more, please! your weekly meal plan #3

1 breakfast, 4 lunches & dinners, & 1 dessert ideas to make this week

Feb 23, 2025

hi gorgeous. welcome to my cozy sunday morning newsletter. i am so excited to continue to bring you this weekly meal plan every sunday with 4 lunch/dinner ideas, 1 breakfast and of course 1 dessert to make. having another outlet like this is so important to me to connect with you guys. i hope you are liking substack so far if you are coming from my previous email list. there is just so much more we can do on here and i love having the crew chat, the “news feed” with notes and i am working on a handful of content that is for my paid subscribers.

i know what you are thinking “really rachel? you want us to pay for content now?”. and the answer is no - i don’t want you to pay for anything you don’t want to pay for. but there is a lot that goes into creating content behind the scenes that i personally do a crumby job sharing al of the work that i put into this.

i give away my recipes, weekly meal plans, recommendations, etc. all for free each and every day. it is my pleasure, i love my job and what i do. but i also am a mom, wife and support my family of 5 and this is my job.

when i was creating my substack account, i put together an strategy on what i wanted to live here. what will be free versus paid. and i chat through all of that here in this post. i also recognize it can be intimidating to purchase something when you don’t even know if you will find it helpful.

february 28th i’m going to be sharing our first ever MONTHLY family meal plan. that is a fully loaded meal plan with tips on how the meals work for my husband, myself and kids, grocery list and a calendar for the entire month (this is a part of the paid subscription). if you aren’t interested in that, no problem. this sunday meal plan will still go out every week for free. you’ll see the paid option come in this upcoming week and if you decide it isn’t for you, zero pressure. we are still friends :-)

P.S. get all my costco faves + my guide HERE!

now let’s dive in to this week ..

i kind of switched things up this week for breakfast. i hope you forgive me!! but we are all in the thick of sick season. everyone i talk to no matter where they live, is sick or their kid is sick or they are just getting over something. which is why we all need to make my immunity boosting green juice shots IN the blender! i make these for us weekly and my kids drink them before school. usually with their breakfast! it’s great to have on hand and they last in the fridge for 5 days.

now for deeeeessert aka my favorite to make and eat - my secretly healthy cookie dough bark is the way to my heart. we all likely have a can of chickpeas sitting in our pantry and here’s my favorite way to use the as of recent. my kids love this too and it does NOT taste like chickpeas!

okay now for lunches and dinners!! first up is

the latest craze in our house with my husband - my chili sweet potato NACHOS! if you love chili and nachos - make these!!! protein-packed, veggies are in and flavor is on point. you can also use beef, bison, turkey, or chicken!

then for a little something different this week, i am making my salmon coconut curry (YUM). one of my favorite dishes and yes - you can cook salmon! i usually get organic king salmon from a local fish shop for this.

for my soup lovers - make my roasted butternut squash soup with parmesan crisps. my mom loves this one. it is so flavorful and loaded with so many immunity-boosting ingredients. not to mention it is great to freeze too!

i make turkey burgers almost every week and my ginger scallion turkey burgers are one of my go-to recipes. so so flavorful and juicy and delish and everything you don’t expect in turkey burgers. don’t skip the sauce!

here are some of my favorite cooking tools to make these recipes:

CORDLESS immersion blender - emphasis on the cordless here guys. i am so not into anything with wires or cords unless we are talking about headphones because AirPods stink. i love this hand blender!!! have had it for years and it’s so great to puree soups especially.
mandoline chopper crazy thing - ALL-IN-ONE vegetable chopper, mandoline slicer cheese grater, french fry cutter, veggie dicer and a spiralizer?? OK sign me up.
meat handling gloves - sorry but handling raw meat just isn’t for me. meat handling gloves changing the GAME for prepping meatballs, burgers and handling any raw meat.
sheet pan - if you haven’t invested in new sheet pans, consider this your sign to do so!! these are great, come in tons of colors and are functional, non-toxic and aesthetically it the vibe (you know i love my aesthetics for my kitchen!)
dutch oven - no, not like the phrase your husband prob says (lol) but this is great for soups, stews and of course going from stovetop to oven!

here are a few things i am loving at the moment:

chin masks - i started using these last year and when i tell you your chin is the forgotten child for skincare, i am not kidding. the chin, neck, chest area all need just as much love as our face does. in fact, i have been told to now do my skincare routine basically from my face to my nipples (crazy but it is smart!).
neck cream - speaking of chins. THIS is such a great a great neck cream to use. it tightens, lifts and hydrates the neck area. a must have in the skincare routine. i have had the same bottle for awhile - it lasts!
plastic free kids cups - micro plastics are real and they are apparently everywhere. there is a ton of research on how toxic they are for our health. i am not able to go 100% plastic free at this point but i am trying to limit plastic when i can. the cups i ordered for the kids are their new daily drinking cups, which is a huge shift from the munchkin plastic cups we have had for 6 years. even BPA free isn’t enough now (whomp).
PAJAMAS - i am a sucker for pajamas and these cozy ones are a) affordable and b) SO COZY!! comes in so many colors too.
cropped puffer jacket - i need a separate closet for my jacket collection lol. it is really out of control but if you want a cropped puffer - how amazing is this one? LOVE the pink.
early bird CBD - yes ya girl is still on the CBD train and early bird is fabulous. early bird is a recreational hemp company that makes gummies and tincture formulated to make you feel good. sounds like a dream right? love their gummies and tinctures. i ordered the variety pack and the strawberry gummies are damn good.
lemme SLEEP - also hair gummies and debloat gummies sign me up!!
face cleanser - the more gentle the better for my dry a$$ skin.
new perfume - i’m a perfume girlie now. been loving this one! it is great, not too overpowering and it is now restocked and available!
softest sweater ever - SPLURG but it’s sooooo soft. i have worn it so many times this month. LOVE!
natural cycles app - i am sharing this again because really i just am obsessed!! the natural cycles app! i have since then been obsessed with it and actually reached out to their team and asked if we could work together. they generously offered a 15% off link too with an annual subscription!! plus you get a bluetooth thermometer with my link! it links my oura ring so i don’t have the thermometer but if you don’t have a ring, you’ll need it!