Another week of meal planning success!

For most people you are probably thinking, so what? You made it another week?
For me that is huge. I usually give up, fade out or break once something changes and before you know it the meal planning is out and we are back to the dreaded 4pm conundrum of "what's for dinner?"
Not this time!

Sunday I had this week figured out and the first couple days of next week (my next scheduled shopping day is next Wednesday). All seemed well. That is, until the husband called late in the afternoon. I told him what we were having-mesquite chicken, and he asked me how long the meat had been marinating. Well, It hadn;t been marinating at all yet. He informed me that it would not taste that great without marinating for hours.
Que the panic.
He suggested that I make soething else. So simpe right? The chicken was already defrosted, all I had to do was do something else with it.
So simple...NOT.
I freaked out for a few minutes. The only thing I had on my menu that involved chicken was crock pot chicken pot pie which I could not start at 3 in the afternoon. I almost gave up and made something completely different and even thought that I would just make what I had planned-who cares if it isn't as flavorful?
But instead I took a deep breath and switched the days around. It was easy to do-they are sticky notes. Instead of crock pot chicken pot pie I ended up making it on the stovetop and it turned out really well. In fact, probably the most flavorful I had made in a very long time. Tuesday morning, I woke up knowing that I had to marinate the chicken for several hours and I did so. Dinner was great. The chicken was well seasoned and because the husband had time to grill it up, the texture was perfect.
So it worked out.
Wednesday brought its own challenge though. I took out a package of pork spareribs to defrost. I wasn't paying super close attention, so I was surprised to find upon opening it to marinate the meat, that there was not enough meat in that package for everyone. Luckily we ended up taking the kids out to get burgers because they did really well on a school assessment that day and my Husband had a meeting cancelled. Tonight would have been left overs night but instead we are doing the ribs-correcting my mistake by getting out another pack. Tomorrow is looking good for the crock pot mac and cheese my kids have been looking forward to and that means that Saturday-a day we are going to be out of the house for several hours-will be a left over night.
Boring stuff for sure, but the fact that 2 curveballs showed up in the same week and I am still on track makes me feel pretty good. Hopefully I can take this attitude and apply it to my cleaning schedule a little better!