Besides an unplanned McDonalds run on Sunday afternoon, I’m proud of this weeks meal planning. Especially since I didn’t overdo it with the grocery shopping and we had zero food waste. How did your family do last week?
Week of February 08-14
Grocery Shopping = $199.40
Monday morning TJ run ($149.08) for all the weekly staples. And a Sunday afternoon Target run to reload on diapers, cleaning supplies, Kings Hawaiian (my husband and toddler cannot get enough…), LaCroix, and coffee. ($50.32 for just the ‘grocery’ portion).
Take Out = $25.03
That embarrassing McDonalds run. But hey, McDonalds is delicious and indulging every once in a while doesn’t hurt.
Monday Lunch
Trader Joe’s frozen Indian dishes. My husband loves their lamb curry and I’m a huge fan of their chickpea masala. Paired with freshly made rice and naan (TJ sells naan too, I definitely do not make my own).
Monday Dinner
Oven roasted salmon with a simple green salad (shredded kale, tomatoes, and cucumbers with homemade balsamic dressing) and left over rice that was prepped from lunch. Today’s dinner was a complete sh*t show. Our toddler’s shrieking screams woke up our baby from his late afternoon nap. Which meant that the baby was super fussy at the table, to the point where food wouldn’t distract him. Which NEVER happens. Our toddler also lost her sh*t at the table. Listening to two kids scream and cry at the dinner table doesn’t make for a pleasant family dinner…
Tuesday Lunch
Left over salmon and left over salad plus a bowl of chicken noodle soup I prepared yesterday morning. My husband opted for a bowl of soup plus two deli sandwiches. Another U Pick 2, here at the Boxer household!
Tuesday Dinner
Left over lamb chops and potatoes from Saturday nights dinner. I roasted a fresh batch of green beans with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Nothing fancy, but it worked. Today was also the day the dining room table we ordered from West Elm was finally, finally, finally delivered!
Wednesday Lunch
It snowed another few inches overnight, so in lieu of an outdoor walk, the baby and I took a 65+ minute stroller walk inside the mall before most of the stores opened, along with all the other winter-mall-walkers. Decided to grab take-out CPK before heading home. I ordered my favorite roasted vegetable salad for me and a five cheese & tomato pizza that my husband and the baby split. With tip it came out to $39.16 but I used a gift card we were generously given from friends when Ezra was born. Nearly 8 months later, finally using it.
Wednesday Dinner
The baby took an epic nap. I managed to squeeze in an at home barre workout and had enough time to pan sear three pounds of chicken breasts — huge win! These were portioned out for three nights worth of dinners (tonights, Fridays, and Sundays). I paired it with a tomato-shallot-balsamic-butter pan sauce, roasted broccoli (saved a portion for Sundays dinner too), and boxed mac & cheese. No meltdowns tonight!
Thursday Lunch
Everyone had chicken noodle soup. My husband paired it with two deli sandwiches and I had a hodgepodge mix of leftover rice, sautéed spinach, and a hardboiled egg. After lunch, my toddler and I baked a dozen homemade donuts while the baby napped. It was a lot of fun. We decided to go with pink, red, and white heart shaped sprinkles for Valentines Day.
Thursday Dinner
I made an extra large batch of vodka pasta sauce (frozen it for the next few weeks!) and meatballs. Such a wonderful and warm meal with red wine on a snowy night.
Friday Lunch
Another chicken noodle soup and sandwich day.
Friday Dinner
I like to let our toddler pick out the color of the candles we use for shabbat. This week, she chose orange. We had chicken breasts with tomato-shallot-butter pan sauce plus green beans, both items prepped earlier this week. While these were reheating in the oven, I whipped up a batch of jasmine rice.
Saturday Lunch
It snowed last night and all this morning, so we decided to make pancakes, eggs, and bacon for a late breakfast. Which meant a late light lunch. My husband and baby killed off the vodka pasta and meatballs, I had a salad, and the toddler had a PB&J.
Saturday Dinner
I had left over scallions from two weeks ago (that miraculously survived in a gallon-sized freezer ziplock bag), and a TON of broccoli from a Costco run last week — so I cooked up an old favorite, Beef with Broccoli. I made a fresh batch of brown rice.
Sunday Lunch
Since we didn’t leave the house all day yesterday, we decided to take the kids to the Myseum (an awesome and super underrated science museum) for a morning activity. There happens to be a McDonalds in the same plaza as the Myseum. The Myseum happens to boast small section of tables for families to have snack / lunch breaks. Which is awesome, because St. Louis County still doesn’t allow eating inside. And because literally every other family was eating McDonalds, we said f*ck it and got ourselves lunch too.
Sunday Dinner
Killed off the last of the chicken breast with tomato-shallot-butter pan sauce, broccoli that was oven roasted earlier this week as well, and finished off rice from the last two days. I love Sundays because it’s ‘clean out the fridge’ night. Any leftover side dishes get eaten tonight or rotated in for lunch the following week.
Mom Tip: storing leftovers in glass containers makes for a very, very easy reheating process. I heat our oven to 400-degrees, remove the lids, put the glass containers directly on the oven racks, set timer for 18-24 minutes (according to whatever the dish is). Once items are heated up, I let the glass containers cool on the stove top, and serve everyones plates from there. EASY!