Summer break is here! We’ve got all sorts of adventures planned, you can check out some of our adventures here.

We’re headed to the library in Santee today to get started on our summer reading journey.

I did some meal prep yesterday (cooking veggies and chopping up fruit). This week we’re taking a hiatus from our CSA box to use up all of the produce that we have in the fridge/freezer.

Our veggies and fruit are delivered by Yasukochi Family Farms CSA. For $28, it’s a great deal. I don’t have to pick anything, go to the store, or carry it upstairs. I can’t go to the store and get the same amount we get weekly for $28. Seriously. It’s a deal. They email a preview of what will be in the boxes over the weekend, so I can start thinking about what I’d like to make.

With the increase in food costs, we are leaning more and more on our CSA box each week as the base of most of our meals.

We’ve been trying a lot of new foods lately, thanks to the really great freebies from Social Nature lately too. It’s fun to try new foods. On Friday night I ran to Sprouts and picked up the monthly freebies, and redeemed all of the Social Nature Coupons I had in my wallet. We’ve got all kinds of yummy snacks and treats!

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I try to update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.

Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2  for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. They are also into fruit and bagels for breakfast. Lately, the big kid has been digging protein shakes in the morning. This is his favorite kind. 

Lunch: I have a plastic tote in the cupboard full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. This is really helpful for the summer when for some reason, kids are starving all the time. We’ll be hitting up the free lunch sites several times a week over the sum

Dinner: We’re still working our way through our Dream Dinners order for the month, and I’ve got two meals ready for this week.

• Monday: Meat Loaf, Green Beans, mashed potatoes
• Tuesday: Lasagna, roasted veggies, sliced strawberries
• Wednesday: Chicken Sandwiches, fruit salad
• Thursday: Breakfast for dinner- Pancakes, protein shakes, fruit salad
• Friday: Takeout night!
• Saturday:  Leftovers
• Sunday: