We are sticking with a really simple meal plan this week — and 4 of the meals are coming from Blue Apron because I did a live unboxing video review for them on Facebook and they sent me some extra boxes to prep for that.
This week is our first week where we have school + swimming for Kathrynne 4 days per week, baseball for Silas on 2 days, and skating for Kaitlynn 4 days per week. We’ve been slowing easing into the routine of school + being in downtown Nashville for skating four afternoons per week, so adding on baseball and swimming in downtown Nashville four evenings per week should go okay.
Kathrynne is still undecided whether she wants to continue on with swim team during the school year since it’s a lot of extra hours in addition to her school load. Swim team practices are downtown Nashville and don’t get done until 7:30 p.m. and then there’s a 30-45 minute drive back home, depending upon traffic.
She loves swimming but we don’t want her to be too tired to really apply herself in school and we also want her to have some breathing room in her daily schedule, too. So we’re letting her make the ultimate call, but we’re testing the waters this week to see how it feels and if it’s too much or not.
Jesse and I both love how much character and confidence having a sport that you really apply yourself to breeds, but we also want to be wise and not overwhelm our kids or keep their schedules too full. So we’ll see how it all shakes out after we try it this week.
We’re planning to prep all our dinners ahead — with Jesse taking care of the 4 Blue Apron meals and I’ll be in charge of the other 3 dinners — so that there is good food ready to eat on busy nights.
Breakfasts
Breakfasts are a big deal at our house. Not necessarily because of what we eat, but because this is the one meal we've committed to eat together around the table pretty much every single day.
Dinners are often somewhat grab and go or brown bagged — especially on the 3 nights a week the girls have swimming and skating. But breakfast, it's a given. We eat, we talk, we read together, we pray together, and we linger around the table. It's been a beautiful addition to our schedule + a great way to start the day!
Choose from:
Lunches & Snacks
We're trying something for lunches during the school year. Our extra refrigerator is 100% devoted to lunch items.
We're making up a big batch of freezer-friendly PB&J on the weekends and, in addition, I'll have 4 different bins of items that the kids can choose one from — cheese sticks, snack packs, veggies, fruit, applesauce, chips, cookies, etc.
Each bin has something different so that when they choose one item from each, they'll have a well-rounded lunch.
Kathrynne helped me set this up and she took the initiative to write a board with details on how to put together the lunches. So far, I have literally done NOTHING for lunch prep other than help set the system up and make sure we had the items on hand for Kathrynne to get everything into baggies in the extra refrigerator.
And then the kids have been entirely in charge of each making their own lunch every night. I haven't had to remind anyone and no one has yet to forget their lunch. I know we're only two weeks in, but I'm pretty excited at how well this has worked so far — especially because the kids seem to be loving it!
Jesse and I are in charge of our own lunches and I'm going to have items on hand to choose from: fried eggs, toast, chips & salsa, yogurt, refried beans & cheese, salads, fruits, veggies, and/or leftovers.
Snacks: Blueberry Coconut Crisp, Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
Dinners
We’re planning to prep all our dinners ahead — with Jesse taking care of the 4 Blue Apron meals and I’ll be in charge of the other 3 dinners — so that there is good food ready to eat on busy nights.
Freezer Cooking
I'm doing a Freezer Cooking session on Thursday where I'm combining dinner prep with freezer cooking. This means that I'll really only have to bake/cook one day this week. I'll be making Blueberry Coconut Crisp, Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars, and Pumpkin French Toast. Look for more details on how that goes later this week!
Because of the Blue Apron meals and because we’ve been buying items ahead of time when they are on sale, we only spent about $52 on groceries this week from ALDI. Look for my post tomorrow with full details on what all we bought and how much we paid for everything!
What's on YOUR menu plan this week? Share the link to it in the comments or tell us what you're most excited about cooking!
Related Menu-Planning Posts:
3 Recipes I Made Recently Using What We Had on Hand
Last Week's Menu Plan
Last Week's Freezer Cooking Session
Why I'm Back to Menu-Planning, Grocery Shopping, and Freezer Cooking
Why We Stopped Making Family Dinners a Priority
YEARS of Past Menu Plans We've Shared Here
6 Ways We're Keeping Our Grocery Budget Low
Why We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Bill
