What Came Into the Kitchen
No new groceries today.
I did pull some Wild Alaskan Company fish out of the freezer to thaw overnight in the fridge for tomorrow (Friday in Lent).
What I Cooked Today
- Grilled the remaining marinated chicken thighs from yesterday
- It was nice out, so grilling felt like the easiest option
- This will carry us through the weekend
No other major cooking — today was more about using what we already had.
What We Ate
Lunch (Homeschool Co-op Day)
I packed lunches yesterday:
- Four of my kids had a charcuterie-style lunch with summer sausage in their PlanetBox containers
(We’ve had those lunchboxes since my oldest was in kindergarten and they still look brand new — highly recommend) - One of my kids packed a hot lunch
- A Mexican bowl with layers of taco meat and toppings
- We packed cheese, salsa, sour cream, and chips to add after heating it up at co-op
Dinner — “Pick Your Plate” Night
Tonight was one of my favorite kinds of dinners —
some people call it leftovers, we call it “pick your plate.”
Everyone chooses what they want from what’s in the fridge.
- Three kids + my husband finished the rest of the chuck roast
- We used up the remaining roasted potatoes from St. Patrick’s Day
- I sautéed some mushrooms
- Some had side salads, others had leftover roasted veggies
For protein:
- I had grilled chicken
- My teenage daughter and one other child also chose the chicken
This meal used up a lot of what we had, which always feels really good.
Current Kitchen Inventory
Cooked Proteins
- Grilled chicken (fresh)
- Chicken shawarma (a small amount left)
Prepped / In Progress
- Wild Alaskan Company fish (thawing for tomorrow)
Cooked Staples
- Cooked pasta
Produce & Fresh Ingredients
- Salad ingredients
- Mushrooms (partially used)
Easy Meal Builders
- Pasta
- Leftover veggies
- Grilled Chicken
Kitchen Flow (How Things Are Getting Used)
- Chuck roast → fully used up tonight
- Roasted potatoes → fully used up tonight
- Summer sausage → finished (used for lunches + snacks)
- Chicken thighs → half shawarma (almost gone), half grilled (ready for weekend meals)
- Taco meat → used earlier this week, now essentially gone (I ate the last of it for a quick post homeschool co-op snack!)
- Fish → thawing for tomorrow (Lenten meal)
What’s Next
Tomorrow is a Friday in Lent, so we’ll be having fish instead of meat.
The chicken we have left will carry us through the weekend, and since it’s fresh, I won’t freeze it — we’ll just use it over the next couple of days.
This is one of my favorite points in the week — when the fridge has been worked through, nothing is wasted, and what’s left still makes meals really easy.