Foodies on the Go

Woohoo!! Well, everyone is back at school, work and sports. By some miracle, none of the rest of us caught COVID from Calli so we’ve been slowing getting back into the real world (and it’s exhausting). I’m 99% sure baseball will be canceled with this cold front that’s supposed to roll in so we “only” have swim this week, which is something. I spent all day yesterday making that smoked pork with bacon mac-n-cheese, brussels sprouts from the coop basket and baked potatoes and rolls – a much bigger ordeal than my usual meals. Since I’m still tired from all that, I’m trying to go super laid back this week but planned most our meals around what came in the coop basket. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Today – Superbowl Munchies – queso, guac, chips, meatballs, rolls, chicken nuggets, etc – basically anything I can throw out on the counter or in a crockpot so we can munch all game.

Tomorrow – Brent’s favorite, Oven Chicken Fajitas (yay for bell peppers and limes in the coop basket) maybe with a salad but probably not since Declan has catching from 3:30-4:30 and swim practice 7-8:30 (tapering for champs). Best thing about the oven fajitas is I can put it all otgether before I leave for all my running around and just have the oven turn itself on at 4:30 or have the girls put it in since they’re off Monday nights.

Tuesday – Chili with fritos. This is one of those nights when Declan eats before swim and the girls eat after so I usually try for a crockpot meal

Wednesday – Kielbasa with homemade sweet potato fries and/or baked potato (another night of back to back practices)

Thursday – Beef Stirfry with Sesame noodles since I got carrots, snap peas, mushrooms and broccoli from the coop.

Friday – Shepherd’s Pie to get ready for BB&slower Champs – Declan’s last meet of the season since he aged up to 11yo and lost all his A times. 🥺😢 The girls are swimming this to in some of their “off” events and then swimming A champs the following weekend in Arlington.

Saturday – Spaghetti because I’m out of sauce so I need to make fresh sauce with salad and garlic bread. The kids love it and it’ll give them enough good energy for the meet Sunday (and they can bring extra noodles in their thermoses to eat at the meet since it looks like the sessions are going to take FOREVER).

So this is one of those times when I can say I’m not totally insane to have a pantry and freezer stocked like we’re going to be snowed in for a month. Calli tested positive for COVID on Thursday so all of us are quarantined and she is isolated in her room. Thank goodness for Instacart and Amazon Prime and my well stocked pantry/freezer. We’re good for months if we need to be (but really really really hoping we don’t need to be). Anyway, here’s our plans for the week. They’re a little more fluid bc there’s a possibility the rest of us can go back to somewhat normal on Thursday. Plus with us all home, we can change our minds a little easier and there’s no practices to work around or have dinner ready before/after.

Sunday – Rotisserie Chicken (since I got Costco from Instacart), Risotto (from freezer), Green Beans and rolls

Monday – Steak, baked potatoes, corn and crescent rolls. This is Calli’s 13th birthday and she’s going to have to spend it in her room in isolation. Poor kid. We’re doing our best to make sure she at least has her favorite dinner.

Tuesday – Grilled Cheese and Soup – Tomato soup for Brent and I. Taco Soup for Lana and Declan and just the grilled cheese for Calli. Quick and easy and I have both soups in the freezer so that makes it even easiest.

Wednesday – Instapot Chicken Taco Bowls. I know I just made these a couple weeks ago, but they were such a big hit and so super easy. (Last day of quarantine for everyone except Calli, we hope, so I’m gonna scrub the house (again) top to bottom.)

Thursday – Free for all. Assuming everyone is well and tests negative, we’ll be back at practices and Declan is hitting the ground running with both baseball and swim practices. Plus Lana has 5am practice and will probably be asleep by the time Declan gets home at 9pm or close to asleep. Hopefully there’s enough leftovers earlier in the week.

Friday – Chicken Pot Pie because I’ve been craving it all week even though I know my family will complain.

Saturday – Smoked Pork Butt, loaded baked potatoes, salad (I have a huge pork butt in the freezer that I need to thaw and cook bc it’s taking up way too much room. Plus it’s great for leftovers now that our weeks are about to get super chaotice again.

Well, last week went better than the week before so I’m totally counting it as a win. We’re starting to get back in the groove of practices and school and all. We managed 5 of the 6 planned meals so that’s something, right? I really need to just plan on not actually getting around to half and then I’ll feel better about my 3 or 4 meals I get to. Anyway, this week is starting off rainy, but it’s supposed to be warm and sunny by tomorrow. I’m trying some new crockpot meals and recycling some meals we loved.

Tonight – Chicken Teryaki with Fried Rice (the meal we didn’t get to last week)

Tomorrow – Ham, mashed potatoes and salad (using up the last of the Christmas ham from the freezer)

Tuesday – Chicken Tacos/Taco Bowls in the crockpot. We have leftover black beans from Friday and rice so I’m gonna reuse it all

Wednesday – French Dip Sammies with salad

Thursday – Loaded Baked Potatoes with BBQ Pulled Pork (also from freezer)

Friday – Wings, Sweet Potato Fries

Saturday – Burgers and Hot Dogs

Happy birthday to my “baby” boy. He is so happy (almost all the time). He loves his family and friends so fully without reservation. He gives his all in everything he does whether it’s sports, school, art or music and is always working to get better and be better. So we are going to try to only have meals he likes this week.

I’m starting to think my meal plans are just entirely too optomistic. Including ordering Enzos, we managed to actually eat 3 of the 7 meals I planned last week. I also did make the chicken noodle soup which we had for lunch later in the week and froze. I’d like to blame my clogged sink drain on Wednesday and Thursday for totally throwing me off, but really I was just exhausted by Thursday in general. I did learn that Mondays and/or Thursdays are great for Instapot meals since we all eat early before Declan’s practices. Crockpot for Tuesday and Wednesday are ideal, but anything that reheats easily also works. Fridays should be the day I try new recipes and have plenty of time to cook, but some weeks I’m just too tired to do much more than frozen nuggets by then.

Anyway, here’s my yet again, entirely too optimistic plans for this week. Maybe I can at least get to 4 of them?

Tonight – Chicken and Bacon Alfredo
Tomorrow – Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes with Salad and Corn
Tuesday – Chili
Wednesday – Teryaki Chicken & Instapot Fried Rice
Thursday – Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Friday – Dr. Pepper Pork Tacos (like Costa Vida Pork), regular Tacos for kids, Frijoles Negros and plain white rice (Declan’s request for his birthday)
Saturday – Make Your Own Pizzas (for Declan’s birthday “party” – two friends from our “pod”)

Well, last week didn’t exactly go as planned. I neglected to take into account that two of the kids switched swim groups so now my kid who likes to eat early(ish) is 7-9pm and my kid who likes to eat alone is 5-7pm. Where I was doing dinner at 7:30 or 8pm most nights for 3-4 of us and Calli was happily eating by herself at 9, I’m now doing dinner at 5:30 or 6ish for most of us and the girls eat at 7:30 on the nights they have practice and Brent eats when he gets home on the days he goes into the office bc he’s not usually home by 5:30. Means a lot more crockpot and casseroles, I guess. This week’s plan is still trying to clean out the freezer some, but mostly is supposed to be easy meals since I am exhausted after the kids’ swim meet this weekend. Here’s what I’ve got. We’ll see if I do better than last week about actually cooking what I planned.

Tonight – Order Out! Yay for Enzos. Pizza and pasta and everyone is happy. Add in paper plates and there’s not even many dishes.

Tomorrow – Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup – I have two whole chickens in the freezer I’ve been meaning to cook forever. I figure if I simmer one all day to shred it up and then add the veggies, I’ll have plenty for dinner and plenty to freeze. (I always freeze the soup BEFORE I add the noodles because otherwise they get soggy.)

Tuesday – Beef Tips in Gravy in the crockpot over egg noodles with peas. It’s one the kids’ favorites and it works great in the crockpot when we have everyone coming and going around dinner time.

Wednesday – I’m trying this Instapot Chicken Taco Bowl recipe. Looks like it’ll be easy to reheat too as kids get home/hungry.

Thursday – Sausage Stuffed Shells (probably noodles with butter for the kids) with salad and garlic bread. Another new recipe to use up some italian sausage I have in the freezer. The girls don’t have practice on Thursday nights and Brent usually works from home so I’m hoping we can all eat together around 6 before Declan leaves.

Friday – Beef Lo Mein – I’ve been wanting to try this recipe that my friend gave me a year ago and just never found the time. Maybe I will this week if I’m actually still on track on Friday. It’s for Chicken but she made it with Beef when she brought it over one time and it was just amazing.

Saturday – BBQ Chicken Thighs (one of the recipes I didn’t make last week) with sweet potato fries and salad

Week of January 3, 2021

So I spent most of the last two days going through all our freezers to organize them and make a (long) list of everything we have. (Yes, I really do have three freezers.) After realizing we have enough food to feed us for a few months without much effort, I decided we really have to try to clean some of this out and eating what’s in there before I make more so the theme this week is Something From the Freezer (and I’m going to include the last couple days since I started on Friday).

Friday (New Years Day) – Cheesy Potato and Ham Casserole (from freezer), black-eyed peas, cornbread and salad (bc we don’t do cooked greens 🤢)

Saturday – Rotisserie Chicken (bc if I’m going to get Costco Instacart, I always get a rotisserie), Risotto, steam in bag peas and dinner rolls (everything from freezer except the chicken)

Sunday – Irish Stew (from freezer) over mashed potatoes with crescent rolls

Monday – Sticky Asian Wings, AirFryer Fries/Sweet Potato Fries (both bc the kids don’t like sweet potatoes), salad

Tuesday – Chili with Fritos, leftover salad

Wednesday – BBQ Chicken Thighs, baked potatoes, steam in the bag corn

Thursday – Potato Soup for the girls & whatever Declan requests bc they’re swimming a meet starting Friday

Friday – leftovers/free-for-all/whatever I didn’t actually cook

Saturday – Burgers and Hotdogs

Sunday – Pasta and Salad with Garlic Bread

Brrrrrr. It has been a cold weekend at baseball and it looks like a rainy cold week full of practices and chaos as always. We are definitely looking for some warm comfort food, but first I’m taking a night off. After a crazy couple of weeks, we are ordering take out tonight and I’m spending today watching baseball and planning.

Here’s Our Plan (details and recipes below):

• S – Take out/Delivery
• M – Potato Soup with Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
• T – Instapot Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya with Salad
• W – Free for All or Loaded Baked Potatoes
• Th – Ropa Vieja, Ms. Nancy’s Black Beans, Rice
• F – Make Your Own Pizzas
• S – Southwest Crunchy Chicken Wraps

Tomorrow, we’re having everyone’s favorite potato soup. I call it Mama’s Magic Potato Soup and we almost always have it before swim meets. Since I missed out making it for the last meet and it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, I figured it was the perfect make up day. Bonus, the girls actually have practice at the same time AND we only have to bring them home at 8:45 (which Brent can do) so I actually have time to make something real (unless Declan gets a swim practice added like the last few weeks…) I have to make a big giant pot of it because the girls will eat it for lunch (and dinner) for days if we let them. And some cheddar garlic biscuits to go with it. Nana would say we should have something green too…but I’m not feeling like cooking super healthy this week.

Tuesday, I’m using some sausage I cooked Friday and pulling some grilled chicken from the freezer for InstaPot Jambalaya. It’s quick and easy and spicy so maybe it’ll keep us warm. Depending on carpools and juggling, I hoping to make a salad to go with it.

Wednesday is almost always our free-for-all day. Lana’s exhausted from 5am practice, Calli has swim until 8:45 and Declan has swim 5:00-6:30 and then eats in the car on the way to baseball (7:30-9:00). If I’m planning right, we’ll have plenty of leftovers from tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday to choose from. If Declan gets rained out for baseball and we’re out of these leftovers, I’ll probably do loaded baked potatoes with BBQ chicken or creamy chicken noodle soup if my family isn’t too sick of soup by then. I love soup and could eat it every day, but I’m told sometimes I go a bit overboard.

Thursday’s are always all about the crockpot with yet 4 practices (Declan has swim and baseball) all at different times. This week we’re going all out for Declan with Ropa Vieja, Rice and “Ms Nancy’s Black Beans” (that I’ll make earlier in the afternoon). My friend, Nancy, and I joke that he’s her long-lost third son. There is nothing this kid loves more than Ms. Nancy’s Abuelita’s black beans. Seriously, he would eat those black beans and rice all day. And, of course, no matter how hard I try, canned black beans just never come out even close. So when I make “Ms Nancy’s Black Beans,” I make as big of a pot as I can and freeze in smaller batches just for Declan. I’ve never made Ropa Vieja, but I’m trying this recipe without olives (yes, I know that totally invalidates the Ropa Vieja but no one in our house will touch them). And then a quick pot of rice and we’re good. I’m hoping we like it since it’s kinda like beef stew or pot roast that we all love.

Friday we’re making our own pizzas. Lana’s off from practice (and doesn’t eat pizza) but Declan’s always exhausted after a long week and wanting to eat at 7 when he gets home rather than waiting for Calli at 9. I use still this recipe for the dough. Declan will have pepperoni but without the spicy sauce and Calli loves white pizza with garlic and spinach. Brent and I usually just grab a couple slices of each (or both), but maybe we’ll make our own this week if I have the energy.

Saturday, we’re going to have Southwestern, crunchy chicken wraps kinda like these. That’s something we can take with us to the baseball tournament if we have afternoon/evening games or just eat at home. Anyone who doesn’t want wraps will just have leftovers or sandwiches.

My kids can’t be the only ones who eat two “dinners” – one at 4ish and our real one at 9ish or whenever everyone is home, right? So I always try to plan ahead for lunches and that first dinner. I made a giagantic pot of chili yesterday. Since we had afternoon baseball games, I got it all thrown in the crockpot and it was hot and ready when we got home. After lunch today, there’s probably enough for lunches tomorrow if anyone wants it. Also, I’m going to make a big pot of tomato soup (which only Brent and I like) to restock the freezer since it’s his favorite. Plus I always order way too much when we order take out/delivery. Might as well have enough for a few lunches too, right?

After a seriously rough week last week (understandable), I’m determined to get my feet back under me today. I really do like to cook. I actually really don’t like to meal plan but even more I hate staring at the kitchen at 8pm with nothing to feed everyone or even to cook. I stock up at Costco on meat and raw ingredients, but it does me no good if I don’t take it out of the freezer early enough. This week we’re going with quick and easy as we all get used to the new routine with Calli back in school and Brent back at work full time.

Here’s our plan (details and recipes below)

• S – Grilled steak with bluecheese garlic butter, roasted red potatoes, salad
• M – Crunchy Parmigian Coated Chicken, baked potatoes and green beans
• T – Spaghetti with a salad and garlic bread
• W – Free for All
• Th – Crockpot Chicken Tacos, Black Beans and Rice
• F – Kielbasa, Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli
• S – Chili in Crockpot