The New Year is upon us, so you know what that means, right? Time for all of those New Year’s Resolutions and goals that most people set. Time to wipe the slate of 2012 clean and start with a bright, shiny, and sparkling new 2013.
For most people, one of the top resolutions is to lose weight. There’s just something about starting a new year that makes people want to shed those holiday pounds and start dreaming of summer, right?. Of course, one of the biggest challenges for meeting that weight loss goal is preparing and eating healthy foods that are tasty. Meal planning takes a lot of time — looking up recipes, making a shopping list, etc. You want to eat healthy and lose weight, but you just don’t have the time. So, what’s a Resolutioner to do?
Well, Kristen over at Slender Kitchen may have just the answer for you! If you aren’t already familiar with her site, do yourself a favor and check it out! Anyway, she just introduced a new Meal Plans subscription service. It includes not only a meal plan of three meals per day for the entire week, but it also includes a shopping list and the recipes for the plan. Pretty cool, huh?! If you want a sneak peek, you can view a complete sample weekly meal plan here (PDF link).
If you’re interested in more information, you can check our the Questions and Answers page on the Meal Plans website. Here are the quick highlights of what the Meal Plans membership includes:
- Weekly Meals Plans for 2 or 4
- All PointsPlus and nutritional information
- Complete, categorized shopping lists
- Quick and easy breakfasts
- Packable lunches
- Delicious dinners
- Fallback meals to swap in
- Bonus recipes
- Ideas for snacks and desserts
- Time saving tips on meal preparation
- Month-to-month unlimited access!
- Printable and cell phone/tablet friendly
I grabbed a copy of the sample meal plan last week and spotted a couple of recipes that I really wanted to try. One in particular that stood out to me was the Curried Chicken Salad recipe. I love curry. I love chicken salad. It was a match made in heaven for me. 
I decided a few nights ago to give the recipe a try. Unfortunately, since I hadn’t been to the grocery store for the week, I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients (carrots or grapes) on hand. Since I didn’t have carrots, I just doubled up on the celery which I loved in chicken salad anyway, so that worked well. I didn’t really have anything to substitute for the grapes, so I just left them out completely. with my changes, it came out to 4 PointsPlus for a generous serving. Since I was also out of bread at the time, I served mine on a bed a lettuce rather than serving it as a sandwich per the recipe. Here’s a pic of my finished product:
I will say that it definitely needed the grapes or some other sweet element to balance the spice of the curry, but it was still really good! I think it would also be tasty with some raisins or currants which go quite nicely with curry. Of course, you would need to account for the extra PointsPlus value for that since dried fruit isn’t 0 PointsPlus like fresh fruit. All in all, this recipe is definitely a keeper!
Now comes the fun part! Kristen is offering one of my readers a complimentary one-year membership to her Meal Plans service. I’ll be using Rafflecopter for this giveaway, so please be sure to read the details carefully. The giveaway will be open until 11:59pm PT on Saturday, January 5. The winner will be announced on Sunday, January 6 and will be contacted via email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond. If they don’t, an alternate winner will be selected. There is one mandatory entry and all the others are bonus optional entries. For the mandatory entry, leave me a comment below letting me know whether you currently do a weekly menu plan. If not, why?
Good luck and I hope everyone has a VERY safe and happy New Year’s Eve! As a friendly reminder, please be smart. Don’t drink and drive!
Until next time …
Image of 2013 courtesy of sdmania / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Disclosure: Slender Kitchen provided me with a complimentary one-year membership for the giveaway winner. I received no compensation and, as always, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Each weekend I always have the best intentions to meal plan, but it never happens and I end up making the same things, so this site would be great for me.
Thanks for your awesome blog
I try to plan a weekly menu to help with shopping and to make dinner time less challenging. It doesn’t always work, but has proven to be less stressful for my husband and me.
I do not do a weekly meal plan and kind of just wing it, week to week. I plan for individual meals, but not a whole week. Just how I’ve always done it. After looking at Slender Kitchen, it really seems like that might be the key for me staying on track long-term.
Thanks for introducing me to SK and having the giveaway.
Happy New Year!
Ellen M recently posted..A yarn basket of New Year’s resolutions
I don’t currently plan meals, but plan to start in the new year. I recently rejoined Weight Watchers and planning meals is a must for me now. Thanks for the great giveaway and for your inspirational blog — both with stitching and Weight Watchers!
I don’t currently plan my meals, but I want to start!!
I have index cards with recipes and nutrition information printed and try my best to plan, but this looks really cool!
I do meal plan. Go to the grocery store every Wednesday, BUT I find we’re eating the same things over and over since I know the points for it.
Terri recently posted..More Gratitude
I try to plan but I get too bogged down trying. I am hoping to get better at it but need a guide to help. If this site is as good as it sounds I might just use that.
I was looking at this plan and it look amazing!!
suzanne recently posted..New Year’s Eve
Oh wow..this looks like a perfect thing for me! I need to get back to healthy eating.
I sometimes plan meals but not consistently. It’s so much easier if my meals are set for the week and I should get back into it.
Alison recently posted..Would you believe it….a finish!
I tried to leave a comment on rafflecopter for your most recent giveaway, but it didn’t work. I currently do not plan my menus weekly because my husband does all the cooking. But while I have been off for the holidays, I made four new recipes and plan to continue this inthe new year. Happy 2013! Great blog!
Hi Lisa Marie, you don’t actually leave the comment on Rafflecopter. Just leave a comment here just as you would on any of my blog posts (like you just did). You then just need to click the “I commented” button on Rafflecopter.
I try and meal plan. It definitely helps keep me on track. I try and make it so the dinner meals can be exchanged though…..in case I want to swap one day for another….depending on my mood and what all is going on.
I stink at meal planning and need to be better at it for weight loss success!
I used to meal plan and have gotten out of the habit, this would be so awesome!!
LynetteS recently posted..More Then A Number
Ummm, OK, I was just so impressed by the meal plan sample I went and bought the year subscription! It’s on sale! Don’t judge! You can skip me for the give-a-way :-)
LynetteS recently posted..Happy New Year!
I always intend to plan my meals out for the week but it never seems to happen. I really need to start planning and organizing my kitchen!
I currently don’t meal plan. I have started doing freezer meals so that is one step closer for me.
I will meal plan for a couple of weeks and then We run into the problem of not a lot of money because of bills so I have to resort to the “staples” : box mac and cheese, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese. I have a 2.5 year old son who hasn’t quite figured out how to eat most lettuce and some that he can eat he doesn’t like. Boy do I need this meal planning!!
I do a poor job of this, mainly because DH is the main cook in the house – I lack confidence in the kitchen and menu planning overwhelms me. Winning this giveaway would be a HUGE help to me in many ways!
I plan meals and have the ingredients on hand usually, but sometimes life (or lack of motivation to cook) gets in the way. These recipe sound great, though!
Oh weekly meal plans! I dream of what that looks like. When my husband and I first got married I did a great job of this. I also did a good job when I was on Weight Watchers. Unfortunately, I let life get ahead of me and did not stay focus. I would absolutely LOVE the opportunity to have weekly meal plans in place. This is a close to a chef as it’s going to get for us.
Happy eating!
We have a standard list of staples that we like to eat for breakfast lunch and snacks. We leave dinner open to what ever hubby and I need to meet our macros for the day. We tend to exercise on different days so that makes our eating habits differ a bit from day to day.
I don’t meal plan, but I have an idea of what I will make for the family and for me each day. I wish I was better at the planning part.
We used to faithfully meal plan every Sunday but have gotten away from that. Both of us has put on some weight too. What are the chances those two things are related to each other? Pretty good I’d guess! Thank you for a chance to win!
Jackie recently posted..Thank You Gene!
I don’t currently have a meal plan but I would like one! Thanks for the contest Mel!
Hi, I don’t currently meal plan because I just can’t seem to find the time, so this might be the perfect thing for me. Plus I find when I am thinking about the meals to include in a meal plan, I have a hard time breaking away from my unhealthy favorites, this would help me to try new things.
I currently don’t meal plan and it’s making me crazy! I hate getting the call 15 min before I leave worm that asks “what are we having for dinner?” I **must** start planning to save my sanity and our money!
I think planning meals might be the solution to all our binging problems!! By planning meals you have a base of what you will be eating always allowing room for a treat here and there. I find that when i do not plan ahead i end up eating whatever… and that is when i get off track.
I don’t currently meal plan – the intention is there all the time – this is something that I would like to start