Meal Planning with Traditions

I love traditions and routines! I grew up with many simple yet memorable traditions and routines, like going on vacation as a family once a year, playing with cousins Saturday and Sunday afternoons, going to church twice on Sundays, having routine mornings, a snack after school, and bedtime routines. Easter traditions, Christmas traditions, and others as simple as having hamburgers every Sunday noon, and…

PIZZA ON SATURDAY NIGHTS.

It was always a highlight because very rarely did I ever get sick of pizza! I remember going through a small bout of it, but other than that, I ate pizza every Saturday night. When I was younger, I remember the Chef Boyardee pizza maker kits, where everything was in a box. Then it was frozen pizza…oh those tasted so good! Then the self-rising crust, oh we thought we hit the jackpot (still like those)! Now for my family’s Christmas celebration, my mom makes calzones and they are THE best! A tradition that I hope continues to live on for years to come…

And now back to PIZZA ON SATURDAY NIGHTS.

Do you struggle with deciding what to make for supper? Especially on the weekend? It wasn’t until recently that I thought, why don’t I implement the same tradition that I had growing up with pizza on Saturday nights? Over the past few months I’ve slowly started to make this happen, especially since we are home more often on Saturday evenings. And let me tell you, it is so nice to have at least ONE meal consistently planned every week – our Saturday night pizza nights.

If I have the gumption, I will make my own pizza crust, but when I am feeling extra relaxed (not lazy, my friends :)), I use the pizza crust in a tube (like Pillsbury or store brand). Don’t let the idea of “homemade crust” fool you though…it can all be done in my bread maker!

Nevertheless…here’s what a typical Saturday night pizza night looks like for us:

Pizza crust, then if we want to get really fancy, I will cut string cheese sticks in half and place them around the edge of the crust. For reference, I used 5 cheese sticks for this crust:

Then simply fold the crust over the cheese and seal:

I like to make a butter-garlic salt mixture to brush on the crust’s edge. Just simply melt a tablespoon of butter and sprinkle some garlic salt in it, mix, and brush:

Then BAKE crust at 400-425 degrees (with no sauce or toppings) for a few minutes til crust is slightly cooked. Remove from oven and top with 1/2 can of pizza sauce. Save the other half can of sauce for next week!

Then top with your favorite toppings. We like the pine and swine taste (pineapple and ham), but also enjoy pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, onion, green olives, black olives, whatever you like on your pizza: And cheese is a given for us.

Bake until the crust is lightly browned on the edges and cheese is melted:

So if you are looking for a simple meal-planning tip, try Saturday night pizza nights!

What are your go-to meal traditions? Do you eat a certain meal on a certain day? I’d love to hear the when, why, and what!