currently cooking
sunday:
dinner: grill and chill
brett grills chicken for tonight’s dinner + plenty of lunch leftovers
set out the following ingredients so we can make quesadillas, my favorite bean and avocado bowl, tacos, tostadas, burrito bowls, nachos, etc. whatever speaks to our heart!
instant pot black beans or slow cooker refried beans
I omit the onion in both recipes out of personal preference
plenty of mashed avocado + pinch of salt to taste
pico, queso*, shredded lettuce, salsa, crema, onion, cheese, etc
flour tortillas, tostadas, tortilla chips
could also grab sauces/sides/fresh tortillas from one of our favorite Mexican restaurants
we THRIVE on this Build Your Own Dinner and we thrive even more on the leftovers all week.
monday: sandwiches
why we love a weekly sandwich night
build your own grilled chicken wraps or build your own grilled chicken sandwiches
use leftover grilled chicken from sunday
(or rotisserie chicken or frozen chicken tenders or ritz cracker chicken or baked pretzel crusted chicken tenders or or or)
we like to set out good tortillas and good slider rolls, but you do you!
set out grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, mashed avocado, red onion, shredded cheese, bacon, ranch dressing, caesar dressing, honey mustard dressing, buffalo sauce, blue cheese dressing, crushed croutons, etc
inspiration: build your own grilled chicken bar, chicken caesar wraps (one of our go-to meals), my favorite ranch wraps, honey mustard chicken wraps
we THRIVE on this Build Your Own Dinner and we thrive even more on the leftovers all week.
frozen sweet potato fries + big bowl of fruit
Yes, we repeat this dinner and Sunday’s dinner on pretty much a weekly basis at this point. We loveeee the leftovers and these are two of our favorite dinners. But since they’re both so open-ended (and Build Your Own style), they don’t feel repetitive or boring to us. And we love Build Your Own style dinners because everyone’s happy - Brett the Adventurous Eater can have what he wants and Haley the Selective Eater can have what she wants, all while serving the same meal. But the minute we get tired of these, we’ll change it up - no big deal!
tuesday: veggie plate + costco pizza
see more about our tuesday dinner theme (and why we do this specific combo!) here
costco pizza
veggie plate + gooood ranch dressing
fruit
wednesday: quick, make ahead, or crockpot
my birthday!
have brett make quesadillas with the Sunday leftovers because that’s one of my favorite meals. to make it a special dinner, I’ll grab my favorite margarita mix and/or a big thing of queso from my favorite mexican restaurant. i’ll grab my favorite cupcakes from a nearby bakery, too.
here are my birthday traditions - the post has brainstorming questions to help create your own!
thursday: leftovers
friday: quick, make ahead, or crockpot
our favorite bbq sliders, but use crockpot bbq chicken
freeze half in these containers, like I talk about in this blogpost
use the bbq sauce in our pantry, and the slider rolls in our freezer. the first thing I do in my menu planning process is I check to see what we already have in our pantry/fridge/freezer. it’s the best starting point for me!
chips + fruit
saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones
baked potato bar
set out whatever leftovers are lurking around from dinners this week: leftover cheese, leftover onion, leftover bacon, leftover sour cream, leftover ranch dressing, leftover bbq chicken, leftover grilled chicken, etc.
whatever produce is still hanging around at this point in the week
maybe salad or raw veggies + leftover ranch, too
currently using
this white noise machine - always and forever.
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:
prep produce
prep some sort of dessert for the week:
see here why this is our new favorite thing for our marriage.
no baking this week - we’re picking up my favorite cupcakes for my birthday!
prep some things to make breakfasts/snacks/lunches smoother:
move some frozen mango/pineapple/cherries to mason jars in the fridge for KK like this
make my absolute favorite blueberry muffins and/or banana muffins and/or my favorite egg muffins (I omit the bacon out of personal preference for the yummiest cheesy egg bites)
freeze leftover muffins - see my list of favorite things to freeze here
prep ingredients for chocolate banana smoothie and/or favorite hidden cauliflower smoothie, if time/energy
aka I portion the frozen produce into these containers so that all I have to do in the morning is dump the contents into my blender and add liquid
see more about my daily smoothie routine here
make a big batch 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!
currently reading
finished when we believed in mermaids (an ebook on my phone i read here and there in moments of waiting - waiting for the oven to heat, waiting for the dentist, waiting for brett to be ready, etc. i am never without a book for this reason. ) and started the paper palace (via audiobook, thanks to my library cards and my libby app - audiobooks are squeezing so much joy into my days).
currently streamlining
our new, beautiful tuesday dinner theme giving us ALLLL the joy and rest!
my favorite freezer meal prep sessions are on sale until Monday! these sessions give you step-by-step directions on how to create six freezer meals for Future You and only take an hour - use Haley20 for an additional 20% off the sale price! hoping to start doing a session once a month, and I’m so excited.
currently loving
our thursday evening routine that everyone involved loves
our outdoor sensory tables - we have one for water, one for soil, and one for sand and we love them so, so much. read more about them here!
our favorite outdoor toys. we try to get outside after nap but before dinner, and our outdoor toys have been gems this week.
my ten favorite things right now: march edition
currently working on
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!
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.
