What's on our plates this week

Whenever I make the menu for the week the first thing I do is take a look at what activities we have going on. This was something that bit me in the rear end last week! I just made the menu last week and it was hard to get some of the dinners in before we had to leave for things. This is what our week looks like this week:
1. Ryan gone for a few nights
2. My mom coming for a night
3. Baseball game that we will have to leave the house at 5pm to get there in time
4. leaving to go visit Ryan's parents

Ok so when I see that here is how I interpret it for the menu:
1. we can basically eat whatever we can find around the house and freezer. This helps me clean out old items that need to be eaten. I don't have these days very often because I really like to have a meal on the table for Ryan (and all of us, really) after a long day of work and school.
2. I like to fix good meals for my mom when she is here. It is my way of saying thank you for all those meals she served me.
3. Whatever I fix this night (which happens to be the night mom is here so I want it to be good:) plus it needs to be good food for Chase to help him last through the game) it needs to be either fast or easy to prepare ahead of time.
4. Yay, for going to visit others! I don't have to fix anything or buy any groceries for these few days!! I do however try hard to plan a meal that can be quickly fixed or thrown in the oven on Sunday when we get home. There is nothing worse than driving home to find you have nothing to eat and you have to go grocery shopping.

So now I start planning:

Monday- Eat out of the fridge/freezer/pantry night
Tuesday - Country club chicken casserole with asparagus on the side
Wednesday - Enchiladas with rice
Thursday - leftover night
Friday/Saturday/Sunday - Country club chicken casserole....I don't normally do this but hey I can make double on Tuesday afternoon and stick it in the freezer. Then it will be ready on Sunday.

Meal planning takes a couple weeks (or months) to get control of. And as much as I have learned and know, there are some weeks that just sneak up on me. I am hoping to have a stock my freezer weekend in a couple weekends. Between baseball and end of school stuff that is quickly on the horizon, I know having some meals that are ready to go will help us stay on track! Another trick that I do quite a bit is having a Papa Murphy's pizza (or two) in the freezer. I really do like P.M.'s for a quick dinner. They even have little pizza kits for the kids. I pull those out when we are having something that I know they won't like.

My grocery bill this week was $90 between Aldi's and Hyvee. And really it was about $50 but with Easter being this weekend, we splurged a little for dinner tomorrow night. We are having yummy fajitas with black beans!! Throw in a cute Easter bunny cake, I just love holidays!!


Here are my kiddos last Easter. I can't wait to take some pics tomorrow to show just how big they are getting. I love watching them grow!

I hope everyone has a Hoppy Easter!