What We Ate and Loved – Mediterranean Diet Meal Ideas

A look at what my family and I ate and loved this past week with the goal of sharing some realistic, Mediterranean diet meal ideas and recipes.

We share our family’s weekly meal plan simply for meal ideas and recipe inspiration for anyone else looking for suggestions. Please keep in mind that every family and person is different and this is just what works for us. 

Check out our previous weekly Mediterranean Diet Meals and Menus here – 

• 1st Week
• 2nd Week 
• 3rd Week 
• 4th Week
• 5th Week
• 6th Week

We go more in depth on how we go about planning meals in this post – Meal Planning Guide but just to quickly summarize – 

• Breakfast is usually pretty standard in our house so I don’t include it on our meal plan list
• My kids either bring a bagged lunch or buy hot lunch at school so I only meal plan for my lunch (and my husband if he is working from home that day)
• I include notes on some days to indicate if the meal is something we have to make quickly, on the go, etc. This really helps when it comes to planning meals and buying food to know our schedule in advance. 
• On Saturdays we typically eat leftovers and eat out for lunch or dinner. I indicate that on the meal plan each week but just in case you were wondering 

This week was filled with birthday parties (my daughter turned 9) and some meals got moved around due to schedule issues. That’s why I always say that we “loosely meal plan” because things pop up last minute and sometimes you have to roll with the punches.

You all should see my piece of binder paper each week that I use to write our weekly meals on. I hang it on the fridge and the first day it’s all nice and neat and by the end of the week, there are arrows all over it, things are crossed out, notes are written in the margins, etc. That’s real life. It’s messy. Things change.

My husband purchased 1/4 of a grass fed cow earlier this year so once in awhile we’ve been adding in some of the meat from that purchase. He was extremely excited to try the brisket while we watched the NFL Playoff game on Sunday. Sadly the 49’ers lost but the brisket was a hit!

Lunch – Burrito Bowl from Chipotle (chicken, romaine lettuce, black beans, guacamole, fresh salsa, sautéed fajita veggies)

Dinner – Slow Cooker Beef Brisket (this recipe is so good, highly recommend!), Gluten Free Corn Bread from Trader Joe’s, Jalapeño Lime Coleslaw (kids had Mac and cheese instead of coleslaw)

Lunch – Big Chopped Salad with romaine, cucumber, bell pepper, garbanzo beans (from can), sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and this Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing

Dinner – Attempted to make these Black Bean Flautas (the filling is amazing and highly recommend the recipe) but I had a severe air fryer malfunction and ended up just turning them into Black Bean Nachos with avocado, pico de Gallo, olives, and Greek Yogurt

Lunch – Hardboiled Eggs with Pesto, Leftover black bean filling from previous night’s dinner, blueberries and handful of walnuts

Dinner – Out to dinner for my daughter’s birthday (I ordered salmon with broccoli and salad)

Lunch – Za’atar Tango Salad (from Trader Joe’s), blueberries, cottage cheese

Dinner – Chicken Apple Sausage, Scrambled Eggs with salsa and avocado, Fresh Fruit and 1 slice whole wheat toast

Lunch – Siete Grain Free Tortilla with Avocado, Arugula and Smoked Salmon, a cutie, handful of pistachios

Dinner – Spinach and White Bean Gnocchi Skillet with Salad

Lunch – Green Goddess Salad (made for second time in 2 weeks…so so good!)

Dinner – Steamed White Rice, Gluten Free Pot Stickers (purchased frozen at grocery store), Garlic & Sesame Edamame

Saturday

Lunch – Leftover Green Goddess Salad, 1/2 avocado, sliced turkey lunch meat

Dinner – went to a friend’s house and had grilled burgers with an amazing arugula salad (will ask her for recipe!)

This is where we just share some things we’ve been loving the past week. Not necessarily related to food but always with the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle in mind.

Fix & Fogg Everything Butter

I was completely influenced by instagram on this product. I ordered it from Thrive Market and have probably had at least a spoonful everyday. It’s a thick, natural peanut butter that has flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, chia seeds, almonds and hemp seeds. It is amazing spread on toast.

Mini HoneyCrisp Apples

My kids only like honey crisp apples but they are so big that they eat half and then can’t finish the rest. Rather than wasting half the apple or have bags of half eaten apples in the fridge/freezer I’ve been loving these mini size honey crisp apples. I’ve found them at Safeway and Trader Joe’s.

Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

I go through phases of using my Instant Pot all the time and then putting it away in the cabinet and not using it for awhile. This week the Instant Pot was my lifesaver and I made a batch of hardboiled eggs in 7 minutes one Sunday afternoon. Those eggs were eaten almost everyday either for snack or lunch.