Fall has officially arrived and I am embracing it for all it’s worth! While I will miss the sunshine, we are coming up on *my* time of year. I love the fall, and then it leads into the Holidays which I can’t get enough of. The day after Halloween you will find me listening to Christmas music unashamedly. This year is especially exciting because after the Holidays we will be in the home stretch towards baby time so I know it will make the second half of this pregnancy fly by! The first half already has!
I wanted to find a way to sum up on the blog all the things I quickly share throughout the week on Instagram, enter: Weekly Recaps! As often as I’m able I’d love to throw up these posts with a collection of things I’ve shared, things I’m loving, or things on my mind at the end of the week. Let’s dive in!
MEAL PLAN
Sheet Pan Tacos // We are currently obsessed with this recipe and making it almost every week. I’ve been doing ground beef with taco seasoning, canned corn, cheese and salsa, then topping with sour cream and more salsa.
Freezer Chili // This was a random Pinterest recipe I made and froze a while back and to be honest, we didn’t like it at all. I’m officially beginning the hunt for the right freezer chili recipe. Will report back.
Discard Pizza // a weeknight favorite! SO quick and easy! We topped with sauce we had in the freezer (from our garden tomatoes this summer), mozzarella, tomatoes and pepperoni.
We went to a wedding on Friday night which was such a treat!
PODCAST TO SHARE
I have listened to a few podcast I’ve loved recently so I couldn’t resist doing a whole blog post with links! Read it here!
BOOKS I’M READING
You Set My Spirit Free // A dear friend gave me this devotional and it is, simply put, blowing my mind. It has added such richness to my time with the Lord each morning and even though each devotional is only a page or two I’m left marinating on it all day. Highly recommend so far!
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It // I just finished this one and found i funny and odd and quirky and annoying and lovable all at the same time! Haven’t decided how many stars I’d give it yet, or if I’d read the sequel.
HACKS I’M LOVING
Toy Rotation Bags // This week I saw Monica Kegley post about her toy rotation system on Instagram and I tell you I’ve never swiped up faster. I’ve tried toy rotating before but throwing all of the pieces loose in a Tupperware just means I forget about them in the basement, I’m never going to go down there and just grab a handful of random things. She linked these little zipper bags with labels so each toy is sorted and separated out inside the big Tupperware. I sorted out all of Ginny’s toys into these bags and plan to swap a couple out every few weeks. Already our house is 5x cleaner and Ginny seems less overwhelmed and actually plays with the fewer toys in front of her. I’m all about keeping toys minimal (at least in this stage) because really Ginny’s favorite activities involve following me around the house, emptying the cupboards, and sitting on the counter with me while I cook. Oh and BOOKS, can’t get enough of those. So far loving this system.
Utilizing our freezer // I’ve been doing this for a couple years but have had a couple conversations with girlfriends about it this week so it’s been on my mind. I love using the freezer and utilize it as much as possible. I’d say once or twice a week I make more of a meal than we will need and freeze the leftovers. Then usually one meal during the week and one meal on the weekend we pull from our freezer. We also keep all of our meat in the freezer, buying a large quantity of whatever is on sale and then pulling out what we need week to week to keep meals interesting (rather than buying chicken one week and eating it every night or feeling like we need to buy 3+ types of meat every single week) and it usually means we can stretch it further (ground beef broken up into baggies of 1lb or even 1/2lb, only using one or two chicken breasts, etc). When it’s all frozen it’s easier to only take what you need. Bread products freeze great too. I love making little mini muffins for Ginny and grabbing a couple out on a morning we need a quick breakfast. Basically…I love my freezer. Naptime Kitchen has a lot of great freezer tips if you don’t know where to start.
That’s all for today folks! Wishing you a happy start to the week!
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