School started back this week, and even though I don't have a school aged kid yet I am starting 3 new jobs this year that follow the schedule of the school year. I'm really looking forward to all of them and luckily I get to do 2 of them from home! Definitely a huge blessing and will help us as we save for a down payment on a house this next year!
With something scheduled almost every day of the week I'm trying to streamline my meal planning so that I never have to wonder what to make or pour over past recipes and search for new ones. Jon and Josh aren't very picky eaters (just NO mushrooms, mustard or pickles!!!) so I've been able to make a variety of things. In order to simplify life and not spend an hour each night just on dinner prep, cooking time and clean-up I decided to make the same things for dinner on a rotation based on some of our favorite recipes. This makes shopping easier, allows me to choose easier things on busier days and hopefully will help save me some time! I decided to keep weekend nights simple and do the same thing every week. All the other days are on a rotation but I tried to keep the type of food the same (for example I always make some sort of chicken in the crockpot on Wednesday, and always an entree salad on Monday). I also plan on doing a monthly freezer cooking day (see below) and then only go to the grocery for fresh items once a week or as needed.
I'm sure there will be times when cooking dinner just isn't gonna happen and we have to resort to takeout, but I don't want that to be the "norm". Hopefully having this plan with help me not give in to the convenience of getting burgers at Burger Fi instead of cooking dinner (but for real...burger fi is always a good idea...am I right?) Just in case you're interested in what I plan on making here's the list I came up with. Happy school year everybody!
Monday:
Week 1: Taco Salad
Week 2: Chicken Caesar Salad
Tuesday:
Week 1: Frozen dinner from T Joe's, vegetable
Week 2: Frozen dinner from T Joe's, vegetable
*I'm currently trying out a few different options from the T Joe's freezer section. So far we really like the orange chicken, fried rice and gluten free pizza!*
Wednesday:
Week 1: Crockpot Balsamic Chicken, vegetable
Week 2: Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken, vegetable
Thursday:
Week 1: Lettuce Wraps
Week 2: Sesame Chicken Stir Fry
Friday:
Week 1: Bacon Burgers, vegetable
Week 2: Steak, salad
Saturday:
Every week: Spaghetti "zoodles" with homemade meat sauce
Sunday:
Every week: Nitrate-free organic hot dogs, vegetable and salad*My goal is to do a freezer cooking day at the beginning of the month and prep the following:
- ground beef for taco salad
- baked chicken for caesar salad
- crockpot chicken in gallon bag so can just dump it in
- stir fry vegetables sliced and bagged
- burger patties formed and frozen
- spaghetti meat sauce
I'm planning on trying this rotation beginning in September and I'll definitely blog about how it's going and about my monthly freezer day! Do you guys find it's easier to keep to a set dinner schedule during the school year or just make it up as you go?
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