This week is our July 4 meal plan! When the end of June rolls around, I begin to have a slight obsession with 3 things – corn, tomatoes, and white nectarines. It’s a slightly crazy obsession, but I truly just love these things SO much, I have to indulge in them every week. Get ready for all the upcoming corn, tomato, and nectarine recipes because my FAVORITE time of the year is here!
With that, let’s get into week 6 of summer meal planning (aka our July 4 meal plan)!
Since so many of you guys also wanted to see my grocery list breakout, I’ve included a table at the end of this post to show you the ingredients and cost for this upcoming week’s grocery list as well.
Let me know if you find the cost breakdown helpful in the comments below, and I’ll continue to do them 🙂
SUNDAY – Stonefruit Burrata Caprese
This is one of my all time favorite recipes. I’ve just started seeing the early girl tomatoes at the market, which means tomato season is about to hit! This recipe is my summer go-to entertaining recipe, as it’s always a crowd favorite and SO SIMPLE to assemble. The store bought balsamic glaze is key, as is the ripe fruit.
Monday – Caesar Tuna Salad
This caesar tuna salad was inspired from my previous spring elevated tuna salad with snap peas. I loved that so much, I just had a feeling adding fresh delicious white corn would also be incredible. It sure is, and this would not only be a great option for meal prep next week, but you could also totally bring this to a BBQ along with some yummy crackers and I’m sure it’ll be a hit!
Tuesday – Happy 4th of July!
Take a breather today and enjoy the BBQ you’re heading to. I’m making 2 new recipes I’ll film and get onto the blog for upcoming BBQs this summer. In the meantime, feel free to browse my 17 ideas for early summer gatherings for inspiration 🙂
Wednesday – Veg Forward Weeknight Bolognese
I’ve been craving a bolognese lately, and this veg forward weeknight Bolognese hit all the cravings, plus it’s veggie packed, protein packed, and perfect for a mid-week date night or pasta pick-me-up 🙂

Thursday – Miso Steamed Salmon with Smashed Cucumber and Tomato Salad
Another quick and easy dinner to help us through the shortened week. Since we’re making salmon later in the week, be sure to freeze the salmon if you’re shopping for it earlier in the week and defrost the night before.

Grocery Breakdown for the week:
This is my rough grocery breakdown for the week + the estimated pantry staple cost for this meal plan. I will likely do another more detailed individual post on the basics, but here’s an initial overview for this specific week:
- This week includes 1 pantry focused lunch meal prep. The ingredients are a combination of produce I buy fresh that week (arugula, corn, cucumbers), canned tuna, and croutons.
- There are also 2 easy weeknight dinners, which includes 2 lbs of protein I buy fresh that week. Each of these proteins provide ~ 4 servings and I will eat the remaining leftovers the next day or later that week.
- Since this is a holiday week, there is also one dish I plan to bring to a BBQ (entertaining dish that adds ~$20 of fresh produce).
- Notice that once you figure out your monthly staples
- If you had an empty kitchen and were to buy basically EVERYTHING you needed to cook this meal plan above, you would probably spend ~$185 (you can probably get this for less if you don’t live in a high cost of living area). You will also definitely have leftover pantry staples for the next few months. Again, you will begin to collect sauces and condiments that you won’t use every week, but if you slowly buy some of these more niche ingredients, I promise it will begin to pay off, and you’ll be more excited to eat your delicious, home-cooked food 🙂


From this meal plan, I will have most of my lunches and dinners planned out. I will likely throw together a couple additional meals with the leftover raw ingredients and the pantry staples I have in both my pantry, and my freezer. Here are a few more ideas to throw together with the leftover ingredients + monthly pantry staples you’ll have:
- Braised tofu with celery, a steamed egg dish, and multigrain rice. This is another variation of my Mapo Tofu, and just substitute the ground meat for celery (I do this with basically ANY vegetable, and I love it). As noted in the monthly pantry items, I get a 4 pack of tofu every month.
- Multigrain Rice with the extra serving of miso steamed salmon mixed in or on top. Eat it “Emily Mariko style” with some seaweed and fresh cucumbers (I always have Persian cucumbers in my fridge), and it’ll be delicious. You could also do a fried rice version of this with extra frozen veggies or leftover diced celery.
- Tuna melt with bread you have in the freezer + mozzarella cheese + leftover arugula.
As I write this, I realize I should do another post on how to utilize your freezer. I’ll add that my list, and again, please comment below if you want to see more budgeting tips 🙂
You can find the Pantry Staples List I referenced earlier here.
Looking For more Summer Meal Planning resources?
Check out the following articles:
- Summer Meal Plan Week 1
- Summer Meal Planning – Week 2
- Summer Meal Planning – Week 3
- Summer Meal Planning – Week 4
- Summer Meal Planning – Week 5
- And sign up for my weekly newsletter to get Meal Plans delivered straight to your inbox on Thursdays (coming soon)!
If you’re looking for a consolidated grocery list for this meal plan, or want to customize this meal plan with other recipes, you can do so on Foody+. If you download the mobile app, all of my recipes are also included as part of the monthly subscription.
I really loved the budget breakdown of the meals this week! I’d love to see some more in the future! As someone who loves spreadsheets, I had a huge grin upon seeing yours!
Thanks Hannah! I love spreadsheets too (if you didn’t notice already haha). I’ll try and sprinkle some budget breakdowns in the meal plans once in a while, and cover a more introductory version as well!