Hi! I'm Sydney. I'm a stay-at-home mom of three, and I make homemade meals for my Colorado family every week.
Although my current phase of life is a stay-at-home mom, I've also been a college student mom and a full-time working mom — and each stage taught me valuable lessons about feeding myself and my family.
One of those lessons has been that meal prep and planning are essential for running a smooth household with three kids under the age of 9. Figuring out all the meals ahead of time allows me to save time and stick to a $120 budget each week.
When planning each week, I start by looking at my local grocery store's weekly sales so I know what items will get me the most bang for my buck. This first step has lately become more important than ever to my planning and budgeting.
With meal planning, up-front preparation is key — but it's also the most challenging thing. Here are a few tips and tricks that I use each week:
Lastly, I'm not a chef. I'm a mom who cooks meals for her family. I learn things as I go and pick recipes that seem manageable for me to keep up with — as I also try to be present with my family.
After I made my plan for this week, my total sat at $126.17. I saved $3 from coupons, but more than $10 from sale items!
Most weeks, I get my groceries delivered to save me time, gas, and impulse buys. (I also opt for delivery because if you've ever taken multiple young kids grocery shopping, you know the struggle!) I've had a few experiences where people have come up to me mid-crisis, telling me I'm doing a great job. Although the intention behind the comments is good, I'm always internally mortified because I'm someone who loves to fly under the radar, and these comments remind me that we are, in fact, on full display. 💀
As you continue to build your pantry, it's easier to spend within your budget because you'll utilize staples you have already acquired. But for the purposes of this post, several pantry staples (like oats, flour, and rice) were included in the $126.17 I spent. The only staples I did not include were oils and spices.
Here's how my week went!
First, the afternoon grocery haul:
Once I had everything put away, I thought it would be a good idea to head to the pool to let some afternoon energy out...but I was a bit too late and the energy was already fizzled.
Still, I had the foresight to take my sourdough starter out of the fridge so that I could feed and bake with it later on.
I had also already mentally prepared for a simple dinner: honey mustard ham and cheese pretzel sliders.
A quick mix of some Dijon and honey: boom. Honey mustard. I spread the honey mustard on the tops of the buns, and ham with cheese on the bottom buns.
I covered with foil and baked for 25 minutes.
I realized I didn't account for anything to go with the sliders, so I put some arugula in a bowl with lemon juice, avocado oil, and sea salt for some dressed greens.
Not much left after this meal!
Before heading to bed, I used the sourdough starter to make some dough for English muffins. I let this sit overnight to proof.
Breakfast time! The first thing I did when I woke up was cut the English muffins into circles, and then I cooked them in a skillet on the stove for about four minutes per side.
I served the English muffins with some eggs.
Then we put away the leftovers and headed out for some morning exercise.
Temps were already heating up on our walk, which meant something refreshing was needed for lunch. While the kids worked on getting some water down, I started a quick summer tuna pasta salad for lunch.
While the water and noodles boiled, I chopped, diced, and made the dressing.
The final step was to add in the pasta and serve!
A few bites in and I knew this would be added to our normal rotation. The flavors were perfect. Even the kids approved!
Then it was time to hit the pool!
Here in Colorado, some afternoon thunderstorms have started to roll in — so we went back to the house to prep brown butter banana bars as a snack option for the week.
Once the butter was browned, I mixed the batter and put it on a sheet pan.
After that, I roasted some leftover banana peels, then ground them up to throw into my garden beds as a natural fertilizer.
The thunderstorms were in full force, and I received a message saying baseball practice would be canceled for the night. Suddenly knowing we had the night free led me to pull out dinner ingredients for California Caesar chicken pitas.
The first step was to do a quick marinade of the chicken with a blend of the spices and oil.
The chicken baked in the oven at 375°F for about 15 minutes. My chicken ended up cooking way faster than the recipe called for, so I would advise keeping a close eye! Mine ended up being a little dry.
The recipe for the tahini Caesar dressing instructs you to add water to thin the dressing to your desired consistency. I decided against this and kept mine thicker, like a hummus consistency.
As we were eating dinner, I received a message saying that baseball practice was suddenly "a go" because the rain had stopped.
Breakfast was a repeat: English muffins and eggs.
At this point, we've made it through the first few weeks of summer, and my kids spend their morning figuring out how to all be together ~nicely~ all day every day.
There was still a ton of quick tuna pasta salad left for lunch.
For dinner, Italian baked chicken meatballs were on the menu tonight. Any type of meatball is a huge hit in my house, so I knew this was sure to please.
I wanted to keep my expenses on pantry items as low as possible to make room for more fresh produce in the week. So instead of buying bread crumbs, I took two of the homemade English muffins and pulsed them in the food processor to make my own.
Everything baked on a sheet pan, which was bonus points for this recipe!
This recipe can also be used as a "make-ahead" or "freezer meal" option, as it gives directions on how to prepare the meatballs in advance!
Following dinner, we had a little birthday ~paw-ty~ for one of our dogs!
Today we had plans for a playdate, so I made oatmeal for breakfast, which is a family favorite.
While the oatmeal cooked, I also threw together a dough for sourdough crackers.
After the crackers were done baking, I pulled them out of the oven to cool while we were gone. It wasn't until then that I realized I never took the melted butter out of the microwave...meaning I also didn't add it to the cracker dough...
We spent the morning at the Museum of Discovery, where we learned about sound waves, hurricane winds, and how you can use pulley systems to lift heavy things, like pianos!
We got home a little later than our normal lunchtime, but we were equipped with good leftovers.
In the afternoon, we kept things close to home and played ice cream shop, in true summer fashion.
After a while, I knew we needed to get a start on 40-minute hamburger buns.
After baking for only 8–10 minutes, I pulled the buns out of the oven and set them to cool for later.
To go with the buns, I made crispy dill chicken sandwiches.
I cut the chicken into thinner sandwich pieces and coated them in bread crumbs.
While the chicken was in the oven, I made the dill pickle ranch sauce.
I served the sandwiches with the sourdough crackers, which ended up okay despite the butter mishap!
The kids told me that they were *not hungry*, and they fueled themselves for the evening with excitement, stubbornness, and a dreamsicle.
Breakfast was everything bagels with some scrambled eggs.
After breakfast, we headed out to the movie theater as a family because my husband had a rare morning off. I hadn't been to the movies in years! It was so fun to be back, and it was the perfect activity for the day, since it was very rainy out.
When we got home, I warmed the leftover buns and we had chicken sandwiches for lunch.
Corn pasta salad with bacon and creamy pesto dressing was for dinner.
My little helper was back in action, helping me dice and prep all the vegetables.
While my daughter performed her sous-chef duties, I made the creamy pesto dressing and cooked the bacon.
In terms of assembling, all that was required was to throw everything together in a bowl and dinner was served!
We had lots of leftovers...
Breakfast was leftover bagels, and lunch was, begrudgingly, also leftovers.
For my birthday this year, my mother bought me supplies to make my own pasta. Now, my birthday was back in March, and I still had yet to give it a try. My husband and I like to cook fun things together on the weekends, and after I got a new pasta cookbook, we knew it was time to give it a try.
I also didn't have any specialty flours, but the book says it's okay if you need to use all-purpose flour, which is exactly what I did.
In terms of making the dough, it really was very simple. Obviously not as convenient as boxed noodles, but the process was fun, and the texture so much heartier.
Dinner was served — and my kids loved these! I couldn't keep up with their requests for more, and eventually we just ran out completely.
When I woke up the next day, I made soft and fluffy white bread. It baked while I made oatmeal on the stove for breakfast.
Then we headed out for our morning exercise.
When we got home, I used the leftover pieces of bacon from when I made the corn pesto pasta salad, lettuce, and some of the sandwich bread to make BLTs. We actually had no T, but we made it work.
When dinner came around, I pulled out all the ingredients to make chicken taco poblano rice bowls.
The first step was to prep the vegetables and prepare the spice blend for the chicken.
I realized that I accidentally used all my tomatoes — so I was unable to make the pico that goes along with this recipe. Luckily, I had also bought salsa, so it wasn't a total goof.
Breakfast was — you guessed it — eggs and toast.
After breakfast, I took my daughter to a dance camp that was put on by the high school team. Lots of excitement and adoration came from my daughter and focused on the dancers, and she spent the morning in absolute bliss.
I packed ham sandwiches for lunch, and we went and ate them at the park afterward!
And that was my week! I hope this was helpful. Again, I don't share these plans assuming that people will replicate them exactly. Every household is SO different — from palate preferences to cost of living to the amount of time available to cook. Still, I hope this provides some inspiration for new recipes, new planning ideas, or how to work with whatever your budget may be. You can find more of my articles, with weeks' worth of plans, here!
For more, follow me on Instagram at @sydneyinsuburbia. That's where I give step-by-step breakdowns about how I plan my weeks, shop, and cook — hopefully helping you to do it too!
