.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Dutch Oven Baked Risotto with Peas & Asparagus and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Peach and pineapple smoothie jars.

Friday
Breakfast: Pecan Cinnamon Muffins with almond milk and grapes.
Lunch: Grilled cheese sliders with grapes and almond milk.
Snack: Strawberries and String Cheese.
Dinner: Braised Chicken, Steamed Rice, Corn, and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Strawberry and Organic Cocoa Smoothie jars.

Saturday
Breakfast: Granola Cereal with Blueberries and Almond milk.
Lunch: Grilled cheese and almond milk.
Snacks: Strawberries and String Cheese.
Dinner: Dutch Oven Southwestern BBQ Chicken, steamed corn, and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Peach and pineapple smoothie jars.

Sunday
Breakfast: Banana pancakes, strawberries, and almond milk.
Lunch: Baked Spaghetti, green beans, and ice water.
Snack: Strawberries and String Cheese.
Dinner: Chicken Tagine with Apricots, Almonds & Chickpeas over steamed rice and Stevia Lemonade.
Dessert: Strawberry and Organic Cocoa Smoothie jars.