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Meal Planning Made Simple

Menu planning is something we intend to do when we get around to it or “when I’m get organized.” But this is backward thinking, menu planning should be your first step to getting organized.

A lack of meal planning means wasted money, extra trips to the store, frustration and cooking boredom. We are all faced with meals three times a day, seven times a week, it should be planned. Don’t put it off any longer.

This is normally an article I would put on my homemaking blog but meal planning saves time and money and homeschoolers need both so I’m posting here. Invest 15 minutes today and all the time and money you save can be spent on something that really matters – your family!

Reasons to Meal Plan

Save Time and Money

  • Reduce grocery and gas bills by meal planning. A simple list of meals means an easy grocery list for the grocery store, which cuts down on impulse buys, wasted food, and needless trips to the supermarket.
  • If you don’t plan, there will be days you end up harried and hurried with hungry kids and opt for a trip to a fast food restaurant (which can take more time than preparing a meal). The more harried and hurried the more fast food trips.
  • Having a shopping list will make it easier for you to clip coupons.
  • Stock up on sale items like hamburger, chicken, jars of spaghetti sauce, etc.
  • Save the ultimate amount of time and money by using a book like OnceA-Month Cooking or Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month.

Make Healthier Meals

  • Eating out may be convenient but fat-laden fast food is not nutritional (it’s a huge part of the reason our nation is experiencing an obesity epidemic).
  • When you pre-plan your own meals, you can choose healthy options. You control the flavor and the fat and amount of sugar, you can grill or broil instead of fry. Planning ensures you are cooking a healthy meal every day of the week.

Easier Meal Preparation

  • With a meal plan you always know what meat to take out of the freezer to defrost the night before and you’ll have the ingredients because they were listed on your shopping list.
  • The easiest meals for me are made using my crockpot in the morning. I love smelling it cooking all day and simply setting the table at dinner time.

Teach Your Children Skills

  • Include children in the meal planning process to teach them organizational skills and how to assemble a balanced meal.
  • They can help to plan the meals and learn about the different nutrition groups.

Reduces Stress

  • How frustrated do you get each night at meal time rummaging through the freezer and pantry? Once you menu plan won’t have to worry about everything that goes into making a meal.
  • My dear OCD hubby asks me daily (usually before breakfast) “What’s for dinner?” I used to get irritated and roll my eyes but since I started meal planning I can give him a cheerful answer.
  • There is something secure about having dinner organized and on the table at the same time every night. It brings peace to you and your family.
  • Our family meal times are jeopardized by rushed schedules, overworked and exhausted parents. Meal planning allows us to have a special family time to share, rekindle, and reconnect.

Meal Plan Online!

In the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach I give examples of meal planning in a notebook. But now there are many online options. Here are two free sites:

  • Meals Matter -Meals Matter is a really neat free meal planning website featuring recipes and personalized nutrition tips. Users can create family cookbooks, shopping lists and plan out menus. They offer a ton of articles, recipes and ideas for creating healthy and easy meals. They also offer a free Nutrition & Fitness Challenge ( a three-week self-directed program). Each week of the Challenge you will receive an email that guides you through the steps that will help you achieve your goals.
  • Pepperclip - Pepperclip offers a free place for you to organize your personal recipes, share with friends, and make your trips to the grocery store easier by writing your lists for you. Your list is made from either recipes you typed in or from recipes other pepperclip users have added to the website. Once you type a recipe, it is saved in the system forever and you can use it again for shopping lists in the future.
  • Organized Home - If you prefer organizing on paper this site offers printable menu planners.

Blog Your Meals Plan

Organizing Junkie created a Menu Plan Monday meme. I plan my meals once a week and go to the grocery store once a week. I now put my menus on my homemaking blog. Most of the recipes I use are already on my homemaking blog so I can also link my Meal Plan to the recipes. Here is an example of this week’s plan:

Your Turn

Do you meal plan? Why or why not? What’s your favorite method? We need your feedback to supply what you want to see on this blog. Lurkers come out. Please add your comments below.

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Blogged under Homemaking by admin on Monday 11 February 2008 at 11:43 am

Devotional for the Disorganized

I originally posted this on my Heart at Home Homemaking Blog but the free 86 page ebook is so encouraging I had to post here, too, so no one misses it.

Amy Verlennich from Dandelion Seeds created a series of lessons to help homemakers with cleaning their homes and devotionals to help the women clean their hearts, as well. (more…)

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Blogged under Encouragement, Homemaking by admin on Tuesday 15 January 2008 at 11:08 am

Is Diet on Your New Year Resolution?

For those of you planning a new diet for the New Year, this video may give you some inspiration. Chris Hardwick takes a look at the chemical guts of one of America’s favorite dessert toppings. This video clip is titled: What’s Inside? (more…)

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Blogged under Homemaking by admin on Thursday 27 December 2007 at 1:21 pm

Thanksgiving Recipes

These cookies have been our family tradition for almost 20 years now. Making them is a special time the children look forward to every Thanksgiving. Giving them to neighbors and friends is just as fun.

No Bake Turkey Cookies

Ingredients:
Fudge Striped Cookies
Chocolate bonbons (Christmas candy aisle at Walmart)
Semi-sweet chocolates
Candy corn
Directions:

Melt some of the semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave on low setting to use as glue. Cut one fourth of the cookie off to make the tail. Coat the flat part of the bonbon with melted chocolate to “glue” to the center of the cookie (covering the hole). Cover one side of the candy corn with melted chocolate and press on the bonbon to make the face. Use a toothpick and melted chocolate to make two eyes. Use two UNmelted pieces of semi-sweet chocolate to make the feet. Place each finished turkey on a plate (or wax paper) and refrigerate until firm. ENJOY!

Quick & Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes

Fix these cupcakes in a jiffy using spice cake mix, canned pumpkin and a prepared cream cheese frosting. Kids will love this sweet and spicy finger-food and clean-up will be a breeze.
Yields - 24 cupcakes (2 dozen)

Ingredients:
1 package (18.25 oz.) spice cake mix
1 can (15 oz.) pure pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 container (16 oz.) prepared cream cheese or vanilla frosting

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Paper-line or grease 24 muffin cups.
BLEND cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, oil and water in large mixer bowl until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.
BAKE for 18 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread cupcakes with frosting. Decorate with assorted sprinkles, if desired.

Pumpkin Bread

My mother started this tradition about 40 years ago by cooking the bread in coffee cans to make round loaves. I no longer buy the right size coffee cans so I bake it in regular bread pans. I miss the round loaves.

INGREDIENTS

* 3 cups canned pumpkin
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 4 cups white sugar
* 6 eggs
* 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
* 1 cup raisins
* 1 cup walnuts or pecans

(you can replace of the 3 spices you can use 4 teaspoons of Pumpkin Pie Spice)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9×5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Add raisins,and nuts (if desired)
3. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

Share a Family Tradition or Recipe

Add your favorite family tradition or recipe for Thanksgiving below in the comments. Lurkers, come out, come out, share your family tradition with everyone.

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Blogged under Holidays, Homemaking by admin on Monday 19 November 2007 at 4:00 pm

Organize your household chores

Organize your household chores

ChoreBuster is an easy and free way to automatically create fair chore lists, or chore schedules.

Enter in people and chores
Specify how hard / undesirable each chore is
ChoreBuster generates a fair schedule of chores
Schedule emailed to you weekly - no need to log in

Here’s what it does - it divvies up the chores (use the preset and/or add your own) amongst the family members (based on user defined settings such as workload, days unavailable, chore difficulty, etc.) and emails the list (daily, weekly, you make the call) along with a downloadable version (word, excel, html) or get it on an RSS feed.

ChoreBuster

Robin Sampson

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Blogged under Homemaking, Organization, Utilizing the Internet by admin on Saturday 9 June 2007 at 11:06 pm
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