I'm Still the Biggest Burglar I know

When I was attending the Northern Arizona University's School of Education, we read several books by a man who is considered to be the Education Guru!  His name may make you giggle, but I promise I am not making it up.  His name is Harry K. Wong (clearly that middle initial K. was put in their to help distract immature college students, myself included!). Here's proof, if must have! :).  Did you click the link? Are you laughing yet?  Trust me, there were countless immature laugh fests during discussions of this man.  All this to say, he said a quote during one of the countless videos we watched that I remember whenever I am getting ready to "borrow" an idea from somebody.

He said, "When it comes to originality, teachers are the biggest burglars around."

I have tried a million different ways to meal plan, but nothing really seemed to stick with me.  I would usually find it too difficult and complicated and I give up within the first week.  I've tried everything from monthly planning to weekly planning. I've tried typing it up on a calendar to a printout that you write in yourself ... to no avail.  After all this frustration and many, many tears after calculating how much we were spending on groceries each month, I was thrilled to tears when I decided to try one more method for meal planning and it worked!  And we saved money!  A lot of money!  I found this meal planning method from Janssen at Everyday-reading.com. She has an excellent weekly meal planning system, complete with an easy to read menus and a shopping list.

So, yes, I have burglarized and stolen my meal planning system and I love it!

It's super simple.

First, I write out the weekly projected meal plan.  I use a notepad that I got from Michael's Crafts for a grand spanking total of $1.00.  You can get them from pretty much any store with an office supply sections like Walmart or Kmart.

Next, I take a white piece of printer paper and fold it so that there are 6 sections that look like mini lists. (Hint: I first fold it hamburger style, opposed to hotdog style).  I then label each section as seen below.  Produce, meat, dairy, frozen, can/dry, and miscellaneous.

Categorizing my shopping list has made it less stressful to shop because, say I am in the produce area, I can quickly see what I need from that area and I don't have to scan my list several times to make sure I got everything before moving on.

I read through my food menu, one meal at a time, and see what groceries I am going to need to be able to make these meals and add the grocery items to the list in the category it should be under.  I also write other things we may need as I think of them.

That mark under produce in from water that was on the table. Sadness.

And then I go shopping, usually every Saturday, for groceries.  We eat a lot of organic, mostly grain-free foods, which sadly means there are not a whole of coupons for these items.  I usually google websites for coupons, check the store ADDS anyway, and hope to get lucky.  Sometimes I do and then I do a little cheer for money saved!

So, Emily, you have only planned dinners. Do you only eat once a day?

Not this fatkid!

I get up with Zack every morning to do our morning Devotional and pray together and then once he has gotten into the shower, I make him breakfast and pack his lunch. Later in the morning, when Janni is up and at 'em, I make us the same thing I made Zack that morning and maybe anything else that she is into at the time.

Breakfast:

• Eggs and Bacon
• Grain-free granola
• Grain-free muffins (I will post recipe)
• Cut up fruit

I always make more than enough dinner so that there are almost always leftovers, and I send those with Zack. Janni and I will eat any extra leftovers or whatever she is really into a the time (this week it's Trader Joe's gluten-free mac and cheese (we're really working at grain-free eating, but she is a toddler and needs weight on her, so this is the exception)). Sometimes I scramble us eggs, eat tuna with peas (my favorite!), or pull out a frozen chicken breast and boil it so that I can pull it into BBQ chicken (or any other flavor that suits my fancy).

So, there you go! I'm all for keeping up with teacher stereotypes. Burglar at work and full of pride!

Cheers!