Meal Planning. Again.

Sometimes I feel awesome, and sometimes I don't. 

I feel like my awesomeness happens every other week.

For example if I'm awesome this week, it means next week I will for sure be a total and utter train wreck.

And my awesomeness is in regards to all areas of life; wife, mom, friend, director, homemaker, etc etc.

Some weeks I'm spot on. Clean house, plenty of play time with Eli, meals planned and on the table every night, meaningful convos with Luke, caught up on all Scentsy to-dos etc etc. Basically just a rockstar at life.

And then some weeks I'm a disaster. No meals planned, scrambling around trying to figure out what to cook for dinner, pit of a house, behind on all to-do lists and so on - which all adds up to me feeling awful about myself.

Usually you can tell what my emotional state is based on how our fridge looks. If its clean and everything is put away all nice and its freshly stocked then I'm having a good week. But if it's disgusting and full of leftovers from last week that need to be trashed and random odds and ends that wouldn't make a good meal when put together, then I'm having a bad week.

The truth is in the fridge.

I try not to let the state of our fridge affect my emotions. But sometimes it's hard. I will declare I'm the "worst mom, wife, fill-in-the-blank" ever. And then I'll get over it and move on.

One thing that I have found really helps me stay on top of things is meal planning. I was really good at meal planning at the beginning of our marriage and when Eli was a baby. And then last year we moved and were sort of in transition for about 6 months and I let myself get out of the habit of doing it.

But I'm trying to get back into the routine of meal planing. Life seems to go more smoothly if I start the week with all our meals planned. It takes so much stress out of the week.

So I'm going to try and get back into the habit of sharing our meals on here, basically for record for myself of what I've cooked and what we like.

For some reason when I'm sitting down trying to plan meals I can't remember a single meal and end up doing basic things like spaghetti and tacos every other night. So hopefully keeping track of them will help me.

For the majority of our meals I will cook the main dish and then we will cook some veggies with it. In the past I did a big meal with several sides but it got to be too much. We save money by buying a ton of those frozen veggies that you steam in the microwave and just throw it with whatever meal I cook. It doesn't always go together but it works for us.

Two weeks ago was a rock star awesome week.....Our meals:

Sunday: Pioneer Woman Beef Noodle Salad Bowls
This is a meal we cook often and we love it. I could eat these noodles every single day! We usually eat ours with broccoli mixed in.

Monday: Penne with Mustard, Basil and Sausage via The Dough Will Rise Again
Gosh this recipe is so good. SO GOOD. It's probably my favorite recipe right now. I serve with some veggie and bread.

Tuesday: Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie via The Girl Who Ate Everything
This is an easy and quick meal but also really good and filling. I've made it a couple of times and Luke always talks about how good it is. I only put jalapenos on half of it because I'm the only one who likes a little spice in their meal.

Wednesday: Crock pot Chicken - no recipe, if I'm running out of ideas, or didn't go to the store, or trying to save money I will just throw some chicken in the crock pot and put something on it. This time it was taco seasoning and salsa.

Thursday: Italian Mini Meatloaves

Last week wasn't so awesome and consisted of tacos and trying to throw something together the other nights. I don't even remember what we had but I do know one night I made Lemon Chicken Soup that I found on Kate's blog. And it was DELICIOUS! It was the perfect meal to eat as we welcomed in cooler weather.

I planned to meal plan tonight but got distracted doing other things including writing this out. Hopefully I will get the next week planned before the end of the day tomorrow.

I also really need to clean my fridge.