Meal Planning = Fun?

Looky at what I made today! I happened to stumble upon some meal plan templates during my blog hopping today (I wasn't looking for one), and five minutes later I had my very own.

I love it. I want a little easel to hold this... and maybe a different frame, but hey, this is a frame we had stashed in the basement. Literally, I downloaded the template for free here, printed it, grabbed the frame, and put it together in five minutes or less. I love LOVE that with the template behind the glass I can write my meal plan on it with dry erase markers.

I had to run to the Target anyway so I stopped in the home office section and found these beauties. 

Is it weird that when I saw this package of 8 double sided dry erase markers in 16 colors that I clapped my hands with glee? Yes? Oh.

I'm OK with that.

We were pretty good about eating meals at home for a while, but slowly we've fallen back into old habits of eating out 3-4 meals a week. We realized that we're eating out with friends on Friday and Saturday nights, then usually going out or picking up take out once during the week, and then there is the occasional lunch. It doesn't sound so bad, but we all know eating at home is healthier, saves money, and the food is just better (we know where it comes from). My goal is to have a plan for dinners each night of the week, and fill out my meal plan each Sunday. Doing this should save me a ton of time because I will be more prepared with a solid list to go to the grocery store each week (I heart my Grocery iQ app). Also, it will save me the stress and time spent trying to decide each day what I'm going to cook for dinner with the ingredients we have, or having to run to the store again. Now the challenging part will be keeping it up... but I have high hopes. The best part about meal planning is that it will help me be more creative with meals and trying new recipes. Why haven't I done this before? Well, I have half heartedly... meal planning is not a new concept, I just feel like I finally have my act together!

So now that I'm all set up, here is this week's plan (I've linked recipes if I found them online):

Monday: Fillet Mignon wrapped in bacon with roasted asparagus and couscous (today is a special occasion, we don't have fillets often)
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken with brown Jasmine Rice and salad
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Green Chili Pork Tacos
Thursday: Left over Baked Ravioli (defrosted) with salad
Friday: PIZZA, my go-to wheat pizza dough is here
Saturday: Eat out, or leftover tacos
Sunday: Chili with Pumpkin Cornbread. I'm going to re-attempt this chili...

I'm pretty excited! I should have plenty of leftovers for lunches and to freeze. I may start blogging my meal plans each week... hmm, we'll see. So, are you a planner? What's on your menu this week? Really, I want to know!

This post is linked up to these link parties:
Just a Girl's Show and Share Day

 

Go for Bulk

I love the look of classic glass jars filled with spices and grains. I have admired a friend mine's drawer full of spices in little labeled containers for the longest time (3 years!), and intended to make a spice drawer of my own. Well I finally found jars that I like and decided to actually get the project done. I purchased spice jars as well as a range of other sized jars, and put my label maker to use! I'm so excited! I can now buy spices in bulk and not have to buy containers each time and waste all the packaging - and it's literally pennies for the amount of spices you get in one of those jars that you buy for $2-3. We've had a spice drawer for a while but it was stuffed with those McCormick bottles that had to lie on their sides. Now my spice jars are easy to read and get to, no searching and picking through the drawer! Here's a picture of my finished project (click to enlarge).

Now that we've gone all natural with our foods, I also purchased a bunch of glass containers to hold all our grains (labeled of course, I heart my label maker!) - rolled oats, steel cut oats, cream of wheat, whole wheat couscous, brown rice, raw nuts, etc.. We have containers of pasta (whole grain of course) on our counter top, and then the rest in the pantry. I imagine having them all lined up on shelf in our dream kitchen.

Buy in bulk to save money and the environment!