Monday: Restocking the Freezer & Setting up the Week
This morning we finished off the last of the weekend bacon.
My 11-year-old requested one of her favorite breakfasts—a baked potato. She absolutely loves baked potatoes, so I just popped one in the microwave for about three minutes until it softened, then she added butter, garlic salt, and bacon. Sometimes she’ll add a little breakfast sausage too. I’s not a bad breakfast at all—carbs, fat, and protein.
Speaking of breakfast sausage, I tried something new this week. Normally I buy the frozen chicken sausage links from Costco, but my seven-year-old said he was getting tired of them, so I picked up the frozen pork sausage links instead.
Unfortunately…they were not a hit.
Neither my seven-year-old nor my almost-four-year-old liked them, so they’ll be going back to Costco. One thing I appreciate is that Costco stands behind their products. If something really doesn’t work for your family, I think it’s worth returning it. Not just to get your money back, but because it lets Costco know customers aren’t loving that product.
My teen made one of her favorite smoothies this morning too. She blended together:
- Costco Greek yogurt
- Frozen tropical fruit
- Frozen banana
- Milk
She declared it delicious.
School Morning
Mondays are always one of our busiest homeschool mornings.
We worked through school, had piano lessons, and just kept moving.
Lunch
Lunch came together almost entirely from leftovers.
I pulled a package of cooked ground beef out of the freezer and used the open jar of Rao’s marinara that I’d opened on Friday when we made pizza. (It works perfectly as pizza sauce, by the way.)
I warmed the ground beef with the marinara, then added leftover cooked pasta from a few nights ago, a splash of heavy cream, and a little Parmesan cheese.
Instant creamy meat pasta.
The kids loved it.
I finished off the last of yesterday’s salmon for my own lunch. And just for full transparency, 2 of my kids do NOT like pasta sauce like this…so those kids just had the ground beef separate from the pasta.
Pool Afternoon
This afternoon we headed to the pool.
I sliced up a watermelon and packed our usual pool snacks.
Right now my kids’ favorites are:
- Fresh veggies
- Fresh fruit
- Chips
- Popcorn
It’s funny because vegetables somehow become much more exciting when you’re eating them poolside.
Chuck Roast for Future Me
Earlier today—right around lunchtime—I also got two chuck roasts into the oven.
This is one of my favorite low-effort protein preps.
I simply season them with:
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic powder
That’s it.
No broth.
No oil.
No fancy ingredients.
I place them in my deep roasting pan, cover first with parchment paper, then tightly with foil, and bake them at 300°F for several hours until they’re fall-apart tender. Today, it was about 4.5 hours. If I’d like to make it go faster, I just cut the raw chuck roasts into large chunks…that easily makes it 1-2 hours faster!
I know some people aren’t comfortable leaving the house while their oven is on, and everyone should absolutely make the decision that feels safest for their own family and comfort level. Since I know some people will ask, that’s simply what works for us. If you’re not comfortable doing that, you could absolutely plan to cook it on a day you’re home instead.
One thing I don’t do is serve it the first night.
Instead, I shred all the meat, remove any large pieces of fat, pour the cooking juices back over everything, and refrigerate it overnight.
By the next day the fat has solidified on top, making it incredibly easy to lift off before serving.
I think this batch is destined to become barbacoa later this week.
Dinner
Dinner was another big freezer-restocking session.
I used all of the ground beef I bought yesterday at Costco.
I grilled a full batch of burgers for this week’s lunches, then browned the remaining ground beef and portioned it for the freezer to replace the container I used at lunch today.
I always appreciate having cooked ground beef ready to pull out for quick lunches or last-minute dinners.
Now the only fresh proteins left waiting in my refrigerator are:
- Chicken
- Brats
I’ll probably make brat bites for one lunch this week, and I’m planning to cook the chicken tomorrow night.