Let's Look: Meal Plan

Happy Wednesday! I am linking up with Shay and Erika today to share about meal planning! I have been pretty good at meal planning our whole marriage (almost 10 years!) and I recently got a new command center to help me with the process that I'm pretty excited about! Anything to help me get more organized and on top of things is a win in my book ;)

I put this command center together a couple months ago and I love it so far! It is so nice seeing our lives at a glance, especially in the high-traffic area of our kitchen. I got this calendar from Target (here it is on Amazon), the menu planner from Amazon, as well as the magnetic file holder. I blocked out the calendar for privacy, but I like to color coordinate events and appointments with a specific color for each member of the family so we can easily see who has what going on at a glance. The markers in the picture came with the menu planner.

So when I begin meal planning, I like to consult my calendar to see if we are going to be gone specific nights, or maybe if we have an evening appointment that we need a quicker meal for beforehand. My husband also works a rotating schedule, so on nights when he works, I like to make those leftover nights; much easier to prepare after work and daycare.

I also try to check my fridge, freezer, and pantry as much as possible, that way lowering what we need to buy each week. We do like to keep a well-stocked pantry in our home (we are really trying to bulk it up for emergency preparedness) and we have a well-stocked, stand-up freezer too. We recently purchased 1/4 of a cow, so we try to have beef in the meal plan at least once a week.

You can see in the picture above some of the dinners we are having this week:

For our homemade pizzas, I love to make pizza crust using the 2-ingredient dough method, which involves mixing equal parts self-rising flour and plan greek yogurt. I like to pre-bake my crust first for 5-10 minutes, then add our favorite toppings and bake until done.

For Taco Tuesday, I cheat and just buy a taco kit from Walmart ;) I will add the usual taco toppings and usually make either rice with some lime juice added in, or find a recipe for an easy Mexican rice.

Hubby works 2 days in a row, so I make sure to make enough food the first 2 nights so that we can do leftovers both nights. Side note, my son starts Kindergarten on Thursday! 😭

Friday I am going to make my favorite meatloaf recipe. I've tweaked this recipe throughout the years: I add minced onion instead of a whole onion, I add a 15 oz can of tomato sauce instead of 8 oz, and I always add way more Worcestershire sauce than a recipe calls for :) For a side dish, I found this recipe for parmesan garlic noodles a few months ago and it definitely is a keeper!

On Saturday, we are having my daughter's 2nd birthday party earlier in the day 😭(seriously, why do our kids grow up so fast??) so we will either have leftovers from the party for dinner, or repurpose them- we are doing bbq meatballs as part of the party food and I like to do a simple dinner of that over rice with mixed veggies.

To round out on Sunday, we will have this green pepper skillet. I always add cheese to the top! Mmmm

That rounds out our week! What is on your meal plan this week? Let me know! I always like finding new recipes to try out :)