Meal Plan Review

***********READ THIS POST IN ITS ENTIRETY BEFORE  DUPLICATING FOR
YOURSELF***********   I don't want any hate comments, don't say I didn't warn you...Lol

On my quest for better meal/food/money/sanity management, I thought I'd look on *interest (yes, it is now considered a swear word in our house!) for some fresh ideas. He,he. If only I could go back and tell that poor, little, unsuspecting me what lay ahead. I came across this woman's post/pin: http://thecreativemama.com/?s=menu+board
  All fine and dandy. I thought "Gee, I could make that. It doesn't look too complicated." *snicker*
I bought a frame. I bought lovely colored paper and stickers from the craft store (which, by the way, is about 65-70 MILES away from my home!) Over the span of about one week, I jotted down recipes I wanted to use, where to find them, what category they belonged in and then color coded them. Then, I had to figure out how to make the menu cards on the computer. Glued the fronts and backs together, ''laminated" them with packing tape. Painted the clothes pins in coordinating colors. Used a hole punch to make little circles. Wrote the first letter of the days of the week on the little circles. Glued them to the clothes pins. Decorated a background for the frame. Cut up crayon boxes and covered them with contact paper. Glued them to the frame.
 Darlin' glued the clothespins on for me, using Gorilla glue and clamps. Drying time was up. Took the clamps off. Three or four clothespins came off. Glued them again. Clamps and clothespins came off. "Roughed up" the surface of the frame with an emery board. Glued them once more. Drying time almost through. By this time the kitchen table was awash in papers, stickers, cookbooks, all manner of tape, glue, pens, markers and crayons.
      Darlin' was sitting at the table reading. I took his coffee cup (with about 1/4 cup of coffee in the bottom) to refill along with mine. And then, before I got to the counter, the-dog-walked-under-the-table, bumping a clamp with her back. OOOOHHHH YYEESSSSS..... that's right. In a panic, I lunged for the frame (which was only about 8in away) It hit the chair, coffee spilled all over it. Clothespins went flying.

  I just stood there, dumbfounded. I set the coffee cup on the table and just...walked away. I can't remember what I did next. But when I came back, Darlin' had sopped up the coffee, glued those dang clothespins, once again, back on the dang frame, and was playing in my paper stash. You see, I didn't have any pretty paper left in the colors I picked for my project, and if you remember, the closest place to get scrapbook paper like that was 65-70 miles away. I was done. Who cares anymore! I thought. I will eat PBJ and Ramen noodles for the rest of my life! I poured a cup of coffee and sat next to him. He showed me the new background he made. It was way better than the one I originally made! I LOVED it! *side note-Joe is quite secure in his masculinity, 100% lol*

 And finally, here it is:

The stickers above the type writer read "Acts 2:46" which says "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,"

 Yellow meals/dishes are Mexican, pink is American, green Italian, and brown 'home/country style'

 On the front, is the 'menu'

 And on the back are ingredients that I might not normally have on hand, and usually have to add to my grocery list. On the bottom left corner I have the reference of where to find the recipe. Shown here, it is in my big binder, under tab four.

 Some cards do not have any special recipe I follow. This one I just cook the brown rice (about 45-60 minutes) and follow the directions for the fillets on the box. Boiling/steaming broccoli is nothing special. This is an example of a simple-to-put-together meal for busy nights.

 Others have several 'special' key ingredients I want to be sure to add to my grocery list.

 Cards like this one here have vague descriptions because of the flexibility of the side dishes. You could have mashed potatoes and green beans one night, the next time brown rice, glazed carrots with onions, etc. you can even switch between roasting in the oven, rotisserie (if you have one) or crock pot (my favorite!)
  The recipe for the bread is under tab two in the binder, and the cooking temperatures and times are in another cook book I have.

 This is what it looks like with the menu for the week planned out.

 Once I have used a card, I put it in the right box, until I've used nearly all of them. Then I put them back in the left one and start over.

What I have learned:  *Do not paint the bottom of your clothespins, the paint will stick to the glue and not to it.
* Use a wooden frame. The plastic one was so smooth the glue didn't stick to it well, we had to scratch texture into it. Also, Gorilla glue won't stick to some types of plastic because of what it is in it, and that must have been what my frame was made of. My frame was 11''x14''

* Choose a frame with a flat edge. Darlin' had to use pencils to help hold the clothespins flat on the frame because it is rounded. A couple of times the glue stuck to the pencils too, and when we tried to get the pencils off, off came the clothespins too.
*Keep this project away from animals prone to ''gomminess".
*Have a very talented, loving and patient husband with an artistic flare help you out :)
*Drink chamomile tea and take yoga classes afterwards. Okay, maybe not. But it wouldn't be a bad idea. lol.

After all the aggravation, it is my favorite menu planning system so far. All the planning work is done ahead. I only need to choose which meals we will eat the following week, and flip the card over to add ingredients to my shopping list. I have more paper for the cards, and plan to add more meals when I have time. Right now there are 14 suppers, enough for two weeks and that doesn't count leftover days. I switch it up so we don't always have the same meal on the same day (pizza every Monday, etc) but you can certainly do that if you wish. I like to look ahead that week and see which nights would be better for easier dishes, and which ones I will have time to make more detailed ones.
   I also tried having 7 baskets ($1 each from Dollar Tree) and after coming home from grocery shopping I put the ingredients for each meal in their own basket and labeled it with an index card. Then, when I was ready to prepare supper, I simply took out the basket for that meal and got started. This was so I wasn't digging for cans of sauce and green chilies that went M.I.A under the deep, dark cabinets. The concept of it worked wonderfully, however, I have limited space to store our food, and when one or two baskets only had a couple items in them, I couldn't justify the waste of space. Everything else was so crammed that it defeated the purpose. If I had an actual pantry with better use of space, it would probably work fine. So for now, in this season of my life, that doesn't work for me. (The idea is from *interest too.)
  So for those of you crazy brave enough to follow suit and try it, I wish you the best of luck. For all the others, you may be wiser than you think lol.

Some of Everything

 Why is everyone upside down???

 Totally adorable.
Auntie came to the rescue.

 A once-in-a-lifetime-moment. Serious planning going on in his sleepy little mind lol.

 Uncle time!

 Ooooo, yes, very nice. Um, please keep them outdoors lol.

 Silly face Daddy captured

 "Gimmie that thing, I want to try!"

Standing up.

 "What's in here? Almost got it open..."

 Lunch when the power is out for road construction. Stir fry, yum!

 Sleepy explorer

 MMM! Spaghetti-os!

~Kitchen Tips~

*!WARNING!* This post is not coming from someone with a perfectly running kitchen! Just a normal, crazy, some-times-dishes-get-left-in-the-sink-and-mud-on-the-floor type of kitchen. :)

This is just a short list of some tips I have collected and use in my kitchen. Some are from experience, but most are from what I learned from my mother and others. Nothing special, and probably you've heard them before. Some I had learned from childhood, and after revisiting them, and implementing them, it has made my life a little easier. Which is what I hope to do in sharing them with you. So here goes:

1. Dirty white fridge handles? Over a month ago I decided to do something about my fridge handles. They are slightly textured, which means all manner of dirt and who knows what gets ground into the handle and makes it really hard to clean. So, I got on Pinterest. I saw where someone had made cute cloth covers that buttoned around the handles. Then they take them off and throw them in the laundry. Well, after my last Pinterest project, (which is coming up in a later post) I was just not in the mood; at all to try it. That was a no-go. Instead, I decided to try contact paper. It worked! It is still holding strong, looks good and does the job. It is now much easier to clean, and because it looks like marble, it hides dirt. I got the contact paper at Dollar Tee, the same stuff I used for my laundry room project.
   
2. Free your fridge of clutter. I have found this tip to be a stress relief for me. I no longer have stuff falling off the fridge every time I open the door, and have things get ruined. I have a menu board mounted on the side using Command mounting strips, and some magnets. Other than the occasional note, reminder, or invitation, I do not keep anything on the fridge. *Important note* - I think it is very crucial not to make children feel like they and/or their artwork, achievements, etc. are a burden, clutter, or junk, etc. I'm simply saying things don't have to permanently live on the fridge. When my siblings come over and color/paint pictures, I put them on the fridge and leave them up for 1 week. Then I take them down and put them in a basket labeled "memories to scrapbook" and my plan is to get a 3"inch binder to put all their work in and leave out for people to look at (on a coffee table, end table, etc.). We also have made a rule that nothing goes on top of the fridge or freezer. At first, this was a hard habit to break, but now we never put anything up there. We would lose papers behind the appliances, forget about things, and such.

3.Downsize your dishes/utensils. I only have two drawers in my kitchen, and I'm the type of weirdo that doesn't like everything lurking on the counters. So I took inventory of what I had and what I truly needed to have in order to be able to make a variety of meals. I emptied the drawers and only put back what I had to have. I kept only one set of measuring cups, and one set of measuring spoons. Now when I open the drawers, I can see everything without having to shuffle through and dig. Also, I recently gave away extra mixing bowls. I kept an extra large one, large, medium and small. It makes it easier to get what I need, and to put them away. I still have some downsizing to do, but I have a good start on it. This has been worth the time for me. I find it helpful to ask myself the question :"have I used this in the last couple months?" If not, and it's not for canning or something like that, out it goes.

4. Move less used appliances elsewhere. I still need to do this in one of my cabinets, but boy does it work! When you have to fight a mountain of things everyday to cook, it gets irritating (at least for me) and is no fun. If you take things you don't use every day, or every week, and move it to the basement or some other designated place, it frees up the prime real estate in your kitchen for what you use on a daily basis and reduces stress. I'm talking things like food processors, blenders, buffet serving dishes and such. But it may look different for you. 

5. Clean out the fridge and pantry the day or morning before you grocery shop. I don't always remember to do this, but makes it easier when I do. Not only will shelves be easier to wipe down with fewer food stuffs on them, but it is a good chance to get a fresh look at what you have and take inventory so you don't buy duplicates.

6.Organize your recipes. Last year I think it was, I went through my recipes and seldom used books and put all my favorites in one large binder. I got the idea from  http://www.alejandra.tv/blog/2012/09/video-how-to-organize-recipes/  It cut back on the recipe books I have ( I only kept three very sentimental and useful ones) and made it way easier to find a certain recipe when I wanted it. Here is the link to to the post I did: http://blessingsatfelicityfarm.blogspot.com/2013/12/recipe-binder.html

7. Save time scrubbing the stove top by using a spoon rest. This might seem like a "duh" tip, and probably is, but for the longest time I didn't think it was really that beneficial. Until I finally bought one. Now clean up is a little easier because food drippings don't sit on the hot surface and bake on. There is, of course, still the occasional splatters that just happen no matter what. :)

8.Do dishes after each meal. This is especially important for dishwasher-less people like myself. Dirty dishes all around the kitchen and in the sink cause visual/mental clutter, not to mention hinder one from getting to the much needed coffee pot! lol. I don't always do it, in fact, not too many days out of the week do I faithfully do this. However, it makes the night time clean up much easier.

9.Wash all the dishes before going to bed. Really. I know, sounds like so much fun. This is probably what I would label the single, most important thing on this list for me and dare I say, everyone? The pay off is amazing. What better way to start your day than with a clean, uncluttered sink/counters? Who wants to fight Mt. Dishmore just to get baby bottles in the middle of the night, or a cup of coffee in the morning? I'm not sure any of us would raise our hands. This should be the number one kitchen "commandment". There are days when I don't do this, but let me tell you, I pay for it the next day. But then there are also days once in a while though, when things have been out of this world crazy, and it's just not thinkable to stay up 'till 11:00p.m to wash your dishes. And that is ok. The world won't end because of it. But normally, there is no reason for me not to do this every evening. Then in the morning while coffee is brewing, because they are all clean and have drip-dried, I put all the dishes away.

I hope you all have a great day. Take care and God bless!