on food.

I'm learning that meal planning does not come easy to me. It's not that I can't plan a weeks worth of meals; I just can't plan a weeks worth of meals for a month. Every time I go to the grocery store and buy two weeks worth of food, a large portion of it doesn't get eaten because we either wind up going out of town, have guests visiting (which somehow always leads to eating out), or John works crazy shifts that results in him grabbing dinner out and leaving me with no desire to cook for one.

Honestly, I think I just need to be more disciplined. And really pay attention to the calendar to make sure I don't buy food for days when we won't be here or when I know we'll be eating out.

But then, on the rare occasion a weeks worth of meals does work out, I always, always, always forget something and have to go back to the store two more times that week.

So along with being disciplined and paying attention to our calendar, I need to be one heck of a list maker.

I also thought I'd use this post to share two recipes I tried out this week: Cheeseburger Macaroni and Crispy Shrimp Pasta. I ran across the shrimp pasta recipe some time ago and thought I'd give it a try this week. As I was scanning the ingredients, I noticed a blurb at the bottom for the Cheeseburger Macaroni. Since I'm not a big fan of using Hamburger Helper, I thought this homemade twist on a box dinner sounded yummy!

I tried the Cheeseburger Macaroni first, and it did not disappoint, which was surprising considering how few ingredients it needs!

I increased the amount of noodles and cheese a little so we could save the extra for another meal. Other than being super tasty, my favorite things about this meal is how easy it is to make and it makes for a super cheap meal! This will definitely be showing up at dinner again!

I cooked the Crispy Shrimp Pasta last night, and it, too, was quite tasty!

 This was the first time I cooked with raw shrimp, but it was super easy! Like the Cheeseburger Macaroni, this pasta did not call for very many ingredients, and I had almost everything in my refrigerator or pantry, so this was also an inexpensive meal!

I pinned both of these pastas on the 'Rumbly in My Tumbly' board on Pinterest, if anyone is interested in using them in the future!