April's Monthly Menu Plan + Spring Breaking!!

Hi! Happy Monday!
It is a Happy Monday indeed at our house- we are on spring break and all of my kiddos are still fast asleep!! They normally would be up and eating breakfast by 6:15 am...it is SO nice to get a little break from our "school" schedule. AND- it makes me SO ready for summer break!!

How was your weekend?? Our's was great! It was definitely busy- as Aaron had to work both days- but- we got a lot of cleaning and organizing done and the weather was nice enough yesterday that the kids played outside for a good portion of the day!

Yesterday afternoon, I spent a little time getting organized for the month of April and since I enjoyed my "monthly" menu plan system so much last month- I decided to do it again this month!
I changed up a few things: Instead of "try a new recipe" on Wednesdays- I made that soup and sandwich night. We are big fans of grilled cheese and sub sandwiches at our house- so I thought that was a perfect, simple meal idea to have on rotation for April! Also- another addition is "Salad Saturdays." Aaron and I love to have a big salad with some sort of grilled protein on top- so that is what we are going to do for dinner on Saturdays this month!
As far as our weekly menu plan goes-here's what we're eating this week!
**Since we are on Spring Break this week- I doing a few meals differently than what I have on my monthly calendar.**

Monday: Italian Breaded Chicken, Bowtie Pasta with Marinara Sauce and Steamed Broccoli
Tuesday: Dinner out at Dairy Queen! 
Wednesday: Turkey and Black Bean Crunchy Tacos
Thursday: "Fancy" grilled cheese + green salads
Friday: Pizza Night
Saturday: Grilled Steak Salads (steak + mac 'n' cheese + salad for the kids)
Sunday: Utilizing a freezer meal: meatloaf + mashed potatoes + steamed green beans

Speaking of utilizing a freezer meal for Sunday's dinner- I have to tell what I did last Saturday!  We had just gotten back from doing our weekly shopping at Aldi and Sam's Club and I had about 2 1/2 pounds of ground beef and about 5 pounds of ground turkey in my refrigerator. I decided to spend an hour meal prepping- instead of portioning out the ground beef and ground turkey and putting it in the freezer.  Despite the fact my back was on FIRE by the time I was done cleaning the last skillet- I am SO glad I decided to do a little cooking "ahead!" In one hour- I made two meatloaves (I used a mixture of 85/15 ground beef and 93/7 ground turkey), a big fruit salad for us to eat throughout the week, taco meat for 2 meals, and ground turkey cooked with zucchini- which I used for my "Italian night" dinner the following day.  I know a lot of people do some sort of meal prep every weekend- and I have to say- I can see why now! I was able to get such a great jump start on all of our weekly meals- in such a short period of time! I will say- I did this while James was sleeping and it was 70 degrees outside- so my girls were on the trampoline playing. It would have not been NEARLY as smooth of a process if I had all 4 of my precious kiddos underfoot in the kitchen! HA!
So here we are- the first official week of April and we are ready to enjoy our spring break! We have something "fun" planned to do every day this week and I wrote it all down on our chalkboard in the kitchen. The girls LOVE when I write stuff out- because they are always wanting to know what we are doing! 
The weather is supposed to be absolutely terrible all week- so I am really glad we have a "plan" in place- or we would all be on the first train to Crazytown by Wednesday! HA!
We kicked off our "do something fun everyday" spring break motto yesterday, by stopping into our local Fresh Thyme market and letting the kids each pick out a treat from the bulk candy area. I may or may not have gotten myself some dark chocolate covered peanuts :)
Pleas note that James is BAREFOOT and playing a HARMONICA. I walked in the store with the girls and Aaron was behind us- apparently he didn't think James needed to wear shoes AND that we might want some musical entertainment while we got our treats. HA!

So- I would love to know- have you tried using a "monthly menu plan?" If so- are you loving it? Or does it not really work for you?
Do you have your meals planned out for the week?? Making anything yummy for dinner?
And finally- if you are on Spring Break- I would love to know if you are doing anything fun this week!?!

Hope you have the BEST day and a great start to your week!

I am linking up with Laura today!

Comments

  1. I LOVE doing freezer meals! We did it when I was pregnant with my second and I am hooked!

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    1. It really was SO great!! I am definitely planning on doing more meal prep for all our meals- especially once the baby gets here!

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  2. Oh I know you will LOVE having those meals ready either in the next few weeks before baby or right after baby arrives!! I love your candy kids picture! So cute!! Have a FUN spring break - I love that you have something planned each day!!

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  3. Can I ask a silly question? Do you cook the turkey and zucchini together? I am not super creative in the kitchen, but I really like the idea of that to get more veggies in for dinner and sounds like a good take to work lunch idea, too. Thanks! #cookingchallenged

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    1. Hey Lisa! I sauted the zucchini in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and italian seasoning for about 10 minutes- then I added the ground turkey and cooked them together! I added a jar of marinara sauce to the turkey and zucchini and we put it over pasta. Super easy and all of your food groups in one pot! :)

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    2. Thank you, this sounds great, I will try it!!

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  4. Hi, I just found your blog and LOVE it! I am 35 weeks pregnant with our 3rd. weird question... How do you steam your green beans and what kind do you use?

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    1. Hi!! So exciting to be expecting your 3rd baby so soon!! We sometimes use canned green beans- which I just drain and warm up in the microwave. Other times- I steam frozen green beans- I get mine from Aldi. I will just put the whole bag of frozen green beans in a casserole dish and add about 1/4 of water, cover tightly with some saran wrap and microwave them for about 8 minutes. We like our beans to be semi-soft with a slight crunch to them :) You can adjust your time in the microwave if you like your beans harder or softer! Hope this helps!

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  5. Great job!! We love big salads so I'm going to have to copy your salad Saturday idea. I also love your do something fun every day for Spring Break. It's great that it's one thing and not a whole day's worth of stuff. Smart thinking!! Good work with all your weekend dinner prep. I love having frozen, cooked meat in the fridge to easily add to dinner during the week. My mom just brought tons of fajita chicken and shredded chicken cooked and ready to go. My freezer is stocked so dinner should be much easier on me for the next few weeks. Hooray!!

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