Current Fridge Protein & Leftover Inventory (Start of Day)
- Leftover burgers (big batch from yesterday)
- Taco meat (full batch — still plenty left)
- Grilled chicken breast
- 2 leftover steaks (from my mom’s Sunday dinner)
- Leftover sweet potato + cooked veggies (from the weekend)
Morning
Made 2 full packages of bacon — 4 trays total.
If you’ve been following along for any amount of time, you know: I make a lot of bacon. My kids need protein at breakfast, bacon is what they’ll eat, so I make it. Simple as that.
And yes — bacon grease goes straight into the glass container. That’s free money. You do not throw away bacon grease!
My teenager made herself an avocado toast that looked genuinely delicious.
Lunch (Leftovers, Multiple Ways)
Everyone kind of wanted their own thing with what was in the fridge — and it worked perfectly:
- Most kids had leftover burgers
- One daughter wanted a burger salad — so that’s what she got
- My teen spotted the taco meat and asked for nachos — absolutely, yes, have nachos
My 7-year-old’s dessert invention:
He watches me cook and loves to get creative, and this one is genuinely good:
- Melt a little butter in a bowl
- Add exactly 3 marshmallows (it has to be 3)
- A few Cocoa Krispies + one crumbled chocolate graham cracker
- Melt it all together → essentially a personal rice crispy treat bowl with graham cracker
- Finish with sprinkles
This could honestly be a great late night snack situation.
Snack (A Surprise Delivery)
My mom texted to say she was going to Costco and asked if she could bring a pizza.
The answer is always yes.
She showed up right at snack time with a fresh pepperoni pizza like the absolute snack fairy she is. The kids ate half of it — the rest is in the fridge for later.
I actually had a snack myself today, which I don’t usually do, but I was hungry and didn’t want to go into dinner prep hangry:
- Leftover sweet potato + taco meat + flaky salt
- Simple, high protein, genuinely delicious
Dinner — Stuffed Shell Bar
My husband was out for dinner, so I made one of the kids’ absolute favorites.
Quick credit: my 10-year-old invented this 3 years ago. If there’s a fun, deconstructed, build-your-own way to eat something, she will find it.
How it works:
- Cook a box of jumbo stuffed shells
- Set out all your toppings bar-style
- Everyone stuffs and builds their own — like a little pasta taco
Tonight’s toppings:
- Mini pepperoni (found these at Walmart — great find)
- Fresh mozzarella + Parmesan
- Tomato sauce
- Breakfast sausage
- Olives
- Broccoli, because we do have to be civilized
I cooked a full 2 lbs of breakfast sausage — used some for the shell bar, the rest went straight into the fridge.
Post-Dinner / Looking Ahead
What’s in the fridge now:
- Grilled chicken breast
- Taco meat (still going strong)
- Leftover burgers
- Cooked breakfast sausage (fresh batch)
- Lots of bacon (fresh batch)
- Leftover Costco pepperoni pizza (half a pizza)
- Leftover steaks
Basically zero cooking needed for breakfast tomorrow — bacon and sausage are both ready to go. They’re asking for more biscuits…so I ‘might’ do that in the morning before we start school work.
The plan:
- Tomorrow night → homemade pan pizza using the King Arthur dough that’s been sitting in the fridge since Sunday. Right on schedule — that dough is ready.
→ This is exactly why I make that dough ahead. Pull it out at 2pm, let it rise, dinner is handled and it’s the EASIEST clean up on a night when I’m prepping for a big homeschool co-op day on Thursday.