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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 Ideas for March 2022 - Week One

We did a pantry clean-out over this past weekend and threw away a lot of expired food! Major bonus - now we know what we actually have to work with in our cupboards. Then we spent our Sunday post-church with our small group for brunch and I took two different baked egg dishes - they were a big hit! The main dish was a new-to-me recipe with hashbrowns and it was SO delicious! The rest of the meals that we put on our meal plan were intentional to use up extra ingredients that we had on hand from the breakfast casseroles or that we found in our pantry over the weekend.

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!

Cheesy Hashbrown Egg Casserole

I actually made this for Sunday Brunch with our small group and it was a big hit! I prepped most of it the night before and topped it with the egg mixture and baked it the morning of brunch. Adding it to the menu for this week in case you want some “breakfast for dinner” or a weekend brunch idea!

see the recipe

Chicken Carbonara

Since we had to get heavy cream for the egg casserole dish, we’re going to use some up by making a creamy carbonara. This recipe doesn’t actually call for heavy cream, just eggs, but my husband will most likely make ours a bit creamier. I would suggest serving with a small side salad or some bread - or both.

SEE THE RECIPE

Mac & Cheese with Ham

We bought a bunch of diced ham for the breakfast casserole, so we’re going to use up what we have leftover and make a homemade baked mac & cheese with the rest of the cubed ham that we have in the fridge. Might add some green beans or another veggie on the side just to round out this meal!

see the recipe

Honey-Glazed Pork Chops

Since the beginning of the week was so carb-heavy, we’re going to cook up some pork chops at the end of the week or over the weekend. We will likely add some roasted broccoli and some type of potato on the side.

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.

Click on the image to download the Grocery List PDF!