Meal Planning... What do you do?

So, let's be honest summer is drawing closer and closer to the finish line. Life is about to beckon more of a schedule and plan as activities and school hit full swing.

I don't know if you are like me but if I don't have a meal plan written out meals don't get made or there is a very little change that takes place. Meals then are boring and I hear a lot of "ugh not that again." All that changed when I found Plan to Eat.

Have you heard of them?

No?
Oh, let me share!

Yes?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I have tried so many methods of meal planning over the years. You know the trusty 'ole spiral notebook, free printable calendars, phone, etc and nothing worked because I always got stuck with taking the meal titles and transferring over to a grocery list. That part has always been so daunting to me. Looking at a pile of recipes and individual ingredients makes me twitch. 

Plan to Eat took that away for me! 

I love the idea of sites like eMeals but I have picky eaters in my house and I struggled with coming to terms with paying for a service that may include meals that a.) my budget can't afford and b.) meals my family wouldn't want to eat. 

With Plan to Eat every recipe I add, from ANY website through their add to PTE toolbar button, I know they are meals that sound appealing to my family. I know that I am planning meals that may be hits or not but at least I picked them. 

I love that I can pin a recipe on Pinterest and go to the site holding the beloved meal I'd love to try, click Plan to Eat's add button from my toolbar and this wonderful and they... THEY... import that recipe FOR ME into MY recipe box within my Plan to Eat account. Then the next time I go to meal plan that recipe is already ready and waiting for me to move it over into my meal plan calendar.

As you can see here below that the new recipe I have added now appears on my sidebar under "recently added." All I have to do now is drag and drop into my calendar!

That's.It.

I love how they color code it per meal section as well as allowing me to add extra ingredients or notes wherever I'd like. 

Now, if that wasn't enough to make you giddy let me share with you this gem that has seriously changed my life! 

Notice those 3 tabs up on the top of the last picture that say... cook, plan, shop... ? Well, that cook tab is where all your recipes are held. You can edit them from either screen, the cook or plan. You can give each recipe keywords in order to sort your recipes as you desire as well. That shop button though is my favorite! 

Once I have placed my meals, ingredients, etc into my calendar Plan to Eat instantly creates the shopping list for me!! 

That's right! 

Plan to Eat takes everything the recipe has stored and generates a shopping list for you. All you have to do is move what meals you want where and go to shop and print your list! You do have the option of setting up stores and only printing based on store or department. Yes, they even separate it by the department. 

Does anyone else hear the angels singing!? 

People let me tell you what... that was it... I was sold. Someone who did the frustrating part for me. Sign me up! All that is left me to do before getting online to grocery shop or go to the store was to simply go down the pre-generated list and click the boxes of what I don't need. Soooooo much easier than going through each recipe to see every ingredient and make a list that way. 

Another glorious feature is that they code every.single.recipe.listed and you can print their code. I LOVE this because there may come a time that I can't find 3 ingredients for a certain meal but if they weren't coded I may not remember they all went to the same meal. I can here though. Each ingredient is represented by a letter(s) and I can then look at the recipe key to see what meal it is for. I then can decide if I want to just scratch that entire meal or not. 

As you are walking the aisle, add the price next to each item, if you'd printed your list, and now you have a price list you can work off of when you are planning next! 

I am telling you Plan to Eat has utterly changed our lives. There was a time we weren't sure we could afford to renew our membership and we went a couple months without Plan to Eat. I promise that did not last long. We will always have a Plan to Eat membership because it has literally taken the stress out of meal planning and planning to shop for me. 

I promise this amazing system will change your life too! 

Want to try it for yourself? Plan to Eat offers a 30-day free trial and after your 30 days if you absolutely love it you can buy a yearlong membership for... are you ready for it?

JUST $39/YEAR! 

What!!?? 

I spend $39+ just by going to the grocery store without a list, or a list that is horribly organized! $39 for 365 at my fingertips easy meal planning and grocery list generation. Yes, please! 

I'd love to hear how you meal plan or if you try Plan to Eat out.  This system has seriously changed our lives! 

There are affiliate links included in this post but I was not given anything in exchange for this review. I just wanted to share what we have found and has worked incredibly well for our family. 

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Back to Reality...

The last week has great. Totally able to ignore reality and just... be. It hasn't been without it's heart/faith lessons. I'm thankful that God chose this week for my husband to be home so when I feel weak he was there to build me back up and to reassure what my heart is in the right place. I love that he is my rock like that. Every time I write to God in my journal or post what God is teaching me Satan sees it and attacks harder. Seeing how tough and faithful I really am.

Can't wait to defeat him!

I'm so sad that today is Monday and reality and real work starts back up. We don't want Daddy to go back to work.

Last week I started working on our monthly meal plan. I am hoping this will help those trips that I haven't gotten to making a list and we have to hit the store. It will at least then give us a guideline to buy to make meals. I will post them on here. Hopefully before the end of the month to help keep me accountable too, and help give ideas to you if you are needing some. *wink*

Here is our January meal list. (I'd have put it up here as a PDF but every way I tried it didn't work. So here it is a PNG file instead. sorry) This month our Small Group starts back up and dinner/appetizer is available. So I'm not planning a big dinner to make at home. Just keeping it a simple meal. :) (I can't figure out how to link the meals in the pdf let alone the png now... so if you are interested in seeing the recipes for any of the mentioned meals just email me and I'd be happy to get them for you.) :)

School went well today considering it's been a little to no school work environment for the last month. It was nice to get back into the swing of things but I definitely need to work on our schedule more. I'm excited too that we are adding a new Science to our school year. Our Geology study was not working for us so we went back to Apologia like our daughter had asked for at the beginning of the year. Gotta love the faithful deeply loved curriculum. :) Swimming Creatures here we come! :) We may come back to the geology study at some point but right now we are going to enjoy switching back to Apologia. 

Have you made any mid-school year changes as well? 

I am also working on writing up a reading study to do for the book Sounder. I'm really excited about it and I think it's going to turn out a lot of fun for my 4th grader. :) What else is new... Oh yes my Bill Binder. Still working on that post. Must find time to sit and finish it but it's currently time to go get dinner started so I guess I better get going.

I'm excited for this new year.
This new season.
Just this moment in time.
Just grateful.

Little of This... Lots of That... Total Random Rambling...

Have you ever just wanted to write. Write about anything or nothing. I am in that mood right now. I just want to ramble I guess. I'm sitting here at 6:56am listening to my middle child chomp on dry cheerios because he is the only one awake and is just hanging out watching TV. I successfully did not go back to bed this morning after my husband left for work. Yay, at least 2 days so far this week I haven't gone back to bed. I'll take whatever progress I can. We are halfway through week 2 of our new normal and so far so good still. I am still not used to my husband being home at the same time every night. Although it still takes him an hour to get home everyday it's still an hour earlier than before. I'll take what I can get. So far this week we have successfully completed both days of school. So super excited about this! Especially since we had so much time off before our move. We also switched up our History (as I mentioned in the post below.) I still need to write that all out. What we are doing now that is. We even included an hour long phone with my oldest and one of her dearest friends back home. Get this where they talked about their Science curriculum they each are doing right now. I love homeschooling!!! Have I mentioned that before? We are 2500+ miles away doing the same curriculum (don't mind the fact we are behind them right now due to us not doing school for a month due to our move but who cares about that right!?) and they can talk (and now Skype together) as review with each other about what they are learning in their same class!! AH-MAZING! It makes the miles seem shorter that is for sure! We have scheduled 2x a week Science Skype calls for the girlies! It's going to be so awesome and such a great way of review for them too! I can't wait till they Skype on Friday for the first time!! It's the little things really that make me excited! Speaking of excited... I'm excited things are starting to get settled in here and our new apartment is starting to feel like home. It's so nice and the space... oh the space!! I wish I could say there were lots around here to help make our new state feel like home, but I have to honest losing so many features from our library system is hitting hard. It was such a second hand resource for us! It's really hurting not having all we had available. It's going to take a ton of adjusting. Even for the kids. I'm hoping it doesn't make them lose some of their love for the library, but I definitely see it slipping since it's nothing like they are used to. Ugh, and the even their printing policy. Really hits the wallet!! Must but a printer... ASAP! :( We still have not found our new home church. We have tried out 2 churches so far in our 2 Sunday's here and so far neither have been the right fit. We are checking out a different one this coming Sunday and are super excited and hopeful. God knows which one is to be "ours". We are excited to see if this is it. :) We have starting trying out Google Chrome as a browser for the kids to have some games to play with per a recommendation of our friend. So far I like it. Do you use it? What do you love or dislike about it? Any favorite "apps"? I really need to organize our computer. Photos to print (that is something I don't do nearly enough, but we are hoping to change that!), files, accessibility, and trying to use it to the best of it's ablity. So many features... so much we never use. I would like that to change. Told you this was going to be random. I need to get better at my meal plan. Speaking of I need to look up all the ingredients for tonight's dinner and get that started soon. What are you having? I am thinking of making something chicken in the crockpot, some homemade dinner rolls (we LOVE these!), and parmesan asparagus. Gotta love Pinterest on the inspiration for dinner! I should really be like everyone else and make a weekly post or so of what I have tried or want to try from Pinterest. Lots of yummy food and terrific DIY's! Does anyone else wish Pinterest had a I've done this option? I guess I could create a board that says just that, but I guess a quick checkbox would be nice too. heehee. Oh guess what I made yesterday!!?? I'm so amped about this! I made our own laundry detergent!!!! I have already done 4 loads with it and we are really liking it so far! We absolutely want to stockpile on Fels-Naptha bar soap so we can make lots at a time. I only made one batch yesterday. We have so much powder left over to make so many more batches! It really is more cost effective!! So awesome!!

Well, the rest of the kiddos are waking their sleepy eyes so I guess I should go get my crockpot dinner started and get them some breakfast. Hoping to stay on top of accomplishment today!

Have a great Wednesday!! Thanks for reading my absolutely-no-sense-making-all-over-the-place-ramble.

What's for Dinner?

{Note: This is how I intended to make the meals until I made Tuesday's meal last night and totally spaced setting out the ground turkey for what was supposed to be tonight's dinner. Oi. The best made plans aren't how they seem. I'll be sharing the meal ideas anyways in hopes it will still help. We shall see.}

I am going to do. I am hoping that if I write this down here it will be another source to help me stick to it.

To what?

My meal plan.

I've had the title link there under the header for forever and hardly write about food on here. I want to. I need to. So I am going to give it a go.

Here is what we will be making for the next 2 weeks.

Monday: Crock Pot Chili {It's a turkey one found in the fix-it and forget-it cookbook. I can't find the recipe online.}

Tuesday: Fiesta Chicken Enchiladas (I found this on Pinterest)

Wednesday: Meatloaf

Thursday:  Breakfast for Dinner

Friday: Stuffed Peppers (found this on Pinterest too)

Saturday: Fish Tacos

Sunday: Hamburgers & fries

Monday: Lemon Spaghetti (Requested first day of school dinner... a family favorite)

Tuesday: Chicken Casserole {A recipe my dad passed down to me. It's so good!}

Yep that is about all that I have figured out so far. Won't get me very far huh? Hey we all have to start somewhere. :)

I am feeling very good about this though and praying to stick with it. This summer's activities have thrown things off and I am so looking forward to schedules and homemade meals again.

What's for dinner at your house?

Homeschool Mother's Journal - First official week of summer break

{It's been so long since I have linked up. :( I have missed this journal and you all so much! Thank you Sue for creating this. I am hoping to not miss any more.}


In my life this week...

We enjoyed some my laid back fun. We started the week, on Sunday, with a sleepover at our house that resulted in some much needed mommy hang out time when it was time to pick up. We then just hung out the rest of the week. It was glorious to do nothing honestly. My husband and I enjoyed a trip the dentist on Wednesday and last night there was a birthday party to attend. As well as some adult hang out time with friends. Where I should add the kids did fantastic together even though we left around 10pm.

We have also been working on reorganizing all over our house and gearing up for next school year. Working on our budget and cash envelope system as well.

It's been an awesome week.

My favorite thing this week was...

That we completed even all of our Science mini-books as review. Even though we finished school last week we wanted a quick refresher before we gave a little brain break.

So ready for the break now. ;)

I'm reading...

I am reading Candace Cameron Bure's new book Reshaping It All. I am loving it so far but really I wish I had more down time to just curl up and get lost in it.

I'm cooking...

Ummm.... Tonight I am making Fish Tacos. The last 2 weeks I did not stick to my meal plan whatsoever but am hope full for these next too. I plan on posting my planner tomorrow.

I am grateful for...

Honestly as corny as it may sound... my family. There is just something about this week that has seemed to take the ordinary "I'm grateful for them" to new exciting heights. I guess you could say it has just been a period of wonderful growth for us as God revealed more of his will for us this week. A renewing love and appreciation all the way around.

A photo, link, or quote to share...

This week since I didn't pick up my camera at all, except for my Sweet Shot, I have a quote to share that struck me this week.

"Sometimes God redeems your story by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn't become their future." - Jon Acuff {a member of the Dave Ramsey Team}

I have found this to be so true in our own story. Such true true words.

Hope you have had a fantastic Summer so far!!

Click over to Sue... The Homeschool Chick... to link up and share your Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Stream of Consciousness

{warning: may result in bleeding retinas due to length... I apologize ahead of time}

Wow it's Friday already!!?? Where has this week gone!?

The week's my husband has a late day in the week off really throws me for a loop. I feel like today is Thursday. It's going to be a long day.

I am proud to report that I have so far taken a picture everyday this year {except for the 2nd}. That is a bittersweet accomplishment for me. I really didn't want to jump into the new year and miss the 2nd day! But I have taken some pictures everyday since {and today isn't even close to being over yet!}. I still need to get all my kids together for a picture a month on the same day thing that I was mentioning the other day. I just don't want it to be a day that will pass by each month and get forgotten. Maybe writing it into my calendar would help?? Is that dumb? lol anyways! I have also come to realize I need *lots* of practice with my camera INDOORS! Low light. Steadiness. Grrr this is my Achilles heel. I grow a very quick love/hate relationship with my camera when shooting indoors! I only have the built in flash and am wondering if an external one would help make the difference?? I have got to get one on one with my aperture and shutter-speeds for indoors. I also need an eye exam to get the proper prescription in contacts too because I am thinking that is throwing off my focus as well.

So much I want to do. So many bright brilliant pictures I want to take... Indoors... Outdoors... In general! I however though {if I am honest} get very discouraged when I see these amazingly bright sharp pictures around and then find out they spent lots of time in Photoshop to achieve that look. I am not one that likes lots of edits. Maybe a quick enhance or a little sharpness but that is about it. Once in a while a vignette or funky color just to switch it up some. But all in all I try to achieve that sharpness and brilliantness {is that the correct word? Guess it is now} SOOC. There has to be a way to do that right??? Just one of the many things I want to figure out on my already full plate. It's a fun hobby for me though so I don't mind the work. Just venting about it all I guess.

This week in school we have done alright. Some getting caught up from before the break, and a slow ease back into the flow of "normalcy". We have made great stride in math this week. We have been doing our worksheets "game show" style. Try to beat the timer and if you do better on each section, and paper and beat your time you win a prize. Feel like double or walk away??? I throw in a second paper and if she does better on that paper than the first then she doubles her prize, or she can "walk away with the small prize she won from the first paper. It seems to have been working this week and she seems to be having a lot of fun with it as well. I realize this probably won't last too, too long but I will take what I can get. It's a lot better then crying and dragging of feet.

I am also needing to find balance with my 2nd grader... doing work with my preschooler... and my 18 month old. This is proving interesting, but I  know can be accomplished.

But how!? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Ballet started back up this week for my daughter. It's bittersweet. She loves it and loves the tap and jazz she did over the winter too. My husband and I really loved watching her in tap and she says she had so much fun in it, but we couldn't afford 2 classes only one. She chose ballet. We are looking into getting her into tap again come March so we'll see if we can do both. She did great this week in ballet. She has a big class this time and lots of repetitiveness from this summer. I just hope she has fun with it and will enjoy doing ballet in the spring recital vs tap and jazz like she did in the winter recital. She had so much fun in the recital last month I pray she has just as much fun in the spring one as well. She takes classes just through the community center right now. Maybe someday, if she wants, we can try to get her into a studio... if my wallet can handle it. lol

I have still be faithfully reading Proverbs everyday this month still... even though I know I have 3 days {including today} I need to update on. I wish I could express the joy my heart has been feeling while doing this nightly the past 6 days, but I am not sure how in black and white words to pull the proper elation off. I will have to try to find a way. It's like soaring really. Light as a feather... pure, abundant, weightlessness... joy! May days feel brighter {despite the clouds out my window}. It has been amazing.

Some other reading that has been taking place is my husband and I started doing a couple's kit we have had sitting on our shelves collecting dust. It's one on communication by Dr. Gary Chapman. We read on Sunday and then during the week we are supposed to fill out our individual workbooks and "meet" up on Fridays after the kids hit the hay to discuss our answers. Sadly this week has been totally nuts so neither of us have had time to write in our workbooks. Ha I guess that means we will be writing our answers and talking about this tonight. lol

We also restarted the Love Dare Day by Day devotional. We did some of this last year but sadly failed about 60-70 days in. My being gone for 7 weeks helping my dad didn't help much. We did it over the phone every night for a while and then honestly I had attitude from being gone so long that I know I am the one that didn't seem interested. I was. Really! But it was hard doing it and being gone. Once I got home we had company come and well the year just kept on going while the book kept on sitting. So New Years came and I asked if we could start it again. My husband was hesitate due to fear of failing at it again this year, but we are determined to not let life get in the way, and the first 6 days we have done great! I look forward to all the rest!

If you haven't done this book or even looked into it yet I highly recommend you do! It's really awesome!!

I am really excited to finally be getting some updated pictures of all of us up and around the house. My husband bought this awesome collage frame right before Christmas and we finally got all the pictures printed and put in last night. It looks amazing! I can't wait to get it hung up. That is something else I wanting to tackle this year. Make my home feel more cozy and decorated. We don't really have any decor and it's starting really wear on me. I hope to be able to change that this year. That would really make my heart sing, and help with all of us having pride in our home.

With that comes needing to desperately figure out something in my boys room. It's either time for bunk beds and that means my 18 month old is going to a big boy bed or we have some inconvenient rearranging to do. Both of which I nervous to tackle, but at least I know bunk bed wise we might be able to have grandpa build it. So we shall pray what route we are to take because something needs to be done. My 18 month old keeps opening the door from his crib and banging on the wall to let us know he is wanting attention. It's getting a little much. Sure that sounds like bunk beds would only keep him up and down more, but we are praying that might not be the case and that it will actually help him learn to be still when he needs to be. Lots of wishful thinking I know. One can hope right?

I need to post our meal plan for the next 2 weeks. Ours I write out based on paydays and shopping days. Both of which were yesterday. I am hoping by doing so it will help me to actually stick to it! Oh yes I am the queen of writing it out and never following through with it. I don't want that to be the case anymore. So here's to hoping!! My husband would like me to stick to it too lol. It then would help prove how helpful this might actually be. Must do it! Must do it! All part of being organized. Which reminds me I need to get to work on our household binder. I have been wanting to do this for years and this year I am going to do it. Got to get us more organized, but that is another long bleeding retina post alone. I'll spare you. lol

You're welcome. :)

Ok I guess since my daughter is now done with her math test I should probably go grade it and move onto another subject while my littlest monkey is napping.

Guess there was a lot on my mind. Sorry about that.

Hope your week has been great and your weekend beautiful! Happy Friday!

{I apologize if you have gone blind while reading... :) please forgive me}

Meal Planning

Do you do it?

Thought about doing?

Love it... hate it.... 

To be honest I am not sure I am sold on it yet. But don't get me wrong I absolutely love the perks of it. 

Knowing what you are going to have that day. Taking the guess work out of staring into the abis of cabinets thinking... Hmmm what to make??? While I have still faced those same times and questions the one think I have yet to figure out is how is it saving me money? I'll be perfectly frank my husband and I have a small budget of about $200 every 2 weeks for groceries and toiletries for a family of 5. Yes very tight, and yes that includes a pack of diapers from Costco at least once a month and pull ups here and there as well! (Note this is the same budget we have had for years now we have just added 2 other family members to the mix. So we have kept the same food budget we had for 3 people now it's just 5. There isn't any wiggle room on the amount even though the amount of people have grown.)

We have done what we call "blind shopping" for years. A quick list and methodically go down every aisle. Grab the usual and then pick some other things. No really plan or direction. Sometimes what stinks about this is there are missing ingredients during the 2 weeks to make "complete" meals, but honestly it seems like we get more in our cart and pantry that way. When we have made out meal plans and done our shopping for 2 weeks at a time it seems as if we are stretched tighter, can not get all that we need, and end up leaving "meals" off our lists and spending more than we have. Which then leaves me feeling very discouraged and like I have yet again failed in the food dept for my family for yet another 2 weeks, and since there is no other money until my husband gets paid again we have to stretch what we are able to get and are still left looking into the abis asking Hmmmm what to make??

I have not 100% given up on the idea of meal planning. I have not given up on wanting to plan and have things ready and/or available for my family to choose for dinner, but my budget can not take it anymore. It honestly feels like we are getting worse vs better when grocery shopping when we have a meal plan to go off of. I thought that wasn't the point. Then again maybe I have received the wrong idea about meal planning.

Either way something has got to change. We need to figure out a different approach to this grocery shopping gig. We need more bang for our buck like everyone else, and I have yet to figure out how. Don't asking me about couponing because honestly the awesome technique of saving more than you spend is not something I have not figured out how to do with the stores that are in my state. What I wouldn't do to live on the East Coast or Midwest where so many bloggers have shared valuable information on how to do so. Alas, I can not find any for my area with such information.

So until we can figure out how to best tackle this dilemma I am not sure what to do.

Anything you do that really helps out your family??? 

(and if you are ok with sharing maybe what is your budget and how many mouths does it feed?) 

Makeover time...

As of tomorrow my baby is going to be 1! This is a bittersweet moment for me. He is the last baby in the house. Yep I think we are officially done. That is unless God has other plans we don't know about. Either way that's besides the point. You see I am still carrying around baby weight from my 7 year old! Oh yes she is the one I gained so much weight on. I have always struggled though with self-esteem and weight issues. I used to always been on the slender side but not anymore. I have had 2 other kids in the last 7 years and have lost their baby weight, but not my first's weight. Not that I expect to get back into my size 4 Rockies but close would be nice!

Now my sister, who has also always struggled with weight, has been doing a 6 week bet with her husband to try to lose weight. She is much heavier than I am and younger but such an inspiration!! She is doing 1200 calorie diet a day and hitting the gym constantly!! This is the end of her 4th week and she has lost 17lbs so far! She is so dedicated and determined. I admire the heck out of her! Now the gym is not a place I can go since we only have one vehicle, 3 kids, and my husband doesn't get home until 7pm or sometimes later. Sure I could try to hit the gym once he gets home, but honestly it isn't in the budget... like many other things.

Now before you say I am just making excuses I do have the Wii Fit and the Power 90 DVD's I am dying to do. Time though. That sneaky little devil is what is keeping me from hitting these useful tools and putting them to my benefit. So I have been contemplating how early I am going to need to get up in the morning to do these things without kiddos under foot. I am hoping by putting this out there and writing about it that it will get me not only motivated but accountable to get healthy. Not only for myself but for my family as well. My daughter is wanting to get healthy and fit as well. So we will be able to exercise sometimes together as well.

We, as a family, are also wanting to get more homemade. To be less reliable on store bought items and start making more homemade items. Small portions and healthier ingredients. Sticking to the meal plans I write up and all around give our family a makeover in every area. More time with God, more time together, change our budget... an all around makeover.

So I am hoping to track our progress... Share success and progresses... Failures and struggles... Meal plans and possible budget makeovers.

Here's to hoping for positive change/new traditions and way of life to be passed down to our children and hopefully our children's children.

Curiosity Question...

When and if you budget for your family... 

Do you separate your budget to just food and then toiletries?? 

OR 

Do you include those all together in the same dollar amount weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly?? 

Inquiring minds would LOVE to know. Thanks :)