Almost guilty...

Right after the super duper scary Halloween decorations that completely make our little ones come unhinged at the store gets taken down...it is then time for us to make small talk about how the commercial push of Christmas is driving out Thanksgiving. We complain about not enough time to enjoy the fall colors before we are overwrought with the "Red and Green" and we are blinded by LED Snowman glowing like it is radio active when we walk in the door to the store. I mean Eggnog Lattes can never come soon enough...but can all the Christmas stuff hold off a little bit....Well, that is what "we" say when making small talk anyways.

However, my sister and I have little count down to Christmas timers that go off in our chests simultaneously in October...We are hit with the sudden need to get organized for the holidays. It is time to nail down plans, exchange names, get the wish lists written and dispersed, plan what crafts we will make, meal plan for any holiday meals that might take place...I like to prayerfully decide with my husband what holiday activities we want to make happen so that we don't get too busy in December. In fact, I like to have all presents wrapped and accounted for, and Christmas cards done by Thanksgiving. Time is ticking!!!

Every Thursday we try to do a fun family activity. Sometimes we play games, or go out for Burger King, or do a craft or seasonal activity. As I was thinking through our Family Fun Nights for November I was thinking we could use that time to make Christmas presents. We really like to pick crafts that we can do as a family to share. My motivation for getting all the gifts and stuff ready in November is so that we can have a more focused Advent Season.

In our family we choose to celebrate Christ's Birth at Christmastime. (We have always known that Jesus probably wasn't really born in December, but for an extensive expose on why we choose to celebrate Jesus' coming at this time of year you can ask my husband the Pastor/Seminary Student.) We love the idea of taking a month to go through the lineage of Jesus and use Advent as a tool to learn about what lead up to Jesus' coming and talk all about who Jesus is.

So, my excuse for almost skipping over Thanksgiving related activities during Family Fun Night seemed like a good one...Jesus. However, on our first Family Fun Night in November we decorated for Thanksgiving. We have a few Pilgrim decorations and a Cornucopia. We had a great time putting them up and it lead to some great conversations about Thanksgiving and thankfulness. CJ was even inspired to write a cute short story about Thanksgiving.

This got me thinking....maybe we need a bit more time to devote to Thanksgiving...Maybe we should stop and Give Thanks to God as a family and that would be important too. So, we are going to make the most of our two Family Fun Nights before Thanksgiving! We are going to make a thankfulness tree on one night, and hopefully make some place mats. Well, that's the plan anyway!

I think we can take the time be thankful and still get all the Christmas gifts done, it may take some simplifying so that we make sure we keep our focus. But, what better way to start the season than with a thankful heart.

Meal Planning- The Method Behind the Madness

So here I sat, dreaming of the impossible... a long list of values, motivations and standards to incorporate into my Meal Plan to End All Meal Plans... Our Family Recipe book of the past, present and future.

I had the hope and dream that if I put in the hard work now...it would really pay off later.

I had my stack of recipes, my spiral bound notebook and my tea and then inevitable dark chocolate...

Where to start???!!

I came up with a formula...and then filled in the blanks...then edited and tweaked what I had.

So here was my formula:

Sunday: Crock Pot Meal, Chicken or Roast 

Monday: Beef Night (Quick, easy, meal because my husband works late on Mondays and is not home for dinner.)

Tuesday:  Personal Pizza Night...everyone got to make their own on a whole wheat English Muffin. (At the time it was my husband's day off... and I didn't know about my kid's allergies)

Wednesday: Something using leftovers from previous meals, incorporate meat from the roast or chicken. Or a chicken dish.
Thursday: Beans, possibly vegetarian. Beans are very cheap (and come free from WIC), and going meatless for one night a week has its benefits both financially and physically.
Friday: Seafood/Fish -- this sounds more glamorous than it is...we get a lot free tuna fish from WIC and I wanted to find creative ways to incorporate tuna into meals. (Although, I do have a special night with Teriyaki Salmon Steaks.)
Saturday: Left Overs or BBQ on the grill.

*You may have noticed that we do not have Pork Night...simply because we do not love Pork. However, ground sausage does show up in a meal occasionally.

For us, five days worth of meals works out well. This give us a chance to use up any leftovers, and fill in with my husband's favorites (Burgers and Pizza...which he would be very happy to eat every day.)

This formula was a great frame work for me to use to organize our meals. I started putting the pieces to the puzzle together. Some meals didn't make the cut, while I had to go searching for new ones to make the flow work.

I did repeat meals...especially favorites that happen to be super easy. Other frequently repeated meals are Roast and Cooking a whole Chicken. These are easy, and a great source of left over meat to incorporate into later meals.

Once I had the formula...the weeks of dinners really came together!! In fact, I was surprised when I came up with 10 weeks of dinners!! It was a bit much...but when I considered that I wanted a Family Cookbook...it was a nice amount of recipes.

Once I decided on what the plans consisted of, I had the arduous task of typing them up and formatting them nicely into a recipe book. When I started doing that...10 weeks seemed like over kill!! But, it was worth it in the end.

Then came the shopping list phase...more on that later!

Meal Planning- Values behind the plan

When I decided to make the meal plan to end all meal plans, it turned into a "project." I started out with a stack of pages ripped from magazines (this was before Pinterest) and a list of values and goals that I had for our meals.

I wanted our Meal Plan to:

• Save Time and Money: I needed meals that fit together like a puzzle, with overlapping ingredients.
• Keep us out of the dinner time rut, and introduce my children's pallets to a variety of flavors and textures.
• I also wanted to make sure that we planned to have some of those dinners we love, but take a bit of extra planning and work, in addition to meals that you can throw in the crock pot in ten minutes and then get on with your day.
• I wanted really healthful meals that packed in the vegetables. My kids tend to eat more vegetables when they are part of the main meal. If the veggies are on the side...they seem like an option or separate entity...rather than just being food that equals dinner.
• I wanted our dinners to be enough and then some. Where we could use the left over dinner as lunch the next day, or have enough where dinner today can become a freezer meal on a crazy day.
• Most of all, I wanted this Meal Plan to turn into Our Family Recipe Book. I am hoping that these meals will someday evoke memories and warm feelings about times we spent around the table as a family. I wanted meals that my kids could grow up with and become their favorites.
• I also wanted to have a group of meals that I can practice over the years and become an excellent cook. More over, I want my kids to grow up helping to cook these meals. When my children turn eleven or twelve my goal is that they would start working their way through the cook book and master every one of the recipes. The goal is to have the kids be able to not only help with dinner, but cook it all by themselves.
• Having a book of recipes also helps my husband jump in and help with the cooking. If he has well written directions in front of him, he is willing to help me with dinner. Sometimes I really need his help!!
• A little while after I started the Meal Plan Project, we discovered our children had severe food allergies. Shortcuts and frozen meals were not even an option. I had to put together Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Egg Free dinners. I had to either adapt recipes that I already had or find new ones on the internet. Out of kindness, it was also preferable to my husband to be able to add some dairy to his meals separately...because he wasn't ready to give it up!

That was a tall order...and it took some time to organize my thoughts and to start laying out the meals week by week. The end product was well worth it!!

Counting your stars!

When you live in the greater Seattle area...and your mom writes a blog that includes the word Latte...chances are... your mom likes to drink lattes. And, if you have a grandma that also likes to drink lattes...as a kid you might be introduced to the magic of the extra foamy deliciousness of steamers.

I know I was amazed and thrilled when my Aunt Susan introduced our family to the wonderful world beyond Hot Chocolate...a world of flavored milk. It sounds silly...but isn't that childhood? Reveling in the simple pleasures, enjoying so enthusiastically the joy of a special treat.

But, as a child, once you are introduced to said foamy goodness, it is just a hop, skip and a jump until you have made the leap to expectation and entitlement. If it is good sometimes...wouldn't it be go good to have all the time? Of course...more is better!

Since we live about 25 minutes away from the nearest espresso stand in our tiny town...going into town where they exist is an event in itself. Add to the fact that we only have one car, so we are not venturing out into the little town...let alone...into the big town where they have Starbucks (the place where they actually pay enough attention to your order to write it on your cup...you take this for granted people!! You wouldn't if you lived out where you get drinks you didn't order and then are made to feel like you ordered it wrong...I digress) And since my espresso maker has long since died...we all want to get a special drink when we can.

However, I can barely afford to support my love of espresso, let alone a steamer habit for my kids. And, while I do experience some form of guilt when I get one and they don't...I still get one. My explanation is that mommy changes a lot of diapers, and since I change the most diapers in the family, I get to have a mocha.

Despite the diaper changing justification...the issue of when and how often they get a special steamer was still there. As was the ever looming issue of entitlement.

Then it all came together...we had another issue that we were searching for a way to remedy using some positive reinforcement. So we started a Star Rewards Program all our own. For every night that the girls stayed in their beds once they have been tucked in...they earn a star. For every seven stars they earn a steamer.

This has been a great hit! Not only have they been staying in bed, but they know that when they earn their steamer...they will get their steamer.

So far, so good!!

Meal Planning...The Journey

As with most things in life, meal planning has turned into a journey...or at least a growing-changing process.

When I first got married I kept hearing people say the phrase "The key to saving money on groceries is to meal plan."

Meal Plan... I thought that I knew what that meant, but I really didn't. My first attempts as an early bride basically entailed planning out what I wanted to make and making a list before I went to the store. This method replaced my original "Single-Girl-in College Plan." That plan was simply- no plan- or just put things that look good in the cart as you go. And I would get some basics for meals that I would regularly throw together.

As a new bride I was inspired to expand my cooking skills. We were also moved to the country and my husband was working on a farm...so I had access to all kinds of amazing vegetables, many of which I had never cooked with before. My meal plan probably saved us some money, but it's purpose was fueled by the desire to learn to cook. This was a great learning and growing process. I honed my skills, made some flops, made some masterpieces, tacked a whole Better Homes meal, and discovered more about our taste and preferences.

When the kids came it became clear that Meal Planning needed to look different. I did not have time to gather up magazine recipes and plan out cooking adventures. I didn't have time to make a list! I was also so tired of the stand by meals like; spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, meatloaf and roast.

Around this time I was reading a lot of Sandra Felton's suggestions about organization. She suggested making a two week meal plan complete with a list. When you have a rotating meal plan you never have to try and think up dinner on the spot, and you don't have to spend time making a list.

I realized that the only way we were going get out of our mealtime rut is if I had a book of recipes, and all the ingredients on hand. And, since my husband does all the grocery shopping, I needed to be able t
o hand him a well organized list with out any notice.

I also attended a Wise Woman Workshop at our church about cooking healthful meals on a budget. It was like being at a cooking show! It was so much fun, and so hands on...I got to see these ladies in action, and learned some great cooking skills.

Two huge tips I picked up for making my meal plan were super fundamental. The way to save time and money when you meal plan is to have meals with overlapping ingredients. For example: Make a chicken on Sunday, then use the left over chicken in a meal on Tuesday. Or Make a Roast and Mashed potatoes and make extra mashed potatoes for your shepherd pie the next day. If you are browning beef for tacos, brown extra to add to your spaghetti sauce the next day. Meal Planning is like a big puzzle and if you get the hang of it...you actually do save time and money.

So, with these new insights I was inspired to create the meal plan to end all meal plans...and it became a project! Stay tuned to hear more....