New Computer

Over the summer, I built a new computer. It is SO nice. I love having Windows 7 and a Terabyte of memory on my hard drive is finally enough for all of my pictures/files. I can't believe I used to have only 80GB!!

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Setup Idea

Some of you may remember the 8 week meal plan I have from this post. I finally came up with the "plan" of how to organize it and make it cute for my kitchen but yet still functional. Then we got sick. So the project still lives in my mind but that is about it. Hopefully it will come to life in the next week or two and I can share it with you.

But in the meantime, I saw this today. I thought it was a great idea! They found the idea from Pocket Full of Posies which has a video tutorial on the whole system here.They too are using an 8 week meal plan idea. You pick out 4 weeks worth of meals for the month and put it into your pocket planner. Then they have ingredient lists for each week. I am doing this for my meals too but I don't think mine will be as detailed as theirs. They have it divided up by meat, spices/extras, stock, fresh and frozen. Mine will probably just be an all encompassing list. Anyway, just wanted to share with you all. Cute idea and seems pretty easy to use. I am hoping the one I do is just as easy. I think the easier it is, the more likely you are to stay with it!

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The necessities.

One of my favorite things to do is eat. There I said it. It is now out there. And anything with sugar and I am all over it. Literally. But as much as I enjoy a great cooked meal, I struggle at making menus for our family. I have found that if I have meals planned, we eat "real" meals (as opposed to the frozen, fake kind!) that are so much healthier for us. I go through stages where I try out different ways to stay on top of it. I did freezer meals for a while which worked great when I had a whole Saturday to devote to cooking. I have also compiled a huge list of meal ideas over the last few years to pick and choose from on a whim. I have tried making menus for a month at a time or a week at a time. They all work for a while but then the end of my menu comes and I am no longer motivated to keep going. Where does all of this motivation go? I am hoping I pass it along to one of you because sometimes I feel like it is flying out of here faster than I can catch it! I hope someone is making good use of it!

So I decided to take the big long list of menu ideas I have and my cookbooks and just hash it all out. I came up with an eight week long menu. I figure after 8 weeks, any of the meals could pretty much be repeated because eating something every 8 weeks or so is definitely doable! I picked super easy meals like pancakes, grilled cheese, etc paired with some more complex (or time consuming) meals. That way if I knew ahead of time that the week was going to be busy, I could just plan the easier meals on a day I didn't have as much time. Or if we have plans to go out or not be at home, I will just skip one of the meals for that week. It is such an easy going meal plan that I am bound and determined to make it work. And since I like to incorporate new ideas too, I have a few weeks where I have planned in a new recipe. This will give me the opportunity to try something new and either add it to the menu or throw that recipe away...why keep it if no one likes it right?!

For now, I just have the meal plans written out on two notepad sheets of paper. I plan on "cutesifying" them and also creating a shopping list with every ingredient needed for the week. I am going to put them in sheet protectors and then use erasable markers to go through the list before going to the store and get rid of all of the things I already have on hand. Won't I be Mrs. Organization!! No worries, you haven't seen my pantry lately, have you??!

We are only a couple weeks into this thing, and I am LOvInG it already! What do you do to make a meal plan? Anyone interested in seeing mine? I can post it if anyone wants to see it and/or get some new recipes. So give me your ideas...I am definitely interested in how you make dinners at your house work for you.

Oh yeah, and on the menu for next week:
Cheesy Potato Soup (tastes like its from a restaurant...I can say this because it isn't my recipe), Crepes, Cobb Salad, Grilled Cheese and Fries, Hawaiian Haystacks, Quesadillas, Spaghetti and Ciabatta Garlic Bread

Is your mouth watering yet?? Mine is! I should never write about food when I am hungry. I think I am going to go get something to eat now....

{Oh, and Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to The Thrifty Home for featuring my Burlap Wreath!! I am always so thrilled to see that other people like my ideas! ;) You can see the feature here.}

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