Moolie's "is it really that hard?" journal

[Wannabefree]

I just wanna know why you have my casserole dish there on the top shelf that I have been looking for for weeks

Nice fridge. Too bad I'm not organized enough to use your chart, I'd really join in in detail. I really can't though...I get too much free food and that's cheating. I could eat all month for free at the moment, I'd just have to get extremely creative with potatoes :/ Need some?

 

[moolie]

I'd love some free potatoes!

And that's definitely my casserole dish--it was a wedding gift

Potato salad, perogies, mashed potatoes, home fries... I bet you are getting tired of them by now, but there are things you can make ahead and freeze for later when you don't have so many surplus potatoes.

 

[Wannabefree]

At this point I am wondering if I store them if there will ever be a such thing as NOT having surplus potatoes around here.

 

[ORChick]

Moolie, I am so impressed! I just cannot manage planning more than a week ahead on meals, and even then something usually comes up to throw a wrench into the works.

 

[moolie]

Aw thanks ORChick--and everyone else who has commented so kindly

My plan is based a lot on what we have on hand in the pantry and freezer and is pretty much what we usually do. So I have the benefit of having done this before--just not in this format. I've usually just written it all out on a paper calendar in the past. I like the Word document better, because I can save it from month to month and "recycle" plans I've used before. The paper calendars get pretty mucked up by the end of the month (I just print out calendar pages) so I haven't really saved any of them. Now if a page gets mucked up, I can just print a new copy!

Yup, stuff like potluck at church etc. can mess the plan all up, and I often freezer-cook so I usually have a few casseroles put by for instances like that, but I really find that when I calendar it all out like this it really keeps us from eating out or buying impulse groceries. If we skip a meal/day we just pick up where we were.

I should also explain that each person in my family chooses what they want for breakfast every day--we don't all eat the same thing, except on weekends. Each kid as well as my hubs pack their own lunch after breakfast, as per the meal/snack plan. I work at home, so I eat mine when I get breaks.

Dinner is sit-down together every night, even nights when the girls have Girl Guides, music lessons, or Youth Group activities--we only get about 20 minutes for dinner on those nights between when hubs gets home and we need to drive a kid somewhere, but I've got the timing down just right at this point and we just do it and then get the dishes cleared and into the dishwasher before we leave.

(We only run the dishwasher once a day, after dinner, and pots and pans are washed as they are used/emptied onto serving plates unless we serve out of a cooking dish like a casserole or pyrex dish).

 

[moolie]

So today we are on the Friday of week 1 in the first chart, so everyone had their choice of weekday breakfast items and made tuna sandwiches for lunch, I will make mine in a few moments and sit down for my lunch at home.

A couple of bananas were getting quite brown so I made two loaves of banana bread--one to eat for breakfasts/in place of "muffin" in snacks, and one to freeze for later--house smells wonderful at the moment as they've just come out of the oven! I keep HM muffins, cookies, and applesauce or banana bread in the freezer all the time so we are good to go on those kinds of snacks, often my girls will bake things but sometimes it's down to me to do it

Dinner tonight is easy, I just need to heat the leftover penne pasta with meat sauce in the oven about half an hour before dinner and cut up some carrot sticks for on the side. Then the kids are off to Youth Group at church.

 

[TTs Chicks]

I just wanna know why you have my casserole dish there on the top shelf that I have been looking for for weeks

I've got one just like it

 

[Wannabefree]

I just wanna know why you have my casserole dish there on the top shelf that I have been looking for for weeks

I've got one just like it

I found mine today I filled it with delicious Shepherd's Pie

Sounds like you're doing great moolie I made a carrot cake today too, maybe I should make some banana bread as well since ya got me wanting some now

 

[moolie]

Glad you found it!

The first banana bread half gone now, but there's still the second on in the freezer for later

 

[Denim Deb]

I know I've made chocolate chip banana bread w/the intentions of putting it in the freezer, and had it not make it. Normally, by the time it cools down enough to wrap it, that's how it looks!