Meal plan for May 21st-27th

Good morning!  I hope you've had a lovely weekend thus far!  Yesterday, we went to my sister's to celebrate my sweet nephew's birthday.  I made him this bucket and a dino hoodie.  We also bought him this book that is so much fun to read with little ones.  Jack got a copy for his birthday, and we've been having a blast reading it.

Look at this adorable cake my sister made!

Today, we're off to the in-laws to welcome home my brother-in-law who has been "under way" for about four months.  For anyone not in a military community, "under way" means a military unit has been out on a ship or a boat (submarine) away from their families for a certain length of time.  Returning to the community is always a fun and special event for loved ones.  It brings lots of family time.

And lots of babies about 10 months later.

Ahem!

Here is what we're going to be eating this week.  A quick reminder on breakfast - Tuesdays and Thursdays, Jack and I have smoothies.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,  Troy and I have oatmeal, and Jack eats breakfast at my aunt's.

Lunches for adults are always leftovers from the night before.  Should we not have enough for two lunches, we'll grab a lunch-sized portion of soup from our deep freeze.  When I make a big batch of soup in the crockpot, we freeze the leftovers in pint-sized glass canning jars just for this purpose.  We'll take either a sandwich, or some cheese and crackers, carrots, and some fruit.  Jack gets the same thing every day (I was the same way until I was 8, so I don't worry too much about lack of variety): sandwich with homemade bread, freezer jam, and DIY almond butter.  Paired with a few slices of cheddar, some dried or fresh fruit, and maybe a little treat if I've made one.

Monday:: Roasted chicken, skillet potatoes, and salad from the garden.

Tuesday:: Black bean and cheese burritos, Spanish rice in the rice cooker, and fruit.

Wednesday:: Cold Thai noodle salad, and homemade lazy lady egg rolls (recipe coming this week!).

Thursday:: Troy is making burgers.  He makes the yummiest burgers, which is lucky because I just recently picked up about a thousand pounds of grass fed burger and roasts from my local butcher.  Ok, it was like 35 pounds, but still.  They offer grassfed freezer packs for $129 for 25 lbs of beef.  Because we don't really care about steak, they sub out the expensive cuts for 10 pounds more burger and roasts.  Works out to $3.68 a lb for local grassfed meat!   We'll probably rock some sweet potato fries, and grilled asparagus.

Friday:: Popcorn and fruit!  The working mom end of week dinner of champions.  While we sit on the couch and watch a movie.  Oh yeah!

Saturday:: no ideas yet.  Maybe you care to suggest something?  I'll probably end up making breakfast for dinner if nothing else tickles my fancy.

Sunday:: dinner at my parents.

This week I spent $44.55 on groceries.

My cashier at the grocery store was in training.  That bottle of witch hazel is on my receipt, but didn't come home...

We're hitting up Costco later today, but the bill should be low because we only need sweet potato fries, a great fresh veggie if they have it, organic carrots if they have them, and some fruit.

Happy cooking this week, but most importantly, happy eating!