Farm to Table 365 Day Meal Plan
Quinn and I moved to Sacramento in 2017 after living in rural towns all our lives. It was overwhelming to all of a sudden be living in a city. A big problem that cropped up immediately was “what’s for dinner?” We were so used to running to the store down the street to pick up whatever we wanted to cook.
Living in Sacramento, we wouldn’t get home from work until after 6:00, and the “what’s for dinner?” conversation wouldn’t finish until around 7:00. Getting to the store and back through traffic took forever, and we weren’t even starting to cook until 8:00.
Our entire evenings were eaten up by dinner. It wasn’t sustainable! So we started meal planning. We’d plan out our meals on the weekend and take care of the shopping so we could start cooking right away when we got home.
It worked great! Until… we started eating the same meals over and over. It was a pain to plan the meals every weekend when we were busy in the garden or going on horseback riding adventures.
Why I Made the 365 Day Meal Plan
Every time Quinn interrupted me to ask what I was thinking about for dinner for the upcoming week, I would feel frustrated and overwhelmed. It was not just a quick and easy to answer question. I started trying to get ahead of Quinn, having a meal plan and shopping list ready for the week ahead that I could hand him when he asked.
The more I dove in, the more I resented the routine, so I decided to preserve my efforts by creating a 365-day meal plan with shopping lists. All our traditional holiday meals are included, so I don’t have to gather those recipes and shopping lists year after year.
The meal plan isn’t a rule. It’s a guide. It’s only for weeknight dinners and breakfasts. Weekends are for eating out or getting creative in the kitchen. When life is crazy, and we don’t have to sit down and think about what to eat, we go by the meal plan. If we don’t feel like eating a meal that comes up, or we have a special ingredient we want to use, we don’t hesitate to deviate.
I make a big breakfast every Sunday and portion it out into mason jars, so all I have to do is pop one in the microwave every morning, and I don’t have to deal with cooking or dishes before I get into my office.
How I Built The Meal Plan
We have about ten core meals that are easy and quick, but we get super tired of them if they show up too often. I made sure they only come up once a month.
They are:
- Pad Thai
- Sausage and Wild Rice
- Mac and Cheese
- Pizza
- Yakisoba
- Pesto Pasta
- Biryani
- Risotto
- Sushi
- Minestrone Soup (Winter)
- Brats on the BBQ (Summer)
Once I got these sprinkled in for a year, I realized I needed some more structure to ensure a balanced diet. NOTE I didn’t do any nutrient calculations or anything like that with this meal plan.
I am an intuitive eater. My body tells me what it needs. You can be an intuitive eater, too with just a little practice! My meal plan makes me feel AMAZING 90% of the time. When it isn’t hitting the spot, I change out for a meal with carbs or meat or whatever I’m craving.
The rest of the structure:
- Pasta 1x a Week
- Meat 1x a Week (we are reducetarian)
- Soup 1x Week in the Winter
- Grill out 1x Week in Spring and Fall
- Curry or Stir Fry 1x a Week
- Incorporate tons of in-season produce so we can eat out of the garden as much as possible
From there, I filled in with delicious recipes I found on Pinterest or in recipe books that we love. It took me two years to fully complete and refine my 365-day meal plan, but I got it done! It lives in 4 binders in my kitchen. I always joke that if the house is on fire, I’m grabbing the pets and those books!
So many of our friends and family members have asked us for a copy of the meal plan. Since it’s a physical book, I haven’t been able to share it, but I’m also starting to get many questions about what we do with all the veggies we grow. The best way to share this is by publishing the dang meal plan. So here we go. Week by week, I’m going to dive in and share one week at a time until the entire thing lives here on the blog.
How to Use the Meal Plan
Each week, look over the recipes and make sure the meals are something you and your family members will enjoy. Life is too short to make yourself eat food you don’t love! Mealtime should be something you look forward to and love.
Once you decide which meals you want to eat (or all of them), you have to make your shopping list (I give you a basic one but suggest you adapt it for your needs). Start by taking a look at the recipes and deciding on any substitutions you want to make.
Sometimes we substitute cream or milk for oat milk to make things healthier. Other times we don’t. My shopping lists are about half and half. Sometimes we add in the bacon, and sometimes we skip it.
The shopping lists included in the blog are not perfect. They assume you have essential ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, salt, pepper, etc., already in your pantry. Some of the shopping lists include substitutions, and some don’t. It honestly depended on my mood when I made it.
We use the shopping lists religiously, and we rarely have to run back to the store for something. I’d say they are 95% accurate, but if you are going to find yourself upset if you have to run back to the store in the middle of the week, I suggest you double-check my work.
