Dustin has been helping complete a home that will be in the Parade of Homes, MN this march, so we have been like two ships sailing past in the night. He is getting up at 4 am to be to work by 5 and he is exhausted by 8pm. Now add the crazy, fun life I am living. I started watching my nephews on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are two adorable gems who make the days fly by filled with lots of giggles. Kyla has now gotten to "the age of activities". While I am all for kids getting involved in activities to grow their skills and expand their horizons, I really keep it in check. Kyla has been averaging about every other week riding lessons on Mondays at Pine Lake Pastures and every Wednesday night is AWANA.
So, you can see that the first three days of the week are an absolute blur! And I have been struggling with forethought on dinners. That's where Google calender, Pinterest and the wonderful world of blogging has been helping me tame the wild beast of dinner prep!
I go to Google calender and print off the month that I am planning meals for and print off a blank copy.
Then I took one evening at caribou with a decaf Vanilla latte and a pencil( you may notice that the one above is written in pen and it looks all kinds of messed up!) and wrote out a list of all the meals that my family loves to eat. From that list I also made a list of what are quick and easy. Examples: soup and sammies, pancakes or waffles, tacos , any crock pot meal. You get the picture. EASY!!
Those easy meals are what I then plan to make for those crazy busy Monday and Wednesdays.
Now on paper that looks awesome but real life happens! I have a knack for forgetting to take out meat to thaw or I am not in the mood for what I wrote down.
Enter Pinterest and the blog world!
I pinned a link to this blog and was so excited to implement what she does!
Here is another link to
There are some great crock pot meals that are easy to put together
and throw in the freezer for future dinners.
Kyla helping me make twice baked potatoes.
Kyla showing off the end product. YUM!
I spent about 4 hours in the kitchen this Tuesday and I have about twenty "meals" ready to just whip out of the freezer (avg cost per meal $2.50! that is .63 per person to eat!). So, now of those days when I am not feeling what I wrote down was a great meal, I have some different yummy meals to choose from.
So now, life may be moving, but I am able to enjoy the ride a bit more.
2 comments:
Love this post! To add an idea to your list, here's what I have been doing - on Fridays about 1-2 times a month, I go to Byerly's where they have "Five Buck Cluck" - meaning they sell their yummy fully-cooked rotisserie chickens for $5/apiece. I then let the chickens cool some, and shred them by hand (it's easier if you can shred the chicken while still a bit warm so I try to do my shredding on Friday nights instead of Saturdays). I keep the drumsticks for the kids to eat for the next few days, and take the rest of the shredded chicken and freeze it in 3/4 to 1-lb portions using Ziploc bags. I use the shredded chicken for easy and quick chicken enchiladas, chicken tacos, and BBQ chicken sandwiches. I think I figured out that the chicken costs about $3 per meal using this method, and prep time is reduced significantly on the nights we are actually eating the chicken dishes!
These are such adorable pictures! My name is Heather and I was wondering if you could answer a question about your blog! My email is Lifesbanquet1(at)gmail.com :-)
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