What's for Dinner?

 I like food. . . a lot.  Nothing gets me more excited about sitting down at the kitchen table with my family, talking about our day, laughing about things that happened and sharing life together than when it is combined with delicious food.  Now, before we go any further, let's be real for a minute (I know. . . not even a paragraph in and we're getting real, but we live in an instagram world so yeah. . . ) not every night is picture perfect.  We've got soccer practice nights and cross country meets and other things thrown in there and just like many of you, we are eating dinner some nights at different times.  It's just the season we are in, and we embrace it.  

In this season of busy, meal planning is a MUST and winging it. . . well, we would just starve.  I've gotta have a plan.  This is basically, the run-down of what cooking in a week looks like:

Sunday: meal plan the week (100 percent worth it!)

Monday:  Easy dinner, meal prep and grocery shopping

Tuesday-Wednesday: Dinners (Monday and Wednesday's dinners have to be made earlier due to soccer practice 

Thursday: Family Dinner Nights (aka best night of the week, when we get together with the Jon's family and eat together).  We host once every 3 weeks and the other two weeks are either a side dish or dessert.  It's pretty easy!

Friday: Either a fun meal or leftovers.  

Sat-Sun: Leftovers always. . . I take the weekends off!  It's the best and leaves me energized the rest of the week.  

So, first, let's talk quick and easy meals for busy nights.  We use the crockpot, I make pasta or Pioneer Woman's Simple Sesame Noodles, or grill up some chicken that can be made quickly into a salad or some of my bistro chicken salad (so good!).  Ooh!  And it's almost soup season here! Sometimes, we make naan pizza. . . it's easy and quick and the kids love it! And, sometimes we just clean out the fridge with a charcuterie (everyone is happy!)

Then I fill in the gaps with meals that I just am drooling over.  Lately, Half Baked Harvest has been making appearances on our menu (her recipes just never disappoint!)

Here are some of my favorites lately:

Thai basil beef - This was just so flavorful!  The cool crisp veggies combined with the flavorful ground beef and lemongrass rice. . . I am suddenly getting super hungry just thinking about it! 

Hot Honey Chicken Tenders - This was a whim, because I had some chicken tenders in the freezer and we kind of keep hot honey in the pantry.  This was a huge hit with everyone! 

Shrimp Rice Bowls - Jon was out of town, so we through some shrimp in!  This was a super simple meal that just hit the spot on a hot day! Plus it was so quick and easy on a soccer night! 

Sheet Pan Greek Garlic Chicken - I didn't actually make this . . . my sister in law did . . and it was amazing.  But, it's definitely on my list of things to make soon!  Like all of Half Baked Harvest's recipes, it was super flavorful!  Plus, it's a sheet pan dinner so that's a win!  

Well, It's Friday and I'm ready to get my weekend on.  So I will leave you here.  Stay tuned to my instagram and we'll be talking menu planning over there next week.  I am curious about your favorite meal and if you have any questions or need to see a grocery hall.  Don't forget to comment in the comments (somewhere!).  It makes my day to hear from you!