Y'all I am LOVING cooking at home!!!

So how is it going?

Actually pretty well!  I'm as shocked as anyone else!  Let's recap the first week!

We've had....

Monday - Spaghetti Pie
Tuesday - Omlettes
Wednesday - Cheeseburger Pie, Green beans and carrots
Thursday - Poppyseed chicken and salad (minus the salad)
Friday - FOOTBALL!  We ate at Chic Fil A
Saturday - Steak and mashed potato (we switched next Sat and this Saturday because we didn't have kids that night)
Sunday - Pot Pie

As I'm typing this all out I realize I must have a thing for "pie" in all forms.  I have tried to plan my meals based on how crazy my afternoons will be.  Mondays normally we are all home so I can cook something that may take more prep etc.  Tuesday the kids both had soccer practice at 5 and 6.  Matt and I didn't get home with the kids to even start dinner on Tuesday until after 7.  Matt threw the kids in the tub for a quick scrub down while I quickly made omlettes.  I love the versatility here because they are super quick to make and can be customized super easy to kids who don't like meat or cheese or whatever.  (Tip - bake an entire package of bacon in the oven one day when you have some extra time and fry an entire tube (yuck that sounds gross to write) of sausage like ground beef on the stove top.  Put these in seperate freezer bags and throw them in the freezer.  I use this for pizza toppings and omlette stuff when needed or breakfast casserole when I need it quick.  Wednesday is a day I usually have more time too.

Croc pot sitting out and ready for tomorrow to throw in chicken to cook all day for chicken spaghetti

My quick trick for anything that involves chicken in a casserole (ex. poppyseed on Thursday) - in the morning I throw approx 4 frozen chicken breast into the croc pot before I leave in the morning with nothing else.  I turn it on low and when I come home at the end of the day I have chicken that shreds itself when I try and pull it out of the croc pot.  I dump it from the croc pot into a casserole dish and mix the other ingredients and top the chicken and my supper prep is 5-7 minutes depending on children interference.

Friday nights are usually football games!  Woo hoo glad we got the W this week!

Leftovers packed and ready for Matt's lunch

* I feel fantastic knowing that I've cooked 6 out of 7 nights for my family this week.
* I absolutely LOVE having stuff for basically an entire month in my fridge and freezer so it allows me to switch and make adjustments as needed and I already have all ingredients on hand.
* Matt is loving the leftovers for lunch - which is great because he has typically never taken leftovers, and never brought back his containers to re-use.  He has done both this week!  Bonus he even sent me sweet texts telling me how good his leftover lunches were!  Yay!
* Having the gigantic menu calendar in my kitchen helps keep me on track, remember what I planned and helps keep me focused when I could easily say EHHHHH let's eat out.  I look up there and remember the plan!

So far so good - we'll see how week 2 goes!

My personal dog swiffer ready to clean up any crumbs or enjoy any unused leftovers!