Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Aug 19 - Aug 25)

After a few weeks off, I am back to meal planning!  We ate a ton of leftovers the week before we left for vacation, a ton of great food while we were on vacation and a bunch of random stuff this past week.  We got home late last Saturday night and I didn't get a plan together last weekend.  This week between the first day of school, a stomach bug and the vacation hangover cooking was easy and quick stuff.  We had pasta, tacos, meatball subs, take out and homemade pizza.

This week we are going to try to get back to our normal routine and definitely back to healthy eating.  While I enjoyed the little break, I know not eating well affects my mood and my energy levels.  I'm getting back to cooking every night and varying the kinds of food we eat.  We get a little bit of a break this week since we don't have soccer yet, at least not as far as I know.  And we also seem to have less homework than we will as the year goes on.  Although I do get back to teaching Zumba and working at the church this week so I will be out every night this week at something.

We are also still trying to empty out our freezer so we're using up all of the meat we have down there before I restock.  We are nearly out so probably this week and next will be using up what we have and then I will do a restocking trip.  Emptying the freezer has helped keep our grocery shopping to a minimum this summer which helped both financially and saved me time at the stores.  I will try to remember that for next summer, make sure we are stocked up in May and then shop less while the boys are out of school.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Frozen Appetizers (emptying the freezer)
Monday - Kielbasa Chili with green beans
Tuesday - Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls for us, Tacos for the boys
Wednesday - Cheesy Summer Corn Soup with salads
Thursday - Taco Pasta
Friday - Fish with Parmesan Sour Cream Sauce with roasted potatoes and zucchini
Saturday - Steaks on the grill with green beans

Water Flavor - Apple again until they are all used up

Overnight Oats - I did set some of these up last week because I wanted them for breakfast, especially on the days that I was teaching.  We also had donuts and some mornings that I didn't eat so we have some leftover for this week.  I'll start with those and then set up a few batches using my normal recipe and some flavored yogurt.  If we need more, I'll do some peanut butter chocolate chip or chocolate chocolate chip flavors.

Use It Up - I'm doing a bunch of that this week again, although really all I have is stuff in the freezer.  I'm using appetizers, kielbasa, chicken, steaks that are all in the freezer.  I'm also eating a peach every day since we have a bunch that we picked before vacation.  I'm trying to make sure to eat them before they go bad.  I'm using the apples that no one likes in my water, I'm almost done with them.  And finally I'm using up flavored yogurts that I get for free in my oats for the week.