Often I get in moods to bake. Sometimes I get in moods to cook. Rarely I get in moods to meal plan.

This weekend I did all three, and I’m so glad I did. Mostly the last one. Keep reading and you’ll see why.

B A K E – Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

I’d already spent a full day in my pajamas – watching TV, cleaning the house, reading magazines, organizing my closet, watching more TV – and by 5pm I was done. I needed to get out of the house or do something. (It was 40 degrees and raining, so I chose the latter.)

Pumpkin bread is one of my favorite things and I typically make it every fall. I posted a recipe here last year. This year I tried a new recipe and added mini chocolate chips. Turned out fine, not great, but it kept my idle hands busy, and now I have a loaf to share with some friends later this week.

C O O K – Homemade Alfredo Sauce

Next up was dinner. Of course we had no food, and of course I didn’t want to go to the grocery store. (Reminder: it was 40 degrees and raining!!) I decided to raid the pantry and refrigerator and force something to work. I found half a box of pasta and chicken in the freezer … but no sauce.

Then it hit me. How do you make alfredo sauce? It can’t be that hard, right? Or have that many ingredients, right? Y’all. I’m never buying jar alfredo sauce AGAIN. Okay, I never bought it in the first place, because I’m not really an alfredo fan, but seriously, now I am. It was SO easy, and SO delicious.

Ingredients: 
1/2 c butter
8 oz. cream cheese (which we happened to have leftover from our bagel bar)
2 c milk
2 teaspoons garlic powder
6 oz grated parmesan cheese
black ground pepper
dash of nutmeg

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

M E A L   P L A N

Meal planning for the week is the worst. Can I get an amen?? It just seems so difficult to decide what to eat for dinner every single night. And cook it. And clean it up. And do it all over again the next week.

Well, husband had a great idea. Write down all of our recipes on index cards, then each Sunday choose from the stack for the week, add all ingredients to Walmart Pickup-Grocery (seriously, life changing) and that’s it!

I spent several hours Sunday going through recipes on my blog, on Pinterest and cookbooks. I wrote the name and ingredients on one side, and the location of the recipe on the back. Maybe someday I’ll write the full recipe on there, but this was a good start. I also added asterisks to the top right of foods that are whole 30 approved.

You could even take this one step further and pin it somewhere in the kitchen so the whole family can see what’s for dinner for the week.

I love this idea, and I think it will make meal planning so much easier, and the great thing is, I can keep adding to my index cards when I find more recipes I enjoy!

Do you have tips for meal planning? Or a favorite recipe you want to share, so I can add it to a card?

xo xo