Our stores are getting caught up, or perhaps people are buying less, but we are getting more of what we order at the store. Not everything but more. Hopefully all of you are having an easier time as well.

Here is our very simple meal plan for this week

Monday – waffles

Tuesday – Philly cheesesteak we add peppers to this sandwich because our kids love them

Wednesday – Crescent Chicken Rolls These are left over shredded chicken rolled up in a crescent roll, topped with cream of mushroom soup and cheese. Baked at 350°F for about 30 minutes.

Thursday – hash brown soup

Friday – spaghetti Here’s a recipe for sauce if you need it

Saturday – hamburger gravy

Sunday – grilled cheese and tomato soup

I don’t know how helpful this will be when stores are out of so many things and we all have to plan around what we can find. Maybe something here will help spark an idea for someone or help them use what they have on hand.

Monday – pancakes Since we have been having trouble finding meat I am trying to find things that don’t use it.

Tuesday – chicken stir fry If I can’t get chicken we’ll just do a vegetarian stir fry with frozen veggies and rice. No recipe needed for this just fry up the chicken and veggies and make rice.

Wednesday – Salisbury steak. This is a favorite of my kids so I am willing to use some of the meat we can get for this meal. This isn’t the recipe I use but ours is from a copyrighted cookbook.

Thursday – baked macaroni and cheese. This is another kid favorite. This recipe does take some time but it’s worth it.

Friday – ravioli We will just be using frozen ravioli and jarred spaghetti sauce. Not especially healthy but definitely kid friendly and easy.

Saturday – Chili and cornbread This is something we can leave the meat out of if we can’t get it.

Sunday – Sloppy Joes We made this recipe for the first time a couple weeks ago and everyone loved it! I liked that there were some veggies in it and the kids ate them. They all voted it better than canned.

So, that’s our plan. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Eat well and take care of yourself.

We have decided we are going to cook on the weekends and freeze most of it to use throughout the week. We’ll just pull from the freezer each night. I am planning to also do one Instant Pot meal a week. Our adult daughter is usually here on the weekends to help me get all that cooking done. The other girls are learning to cook or not mature enough yet to learn.

I am linking similar recipes to what I use but they may not be the exact same thing I am making.

Monday – Instant Pot roast beef

We will have ours with potatoes and carrots. I am making two of these and will use the second one for BBQ beef sandwiches for lunch one day.

Tuesday – Sausage and Rice

This is one of my kids’ very favorite recipes. They request this often.

Wednesday – Hamburger Casserole

This one is for my husband. It’s quick, easy and makes the family happy. We have church on Wednesday nights so we eat dinner early and something quick to prepare is necessary.

Thursday – Baked Ziti

The recipe I use is from the Frozen Assets cookbook but the one linked above looks really yummy. We have also just used jarred spaghetti sauce and noodles. This one is going in the freezer.

Friday – Lasagna

This is another freezer meal. We love lasagna but I don’t always have the time on a week night to make it so freezing it ahead means we can enjoy it any night of the week.

Saturday – Crescent Chicken

We use left over chicken for this and just wrap it in the crescent rolls. I don’t use the cream cheese in mine. We roll these up and freeze them. Then top them with cheese when there’s a few minutes of bake time left.

Sunday – Chicken and Dumplings

I love soups in the winter. They make me feel warm and cozy. Right now we have a bit of illness running through the kids so some chicken soup will be something they can eat.

This week we start back to regular activities with the kids now that Christmas break is over. Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday evenings we have kids in activities so that affects our meal plan.

Monday – waffles

This is my daughter’s favorite dinner and she chose it for her birthday but didn’t get to have it that day so I have added it to this week.

Tuesday – sloppy joes

These are something quick that I can make before my daughter leaves for her gymnastics class and my husband goes to the gym.

Wednesday – Italian chicken

This is a pretty quick dinner that I can get finished before the kids go off to dance classes or church services. I try to trim the chicken earlier in the day then throw it in the oven at dinner time. If you’re not home during the day you could get it ready the night before.

Thursday – scalloped potatoes and ham

My birthday is Friday when we do pizza and a movie so I’ve decided to have one of my favorite dinners the night before. We put the ham in the potatoes but you could have them separate as well.

Friday – pizza subs

We buy sub buns, pizza sauce, cheese and toppings and everyone gets to make their own sub. We bake them for about 10 minutes in 350°F oven until the cheese is melted. The little kids love being able to make their own sub!

Saturday – Salisbury steak

This is a favorite of our boys. They love burgers! The recipe I use is from the Frozen Assets cookbook that I got years ago. That cookbook is intend for cooking ahead and freezing meals so the recipes are intended to make more than one dinner and serve the number of people we are serving every night. I don’t freeze the meals or divide them now. I just use them as written

Sunday – Hash Brown Soup

I found this online about 15 years ago and it’s a family favorite as well. It’s basically a cheesy potato soup made with frozen hash brown potatoes.

I am not feeling well today so this menu has been chosen by my children. Other than the Instant Pot dinner (because we just got the Instant Pot at Christmas) these are some of their favorite things to eat. Most of them also happen to be quick and easy to make which is a plus when you’re a busy parent.

Breakfast and lunch menus will be the same as last week. We stick with those for at least a month. So this week I am just listing dinners.

Monday – tacos

These a quick and easy and my family loves them! We make both hard and soft shells since a couple of my kids have braces.

Tuesday – Swedish meatballs – this is a Crock-Pot dinner. Tuesdays are full of activities that the kids are involved in so we don’t usually get to eat together. Having something that’s hot and ready whenever we are is a necessity.

Wednesday – ravioli Here’s a recipe for anyone who wants to make their own. You don’t need a pasta maker to do this.

Wednesdays are church nights for us so I’ll be using frozen ravioli this week.

Thursday – Instant Pot chicken breasts

This looks so yummy! As I mentioned, we are new to using an Instant Pot so all of the IP recipes are new to us as well.

Friday – pizza

Friday nights are family nights at our house.  We make our own pizza crust (or calzones) on Fridays and have pizza and a movie or game night. In the summer we cook out or cook on the fire instead of having pizza.

I will share our recipe in the next post.

Saturday – meatloaf

I like to serve this on the weekends because it takes over an hour to get it on the table.

Sunday – chicken and dumplings

This is my very favorite soup! If we don’t want to make homemade dumplings, we use store bought biscuits from the dairy section and just pull them apart to make dumplings. We also do that if I’m teaching one of the kids how to make this. They can learn to make homemade dumplings later when they have more experience.

Have a great week everyone!

• 2 – 8 oz. PKG. Cream cheese, softened
• 2 C shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 PKG. Zesty Italian dressing mix
• 1 C diced pepperoni (We just tear it by hand)
• Grated Parmesan

1. Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl. We use our Bosch mixer.
2. Add pepperoni and mix well.
3. Shape into ball or other desired design (e.g. football, snowman, etc.)
4. Roll in grated Parmesan.
5. Chill until served.

Dec. 30, 2019 – Jan. 5, 2020

This meal plan is free for your personal use.

Monday – breakfast: cereal

lunch: tuna sandwiches

dinner: Mexican chicken

Tuesday – breakfast: cinnamon roll oatmeal

lunch: quesadillas and salsa

dinner: Traditional Junk Food Dinner – we generally do a dinner of appetizers on New Year’s Eve. I will be sharing our cheese ball recipe in a later post. 

Wednesday – breakfast: cereal

lunch: pizza muffins 

dinner: sausage and sauerkraut

Thursday – breakfast: scrambled eggs and bacon

lunch: sloppy joes, fries and broccoli

dinner: Instant Pot Goulash

Friday – breakfast: cereal

lunch: hot dogs

dinner: pizza 

Saturday – breakfast: pancakes

lunch: egg salad sandwiches

dinner: fried chicken

Sunday – breakfast: blueberry muffins

lunch: grilled cheese

dinner: chilli and cornbread