Hi, friend!  How’s your week going so far?  We’re doing pretty well — still in a bit of a food rut — but getting meals planned, staying sane, and keeping kids fed while we’re home together all day long feels like a major victory (right?!).

The kids and I gave the snack basket another go (this time with better instructions), and it’s going pretty well.  I give them a big basket of snacks to choose from (with different crackers and granola bars) — and they can pick a couple of items from it each day to put in their own snack basket, along with a piece of fruit in the fridge.

If you’re wondering about one of our regularly rotated meals, “Steph pasta” — it’s just penne or rigatoni cooked and then simmered with a jar of red sauce and a jar of Alfredo sauce.  So easy and so good!  If I’m feeling really fancy, I’ll put the cooked pasta and sauce in a baking dish, top with shredded mozzarella, and bake until it’s golden and bubbly.  I usually add some protein, like some grilled chicken that I chop into bite-size pieces.

Another really easy meal that we eat a lot is chicken tenderloins (the skinless boneless ones you get in the frozen section of the grocery store) cooked in balsamic vinaigrette (I love the Paul Newman one), along with some potatoes and some roasted veggies.  Yum!  So quick and easy and definitely a crowd pleaser.

I usually allow myself a couple of nights a week to not worry about cooking: one to order in pizza or takeout from one of our favorite places, and then one to eat up all of the leftovers that are lingering in the fridge.

I’ve been trying to batch cook as much as possible lately.  The Steph pasta we had last night was from a big batch I made a few weeks ago that I froze half of.  It made for a super easy dinner on a night when I’d had a long day and just didn’t have the capacity to make something from scratch but still wanted to feed my family something that was yummy and not full of things I can’t pronounce (#balance).

I hope this inspires you to make some simple and tasty things this week.  Have a great rest of your week, friend!

(my super cute meal planning notepad is from Rad & Happy; my fave markers are by Tombow)