Getting It Together Again--Menu Planning

Sister Y. shared some fun & easy ways to make mealtimes simpler! As she said,

"Avoid the HOUR OF DOOM!

"The hour before dinner time spent with your face in the refrigerator hoping you can make something out of the jar of pickles, nearly gone gallon of milk, and the still frozen chicken...in 45 minutes."

With a little planning ahead, dinner time can be less stressful, less time consuming, less expensive, and more delicious! Here are some fantastic ideas!
Thanks, Sister Y.!!


Why plan menus?
Menu Planning is advanced planning of the menu for the next few days or the entire month (if you're that good!). It improves nutrition by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables & cuts back on the "drive through" habit. It saves time by reducing last minute trips to the store and saves money by reducing impulse spending, using leftovers instead of wasting them, and buying in bulk.


6 Easy Steps for Menu Planning
1.  Decide what to do and just do it!
"Remember your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing." --Abraham Lincoln

2. Set aside a regular time and make a plan.

3. Start small and simple-- Think 7 dinners and 1 trip to the grocery store.

4. Decide what to make
Take an inventory of meals your family likes to eat
Note any new recipes you'd like to try
Think of categories--Soup or Salad, Ethnic, Pasta, Casserole, Quick & Easy
Cooking Styles--Grilling, Stir fry, Crock Pot
Theme Nights--Mexican, Italian, Kids, Specialty

5. Determine Ingredients & Recipes

• Scan food fliers and store circulars for what is on sale
• Write it down! Make an inventory of what you have on hand and a grocery list of what you need.
• Keep recipes organized (See Sister R's 3 ring binder of recipes, below)

6. Make a menu plan

• Write Sunday though Saturday down and begin drafting your plan
• Remember, there is no perfect way to plan a menu. Every family is different.
• The size of your family, the time you have for cooking, your family's food preferences, and whether or not you have picky eaters ALL effect what you cook!

Making things fun can really beat the "dinner doldrums".

Variety is the spice of life so rotate your standby recipes and try something new!!

Theme/Category Nights

• Monday: Mexican Monday or Meatless Monday


• Tuesday: Pasta Tuesday or Picnic Tuesday


• Wednesday: Casserole Wednesday or Whatever Wednesday


• Thursday: Leftover Night or Breakfast Night


• Friday: Fun Friday or Pizza Night or Fiesta Friday or Fast Friday


• Saturday: Grill Night or Comfort Food Night or Feed Yourself Night


• Sunday: Soup Sunday or Salad Sunday or Leftover Sunday


• Kids: Recipes that involve the kids in preparation and will enjoy eating.


• Special Night: Plan with company in mind or a special occasion


• Freezer Night: Batch cooking 101! Make 2-3x the recipe and freeze it.


• Comfort Food: Always brings a smile and a full belly


• Garden: Usually a "summer" option. Reminder to try yet another zucchini-based meal.


• New Night: Anything you want to try. An occasional attempt to expand your family's palate.

From One Week and Beyond...

• Build a personal shopping list on the computer--include all the food your family regularly consumes.


• Recycle menu plans & when you're stuck simply reuse one!


• Try expanding from weekly to monthly plans!

Getting it Together Again – Lunch Ideas

Sister H. put together this visual comparing the processed convenience foods
we typically reach for with healthier (and less expensive) alternatives that can be made at home.

 

“Stick-wiches”

Ingredients:

bread (a firmer bread, such as ciabatta, baguette, etc... works well)
cheese
lunch meat of choice
grape tomatoes
lettuce                                                                                                                         pickles                                                                                                                      
olives

Directions:

Cut up cubes of bread, cheese, and lunch meat (order your meat from the deli cut into 1/2” slices - which makes it easy to cut nice cubes)
String the cubes onto a skewer with other foods your child likes, such as a grape tomato, piece of lettuce, pickle, or an olive.
(To make it easier to pierce each cube of cheese and meat - use a straw to poke a small hole first. Threads right on without pushing so hard)

Brown Bag Bar Cookie
(found at The Changeable Table)

Ingredients: 
                                                                                                    
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar                                                                                        
1/2 cup peanut butter                                                                                       
1 tsp vanilla                                                                                                                       
1 egg                                                                                                                          
1 cup flour                                                                                                           
1/2 cup quick oats                                                                                               
1 tsp baking soda                                                                                              
1/4 tsp salt (optional - if using unsalted butter)                                      
1 cup chocolate chips                                                                                    
1/2 cup powdered sugar                                                                                    
2 Tbs peanut butter                                                                                             
2 Tbs milk

Directions:

In a bowl, cream sugars & butter with peanut butter. Add egg and vanilla. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Blend dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Spread into a greased 9” x 13” pan (or half-size cookie sheet) Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool ten minutes. Combine powdered sugar with 2 Tbs peanut butter and 2 Tbs milk. If desired, add a drop or two of vanilla. Beat, adding a little more milk if needed for drizzling consistency. Drizzle over bars. Allow to cool completely before cutting. Makes 24 squares, or 3-4 dozen small bars.

More Ideas for School Lunches: (found here)

SANDWICHES/WRAPS/MAIN FARE
• Tortilla wraps {Natural lunch meat and cheese wrapped in a tortilla, cut in half and each half secured with a toothpick}
• Sandwiches {PB&H, PB&J, meat and cheese, etc.}
• Sandwich skewers {a deconstructed sandwich skewered on a long toothpick or bamboo skewer – meat chunks, cheese cubes, bread cubes, cherry tomato, etc.}
• Meatballs {my kids love meatballs on a toothpick or just in a little container with a plastic fork}
• Leftover pizza {I know cold pizza makes some of you want to hurl but my kiddos love it}
• Ham or Turkey roll-ups {lunch meat rolled up with a squirt of mustard and a pickle}
• Mini-bagels with filling/topping of kid’s choice
• Sliced turkey kielbasa or other lean sausage {I include a toothpick for easy eating}

FRUIT
• Apple or Pear slices
• Dried fruit/Raisins
• Fruit Leather
• Applesauce
• Strawberries/Blueberries
• Grapes
• Half of a banana
• Watermelon/Cantaloupe chunks
• Pineapple chunks
• Orange slices

VEGGIES
• Baby carrots/carrot sticks
• Sugar snap peas
• Celery sticks
• Handful of cherry tomatoes

SIDES
• Hard boiled egg
• String cheese
• Mini Babybel cheese
• Crackers/chips
• Pretzel sticks
• Yogurt/Cottage cheese
• Popcorn

Getting it together again – Sister M.

We had such a fun night as we learned some things to help keep ourselves and our families organized. We started off the night by hearing from Sister M. who talked about how to keep our families/homes organized. Here are a few ideas she mentioned on why we should be organized…

Find Stuff Faster

Sort it out and Group together

A place for everything and everything in its place.
example: store all your toilet paper in one place so you know when you really are on the last roll!
CORNER Pocket – a place you can put all the clutter to quickly clean-up. Once a week sort and put away everything in your corner pocket.

De-clutter

Designate the right amount of space for IT, but rid of excess

Be Prepared

Food storage – store what you use, use what you store. First in first out. Rotate your supplies 

More routine = fewer “battles”

Train the Troops
 
Routine (this way when your kids complain about a job, it’s not your fault it’s the routines!)
Example:
Monday – laundry
Tuesday – toilets
Wednesday – ______
Thursday – bedding
Friday – _________
Saturday – work as a family

More time to enjoy the moment

Traffic Patterns – less time backtracking, searching and looking
example: have your main garbage can in an easy to access place so it’s NOT hard to take the garbage out!

This is a list from a handout she gave on ways to stay organized:

Organizing Ideas

• Plan meals ahead of time
• Make a double batch of dinner and put the second one in the freezer for another night.
• Have things packed and ready to go the night before.
• Keep a basket or folder ready for outgoing mail.
• Keep the diaper bag and snack bags stocked.
• Write all of your appointments on one calendar. In fact, you may want to designate one color for each member of the family in order to easily see all of their activities at a glance.
• Keep flat surfaces clutter-free
• Create a play zone for children’s toys.
• Designate a game area where all games are stored
• Creatively display photos to eliminate clutter. Consider using collage frames and photo albums to store a lot of photos at once.
• Sort your movie collection – get rid of all the movies/CD’s you don’t plan to use again.
• Display your houseplants in a tiered plant stand.
• Avoid the tendency to display all of your special collectibles or mementos. Display half of what you own and store the rest.
• Put all of the plastic grocery bags in a bag holder and when it’s full recycle them. Or better yet, go green and use reusable grocery sacks.
• Compartmentalize your utensil drawer to eliminate the hassle of looking for the potato peeler.
• Set up a baking zone in the kitchen so you easily know what you have on hand and what you need to purchase.
• Clean out your pantry and get rid of those items you aren’t using
• Organize your recipes and get rid of those you won’t use. Put those on index cards in a recipe box, and full-sized recipes in a 3-ring binder.
• Donate! Donate! Donate! Here’s a good rule of thumb - if you have something that you have not used in 1 year and it's not holiday decorations or vital to your happiness GET RID OF IT!!!!
• Designate a place for everything. Remember the old adage a place for everything and everything in its place? It’s true time saver!
• Designate a place for things and label it to make it easy to remember.
• Put things back where they belong when you’re done using it and make sure the kids do too!
• Start small – organize one area at a time.
• Create routines for everything from errands to laundry to school work.
• Clean as you go and don’t save it for one day per week or once a year.
• Keep all info in one place.
• Put it away now.
• Use an inbox and empty it regularly at intervals that work for you.
• Keep a simple filing system.
• Have a simple system for pending items.
• Create a landing strip for keys, purse, and cell phones so that they can easily be accessed.
• Set an allotted time to organize so that it doesn’t become overwhelming.
• Open all mail immediately and dispose of the outer envelope with the junk mail. Have one spot for all bills.
• Keep your calendar close at hand when sorting papers. You can file or toss the paper if the event is recorded in your calendar.
• Combine similar activities. For example, make all your phone calls at one time, pay your bills at one time, run errands at one time.
• Write it down – a short pencil is better than a long memory! Carry a pen and notepad with you to capture information that is easily forgotten.
• If you forget the notepad, use your cell phone to capture that phone number or message.
• Delegate responsibilities and be sure the person responsible has all the tools and information to get the job done.
• Use Post-it notes! Stick a pad of post-its in your car to write down that important thought, message or phone number.
• When running errands map out the best path and don’t get sidetracked.
• Start your phone conversation with “I only have ____minutes to talk,” and then stick to it.
• Remember there are many valid ways to organize. Find ways that make sense to you.

Thank you Sister M. we all learned a lot!!

Getting it Together Again – Sister W. – The Church Website

Sister W. is our ward website administrator. She gave us a glimpse at all the resources the church website has to offer! You will find links to some great resources like: Family Search, Youth.lds.org, Mormon Channel, Provident Living, and the online store. Take some time to explore the website you will be amazed!

In order to sign in to our ward website you need to click on Sign In at the top of the church website. Sign in with your login and password. If you do not have a sign in you need your membership record number which can be obtained from our ward clerks. Once you are signed in you can access our ward/stake calendar, directory, map, an online study notebook, and even request a copy of your patriarchal blessing.

The Mormon Channel is wonderful. You need to just explore it!
The Church website is an amazing resource! Thank you Sister W. for giving us a peek into what it has to offer!

Getting it Together Again – Sister R.

Sister R. talked about her 3 ring binders as well as coupons. In order to keep herself organized she has binders to organize important information.

  

Rasmussen Household Dealings has different sections including: This months bills, past months bills, auto, personal (each child’s school information), computer, pay stubs, and receipts. With all of this information in one place it is a lot easier to stay organized. Each family should personalize it to their own needs.

Family Home Evening Binder for small children. She started this when she was trying to come up with ideas for FHE. Each sections is a different gospel topic. When she finds a good story/game in the Friend or Ensign she cuts it out or copies it and files it into her binder. Because she has done this when she needs a quick FHE lesson, primary talk or game she has somewhere to turn, or if someone has a question about a topic they can turn to it and find information.

Recipe Binder Favorite recipes that we have copied, written down or cut out scattered here and there in our kitchen – we all this similar problem. She solved this problem by putting all her recipes in one binder under different tabs. In the front, inside pocket, she slips the recipes she wants to try out on her family. Once she has tried these recipes she will either: toss them or file them in the binder for future use.

Coupon Binder has all of her coupons organized by type. In order to Coupon you have to be organized!

All the products (minus the binders) in the picture she paid $0 for!! Amazing! She also explained the different resources she uses to save the most money couponing. Here are a few of the websites she uses:

• http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/
• http://www.coupons.com/
• http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ 

She definitely sparked some money saving cords in each of us! We are going to have a follow-up class on couponing in September.

Thank you Sister R. for all of your great ideas!! If you have any other ideas on how you keep your family organized, what you keep in YOUR binder, or ways to save PLEASE leave a comment and share it with all of us!

Fall Floral Arranging Class

Last Fall Sister R. taught us all how to turn all those signs of fall we see into BEAUTIFUL centerpieces and arrangements. She even showed us how to make our own candle holders made from mini pumpkins. Here are a few pictures to jog your memory!

Cooking without a Kitchen

Our class in May focused on cooking in emergency situations. The cooking techniques we talked about could also be used in many other situations as well.

Brother and Sister B. gave us a few tips on Dutch Oven cooking. They made a delicious pizza and upside down cake. They inspired us all to try our hands at Dutch oven cooking.

We also learned a little about Box Oven Cooking. All the information Sister Y. used was found here.

Hopefully we don’t ever have to use these techniques in a real emergency – but if we do we’ll know how to do it!