Foodies on the Go

I’m exhausted and I honestly couldn’t tell you why. Yes, the kids had both a swim meet and a baseball tournament this weekend, but I didn’t have to do much for either other than get the kids’ ready at the right times for swim and go to baseball. Maybe it’s that I didn’t sleep well last night. Maybe it’s that Lana is injured and tried to swim (but didn’t succeed) so I worried about her while I was at the baseball. Maybe I just didn’t sleep well. Either way, I’m just not feeling this meal planning today. I made a plan just bc I knew I’d be mad at myself if I didn’t have any food tomorrow and I need to do the shopping. I totally will probably change my mind tomorow when I’m a bit more coherent so I’ll let you all know how it all plays out. Here’s my current plan:

Today – Pizza and Pasta from Enzos
Tomorrow – Tamales (from Costco), black beans and rice
Tuesday – Chicken Noodle Soup (supposed to be a cold front) with crusty bread and salad
Wednesday – Red Beans and Rice probably with Kielbasa (bc that’s what I have in the freezer)
Thursday – Salisbury Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Salad (maybe trying a new crockpot recipe)
Friday – Smoked Ribs and Pork Butt (bc if I’m going to fire up the smoker, I’m cooking a ton) with red potatoes and brussels sprouts
Saturday – Whatever I don’t cook?

So despite last week’s meal plan, there’s still so much in our freezers. So we’re going to have some more from the freezer and some I’m cooking fresh. Next weekend we have a swim meet for all three kids and a baseball tounament for Declan so I’m trying to cook enough to last us through that without too much work since everyone will be exhausted. Here’s what I’m hoping for:

Today – Grilled Chicken, Rice and Corn (after TEBA baseball games)
Monday – Smoked Pork and Brisket (from freezer), loaded baked potatoes, salad
Tuesday – Irish Stew with Mashed Potatoes
Wednesday – Chicken Tacos (crockpot)
Thursday – Potato Soup (because swim meet)
Friday – Spaghetti (after the girls swim)
Saturday – probably leftovers since we have baseball and swim

Somehow I’ve managed to stock my freezer more full than ever and I have no room for any more. I don’t have much raw meat or ingredients, but have a ton of fully prepped meals. So this week is literally, everything out of the freezer week (except today for Easter). Here’s what we’ve got:

Tonight – spiral ham, potatoes au grautin, brussel sprouts, crescent rolls

Tomorrow – meatball subs for Brent, Declan and me. Baked Potato with leftover rotisserie chicken for the girls

Tuesday – Beef/Chicken Tacos (probably both since I have both in the fridge) with mix Mex rice and black beans

Wednesday – Chicken & Bacon Pasta Alfredo with a salad and garlic bread

Thursday – free for all/leftovers? or maybe cheesy potatoes and ham if the kids don’t complain since we’re having ham today

Friday – Loaded Baked Potatoes with smoked pork and ribs and corn on the cobb (I’m smoking them fresh even though we have pork in the freezer bc ribs were on great sale at Kroger this week. It’s the only raw meat I will buy until I can get some space in one of these freezers.)

Saturday – Take out (probably Indian) for my birthday. Kids are on their own.

So Declan’s baseball team came into today’s bracket as the lowest seed. They played 4 games in 11 hours and ended up winning the whole thing. This means I’m both exhausted and excited tonight so all our meals are going to be super easy and brainless.

Here’s what we’ve got on the plan so far:

Tonight – Free for all – leftover chili maybe?

Tomorrow – Spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. (Brent’s going to be away overnight and the rest of us love pasta!)

Tuesday – Pulled Pork (from the freezer), baked potatoes and corn on the cobb

Wednesday – Tacos

Thursday – Rotisserie Chicken, mashed potatoes and corn (I’m getting my second vaccine so I don’t know how I’ll be feeling by dinner time)

Friday – Pizza (ordering Enzos)

Saturday – Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken with Rice and stir fry veggies

Sunday – Spiral Ham with all the fixings.

After an amazing week with Nana, we are going to have to try hard to get back into the routine this week. We have so many leftovers and more in the freezers. I’m not sure Nana is used to this much food everywhere. Hahaha. We do still have plenty in the freezers and fridge, but I figured we need to get organized for this week with swim practices starting back and a baseball tournament this weekend. Who knows how much I’ll actually manage to make, but I’m being optimistic this week…

Here’s what I’ve got:

Tonight – Chicken Tikka Masala (from Costco) with rice and naan for Nana, me and Brent. Frozen nuggets for the kids also with rice and naan because they’re picky.

Tomorrow – Chicken Pot Pie with some leftover chicken from last Tuesday that I froze

Tuesday – Beef Tips with Gravy in the crockpot over egg noodles with salad bc Nana flies out on Tuesday and everyone has swim practice

Wednesday – Italian Wedding Soup (if I have any energy) with garlic bread. Thinking about trying this recipe but I have some chicken meatballs in the fridge that I need to use up

Thursday – Chicken & Stuffing in Crockpot, mashed potatoes, green beans

Friday – Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad

Saturday – again depends on baseball but maybe hamburgs and hotdogs or maybe take out or whatever I didn’t make earlier in the week?

Woohoo!! Nana is here. Writing this post a little late bc I was all wrapped up in getting ready for Nana’s visit. This is the first time she sees the kids in over a year. It will be so hard without Pop, but the kids are over the moon excited. This week’s plan is a little more ambitious than usual if only because we’re on Spring Break both from school AND swim so we just have a couple baseball practices to work around. It’s going to be weird being home almost every night, but hopefully I can do some restocking of the freezers for our crazy weeks to come. Here’s what we got so far:

Sunday – We’re grilling burgers and hot dogs. It’s quick and easy and I’m cleaning for Nana’s visit.

Monday – Pork Tostadas from Hello Fresh (tacos for the kids). I accidentally forgot to “skip a week” on my Hello Fresh. I rarely get them but I keep my account open for when I’m in a rut and just skip every week…until I forget. They were good so we’ll definitely make them again

Tuesday – Grilled chicken with risotto and bacon mac-n-cheese (from freezer) and green beans because NANA is HERE!

Wednesday – Shepherd’s Pie for St. Patrick’s Day. (I voted for Irish stew, but kids and Brent wanted the Shepherd’s Pie)

Thursday – Instapot Taco Bowls so Nana can see how our Instapot works and decide if she wants one.

Friday – Take Out/Frozen Nuggets/whatever

Saturday – Egg Roll in a Bowl (aka Sesame Soy Pork bowls)

Sunday – Smoked Pork Butt, slaw, baked potatoes and corn on the cobb. We might smoke a brisket too so we can reload the freezer with the meat. This is great for crazy nights bc it heats up fast in the oven or microwave and can go on buns for sammies or baked potatoes quick and easy

We have finally almost made it to Spring Break. Three and a half more days for these kiddos. Swim starts their Break on Wednesday too so we’ll only have baseball practices. I’m not sure we know what to do with ourselves with such a quiet schedule. Sorry this post is a day late, we had a (great) long day at the baseball field yesterday where Declan’s team came in second in their first tournament of the season. (Yay!)

So today has been cleaning and catching up on all the stuff that didn’t get done over the weekend. It helps that the kids are off for a teacher workday so at least we could sleep in a little and get back used to these Mondays after long weekends. Here’s our plan this week which I totally see changing bc I’m too tired to think right now.

Yesterday (Sunday) – Free for all since Declan, Brent and I didn’t get home until well after 8.

Today (Monday) – Tacos/Taco Salad. I still have a ton of those salad fixings and that’s easy for everyone to eat whenever they’re hungry and/or home

Tomorrow – Cheesy Potato and Ham Casserole with salad (which I already have made in the freezer for a very easy dinner)

Wednesday – Chicken and Bacon Tortellini Alfredo with (yes) salad

Thursday – Homemade Pizzas

Friday – Salisbury Steaks, mashed potatoes and green beans (can you guess which day we don’t have practice?)

Saturday – Who knows? Maybe take out?

Well, this week is definitely going to be a little nuts. The kids all are swimming a meet today. The girls are at one and Declan’s at a different one so we’re juggling a lot. Then swim will start to wind down for a couple weeks as short course season wraps up and baseball is ramping up with Declan’s first tournament next weekend. This week’s meals are quick and early even more than usual.

Tonight – Free For All – We have leftover jambalaya, potato soup, pizza and meatballs so everyone can have whatever they want.

Tomorrow – Rotisserie Chicken (if I can find one at Costco), wild rice and salad

Tuesday – Chili (from the freezer) with leftover salad and fritos, of course

Wednesday – Oven Fajitas, cuban black beans, mix mex rice (instapot) (I’m cooking early and double so I can bring dinner to a friend before our evening gets crazy)

Thursday – Chicken Florentine Pasta – I’m starting with this recipe and but using leftover rotisserie chicken.

Friday – Meatball Subs (requested by Declan to get fill up before baseball) with green beans and fries (homemade or frozen depending on how tired we are by then)

Saturday – Burgers and Hot Dogs, bacon mac-n-cheese from freezer and salad depending what time our pool games are

Sunday – Probably Spaghetti or Take Out depending on how long we play

So those snow storms hit last week just like they were planning. We had rolling blackouts where we only had power for 30-45 minutes at a time, dripping faucets that we were lucky didn’t freeze and no wifi which was beyond frustrating both for Brent who was trying to work and the kids who were trying to occupy themselves. Needless to say, we made whatever meals we could cook on the gas cooktop or in the airfryer in our 30 minutes of power so I’m taking a lot of what I planned on last week and making it this week (assuming I can find what I need at the stores).

Saturday (today) – Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole with rice and salad (hopefully)

Sunday (tomorrow) – Meatloaf (which I have in the freezer) with mashed potatoes and green beans

Monday – Jambalaya in the Instapot (depending on if we have swim practices and when we have swim practices)

Tuesday – Smoked Pork Sliders (from freezer) with Mac-N-Cheese and Loaded Baked Potatoes with Smoked Pork (Declan will want the sliders and the girls prefer baked potatoes and it’s easy enough to make both). Tuesdays Declan eats at 5:30 or 6 before practice and the girls eat at 7:30 after their practice.

Wednesday – White Chicken Chili in the crockpot because we have another overlapping practice night

Thursday – Free For All or Leftovers – Declan races from batting practice to swim on Thursdays so he eats in the car and the girls are usually exhausted from 5am practice wanting to eat early

Friday – Potato Soup since the girls’ A Champs meet was moved to next weekend

Saturday – Burgers and Hot Dogs or Free for All since Declan is swimming the make up day Sunday for the Heart Racer that got snowed out and the girls are swimming their second day of A Champs.

Well, we’re either going to get snowed in for an eternity or we’re not and everyone will laugh at me. Either way, I did my meal planning and shopping a little early this week just in case (which probably means we won’t get any snow, of course).

Sunday – Probably Ham and Cheese stuffed Chicken with rice and salad (Usually Brent and I do something nice for Valentine’s day like lobster tails or steaks, but between the weather predictions and the swim meet I think we’ll tone it down this year.)

Monday – Chicken Marsala (assuming those mushrooms are still good) or some kind of Creamy Garlic Chicken thing with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts (which are now frozen)

Tuesday – French Dip Sammmies bc everyone loved them and we have all the ingredients at home with chips or fries or whatever sides I have left

Wednesday – White Chicken Chili that my friend, Krista Recommended. New experiment.

Thursday – Potato Soup because the girls have a meet starting Friday

Friday – Free For All/Take Out bc the girls will be swimming in Arlington all weekend so we’ll be going back and forth a lot