Monday Meal Plan - New Year, New Instant Pot

Guess what I got for Christmas?  I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with Instant Yacht, and it's going to get a LOT of use in our home, especially for this working mama!  So, in the spirit of the New Year, I figured I'd start up my weekly Monday Meal Plan feature, with a twist:

Since I've been working, we've entered the 'non-traditional' family spectrum.  And it's been such a good fit, and may inspire a more detailed blog post later on.  Basically, I'm the primary income provider, while my husband is the primary homemaker.   We're still not sure yet if this is permanent or temporary, but it fits well with our current season of life.  With that change comes others, as it always happens, and Andrew has been cooking and doing most of the grocery shopping.

However, whenever I decide I want to cook up a storm in one afternoon, and do my own meal prep, that also means that I end up doing my own shopping as well.  So, my weekly meal plans are only going to be listing my breakfast, lunch, and snack options for my work days, and I'll leave the dinners up to him.  I'm also not including a lot of recipes this week, since I'm kind of throwing a bunch of stuff together, but I'll list what I can for anyone that wants to follow along, throwing in some links I've found helpful as an Instant Pot beginner.

First up, the grocery list, which I made printable, with a bunch of blank spaces for any additional items you'd like to add for your own shopping trips:

The basic breakdown is that I'll be hard-boiling the dozen eggs in the Instant Pot, cooking a whole chicken, reserving the cooked chicken for recipes, using the bones to make stock, cooking up a bag of brown rice in the rice cooker, and cooking up a batch of steel cut oats in the Instant Pot (probably in that order).  And then, all those ingredients will be used in the meal plan for my meals this week.  Fun stuff, right?  Anyways, here's how all that breaks down into a daily plan:

Monday: (this is a bit off from most weeks, I'd normally do my meal prep on Sunday, but since I have the day off, today it is!)

B: Greek Yogurt and and Iced Chai Latte
L: Egg Salad lettuce wraps
D: Chicken and Rice soup (with the homemade stock, carrots, celery, frozen seasoning blend, cooked chicken and cooked brown rice, and spices)

Tuesday:
B: Steel Cut Oats (probably mixed with honey, chia seeds, and chopped walnuts), and an orange
L: leftover soup
Snack: devilled eggs and apple slices

Wednesday:
B: Greek Yogurt
L: Chili potluck at work (chili provided, bringing fritos, sour cream, cheese, and hot sauce)
Snack: Veggies (carrots, celery, bell pepper), and hummus

Thursday: 
B: Steel Cut Oats and an orange
L: Big Salad, with chicken, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, hardboiled egg, and dressing
Snack: devilled eggs and apple slices

Friday: 
B: Greek Yogurt
L: Burrito Bowl, with brown rice, black beans, chicken, topped with salsa, sour cream, and cheese
Snack: Veggies and hummus

Saturday: (another off day, normally I'd be at home, but I'm working this week)
B: granola bar and pre-made protein shake
L: Burrito Bowl
Snack: popcorn
Dinner: 'homemade lunchables' for the kids (lunchmeat, baby carrots, cheese, and crackers) and a Cobb Salad for me with either chicken or ham lunchmeat, remaining HB eggs, cheese, and whatever toppings fill my fancy that day)


And that's it!  A week's worth of breakfast and lunch for this working mama, with only an afternoon or so of work. 

Please, feel free to blow up my comment section with any questions you may have!  I'm always happy to hear from ya'll.