sunday:
dinner: our beloved grill and chill ritual
an epic Build Your Own Hot Dog bar
We get good hot dogs, we make homemade buns (or buy goooood buns), and we invest in some fun toppings. I won’t inundate you with all the topping possibilities here, but I do encourage you to google topping ideas for a hot dog bar. The possibilities are beautifully endless. We love this tradition - an excuse to do hot dogs well. And the leftovers for lunch all week are awesome.
but know that this cheese sauce is an absolute must for us
make extra bacon for monday, wednesday’s dinners
monday: sandwiches
why we love a weekly sandwich night
or miss b’s frozen biscuits
and various fixings like jam, cheese, bacon/sausage/ham, honey, butter, etc for a build your own biscuit situation - but Brett loves to build his own breakfast sandwich
cut up all the oranges in our pantry
tuesday: something easy
our favorite, favorite ground beef tacos, pulled from freezer
see full list of what I froze for postpartum here
big bowl of mashed avo + big bowl of fruit
or
my favorite build your own pinto bean bowl
use this week’s Weekly Pot of Beans: my slow cooker pinto beans, omit sausage
brown rice, mashed avocado, shredded cheese, etc
big bowl of fruit
(maybe our favorite cornbread)
wednesday: something from freezer
this could be something I froze to prepare for postpartum. this could also mean frozen chicken nuggets and tater tots. this could be an easy freezer favorite from Costco. (or anything from that Trader Joe’s run we did rightttt before my induction to grab postpartum snacks + freezer meals.) anything goes.
my favorite slow cooker broccoli cheese soup, pulled from freezer
but here’s the deal. brett detests broccoli cheese soup. and I love this recipe in particular. so I make it and I eat mine with saltines and I’m GIDDY.
for brett, I make a few baked potatoes, and I may offer him some bacon, some leftover cheese in our fridge, some green onions, some shredded bbq beef from our grocery store’s premade meal section, and some sour cream. and he’s THRILLED. but also? he’s okay with broccoli cheese soup when it’s a baked potato topping. win, win!
my favorite ranch dressing + salad
and/or veggie box
and/or big bowl of berries
thursday: something easy
and/or veggie box
sourdough bread
big bowl of orange slices
friday: takeout
dinner date with Brett
saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones
I’ll clear out the fridge and make some sort of snack platter: produce, cheese, crackers, meats, dips, whatever’s hanging around. (I could also do some frozen chicken nuggets or fish sticks or taquitos or PB&Js - nothing’s set in stone here.)
see a full list of alllll the things we love for Snack Dinner here
but know I also love Yummy Toddler Food’s Snack Dinner blogpost, too
And really quick, here are few of my favorites for making dinner even remotely possible:
a tripp trapp chair for Baby Boy with this incredible newborn insert
aka the only way we can eat dinner as a family…and with my hands free.
and our twin-size kitchen helper stool (and a second tripp trapp chair) for our toddler
I talk more in my baby prep blogpost about how I set up my home for life with a toddler and a newborn, if you’re looking for more of my must-haves!
meal prep
i usually do a little meal prep on Sundays as a part of our Grill and Chill, but I may instead do a bit here and there throughout the week. below is the list of what I hope to meal prep this week - it may not all happen, and that's okay! even 5 minutes of prep is super beneficial.
prep some sort of dessert for the week:
see here why this is our new favorite thing for our marriage.
none this week - I’m tired!
prep some things to make eating at home this week smoother:
prep produce (like wash + destem grapes)
also make veggie box
prep gooooood salad ingredients for the week
let’s just chop up a bunch of greens/carrots/etc to make a basic green salad like my favorite green salad
we learned we eat a ton more salad 1) when it’s gooooood salad and 2) when I do the prep work for multiple salads ahead of time
(ie prep greens, cut produce, make dressing, crumble cheese, etc)
could make some Mason Jar Salads for Future Haley’s lunches, too.
make a salad dressing or two
pick up our ranch dressing for the week if needed
and/or make homemade salad dressing for this week’s salads in my favorite dressing containers
make the weekly pot of beans
for a quick dinner if I’m too tired to cook (like Our Quesadilla Dinner), for a quick lunch, and/or a quick Leftover Night option
I love to eat beans plain, with eggs, with rice, in this favorite quick breakfast/lunch of mine, as my favorite tostadas, in breakfast tacos, in quesadillas, in a bean and cheese taco, as nachos, etc etc etc
recipes I love:
instant pot black beans or slow cooker refried beans, but I omit the onion in both recipes out of personal preference, and often times I’ll use black beans in the refried beans recipe
my slow cooker pinto beans, omit sausage
freeze leftover beans in these containers
see full list of what I’m freezing for postpartum here
prep a few things for quick, easy breakfasts/snacks/lunches
pull a batch of our favorite yogurt muffins from the freezer
I love love love these muffins when eaten like this!
prep smoothie cups in these containers
make a big stack of freezer pb&js
make our weekly batch of beloved oatmeal
make bread, if time/energy
we’ve been getting into sourdough, so finger’s crossed we have time to make a loaf or two for the week. we find a lottttt of joy in homemade bread, and I love how it also stretches our grocery budget…and elevates our dinners.
favorite things
while we followed (and loved!) my postpartum menu plan the last two weeks of pregnancy and the first two weeks of joey’s life, I’m ready to get back to my regular menu planning and cooking. and although I miss being in the kitchen, the meals being cooked in said kitchen will be easy easy for the foreseeable future.
as I mentioned at the very bottom of my baby prep blogpost, once Joey arrived, I dropped all routines and just did what we needed to get by. And only once I crave a routine do I add it back, and only when I feel ready. no guilt, just grace.
did you catch that? joey’s here! instagram post coming soon. but know that he arrived on december 14th, and all 9 pounds 10 ounces and 22 inches of him came in four pushes. (so fast that he had to have a brief little stint in the nicu to help him get some fluid out of his lungs.) but the best news of all is that there was no tearing this time around, and WOW does that make postpartum a heck of a lot more enjoyable. (for those that are new, I had a heinous third degree tear with my daughter.) i haven’t even needed to use my beloved donut this time around! PRAISE BE. a christmas miracle!
i’m doing everything I can to reallyyyyy rest and heal and soak up our new family of four. a few favorite things off the top of my head:
my absolute favorite robe that makes me feel beautiful and is so dang comfortable (and is a breeze to nurse in)
kk’s january activities + toys + books + sensory bins + playdough trays
the big list of things, systems, and routines that help me feel my best - I’m always updating this post and it’s the best place to start to get a lot of FAQs answered!
want more?
i’m always sharing our favorite routines, our favorite systems, and our favorite dinners on Instagram.
and know that when you share kind words with me or share my page with your followers, I do a happy dance. your support means everything, and your support allows me to spend time creating free content, like this menu plan. xo.