Meal Planning

Ever since I've lived on my own I've done weekly meal planning.  Actually, that's not true, there was a brief period where I didn't. Then my son's god mother introduced me to weekly meal planning and I haven't looked back since. As a matter of fact when I hear that people don't do it I think (no offense) surely there must be something wrong with their home keeping skills... and then I remember back to a day when I too was clueless.  For a long long time I've done this one way, but lately I've been changing it up a bit.

In this post I will show you a couple different ways I do meal planning and if you don't already do this, give it a try.

The original way or should I say the way I was taught was simple. I would sit down each week, and come up with a list of meals for each day and write them down.  I would write each night's dinner on the calendar for that week (i.e.  Monday- tacos, Tuesday- lasagna, etc, etc).  Then I would make my grocery shopping list according to what I needed for each meal. Then I was making just one weekly trip to the grocery store.  Easy. Peasy. This was nice because I knew exactly what I needed from the store and I knew what we were having for dinner each night.

This way works extremely well don't get me wrong but when you have an adorable 2 year old little boy who's not real fond of grocery shopping you have to find a way to make something easy even easier.  So I came up with this:

This way takes a little more prep time but so worth it in the long run specially if you have little ones who don't exactly make grocery shopping a fun time.

I now make menus out for 2 or 3 week stretches.  You could probably go for a whole month, but you will need to go again in about 2 weeks for fresh produce and such. So 2 weeks is what really works best for me.

So if I'm planning meals for 2 weeks I write down 14 different dinner ideas, complete with sides. Then I write down 2 weeks worth of breakfasts and lunch ideas.  I then go through my meals and make my grocery list based on what I just wrote down (checking my list against what I already have  my pantry so I don't end up with 10 boxes of spaghetti noodles!)

I keep this list in my file I have on my counter top and each day I look at the list and pick out what I feel like making from the list.  After I make a dinner I check the meal off the list so I know it's been made. (yes you could forget you made something over a two week period and I keep the list so I don't forget what all I had planned to make)

I also keep all my recipes for the dishes I'm making for that week or 2 in that file folder so I'm not trying to hunt them down each night before making dinner.  Once I make a dish the recipe comes out of the folder and goes back into my recipe box, folder, or book.

Now sometimes I do get lazy because planning 2 or 3 weeks worth of meals isn't always easy or my idea of a fun time so I'll only do a menu for one week. I do it exactly the same as for my 2 weeks only instead of coming up with 14 dinners I'll come up with 7. 

Also if you notice I have letters under breakfast and lunch. These are our initials.  Since we all tend to eat different things for breakfast and lunch it's just easier for me to list those out this way.  I also have a spot at the bottom where I list any dessert or special snacky type thing I might wanna make that week.

If you don't already do menu planning give it a try.  I'm sure one of these ways could work for you.  It will save you time, money, and your sanity at the grocery store and help end the "What am I gonna make for dinner?!" panic.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

Right now I have two sick boys in the house, the little guy and the hubs. They are both passed out on the couches in the living room, and while there's a whole ton of things I could be doing around the house, I'm hiding out in my room so I don't wake them. So I figured I'd let you know about some things I'm absolutely LOVING at the moment.  None of these are really new products so you may already use them, but if not, you may just want to try them out.

Oxo Good Grips POP Storage Container

I received one of these bad boys for Christmas. It's a little on the pricey side for a storage container, but I feel it's worth it. If you ever were to get pathetically excited about a plastic storage container this would be the one. The POP button creates an airtight seal and it just fits better in my cabinet.  I have the 4qt one and use it for my sugar and would like to get more of them for my flour, powdered sugar, etc, etc.

 

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles

This product is A-MAZING! The fact that it's a drugstore item makes it even better. I was using Benefit's BOI-ING and while I liked that I like this better and it's half the cost! I have it in shade Fair.  They also have a pink shade (I believe it's called brightener) and want to try that out as well. With this product you just dab a little under each eye and then LIGHTLY blend out with your ring finger. Don't use the sponge applicator to blend.  It blends really nice and does a good job hiding under eye circles and just brightens up the whole under eye area.

Yoplait Greek Yogurt in Honey Vanilla

Never thought Greek Yogurt would be something I would love.  Greek yogurt is good for you people. Much better than regular yogurt. It has about double the protein and half the sugar. When I hear something is good for me I figure I should be eating it. So I tried Greek yogurt after Greek yogurt and I hated it. I couldn't even trick myself into eating it. I thought all these people on the Greek yogurt band wagon are out of their minds.  Then I stumbled upon this gem and guess what?! It's deeeeeelicious! I actually prefer this over regular yogurt now.  I've tried a few of their other flavors and they were good too, but this one is my favorite.

Well that's all for now. Let me know if you use these products or if you try them what you think of them. 

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise by OXO, Maybelline, or Yoplait to write this. These are my honest thoughts and opinions about the products and wanted to share them with you because I enjoy them and think you would too.

Under Kitchen Sink Makeover

It's funny how one simple little idea can turn into a full afternoon project.  It was this cute little bag dispenser that did me in.

After looking at the original inspriation of this bag dispenser on the House Of Grace I decided my cabinet under the sink was in DESPERATE need of a makeover. So, I rounded up the fam and off we went to the home improvement store. Here is how it all turned out:

BEFORE
YUCK! Unorganized mess!

The bottom of the cabinet had old contact paper that was peeling and water stained.
I scrapped most of that up and vaccuumed.

I put down new contact paper.
Although not a fan of most contact paper, I liked this particular design. 

I added a shelf for more storage and when I say I added the shelf I installed it with my own two hands, not the hubs. I'm pretty proud of my home improvement skills here. (Let's hope they stay up)

Another shelf 

 My version of the plastic bag dispenser. 

I actually made two since I had TONS of plastic bags. 

One is metal the other is cardboard. 

First I removed the paper label and washed them out.

Then I spray painted them grey.

(You could leave them as is or paint/decorate them however you like)

Cut hole in lid and stuff with bags.

Complete Finished Project
Yes, that's a HUGE container of vinegar...
I buy my vinegar in bulk.. Don't hate.



All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out.  Much better than the mess I had going on before!  Did you do any home makeovers this weekend?

Source:House Of Grace

The Great Decluttering Act

Every so often I look around and realize we have waaaaay too much stuff laying around... or simply not enough room for it all.  After the holidays is usually one of those times.  I get all ready to sort through stuff and as I look around I just don't know where to begin (seems to happen the most in my daughter's room) and my motivation goes right out the window and I am back to where I started. In a house full of clutter.

However, while browsing pinterest I came across this and thought, Hey I can do this! It's a full year of things to do to declutter your home.  It has specific tasks assigned to each day and most really shouldn't take more than 20 minutes (I said most, I'm personally not looking forward to the storage shelf week).  I have printed this out and taped it to the inside of one of my kitchen cabinet doors so I can easily keep up with it every day.  Click on Complete Calendar below picture to get the calendar for yourself. 

Complete Calendar

Hope you find this as helpful as I did!

Source: MySimplerLife

Back to School

Well Christmas Break is officially over.  The kids went back to school today, and while it's nice having them home, I do look forward to getting back into a daily routine, even if the daily routine means we are busy, busy, BUSY!!  The two older kids are in multiple after school activities, so our afternoons can become quite hectic and with all the paper work they bring home from school, dance, sports, etc it's easy to misplace something, and no one wants to be that mom, you know the one who forgets to send the permission slip back for the field trip, or doesn't bring the dance costume on dress rehearsal day. So, a few years back I went on a hunt for a system to keep all their important paperwork in one place. This is what I came up with:

I went over to the office supply store and found two magnetic wall files (one for each kid) and stuck them on the side of my fridge and VOILA!!! All their paperwork is easily found (and off my counter top).