Monday Meal Plan - Week of January 8th

Another week, another day of my kitchen looking like this:

But, it's worth it!  I'm a total foodie, and there's really nothing I don't like, so it's been great for me to get back into the routine of cooking and packing homemade meals for work.  I've been very reliant on convenience foods over the past year, and I've been craving some fresher fare lately. Of course, that involves a day in the kitchen, but a couple hours to get a full week's worth of meals ready is nothing.

Here's this week's shopping list:

And here's the game plan on how my afternoon went:

1. Start Rice Pudding in a crockpot (start this first since it takes about 4 hours).  I swapped Truvia for the maple syrup, almond milk for regular, added a dash of coconut and vanilla extracts, and omitted the raisins.  I'll be topping with strawberries and walnuts.

2. Cook pork tenderloin in the instant pot (THIS recipe for time reference, or you can follow the recipe if you'd rather get unseasoned pork and make the sauce yourself.)

3. While the pork is cooking, start 1 c of quinoa in a saucepan per the package's directions.  When done, stir in salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder (all to taste), and a handful of mozzarella and 1/4 c of parmesan and stir.

4. While the quinoa is cooking, make this Sweet Potato Skillet Meal (I used frozen onions instead of fresh, and added SMOKED PAPRIKA and yes that's capitalized because it's that delicious). Split into two lunch portions.

5. Once the pork is cooked and rested, and the quinoa is done, portion both of those into two lunch portions.

6. Take a second to wash out the instant pot and skillet.

7. Cook remaining sweet potatoes in the instant pot, per THIS recipe.

8. While those are cooking, throw frozen chicken breast (I already had this on hand, it's the pre-cooked diced chicken from the freezer section, but any pre-cooked chicken will do), the remaining 1/2 a bag of frozen bell pepper and onion mix from last week, a bit of water and fajita seasoning in the skillet.  Cook until everything's heated through.

9. Remove sweet potatoes from instant pot, slice lengthwise, and set aside two lunch portions.  Top sweet potatoes with fajita chicken mixture.  Top those with shredded cheese (already had this on hand).  Dice tomatoes and set aside in small containers with a dollop of sour cream.  (you'll top your stuffed sweet potatoes with these after reheating).

10. Wash and dry instant pot.  Make this Baked Apple Recipe (best in a dish on the trivet, with water in the bottom of the instant pot), and I chopped the apples and topped with the 'stuffing mixture' rather than coring them.  Also omitted the crumbled cookies and dates, added brown sugar, and swapped walnuts for the hazelnuts.

11. Clean out instant pot (ONE MORE TIME, haha), and make Steel Cut Oats, using almond milk and sweetening with cinnamon and Truvia.

12. Use preferred method to make 1/2 dozen devilled eggs (you CAN use the instant pot to hardboil them, but I did this on the stove since it's already in use).  Set aside two snack portions.

13. Set aside two breakfast portions of steel cut oats, and top with baked apple mixture.  If there's any baked apples left over, eat those as a well deserved snack after all this cooking you're doing!

14. Slice strawberries and set aside two small containers with berries and walnuts.

15. Slice remaining fresh apples, and set aside with peanut butter to dip for another snack option.

16. FINALLY, stir and portion out the cooked Rice Pudding into two breakfast portions.

PHEW!  All of that work (which looks so much more complicated when it's written out than it actually is, I promise!) translates into this meal plan for the workweek:

Monday (1/8):
B: Coconut Rice Pudding
L: Pork Tenderloin and cheesy quinoa
S: apples and peanut butter

Tuesday (1/9):
B: Greek Yogurt
L: Pork Tenderloin and cheesy quinoa
S: devilled eggs

Wednesday (1/10):
B: Coconut Rice Pudding
L: Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet meal
S: apples and peanut butter

Thursday (1/11):
B: Steel Cut Oatmeal
L: Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet meal
S: devilled eggs

Friday (1/12):
B: Steel Cut Oatmeal
L: Stuffed Fajita sweet potato
S: popcorn (there's a popcorn machine at work)

Saturday (1/13):
B: Greek Yogurt
L: Stuffed Fajita sweet potato
D: grilled cheese for the kiddos, caesar salad for me (use any remaining frozen chicken)
S: apples and peanut butter

And that's this week's meal plan for this working mama!  What are your favorite instant pot meals to make ahead?  Let me know in the comments, I love comments!