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I’m always hearing from friends and other moms that there is a constant struggle to come up with family-friendly meal ideas and breaking the cycle of having the same thing over and over. I’ve even seen several posts lately on TikTok of moms tapping their head and chanting “come on brain, think of things… come on brain, be so smart.” It’s hilarious, but the struggle is real. It can be hard to find inspiration for new meal ideas every week!

Maybe I’m crazy, but I actually LOVE planning out our meals in advance. I even created several posts with my meal planning tips, an entire year of meal ideas, and how I use Trello for meal planning. So this year, I thought I would try to consistently post the meals that my husband and I have on the menu for the week, to continue to give inspiration to you all! We usually plan four main meals for the week, and it can vary which nights get those meals, depending on our schedule - and then other nights of the week are leftovers, takeout or super-easy no-planning-needed meals using food that we know we already have in the freezer or fridge or pantry. Hope these weekly posts bring you lots of meal inspiration and make your life a bit easier!

Meal Plan for February 2022 - Week Two

This week is all about using up ingredients we already have or planning smartly to make plenty of meat for one meal that can also be used again later in the week as quick and easy party food for the Big Game on Sunday!

on the menu

Here are the meals that we have on our family’s menu this week! Join us and make all of the same meals or pick one or two as inspiration to add to your own meal planning this week or sometime this month!

Recipe for Simple Chicken Teriyaki Stir-Fry — Chicken Teriyaki Stir-Fry

This meal makes sense for us this week because we mixed up a bunch of teriyaki sauce for the burgers we had last week and we want to use it up. Plus, we already have chicken and rice, so we just need a few veggies for this meal.

SEE THE RECIPE

Meatloaf Muffins Recipe — Meatloaf Muffins + Mashed Potatoes

This is one of my absolute favorite meals. And it’s definitely my favorite way to eat meatloaf. The smaller muffin sizes mean that you get more of that “crust” with each mini meatloaf and they tend to be cooked through just the way I like them. Use your favorite meatloaf recipe and stick them in a muffin pan! We will probably mix up some creamy mashed potatoes on the side and a green veggie of some sort.

see the recipe

Recipe for Pork Carnitas Tacos — Pork Carnitas Tacos

We really love this pulled pork carnitas taco recipe. It’s super easy to throw into a slow-cooker and makes the meat very tender and juicy with some incredible flavor for taco night. The main reason we’re adding this meal to the menu for the week is so that we can have leftover pulled pork to use to make some nachos for Sunday night’s Big Game.

see the recipe

Pulled Pork Nachos

This upcoming Sunday is the “Big Game” for football (iykyk) - usually, my husband has youth group on Sunday nights, but because of this event, they are having a party and youth group in the afternoon over lunch so that students and leaders can hang out with family and friends to watch the game. So I wanted to make sure we had some party food that we could make at home for dinner that would be super simple and still really filling. These pulled pork nachos seemed perfect! We’ll just use the pork that we make earlier in the week for taco night.

see the recipe

grocery list

Each week, I’m going to share a pre-made grocery list that you can download if you want to make these meals as well! Just cross out any ingredients that you already have in your pantry or fridge/freezer and add any other groceries that you still need! The only thing that I am not adding to the grocery list each week are any spices (so make sure you add the ones you don’t already have!), and main staples like salt & pepper, and olive oil.

This week, I did not list ALL produce items for toppings for tacos and nachos - so make sure that you add any of your favorites (like onions, pico de gallo, cilantro, tomatoes, etc.).

Click on the image to download the Grocery List PDF!