Menu Plan and a Kitchen Day

It's been a while since I've had a bona fide day in the kitchen.  I usually know it's time when we eat out more in a week than we eat at home - that's a sure sign that I'm both tired and disorganized.  Too tired to think about putting a meal together, and too disorganized to have a menu plan.  As tempting as it is to head out for fast food a few times a week, it's neither healthy nor budget friendly.

So, yesterday I went to Costco and stocked up on ground beef and chicken breasts.  Then, last night I looked at what I have on hand, in the freezer, the produce bin, and the cheese bin, and came up with a plan mostly using what I already have in the house.  With that, I put together a list of dinners that will keep us going for a while.

Here's what we'll be having, in no particular order:

• Pork stir fry (using some leftover pork from last week, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, and onions).
• Pad Thai
• Thai Noodle Bowl (using cabbage instead of edamame)
• Irish Sundaes (recipe coming)
• BBQ chicken pizza
• Creamy chicken taquitoes (recipe coming for this too)
• Chicken with farro salad (I have to find this recipe -I saw it online and thought I'd pinned it but apparently not)
• Spinach and Artichoke Pasta (obviously I have some recipes to post this week)...

(remember to visit Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com for more menu ideas than you can imagine!

I find that, if I have a menu planned and the ingredients close at hand, I have no problem coming home and cooking a nice dinner in the evenings.  But, I also like to have protein prepped and in the freezer for those nights when I just can't face the kitchen and want to be lazy.  So, today I spent some time in the kitchen doing some prep work.

First, I made chicken potstickers. One recipe made enough for one meal for the three of us, plus some leftovers for a lunch, and enough meat leftover after I ran out of gyoza wrappers to make five meatballs for another lunch. 

I also browned some ground beef with onions and garlic (this was a 21-ounce package, which I divided into three baggies in the freezer).  This can be used for Hamburger Helper, tacos, spaghetti, hamburger casserole, etc.

Then, I browned some diced chicken breasts (well, ok, I totally crowded the pan so I basically steamed some chicken, LOL).  This was four chicken breasts and will be the base of several of the meals on the above list.

Then, I made some Italian-style meatballs.  A 21-ounce package of ground beef made 32 meatballs, which is enough for about three meals.  We'll either have these in spaghetti or as meatball subs.

It wasn't everything I hoped to accomplish today, but it's a good start.

What do you do to prep for future meals?