Yesterday, I was sitting down to write a post about my weekly menu and the process I go through every week.  I looked at 2 Sisters 2 Cities and noticed M had the same exact post!  Wow, are we sisters or what!

My weeks tend to be really busy with work, my commute, and going to the gym.  I am also quite the stickler of getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, meaning I have even less time to make dinner, clean up and relax before I need to hit the sack and start again the next day.   Since the beginning of this year I have been trying to cook healthier and more often.  To be able to do this I need to plan ahead.

All week I keep track of recipes I think I would like to make for the following week and keep them in a note on my iPhone. On Saturday morning I plan out the menu for the whole week and make my grocery list.  I use Ziplist to make my list and am able to pull it up on my phone while I am at the grocery store.   I am in love with this app and website because it makes grocery shopping so much easier and I hardly ever forget an item.   The website can also pull a list of ingredients from a recipe online and add them to your list.  

Here is an example of how Ziplist pulls the ingredients from a recipe.  I used a recipe for Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats, as an example of how Ziplist works.   This isn’t necessarily something I make for dinner, but I had this recipe up on my browser and they look soooo good.   I am totally making these for my birthday… in July.  After clicking on my Ziplist Recipe Clipper button of my favorite bar, the website pulls up this dialog box and you can then add them to you shopping list.  Ziplist gives you specific directions on how to add the Recipe Clipper to your favorites bar.

As I had told you before, for Valentine’s Day this year, the boyfriend got me a bunch of items from Martha Stewart’s office line at Staples that I wanted.  One of the items that I picked out was a weekly calendar dry erase board that clings onto the refrigerator for menu planning.  I have been using this since to write out the menu for the week.  It is a helpful reminder for both of us to see what dinner is going to be that night and gives us something to look forward to.   Sometime I even send out an e-mail reminder of the weekly meals to his work email. May sound silly but who got flowers today for no particular reason??  Oh yeah… ME!

My menu for the week:
Sunday
LUNCH- French Onion Soup (I will post this later this week)
DINNER-Rotisserie Chicken, Steamed Green Beans, and Roasted Potatoes
Monday
DINNER- Ziti with Turkey Sausage (Posting this later this week)
Tuesday
DINNER- Stir-Fried Honey-Ginger Chicken with Peppers
Wednesday
DINNER- Chicken and Broccoli Noodle Casserole
Thursday
DINNER- Linguine with Clam Sauce
Friday
DINNER- Panera Bread (this is our Friday Tradition after the gym- I get the Pick 2 Greek Salad and Broccoli Cheddar Soup which is 10 PointsPlus Weight watchers Points)