Meal Prepped for the Week: And I Feel Incredible

Nov 2nd to Nov 8th 2025
My Role at Home

Prioritized easy, at-home dinners for the week, and I feel incredible. 

Prioritized getting Jon out of the house, and I feel incredible. 

Prioritized school for the week, and I feel incredible.

Prioritized rest for the week, and I feel incredible. 

On the afternoon between biology lab and biology lecture, I came home and cleaned up the kitchen and cleaned the bathroom sink, shower, and toilet. And I feel incredible. 

I also slept 13 hours on Thursday night to Friday afternoon. 

But I felt incredible!

How much did it cost me? $3.00

• I shopped what was in our freezer already. 
• My mom, who was previously a SAHM for 20+ years (mother for over 30yrs), recently started working at the State, and my dad started working long hours remotely from home. I commute to college. It's been a large transition for the family. My contribution is the homemaking skills, like frugality, cleaning, and home cooking, which my mother passed down to me.
• My dad and I went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant called La Fiesta for the first time. We go out once in a while, like he took me to Decatur and we watched Underground Decatur Theatre's SpongeBob the Musical last fall. 
• By this one act of kindness and self-care, I made meals for the next week, and my parents didn't need to spend a dime on food that wasn't already in their fridge. 
  

What did I make? 7 Dinners

Caveat: My parents had frozen meat options, and I used what we already had at home.

• I made one 'reach' meal, where I defrosted hamburger, boiled noodles, poured over Ragu sauce, sprinkled cheese, found 2 little tin pans, and built a little baked pasta like a lasagna.
• This could have made 2 dinner nights
• I cooked my first pork tenderloin with 3 russet potatoes in the crockpot
• fascinatingly: used 100% apple juice for the broth
• only one potato was eaten, so I made the other two into a little treat
• Potato Cupcake!
• used 5 cupcake liners in a cupcake pan
• mashed up the cooked russet potatoes with a fork
• evenly distributed 1 tbsp diced butter and sprinkles of brown sugar
• which could be stretched to BBQ's (shredded meat and BBQ sauce) the next night
• 4 Eggs and English Muffins with Bacon. Quickly cooked breakfast potaotes (2 diced russet potaotes with skin still on, drizzle with oil, salt, and pepper, and cover on a pan used to cook the eggs.
• I made chicken tacos with 13 drumsticks ($3.00 for the meat)
• we only had hard-shells, so that's the kind we used! 
• froze the extra meat, which will make a 2nd easy batch of tacos
• 4 pork chops and macaroni
• no extras but still cheaper than McDonald's, Arby's, or Chinese for family takeout (kind of the only options in town)