How I am tackling meals right now....

 Last fall school started with volleyball practice, flag football, kung fu, co-op, and recovering from fatigue, so after quite a few weeks of chaos I changed somethings around to get dinner on the table because I was failing big to get my people fed.  I love cooking because I love eating.  And I like eating really good food.  Flavorful, nutritious, and warming-- especially during the fall and winter months.

I am old school in many ways, and I love my paper and pen lists and I love my spreadsheets, but not a big fan of apps to keep my meals and grocery lists in one spot. So, some of this may not speak to you or you may think, doesn't she know this could be easier on this app?  By all means, leave some feedback on things you think could help me streamline, but know I may just have a piece of paper and pen with me at the store anyways and we can still be friends.  

So, I picked 5 weeks of meals so we have lots of options.  I don't cook on Thursdays- too late and too tired to cook after co op, Friday night will forever be homemade (or not) pizza night, Saturdays- date night, can I get an Amen? and Sundays I am trying to make easy meals that are meatless, I typically plan for our week on Sunday evening. Here is my list:

Then I made a list of everything I would need for the recipes so I can do a much faster scan of what we have and don't have for the meals.

This is a list the family uses to write done or mark off when we are low or out of or need to get.  Its not 100% fool proof, even after I declare a grocery trip I will come home and be asked if I got xyz and if it was not on the list or spoken, that's a hard no.  And I am not always great at checking the list as well, but it is helpful for the most part.

I have a recipe stand in my kitchen that holds all the recipes I have picked out and are easy to grab.  All of this has helped cutting at least a couple of hours in meal planning and organizing a month.  I will keep this rotation for about 3 months and switch things up as we won't want taco soup and chili in the spring.  

Happy cooking, happy baking, happy shopping, and don't forget that God loves you and you can tell yourself that you did a great job cooking tonight even if others don't agree.  It's very difficult to please everyone in the home at the same time with different allergies, preferences, ketchup on everything addictions.  You are doing great, and I think you should tell yourself that.

Blessings,

Nicole