Hey everyone! I’m excited to talk about my meal plan this week. Why? Well…because I finally planned out our meals for the month. But I did more than that. I made it a priority to grocery shop on Friday and actually purchased all of the ingredients I needed to make-ahead most our meals. Yay!
I spent most of Monday prepping dinners, will continue with dinners today, and finish with some breakfast recipes. If I have it in me – and I hope I do – I want to make some sweets treat to have in the freezer too. I don’t have a huge freezer anymore so I need to get creative with the space I have.
After I complete my month stock up I’ll share a post with all the recipes along with some tips. Until then I’ll share what I’ve done in this meal plan post.
Ok here’s a quick look into the meals I made yesterday. I started with basic family favorites I know my kids love.
I made 4 tacos kits. All I did was brown up 4lbs of ground beef, added taco seasoning, and after it was cooled divided the taco meat among 4 quart-size freezer bags. Then I put a small bag of cheese (about 1 cup) and 6 soft shell tortillas into each bag. I’ll just need hot sauce, shredded lettuce, plain greek yogurt, and salsa the night we eat tacos. Typically, I have all of that on hand anyway.
I also made 4 pizza kits. I make pizza once a week in my house. Its easy and since I control the ingredients it’s healthier than take-out – not to mention cheaper too. I used to make my own pizza dough but since my bread machine broke I’ve been purchasing fresh dough from Wegmans. It’s inexpensive and delicious so I haven’t felt a strong need to buy another bread machine just yet – although I do miss it. Btw my bread machine was actually my mom’s she bought in the 1990s soooo it lived a good life! It was a Sunbeam.
Next we have meatball sub kits. The only thing I needed to cook in this kit were the meatballs which are super easy to make. I purchased Rao Marinara sauce from BJs. It’s delicious, high quality, and super cheap at BJ’s. I poured half the jar into a quart size bag. Then I included a small bag of shredded mozzarella. I put all of that, along with the meatballs, into a gallon size bag.
Then I made a Buffalo quesadilla kit. Think these buffalo subs but in quesadilla form. My plan was to make two kits but for some reason I only made enough chicken for one.
If I have any chicken leftover I’ll throw into one of the two macaroni and cheese “in a bag” meals I made.
This is where I got creative. Typically, I cook the macaroni and cheese ahead of time, portion it out, and freeze . Or I will assemble and then freeze in these containers. However, since I don’t have a lot of room in my freezer I decided to assemble the mac and cheese and then pour it into 2 gallon size freezer bags. I laid it flat and once the recipe was frozen I stacked the bags. I’m not gonna lie I was nervous to lie the bags flat because all I could see was macaroni and cheese sauce oozing all over my freezer but it worked great. No mess.
The last thing I did was take all the leftover frozen fruit, ripe bananas, and some frozen cucumber chunks I had and made 5 smoothie kits. Based on the ingredients I had I made a smoothie recipe similar to my detox smoothie.
Today I’m going to make 1-2 new skillet kits, oatmeal, and possibly some breakfast burritos.
That’s what’s in my freezer and here’s what I’m eating this week.
Breakfast
Make-ahead tips
- Smoothies kits are in the freezer.
Lunch
Quinoa Black Bean Salad – new recipe
Make-ahead tips
- Salad was made yesterday.
- Bacon will be made today for the wraps.
Dinner
Homemade Pizza
Tacos
Sausage and Mushroom Pasta Pot – new recipe
Leftovers
Make-ahead tips
- MB sub, pizza, and taco kits are in the freezer.
- Pasta dish will be made today.
Snack Options
Apple and Peanut Butter
Greek Yogurt
Cheese sticks
Hummus and Crackers
I’m going to put together a post on once a month meal planning. Let me know your questions if you have any.
Reanna says
How do you reheat the prepared meat?