Meal Planning 101: Week Oops (14)

Oh Julie (my blog's name)... I know. You're right. I know. It's been too long. Over a month. Okay, almost two months. I know I should be ashamed. I -am- ashamed. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? What if I told you that since July 4th (my last post) I've been in a wedding, packed up an apartment, moved back into my new/old apartment, unpacked an entire apartment worth of stuff accumulated over the last at least six years, visited family out of town, went through two weeks of RD training eating frozen things, went through ten days of RA training that lasted from 8:00 am until at least midnight, usually later every day while eating provided things, made so many burlap and cloth flowers my hands almost fell off, got a massage because the stress knots on my back were so bad they made my hands go numb, had two panic attacks, a couple of emotional break downs, a dad frequently in the hospital and a mom in the hospital twice, and went at least a whole month with no more than six hours of sleep a night? Could you maybe forgive me then?? What if I also added that my lack of meal planning and healthy cooking and posting hurt me as much as it hurt you?! It's true. Girl to girl I knew that one would get you. No girl would ever wish weight gain on another girl! 

My apologies that you had to experience that conversation between Julie and I. She was mad. She had a right to be. We had it out and now we're good. It's just real. Flaws, weight gain, lost motivation, busyness, crazy panic attack/emotional break down moments. It's real. 

Other things are real too. Found motivation! It's real. Knowing yourself well enough to know that meal planning, OCD grocery shopping, blog post organizing, and cans of pumpkin actually do bring you motivation and make you happy, that's real too. I'm so happy to be typing right now! I don't even care that that huge paragraph written to my inanimate blog that I affectionately named Julie was ridiculous and cheesy and over the top, because it feels good to be typing in this white and orange box. I missed you blog, typing, readers, recipes, cooking, prep work, meal plans. I missed you a bunch! This reunion is sweet. 

You know what else is sweet? Hot tea. Literally and figuratively because I like mine with two spoons of sugar. In our absence I discovered I like it. I do believe the reason I never liked it before was because I hadn't had England's best tea, PG Tips. We're pretty close now and I'm happy about that. 

Now that I got all my excessive typing and words out of the way, let's get to business shall we? A meal plan! I missed many things about cooking and meal planning, but one thing in particular. Meal prep! I was so happy to cut up my bundles of green onions and find the new perfect bottle to store them in. (Remember my favorite trick to never let green onions go bad?)

Sunday:

Crock Pot Apple BBQ Chicken, Perfect Brown Rice, and Not So Fried Okra with Spicy Scallion Dipping Sauce

Monday:

Leftover Apple BBQ Chicken

Tuesday:

Leftover something because I'm making a somewhat time consuming dessert for a premature fall party/birthday celebration the next morning. 

Wednesday:

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes and Crock Pot Roasted Veggies

Thursday:

Leftover Sloppy Joes & Veggies

Friday:

Lazy Spaghetti, Tomato Bread, and a tomato heavy salad that will resemble this one but with some lettuce mixed in.

Saturday:

Leftover Pasta

Extras:

Make Ahead Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches - I used ham and bacon. Can't wait to eat these all week! Post coming soon.

Pumpkin Fluff Dip - To dip apples and grapes in. Back on the healthy food way of life! This means healthy snacks. I also made fat free ranch dips to dip cucumbers, celery, baby tomatoes, and carrot chips in. I'll probably blog this pumpkin dip too since it was my first can of pumpkin for the season!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding - Minus the raisins. Making this for my friend's birthday and premature fall celebration party along with Caramel Sauce and Pumpkin Whipped Cream.

Proof! This was Sunday night's planned meal made on Sunday night. The Not So Fried Okra was a disappointment! I really want to be able to like okra in other ways that aren't fried or fake fried and coated in cornmeal. These were broiled and I hoped that meant no slime, but it didn't. The sauce was yummy though!