Less Grocery-ing.

I hate cooking. Let's just go ahead and get that out there. I hate trying to figure out what to prepare every night. I hate grocery shopping - because I didn't have a plan, I would just buy random things I thought we might eat. Thus, I never had all the things I needed to make a meal (which also meant going to the store with 3 kids almost every day). And I HAAAAAAATE cleaning it all up afterwards. (My little guy feels the same way I do about the kitchen.)

I decided one day that there had to be an easier way. The main question to my whole hatred of the kitchen is WHAT ARE WE GOING TO EAT???? That should be easy to answer. I made a list of all the dinners we typically eat. It looked something like this:

- Bacon and Veggies

- Pesto Chicken

- Sliders

- Talapia and sides

- Foil Packs

- Bacon and Eggs

- Tacos

- BBQ chicken and sides

- Shrimp Zoodles

- Steaks (Only 1-2 times per month. On a weekend.)

- Fish Sticks (only when dad is out of town)

- (Chili, Chicken Chili, Pot Roast, and Vegtable Beef Stew will be added in the fall/winter).

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Ok. So that's great, but now what?

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I put my Executive Decision Making Privileges (aka "I'm the mom, that's why") into action. I pulled out my calendar and just started right down the list.

Monday - Bacon and Veggies, Tuesday - Pesto Chicken, Wednesday - well, you get the idea. Knowing that we would have enough for left overs and that we would eat out sometimes, I put a meal down for 4 nights during the week and 1 night on the weekends. That's 2 nights a week with no plan, and the freedom to change things around within the week as needed. So, here's how the first month looked planned out:

Week 1

- Tacos - Talapia and sides - Foil Packs - BBQ chicken and sides - Steaks (weekend)

Week 2 - Shrimp Zoodles - Fish Sticks - Bacon and Veggies - Pesto Chicken - Sliders (weekend)

Week 3 - Bacon and Eggs - Tacos - Talapia and sides - Foil Packs - BBQ chicken and sides (weekend)

Week 4

- Shrimp Zoodles - Fish Sticks - Bacon and Veggies - Pesto Chicken - Bacon and Eggs (weekend)

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Now. I finally have a plan. I no longer say "what does everyone want to eat for dinner?" (Win!) I no longer forget things at the store. (Win!) I still haven't figured out how to avoid cleaning it up, but most of these meals only use the grill, the oven and 2 baking sheets, or the stove and 2 large skillets. (Win!)

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Now I have a plan and I call it "Win. Win. Win."

*** The recipes I linked above are the starting points for what we actually eat. We have altered them for our tastes over time. I will update with our version as I have the chance.

#mealplanning #cooking #food #kitchen #savetime #savemoney