Peeks from the Week and my meal planning tips

Guys, (I call everyone guys, even if you're a lady) I need Friday to fly.  I am so done with this week.  Unfortunately this weekend is shaping up to be pretty busy so I can't say I'm super excited about that.  BUT, Dan planned an after church date for Sunday to have a picnic in the park and see Pitch Perfect 2.  So that's something to look forward to!!

This week was pretty bland but I did make it a solid week sticking to our meal plan.  That makes two successful week under my belt, so I thought I'd share my strategies today.

As I have mentioned before,  I am not very good at meal planning.  Initially I was having issues because the thought of having to pick a meal so far in advance with so many recipe options made it really difficult.  I solved that problem by creating standard "themes" for each day of the week.  I know this isn't an original idea but it was new to me.  Usually I start off strong with meals picked for the week and a grocery list.  I fill out my little meal planning menu for the week at the same time I make my grocery list.

These our are themes:

Monday - Quick and Easy/Dan's Choice
This is typically something with box directions like hamburger helper, tacos, blue box mac, chili, fish sticks, etc.  I have dance class on Monday nights so it is great to come home from work and Dan has dinner ready right away which gives me a little break before going to dance.   He does really well in the kitchen and awesome solo, since I'm not breathing down his neck trying to control him.  His repertoire is growing! However, due to my fear of raw poultry I haven't taught him how to cook chicken so it is typically something with no meat or ground beef. 

Tuesday - Breakfast for Dinner
I LOVE breakfast food and I pretty close to never make hot breakfast in the morning so dinner it is!  There are so many great breakfast options that it is typically the easiest night for me to pre-plan a meal.  Our favorite is waffles.  We also have done breakfast burritos, pancakes, fried eggs, etc.  Sides include sausage, bacon, fresh fruit, or smoothies, etc.

Wednesday - Beef
We have small group every other week on Wednesday nights so I get a good cooking break on those weeks.  When we don't have SG I will pick a recipe that has beef in it for Wednesday.  The whole point of the theme is to narrow the recipe options and cut down on the daunting selection process.

Thursday - Chicken
A recipe with chicken in it.  Nothing complicated there.   Last night we made pot-sticker stir fry.  All I had to do was open the bag of pre-made frozen chicken pot stickers from Trader Joe's, add a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies, and make a simple Asian flavored sauce. Dan helped and it was ready to eat in under 20 minutes. Quick, yummy, and stuck with the chicken theme.

Friday - Pizza
Who has the energy to cook on Friday?  Not me.  So we designated Friday as pizza night (I know a lot of people do this and it is genius).  Basically we can choose to order Papa Johns, pick-up slices or a pie from our favorite local pizza joint, bake a frozen pre-made pizza, or make our own fresh.  If we make our own I use either the Pillsbury refrigerated crust or something similar to the Bobili pizza crust.  I do not have the energy to deal with yeast and sticky dough so no, I don't make my own.

I discovered that the jar pizza sauce is WAY too much for one pizza so when I open a new jar I divvy 1/4-1/3 cup into the snack-size ziplocks and freeze them.  I do the same for pre-shredded cheese and pepperoni.  I buy a bulk bag of mozzarella cheese and divvy two cups per ziplock bag.  Seal the bag and use a drinking straw to suck all of the extra air out of the bag.  The pepperoni go in snack-size ziplocks.  Pull one baggie of cheese, one of sauce, and one of pepperoni out of the freezer while the oven is preheating. Nothing is wasted and we have pizza supplies for weeks! 

Saturday/Sunday 
I still haven't mastered these nights.  I'm thinking something crock-pot related on Sunday nights and Saturday is likely going to remain random and weird.  Baby steps people.

So, two fully successful weeks under my belt and minor other successes here and there.  I might actually get this wife thing down after all.  But, life is not perfect and stuff happens.  Sometimes it falls apart when I can't get everything I need at the store...because something isn't stocked or what is stocked doesn't look very good (I'm talking to you red peppers at Key Food).  Sometimes I get lazy and we end up going out one night. When we have guests the meal plan goes out the window because who wants hamburger helper when there are a million amazing and unusual places to eat just around the block? 

Anyways, those are my tips.  I'll report back on our future success or failure.

Current song obsession (yes, I know, I'm late to the KC game)