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I’m always hearing from friends and other moms that there is a constant struggle to come up with family-friendly meal ideas and breaking the cycle of having the same thing over and over. I’ve even seen several posts lately on TikTok of moms tapping their head and chanting “come on brain, think of things… come on brain, be so smart.” It’s hilarious, but the struggle is real. It can be hard to find inspiration for new meal ideas every week!

Maybe I’m crazy, but I actually LOVE planning out our meals in advance. I even created several posts with my meal planning tips, an entire year of meal ideas, and how I use Trello for meal planning. So this year, I thought I would try to consistently post the meals that my husband and I have on the menu for the week, to continue to give inspiration to you all! We usually plan four main meals for the week, and it can vary which nights get those meals, depending on our schedule - and then other nights of the week are leftovers, takeout or super-easy no-planning-needed meals using food that we know we already have in the freezer or fridge or pantry. Hope these weekly posts bring you lots of meal inspiration and make your life a bit easier!

Meal Ideas for March 2022 - Week Three

We are less than 3 weeks away from meeting our precious baby girl, so we’re starting to think about meals that we can make and freeze for easy lunches or meals after the baby is here. Other than using up some salad greens that we still have and making one of our favorites (the Chicken BLT Salad), the other three meals this week are great for freezing to pull out at a later time! Plus, the Shepherd’s Pie is a great nod to St. Patrick’s Day that we will likely make for dinner on Thursday.

on the menu

Here are the meals that we have on our family’s menu this week! Join us and make all of the same meals or pick one or two as inspiration to add to your own meal planning this week or sometime this month!

Grilled Chicken BLT Salad

We have some salad greens to use up this week before they wilt, and already have all of the other ingredients to make one of our favorite salads. We usually top off this salad with some balsamic vinaigrette, but you can really use any dressing that is your favorite.

see the recipe

Chicken Tortilla Salsa Soup

We love love LOVE this soup and it’s one of our absolute favorites. We prefer to use rotisserie chicken because of the added flavor and it’s already so tender. And we typically serve this soup with tortilla chips on the side, but sometimes we’ll go the extra mile and make some quesadillas.

SEE THE RECIPE

Shepherd’s Pie

It’s St. Patrick’s Day this week, and this Shepherd’s Pie seems like the perfect meal to celebrate the holiday! ☘️ This is also a meal that should freeze well for easy meals after the baby arrives.

see the recipe

Baked Ziti

Another meal that will freeze well for lunches after the baby’s arrival, this baked ziti will be a great filling meal this weekend!

see the recipe

grocery list

Each week, I’m going to share a pre-made grocery list that you can download if you want to make these meals as well! Just cross out any ingredients that you already have in your pantry or fridge/freezer and add any other groceries that you still need! The only thing that I am not adding to the grocery list each week are any spices (so make sure you add the ones you don’t already have!), and main staples like salt & pepper, and olive oil.

Click on the image to download the Grocery List PDF!