Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Oct 14 - Oct 20)

I was sick all of last week and tried as best as I could to power through and keep up with everything.  I also had sick kids and then this weekend a sick husband.  So I really hit the wall and had a bit of a pity party for myself this weekend.  I didn't cook on Friday, Adrian messed up the Chili Mac yesterday and today I don't feel like cooking before I take AJ to One8ty tonight.  So we've been eating whatever we can find - lots of leftovers, frozen apps and sandwiches.  It hasn't been great for us but it's what we need to do right now.  I'm hoping to be back to 100% tomorrow and then back to eating healthy on Tuesday.

In addition to being sick for nearly a week, I'm having a hard time finding a groove and rhythm to my life right now.  Things are changing often, some of that is expected since I'm subbing so I'm at the mercy of other people's schedules.  But some of it isn't expected, like soccer changing all of the time because of the weather.  And I'm having a hard time finding the time and motivation to cook dinner, especially since we are often eating on the run or in shifts.  I know this is the season of life we are in right now and I wouldn't change it for anything but it is hard to be motivated to cook and disciplined to eat right in this season.  I'm really hoping to buckle down for the last few weeks of this year and then head into the new year with a new energy and motivation.

This is another weird week for cooking with me out Sunday night, hosting life group on Monday night, Adrian out on Wednesday night, everyone off this Friday, a chili cook off on Friday night and AJ and Adrian going camping again Saturday night.  I'm planning to cook each of those days and hoping that I do so that we restock our leftovers for lunches and our planned leftover days.  I'm not doing a leftover day this week because we don't really have a lot to choose from and I want to make sure we have enough for lunches.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Leftovers or sandwiches and salads
Monday - Baked Ziti  - I'm making 2 trays for my life group, one with sausage and one without
Tuesday - Monterey Chicken with Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Squash (carryover from last week)
Wednesday - Cheesy Chicken Thighs with Spinach & Mushrooms
Thursday - Cilantro Lime Shrimp for wraps for the adults, tacos for the kids
Friday - Kielbasa Soup for lunch if we are home, or just for leftovers if we're not home for lunch
Saturday - Chili Mac in the Instant Pot - Adrian made this last week and he added chipotle peppers which made it too hot for anyone but him to eat.  So I'll be making it again for the rest of us.

Water Flavor - Mango!  I got a mango on sale this week and I love it in my water so I set that up tonight.  Can't wait to drink it all week!!

Overnight Oats - Again, I have a few servings of this from last week still left since Adrian hasn't been eating them that much.  I'll wait a day or two to see where we are and set some up on Tuesday night to get us through the week.  I have a few flavored yogurts to use up so I'll be using those for this week.  I also have two bananas to use so I may add those to them as well.

Use It Up - Again, I didn't think about this much this week but I definitely have some veggies that I bought last week for recipes that I need to use so I'm doing that at the start of the week.  I need to get back to focusing on this.  Next week for sure!!

Lunches - I will probably eat leftovers for most of this week since we are out of most of the stuff I use for salads and sandwiches.  I do hope to cook that soup on Friday for our lunch since we are all off for the day!  It would be nice to have a homemade lunch in the middle of all of the fun we have planned for that day.