Five On Friday

Friday, July 22, 2016

1. Dinners...I am terrible at them. I am terrible at meal planning and prepping and I'd just rather eat out all the time. But, alas, now with a baby things are a little more difficult. I've been writing down all the recipes I can think of on cards in an attempt to make life easier when planning meals and grocery lists. My thought is: each week Chris and I will pick out four meals and I'll just have to look on the card at the ingredients that I need and make my grocery list that way. Is that a good thought? How do y'all meal plan? Do you have any really easy recipes you'd like to share with me? Help!

2. I ordered some new Ray-Ban Aviators and I cannot wait for them to get here. My old ones are scratched and I was due for a new pair.

3. Chris and I have been doing Cross Fit for 12 days now and it sucks, but feels great, all at the same time. I love how the workouts are so short! I had FOUR blisters (on one hand) after Wednesday's workout and thought about crying, but I pushed through.

4. The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is open to the public today! Since I'm not a cardholder (that would be dangerous!) I can now go purchase all the baby boy stuff and booties in my shopping cart!



5. This baby boy of ours and his giggles are killing me! Chris coughed while putting him in his car seat last night and Graham let out the biggest giggles. Then, we kept doing it over and over and he kept giggling. It was the cutest! And, he is 16 weeks old today and I can't believe it! He gets sweeter each and everyday, so as much as I miss him being a teeny tiny baby, we are loving watching our boy grow.

Happy Friday!

7 comments:

  1. Our favorite meal lately has been Mississippi Roast. It's a crockpot meal, so it's SUPER easy and delicious (not spicy if the pepperoncini scares you)! http://allrecipes.com/recipe/246721/mississippi-roast---slow-cooker-pepperoncini-pot-roast/

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  2. I hate meal planning too. I feel like we make the same stuff over & over but since hubby can't/won't cook, and our schedules are never the same, it is what it is.

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  3. I wrote a post on how we meal plan (for two) a few months ago that you might like:
    http://staycraftymyfriends.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-i-do-it-meal-planning-for-2.html

    We don't always stick to our meal plan but we really do try. Meal planning saves us so much money and helps us stay on track with our budget.

    During the cooler months I tend to use my crock pot 3-4 times a week, but during the warmer months Matthew likes to grill a lot so it gives out crock pot a rest lol.

    One thing we try to do every few months that saves us time and money is to have a cooking afternoon. We'll wait until the meat is on sale and we'll stock up and then spend all afternoon (usually about 3-4 hours) cooking it. We'll portion it out into 1lb or 2lbs per freezer Zip lock bag and then just throw them in the freezer. It saves so much time in the afternoons when we get home from work, to just warm it up on the stove or I'll throw it in the crock pot in the morning before I head off to work.

    I get most of my recipes from Pinterest, or I have found some from Christina at Carolina Charm (http://www.northcarolinacharm.com/p/recipes.html), Ruthie at The Chronicles of Ruthie (http://www.ruthiehart.com/p/recipes.html), or Heather at Notes from the Nelsons (http://notesfromthenelsens.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html)

    Have a great weekend! :)

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  4. This sounds ridiculous, but I actually made a list of all the meals that we like to eat that are easy to cook which makes planning much easier! I know that if I pick anything on that list, it will be a hit.

    That said, I think you're off to a good start - that's how we grocery shop. We figure out what we're eating that week and buy those ingredients.

    And the baby giggles - they just keep getting better and better. Happy Friday!

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  5. I love meal planning ☺️ the system I have found that works best for me is looking on Pinterest for recipes and then moving whatever 4 or 5 I want to a separate meal plan board so the recipes/ingredients are easy to find when I go to make them. After the week I move the winners to a "made it and loved it" board so they are easy to find again (and I usually pick 2 or 3 from this board each week) and just delete any that were not worth repeating. I also try and look for recipes with shared ingredients to help save money not waste food. Then I just make my list off the meal plan. Mead (like the school supply brand) has a really good magnetic meal plan/grocery list I've used for years.

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  6. We eat at home almost all the time but I keep it really, really simple. To me that is the secret. I'm either using the crockpot or cooking something that doesn't take more than 20 minutes. We also grill alot...and when I mean alot I mean we fire up the grill and cook chicken, pork loin, maybe some steak and then we use it all week long to make meals by chopping it up, adding some onions, peppers or veggies and making some sort of stir fry or add to tortillas for tacos. My kids head to TBarm on sunday...and I've told my hubby there will be no cooking by me all week!!

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  7. I make a list of 4-5 dinners for the week (some recipes I find, others are old standbys like tacos or breakfast for dinner) and make a grocery list from there, adding in things we need for breakfasts, lunches and snacks. I also break it down by section of the store (produce, meat, dairy/bread, dry) so I can whiz through the store as quickly as possible. I try and include one dinner that won't "go bad" if I don't make it (like shrimp tacos since the shrimp are frozen and the tortillas are in the fridge and can be used for wraps for lunches). That way if we get lazy or order out, I'm not stuck scrambling trying to use up food. My son is a week younger than yours so I hear you on not having time/motivation to make dinner every night! I've been using nap time to prep or even make dinner ahead of time.

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