Two - for - One!

Today, I thought that I would combine a post about being healthy with a post about meal planning b/c they really do go hand in hand. I started meal planning probably about 2 years ago. I was frustrated with going to the grocery store, buying lots of random stuff only to find out when I got home that I was missing all sorts of ingredients to make a good meal. Plus I was spending WAY to much at the store!

I came up with a quick word document where I could think through what we would be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I always do two weeks at a time. (** I was trying to link to my document but I haven't been able to figure out how yet!)

First, I list any activities that we have going on in the week so that I am able to plan accordingly. Next, I add in meals that maybe I had already bought ingredients for but never made. Then, I start filling in the blanks with meal ideas.

I will usually look through the grocery store ads/ coupons to see what I can get on sale as I decide what to plan for. I also try and balance out our meats. For instance, I try not to plan three meals in a row w/ red meat, reasons varying from cost to trying to find something a little healthier. I also try and plan at least one meal a week that doesn't have any meat in it. This can really cut down on your grocery bill! Good alternatives are Mexican dishes w/ beans instead of beef or veggie pasta dishes.

Also, when I go shopping I try and specifically plan for breakfasts, lunches and even snacks. When I neglect to do this we are far more tempted to go out, which costs more and can once again not always be the healthiest.

For breakfasts I try and always have: bread, eggs, oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, fruit...

And now I can't lie.. I like to have a can or two of biscuits in the fridge. I love them! I also always have a big box of Bisquick at hand for pancakes/waffles.

For snacks: once again yogurt, fruit, carrots or other veggies, trail mix, lunch meat, tortillas are good to have to whip up a variety of snacks- quick cheese quesadilla or warmed up w/ peanut butter, and once again.. I can't lie.. I'm a sucker for chips and salsa!

Finally, before I completely settle on a menu I go through and do a rough estimate of what each meal will cost. I make sure that these meals together will keep us within our budget. I always try to be under seeing as how things can sometimes end up costing more than I had thought.

I also check to see that the meals don't all consist of rich, hearty foods. Now, I in no means have gone and cut out all of our favorite casserole dishes. I just try and make sure that my menu is balanced out and try and find new healthier spins on some of our favorite meals.

In the beginning this use to take me quite some time to plan everything out.. but now it doesn't take me long at all. I guess its like anything, practice does help!

Next week I'll post on how I organize my grocery lists/coupons!

With the good comes the bad (atleast this weekend it did for me)

Saturday, Matt and I baked our first big ham (w/ a bone, I might add!). Actually we baked two. We had a dinner after our church service yesterday. We were sooo impressed with ourselves!



I had also planned on baking some rolls on Saturday. They are just the frozen kind, but you have to let them rise for 3-4 hours. Well the ham took longer than I thought it would, and so we ran out of time to bake the rolls before we had to be somewhere. I just thought oh.. I'll bake them when we get home, they'll be fine.

When we got home about 3 hours later the rolls had BALLOONED! They were coming out of the pan they were so tall. Long story short, they ended up in the trash. Matt thought this whole thing was hilarious, it took me a day or so to find the humor in it all:)


Now my goals for the week:

It's a short week. We are leaving town as soon as I get out of work on Wednesday, so not much time to do a whole lot, but here we go..

-continue w/ waking up early every morning

- work out at least once if not twice before we leave town

-keep the house clean for the next 3 days so that we can come home to a nice house

-finish laundry/washing sheets on beds

-take wedding rings in for warranty check


Menu:

Honestly, I don't have one for the week. My fridge is stocked w/ leftovers that will last for the next two days and then we will be hitting the road. I love weeks like this!

Cranberry-Orange Bars

I had bought a bag of cranberries and decided that I wanted to find a yummy baked good recipe to use them in. While I was searching the internet, I came across this recipe over at Good Things Catered. And all I have to say is wow. They turned out AMAZING! They were also really easy to throw together. I've been picking out recipes to use for our Christmas Open House coming up in a few weeks and this one definitely makes the cut!

Thanks Katie for such a great recipe!

Cranberry Orange Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 c. butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp orange zest
2 c. fresh cranberries

Directions:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
-Beat together sugar and butter until lighter in texture.
-Beat in eggs, orange juice and vanilla until combined
-Add flour and baking powder and mix well (should be the consistency of a cookie dough).
-Fold in orange zest and cranberries.
-With an oiled spatula, spread batter evenly in a 9x12 prepared baking pan.
-Bake for about 40 minutes.

And if you need further proof of just how amazingly good these are...





I'm sooo eating the rest tonight! (yes.. I'll share w/ Matt)

Open Face Thanksgiving Sandwich- One of Matt's Faves

This past Sunday I made Matt and I a little (sort of) Thanksgiving meal...

Matt loves "Thanksgiving leftover Sandwiches". My mom found this great recipe a couple years back. That year we made the sausage stuffing from scratch. Now for a quick meal I cheat and use the box stuff.. but hey it is sooo good!

This is hardly an original recipe, you probably do this w/ all of your leftovers anyways.. but just in case.

Ingredients:

Bread (thicker slices)

turkey (thicker slices also)- I just went to the deli, picked out a kind that looked good (cranberry-orange!) and asked him to slice it thick.. not exactly the real stuff, but works just fine!

stuffing

sausage ( i used Italian b/c that is what we had, pork, sage, whichever you prefer)

cranberry sauce (yes I cheated again and used the canned stuff)

apple sauce

turkey gravy (you guessed it.. the can)

Directions:

Okay so this is more like a compiling of ingredients.. but Matt LOVES this stuff. And I would be lying if I said that I didn't also:)

Prepare stuffing according to box. Add in cooked sausage. ( I only used 1/2 lb to one box stuffing) Heat turkey on stove top w/ gravy. Combine cranberry sauce and apple sauce.. one can and then I just eyeballed the applesauce) and heat on stove.

Layer- slice of bread, turkey/gravy, stuffing w/ sausage, and a little (or a lot!) cranberry-applesauce mixture right on top.

That's it.. a sort of thanksgiving dinner in less than 30 minutes! And this is a great way to use up some of those leftovers from this coming Thursday!

Grocery Store Victory!

Well, I'm not anywhere close to the point where I go to the grocery store and buy $152 in groceries for $0.35! (I still don't understand how people are able to do that.. crazy!) But this past week I did save $12.00 in coupons!

For some time now I've been clipping coupons. Now I can't say that it always saves me a lot of money. For one, coupons are usually for name brand items, so saving 25 cents on a box of $4 cereal... not such a good buy...especially, when you can get off brand cereal for half the price. So, I have have started scouring the grocery store ads, either online or the ones that come in the paper, and have been trying to double up sales that grocery stores are running w/ coupons. This can equal out to some great deals. For instance this past week Matt and I picked up cereal for $1 box. It was already on sale, plus I had coupons!

MoneySavingMom has been a great resource for me when it comes to finding good coupon deals. Now, she is a pro and she admits that it takes time to work up to the savings that she is able to accumulate. But it is still helpful to reference.

Also, if you haven't yet... you should really give Target a try when it comes to groceries! Their food is not expensive as sometimes it is rumored to be, as long as you buy their off brands, Archer Farms and Market Pantry. They both have really great products. Plus, you are able to use both manufacturer coupons with Target coupons on the same item! (go here for Target online coupons)
Target, also offers gift card promotions fairly often, where if you buy a product (normally name-brand) you get a gift card in return. I have scored some great deals by doing this!)

One more tidbit.. if you have a coupon but the store you are at doesn't carry the product, a lot of times they will honor the coupon on a similar product. Just make sure you ask an employee first, but it has worked often for me!

My hope is that since I am getting into this habit now, while shopping for only 2 people, I will be better prepared when I have a whole family to feed.

I'll post more later about my grocery shopping attack plan, including meal planning, grocery lists, coupon organization.. and so on.

Do you cut coupons?

Family

I have been reading in Genesis for some time now and this past week I was reading a lot about one particular family, especially the two brothers, Jacob and Esau.

In short form, Jacob received a blessing by their father Issac that was meant to be for Esau. He tricked his father into giving him the blessing. (Gen. 27) This wasn't even the first time that Esau had been cheated by Jacob. (Gen. 25: 27-34)

Can you imagine, being cheated by your brother in a way such as that, not only once.. but twice! The anger and hurt that Esau felt, had to be incredible.

Here is what got me though... years later, after Jacob had a family of his own, as did Esau they were about to cross paths. Jacob was fearful, he did not know how Esau would react to him. He even sent slaves out ahead of him with a gift of herds of animals, almost like a peace offering. (Gen. 32)

When Esau and Jacob finally met though..

"But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept" Gen. 33:4. (You can read more here)

If this isn't an example of forgiveness.. I don't know what is...
If this isn't an example of the love that a family has... of the love that Christ has shown us... I don't know what is...

I was struck though when I started thinking about whether or not I exercise that kind of love in my own life.

On Sunday, my husband shared during his sermon a story about his family. (coincidentally). Matt's dad caused him a lot of grief growing up.. alcoholic, abusive, not there. This past summer though Matt started to receive letters from his dad. Honestly, the hurt that Matt has gone through b/c of his dad could have caused him just to toss the letters, but you know.. he read them and he wrote his dad back. Now, they have been writing letters for months and just this week Matt talked to his dad on the telephone for the first time in years.

Now, I don't have quite the same story that Matt does and maybe you don't either... but the Lord has been showing me how even in my own family I need to show Christ's love to them.

~I need to pray for my family more.

~I need to ask them how I can pray for them.

~I need to consider their needs more.

~I need to ask them how they are doing more often.

The Lord has especially been speaking to me about my sister and the lack of a relationship that we share. She has gone through some tough times and I regret the fact that I wasn't always there for her. It's nuts how a complete stranger can be hurting and we run to them but sometimes in our own family we just put it off.

So, I am really praying for my sister.. not just mentioning her name in a long list of people. I sent her a card a couple weeks ago and I'm going to again this week.

Family is such a gift, even through the heartaches.. and believe me, I've had my share.. but Christ has put us each in our own family for a reason.

Lord,

Thank you for my family.

Help me Lord to not take them for granted. Help me Lord to not only see my family for what they can do for me Lord, but how I can better serve them. I pray Lord that my relationship with each of them will continue to deepen. I pray that I will be a true light and testament to you in each the relationships that I share with them. Lord, give me wisdom , give me patience, give me understanding...

AMEN.

Being Healthy - What this looks like for me...

With Thanksgiving just days away, the season of eating is here. Delicious hearty foods, desserts, candies.. YUM, YUM, YUM.

At my work they have a wellness club that promotes different health activities throughout the year. This week started a new challenge, "Maintain Don't Gain". For this challenge we are encouraged to do some sort of physical activity for 150 min/ week. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to go run 5 miles everyday.. walking, yard work, playing some sort of recreational sport.. all of these count. The point is just to get you to be active.

I like these sort of challenges b/c this is good to incorporate into your lifestyle on a daily/ weekly basis anyways. Obviously some weeks are busier than others... and missing days happens, that's just a part of life.

Almost a year ago Matt and I joined a health club. It has been such a good thing for us. My personal goal is to be at the gym at least 3 times a week. I usually run 1-2 miles on the elliptical,lift weights (arms and legs) and do an ab workout. My goal is not to turn into some crazy fit person.. I'm just trying to be healthy. I have felt so much better by making this part of my weekly routine, I even feel less tired than I used to.

Now, don't feel that you have to join a health club to exercise or to practice an active lifestyle. My mom is very into exercising but she never had a gym membership (until recently). She LOVES to walk though... and a great way to do this is to grab a friend and walk around your neighborhood or if its cool around the mall or some other large indoor facility. There were even ladies at my church growing up that would come and walk in the church gym...

Another part of being healthy has nothing to do with working up a sweat. Try this holiday season to not get stressed, get some sleep and just enjoy being around your family. This might mean delegating a little more by asking others to help if you are feeling overwhelmed, trying to exercise patience with out of town guests/ family you haven't seen in awhile.

So...throughout the next seven weeks I will try and post weekly on this challenge that I am participating in. I'll let you know the activities that I am trying to incorporate into my week that promote a healthy lifestyle. This week I will *try* and be active each day in some way. I will try and eat a healthy breakfast each morning and grab healthy snacks when hunger strikes, rather than grabbing a bag of potato chips. I will also try and work out in my yard this week. It is amazing the kind of workout that you can get from just raking/bagging leaves! (besides.. Matt and I really need to finish up this project anyways) So those are my plans for the week... nothing much... but every little bit helps.

**Oh and one more thing.. these pictures are of two of my favorite girls... This is a day that Matt and I took them to a park, a great way to get exercise.. not only for the kids, but for you too! You know what I'm talking about.. "PLEASE PUSH ME!"