Yeah, I know. The month is almost half over, but like most things recently it’s taking me a little more time than normal to get into the swing of things. One thing that I’ve already got a handle on is writing “2012”. That was an easy shift and probably the first time in my life when I didn’t have to train myself to change the digits as I moved my pen. Of course, I don’t use a pen much anymore – it’s the keyboard now a days.

For anyone who’s been when this blog for any length of time [Hi, Mom!] I have actually done resolutions in January each year. Sometimes I do them in September, too, as a back to school thing. This year I’m going to continue to put out there a few things that I’m working on.

This one won’t be a surprise since it comes up again, and again and again and again and – yes, you get the picture. Meal Planning. It’s been difficult since day one. It’s my nemesis. If there’s a method out there, I’ve tried it. Now, I’ve added another layer and so far it’s working for us. I hate that I have to kill an entire day but if that’s what it takes, so be it.

I’m going to continue to collect recipes/ pictures on Pinterest. I’m also using a Theme Night idea as part of our plan so that we have a chicken night, pasta night, crockpot night, etc. Then we sat down with a monthly calendar and planned out a month’s worth of menus – except for weekends. Why leave out two nights a week? Well, we wanted some flexibility and we wanted to plan for leftovers.

The weekends also allow me to do some baking because we’re not going to buy store bought bread. I use the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes aDay method so bread is pretty easy to make. Dump ingredients in a bucket, let it rise, put in pan, and bake. I’m testing out softer bread recipes for school lunches – especially since Comfort has lost so many teeth and has a hard time chewing. So far the buttermilk bread recipe is working for us pretty well. I love the idea that our bread won’t have preservatives in it and I can just whip it up in my own bucket!

There’s more to come but it’ll have to wait. What are your plans for the New Year? Are you embarking on a new plan or just pushing yourself to stay on track?

Yep, It's been a couple of weeks, maybe a month, my friends and I've pretty consistently been planning our meals. I know. Quelle Surprise. Believe me, it was a necessity, not a choice. Once again I found the kidlets home from school in the afternoons surrounded by the 20 minutes of homework that they get and yet in that limited time they can go from fully functional to ready to eat a small mastodon. 

This meant there was no time to stare into the fridge and think, "I wonder what I can cook today." I was more like, "I wonder what I can put in their mouths RIGHT NOW." This is especially the case when Joy gets a particular idea in her head. Then that thought becomes a one word litany. "Juice. Juice. Juice. Juice. Juice." Sometimes she stops to breathe. Sometimes she acknowledges that you are speaking to her and letting her know that there is a) juice on it's way or b) there will in fact not be juice for some reason. Sometimes it's just best to make sure that food appears at regular intervals so that this doesn't happen in the first place.

Recently, I've taken and rolled all of my ideas up and I'm using everything I've got. We have a chicken night, a pasta night, a breakfast-for-dinner night, and a crockpot night. There's also usually a 'shopping at Costco night' or leftover night in the rotation each week depended on which week of the month it is. That's the basic structure and I grabbed hold of this with both hands when I saw this outlined in Erin Chase's $5 Dollar Dinner cookbook!

Once I have a structure then I just fill in the blanks with meals. I can usually get about a third of the way done without breaking a sweat. It's the rest that really makes me work. I know that this is probably not a hard thing for most people but trying to find meals that my kids with like and eat one any given day seems to actually cause me stress.

But now my stressful work comes with a shiny new package. I'm talking about Pinterest. If you haven't been over to Pinterest then let me entice you to the land of many pretty and shiny things. It's an Internet corkboard so that as you travel through the blogosphere you can put a 'pin in it' and type a description and it goes on the board. Other people can follow you, you can follow other people, or you can travel Pinterest in solitude. Mostly I've used it to gather ideas for meals to make.

Today I made the luscious garlic knots for fellowship at Church. These have been pinned for quite a while and they turned out exactly as they looked online. I'm not sure this has ever EVER happened to me, especially when I was cooking with the girls. Yep, they helped me make the second batch and they looked exactly the same as the first batch. Delicious, too.

And for dinner tonight we made the one pot macaroni and cheese. It did take a bit longer than expected but that was probably due to the fact that I used rotini and not elbow macaroni. Lesson learned. I can say that Joy was humming while she ate and this is a sign of supreme contentment and enjoyment.

I have several more recipes pulled from Pinterest already and I'll let you know how they turn out. I had definitely recommend Pinterest for brainstorming but if you only have a few minutes at your disposal don't go there. It's full of beautiful, shiny things and you'll never EVER want to leave. I promise.

It's time to try meal planning again.

You're not surprised are you? I usually post something like this every four or five months and my efforts last a few weeks at best. I know this, too. I recognize the pattern.

So, what's different about this attempt? Well - it's a multi-prong focus using tips from Erin Chase's The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook: 200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare and then populated with recipes from said cookbook, some family favorites, and other internet sites.

What exactly is this two-prong attack? I'll tell you but remember that it sounded better when I called it a 'two-prong focus' or whatever I just wrote. Erin, the $5 Dollar Dinner mom, talks about starting out with each night of the week already dedicated to a specific type of meal. We used this concept for a while when we had Taco Tuesdays, but now I'm expanding it so that my plan looks something like this:

Monday: Pizza
Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner or Trip to Costco
Wednesday: Crockpot
Thursday: Pasta
Friday: Chicken
Saturday: Leftovers

I took out my blank template, wrote in the theme for the night and then began deciding what to make. I'm taking into consideration seasonal offerings especially since this is the first week of our CSA for the year. I also need to be realistic about what everyone will eat. I'm not about making more than one meal for the family so there needs to be enough available to everyone so that they can each be satisfied.

So far I have two weeks planned out and my hope is that I'll be able to stay a week ahead. I'm also hoping that this will make the remaining few weeks of school easier to handle because life sure isn't going to get simpler on it's own.

There's my plan. We'll see how it goes. If you don't hear anything that might be good news - or it might mean there's a need for another plan. If you have your own meal planning system and have something that really works for you, let me know. I have no trouble incorporating additional aspects into my new plan!

We've been spring cleaning the pantry by eating our way through items that we might have passed up for more sexy items. I admit it was not an intentional choice. It's because our Kroger is undergoing remodeling and I'm tired of the stuff moving around.

Well, that was true at first. Things moved and aisles were over-crowded. Now things seemed to have settled down but in truth the placement of items doesn't seem to make any sense. For instance, the canning jars [an item that might be needed by 2.4 people in my neighborhood maybe twice a year] has prime real estate opposite the nifty canned soup rack. I'm guessing this will not be the final resting place for these items and that makes me not want to get too invested in the store's intermediate setup.

And that's why we're eating our stockpile of pasta and canned fruit and frozen meats. It's actually been a good practice - not only for our budget, for stock rotation, but for space reclamation. No matter why it's definitely a Cool Idea!

If so, you're in luck. Qdoba Mexican Grill will be celebrating their 7th anniversary in Richmond. From 5PM and 7PM, they will be giving away free Chicken and Vegetarian Burritos at all 5 Richmond locations. Limitations may apply. See store for more details. Only valid at Richmond locations.

There you go. That's what's for dinner.

DH is a teacher and the boys generally covet his lunches. He does take great lunches! One of the things the kids especially love about the teacher's lunches is that they get to use the microwave so the kids live vicariously through the lovely warm smells.

Today I made some meatball subs to put in the freezer so DH can just pull one out and take it. This works best especially this time of the year when school is sooo busy for him.

This is what I did:
1. A couple of nights ago I realized I had a large can - probably 28 oz. - of tomato sauce. I diced up half of a small onion and added that to some olive oil and a clove of garlic. Actually I use preminced garlic because it can sit in my fridge until I'm ready for it, ya know.
2. Once the onion and garlic were softened, I added the tomato sauce and brought it up to a boil.
3. After it boiled I turned it down to a simmer, added some oregano in the palm of my hand - and the same amount of basil.
4. Stir it up, cover and simmer for an hour or so.
5. Let it cool and put it away or use it right away.

You could just use a jar of marinara or pasta sauce but I didn't have any on hand and this can of tomato sauce was looking kinda nekkid, which was why it got doctored up a bit.

Today I got the jar of my sauce out an put it in the crockpot with a bunch of frozen meatballs from Costco and put them on low. I stirred them a couple of times over 4 hours but it wouldn't have been necessary. I did it because I know my crockpot has a 'hot side' and I didn't want those to get too hard.

Once all the meatballs were done, I opened up 8 sub rolls [also from Costco] on a baking sheet lined with foil and put 4 meatballs on each roll and added some sauce to each sandwich. Then I sprinkled shredded cheese over each. I used the shredded cheese blend that Costco has because we always have it on hand and we use it for everything but use whatever works for you. Total, I don't think used much more than a cup of cheese.

Pop these in a warm oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Let cool and wrap in plastic wrap and then put in a freezer bag before putting in the freezer. DH now has 8 lunches and it probably took me 20 minutes of total attention time today and another 20 minutes of time for the sauce.

One of the things I like about doing meals like this is that I've used item from my pantry and I'll have less overall waste of items bought. Sometimes sub rolls go bad before we eat them because they come in such a large quantity and there's only the 2 of us going through them. This way they'll keep in the freezer as part of the meal and not turn moldy! A definitely bonus and a perfectly Cool Idea!

So I'm stocking my new freezer slowing but surely. And here's how I'm doing it.

Every time I make a 'go to' meal I double the recipe and freeze one.

Yep, that way I know I'm putting away food that I know my family eats. The first thing I put away was a Knock Off recipe of Chi-Chi's Corn Cake. I love this recipe but I rarely have heavy cream in the house to make it so I made sure to make two and freeze one.

Next, after testing the Apple Struesel Muffins from Once a Month Mom and getting Toddler Approval I baked a double batch and froze them. I also made the Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes so I'll have something to take to church for potluck for the next couple of months.

Another great way to stock the freezer and keep my butt from getting huge(r) - last time I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough I only needed half of it. I froze the other half. Cookie dough freezes really well.

So these are my really Cool Ideas for getting the fridge stocked from nothing. I'll post more as I go along. If you have other Cool Ideas that I'm missing, Please Let Me Know.

The confession part is that I bought myself a major appliance as part of my Christmas present. UGH.

This was originally a rule in our marriage. No household appliances for birthdays or holidays but we decided use our collective Christmas monies to buy a chest freezer for the house. We'd talked about it for several months and watched the sales at Sears and Costco and decided on one that would fit in the area off our kitchen since there was no way a freezer would make the turn into our basement.

So, there it is. Now I have more space and no excuse for not putting good food away. Tomorrow I'll post more about how I'm working to get ahead and stocking our new freezer.

When DH and I were first married he was in grad school and often had dinner ready when I got home. It was usually a casserole - he picked a meat, a starch, a cream of 'something' soup, and topped it with cracker crumbs or cheese. Occasionally there was a mystery spice involved, too. I couldn't complain too much because I didn't have to do the planning.

For many years it was just the two of us and with hectic schedules we'd just catch a quick dinner when we got home or we'd go out if we couldn't come up with a better plan. This was not a good habit to establish and one day I had to stop and remind myself that we really didn't have the money to do this.

So, I pulled out all of my cookbooks and made a list of the things we liked to eat. Well, the things I like to eat. That's a shorter list and it's not very broad. We eat a lot of chicken - when we eat meat at all. Or we eat 'go to' meals that my mom made when I was growing up.

Now that our lives have shifted again and Comfort and Joy have joined our family I have an even greater need to make a meal plan. Last year was a learning experience even in the failure to achieve what I wanted to do. I learned that planning a month at a time wasn't going to work for me. At least not right away.

Why? Because I need Baby Steps to get used to this meal planning thing. Yes, I'm glad that I'm not starring in to the fridge at 4 o'clock trying to figure out what we're going to eat and nuking hot dogs for the girls every night but I also need to allow for some flexiblity for us.

Right now I'm planning 3-4 days ahead. This gets me from grocery trip to Costco run and back each week. I'm also not doing this just in my head. I'm keeping track on our family calendar. I thought about using another page - maybe on my computer - but by using the family calendar it gives DH a vote in the meal idea, too.

There you are. My first Baby Steps toward my New Years resolution to create a sustainabl meal plan for our family. Next week I'll continue to write about how I'm bulking up the pantry. Sucess or failure - meal planning is definitely a Cool Idea!

As regular readers to this blog know, Menu Planning was one of my New Year's Resolutions and it has been my biggest challenge. I still don't have a reliable plan. In fact, I cannot tell you what we will be having for dinner tonight and it's after 2pm. So, I'm thinking that I might be trying out something like this very soon.

Services like relish! are popping up all around. Some are free and some are subscriptions based. This one is a subscription [at $7 a month] but it it seems that you get to pick your 5 dinners from a list and they guarantee that your weekly dinners will cost less than $85. That includes entrees and sides and the prep is 30 mins or less.

So, if you are menu planning challenged like I am head on over to relish! and check out what they have to offer because it genuinely looks like a really Cool Idea!

I'm still having a hard time adjusting to the new school year. Today I forgot to pack Comfort's blanket for rest time and for the first time EVER she ate all of her lunch and didn't have anthing to eat for afternoon snack.

So, in the middle of Comfort's homework I panicked that there was not yet a plan or dinner. Here is what I did:
1. Place frozen chicken breast in a pocket of foil.
2. Squirt with 30-minute Marinade. This has been in my pantry for months. I used Teriyaki flavor that I'm pretty sure I got for less than $1.
3. Seal foil pocket and cook in 350 degee oven until they smell done.

I also got the rice cooker going and at the last minute nuked some frozen peas and there we go. Not a great plan but the chicken sure was tasty. I wasn't sure what it would taste like starting with frozen chicken but it worked great.

So, not a plan in the traditional sense but it worked for me today and the girls actually ate a few bites before they went back to the rice and peas.~

It's a small success in something that really isn't a game after all but this was my first shopping trip that wasn't 'oh, I need to pick up a couple of things to take on vacation' related. For the first time since July I was going to stick to the list and thankfully Kroger had helped by scheduling a Mega Event to help me out.

Unfortunately, this Mega Event was school/ convenience food related. I know this helps a lot of people but my brain isn't quite there yet. I was still think about my meal planning issues and seeing that Fruit by the Foot was on sale didn't really help me. In fact, I can not even imagine what Comfort's behavior would be like if she ate a foot of that stuff! *shudders*

But I made my list and grabbed my coupons and made sure I could eak out 10 items to qualify for the Mega Event and wadded into Saturday Afternoon at Kroger. Once again I was reminded why I shop during the weekday mornings. I like having the store to myself.

I did get 2 items that weren't on The Grocery Game list but I had a coupon for them. Surprisingly, these were also convenience food/ school related. Everything else was either on The Grocery Game list or I had a coupon or a free item. [The free item was a box of Rice Krispies and this coupon came from being registered at Vocalpoint. Membership is free and they send out coupons and trial products throughout the year.] I even got a bonus discount on the rotisserie chicken because it was marked down another $2 from $4.99 to $2.99. Not sure why but my guess would be becuase it was a pretty scrawny bird.

All this to say that my plateau of 41% off, which isn't bad, got a bit better yesterday because I got it up to 45% off. Still not as good as what I hear a lot of other people consistently get but it may be the nature of the items I purchase. That's okay. I'd rather be buying things that I'll actually use then getting a good deal on stuff that I won't use.

The nice part about this trip to the grocery, too, is that I could see some meals taking shape as I walked through the store. The Grocery Game is about stockpiling when prices are low so that you have things on hand and sometimes, or many times, I'll come home and realize that I didn't actually buy anything to eat. That's okay if you remember the point. But yesterday crescent rolls were on sale and I thought about the many uses they could provide. I've used them to make little pizzas. I'm also thinking of using them for the top of a pot pie. Perhaps we'll have some kind of tartlet, too. That part will come next but at least I have the items on hand and I paid a good price for them. And that is the best and Coolest Idea I can think of

It's been many years since I, myself, went back to school, but this time of the year always feels like the time of new beginnings and with Comfort and Joy going to new preschools [Joy heading off to school for the first time] it is a big New Year for our house.

So, it's a good time for me to address some resolutions. Well, one resolution in particular - meal planning - has not been on my radar. I give it a cursory glance at best. Mostly creating meals out of the same 5-10 menus put in rotation and hoping that somewhere in there we'll go out and have leftovers to cover the rest of the days in a 2 week cycle.

This needs to change. We'll be on tighter schedules and I'll also need to be packing lunches so I'm going to REALLY need to make a concerted effort to get back on track.

What's my plan for getting back on track with meal planning?

• Take stock of what's in the pantry and come up with meals out of items that I already have on hand.
• Look back through the Once A Month Mom site [especially on the months that I didn't cook from the menu at all - like this summer] and see if there are recipes I can pull to incorporate into our repertoire.
• Go back through the Kraft Food and Family magazine that just came and pull out the recipes that I can see my family eating.
• Write out the meals I plan to make so that I have to be accountable. If need be, I might even create a section here to do this. Let me know if this would be helpful for you, too.

And there you go. I think that's where I'm going to start. This weekend I'll be putting together the plan for next week. That gives me a week to get back into the swing of things before school starts for Joy. Planning ahead is going to make things much easier. I know it will. I just need to keep saying it out loud to myself because it's not sexy but it is definitely a Cool Idea!

It's been a while since I've checked in with how I've been doing on my resolutions. There's just been so much else to talk about. I hope you've been able to see how it all connects though. But, in the spirit of accountability, here is a point-by-point post:

Here, again, were my resolutions:

1. Do a better job with coupons and pantry stockpiling.
2. Continue to find creative ways to cut expenses
3. Meal planning/ smart planning
4. Increase my income as a stay-at-home parent
5. Find ways to live smarter in the balance between frugality and the environment
6. [not sure yet but I feel like there's something still there to be explored - so I'm leaving room for one more]

So, #1: I'm still using The Grocery Game and according to the Kroger check out slip I'm averaging 45-50% off of my bill using coupons/ in-store discounts. It's not as great as seasoned, hard-core couponers but it's working for us right now. As for stockpiling we're doing great on Goldfish crax, TP, canned fruit, canned tomatoes, canned beans, and other assorted items we used less frequently.

#2: Cutting expenses has been harder since we'd already done a good job weeding through expenses in the past year but Cable gets nixed this month. The weather is nicer an we'll be spending more time together as family so no sense paying for staying in and watching TV. That'll save us $80/ month. I did notice that my newspaper subscription went up so I need to check out alternatives and see if there's a less expensive option. If not, decide if the savings at the grocery is worth the expense of the newspaper.

#3: Meal Planning/ Smart Planning: We definitely don't go out at the drop of a hat any more. I'm proud of that. I still don't have a handle on finding foods that Comfort and Joy will eat on a regular basis - other than pasta, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, quesadillas, etc - but then again they are toddlers. I've even toyed with putting the weekly menu plan here on the page so that it keeps me honest but then I'd really have to be ready each week and some weeks it's just not that well planned out;)

#4: This month I've had several good Mystery Shops!! I just finished 2 grocery store shops this week so I got some free groceries!! Two weeks ago I had a different kind of shop. It was a revealed shop, where I went in and checked out how the store had the products placed. I made under $10 for 15 mins work but it all helped. Also, I cashed in some points from My Points and Opinion Outpost. The survey points paid in cash and it was enough for the babysitter the day I got my haircut. The MyPoints paid in gift cards so I'll have enough for a good book from B&N and lunch at Panera. These are the ways that I've traded my time for money. Time I have while I sit with the kids and money I need:)

#5: It turns out that I think I'm more in tune with things in the environment than I thought I was. This isn't a bad thing. I've enjoyed the seasonal shift that meant that I had more time to do laundry and I've enjoyed that the Farmer's Market is open and the CSA is providing us with yummy good stuff. This week we opted for carrots that had gotten caught in a freeze. They aren't pretty since they split open but they'll taste just as good in a salad and they were half off. Comfort and Joy are pretty easy to please when it comes to things like this.

And now we're in the middle of May. Books are being read. Dinners are being cooked. Kids grow up. School is almost done. It's all amazing and definitely Cool. Hang on with me because we're almost half way through the year.

It appears to me that the only way I'm going to make any head way toward my resolutions for the year is to get organized. As a Myers-Briggs "J" organization comes naturally to me but the past four years of being pregnant/giving birth twice/ nursing 2 kids/ having 2 toddlers back to back has had a debilitating effect on these skills.

To begin the new year I got out the calendars and set them up. The one for the kitchen is actually a desk blotter that I'm hanging on the wall. I wanted something big enough to give me room to write in each of the days if all four of us have something scheduled - as we sometimes do. The calendar for my bag is a month a day calendar over two pages so the blocks are large enough to write in, too. Each calendar cost me $1 in the bins at the front of the store at Target. They aren't as cute as the Mom Planners that I've bought for myself the past couple of years but I've already saved at least $15.

I also need a better system for my coupons. Actually, I think I just need a system. I'm going to try using a file box and see how that works. This way I can keep the inserts from the newspaper intact until I'm ready to use them. For coupons that I've already cut out or for CVS Extra Bucks I have a coupon caddy [$1 at Target] that I carry in my bag. It needs a system, too, but that's for another day.

For a look at another blogger's post on her coupon system check out: Tia's Saving Cents

As for meal planning I made a stab at collecting ideas for this next week and making a preliminary grocery list. This got pushed back because I was down with the stomach ick but we'll get back on track soon. This week, we'll be looking at 'old standby' meals since I want to use as much food as I can out of my pantry so that I can work at my plan for the following week. I'll be using our list of 'family favorites' along with The Grocery Game to make my shopping list each week. [More on The Grocery Game next post.]

And the Cool Idea for today is using the after New Year sales. Check out the office supply stores for deals on items to get organized. I didn't score as much as I'd hoped since a lot of people beat me to them but a couple of buckets of binder clips for $1/ each and a pack of Sharpie markers for $1 were a nice find. While I was there I went next door and stocked up on presents at Bath and Body Works. I have a bag probably as heavy as my two year old - most of which was 75% off, some at only 50% off - all of it will make great gifts through the year.

January 1st is traditionally the day to make resolutions. What are your resolutions this year? Have you made your list yet? Lose weight? Exercise more? At all? Read more? Write letters - on paper - with a pen? I've tried these and they usually work for me - for a while:) This year I'm going to work on activities that are Cool Ideas that I can revisit through the year. Here it goes.

1. Do a better job with coupons and pantry stockpiling. 
2. Continue to find creative ways to cut expenses
3. Meal planning/ smart planning
4. Increase my income as a stay-at-home parent
5. Find ways to live smarter in the balance between frugality and the environment
6. [not sure yet but I feel like there's something still there to be explored - so I'm leaving room for one more]

So, these are the main areas I'll be working on for myself. I can only hope that the ride will be useful and without too many hazards. There will probably be humor involved. Odds are this could get ridiculous at times. If so, you have my word you'll get all the details.

Sound interesting? I hope so. If not, stick around anyway because these topics won't be the only things you'll see here. Already the coupons are posted. Also, I'll be posting information about great freebies that I hear about, as well as, wonderful deals and information posted on other blogs. I'll do a quick recap and send you to their sites for the full info. No sense in killing bandwidth twice but there is some great stuff out there and I just want to make sure people can find what they want and need.

I hope to find some Cool Ideas we can explore and some Cool Ideas we can share because this is a journey we're on - and we're on it together.