Leftovers

I do 80% of my cooking on the weekend. Monday through Friday, my general meal plan format looks something like this:

Soooo repetitive, but I'm not sick of it yet. 

Breakfast:  I eat cereal every morning. This one. Yep, I'm officially boring. But it works for me because all it involves is paying the bill when Amazon delivers 10 boxes of cereal to my front step, and buying like 4 almond milks whenever I think of it at the store. (I'd like to try making my own, but I'm just not there yet.) Quick and brainless - perfect for someone who wakes up ravenous.

Lunch: Leftovers. Pretty much every day. I'm kinda forced to pack my lunch because I only have 30 minutes to eat. Why not buy a bunch of pre-portioned frozen meals? Mostly because I'm cheap. But also because I try to avoid single-serve foods (and their inherent individual packaging). And it's so difficult to find vegetarian options around here (unless you want pasta and tomato sauce every day). How about sandwiches? Strangely enough, I enjoy sleeping. ;) It's not worth it for me to get up any earlier than I do now (5:30) to make something in the morning. So the best lunch for me is one I can quickly grab out of the fridge and throw in my lunchbox. Good thing I like leftovers! 

No matter what I make, I always cook enough to ensure extras. That means big pots of soup, casseroles, etc. on the weekends (hence a million and one soup recipes on the ol' blog).

So here's a sample week:

The orange boxes are all leftovers - meaning 5 minutes and a microwave or toaster oven are all that stand between me and dinner. The purple boxes are nights when I "cooked" during the week. Take the word "cook" with a grain of salt, of course, since slapping together PB & J and defrosting tater tots aren't winning me any medals in the chef department. And many weeks aren't this repetitive in terms of eating the same meals because my husband also takes lunch to work, but he was still deployed the week I kept track of what I ate. I also like to think the dinners I cook are a little more adventurous when he's home to help me eat the stuff ;)

Do you like leftovers? How do you handle cooking during the week?