on cooking and grocery shopping

When we first got married and I wasn't working, it was lots of fun to try out new recipes all the time and make special meals a couple times a week.

And then I started working. And our schedule became much more hectic.

If I don't make cooking meals a priority every week, we easily slip into Chickfila, frozen pizza, sandwiches, and chicken nuggets. Meh.

Thankfully, I've found a pretty good system that works well for us.

Every Saturday, I make a list of basic food items that we have run out of since the week before (milk, juice, cereal, etc.)

Then I pull out my phone to check the calendar for the week. On a normal week, we'll have Sunday lunch out or grab it on the way home from church. After a long Sunday morning, I'm in no mood to cook anything! We tend to skip Sunday dinner because we eat lunch so late. I cook meals on Monday and Tuesday night. Wednesday night I have to make something easy and quick (tacos, salad) so we can make it to Journey18:25 on time. On Thursdays, we typically have dinner prepared for us by my wonderful mother. Friday is date night and Saturday is usually a mix of leftovers from a couple different meals!

So, I get out my recipe books to pick meals for the few meals I cook during the week. Our go-to meals are usually some sort of chicken entree. We have steak every other week or so, but we are spoiled and like filet mignon...expensive taste, I know. Aaron surprisingly eats salads now if they are prepared to his specifications (spinach, cheese, sunflower seeds, bacon...). We like pasta, tacos, asian food, scallops, and other things too.

After the list is done, I usually head to Walmart on Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon to get the groceries for the week.

I know some people can plan out meals for up to a month at a time...that totally overwhelms me! Week to week is just right for our life right now...when we have kids, I'll let you know how that goes!