Easy Summer Meals

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Planning meals. Ick. I get in periods where I am religious about it, and then periods where I want nothing to do with it, and I just forage around each night and find stuff for us to eat.  But here is what I have found:

When I don't meal plan, we eat out.  That costs money, which affects our budget.  Our budget problems affect our moods, making us angry that we don't have more money to afford all of these "eating out" nights.  Eating out affects our waistlines and our health, which in the end costs us even more money.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE eating out.  It's probably my favorite thing ever.  I look for any excuse to eat out, giving me less work to do at home.  But I am continually seeing this cycle of eating out affecting our budget, affecting our moods, affecting our waistline, etc....

SO.  I planned meals for this month.  This month it's all about easy.  Here are 2 weeks worth of easy meals that I hope will help you too:

Monday: Costco Rotisserie Chicken, brown rice and veggies
Tuesday: Hamburgers, french fries, corn
Wednesday: Homemade pizza (or buy frozen if you don't want to make it - for ours I'm using a premade crust)
Thursday: Spaghetti and meatballs (I buy these in bulk at  Costco)
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Fish
Sunday: eat out or leftovers
Monday: Taco Salad (pre-cook ground beef with taco sauce)
Tuesday: BBQ  Chicken (put in crockpot in the morning with BBQ sauce)
Wed: Mini Cheeseburgers (you can buy these at Trader Joe's)
Thursday: Enchiladas (pre-cook chicken in crockpot)

These are pretty much our basic meals that we eat every month, but I condensed them all into a 2 week period.  You could actually repeat this twice and have meals for an entire month.  On all of the days you don't see side dishes, I always serve a vegetable and a carb (like hot bread, brown rice, pasta).  Our meals are basically: a protein, a veggie, and a carb.  For something extra sometimes I'll also serve a side of fruit, especially watermelon during the summer.

That's it!  See, that wasn't too hard!  :)  I don't cook from scratch a lot, as you can see - I am no Pioneer Woman.  I save that for the nights we have company :)  Enjoy your easy summer meal nights!