Kitchen Log – July 20, 2026

Monday: Restocking the Week (Again)

This morning I made a fresh batch of bacon to carry us through the week.

The kids had more of the homemade waffles from the freezer along with some of my frozen Costco bagels. As soon as I bring those bagels home, I slice every one of them and freeze them in gallon freezer bags because they mold so quickly if I leave them on the counter.

One thing people are always surprised by: I don’t own a toaster or a toaster oven.

With five kids, I’m almost always reheating several different things at once, so it just isn’t practical. Instead, I line a sheet pan with parchment paper, spread everything out, and pop it into the oven. I don’t even preheat it. Most mornings the food is hot before the oven ever reaches 350°F, and it makes breakfast cleanup incredibly simple.

For breakfast, I had some leftover chili…not a ‘typical’ breakfast food, but it was filling, easy, and quick to heat up before we got to work on some school this morning.

School Morning

Mondays are always busy around here.

We worked through homeschool lessons while also fitting in piano lessons throughout the morning, so breakfast being mostly prepped ahead made the whole day run much more smoothly.

Lunch

Lunch was all about using up the last of last week’s leftovers.

A couple of my kiddos requested fettuccine Alfredo, so I made a quick one-pan version by melting together:

• Butter
• Heavy cream
• Parmesan cheese
• Garlic powder
• Black pepper

Once everything was smooth, I stirred in the cold cooked fettuccine until it was heated through.

At the same time, I reheated the leftover steak from my parents’ house.

My favorite way to reheat steak is in a screaming hot skillet with just a small pat of butter. Since it’s already cooked, I’m really just looking to warm it through while giving the edges a little extra browning.

Fresh Alfredo and leftover steak on a Monday felt pretty fancy.

I also had a salad with my favorite avocado salsa dressing and snacked on a few pieces of steak while I was reheating everything.

Thirty Minutes of Protein Prep

This afternoon I set a timer because I wanted to see how long it actually took to restock my refrigerator.

The answer?

Less than 30 minutes.

I had:

• Ground beef cooking in one skillet
• Pork sausage cooking in another
• Eggs cooking for my husband’s breakfast for the next 2 days.

Doing several proteins at once always feels more efficient than cooking one thing at a time.

Before I browned all of the ground beef, I set some aside to make another batch of my homemade beef summer sausage.

This time I’m trying something new.

Instead of making the usual large logs, I rolled part of the mixture into smaller beef-stick shapes—about finger-sized. They’re curing in the refrigerator now, and tomorrow I’ll bake them to see how they turn out.

If they work, I think they’ll be perfect for our upcoming lake trip. Instead of slicing sausage, I could simply hand each kid a homemade beef stick straight from the cooler.

I’ll definitely report back on whether the experiment was successful.

For snack we did some pizza quesadillas…but I was all out of shredded mozzarella cheese, so I used some sliced up mozzarella sticks…worked great! It all melted together and kids didn’t even notice.

Dinner

My husband had a work dinner tonight, so dinner was taco meat I made yesterday and letting everyone customize their plates.

My teen requested one of my favorite easy meals—a One-Pan Crunchwrap.

The filling is simple:

• Large flour tortilla
• Taco meat
• Shredded cheese
• Crushed tortilla chips (my favorite shortcut instead of a whole tostada shell)

Fold the tortilla over the filling and cook it seam-side down in a lightly oiled skillet until golden, then flip and finish cooking the other side. The crushed tortilla chips give you all the crunch without needing a perfectly sized crispy shell, and they’re a great way to use up the broken chips that always collect at the bottom of the bag.

The rest of the kids made their own dinners. A couple of them turned the taco meat into nachos, while others built taco platters with whatever toppings they wanted.

For dessert, a few of the kids finished off some of the Chip Wheelies we still had tucked away in the freezer.