Meal Plan: July 27 – August 2

At the beginning of this year, I got a bunch of questions from friends and family about what to make for dinner as people were transitioning to joining WW (PS, anyone want a to join & get a free month? Click this link!). I got the idea to post my meal plan for them. This then spiraled into me thinking of those inquiring minds who weren’t necessarily asking for it but found themselves curious or wanting inspiration. I also noticed that in my close circle of friends, we ask “what’s for dinner?” to each other almost daily, so I just know other people have to be asking that question, too.

Since I do take the time to meal plan, it makes so much sense to share it because I get inspiration from other people all the time since I constantly feel like I get stuck in food-ruts. I wanted to share because sharing is caring.

So, although WW’s official stance is that pregnant women are prohibited from participating in the program, and there is no program designed for pregnant women, WW is actually a diet/lifestyle that is entirely sustainable while pregnant. After several conversations with my doctor specifically surrounding my body, my baby, and my health & history, my doctor was entirely supportive of me continuing with WW, while being mindful of the cues that come from my body.

I had previously included the following “disclaimer” on my food-related Instagram posts because I wanted to make it clear that my posts and content is not specifically endorsed or sponsored by WW and that my approach to this pregnancy should not necessarily be taken as gospel or as an example for all women. All bodies are different and everyone has their own specific needs.

✨WW does not have a program available for pregnancy, so I am not following the #myww program, but points are listed/included for those that are following the program! I was previously following the MyWW Blue 💙 program, so those are the #smartpoints values listed.✨

So, what has this looked like for me? I increased my daily points “allowance” from 23 to 30 gradually over the course of my pregnancy thus far. 30 was entirely arbitrary for me; I just kept increasing until I felt like I was eating enough throughout the day. This has also helped me have a healthy, steady weight gain during this pregnancy. That being said, I still go over my points all the time & dip into my weeklies (and still go negative – a lot 😂). But, in general, 30 feels like that healthy medium to account for the slight increase in calories suggested for pregnancy and still gives me the freedom to be responsible and mindful about what gets put in my body while not going completely off the rails.

This Week’s Recipe Bank:

• One-Pot Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff
  • If you checked out my insta page last week or last week’s meal plan, you saw I made One-Pot Hamburger Helper from the Defined Dish. 10/10 I will be making that again, and both my husband and toddler loved it, so that was a huge win.
  • Alex’s other HH version is a Beef Stroganoff and it came highly recommended on the internet as well, so we’re going to give it a whirl this week. I plugged it into the WW Recipe creator with some swaps and it’ll come to 7sp per serving. I’m pretty excited about this one!
• Honey Garlic Shrimp & White Rice
  • This one has been part of my WW recipe bank since almost the beginning of my WW journey. It comes from SkinnyTaste and it’s just a great recipe. It’s 2sp per serving & I’ll serve it with white rice (6sp for 1 cup). This shrimp recipe has strong citrus notes and can be made more or less spicy depending on your tastes. Delish!
  • Someone in a WW group I follow on Facebook asked for shrimp recipes and this is the one that came to mind that I recommended. It inspired me to dust this one off and add it to my meal plan this week after not seeing this one for a while. I’m excited to bring it back.
• One-Pot Chicken Pot Pie Pasta
  • I finally did something super smart and amazing this last week – started checking out cookbooks from our local library! A girlfriend of mine told me she started doing this and it blew my mind – so freakin’ smart! So, that’s what I did, and I grabbed Alex Snodgrass’s The Define Dish cookbook. I flagged so many recipes in this cookbook that I decided I did actually want to own this one, so I bought it off Amazon. I know that seems silly, but this was a great way to get inspired AND decide if I want to commit to purchasing a cookbook. I recently ordered one and once it arrived I was actually disappointed because there weren’t that many recipes I was excited about. THIS cookbook, though, is bomb. And feel free to start copying me with this whole-borrowing-cookbooks-from-the-library thing. 😘.
  • Now, about the food – so, I looked for a link on her site for this one, but I couldn’t find it. I love the idea of chicken pot pie, but I feel like I haven’t found a version of this that I’ve loved yet, so I’m going to try out yet one more. We’ll see. Based on the recipe from the cookbook and the subs I plan on making, this one comes to 9sp per serving.
• Maple Dijon Chicken & Broccoli with Mashed Potatoes
  • The other cookbook I got from the library this week was the Damn Delicious cookbook by Chungah Rhee! I flagged quite a few in this book, too, and one of those was her Slow Cooker Maple Dijon Chicken & Broccoli.
    • I’m obnoxious and can’t leave well enough alone, so I’m going to tweak this one and not use my slow-cooker. I just don’t love it, so I’m going to make the maple-dijon sauce and bake my chicken in the oven.
    • I made some substitutions (like using chicken breast instead of chicken thighs) so this one will come to 3sp per serving, and could get lower if I decide to use monkfruit brown sugar instead of regular.
  • These mashed potatoes are a staple in our house; I make them all the time! They’re 4sp per serving.
• Takeout
• FFY (Fend For Yourself)
• Leftovers

Drop a comment down below and let me know what you thought about this!! If you liked it, please share it with your friends & tag me @glimpseatgrace on social media!