12/5 menu plan

currently eating

here is our meal rotation for all our breakfasts, snacks, lunches, and dinners:

see this blogpost for more on why we love our meal rotation, how we created it, and tips (plus a freebie!) for making a meal rotation work for you. see how I menu plan here and where I find new recipes here.

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currently cooking

sunday: 

dinner: grill and chill  

• brett grills or roasts a whole chicken (he references his favorite cookbook)

• orzo salad with chickpeas, lemon, dill, and feta to use up that cucumber, orzo, feta, and chickpeas we have lurking around

• crispy smashed potatoes + roasted green beans (offer ranch to dip)

• buttery pull apart bundt bread or macaroni grill rosemary bread

monday: sandwich night (+ soup/salad, if we're feeling it)

why we love a weekly sandwich night

• hot ham and cheese crescents (use leftover thanksgiving ham in freezer)

• roasted sweet potatoes (or frozen french fries)

• salad + ranch (could also dip the potatoes in ranch)

• fruit

tuesday: taco-ish tuesday

tostadas

• with lettuce, tomato, guac, beans, pico, cheese, crema, diced red onions

• reheat that frozen leftover fajita meat from Fajita Friday in the freezer for brett

wednesday: pizza, pasta, or rice

• creamy tomato spinach tortellini

  • or tortellini with jarred sauce. i haven’t decided.

• garlic bread

• salad with ranch and/or blistered garlic green beans

• big bowl of fruit

thursday: chicken, fish, or sausage

• creamy chicken and orzo soup

  • use leftover thanksgiving turkey in freezer

• or! pull my creamy chicken noodle soup from the freezer

  • here’s how I freeze and thaw soup

• leftover salad/veggies

• leftover bread

• leftover fruit

friday: takeout or leftovers

saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with family

our annual hyde park grill date

• many, many years ago, brett and I were little dating babies in college. and when we went home for the holidays, we’d meet back up around Christmas time at my favorite restaurant - which, given that I’m from Houston, he’s from New Braunfels, and said restaurant is in Austin, was quite impressive. since then we’ve gone every year around Christmas. i love it so much.

• here’s our full list of things we do every december

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currently using

• this cookie gun

• my salad dressing container

• our grape cutter for KK (but also for cherry tomatoes for salads)

• my beloved sinkware caddy

• our roll-up, over-the-sink dish rack - we bought this in our 600 sq-ft apartment manyyy years ago and still love it in our current home!

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currently meal prepping

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. (you’ll notice I allow space in my daily rhythm for potential meal prep.) at a minimum, I try to always do this - makes the whole week SO much smoother!

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 dinner components:

• none

prep some sort of dessert for the week:

• one of my favorite podcasters said this is an incredibly easy way to plan joy into your week and I SO agree. see here why it’s our new favorite thing for our marriage.

• spritz cookies using this cookie gun or pecan snowballs or old fashioned crumb cake

prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother - at a bare minimum, I try to always prep some sort of eggs, some sort of oats, and some sort of muffins/waffles/pancakes for our breakfast rotation, and I try to change up the recipes each week so that cooking stays fun for me and so KK is exposed to variety:

• prep tropical yogurt overnight oat parfaits (KK and Brett would LOVE these)

  • or try breakfast quinoa or try oatmeal peanut butter bites

• pull cottage cheese pancakes or mini blueberry muffins from freezer

• make toddler breakfast egg cups 4 ways - try quinoa/cheese version for KK and me - freeze half

• prep a few sweet potato quesadillas for lunches/breakfasts/snacks for KK and me

• pull my favorite creamy tomato parmesan soup or my favorite slow cooker broccoli cheese soup from the freezer for lunches

  • here’s how I freeze and thaw soup

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currently reading

my favorite fertility health book. I first read this book yearsssss ago and I swear by it - it influenced and shaped a lot of my routines. reading this book again is bringing me a lot of calm and joy in this season.

(i’m not pregnant. i’m just reading to get a refresher on things I can do to take care of myself. after a season of grieving and healing, we’re in a season of nourishing and appreciating.)

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currently streamlining

• my list of things we do every December. seasonal things, household tasks, holiday traditions, yearly routines, renewing memberships, recurring expenses, etc. a big ol brain dump, if you will.

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currently loving

• this page full of menu plans! so many great ideas!

• this new weekly routine - aka our our marriage’s new favorite thing.

• my go-to lunch when I don’t want to spend time making food…and none of our leftovers or meal prepped goodies sound appealing. (it happens.)

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currently working on

• sticking to our christmas plan (and budget). saying no to things that don’t align with our priorities. leaving plenty of room to savor this season. and scheduling lots of rest and recharging for this INFJ.

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currently sharing

always sharing our favorite routines, our favorite systems, and our favorite dinners on Instagram - come say hi! your kind words make my day. truly.

and know that when you share my page on Instagram 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.

11/28 menu plan

currently eating

here is our meal rotation for all our breakfasts, snacks, lunches, and dinners:

see this blogpost for more on why we love our meal rotation, how we created it, and tips (plus a freebie!) for making a meal rotation work for you. see how I menu plan here and where I find new recipes here.

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currently cooking

sunday: 

dinner: grill and chill  

• brett roasts chicken (he uses his favorite cookbook)

• roasted butternut squash orzo salad or roasted sweet potato salad

• hot honey brussels sprouts

• garlic bread

monday: sandwich night (+ soup/salad, if we're feeling it)

why we love a weekly sandwich night

• build your own meatball sub bar - brett will be ELATED with these leftovers.

• easy spinach salad (prep double the ingredients for wednesday dinner)

• tater tots because I detest both red sauce and meatballs (but KK and Brett love these), so I’ll be setting up camp at one of my favorite combos: a gooooood salad and some sort of potato.

tuesday: taco-ish tuesday

• pancakes (use mix in pantry) + life changing soft scrambled eggs + breakfast sausage or bacon

  • brett usually makes himself a diy mcgriddle

• or, or! make make ahead breakfast biscuit sandwiches or freezer croissant breakfast sandwiches and make extras for my lunches. because I loveeeee a breakfast sandwich with good scrambled eggs and american cheese, and I’ve had THE BIGGEST craving for it. so into the meal plan it goes.

• big bowl of fruit

yes, yes. I know this isn’t taco-ish in the least. but if I’m not feeling a dinner theme, I’ll skip it. nbd. dinner themes are there to help us when we need it. we are not bound to them by any means.

wednesday: pizza, pasta, or rice

• leftover roast chicken

• mushroom risotto

  • i usually omit mushrooms and do whatever veggies/proteins I’m feeling that week, either mixed in or on the side for a Build Your Own Risotto Bowl situation

• or this broccoli cheddar risotto bc I love risotto and crispy roasted broccoli

• leftover easy spinach salad

thursday: chicken, fish, or sausage

• tuna patties or frozen fish sticks + tartar sauce

• leftover salad

• roasted potatoes with those russets in the pantry

• leftover fruit

friday: takeout or leftovers

saturday: snack dinner saturday

holiday cheese board or a massive fridge/freezer cleanout. we’ll play it by ear!

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currently using

• our stove guard, our oven lock, our doorknob covers, and our cabinet locks

• our salad dressing shaker

• my beloved huuuuuge lazy susans for under our sinks

• white noise machines. always and forever. brett and I have always had two in our room, and KK has two in her room. we’re smitten.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thank you so much for your support!

---

currently meal prepping

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. (you’ll notice I allow space in my daily rhythm for potential meal prep.) at a minimum, I try to always do this - makes the whole week SO much smoother!

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 dinner components:

• none, unless I wanted to prep some salad ingredients ahead of time

prep some sort of dessert for the week:

• one of my favorite podcasters said this is an incredibly easy way to plan joy into your week and I SO agree. see here why it’s our new favorite thing for our marriage.

• blackberry cobbler (I sub blueberries) or super moist spice cake

prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother - at a bare minimum, I try to always prep some sort of eggs, some sort of oats, and some sort of muffins/waffles/pancakes for our breakfast rotation, and I try to change up the recipes each week so that cooking stays fun for me and so KK is exposed to variety:

• make omelette and tater tot breakfast bites

• make overnight oats

• move some frozen mango, frozen pineapple, and frozen cherries from the freezer to the fridge for KK to eat this week

• pull some baked apples out of the freezer for KK to eat this week

• prep a few spinach quesadillas and a big stack of freezer PB&Js for KK’s lunches

• make favorite yogurt muffins (double, freeze), if time/energy

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currently reading

raising an emotionally intelligent child

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currently streamlining

• Pretzel Dinner - our newest fall tradition that we’re STILL talking about almost two months later. it was THAT good.

• our double desk - aka how we store all our sensory play tools, our office supplies, and our household goods. see here for a peek inside our beloved Ikea hack…and arguably the hardest working piece of furniture in our house!

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currently loving

• my break from Instagram this week - it’s been the loveliest way to recharge!

• this Sandwich Night favorite - one of my go-to sandwich and soup combos that even Brett The Soup Hater loves.

• this dinner. always and forever. KK wholeheartedly agrees. (my fridge agrees, too. any leftovers look new and shiny again when a big bowl of this is next to them.)

• the love shown towards this step-by-step Instagram post on how I created our meal rotation, and why I chose the dinner themes I did. (that’s my roundabout way of saying I did a lotttt of thinking out loud in this post, so consider yourself warned. and to the people that found it helpful, I absolutely cherish you.) thank you from the bottom of my heart for such kindness.

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currently working on

• ignoring all the sales. we have everything we need and more!

• our friday routines - the linked post details why we have the friday routines that we do in hopes that it may inspire your own ideas!

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currently sharing

always sharing our favorite routines, our favorite systems, and our favorite dinners on Instagram - come say hi! your kind words make my day. truly.

and know that when you share my page on Instagram 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.

11/21 menu plan

currently eating

here is our meal rotation for all our breakfasts, snacks, lunches, and dinners:

see this blogpost for more on why we love our meal rotation, how we created it, and tips (plus a freebie!) for making a meal rotation work for you. see how I menu plan here and where I find new recipes here.

---

currently cooking

sunday: 

breakfast: none - we’re off on a family adventure

dinner: grill and chill  

• brett grills that lurking frozen steak in our freezer for dinner

  • turn it into some sort of steak and eggs breakfast situation

  • or build your own breakfast tacos with scrambled eggs, steak, hash browns, etc

• brett grills thighs for later this week

monday: sandwich night (+ soup/salad, if we're feeling it)

why we love a weekly sandwich night

• build your own sub sandwich with jimmy john’s bread

tuesday: taco-ish tuesday

• burrito bowls

  • use grilled chicken thighs from sunday

• instant pot black beans or slow cooker refried beans

• mexican rice (I omit the oil and make this in my rice cooker)

• pico, queso*, salsa, guac, onion, cheese, TJ’s street corn, etc

  • we always get the Queso Mama queso at Costco, but I love this or this recipe

wednesday: pizza, pasta, or rice

• chicken parmesan casserole

• sauteed brussels sprouts and/or frozen roasted vegetables

thursday: chicken, fish, or sausage

• turkey trot + thanksgivinggggg meal

friday: takeout or leftovers

saturday: snack dinner saturday

• leftovers

• or frozen taquitos + leftover queso + guac + any leftover burrito bowl things

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currently using

• my favorite griddle pan for pancakes

• my favorite spatula for pancakes

• my beloved rice cooker

• my tomato knife…but really I use it for everything

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thank you so much for your support!

---

currently meal prepping

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. (you’ll notice I allow space in my daily rhythm for potential meal prep.) at a minimum, I try to always do this - makes the whole week SO much smoother!

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 dinner components:

• none this week

prep some sort of dessert for the week:

• one of my favorite podcasters said this is an incredibly easy way to plan joy into your week and I SO agree. see here why it’s our new favorite thing for our marriage.

• pecan pie bars or pecan sandies

prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother - at a bare minimum, I try to always prep some sort of eggs, some sort of oats, and some sort of muffins/waffles/pancakes for our breakfast rotation, and I try to change up the recipes each week so that cooking stays fun for me and so KK is exposed to variety:

• egg and cheese pockets? or cheesy scrambled eggs with spinach?

  • yes, I’ve been known to make scrambled eggs ahead of time for the week. Project Meal Prep taught me how: “For [make-ahead scrambled eggs], it’s best to just slightly undercook your eggs. Maybe 30 seconds away from when you would actually want to eat them. You’re going to have to reheat everything and you don’t want hard overcooked eggs! They’ll cook a little more in the microwave during reheating.

• cottage cheese pancakes (double recipe, freeze leftovers), if time/energy

• pb&J oatmeal

• make tuesday’s instant pot black beans or slow cooker refried beans early since KK and I love these for breakfast/lunch? (with lots of mashed avocado always - and sometimes soft scrambled eggs - yummmmm!)

• sliced baked apples or instant pot applesauce to use up the million sad apples on our counter - double recipe and freeze leftovers for Future Us

• make easy orzo salad since I never got around to it last week and this would be perfect for our lunches, if time/energy

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currently reading

the kitchn cookbook

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currently streamlining

• our holiday season with our beloved fridge calendar. see full list here of allllll the tiny things we do to simplify holidays and celebrations.

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currently loving

• our stove guard for child safety

• our local wildflower center membership and our Texas State Parks pass. we’re currently in a season where we can’t afford vacations - and that’s okay! - so these two things are making for such enjoyable Sunday Grill and Chills. the loveliest way to inject some fun - yet affordable - adventures into our weeks!

• our sensory tables + our sensory play

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currently working on

• making over that Ikea play kitchen to better fit KK’s needs…and to better fit my home aesthetic. i’m having THE BEST time with this project! can’t wait to show y’all the finished product and can’t wait to play with this gem for years to come.

• ignoring all the gift guides and the general holiday shopping panic - see how we plan (and budget for) christmas here.

• deciding we may not send out christmas cards this year in light of all these prices going up and us being a one-income family. and that’s okay - there’s always next year! trying to trim up our budget and cut back on spending during this time - when we’re veryyy intentional with our money, we live very comfortably on brett’s income. but that means prioritizing what’s reallyyy important to us, and this year christmas cards didn’t make the cut.

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currently sharing

always sharing our favorite routines, our favorite systems, and our favorite dinners on Instagram - come say hi! your kind words make my day. truly.

and know that when you share my page on Instagram 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.