Workin Mom at Home // meal planning
Friday, November 14, 2014
So, I know that I've mentioned before that I'm really bad at meal planning and using little menu planners and such. I am. Really bad at it. Mostly because I either forget what I was planning to make, we already used the fixings for something else or I'm just plain not in the mood for that on that particular day. BUT I have been wanting to be more intentional in my life in every little aspect particularly wife-ing and mommy-ing. I want my kids to grow up sitting at a dinner table as a family enjoying a healthy meal and I want my husband to always have something to eat for breakfast and lunch. I just haven't been able to grasp onto a method that has worked for us. Up until October when I started being intentional in my business and working through all of the junk that discovering the Creative Jayne wed out I just wasn't good at making dinner or even sitting down as a family. The boys would eat in front of the TV, my husband would just fend for himself and I ate whatever I found around. Not unhealthy, but not functional. :(
So, when my husband got paid this last time we decided to make a solid plan for groceries. I have SLAVED over this last week to make things to have on hand. I read this really great post that I found on Pinterest and was super inspired for the kids lunches. And by the same sweet blogger, this post inspired meals for my hubs! I know that my kids will eat any kind of snacky thing and there are certain meals that are really easy to get the little one to eat so it was fun to go ahead and make things in advance and I just have them in ziplocs in the freezer ready to take out and microwave so when I'm in the middle of a project and they say I'm hungry or I notice the time I can just grab them and throw them in the microwave and viola!
I did the same thing for my husband except I went through my lunch pinterest board and printed off a bunch of what I thought might interest him. We then went through the list together and decided what to make for him that he would enjoy. I still have to do the stir fry for him but this week has been super smooth with his meals!
I also wanted to do something for him for breakfast. He is a night owl and could stay up until 2 and be perfectly happy as long as he could sleep till at least 10 the next morning. I made two breakfast casseroles/egg bakes and after they were done I sliced them up and wrapped them individually in aluminum foil and a ziploc and stuck them in the freezer. All he needs to do is grab a plate, plop it on and stick it in the microwave for a minute or so. I used this recipe and this recipe. They have the thumbs up of approval from both my husband AND my picky eater!!! SCORE! I also did little breakfast sandwiches for Andrew for breakfasts.
Aren't these fun?! ^^ I found this pin and since I was on the make it and freeze it kick that's what I did. Seriously, SO EASY!!! I ended up breaking the yolk in there and just whisked them a little just because my husband is USUALLY in a hurry in the mornings and he dresses nice so I figured the less spilly the better. I put the cheese right on the top after the eggs had mostly baked and then added some bacon after and stuck them in an English muffin. Andrew LOVES them and they are so easy for him!!! I will absolutely be doing these ones again FOR SURE!
Back to Andrew's lunches, I ended up making him little ham + cheese and turkey + cheese sliders, pizza roll-ups (see above photo), some chicken and cheese roll-ups with some left over shredded chicken from my dinners and will eventually get to the stir fry so he has a little variety. We also got him some granola bars and lunch bag chips, he's pretty happy. :)
The kids get things like pizza roll-ups, cheese roll-ups (which I didn't make ahead), yogurt cups (the healthy ones), string cheese, oranges-grapes-apples-bananas (the picky one won't eat veggies so they get those in dinner), crackers, pretzels, granola bars, granola and so on. They have been very happy and it's worked out really smoothly for mama!
I also did a week of freezer meals that can be found from this pin. She has the recipes and the grocery list right on the page that you can download, it's super handy and functional as well as do-able. So far I have been too protective of my work to do the dinners and we've had a strange week of evenings here but I am really looking forward to the simplicity of the coming week but then I have to do it all over again. Once I get a better grasp on doing the freezer meals and we get a bigger freezer I am excited to do more and even want to try to do a freezer meal swap here after the holidays but one step at a time. If you want some good breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas you can check out my different Pinterest boards. I have one for each meal and a dessert one that I call "hubbie's sweets" - he LOVES when I bake for him. <3
Do you have a simplified meal planning method? What are some of your favorite go-to meals during the week?!
<3 Kayla
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Ahh I love your little work space set up. Too cute! Nice job with the meals! It is so hard to think of everything when you are working/staying at home. It's a lot to keep organized. Keep up the good work :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! You're so sweet! <3 It really is, I'm so excited to have finally found a method that seems to be working really smoothly for us! Thanks again! xoxo's <3
ReplyDelete[…] now. Back in November, I posted about meal planning and how much I was actually enjoying it! I did like 10 freezer meals and they lasted us until just […]
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