Menu Plan Update

Remember my super amazing menu board that's going to revolutionize Husband's and my eating habits? Yeah, that was a big fat fail. Not the finished product, but the actual usage.  Whoever first invented these clearly cook no more than ten specific meals, nor did he or she ever try anything new. Once I went through my recipe binder and created strips for each meal, I easily had 200ish strips of paper. Which had to be sorted through each and every time the board changed. Plus, sometimes we just like to call an audible and eat out or eat something planned for a different day. So I retooled the board a bit.

I recycled all of the paper strips and junk and just hot glued a push pin to a paper pad I had.  The board is really a moot now, but it's so pretty! I left the clothes pins up as well, just in case specific things need to get clipped, like a paper recipe.

On the pad, I just write the various meals Husband and I decide to have when making the grocery list. I put about three meals worth of meat in the fridge and freeze the rest. As we actually cook, I cross the meal off the list and pull something out of the freezer. This has cut down on the amount of meat that spoils.

The pad below the "menu board" lists the staples we're running low on. Then I just add it to the shopping list.

What actually has revolutionized our meal planning/shopping/eating is the greatest website ever: Pepperplate. It's FREE and has an app for iPhone and iPad (we don't do Android, so I can't vouch for that).

It lists all of my recipes...

and you can import recipes--a handful of websites are supported for direct imports...

or you can manually import (i.e. copy and paste from a blog). Let's just say I don't repin recipes from Pinterest anymore. I just upload them to Pepperplate.

You can save the original website source (yay for legal!) in case you need to refer to it and upload pictures. There's even space for notes, so when Husband suggests a variation, I make a note. If a recipe needed a little something, I make a note. 

You can also create menus. We're hosting Christmas this year, so I'm already working on some recipes I may need.

It also has a menu planner, but as I've already mentioned, that style doesn't work for us.

What's truly awesome is you can select the recipes you're cooking and it will generate a shopping list. You can manually add in items (like those staples we're low on) and it's customizable so the categories can be switched up to match your usual grocery store. Because I'm always forgetting SOMETHING that's in one of the first aisles I hit. And it all syncs between devices, so the recipes I import on my laptop are available on my iPad when I cook and the shopping list is always on my phone.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Pepperplate. They have never heard of me and I was in no way compensated for singing their praises. I just think it's awesome, yo.

Weekly Menu

I have a confession. Husband and I eat out too much. Like, way too much. I always begin the week with good intentions, but usually by Wednesday, I'm so wiped out from work and school that take-out rules our household for the rest of the week. And my waistline is certainly showing that. Enter Pinterest (seriously, how did anyone come up with any kind of creative idea before Pinterest?).

Source

Source

The idea is that by having the visual reminder of what's for dinner each night, we curb the "It's a quarter til 7 and we just got home and we still have to walk the dog and what's for dinner?" So last week, I hit up Hobby Lobby to gather supplies (cork board and fabric) and spent a Saturday morning crafting.

I covered the cork board with fabric, hot glued thumb tacks to the clothes pins and meal envelopes (made from scrapbooking scraps), and cut/hot glued the days circles. I decided to do only 6 days because 1) That's all the room my board had and 2) If we can stick to meals during the week, I'd be OK with cheating on weekends.

I went through our recipe binder and wrote down almost all of the recipes (didn't do sides or desserts because I'm lazy and didn't have enough strips). I also made strips for standards that don't need recipes (like spaghetti and porkchops).

Rearranging the magnets and a command hook on the fridge later, you have this:

I know, I'm a terrible tutorialist, but since my inspiration came from tutorials, I figure you can just follow my sources and figure out what to do. Not that it's hard.

I, of course, picked the worst week to try a menu board. Notice I only have meals for Monday and Tuesday. Yeah, that's because Husband has been out of town on business, so I was on my own for 3 dinners. Like I'm cooking for just me. Time will tell if we stick to it, but I have high hopes.

Couple of ideas: I plan on adjusting the strips just a bit. As I was getting the board ready for next week, combing through the ideas was a pain. I'm not quite sure what to do about the overall idea, but I'm planning on making more strips but in different colors. So main dishes would be one color, sides another, maybe even crockpot meals another color. That way if I'm looking for something specific, I can eliminate strips more quickly. The pins will certainly hold more than one strip at a time. I also love the idea of using clothes pins--you could clip a new recipe and after you've tried it, decide to make a strip or let it go.

Also, I like having the shopping list right below. That way, if we have a hankering for something, we can jot it down.

Finally, I think it's a good idea to write where specific recipes can be located on the back. I used card stock for the strips, so Sharpies don't bleed through. Like I mentioned, I wrote the recipes from our binder and usual suspects that don't need a recipe, but I also went through one of our recipe books. We have 3 similar books (Taste of Home from different years), so I'm always confusing which recipe is in which book. I jotted down the book name and year on the back of the strip and I think that will help give even more options.

The strips are the most time-consuming part, but overall, this project was only a couple of hours. And if it helps us get back on track both health- and budget-wise, it's worth it.

Count this as a repin to my "I Actually Did/Made Something from Pinterest!" board

Football Party Planning

I miss football already. :( Only slightly over 200 days until college kick-off!

Yesterday, we hosted our Young Adult group to watch the Super Bowl. We rushed home after church (after donating literally my last pennies to Souper Bowl of Caring, of course!) a

nd did the last minute straightening and arranging. I got out the serving dishes we'd need and started arranging the table. Then I started getting creative. We needed a centerpiece, football--duh. But since our bowls are all wide more than tall, we needed some height. I broke into my stash of scrapbook paper and made some...well, I don't really know what they are, but they're festive and fun, and most importantly CHEAP! I also used some leftovers from another scrapbook project to make some labels for the food. That's where I got REALLY creative! Our menu included Penalty Pretzels, Touchdown Wings, Cheesy "Pig" (Potato) Skins, Saints Salsa and Spinach dip, and Colts Coke and Sprite. Hahaha! Told y'all I was really excited!

Colts' Coke and Sprite

The table earlier in the afternoon. I realized people would have to reach over the football to get to the chips, salsa, and spinach dip. So the football got moved to the back (sitting on a small box covered with a napkin).

I never did get a picture of the potato skins. Guests arrived shortly after this picture (and they weren't completely done). Then they all mysteriously disappeared...which is a good sign I assume!

All in all, our first official party was a success. People had a great time watching the game (even if a few went home disappointed) and afterwards we got to show off the house!

Non-Resolution Challenge: Day 1

I made a promise to myself that, in lieu of actual New Years resolutions, I would take the things people typically resolve and make 1-week goals for myself. I want to start cleaning the apartment on a regular basis and made out a schedule, so I don't have to set aside 3-4 hours to clean it when I can no longer stand how filthy it is. I want to do something physically active every day, whether it's play the Wii Fit (on the Strength Training Challenges, the trainer is a pansy BTW), go for a walk, or actually go all the way to the apartment's gym. I want to cook (really cook, no microwave pizzas) at home more as it's cheaper and healthier. I decided that the first day back to school would be the good starting point.
When I got home, I dusted the office, living room, and bedroom. I played Wii Fit for 40 min. Then I relaxed until Husband got home when I went to shower while he studied. I cooked a dinner of Kilbasa, biscuits, and leftover corn casserole. We also made plans for what to eat the rest of the week. We got very excited about the prospect of eating at home every night for a week, since we also cooked Sunday night. We decided if we did it, we'd celebrate Saturday evening with Moe's!
I feel pretty good on Day 1 of Week 1. Not overflowing with energy, but I don't feel like I'm about to fall asleep either. I'm going to hit the wall about Wednesday or Thursday though. At least with the cleaning and "working out." I'll keep y'all posted.