2/13 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  

• no grill and chill - we’re hosting brett’s family for lunch

• slow cooker chili

• creamy white chili

  • i either omit the chicken, or I use rotisserie chicken/leftover fajita chicken. i also like to add more beans out of personal preference.

• cornbread

• frito pie fixings: fritos, green onions, red onions, cheese, sour cream

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

• no sandwich night - a waffle bar for breakfast and a special pasta dish for dinner instead

• here’s our valentine’s day food traditions!

  • vday waffle breakfast with this waffle iron: we're trying these

  • vday dinner: this recipe (use chicken tenders, double sauce, eat over heart-shaped pasta) + roasted broc + fruit

tuesday: taco-ish tuesday

• easy tostadas using slow cooker refried beans

  • freeze leftover beans in these containers, similar to how i freeze (and reheat!) soup

• pico, avocado, cheese, shredded lettuce, crema

wednesday: pizza, pasta, or rice

• foolproof pan pizza recipe

• roasted broccoli + easy baked carrot fries with the leftover carrots from lunches + ranch dressing

  • or just dip the pizza in ranch, let’s be real

thursday: fish or some sort of meat

• slow cooker italian beef sandwiches

  • freeze leftovers in these containers, similar to how i freeze (and reheat!) soup

• fruit + frozen sweet potato fries and/or any leftover veggies from dinners/lunches

friday: takeout or leftovers

saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones

kk and i’ll eat dinner at my parents’ house and brett can decide if he wants to join or if he wants a night alone to recharge :)

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currently using

• kk’s pretty pink insulated water bottle

• this brand of containers for taking snacks with us to the gym/pool

• my bento box for taking lunch to the gym/pool

• these pretty pink bento boxes that kk and I love, too

• my stroller cooler - I’m convinced this is the best purchase ever

• kk’s rainjacket in a good pink

• alllll my summer essentials with all this pool/gym time

See my Amazon storefront for more things we use and love!

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

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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.)

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:

• prep produce for the week

prep some sort of dessert for the week:

• see here why doing this is our new favorite thing for our marriage.

• vday heart cake in this heart pan: we're trying this + this icing + heart sprinkles

prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother:

• pull freezer pb&js out of freezer

• pull cinnamon muffins out of freezer

• use those beans in the pantry to make a few easy quesadillas with black beans

• make breakfast bars with jam

  • or make a batch of peanut butter cookie oatmeal bites (link has 7 other varieties)

  • or make a batch of oatmeal like this

    • excerpt from my “my breakfast and lunch favorites” blogpost:

    • up until, like, a year ago, i swore I disliked oatmeal. but it turns out I was just eating the wrong kind. my mom one day made oatmeal like this with good oats, and served it to me plain with a generous slab of butter stirred in. it was this savory risotto-like situation. it was heavenly. and from then on, I was a converted oatmeal lover.

    • so now I make a batch - at least once or twice a month - of the above recipe, and I portion them out into smaller mason jars like this. that way, when it’s breakfast/lunch time, I can grab one of the containers, heat it up, stir a slab of butter into the hot oatmeal, and enjoy. i thank Past Haley profusely whenever I find these gemstones in my fridge.

• move frozen cherries/mango/pineapple to fridge for kk

• prep a big jug of carrot orange juice, if time/energy

  • read more about my juicing routine here

Need more ideas for make-ahead breakfasts and lunches to meal prep? Here’s my list of favorites!

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currently reading

when we believed in mermaids

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currently streamlining

• updated our meal rotation

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currently loving

• my summer essentials with all this pool/gym time

• how kk’s mr. valentine basket turned out! see a photo here

• the real reason we have a weekly sandwich night

• one of our unwritten dinner rules: we buy (or make!) gooood hamburger buns, hot dog buns, hoagie rolls, sandwich rolls, etc whenever possible. and we freeze the leftovers to do this with them.

• one of my Top 5 favorite meals - Teacher Haley made it every week

• our new favorite side dish

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currently working on

• our valentine’s day traditions

• making lunchboxes again and I’m GIDDY

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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.

2/6 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  

• spicy honey whole roasted chicken with that whole chicken in our freezer

  • or brett can do this recipe, which is his go-to recipe for whole chicken

• cheesy orzo or butter rice to use up the piles of rice/orzo we have hanging out in our pantry

  • reminder: when menu planning, the first thing I do is see what we already have on hand. it’s the best starting point!

• perfect oven roasted broccoli + comeback sauce

• whatever fruit we have hanging around

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

why we love a weekly sandwich night

• build your own croissant breakfast sandwiches!!!

  • with the costco croissants I grabbed on our monthly trip and threw into our freezer with the hopes of having this dinner soon

  • I love grabbing the croissants from Costco (I LOVE those), and setting out these soft scrambled eggs, oven roasted bacon, and American cheese, and everyone can build their own sandwich. because then these become exactly like the breakfast sandwiches we loved that were offered at the nearby dorm in college. NOSTALGIC BLISS.

  • but obviously you could do classier ingredients or a wider variety of ingredients - the sky is the limit here! google for more ideas - there are lots of posts out there for croissant breakfast sandwich topping ideas!

  • I do like to make leftover sandwiches for our freezer, similar to this recipe. freezer breakfast sandwiches were some of my FAVORITE things I prepped while pregnant - Postpartum Haley loved these sandwiches. see this blogpost for a round up of allllll my postpartum favorites.

• bigggg bowl of fruit or some sort of fruit salad

tuesday: taco-ish tuesday

• one of my favorite meals: a crockpot of goooood pinto beans

  • there are lots of recipes out there, but I follow this loooose recipe

• top with thickkkk shredded cheese and mashed avocado

  • don’t laugh, but I love my avocado slicer and my avocado masher

• brett also likes to top with salsa, onions, and/or sour cream

• eat with rice, cornbread, frito scoops, or tortilla chips

  • i love our darling rice cooker

wednesday: pizza, pasta, or rice

• slow cooker creamy tortellini vegetable soup with that tortellini in our freezer

• garlic bread or the bread or easy no knead bread or something

• bowl of fruit

thursday: fish or some sort of meat

• teriyaki salmon with sriracha mayo with that salmon in our freezer

• garlic noodles

• big bowl of fruit

friday: takeout or leftovers

saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones

• those frozen taquitos in our freezer

• crema + mashed avocado

  • don’t laugh, but I love my avocado slicer and my avocado masher

• a big bowl of fruit

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

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currently using

• these non-slip elastic headbands for working out

• my favorite skincare products

• my favorite swimsuits for KK

• these lanterns + these travel white noise machines when our power went out this week

  • see everything we have for emergencies here

• KK’s current favorite toy, in all seriousness

  • see her other favorite February toys/books/activities/sensory bins here

See my Amazon storefront for more things we use and love!

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.)

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.

• cinnamon swirl quick bread

prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother:

• pull egg and cheese bites from freezer or make easy breakfast burritos

• make easy banana oatmeal muffins, freeze leftovers

• make a double/triple batch of pancakes, freeze leftovers

• make a batch of sweet potato mac and cheese or superhero mac and cheese or cauliflower mac and cheese, if time/energy

• make a few bean and cheese quesadillas, if time/energy

Need more ideas for make-ahead breakfasts and lunches to meal prep? Here’s my list of favorites!

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currently reading

very little reading happened this week. and that’s okay.

whenever a routine doesn’t happen, i give myself so much grace. because oftentimes when I skip a routine, I am reminded how much I miss and benefit from said routine. and I return to it with newfound enthusiasm.

can’t wait to read again tonight.

see my full list of my favorite routines and systems - aka the things that help me feel my best.

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currently streamlining

• my daily routines

• my weekly routines

• my monthly routines

• my yearly routines

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currently loving

• my skincare + makeup routine - my newest blogpost!

• my little meal prep routine (and what meal prep means for me)

• my new Instagram post of why we love having a daily rhythm

• my favorite lunch + the real reason we have Sandwich Night each week

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currently working on

• packing lunches at night for when KK and I would benefit from a packed lunch the next day - I’m SO excited about this!!! I loveeeee looking into lunchbox ideas, and I love this new routine to take care of Future Haley. here’s a picture of our first packed lunch this week - reminded me of what Teacher Haley used to do!

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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.

1/30 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.

and remember: my 2022 intentions were to make one cookbook recipe a week and one fish recipe a week, so we’ll see how that goes.

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currently cooking

sunday: 

dinner: grill and chill  

• brett grills wings + extra wings for his lunches this week

• salad + ranch dressing

  • could also dip wings/potatoes in the dressing YUMMMMM

• ultra crispy baked potato wedges + sweet potato wedges

• big bowl of fruit

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

why we love a weekly sandwich night

• garlic bread avocado toast with artisan bread

• leftover salad + ranch dressing

• chicken and rice soup or my favorite chicken noodle soup

• big bowl of fruit

tuesday: taco-ish tuesday

• blackened shrimp tacos

• mashed avo + chips

• big bowl of fruit

wednesday: pizza, pasta, or rice

• chicken parmesan casserole

  • or rigatoni with easy vodka sauce

• easy garlic bread with those leftover hoagie rolls in my freezer

• frozen green beans (let’s try cooking them this way) or blistered garlic green beans

• big bowl of fruit

thursday: chicken, fish, or sausage

• slow cooker chicken tikka masala

• rice + naan

• big bowl of fruit

friday: takeout or leftovers

saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones

kk and i’ll have dinner at my parents’ - and brett can choose if he wants to come or if he wants some alone time at home :)

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currently using

• dressing container

• avocado tool + masher

• neck and shoulder heating pad

• my favorite cleaning products

• my favorite swimsuits for KK

  • we rejoined my favorite gym for swimming last week, and KK has been LOVING the indoor beach pool. i’ve been loving the long naps afterward. :)

See my Amazon storefront for more things we use and love!

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:

• make ranch dressing

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.

• soft oatmeal cookies

prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother - because while I love to cook dinner, I prefer my breakfasts and lunches to be made ahead of time. 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:

• pull cinnamon muffins from the freezer

• make a batch of overnight oats with yogurt and blueberries and/or pull applesauce cookies with oats and cinnamon from the freezer

• make a batch of instant pot hardboiled eggs

• make a batch of freezer pb&js

• make a batch of peanut butter oatmeal balls or peanut butter cookie energy balls, if time/energy

Need more ideas for make-ahead breakfasts and lunches to meal prep? Here’s my list of favorites!

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currently reading

when we believed in mermaids

curious how I read so often? read that answer - and other FAQs - here!

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currently streamlining

• our daily rhythm - we recently changed up where we go in the mornings and it’s been everything we needed. thankful I was feeling so burnt out in the past few weeks, because it pushed me to pause and pinpoint what I need in this season. and what I need in this season is more swimming and more reading, so we tweaked our daily rhythm to prioritize these things.

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currently loving

• our local library

• my big list of favorite routines and systems - aka the big list of things that help me feel my best and they were SO helpful for me to find some rest this week

• our beloved Sunday ritual

  • aka what we do every Sunday to rest (and prepare!) for the week

• this reminder about rest

• build-your-own meals - this post explains why

  • post also gives one of our favorite, favorite Monday dinners

• our little ritual of freezing half of things to do Future Haley a favor

  • (post also mentions one of my favorite things to meal prep + freeze!)

• one of my favorite things to meal prep for KK that takes thirty seconds (don’t laugh)

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currently working on

• the routine that unexpectedly became our marriage’s favorite thing

• our January routines - like checking our emergency preparedness stash

• our cleaning schedule

• Mr. Valentine baskets - I’m so excited for one of the toys KK is getting!

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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.