3/27 menu plan

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

    • or I’ll do Copycat Chipotle Pinto Beans

  • mexican rice or copycat chipotle cilantro lime rice

  • plenty of mashed avocado + pinch of salt to taste

  • pico, queso*, shredded lettuce, salsa, crema, onion, cheese, etc

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

  • 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

• chicken caesar wraps (one of our go-to meals)

  • use leftover grilled chicken from Sunday

• frozen sweet potato fries + big bowl of fruit

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

  • bowl of fruit

wednesday: quick, make-ahead, or crockpot

• cheese tortellini in garlic basil sauce or sausage and cheese tortellini or tortellini + jarred sauce

• that garlic bread lurking in our freezer

• bowl of fruit

• roasted asparagus

  • or bagged salad with leftover ranch dressing

  • and/or roast whatever veggies we have laying around

  • and/or leftover grape tomatoes (with leftover ranch dressing?)

thursday: leftovers

friday: quick, make ahead, or crockpot

• trader joe’s mandarin chicken

• rice + fruit

• carrot fries

  • and/or blistered garlic green beans

  • and/or roast whatever veggies we have laying around

saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones

• friend’s birthday party!

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currently using

• my favorite cleaning products

• our egg slicer for kk’s hardboiled eggs

• my vitamins

• my weighted vest for neighborhood walks - this book and this post explain the benefits of doing a slowwwww daily walk with a weighted vest.

  • tldr: it allows your overused trap muscle - the one used to carry your head - to rest and release, among other benefits.

  • I often used to get horrible neck/back pain from all the time I spent looking downward - from all the baby stuff and cooking stuff and reading stuff and computer stuff and housework stuff and floral stuff and overall sitting with horrible posture stuff - until I started this routine.

  • **the vest is supposed to be less than 10% of your body weight, so mine is a 12 pound vest.

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.

• glazed lemon cookies

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

• slice lemons for hot lemon water

• make instant pot hard boiled eggs

  • or make scrambled egg + cheese quesadillas

  • or pull our favorite egg muffins from the freezer

• make a double batch of banana muffins, freeze leftovers

• 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!

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currently reading

nothing - my birthday was this past week and my normal rhythms took a bit of a back seat. :) excited to get back to reading this week!

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currently streamlining

• our evacuation bag + our emergency tub - gave both of these a quick little check this week thanks to Monday’s tornado watch and it reminded me how much peace of mind these two gems bring me. one of my favorite ways to take care of Future Haley!

  • yes, emergency preparedness can be overwhelming. but I believe something is better than nothing, and done is better than perfect. for me, the easiest place to start was adding a few gallons of water to my grocery order each week and investing in good lanterns we love. we were SO grateful for Past Haley when we lost both power and water that entire week of the 2021 Texas Ice Storm!

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currently loving

• this year’s Easter Baskets

• our outdoor slide - see our full list of favorite outdoor toys here!

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currently working on

• my cleaning schedule for March

• 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!

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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.

3/20 menu plan

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

  • mexican rice or cilantro lime rice

  • plenty of mashed avocado + pinch of salt to taste

  • pico, queso*, shredded lettuce, salsa, crema, onion, cheese, etc

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

  • 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

  • baked potatoes

  • 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

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currently using

• this white noise machine - always and forever.

• my favorite shorts of all 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!

---

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!

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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).

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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.

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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

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currently working on

• our favorite toys, books, and activities for march

• 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.

3/13 menu plan

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, tacos, tostadas, burrito bowls, my favorite bean and avocado bowl, 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

  • mexican rice or cilantro lime rice

  • plenty of mashed avocado + pinch of salt to taste

  • pico, queso*, shredded lettuce, salsa, crema, onion, cheese, etc

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

  • 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 wraps - probably brett’s favorite leftovers EVER

  • use grilled chicken from sunday

    • (or ritz cracker chicken or baked pretzel crusted chicken tenders)

  • set out tortillas, grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, red onion, shredded cheese, ranch dressing, caesar dressing, honey mustard dressing, etc

  • (we like to set out crushed croutons, too)

  • inspiration: chicken caesar wraps (one of our go-to meals), my favorite ranch wraps, honey mustard chicken wraps

• perfect oven roasted broccoli + comeback sauce (or one of the above dressings)

• and/or frozen french fries + big bowl of fruit

tuesday: veggies + costco pizza

• on tuesdays, kk and I swing by costco to fill up my car for the week. and then we head in costco to grab a pizza from the food court for dinner. while Friday Night used to be our night for takeout, we’re pausing that ritual to really trim down our budget (#inflation), so a Tuesday Costco pizza is our new weekly treat. :)

  • see this new blogpost for more on what I do when a routine is no longer working, and how I created our new routines and rhythms (like Costco pizza!!) for this current season of ours. the post is basically me thinking out loud about new routines/rhythms/priorities what my toddler and I need now that we’re entering the warmer months (and rising prices), so consider yourself warned.

• veggie plate + ranch dressing

  • Having a weekly pizza night gives me an excuse to set out some raw veggies since I’d like to be better about offering those - and it’s super quick to do. Any leftover raw veggies I’ll put in lunches or roast with another dinner!

• bowl of fruit

wednesday: quick, make ahead, or crockpot

• something with the Trader Joe’s Masala Simmer Sauce that’s been living in our pantry now for over a year. maybe let’s use up that can of chickpeas, too.

• rice + naan

• big bowl of fruit

thursday: leftovers

friday: quick, make ahead, or crockpot

• build your own breakfast tacos

  • use leftover toppings + tortillas from sunday
    

saturday: snack dinner saturday or dinner with loved ones

• we have a dear friend’s birthday party so we’ll eat there!

• this new blogpost talks about what I do when a routine is no longer working, and doing a weekly Takeout night was no longer working, especially given the rising prices of everything. but, by eliminating a weekly Takeout Night, we now have plenty of wiggle room in our limited eating out fund to enjoy special occasions, like eating burgers at a playscape to celebrate our dear little Teddy turning 1.

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currently using

• my stroller cooler

• my beloved eyelash serum + my beloved hair oil

  • here’s my current skincare + make-up routine

• my pool (and summer!) essentials for both myself and a toddler

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

• make comeback sauce

prep some sort of dessert for the week:

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

• lemon sugar cookies

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 banana oatmeal bread

• make a few breakfast quesadillas and/or freezer breakfast burritos

• 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

finishing i must betray you (so good!!!!!), and starting the paper palace.

I’ve started listening to audiobooks again, thanks to my airpods, my libraries, my libby app, and my audible subscription. it’s squeezing so much joy into my day!!

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currently streamlining

• our new meal rotation and our new dinner themes - needed a new rotation thanks to warmer weather, a more active toddler, and rising prices of…everything

• how I meal prep, how long I meal prep, and what I do if I don’t feel like meal prepping

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currently loving

• mason jar salads for Future Haley’s lunches!!!!

  • snack boxes, too!! (I love these divided glass containers)

• making lunches after dinner and repurposing some dinner leftovers for lunchboxes

• my newest blogpost on what I do when we need a change + when a routine is no longer working

• our easter baskets for this year

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currently working on

• something I do every march and september that takes care of us all year long

• 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.