Happy first full week of a new year. How are we already in 2023?

We leaned on our freezer meals hard this week and I’m always so thankful they are there and ready to be pulled out.

Sunday – New Years Day Prime Rib Dinner

My husband takes cooking prime rib very seriously and we start talking about how to approach it for a few days before when we plan to make it. Each time feels a little different because the size is always a little different from the last time. We made the ever-tasty burgundy mushrooms from Pioneer Woman (the recipe is on her blog) along with my Aunt Joyce’s 60 minute rolls.

Monday – Beef Quesadillas

I threw this freezer meal in the crockpot before heading to meet with my Nieces for lunch. The freezer meal was essentially the cooked ground beef and we sauteed some mushrooms, peppers and jalapenos to add.

We head back to school, work and preschool tomorrow so this was a good day to get a bunch of things done to get us situated for the week and not have to worry about what was for dinner.

Tuesday – Meatball Sandwiches

Thank goodness for my husband being able to help get the kids situated in the mornings and picked up at night for most of this week so I could hit the new year with a bang working through projects at work. These philly meatball sandwiches are always a big hit. Click here for the recipe.

Wednesday – Sloppy Joes

The kids were happy to hear this was for dinner. I browned a bunch of hamburger and made them into super easy freezer meals for later. This sloppy joe recipe is basically what I would make on the stovetop but all tossed into a freezer bag. In this instance – I think I made a huge pot of sloppy joes and froze the leftovers. Here’s a link to one of our favorites.

Thursday – Chicken Pasta

So…. when I trying to organize my freezer meals, I stumbled upon a marinated chicken meal that needed to be used up. It was initially meant to be a grilling recipe but we adapted it for what we needed.

We cooked it in the crockpot during the workday, shredded it, added some heavy cream and half & half along with some cooked pasta and, of course, shredded cheese. The kids all really liked it.

Friday – Sausage and Veggies

This is my husband’s “go to” when we don’t have something planned and nothing went in the crockpot in the morning. The kids like the pasta from last night and wanted to have it again for dinner, so we added jalapenos to the sausage and veggies.

Saturday – Beef “Carnitas”

This recipe changed course a couple times during the day. What I planned didn’t shake out, and my husband thought carnitas sounded good. That’s what we did and they turned out great. We used beef and once it was fully cooked, we cooked them for another 45 minutes in the oven at 275 to make them nice and crispy. Click here for the carnitas recipe with similar cooking guidelines and click here for the super easy and tasty instant pot mexican rice.

We even found avocados at the store that looked good. Meant to be!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great week.