Consider this a casual note more so than a formal recipe. (Here’s the recipe from which this dinner is based, if you prefer a more traditional format.)

gather round to hear how I learned to love taco night with every fiber of my being.

because I used to not understand the fuss re: crunchy ground beef tacos. now i’m like THEY DESERVE A PARADE. a freaking PARADE.

i used to be a teacher with no kids, and now I’m a stay-at-home mom with a small business.

while a lot has changed in the last ten years, two things have stayed the same: I detest making breakfast and lunch, and I detest eating the same thing every day.

while I love making dinner and spending twenty minutes to an hour in the kitchen in the evenings, I prefer my breakfast and lunches be a quick, grab-and-go situation. (and I especially don’t like to waste precious naptime making food for myself.)

so through all these years, both before kids and when I worked outside the home - and also now - it works really well for me to make my breakfasts and lunches ahead of time. but I personally need a little variety - I can’t just make one single thing for the whole week and eat it six straight days in a row.

here’s a few things that have become tried and true favorites for me.

y’all know I love my smoothies.

and - before I begin - know that I have a smoothies highlight on my instagram. i’d peek there if you’re a visual person.

i used to be horrible about making smoothies - like, i had these amazing intentions, but the smoothies themselves never got made. but then I realized the reason I disliked making smoothies was that I hated lugging my blender out from the cabinet, and I hated carrying a million bags of frozen fruit out of the freezer. so I moved my blender to the counter, and I prepped smoothie packs ahead of time - more on this in a second. once I made those two changes, my smoothie consumption skyrocketed.

i love soup. love.

and, since my student teaching days, I’ve been known to make a big pot of soup each week, and enjoy the leftovers alllll week. (unless it’s august in texas. my love for soup doesn’t extend that far.)

back when I was a teacher, I’d make a big pot of soup on Sundays. nowadays, I’m known to make a soup to go with our weekly sandwich night.

but more often than not, I can’t finish all the soup.

if you’ve read my full list of favorite things, you know my clothes philosophy.

basically a few staples of clothing I love (in colors that look best) that all mix and match.

with a few fun accessories.

so it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that kk’s wardrobe follows a similar formula.

So you’ve read all about how I menu plan, and how I have a meal rotation.

You might be wondering how I find new recipes to try.

Ready?