Go To Meals

Last night I sat down and copied and pasted over from my Notes in my phone. I basically scrolled down for a bit and these are the meals that were in that highlight. Thought it may spark an idea in your head to help you get an easy dinner on the table. I do not make complicated things. Everything is very basic since I'm getting home from work and kids activities. I cook pretty much Sunday through Thursday. 

Mexican night (every week but the actual meal sort of varies)

Sheet pan with smoked sausage, veggie and potato

Big Mac salad

Korean beef bowl

BLT Salad

Chicken Greek bowls

Hot dogs and fries

Ravioli bake

Baked potato bar

Beanier and Creamier

Pork chops in air fryer with CharCrust

Baked chicken rice and broccoli casserole

Meatball subs

Honey lime enchiladas

Shrimp and grits

Chicken Alfredo dump and bake 

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Fajita bowls - black beans, white rice, cilantro lime sauce, diced chicken, salsa, corn

Tomato soup and grilled cheese 

Beef enchiladas 

Superfood bowl - couscous, rot chicken, avocados, carrots, broccoli, good ranch, roasted sweet potato's, wonton strips

Chicken pot pie (from frozen section or Fresh Market) and pears 

Meatloaf with potato and fruit

Chicken patty (breaded frozen ones), green beans and apple sauce

Shrimp fried rice (shrimp plus frozen fried rice pack jazzed up)

Flat bread night - flat breads pre-made from Wal-Mart

Tortellini sausage soup

Chili

Baked potato soup

Rigatoni in the crockpot

Shrimp night with green beans and fruit (I do sauteed shrimp or popcorn shrimp)

Here is my meal list in 2017!

Looks Today

1. A pretty dress $168. 

2. A $20 gauze top that is super cute. 

3. This top is a steal and 50% off. 

4. A new tennis skirt. This color is so preppy on the court! 


5. Saw this sweater the other day at the mall and I know I'd be so happy to have it in December if I bought it now. 

Random Wednesday

1. Made the Big Mac salad last night. It is always so good and I wonder why I don't make it more often. Usually I brown the meat and make the sauce while I'm doing breakfast for the kids so it's super easy when I get home from work. I didn't yesterday but it was still a 20 min prep. Double the sauce!!

2. Grady received the Camper of the Day award at baseball camp at Charlotte Latin about a month ago. They gave him this awesome hat. He received the award for helping the coaches, always listening and doing the right thing. I am so proud of him. I'm also glad to know he listens outside of our house since it's not always the case with us hahah!

3. Mills and I hung while I played Wordscapes on my iPad Sunday night after everyone was in bed. Do any of you play it? Molly Anne is obsessed and it's been good for her learning to spell. 

4. Had a Genius Bar appointment at the Apple Store this week. My phone wasn't charging well. Talk about a huge screen!

Fun OIB Weekend

Rolling back after a super fun OIB weekend. It was just the three families down there this weekend. 

First up messing around on the dock. 

Molly Anne had gotten two teeth pulled Friday morning before we left. Easy peasy no problemo!

These six have zero clue how lucky they are getting to grow up coming to the beach all of the time. Concert was great. 


Saturday beach day after an adventure of a morning with a clogged dryer vent. Oh gosh I've had a time about dryer vents over the past week - at home and at the beach. Get your dryer vents cleaned!!! They're so dangerous if not taken care of. 


Cool dude in a cool world. 


Living their best life!


Saturday afternoon Captain Steve took us on Drew’s boat to Oyster Rock for apps and drinks! Probably the highlight of my summer. It was so wonderful. 









Sunday was a canal hanging day and slip and slide with detergent! Sooo much easier than going to the beach even though you'd think we have the beach down to a science! 


We headed to Little River for dinner at a new to us spot called Blue Drum. It was okay. 


Back to the grind my friends. 

Some Different Items

1. Laura Park look-a-like pillows for a lot cheaper! I'm on the hunt for new pillows for our main area because I'm wayyyyy over the ones we have. Love the pink and navy in these. 

2. Been also looking for a dressier Apple Watch band and this one stuck out to me. 

3. Cute girls headband that I grabbed for Molly Anne this week. Mamas, we can match too. 

4. My most worn sweatshirt during the fall and winter $39. Love the ivory because it goes with everything. 

5. Cute coffee table book that just came out $30

BBQ Chicken Bowl

Made a random bowl last night for dinner and thought I'd share. I grilled marinated in bbq sauce (sweet baby rays) chicken tenderloins on the grill then cut them. Used the below cauliflower rice that was good! Then black beans, corn, red onion and cherub tomatoes sliced! The spring mix and avocado lime ranch too. Wish I had avocados! 

Weekend

Honestly, it has been very, very sad around our house. Kevin's best friend from growing up and still best friend now passed away last Saturday the 6th. While it was somewhat expected because he was sick, you can't be prepared for such a loss. They were "couple friends" of ours as we went out the four of us often and with our families too. Brad stood beside us in our wedding. A huge loss for us. Please keep his wife and three young children in your prayers. We will miss him so, so much. Ugh. Tears just writing this. 

All of the guys and wives went out for dinner together on Friday night after the visitation to Smoke Pit. It was wonderful for everyone to be together. These guys will have to remain close to support each other through it. And I know they'll be there for his family too. Hold your people closely. 

Saturday was the funeral. It was incredibly special and Brad and Shauna planned it together. I'll leave the details private but it was very well done. And sad. And all of the things. 

Saturday evening Drew and Hilary had us over for dinner and time together. They came to the funeral as well since they knew Brad. Thankful for them and their friendship. 

Sunday we regrouped and got our act together for the week. I played tennis for awhile in very hot weather and the four of us went to our club's pool for something different. We had lunch over there.  

Talk soon friends. 

Girls Finds

I typically get Molly Anne (age 9, size 10/12) the most during the Nordstrom sale. I've just found that she wears a lot of it for the next year so it's worth it to get while it's on sale. Here are five of my picks for her. 

ONE - the quilted jacket. 

TWO - she will wear this sweatshirt to school but she also wears these on the weekend or after a winter sports practice. 

THREE - this skort is so cute in person. Comes in a few colors. Definitely will snag this for her. 



FOUR - these booties would be right up her alley! With dresses and leggings!

FIVE - and these pajamas. So fun. 

Grocery Haul

This is what I picked up from the grocery store this week. I typically do drive up at the "good" Harris Teeter by our house. That's if I don't do Wal-Mart delivery. I like Teeter for fruits, veggies and meat. Wal-Mart is better for basics. But this was a Teeter time!

Fruits and veggies. I like having a ton of this stuff because it always gets eaten. I use a lot of this in my egg scramble some mornings. The kids will eat cucumber or peppers with their lunch. I will use the corn for dinner one night and could always steam spinach or broccoli for us too. I always rinse and cut most of these when I get home from the store so they're prepped and ready to roll. 

Lunchmeat (love this duo pack of turkey and ham), alll of the organic eggs that I go through (always buy 3 dozen eggs), got the sliced mozzarella for a tomato, mozz, basil salad for Kevin and I. Grady loves mozzarella too. Kids eat pepperoni, cracker cut cheese and crackers so I always like to have that too. 


My favorite iced coffee snd creamer, kids love the Greek yogurt. Most of this is staples I always have. They like the mini bagels with sausage and egg on them for breakfast. We always have taco night every week or I will use these for lunch sandwiches. 

They're obsessed with pears and peaches right now! And the container of strawberries will be gone in a day. Perhaps the honeydew from the first picture should be in this pic. Ha. 

Hope this sparks an idea for you to get a meal on your table!

Sale Finds

Alright these are my sale finds. My top five!

ONE - if you don't get anything else, get these jeans. I have them and love them. You'll be glad they're in your closet come Fall. $59!

TWO - for pajamas I love the long sleeve top and shorts situation. I saw these in store and they caught my eye. Such a fun print. $37

THREE - I love to get sample sizes of perfume before I commit to a whole expensive bottle. I also like having the sample sizes to travel with! This is an amazing set for under $100. These could also be a great thing to stash away and use for a favorite things party in December. (Use one scent and add a little something with it)


FOUR - slub white top. Can't ever have too many because they get gross!


FIVE - the material of this jacket is really cool and sometimes I need a casual jacket to throw on during the seasons changing. Can wear with workout gear or jeans.

Easy Meals to Freeze

Here is a list of some meals I recently made for my parents when I went to see them. These can all be frozen then pulled out when you want them (except the last two). I was able to be efficient with ingredients too. 

None of this is riveting but sometimes I think we tend to overcomplicate getting dinner on the table. I'm trying to keep things easy at our house. 

1. Quiche - sausage, mushroom, onion, yellow pepper (saute it all then put in pie dish and cover with eggs, milk and ground mustard combined, then bake)

2. Meatballs - Dad can use these for spaghetti or on a meatball sub or just by themselves with a veggie and salad. 

3. Cheese tortellini and sausage soup

4. Old bay chicken - marinated and froze two chicken breasts and then two others in ziplocs. PS - my kids eat this. The old bay is not overpowering. 

5. Sheet pan dinner - smoked sausage, red potato and green beans. Chopped it all and put it in a gallon bag to eventually defrost and throw on a pan. Used frozen green beans. 

6. Burgers with Montreal seasoning - premade these and put two each in a Ziploc. 

7. Spaghetti sauce - always nice to have a couple of portioned out good spaghetti sauce containers. 

These two meals I left for them to have the day I left and day after: 

1. Beanier and creamier 

2. Italian salad 

Rest of Beach

We had a nice time this past week at the beach. Here are some snapshots. 

Mills jumps right on the boat when it's at the dock. His leg burst again while we were at the beach so I'm healing that back together. It had just closed from last time. Ugh! 

Nannie and Grady at our street cookout on the 2nd. Love that our street does that every Fourth of July week! It's so great. 

Getting creative


Morning boat ride to 59 Causeway for breakfast. 





Also a sunset cruise one night as well!









Watching a hot dog eating contest with Poppa. 


Lots of Poppa pushing Grady on the swing. A LOT!


Dad grilled some grouper! It was too thick almost! 

Molly Anne's newest beauty products from her next door neighbors. 

My brother and his crew came up for a night and he brought crabs to steam. Yum!


Then Hilary and Drew hosted Beer Olympics. We do this every year that the real Olympics are happening and it's one of our favorite things to do at the beach. Each family is a different country and you bring food and drink for that country! We were Jamaica and we were going to bring Jamaican wings from this amazing place nearby but they weren't open when we needed them!! So we got them elsewhere. We also took plaintain chips and red stripe beer. 


The hosts are always USA. Ariel and Steve were France. Leah and Todd were Mexico. My brother and Emily were Bahamas. 


We played flip cup, beer pong, putt putt and corn hole! Ariel and Steve took home the trophy. 




It was a good time!






One night we went to Inlet View for dinner. It was good. Such a beautiful setting on the water. 


Live music 






Of course go karting!




Molly Anne and Grady did not want my parents to leave!! 

Talk soon friends.