Eating healthy: my weekly food planning routine.

Jul 25, 2017 | 13 comments

We eat healthier and save money when we have planned what to eat during the week.

/ This Sunday I will put up a film on my Youtube channel, which will be about our weekly Sunday routine. Sundays are quite sacred to us because this is the day we get ready for coming week. With that I don’t necessarily mean chillin’ on the couch (we do that too), but I really like spending the day making the home practically ready for the coming week. It gives me peace and it makes me feel more focused in a busy everyday life. But more about that on Sunday! However, this post will be about how I plan our meals for the coming week, as there are a number of you who have been curious about or lunch jars the few times I’ve shared them on my Instagram. I plan our meals because we avoid the feeling of having no idea what to eat and not being able to agree on what to eat after a long day at work. I also think we eat healthier and save money when we have planned what to eat during the week. Besides that, we also make much less food waste because everything is carefully selected for the dishes we make.

På søndag udgiver jeg en film på min Youtube kanal, som skal handle om vores søndags rutine herhjemme. Søndage er ret hellige for os, fordi det er en dag hvor vi kan lade op til den kommende uge. Med det mener jeg ikke nødvendigvis, at ligge på sofaen og dase (det gør vi også), men jeg kan rigtig godt lide at bruge dagen på, at gøre hjemmet praktisk klart til den kommende uge. Det giver mig ro i sindet og det gør, at jeg kan være mere fokuseret i hverdagene. Men mere om det på søndag! Dette indlæg skal dog handle om, hvordan jeg planlægger vores måltider til den kommende uge, eftersom der er en del af jer, som har spurgt ind til bl.a. vores frokost-krukker, når jeg har delt dem på min Instagram. Jeg planlægger vores måltider, fordi vi på den måde undgår den der følelse af, at være tomme for idéer og ikke at kunne blive enige om hvad vi skal have, at spise efter en lang dag på arbejde. Og så synes jeg vi spiser sundere og sparer penge når vi har planlagt hvad vi skal have at spise i løbet af ugen. Udover det, så smider vi også meget mindre mad ud, fordi alting er nøje udvalgt til de retter vi laver.

/ The first thing I do is to check what we have left in the fridge and the freezer from the past week. If there is something we need to eat today or if there is something I can save for next week’s dishes. Then I pull out our cookbooks and find two dishes for dinner the coming week. We have a little collection of cookbooks and we typically look at the ones that follow low carb principles. We don’t follow the recipes 100% when we cook, because as mentioned, we may have some vegetables left from last week that maybe wasn’t in the recipe in the first place. But I just put in the things I find suitable for the different dishes if we do have some leftover veggies. The reason I “only” need to find two dinner dishes is that we get the same to eat Monday-Tuesday and Wednesday-Thursday. In that way, we only need to cook Monday and Wednesday, and the other days we eat the leftovers. If you want to do this as well, just make sure you make enough the day you are actually cooking the meal. We usually just double the recipe. It’s so nice to not having to actually cook a couple of days during the week – especially because I work at the office the two days we are eating leftovers, so I’m not home before 6 PM. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we don’t usually plan our food, because maybe we want to eat a pizza on friday night, or maybe we have plans with friends, family or the like. We also have two days each week where we don’t eat meat. We do so because it is good for the environment, but also because of the fact that over the years I have become less and less crazy about meat. I like it, but I often like dishes without meat more.

Det første jeg gør er, at tjekke hvad vi har tilovers i køleskabet og fryseren fra den forgange uge. Om der er noget der skal spises i dag, eller om der er noget jeg kan bruge næste uge. Så finder jeg vores kogebøger frem, og finder to retter som jeg synes vi skal have til aftensmad den kommende uge. Vi har en lille håndfuld kogebøger og vi kigger typisk i dem, som følger low carb principper. Vi følger ikke opskrifterne slavisk når vi laver mad, for som sagt, så har vi måske nogle grøntsager liggende fra forrige uge, som skal spises. Så blander jeg det bare i retterne som jeg synes. Grunden til jeg “kun” behøver finde to retter er, at vi får det samme at spise mandag-tirsdag og onsdag-torsdag. Så behøver vi reelt set kun lave mad mandag og onsdag, og de andre dage skal det så bare varmes. Hvis du også gerne vil gøre dette, skal du bare huske at lave nok den dag du rent faktisk laver maden. Vi laver som regel dobbeltportion. Det er virkelig luksus, at vinde lidt tid på ikke, at skulle stå længe i køkkenet et par dage i løbet af ugen – især fordi jeg arbejder på kontoret de to dage vi skal have rester, og jeg er derfor først hjemme kl. 18. Fredag, lørdag og søndag plejer vi ikke at planlægge vores mad, fordi som regel har man jo lyst til fx pizza om fredagen, eller også har man planer med venner, familie eller lignende. Vi har fast to dage om ugen hvor vi ikke spiser kød. Det gør vi både fordi det er bedre for miljøet, men også fordi jeg med årene faktisk er blevet mindre og mindre vild med kød. Jeg kan godt lide det, men jeg kan ofte bedre undvære det.

 

Our go-to healthy dinners

/ Chili sin carne w. mashed root veggies (carrots and beetroot for example) and a salad

Various soups – for example creamy broccoli soup w. chicken or crispy bacon

A good, mixed salad with a piece of meat like spicy chicken

Wok w. chicken and peanuts

Veggie dishes (we do eat fish some days):

Veggie pie with a side salad

Wok with shrimps

Eggwraps w. salmon

Veggie pizza with artichokes (preferable a low carb version)

 

Chili sin carne med rodfrugt-mos og salat

Diverse supper – fx broccoli suppe med kylling eller sprød bacon

En god, blandet salat med et stykke kød – gerne krydret kylling

Wok med kylling og peanuts

Vegetarretter (vi spiser gerne fisk disse dage):

Veggietærte med salat

Wok med rejer

Æggewraps med laks

Vegetar pizza med artiskokker (gerne low carb)

/ The majority of our meals consist of vegetables. Therefore, we always have a good bunch of different veggies in the fridge. Recently I began to prepare our lunch for the coming week on Sundays. I prepare lunch salads in jars of glass – I think it stays fresher longer than plastic boxes, and I also think it looks more appetizing this way. That means a lot if you want it or not! I usually just mix some of the vegetables we are having for our evening meals as well, maybe with some extra other vegetables. I make salads so we have lunch for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – and then when I have to cook dinner again on Wednesday, I will do lunch salads for Thursday-Friday as well, you know now that I have pulled out the cutting board and veggies anyway. I don’t make salads for the whole week, because they just end up getting sloppy then. But for 3 days they can easily stay fresh in the fridge. We try to not include meat in our salads, however if we do have some leftover meat my husband likes to add it to his salads.

 

Størstedelen af vores måltider består af grøntsager. Derfor har vi altid en stak forskellige grøntsager liggende i køleskabet. For nyligt begyndte jeg, at forberede vores frokost til den kommende uge om søndagen. Før fik min kæreste rugbrød med hver dag, men nu laver jeg forskellige salater til os begge i stedet. Jeg tilbereder dem i krukker af glas – jeg synes det holder sig friskere længere end plastikbøtter, og så synes jeg også bare det ser meget mere appetitligt ud på denne måde. Det betyder altså meget, om man vil det eller ej! Som regel blander jeg bare lidt af de grøntsager vi alligevel skal bruge til vores aftensmåltider, måske med lidt ekstra andre grøntsager. Jeg laver salater så vi har til mandag, tirsdag og onsdag – og når jeg så alligevel skal lave aftensmad onsdag igen, så laver jeg frokostsalater til torsdag-fredag når jeg alligevel har skærebræt, grøntsager osv. fremme. Jeg laver ikke salaterne til hele ugen, for så ender de bare med at blive slatne. Men 3 dage kan de sagtens holde sig i køleskabet. Desuden forsøger vi at køre kødfri til frokost, men indimellem har vi en sjat kødsovs eller lignende tilovers, og så får min mand det gerne med sammen med sin salat.

 

Our go-to lunch salad

/ Fine sliced cabbage

Cucumber

Tomatoes

Beans

Quinoa (my husband prefers rice)

Cottage cheese (contains lots of protein)

Peanuts

Olives

Dressing (usually not homemade)

Homemade falafels (I usually make a huge bunch a put them in the freezer)

 

Finthakket spidskål

Agurk

Tomat

Bønner

Quinoa (min mand vil hellere have ris)

Hytteost (masser af protein)

Peanuts

Oliven

Dressing (som regel ikke hjemmelavet)

Hjemmelavede falafler (jeg laver som regel en kæmpe portion og putter dem i fryseren)

/ As far as grocery shopping is concerned, we buy organic goods as much as we can and as long as it makes sense. As you know, we also try to buy more products that are not wrapped in plastic (read my blog post about avoiding plastics right HERE). It’s just not always possible when you also want to buy organic. And mostly we just don’t have time to take the 30 minute drive to the local farmers market. I don’t know what is most sustainable; to buy the conventional vegetable that is not wrapped in plastik or to buy the organic one that is mostly wrapped in plastic. There really is something there that makes no sense if you ask me! We usually bring our own fabric bags, both to bring the groceries home in, but also to put fruit and vegetables in when we’re in the store, just to avoid too much unnecessary plastic packaging. But we try not to stress too much about our sustainable choices. We do what we can, but we also want to live a stress-free life. Small steps, right? And hopefully it will be easier in the future to buy products without packaging or as a minimum packaging that is better for the environment than plastic.

Med hensyn til indkøb, så køber vi så vidt muligt økologisk, så længe det giver mening. Som I ved, så forsøger vi også at købe flere produkter der ikke er pakket ind i plastik (læs mit indlæg om netop dette lige HER). Det er bare ikke altid muligt, når man samtidig også gerne vil købe økologisk. Og for det meste har vi bare heller ikke tid til, at tage den 30 min. lange køretur ind til det lokale grøntmarked. Jeg ved ikke hvad der er mest bæredygtigt; at købe den konventionelle grøntsag der ikke er pakket ind eller at købe den økologiske der er pakket ind i plastik. Der er virkelig noget dér, som ikke giver mening, hvis I spørger mig! Vi har som regel vores eget stofnet med, både til at fragte varerne hjem i, men også til at lægge det frugt og grønt i, som vi tager når vi er inde i butikken, bare for at undgå for meget unødvendigt plast emballage, poser osv.. Men vi forsøger ikke at lade os stresse for meget. Vi gør hvad vi kan, men vi vil også gerne leve et stress-frit liv. Små skridt, ikke? Og forhåbentligt kommer det helt af sig selv, at det med tiden bliver nemmere, at købe produkter uden emballage eller som minimum emballage som er bedre for miljøet end plastik.

13 Comments

  1. andrea

    Hi Signe,

    I am looking forward for your video. I am in the process of planning and cooking ahead to reduce stress with 3 kids, and I hope I get some inspiration from you. Really love your channel and blog.

    Andrea

    Reply
  2. Lynne

    Hi there. What an interesting post ! We have been following a similar plan, particularly around lunches, for about a year now and it has been a great success health wise and financially but also in terms of stress. Really looking forward to the video. Greetingd from Scotland

    Reply
  3. Lullumut

    Spændende 🙂 God idé med at spise rester to gange om ugen. Jeg duer desværre ikke til rester eller grøntsager fra dagen før. Så vil jeg hellere skære hver dag 🙂 Hvor tit handler I ind? Om søndagen? Et tip til jeres frokost-glas. Hvis I kommer de våde ting i søndag/onsdag, det ved jeg ikke, om I gør, men så kom det i bunden af jeres glas, og ikke i toppen.

    Reply
  4. Tiffany

    Hi! Love this post! We usually meal plan on Saturday or Sunday and just have dinner leftovers for lunch, but I am interested in doing these salad jars. 🙂
    Where did you get your glass jars? (Though I am in the US, so I probably couldn’t get them in the same place) Or what size are they?
    I was also wondering if you could post the falafel recipe. Thanks!

    Reply
  5. Erika

    I just love your videos Signe! Meal planning is how I can stick to our budget. I’m definitely stealing your salad jar idea! 🙂

    Reply
  6. dianne obeso

    Dear Signe I am living is San Diego , California and recently discovered your videos and blog! Love it and taking to heart removing extraneous items from everything and making my wardrobe functional. I did this somewhat for many years due to being in the military, living with small space available, and being a bit afraid of trends. Now at 75 I find your minimalist dressing mirrors mine in many ways. Validation, Yeah! I also like your recent discussion of food. I live near Whole Foods but now many markets here have organics. When my daughter was pregnant she used organic products and now I try hard to do the same for little Sofia who is almost a year old. Again, I so appreciate your kind thoughts and nonjudgemental approaches. My family came from Norway in 1822 so I feel a connection. The family name was Ellison from Stange.

    Reply
  7. Tracey Shull

    I love the idea of cooking only 2 nights a week—why haven’t I done this before now? (That sound you hear is me knocking myself in the head!) Thank you for the reminder to double the recipe and so have only half the cooking required! And I’m trying your 3 days of salads idea to save time at lunch, too. Such practical and sensible ideas for healthy eating and meal prep—thank you, as always, for your ideas and inspiration, Signe.

    Reply
  8. Aruna

    Hi Signe,
    I live in California and just discovered your channel a couple days ago and love it! Thanks for such inspiring videos and posts. I am always looking for ideas to stay organized and this post really helps 🙂
    I love the calendar you have on your kitchen wall. Is it glass? Can you share where you bought it?
    Thanks again for the great content. Looking forward to reading and watching more from you.
    Aruna

    Reply
    • signeh24

      Hi Aruna <3 Thank you so much for your comment! I'm glad to hear you enjoy my content <3 The glass board is from a Danish supermarket actually, but I've found these from target: https://intl.target.com/c/whiteboards-boards-easels-school-office-supplies/-/N-4spe6

      Maybe you’ll be able to find something there that you like? I can’t live without our planner! I actually divided the days myself, simply by using black tape. Hope it answered your question <3 xx

      Reply
  9. Aruna

    Yes you did 🙂 thanks so much!!

    Reply

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