21 Day Fix Meal Plan & Grocery List {2} Make Ahead Dinners

This weeks meal plan is all about make ahead dinners to make your life easier! This post contains affiliate links for products I’m obsessed with.

Ok, so it seems the Post Thanksgiving Dinner Plan and Grocery List I shared last week was really helpful for you all! I am so glad! I started doing something similar last spring called Food & Fitness, where I listed my dinners for the week and what fitness plan I was following. But it was hard for me to stick with…if I am being completely honest, I don’t always know what we are going to have for dinner each week. Let me explain…

These Meal Planning Stickers are the BEST! You can grab them in my Etsy Shop!

First – planning is KEY for the 21 Day Fix. It’s crucial. All of my most successful challengers have learned this and menu planning/meal prep are part of their lifestyle.

Meal planning for a food blogger…at least this food blogger…doesn’t always fly. There are some weeks where I know I don’t have much time, so I plan very efficiently and make our favorite tried and true recipes.

Other weeks…especially when I am feeling creative, I am in recipe development mode and that’s where new ideas for the blog happen! So those weeks it is tough for me to say on a Sunday what might be happening in my kitchen throughout the week.

But (if I can brag for a minute) meal planning is something I am good at. And I like it. Is that weird?

Anyway, I love the idea of making these meal plans weekly for you all! This week I am pretty obsessed with my new Instant Pot, and I hope to share some of these recipes with you soon, but I need to test them all out first.

So I made you a yummy week of meals that all use similar ingredients. If you get to the store today, try to prep the meatballs, sauce, and stuffed peppers. That will make your week in the kitchen super easy.

Enjoy!

Dinners and Grocery Lists, week 2 –

Monday: Mini Meatballs (make a DOUBLE batch for Wednesday’s soup) with Homemade Sauce and Zoodles or Pasta (reserve 2 cups of sauce for Italian Stuffed Peppers)

Grocery List:

Meatballs (this will make 2 batches):

1-2 slices of bread for fresh breadcrumbs
1 1/2 lb ground chicken or turkey
1 lb chicken or turkey sausage (I used Spicy Italian), removed from casing
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil
1 teaspoon of parsley
2/3 cup of Parmesan/Romano cheese blend
4 tablespoons of chicken broth
2 eggs

Sauce:

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can of tomato purée
Fresh basil leaves

**Don’t forget – Pasta or Zoodles

Tuesday: Italian Stuffed Peppers (these are great to make ahead!)

Grocery List:

4 large green bell peppers, tops, ribs and seeds removed
1 lb extra lean grass fed ground beef
2 cups homemade or no sugar added tomato sauce (use leftover homemade sauce!)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 onion
2 cups of shredded zucchini or zoodles
1 1/3 cups shredded Italian cheese blend
fresh basil
salt and pepper, to taste

Wednesday: Italian Wedding Soup

Mini Meatballs (see above!)
4 cups of chicken stock or broth
1 cup of spinach
1 cup of carrots
1/4 onion
1 tsp of olive oil
Parmesan Cheese
Pasta (optional)

Thursday: Baked Shrimp Scampi

1 medium spaghetti squash, cooked and shredded (check out my Spaghetti Squash – the EASY way! {Video Tutorial})
1 1/4 lbs of shrimp
1 T plus 1 tsp of butter flavored olive oil (or butter, or regular olive oil)
juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lemon
4 cloves garlic
¼ shallot
2 T fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp sea or Himalayan salt
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
2/3 cup organic low-sodium chicken broth or stock
1 Tbsp Sicilian Lemon Balsamic Vinegar (optional)
1-2 slices of bread to make breadcrumbs
2/3 cup of good Parmesan cheese