12/15 meal plan

We are a little off with out "theme nights" this week but with a slightly different schedule I can rearrange them and still have some great variety.

Sunday

Favorites 
Brats, grilled peppers and onions marinated in mesquite lawrys marinate, roasted potatoes

Monday
Pasta/seafood night
Instant Pot salsa chicken with the new avocado/tomatillo salsa I bought from Sam's club tacos served with lettuce, avocado, tomatoes refried beans and cheese

Tuesday
Freezer meal for game night

Shepherds pie from freezer
- always add in a little Worcestershire sauce to the gravy mix.

Wednesday
Asian/Mexican night
Broccoli cheese soup in the instant pot.  Freeze leftover to help restock the freezer . Serve with toasted salami sandwiches

Thursday
Instant Pot/Casserole/easy night

Spaghetti (use jar sauce but blend in a package or riced cauliflower to up the veggies), frozsen meatballs, caesar salad or peas for Paige

Friday-
Freezer/Pizza/Out game nights

Cuban sliders from freezer

Saturday

TBD

12/8 meal plan

Sunday

Favorites 
Pizza and salad because we were on the North Pole Flyer all day and get home late

Monday
Pasta/seafood night
Beef Stroganoff and roasted broccoli
-I've made this before and its so easy and delicious

Tuesday
Freezer meal for game night

Freezer Pasta Fagioli soup

Use these containers to freeze:

Wednesday
Asian/Mexican night
Black bean sweet potato skillet meal

Thursday
Instant Pot/Casserole/easy night

Frozen Chicken Kiev, roasted beets with salt and pepper, pasta

Friday-
Freezer/Pizza/Out game nights

Chili from freezer

Saturday

TBD

12/1 meal plan

Sunday

Favorites 
My grandma's recipe of Turkey curry to use up thanksgiving leftovers.  Serve over rice and top with pickles (bread and butter from the farmers market), raisins, chopped nuts, hard boiled eggs

Monday
Pasta/seafood night
Ravioli with my favorite ALDI pasta sauce, add in riced cauliflower without hubs and P knowing....

Tuesday
Freezer meal for game night

Freezer chicken pot pie, frozen in Paige and Jenny portions
edits:
- chop potatoes and saute with butter
- coat with flour, then add broth and cream or half and half (whatever I need to use up)
- use a cut up rotisserie chicken and frozen peas and carrots
- cook and add more cream/milk to taste along with salt a pepper
- use freezer puff pasty to top and freeze

Use these containers to freeze:

Wednesday
Asian/Mexican night
Sweet and sour chicken stir fry, use frozen veggies and a can of water chestnuts, serve over rice

Thursday
Instant Pot/Casserole/easy night

Tacos, refried beans, lettuce tomatoes, salsa, avocado

Friday-
Freezer/Pizza/Out game nights

Pizza from freezer, salad or fruit

Saturday

TBD

11/24 meal plan

Sunday
Butter chicken, rice, steamed edamame.
Had planned this for last week but had a change in the meal plan

Monday
Steak, Spinach souffle (my favorite) and german potatoes.  (thinly sliced potatoes, sauteed in butter and mixed with crumbled cooked bacon)

Tuesday

Tamales (from the tamale lady in Waco), chili from freezer, appetizers
Phil's parents visiting

Wednesday

Mom and Dad eating spaghetti and salad with Paige, while the hubs and I get a date night!!

Thursday

Thanksgiving
Appetizers
Bruschetta, Bacon ranch jalapeno cheese ball, shrimp cocktail

Dinner-
Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry, stuffing (grammy's recipe) 

Friday-

leftovers/freezer meal

Saturday

Turkey Curry (also grammy's recipe)

Menu planning theme nights

I don't know about you but every week when it came time to make a grocery list and plan the meals it was always a chore.  I often ended up making the same staples each week and it got super old real fast. Although, if you ask my husband he would say why change what's working?!  

I'm definitely a person that likes variety.  I like to cook and I like to try new recipes and ideas.  Sometimes they are a total fail, but that's ok I had fun trying it.  What I didn't like was trying to find a time in our busy life to come up with ideas and to get my husband's input on the menu.  It was exhausting to even think about. 

We were moderately successful with this type of meal plan, but I often didn't take into account the husband's crazy ever-changing schedule #coachswifelife and just tried to make it work.  This led to wasted food (any money) and scrambling for meals at the last minute.

After reading a blog post by the amazing Haley Wynn Designs, in came weekly theme nights.  We took one night and made the time to talk about a way to structure our week that made sense for us, with themes that worked for our family.  Our themes have changed with the seasons (football, basketball, spring) and the changing demands on our family (read: the crazy coaching schedule).

These themes have been a life changer and I now don't dread the meal planning.  I purposefully schedule super easy things for P and I on nights daddy is working late.  They are perfect portion sizes for us, and can be done quickly so we can get to a game in time with little to no cooking and cleaning win-win.

Here are our current themes:
Sunday: Grill/veggies
Monday: Pasta/Italian
Tuesday: Freezer meal
Wednesday: Mexican/Asian
Thursday: Instant Pot/Sheet pan meal
Friday: Freezer/Pizza/Soup or sandwich
Saturday: Comfort food/favorites

These work for us because during basketball season the hubs is gone Tuesday and Friday for games.  We make it to as many as we can, depending on how far away they are.  Using freezer meals (or a frozen pizza) helps to get dinner on the table quickly and reduces the clean up for me.  

We are also working on a bank of our favorite meal ideas.  Maybe one day I'll get the recipes linked but for now it's just a list.  It helps me with inspiration if I'm struggling and it's sorted by theme.

Taking the time to organize this way ahead of time has seriously made menu planning each week way easier.

Here are some other great theme ideas  if you want to start your own weekly themes

Hope these great ideas help you! Love, Jen

11/17 meal plan

Sunday

Grill favorites 
Pork steaks, marinated (whatever Lawry's marinate we have on hand) grilled veggies, cheesy mashed potatoes

Monday
Pasta/seafood night
Fettucini alfredo, ceasar salad garlic bread
double sauce and freeze portion, add in riced cauliflower when adding garlic for added veggies

Tuesday
Freezer meal for game night

Freezer enchiladas, serve with avocado and beans

Wednesday
Asian/Mexican night
Originally planned

Butter chicken with naan bread and rice/roasted broccoli
-had Tikka Masala last week but wasn't a fan so trying again with this amazing recipe.  Using up leftover naan bread from last week
but changed to:
slow cooker pulled pork (can of Dr. Pepper and onion soup packet) since I found a pork butt on sale and am taking dinner to a friend who just had a baby, and for our baked potato luncheon the next day at school.
serving with potato salad/onions/pickles

Thursday
Instant Pot/Casserole/easy night

Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken thighs/ butternut squash/spinach sauteed frozen veggies from ALDI

Also make Elderberry syrup gummies, freeze leftovers in ice trays. Below are the trays I used.

Friday-
Freezer/Pizza/Out game nights

Pizza from freezer, salad or fruit

Saturday

TBD

11/10 meal plan

Sunday

Brats, sauteed pierogies in butter with peppers and onions.  Top with sour cream and salsa

Monday
Buffalo filled spaghetti squash from Gal on a Mission
cut in half to roast, fill with stuffing.

Tuesday

Freezer shepherds pie with fruit before scrimmage

Wednesday

French dip with Au Jus  from freezer, fries, frozen roasted brussel sprouts from ALDI

Thursday

Chicken Tikka Masala with rice/peas and Naan bread

Friday-

Pizza from freezer, salad or fruit

Saturday

TIP OFF event at Phil's school, BBQ dinner

11/2 meal plan

Saturday 11/2

Salsa chicken tacos (instant pot with 3/4 chicken stock and jar of salsa)
serve with avocado, tomatoes, lettuce and refried beans

Sunday
Pork tenderloin, dijon roasted cabbage from An Oregon Cottage, mash potatoes and gravy

Monday
Ravioli with veggie tomato sauce (blend in spinach and frozen cauliflower), bagged salad

Tuesday

Cuban sliders from cook Az I do, fries and roasted asparagus
double recipe and freeze one portion

Wednesday

Instant pot Award winning Chili served over macaroni or fritos
trying the linked recipe for the first time in the instant pot
after making  I made these edits-

• didn't have bacon so I omitted
• added one can crushed tomatoes
• Subbed chili ready pinto beans in medium sauce for the plain pinto beans and black beans
• used 1 1/2 cups beef broth

freeze extra in containers below

Thursday

leftovers/clean out fridge
ended up eating some quesadillas with leftover salsa chicken from taco Sunday with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, and Mexican street corn casserole from the freezer

Friday-

Shepherds Pie freezer portion

Saturday

Dinner date out

Menu 10/27

Sunday
Lasagna and salad at coach's party

Monday
BBQ sauce hash browns with smoked sausage and green beans

Tuesday

Salmon with dill sauce, roasted broccoli and couscous

Wednesday

Pasta Fagioli soup from freezer, grilled cheese
Use these containers to freeze soup

Thursday

Halloween- Frito chili Pie at friends before trick or treating

Friday-

pizza/soup/sandwiches

Saturday

TBD/eat out

10/20 meal plan

Sunday
Steak fajitas and refried beans
sauteeed peppers, avocado, salsa, sour cream, mexican shredded cheese

Monday
Chicken pesto totellini, Caesar salad
add some heavy cream to sauce

Tuesday

Ground turkey lettuce wraps served over rice

Wednesday

BBQ pork steaks, roasted broccoli, scalloped potatoes

Thursday

chicken enchiladas from freezer
Perfect portions for two frozen in these containers

Friday-

pizza/soup/sandwiches

Saturday

TBD

10/13 meal plan

Sunday

Monday
Penne Provencal with Brats
substitute zucchini and squash for eggplant
serve over veggie pasta

Tuesday

Chicken sweet and sour stir-fry over rice
Use frozen stir fry veggies, add water chestnuts

Wednesday

Grilled chicken, roasted asparagus, twice baked potatoes from freezer (Haley Wynn inspired genius)

Thursday

Frozen pizza and salad (broccoli and fruit for Paige)

Friday-

Dinner with Coach's wives soup/sandwiches

Saturday

Date night at home, crab legs, steamed artichokes baked potatoes