Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Feb 4 - Feb 10)

Last week we did a pretty good job of sticking to our meal plan until the weekend.  Friday was jam packed for me and I did not have time to cook dinner so we just had pasta instead, which was easy and awesome for a family movie night.  Then on Saturday we decided to eat the crab legs I bought for this Monday because there is a good chance Adrian will have to work late on Monday night and we really wanted to eat them together as an at home date night dinner.

Speaking of the crab legs, I was super busy on Saturday so I asked Adrian to Google how to cook them and take care of it.  He asked if we had anything big enough to steam them in and guess what I pulled out?  My instant pot!  I know a few of you have been on the fence but I will tell you what, this thing is fabulous!  This past week alone in addition to the crab legs, I also hard boiled eggs and used it as a slow cooker to cook the Honey Sriracha Chicken.  I finally got to use the feature I was looking forward to - the programmable slow cooker.  I set it up in the morning and set a timer so it came on, cooked and turned to stay warm.  When I got home from a busy day I had a delicious dinner waiting for me.

This week is a week of celebrations around here!  We have the Super Bowl tonight (Go Eagles!), Zak's birthday on Thursday and Daniel's birthday on Saturday.  We are having Daniel's birthday on Saturday and then Zak's on Sunday.  We also have a date night on Friday night to see Chicago so the boys will celebrate that night with their sitter.  And Tuesday is frozen yogurt day so I'm taking the boys to get BOGO free yogurts at Menchie's after a parent teacher conference.  It's going to be a busy, sugar filled week & my meal plan reflects that.  Lots of easy meals that will make lots of leftovers for us to eat next Sunday.  We'll get back to healthy, balanced eating next week.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Appetizers during the game including Mac & Cheese
Monday - Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese (carryover from last week)
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday!
Wednesday - Chicken & Asparagus Stir Fry over Rice
Thursday - Hot Dogs (Zak's pick for his birthday!)
Friday - Jet's Pizza (for both boys' birthdays)
Saturday - Baked Ziti (Daniel's pick for his birthday!)

Water Flavor - Cucumber Mint.  I need a break from the orange flavor & have a cucumber I need to use up anyway.

Overnight Oats - Again, I am using my normal recipe and just adding some different flavors this week.  I made one with strawberry yogurt, one with mango yogurt and two batches of chocolate with white chocolate chips.

Use It Up - I didn't really do this for this week other than using up a thing of hummus in the soup on Monday.  I am using up all of my free yogurts and the open bag of white chocolate chips in my oats.

Lunches - I'll be super busy during the week this week with at least 3 days of subbing so I'm just planning on doing salads every day since I have all of the vegetables for that.  I also have some taco meat and tilapia leftover to use up so I'll use those as protein in the salads.

Birthday celebrations - I thought I would share a little about what the boys asked for to celebrate their birthdays.  On Thursday, Zak wants smores rice krispy treats to celebrate with his class.  Then he will come home and have hot dogs with us for dinner and Oreo ice cream cake for his cake.  On Friday, Daniel wants cupcakes with blue icing and sprinkles to celebrate with his class.  Then we will have Jets pizza for both boys' birthdays and they will have leftover cupcakes with the babysitters while we are out.  On Saturday, Daniel wants a Minecraft cake (chocolate with green icing) and snacks (chips, goldfish & Swedish fish) for his party with friends and then baked ziti for dinner and Oreo ice cream cake for his cake.  Finally, on Sunday, Zak wants homemade ice cream cake (oreo) and snacks (chips, goldfish & Swedish fish) for his party with friends.  Plus we are picking up their free donuts from their report cards on Wednesday so we can have them for breakfast all weekend.  I can feel the sugar rushes and crashes already!!