**As promised, the free printable PDF of my famous ‘Homemade Beef Summer Sausage’ recipe is linked to this post in the attachment section! Just click on it and you can print it! Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday’s Patreon posts will be fully open to free and paid members. As a special thank you to paid members, you may message me in Patreon and select 3 additional HBWL printable PDF recipes of your choosing. Here’s the link for those recipes. Just send me a message and I’ll email them to you for free!
What Came Into the Kitchen
Today was a Costco restock day (and I grabbed video of everything — which is honestly the easiest way to show it all).
This haul should carry us through the week and probably into Easter. Couple of things to note…I have a pretty well stocked pantry and freezer, so I don’t always buy things like pasta, rice, potatoes, onions, cheese, etc…I just have all of those already on hand.
Is it even Easter week if you aren’t buying a ham???
Also came home from my parents’ house tonight with:
- 4 steaks
- Oven potatoes
- Cut-up veggies
- A little cilantro lime rice
Future meals already started!
What I Cooked Today/What We Ate Today
Breakfast
- Finished the rest of the bacon from yesterday
- Toasted leftover crescent rolls with butter + cinnamon for the kids
- Prepped 2 days of eggs for my husband (I cook them till they’re just barely over-easy, then I transfer to a glass container. I add sausage and an almond flour tortilla once it’s cool)
Lunch (Freezer → Meal) – BURGER BOWLS!
We had basically no fresh protein left before I went to Costco, so this was a full freezer save:
- Cooked 2 bags of Trader Joe’s shredded potatoes (crispy in the oven)
- I use an extra deep half sheet pan (you can click that link to see the exact pan I use!)
- toss the 2 bags of frozen shredded potatoes with avocado oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper then roast at 425ºF. I toss it around every 15 minutes until nice and crispy.
- Pulled out the cooked ground beef I froze earlier this week
(this is exactly why I froze it)- reheated on the stove with just a splash of water and some salt
Everyone builds their own:
- Potatoes
- Ground beef
- Cheese, onion, pickles, lettuce
- Ketchup + mayo
Or…everything separate for the kids who prefer it that way.
Also did side salads to clear out all the random leftover veggies before the Costco reset.
This took a little planning (started potatoes around 10:15), but it worked perfectly. If you only need to do one bag of frozen potatoes, then it would go much faster…I just need A LOT of potatoes for the 7 of us!
Dinner
We went to my parents’ house for our usual Sunday dinner (always so nice).
And the best part:
→ leftovers came home with me (again)
Kitchen Flow (How It’s All Working)
- Frozen ground beef → turned into a full meal today
- Leftover veggies → cleared out in salads
- Fridge → reset before Costco
- Costco haul → setting up the entire week ahead (lots of proteins to process and prep tomorrow)
- Family dinner → will enjoy the leftover steak later this week for an easy lunch or dinner!
This is exactly why I like to cook ahead and freeze — it makes days like today really easy…with 7 of us, it would be super expensive to run out and buy takeout food for my family of 7…and honestly, it’s just WAY more convenient to cook at home!
What’s Next
This week is going to be a big cooking week leading up to Easter.
We’ll be doing:
- Homemade crackers (Last Supper tradition)
- Pretzels + hot cross buns
- Cut-out cookies (2-day process)…I know MANY people don’t enjoy doing this, but I’d rather decorate Cookes ANY DAY than dye eggs! lol!
- A fun Easter cake
Plus regular meals layered in throughout the week.
Tomorrow I’ll start working through the new groceries and begin building out meals again.