Sunday: Sheet Pan Breakfast, Six Pounds of Taco Meat & a Zoo Day

Got up this morning and used my oven technique to reheat/toast breakfast. This is pretty much how I always make breakfast and many people ask me about it…since I don’t use a standard toaster.

We had leftover bacon, Costco bagels, and the very last of the half-sheet-pan focaccia pizza I made Wednesday night.

My Two-Sheet-Pan Breakfast Reheating System:

This is one of my favorite ways to get breakfast on the table without standing over the stove cooking everything individually.

I grabbed two quarter-sheet pans and lined them with parchment paper.

On the first pan, I arranged our Costco bagels and the leftover focaccia pizza.

On the second pan, I spread out the bacon I’d cooked on Saturday.

Then I set the oven to 350°F.

Here’s the little trick: I don’t put everything in at the same time.

The bagels take a bit longer to warm and toast, so I put those in first.

Then I add the bacon pan a few minutes later.

Bacon reheats beautifully in the oven, and it doesn’t need much time at all.

That way, everything finishes around the same time.

The bacon is warm and crisp, the bagels are toasted, and the pizza is heated through.

And I’m not juggling a toaster, a skillet, and a microwave while everybody is asking for breakfast.

Two sheet pans. One oven. Breakfast for the family.

I love it.

Prepping Chris’s Eggs for the Next Few Days

While I was working on breakfast, I also made a batch of eggs for Chris.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s one of my favorite little breakfast prep routines.

Chris likes three eggs at a time, so I usually cook about six eggs per batch in my largest skillet.

I crack the eggs directly into the pan and cook them until they’re just barely firm enough to flip.

Then I flip them over.

And as soon as they’re set enough to come off the skillet, I remove them.

I deliberately don’t cook the yolks all the way through.

The goal is to have eggs that will reheat beautifully without becoming rubbery.

Once they’ve cooled, I put them into glass containers and add some cooked pork sausage and a crumbled almond flour tortilla.

Then, on a busy morning, Chris can pull out a container and warm it up in the microwave.

And the eggs are still wonderfully soft, almost like freshly made over-easy eggs.

I know that sounds a little surprising, but it works.

The key is not overcooking them initially and then reheating gently.

Sometimes You Just Need to Cook Six Pounds of Ground Beef

For lunch today, I pulled out the big six-pound package of ground beef I’d bought at Costco.

And I cooked the entire thing.

All six pounds.

In my largest skillet.

Now, I know what some people are thinking.

“You’re crowding the pan!”

“You’re not going to get those nice crispy browned edges!”

And you know what?

You’re absolutely right.

If I were making a small batch of ground beef and really wanted those deeply browned, crispy bits, I’d cook it in batches.

I’d give the meat plenty of room.

I’d let the moisture evaporate and allow the beef to develop a good sear.

There’s absolutely a time and place for that.

But there’s also a time and place for putting six pounds of ground beef into your largest skillet and getting the job done.

And today was one of those days.

Especially because I knew I was turning all of it into taco meat.

Once the beef was cooked through, I seasoned the entire batch with taco seasoning.

And that was it.

Six pounds of cooked, seasoned taco meat.

Ready for lunch, leftovers, and the freezer.

Our Family’s Unicorn Meal

I made a big pot of rice to go with the taco meat.

Then I put out all the toppings:

• Avocado
• Salsa
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Chips
• Cheese
• Sour cream

And everybody made their own Mexican-inspired platter.

Some kids wanted rice and beef.

Some wanted chips and toppings.

Some wanted everything mixed together.

And that’s the beauty of this meal.

Every single person in my family likes it.

Which, when you’re feeding seven people with different preferences, is practically a miracle.

I call meals like this unicorn meals.

They’re the meals everybody enjoys, but nobody has to eat them exactly the same way.

You can customize your plate however you want.

And because I cooked six pounds of beef, I also ended up with two large glass containers of leftover taco meat.

That’s a major win.

Lunch was done, and I’d already cooked a protein we could use for several more meals.

An Afternoon at the Cincinnati Zoo

After lunch, we headed to the Cincinnati Zoo with my mother-in-law, who’s been visiting us this weekend.

The zoo is doing its Halloween celebration, HallZOOween, and they’ve got all these incredible carved pumpkins displayed throughout the grounds.

They also have a nighttime experience you can buy tickets for.

But here’s the thing.

We’re already zoo members.

And the nighttime event costs extra.

Which I find a little ridiculous, especially when you’re buying tickets for a family our size.

So we decided to go during the day instead.

And it was beautiful!

The weather was gorgeous, which also meant the zoo was pretty crowded.

But I expected that.

It was a Sunday afternoon in October with perfect weather.

Apparently everybody else had the same idea.

Hundreds of Carved Pumpkins

The pumpkin displays were really fun.

They had hundreds of carved pumpkins, all arranged into different scenes and designs.

And these aren’t regular pumpkins.

They’re artificial pumpkins made to look carved, which makes sense because real pumpkins sitting outside in the sun for weeks would probably get pretty gross.

But the designs were impressive.

And of course, my kids immediately started getting ideas.

“Oh, we should carve ours like that!”

“Can we do that design?”

“Look at this one!”

And I’m standing there thinking, let’s manage our expectations a little bit.

Because these pumpkins were clearly done by people who know what they’re doing.

Professionals.

Meanwhile, we’re going to be at home with kitchen knives, pumpkin guts, and children who have very ambitious artistic visions.

So we’ll see how that goes.

But it was fun to walk around and look at all the displays.

Carousel Yes, Train No

We also rode the carousel.

Which is always fun.

But when we got to the train, the line was enormous.

And I mean enormous.

It looked like we’d be waiting close to an hour.

And I just wasn’t interested in spending that much of our afternoon standing in line for a train ride.

So I told the kids we’d come back another day.

The Snacks I Packed for the Zoo

And of course, I packed food.

Because I am not taking five kids to the zoo without snacks.

That would be an extremely expensive mistake.

I should have taken a picture of everything I packed, but we were too busy eating it.

I brought our usual assortment of snacks.

Some things that could stay in a regular bag:

• Snack bars
• Little bags of chips I’d portioned out
• Pretzels

And then I packed a cooler with:

• Sliced cucumbers
• Peeled Cutie oranges
• Cheese sticks
• Mozzarella balls
• Salami
• Summer sausage

Basically, a combination of crunchy snacks, fruit, vegetables, and protein.

And everybody ate throughout the afternoon.

Because walking around the zoo apparently makes children ravenous.

Every time we stopped somewhere, somebody wanted something to eat.

And I was very happy to have food ready.

I genuinely think I probably saved us more than $100 by bringing our own snacks.

When you’re buying food for seven people at zoo prices, it adds up incredibly quickly.

And the snacks we brought were things the kids actually wanted to eat.

So everybody was happy.

The Five-Minute Protein Boost When We Got Home

By the time we got home, everybody was hungry again.

And this time, they wanted something substantial.

Thankfully, I had leftover brat bites from Friday night’s dinner.

Remember those?

I sliced a big package of brats into little pieces, cooked half of them on a sheet pan, and froze the other half for another day.

Well, we’d eaten some Friday night, but I still had a good amount left.

And this was exactly the moment I’d saved them for.

I spread the brat bites onto a sheet pan and popped them into a 350°F oven.

They only needed about five minutes to get hot again.

I served them with ketchup.

And everybody had a little protein boost.

Done.

No cooking a new meal.

No pulling out a bunch of ingredients.

Just reheating something I’d already made.

And because the brats were cut into little pieces, they warmed quickly and evenly.

Sunday Dinner at My Parents’ House

About an hour later, we headed to my parents’ house for Sunday dinner.

And I took exactly zero pictures.

Not one.

Because we were too busy enjoying ourselves.

Sometimes that’s just how it goes.

We had a wonderful dinner, spent time together, and then, as usual, my mom sent us home with leftovers.

Including steak.

I joke that I get free steak every week.

But it’s kind of true.

And I’m not complaining.

So now I have a container of delicious cooked steak in my refrigerator.

Plus some roasted potatoes she sent home.

And those are going to be incredibly useful over the next couple of days.

Because our schedule is about to get very busy.

Why I’m So Happy About All These Leftovers

We have a lot going on this week.

On Monday morning, two of my boys are having major orthodontic work done.

So we’re going to be out of the house for several hours.

And then, of course, we still have homeschooling to do.

Tuesday isn’t going to be much quieter.

I have a business meeting.

We have music lessons.

And Tuesday evening, Chris and I are going to an author event.

Which is something we almost never do.

But I’m really excited about this one.

We’re going to hear Atul Gawande, the author of Being Mortal, speak.

I loved that book.

Chris liked it too.

And when I saw that we had the opportunity to hear the author in person, I thought, why not?

It’ll be fun to do something a little different together.

But it also means we have a very full couple of days ahead.

Which is why I’m so happy about the amount of food I have prepped right now.

Let’s Take Inventory of My Refrigerator

I did quite a bit of cooking this weekend.

Partly because my mother-in-law was visiting and I wanted to make some nice meals.

But I also deliberately made extra because I knew this coming week would be busy.

And now I’m going to reap the benefits.

Here’s what I’ve got.

Friday’s Salmon: Already in the Freezer

On Friday night, I made a big salmon fillet.

And I had leftovers.

But I knew we weren’t going to eat that salmon over the weekend.

So instead of letting it sit in the refrigerator, I froze it right away.

I love having cooked salmon in my freezer.

One of my favorite things to do with it is make salmon patties.

I’ll thaw the salmon, flake it apart, sauté some onions and peppers, add breadcrumbs and seasonings, and turn everything into little patties.

But we’ll get to that another day.

For now, the salmon is safely tucked into the freezer for a future meal.

Friday’s Brat Bites: Finished

We also made brat bites Friday night.

And we finished the last of those today after the zoo.

So that entire batch has been used.

Dinner on Friday.

Snacks on Sunday.

Perfect.

And remember, I still have another batch of uncooked brat bites in the freezer because I prepped the entire package at once.

Saturday’s Cilantro Lime Chicken: Almost Gone

For lunch on Saturday, when my mother-in-law was visiting, I made that cilantro lime chicken using the extra Kevin’s sauce packet I’d saved.

We had some leftover.

Tonight, I packed a portion into Chris’s lunch for tomorrow.

And I have one more portion left.

My teenager loves that cilantro lime chicken, so I’m planning to serve the last of it to her for lunch on Monday.

And then that will be finished too.

I love when leftovers have a specific destination.

I’m not just vaguely hoping somebody eats them.

I know exactly who’s going to eat them and when.

Saturday’s Flank Steak: Lunch Before the Orthodontist

I also have quite a bit of flank steak left from our big bonfire cookout Saturday night.

And my kids love flank steak.

So here’s my plan.

Tomorrow, before the boys go to the orthodontist, I’m going to make sure they have a substantial meal.

Because after their orthodontic work, they probably won’t be able to eat steak for a while.

So I’m going to slice the flank steak very thin and serve it for lunch before their appointment.

I think they’ll really enjoy that.

And then we’ll probably use the rest on Tuesday.

I have a significant amount left, so there’s no reason to cook another protein when we already have something everybody loves.

Sunday’s Taco Meat: Two Big Containers

And then there’s the six pounds of taco meat I cooked today.

We ate some for lunch, but I still have two large glass containers in the refrigerator.

I’m planning to use some for dinner Monday night.

And then I’ll probably freeze a portion too.

I wanted to let the cooked meat cool in the refrigerator before portioning it into freezer bags.

That way I can have some ready for another busy day.

This is my Dinner Insurance.

Cook the ground beef when you have time.

Season it.

Portion it.

Freeze it.

And then, when you need dinner quickly, you’ve already done the most time-consuming part.

The Sides: Rice and Roasted Potatoes

I also have quite a bit of rice left from today’s taco lunch.

And my mom sent us home with roasted potatoes.

So I have two different starches ready to go.

That means I can serve steak with potatoes.

Taco meat with rice.

Or use either one as a base for a quick bowl.

And I don’t need to cook a new side dish every night.

This Is Why I Cook Extra

When I look at everything I have ready right now, it makes me so happy.

Not because I spent the entire weekend meal prepping.

I didn’t.

I made meals for my family.

I made a fun lunch while my mother-in-law was visiting.

We had a big bonfire cookout.

I cooked taco meat for Sunday lunch.

And I brought home leftovers from my parents’ house.

But along the way, I made a little extra.

I froze the salmon when I knew we wouldn’t eat it right away.

I cooked the whole package of ground beef instead of just what we needed for lunch.

I saved the leftover steak.

I kept the rice and potatoes.

And now, heading into two very busy days, I have so many options.

This is what I mean when I say I like to prep components instead of complete meals.

I don’t have a refrigerator full of identical containers labeled Monday Dinner and Tuesday Dinner.

I have cooked proteins.

I have rice.

I have potatoes.

I have vegetables and toppings.

And I can put those things together in different ways depending on what everybody wants.

That’s the kind of flexibility I need.

Especially when our schedule is unpredictable.