Sunday Dinners

I wish that the title of this post meant that I was enjoying a nice relaxing dinner with family. Unfortunately, just the opposite is true. Now that school is officially in session, my Sundays for the next 9 months will be dedicated to going to Church and preparing for the week ahead. I am determined to organize my life a little more to make being a Kindergarten teacher and mom of two a little easier. I have noticed while browsing Pinterest lately several pins about weekly meal planning. I've wanted to do this for awhile and decided now was the perfect time to grab the bull by the horns and give it a try. Cooking is not really a strength of mine. Mainly, I am bad at planning ahead so all too often we fall prey to the take-out or drive-thru trap. Not only bad for our health but our wallets, too. So, I used great ideas from this blog and my own recipes to create six different crockpot freezer meals.

All bagged up and ready to throw into the crockpot. I made jambalaya, beef tips, teriayki chicken, pepper steak, chicken tortilla soup, and divine chicken. I made double portions of two of these meals so really I have eight meals ready to cook.

I wrote cooking instructions on the bags. Here is the Jambalaya that we had for dinner Monday night. I put it in the fridge to thaw overnight, put it in the crockpot in the morning, and came home from my first day of school to a finished meal. Delicious!

The best thing about these meals is that I didn't have to cook anything beforehand. All I did was chop some veggies, add meat, and seasoning and I was done. If I hadn't been interrupted, this probably would have taken under two hours to complete. I also love that I was able to use all fresh ingredients. My bags are full of colorful veggies, so definitely healthy choices for our family. The portions are plenty for us to have dinner and lunch the next day. It's been so wonderful not having to think about what to cook each night.

My next goal was to tackle breakfast and snacks. I was hoping to add some healthier choices for Audrey and make something healthy that we can grab and go when there is no time in the morning.

I made homemade waffles for breakfast on Sunday. I was about to throw away the leftovers when I realized, duh, I could freeze them. Now, we have our own version of the toaster waffle at our fingertips and better for us than the processed store bought version.

These look like muffins but really it is baked oatmeal. There is no flour or sugar in the mixture. I followed this recipe to make them. I made four different kinds: chocolate chip, walnut, brown sugar, and strawberry (not pictured). They are best warm but that's an easy 20 seconds in the microwave before heading out the door.

Last but not least, I made this trail mix for some healthy snacking. This was my own creation that i just threw together. I used multigrain Cheerios, pretzels, peanuts, sliced almonds, granola, dried fruit, and chocolate chips. Super yummy and definitely a more nutritious snack for Audrey than cheese crackers or fruit snacks.

I made sure we had plenty of fresh fruit on hand, as well, and there you have it! In one Sunday evening I prepared eight dinners/lunches, two breakfast options, and snacks. Such a brilliant idea and one that I plan to make an official part of my weekly routine. Bon appetit!

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