the meal planner

So... it will always be going through changes, but my meal planning binder is done. I'm always interested when people come up with new organizational tools and I'm fascinated by housekeeping binder-type things, but I always want to know more about exactly how people make them and use them on a daily basis. So, I'll show you exactly what's inside my binder and how I use it.

I used to love cooking. I still do. At least I think I do, but at this stage in life I don't have time to plan or cook elaborate meals. It will probably be this way for several more years, so I need an easy and consistent system for planning meals, controlling the grocery budget, and keeping cooking relatively simple without getting bored of the same recipes all the time. Enter my creation, the meal planner! I could have gotten fancy and spent money on a pretty looking binder, but this was sitting in the basement with our office supplies and the whole point is to save, not spend, money- so, here she is and she looks just fine.

Her tabs are pretty.

Inside, there are tabs for categories of recipes. I combined all the recipes I use most often in the binder, so there will be no more searching cookbooks, recipe cards, or my computer to find things. I either printed out, typed up and printed, or photocopied the recipes. They're in page protectors so they won't get too worn or ruined by splatters. This is the best part of the binder, because it makes it so easy to find and reference recipes. It's no longer a hassle to see what I can make. Also, all the recipes are vegan so I'm not searching through things trying to think of what is or isn't vegan and what Chris and Celia would like.

In the very front of the binder before the recipe tabs, I put monthly menu plans. I decided to try planning a month at a time because it will save time over sitting down every week. I may even start doing two months at a time. This way I'm also not reinventing the wheel every week, because I can see the big picture and plan patterns and repeat meals into the schedule. For example, there are a couple of staple things we'll have every week and a short list of other meals I can pull from. When I want to try something new I still can- I'll just plan it into the schedule ahead of time. I circle special events or do-ahead tasks (like making something to freeze for the future) with a colored pen so they stand out. I also plan to keep old monthly menus to reference for ideas. In the front of the binder are sticky notes with shopping lists I'm putting together for the following week.

To make the meal plan easy to reference, I write a week at a time on a magnetic notepad that stays on the refrigerator. Each day I just check that to see what I'm making. I've already planned and shopped for whatever it is, and if prior preparation was involved I've already planned that in somewhere and it's done.

It was quite a project to put this together, but it's already proven itself worth the effort. It makes planning meals, grocery lists, and referencing recipes so much easier. When I'm ready to plan, I'll sit with one of my calendar pages and plan out the month. Then I can start shopping lists, quickly referencing the recipes in the binder for the ingredients needed. Everything's organized and in one place, and seeing a month in advance helps me plan occasional grocery trips to places I don't normally shop at, like Whole Foods. I can go once a month or so and stock up on everything I'll need for the upcoming weeks.

I hope this crazy over-organized system of mine will be easy enough that I'll stick with it and won't get stressed or spend too much time with planning or cooking once the new guy arrives!

moving prep

We're having a busy weekend, working on moving-related things. We signed the purchase and sale for the new house on Friday, and are waiting for the sellers to sign. We also have a renter lined up for the condo! And we saw him do a drive-by yesterday to check out the place, which we thought was cute because he's probably excited to move in. We always do the same thing when we're excited about moving somewhere new.

On Friday I did quite a bit of packing. Celia wanted to make a house with the boxes, so I made her one and she played in there a lot. I let her decorate the boxes with crayons too, which was a big hit. Reason number 2,999,732 that kids don't need fancy toys. Do you have a few boxes? There ya go, all set.

Playing in her house (with no pants on, of course. It's the only way to be).

Oh, and in the background of that picture is one of the rugs that arrived on Friday for the new house. Our living room pretty much looked like a disaster zone that day :).

On Saturday morning we went to a local yard sale (and it was funny because it was a moving sale at a house we looked at), hoping to find small furniture, mirrors, etc. for the new house. We didn't find those things, but they did have a little picnic table in great condition for Celia. We took it home and she spent a good part of the day playing at it, bringing sand "food" from her sandbox, mixing it with water, serving it at the table, and making a big mess.

While Pita played, I started on my big new project of repainting our kitchen table and chairs.

Yes, I am crazy and decided to do this three weeks before we move, but we'll have so much to do after we move that I might not get to it. The set is very worn and the chairs have dings in them, and the color won't really fit well in our new kitchen. But, if I refinished them it would look like a brand new set. I had an idea in my mind about how they would look and Chris was so skeptical. He never gets my visions for decorating. But- they always turn out great and that's why I refuse to budge on them. Anyway, Blub now agrees that the newly painted set will look amazing.

Old set:

A newly painted chair:

I'll show the whole set when it's done, and without the painter's tape :). I'm glad they look good because it's a lot of work. I was only able to get two chairs done yesterday, and still have to touch up the bottoms of the chair rungs today. It's quite a process.

I almost forgot about Celia's impromptu Friday night bath. As always, when you put a daddy in charge you never know what will happen :). Celia was a mess from playing all day and having dinner. She didn't want to go upstairs for a bath, but a bath in the sink sure sounded like fun.

Pita kept covering her hands in bubbles and called them "bubble mittens".

I washed dishes while she bathed. How convenient.

Today we have more moving-related things to do, and it looks like another beautiful day so Celia will be outside a lot, I'm sure. Three weeks from this morning we'll be waking up in our new house! Celia has slept late this morning so I have to go wake her up. She has suddenly started sleeping late and eating more again, so I'm wondering if she's having yet another growth spurt.

Hope you're all having a nice weekend. 

green smoothie power

I have a head cold and was feeling a bit sluggish and all stuffed up yesterday. There were also quite a few things to get done, so I perked myself up with a green smoothie before getting started. And because I'm such a dork, I got curious about the nutritional value of my smoothie and added everything up. It contained three fruit and vegetable servings and more than 100% RDA of vitamin A, about 85% of vitamin C, 44% of calcium, 30% of iron, 25% of vitamin D, and 30% of vitamin B2.

I named her Esmeralda and drank her all up. (::wince:: I'm so weird.) Then, with my new-found energy I got busy.

The bottom of the pantry was a big mess. Old plastic bags overflowing because I hadn't recycled them, and some other things I needed to get rid of. The floor wasn't even visible. Now, much better!

I moved Mary mixer there because I don't use her often enough to keep her on the counter. The counter looks much cleaner without her there.

Hmm, guess I need to straighten that picture.

The white box is something I've been saving since Christmas (a gift came in it and I thought the box would be handy some day). It's perfect for neatly consolidating little things I tend to leave on the counter.

Next, I cleared out the top shelf of the pantry. There were a lot of things there that I knew we'd never end up using. The trash bags and food processor had been on the pantry floor, and I moved them up there for easier access. I use the blender and/or food processor almost every day.

Guess why I haven't shown the middle three shelves of the pantry? They're still a mess! Haha.

When I cleaned out the pantry I ended up with two random old tupperware containers that I wouldn't use for food. They got a new home during my next task: decluttering my catch-all kitchen drawer.

See? I'm a slob. I just hide my messes in drawers. The new containers did their job well, and I ended up with this:

I also put stray like things in baggies: unused packs of gum in one bag and a few loose coupons in another.

There are still a couple kitchen areas I'd like to go through. We have so many things that I never use these days, and they should be given away or go into storage. Then, the linen closet (we don't use half of what's in there) and get ready to reorganize Celia's room.

hallway makeover and csn review

My little hallway makeover is finished! With a very small budget and not much effort, I added some key pieces that made a big difference in the feeling of the room.

The changes are minimal. We hung pictures and a mirror that we already had, added the plant, added the rug and a boot tray from Crate and Barrel, and the bench. Just adding something to the walls and putting color on the floor made a big difference. If I had less limited time and money I would have painted the walls bright white (now they're off-white and kind of dark/dingy looking), replaced the ugly ceiling light fixtures, and possibly added more color in other places. It is already so much better though! Good enough for now.

So, about the bench. The storage bench is the item I'm reviewing from CSN! First of all, it shipped the day I ordered it. I assembled it myself and it was a piece of cake! It was actually fun too, because I usually leave furniture assembly to Chris. I enjoyed doing it myself this time. Partway through the assembly I noticed this on the instructions:

Booyah!

This was Chris's reaction (he was also speechless) when he saw that I had put the bench together myself.

Well jeez, I'm not completely helpless. I just pretend to be.

The bench fit together well and I was able to get everything nice and tight all by myself. It's heavy and sturdy, and it looks great. The extra storage will be great for hats and mittens in the winter.