It’s Monday–time to share our dinner-time game plans for the week! A little effort with meal planning at the beginning of the week helps me to provide my family with nutritious, budget-friendly meals, and also allows me to get my act together when our family’s headed in several different directions.
Well, it’s our first full week of school, and now that we’re into our second week of everyone in extra-curricular activities, I think I’ve pin-pointed my challenges in meal planning (at least till soccer season ends in mid-October!). Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be a challenge for us…my daughter has swim team from 4:15 – 5:15, and the boys (and my husband and I) have out soccer practices at the park across the street from 6:30-7:30.
The problem is that the Y and park are a good 10-12 minutes away from home, and once we factor in changing after swim team and showing up early for practice because mom & dad are the teams’ coaches…yeah. We’re not going home for dinner. So I’m trying to get a little creative with some options that we can pack and not get sick of them (it was mentioned last week that some in my family are so over sandwiches…first-world problems, right?). I’d love some suggestions that have worked for you when schedules got crazy! It costs us a good $20 to feed the 6 of us fast food, and although we occasionally do that, I like to try to plan for something more nutritious (and cheaper!) and use that option as a last resort on the days the wheels just come off the crazy train 😉
Anyway…it looks like anything with a decent amount of prep work will need to be done on Mondays or over the weekend, so I’m trying to plan accordingly.
Here’s my plan for this week:
Monday: Pot roast in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans
Tuesday: Stromboli, apple slices, and carrot sticks (picnic between swim team and soccer practices)
Wednesday: Grilled cheese and tomato soup (The kids are begging for this, we have a practice from 5:30-6, and their dad has an evening meeting this night…we have a winner!)
Thursday: Probably sandwiches, chips, fruit, yogurt, and veggies…unless I get some other inspiration for what to pack between practices!
Friday: Honey Garlic Chicken, rice, broccoli (bumped from last week)
Saturday: Lasagna, applesauce, and salad
Sunday: Marinated chicken on the grill, baked potatoes, veggie
How about you–what’s on your menu this week? Join the conversation in the comments or on Facebook!
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