Real Food Meal Plans: Jan. 29-Feb1

Guys. It's been a WEEK. I mean, it's literally been a week since I posted the last meal plan, but it's also been such a jam-packed week of work + family over here. It feels like a triumph that I'm even able to get to this post today - we'll see if I get it posted on time... [EDIT: I'm finishing this 5 hrs later thanks to a v. v. v. short nap by the toddler].


How many of you tried following last week's meal plan? I touched base with one person that did ( was my mom), and one piece of feedback she gave me was that the sweet potato curry was delicious but damn was there ever a lot of chopping involved. Same goes the winter stew.  And I can't deny the truth of that! Both those dishes are jam packed with hearty root vegetables, tubers, and greens, and turning them into bite size pieces means a lot of knife work. 

Like I mentioned in the first post, these meals plans are coming right from the scribbled notes I stick on our fridge every week - in other words, it's what works for us. When I have Clay around to help entertain Junie, I love the prep. I feel like cooking is one of the few moments of pause that I can count on getting each day. I find the repetitive peeling, dicing, and slicing meditative and nourishing at this time in my life where I don't seem to have the opportunity very often to get that elsewhere. It also saves me from just hunkering down and scrolling Instagram the minute I get a break from parenting - not the kind of downtime my brain needs

But then also sometimes it feels like too much! And we fall off the plan-wagon and order a pizza. If you're going to follow one of these naturopathic meal plans, make it work for you - maybe that means prepping ingredients for the week on Sunday afternoon and storing them in the fridge; or starting with just following two or three meals on the list and having easy pantry meals on the other days. 


  • A lot of the sides that I list are things that we have often and I don't usually follow a recipe for. I've linked to recipes that explain how to cook them, but often they include a few "extras" (e.g. sauces) that we don't tend to make. 

On this week's meal plan we've got miso-roasted eggplant, two soups - mushroom & a "pot likker" - baked chicken meatballs, and a sausage & apple sheet pan meal.  Let me know what you think!


  • MAIN: Baked Chicken Meatballs from Smitten Kitchen (I <3 Deb). 
  • SIDES: Roasted sweet potato wedges, roasted broccoli with garlic
  • Advanced prep: Whatever you see fit!
  • Tips: I didn't prepare that honey mustard dressing with the sweet potatoes, but just wanted to point you in the direction of a how-to if it's a new dish for you - I bet it's good though! If you like a juicier wedge, cooking at a higher temperature seems to not dry out the potato as fast. 


  • MAIN: Pot likker soup from Add a Pinch
  • Advanced prep: I used the chicken bone broth I had made on the weekend for this dish
  • Tips: Instead of ham we used kielbasa from VG meats - totally delicious. I also added a splash of sherry vinegar at the end of cooking and it was great! A new recipe for me and we will definitely be making it again.



  • MAIN: Mushroom + spinach soup with cinnamon, coriander, and cumin from the NY Times 
  • Advanced prep: Buy sliced mushrooms if you are tight for time; I also used some dried shitake that we happened to have on hand. 
  • Tips: I used kale instead of spinach and I added it right at the beginning of cooking instead of when they suggest adding the spinach.


  • MAIN: Baked sausage + apples sheet pan dinner from Jo Cooks 
  • SIDES: A green salad made from the living lettuce in our CSA 
  • Tips: Our co-op carries awesome local sausages, I used a mild Italian here; I cut regular carrots into chunks instead of baby carrots and found that Yukon Gold's tasted great instead of fingerling.