Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for April 5 - April 11)

Remember when I used to do a meal plan every week??  I did them every week this month until the first week in February.  Then I got super busy working a ton of hours and teaching a ton of classes.  I was still meal planning each week, it was a necessity to keep us eating well (or at all!) since we were so busy.  But I didn't have time to get everything done that I needed to do and so I chose not to write these posts.  It may seem like a simple thing, and it is, but there was just so much on my plate so I cut a lot of small, unimportant things off to focus on the important ones.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and I have nothing but time!  But it's such a weird time that meal planning wasn't that important.  I was still doing it so we'd know what we were eating and what we needed to get from the stores.  Mostly we were eating what we had.  I had just done a pretty big restocking trip the week before the quarantine hit so we had a ton of stuff to use.  But now we are starting to run out, especially of produce and veggies.  I make a list for this week and will be heading out to as many stores as I need to hit, as often as possible over the next week or so to stock us back up.  I'm not sure how long this will go on, so it's hard to plan too far ahead.  But I know we're not getting back to life as normal any time in April, probably not May either.  So I'm starting there.

I'm going to switch up a little how I'm sharing what we're eating.  First I'm not making overnight oats anymore.  I haven't been eating them since I'm home every morning.  We're either cooking a hot breakfast, or just grabbing a bar and some fruit.  My oats are on hold, probably until the fall.  Also just about all of my meals are themed around the "use it up" challenge that I was trying to focus on so I'm not going to have that as a category either.  I'll share what we're eating for dinner and then any other "fun" things we are planning.  I've been doing a lot of baking since we're home all the time so I'll share some of those recipes as well.

OK, on to what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Steak on the Grill with Air Fryer Acorn Squash (the savory way)
Monday - Everything Bagel Chicken with Spinach Salad
Tuesday - Salsa Pork Tacos for the adults and normal ground beef tacos for the kids
Wednesday - Spaghetti and Meatballs with garlic bread.  I made a giant pot of gravy last week and froze it so we can enjoy it for upcoming weeks.  Wednesdays are the one day that is still busy for us so I want something quick and easy.
Thursday - Gnocchi for the boys and Pork and Potato Bowls for the adults using up some of the pork from Tuesday
Friday - Chicken and Noodles.  Adrian has asked for this for years and I never knew how to make homemade noodles.  My niece posted her recipe last week so I'm taking the plunge and trying to make it this week.  I hope it works!!
Saturday - Leftovers.  We've been calling Saturday "fun days" and just hanging out and not thinking about any kind of work, including cooking.  We either have leftovers, sandwiches or frozen appetizers each week.  It's a nice break for me since I'm doing a ton of cooking right now!

Water Flavor - Apple.  I have some apples that are rotting so I'm using them up in my water for the next few weeks.  I may make applesauce as well if I get really motivated.

What I'm baking this week:
Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cups - I saw this on Facebook and it looked delicious!  And I have a few bananas that need to be used up this week so instead of smoothies, I'm making these for our breakfasts.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars - The boys have been asking for these so after we finished our baked goods from last week I told them I would make these for this week.
Homemade Crumb Cake - We already made this once during quarantine using my mom's recipe and ate the whole thing.  The boys asked to make it again so we'll make it on Friday so we have it for Easter Sunday.
Homemade Bobka - I normally make this each year for Easter for our traditional Easter breakfast.  Since we're not having that this year, I'll just be making this for us to enjoy next week.
Blackberry Sangria - We still have all of the ingredients for this (except the fresh fruit) because I was supposed to make it multiple times for different gatherings that have all cancelled.  I decided to make it for me and Adrian to enjoy over Easter weekend.