This page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn on qualifying purchases. Please see our disclaimer for more information.

It has been an interesting few weeks! With work, a minor kitchen re-do, a new job for Kiki, getting ready for back to school and a few health issues (mine- I’ll share more later but it is nothing “serious”) I’ve struggled to keep my head above water. My meal planning has also suffered the past few weeks. Instead of having a written detailed plan I’ve found myself having meal plan ideas. While this works okay for me it is not what I prefer. I do better having something written down that I can refer to instead of relying on my memory of what I thought I might make.

School starts on Tuesday which means we’ll be having a schedule change. During the summer (and all school breaks) Joe works days (7:30 to 4:00ish) but during the time school is in session he works 10:30 to 7. The girls leave the house around 7:15 for school. This year will be very different in some ways. Kiki will be driving to school (and taking Lulu along). She’s a senior this year (how in the world did that happen! Seems like she only started kindergarten a few years ago) and her schedule includes classes up at the college. On her non college days she’ll work after school (she gets out at 12:40 on those days). Lulu has cheer practice after school and will ride home with Kiki on her college days. We’re still working out the details for getting Lulu home on the days Kiki works— at the moment I see myself making extra trips to town each week.

Back to school time means earlier mornings and later evenings for us. With the girls leaving the house at 7:15 and Joe not getting home until around 7:30 our meal times are off from ‘normal’. Of course, I actually consider this schedule normal for us and the summer schedule ‘off’. 🙂

Breakfast is a bit of a challenge. Neither of the girls want to eat when they first get up and prefer to use their time to get ready as opposed to eating. I prefer they skip the hair straightening and eat breakfast! Made ahead breakfast food work best for us. I try to have muffins, sourdough (or coconut flour) bread, yogurt, fruit, and other things on hand for quick meals before they leave or to take on the road. Joe, Christopher and I will have a more leisurely breakfast around 8 usually consisting of something from this list.

This year Kiki and Joe will be taking a packed lunch while Lulu will be eating a school lunch. Last year was a struggle with brown bag lunches for Lulu. Mainly because of her need for lunch to be completely disposable. Joe and I discussed it and we decided that as sketchy as school lunch is it was a better choice than the brown bag fiasco of last year. Lulu will be taking along simple snacks also to have before practice. We’ve talked alot with her on the importance of nutrition but also of making sure she is eating. Christopher and I are home (most days) at lunch time but I hope to do a better job of putting our lunches together in advance. For this week, I’m going to ‘pack’ us a lunch right along with Joe and Kiki’s to see if that helps my organization. The lunches listed below will be the ‘basic’ ingredients. Extras will be added to round out the meal depending on the person.

Joe will get home at 7:30 each night as will Kiki on the nights she works so we’ll plan for dinner right around that time. For the past several months it seems our meals have become more and more simple. While we do start with high quality ingredients (grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, wild game, etc) my preparation methods are rarely fancy. My crock pot is a good friend to me and recently I purchased a Sun Oven which has also came in quite handy. I rely a lot on Stretchy Meals (see this post on Stretchy Beans) which works quite well for me. As with the lunches, the basic ingredients are listed. Extras (such as fermented ‘toppers’) are added to round the meal out.

This last week I worked on reviving my sourdough starter after not using it for several weeks while we were doing GAPS. We are no longer doing GAPS and will be once again having soaked, soured and sprouted grains. Our usual food guidelines are 85% real/whole/traditional foods and the other 15% we are not as strict about. This normally works quite well for us.

Sunday

Brunch- Pancakes

Dinner- Venison roast, honey pasta (based on this recipe but altered slightly). Late dinner after going to pick up our Azure Standard order.

Monday

Breakfast- Butterscotch Rice

Lunch- meat, cheese and veggie sticks

Dinner- Black beans, brown rice, broccoli, sauteed summer squash

To Do: Put away Azure order, make muffins, make bread, make yogurt

Tuesday– First Day of School