Menu Plan by Melody
We are a family of four, including two toddler boys who eat their body weight in food every day. We eat a Paleo-ish diet, with the majority of our meals and snacks made with whole foods. We don’t eat pasta, beans or grains of any kind and very little dairy. We are super busy during the week, with trips to the gym most afternoons, so are constantly on the lookout for meals that can be prepared ahead of time or thrown in the crock pot.
Meal planning is very important for our family, as the last minute options we used to rely on (grilled cheese, PB&J, frozen pizza) aren’t in the cards anymore. I try to do as much prep as possible early in the week, making up a big batch of homemade salsa, some kind of protein (shredded chicken, hard boiled eggs or ground beef), easy breakfast options for my husband before work and post-workout snacks. This also saves us from those last minute choices that aren’t as healthy as we’d like them to be.
While my kids are fantastic eaters and do love most vegetables, I still take every chance I get to sneak some in. I know there is a big debate about whether to sneak vegetables or let your kids acquire a taste for them naturally. I say do both! I like to make a big batch of cauliflower puree and add it in to scrambled eggs or throw it in some breakfast muffins.
Here’s what’s for dinner at my house this week:
Monday — Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash – I add chopped fresh spinach at the very end and let it wilt slightly from the heat.
Tuesday — Costco rotisserie chicken, Sweet Potato Fries
Wednesday — Meat Crust Quiche – Used ground beef instead of sausage. SO pretty when it’s sliced!
Thursday — Taco salad with ground beef/turkey, sliced avocado, Rustic Roasted Tomato & Garlic Salsa and cilantro
Friday — Madagascar Chicken, Lime Cilantro Cauliflower “Rice”
Saturday — Meatza with peppers, mushrooms, and olives
Sunday — Leftovers
For a treat or with breakfast – Strawberry Banana Chocolate Muffins
Find more great recipes on Frugal Living NW! Find more frugal homemaking posts here. Find past menu plans here.
What are you making for dinner this week? Be sure to leave a link to any recipes in the comments!
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Yay, Melody! You are very knowledgeable and gracious 🙂
Thanks for sharing my sausage & sweet potato hash recipe – I’m so glad you like it!!
So…
I begin a diet that cuts out an entire food group & either get lauded or ridiculed. Nutritionists (who most often push the SAD) cheer for one & discourage the other. If I claim to be vegetarian, I cut out meat & everybody is happy!! If I cut out grains, my diet is called a “fad.” Claims that I’m losing nutrients by cutting out grains are ridiculous. I eat nutrient dense foods in the forms of meats, vegetables & fruits! I am satiated by adding fat to my diet & my blood markers have improved dramatically despite genetics.
I chose a way of eating–a lifestyle–that helped me to “look, feel & perform” better (thanks to Robb Wolf for the quote). Yet people dismiss Paleo without truly knowing the science & history behind it, nor have the experience of the benefits I’m finding.
I think it’s just so ingrained in us that whole grains are healthy! Doctors, food companies, health and fitness magazines push whole grains, quinoa, brown rice as the only way to be truly healthy. We totally bought into it for a long time and that was the first step we made when changing our eating habits. I still felt awful! The only time in my life I’ve felt good about my digestive system is after giving these things up.
I know people are quick to praise the vegetarian lifestyle because we’re all terrified of saturated fats and clogged arteries. We have done so much research that debunks all that and really feel like this is the lifestyle that we will sustain.
As I mentioned, to each their own. As long as people feel good about their life choices, more power to them. And yes, that horrible pun was intentional.
My husband and I decided in January to try the Paleo Diet. I can tell you that after 15+ years of suffering from digestive issues, I am a true believer! I feel the best I have in a loooonggg time! It is so refreshing to know that you don’t have to always feel “ugh” in your stomach. Thanks for posting your meal plan. Always looking for new dinner ideas!
I was the same way! I felt awful and bloated every single night after dinner and I always just chalked it up to overeating and would then work out harder the next day. Now I can eat just as much as I used to (in the form of veggies and meat) and I feel amazing. I honestly just thought it was this ugly, vicious cycle that I couldn’t seem to break and that I was at fault for eating too much. What a relief to know that I can really control it by what we eat. I’m a total convert!
Non-Paleo confession of the day: Sometimes I eat Costco chocolate chips by the handful and I drink beer. Boom.
You are awesome!
Love!
I’m cackling all the way over to the cupboard where I hid the chocolate chips!
Paleo does advocate grass-fed and organic meats to avoid just that, though if affording that is not an option, which is completely understandable, its still a better choice than eating the grains directly.
Meat is processed food. What do you think the chicken, turkey, cow & pig were fed on that factory farm? Mostly grains with some antibiotics thrown in. I’m not disagreeing with your diet, you’ve made the right choice for your family. But unless you are raising and butchering your own meat, you really don’t know what’s in that meat protein. Not judging, just trying to add some information.
I think what everyone needs to remember is to eat according to what fits each persons body needs. Some people do great not eating lots of grains while others do great not eating lots of meats. Whats important is to remember we are all different. Be healthy, eat a variety of what you can, and teach your children not to be afraid of trying new things.
Melody, if your family feels great on this meal plan, then you’re doing something right and good job. Most of us could use more healthy options thru the stressful days of the week.
Wowwie…what a gracious response Melody! I wouldn’t have been able to express myself as well…or nice.
While I find it interesting to listen to different opinions, I have a tough time when they feel they have to be rude to get their point across.
I’m with Joyell and the others, I don’t eat a Paleo diet, but am loving all of the recipes I’ve been trying from your blog and this one.
Can’t wait to try the sweet potato and sausage hash! Sounds yummy and easy (the two most important elements for me to try a new dish!)
It’s SO easy, definitely one of our go-to meals. The spices may not seem like much, but they add so much flavor. Thanks Brenda!
I started to eat paleo a few months ago & feel great! I also didn’t eat much processed or junk food previously. Before I took the plunge I had much the same concerns: aren’t whole grains & legumes good for you? Turns out the reason why the paleo diet doesn’t include these foods is that they contain gluten, lectins, or both, which are entire system inflamatories. I wish people would check out the research before commenting, as well as keeping their not so nice opinions to themselves!
It can be so hard to get past the “whole grain” thing. Our whole lives (and especially in the last few years), we have been told that whole grains are so good for us! It felt like blasphemy to give them up. While I don’t necessarily think all grains are the devil and they should be banished, I just know it makes us feel better to go without. Most whole grains are processed anyway, so that was another reason it felt good to say goodbye.
Just want to say that we cut out most all processed foods before switching to Paleo and I’ve never felt better than when I’m eating a solid Paleo diet.
So nice that the team at FLNW respects and honors various pathways to physical health. We all want the same thing — a body that works when it is supposed to, is free from disease, and helps us to live life to the fullest!
I appreciate the menu plan, Melody. Thanks for all your hard work. And what a gracious response!
So sad that you guys are promoting Paleo. No beans or grains of any kind?! Terrible to think of how many people are brainwashed by this fad into thinking healthy foods are unhealthy and vice versa. Just like Atkins 🙁
I get how you feel, that’s how we felt before we started eating like this. However, if eating “unhealthy” as you say means that I feel the best I’ve ever felt, then I’ll stick with it. Beans and grains treated my body terribly, so to each their own I guess. We’ve done our research.
I agree with you, Jim. The reason a person on it feels better is probably due to cutting out processed foods, which a person should do anyway. Cutting out necessary foods like beans and grains and replacing them with meat is ridiculous.
The paleo diet is the atkins diet with a different name. Diets high in animal protein have been proven to be detrimental to ones health, not to mention costly. Our ancestors subsisted on this type of diet because they had to–and they died pretty early, too.
But hey, to each “brainwashed” person their own.
False. We had been off processed foods for about a year before we started eating like this and I still felt significantly better after getting rid of grains, but thanks for trying to fit me into a mold.
I really struggle with the things people are willing to say behind a comment form on the internet. I’m fairly certain that you would NOT call me ridiculous or brainwashed if we were having a conversation in real life. You have made decisions for your family based on your research, as have I.
You’ll notice the title of this post is not “Why every person in the world should eat Paleo right this second”. It is merely meal suggestions for those who have chosen to eat this way.
Good for you Melody. We are in the cutting out processed food stage. I’m perfectly happy eating more beans and whole grains (along with other things like fruits and veggies of course) and less frozen, pre-packaged. That is a step that had been very good for my husband and I. But I would like to try cutting out gluten at some point to see how it affects things. Dairy too. But for now, we are focusing on eating more whole foods and not worrying about gluten. That being said, every new recipe I’ve tried in the last month had been from FLNW or Beautiful Frugal Life. Even though we aren’t following the paleo diet, I’ve loved some different ideas. It keeps things more interesting and gets us outside of the protein/starch rut. I really appreciate the ideas, even if they aren’t the only theory I subscribe to. At least not yet 😉
That’s so great Joyell and thank you for sharing! That’s exactly the steps we took as well and it has seriously been about a 3-year journey. We took it in very small steps, with the last step being getting rid of grains. That’s why I’m pretty confident when I say it was the grains step that made us feel the best. We spent enough time at each step before that we could really tell the difference. I really feel that you have to take it slow, if we tried to cut it all out at once, we would have probably lost our minds and went right back to where we started.
Good luck to you and your husband!
Exactly, we would never stick with it if we completely changed everything all at once. It would be right back to clearance candy and Lean cuisines. I don’t want that. It’s encouraging to hear that it’s taken you guys years to get to where you are. We still have a LONG way to go.
You have to have thick skin to blog. I’m always amazed at how well you guys deal with people who disagree. Sometimes I’m too scared to even comment! Thanks for braving the internet and getting information to us all.
To be fair, I didn’t call you ridiculous, only the “diet”. I also didn’t call anyone brainwashed–I fit Jim’s term into my “to each their own” statement.
As for hiding behind a computer comment, I LOVE that from people who don’t like what others have to say about something. I would, in fact, be brave enough to speak aloud if you were in front me. Claiming that I am hiding is simply your way of attacking my character and make yourself seem higher.
Sorry I don’t agree with your diet, and I’m sorry you don’t agree with with my opinion.
To be fair, by calling my diet ridiculous and repeating the term “brainwashed”, you are in fact applying those words to me and my lifestyle.
I couldn’t care less that our opinions differ, I totally get that there is a lot of controversy about Paleo. It took us a long time to come around and make the decision to switch, but I also didn’t criticize those who ate this way. It’s a very personal journey and obviously how I feed my family, so unfortunately I take it as a personal criticism when you use those harsh words.
When I say you are hiding, it is only because I would hope that you wouldn’t use those types of words if we were actually having an intelligent conversation. I certainly wouldn’t tell someone I’d met for the first time that their diet was ridiculous.
I appreciate people chiming in with different opinions. As for the research, you can find studies backing up and disproving any type of diet and lifestyle. We feel comfortable with our choice, as you feel comfortable with your opinion.
Gotta love it when people throw the “brainwashed” card around. Nothing says “I have a weak argument” like a good ol’ fashioned ad hominem fallacy.
Word. Melody goes through all the trouble to share her plan with us (as well as a little background on why she eats the way she) and she gets criticized, and name called in a back handed way (however abstractly the name callers want to pretend they did it).
That being said, the research behind paleo is strong. Eating tons of meat isn’t the issue; it’s the source, which anyone eating that way will tell you. I eat paleo because I grew tired of subsidizing cruelty, and found after doing a whole30 that grains agreed with me less than I knew (after being a happy 4-5 days a week beans and rice eater).
So the moral of the story is: what exactly does anyone care how or why Melody eats the way she does? She runs a popular blog, and it didn’t get that way by not sharing herself with us. If you disagree with her, you cando so quietly or at least in a less jerky way.
I can’t believe how rude people were here.
I feel better by cutting out unnecessary foods like grains & beans. I’m replacing them with healthy fats, vegetables & fruits…and yes…meat…OH MY GOD, the horror. Current literature is finding the benefit of healthy saturated fats that occur in whole foods (like meat & dairy). Paleo is much different than Atkins, but let’s not quibble over details.
I leave the brainwashing to our government pushing their Monsanto/Big Agri agenda. For an eye opening & thought provoking tour through dieting, check out Tom Naughton’s “Fat Head” video. It’s available on Netflix. His website is also very informative.