What's the Magic Word?

There are a handful of things in this world that make me blush and give me legit butterflies.

I have to give props to my main man for being the source of most of them. As I sit here now, I can hear the song that was on the radio as he nervously leaned over and kissed me for the first time. Swoon. I can feel a little tremble every time.

There's a very tiny list of thoughts that can evoke a similar feeling.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Tom Hardy

Beards.

Leo with a beard.

Tom with a beard...

...so that pretty much sums up the list.

 Nope wait- there's one more thing.

There's one more thing that can make me feel a little lightheaded. It makes me giddy. I even feel slightly light on my feet.  It's actually two words. Two magic words...

LEFTOVER NIGHT!

I'm serious, ya'll! When I am putting all that work into making the list/menu each week (with or without anyone's help) I am sure to write in one night that's nothing but leftovers.

I work hard standing in that kitchen all week, sweating away, breaking my back in the oven, straining my muscles as I stir and knead....ok, it's not that bad- but it is still a lot of work.

So each week, I reward myself. This night is celebrated! I should consider getting a small red carpet that leads from the fridge to the microwave. Maybe I'll even have them take a few paparazzi style shots as I gently tilt the lid for venting while it cooks (These are all genuine possibilities, folks.)

OK, ok, so maybe there shouldn't be that much fanfare, but, man, it's a special night in my mind! The preparation is easy. The cleaning is simple. And probably the most important part to me (all joking aside) is that we are not wasting food.

Wasting food was a BIG no-no for me in our house growing up. When my mom made something for dinner, it was beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time remarking on how pretty the spread was. And then a few days later, part of that meal would make a cameo appearance in a new meal. Then maybe, just maybe, there was just enough left that it could morph into some type of casserole. (If the woman had cream of anything and ritz crackers, then by golly, we could have a casserole). And the invention of the freezer bag made it even worse! Now she could freeze something we didn't finish and SURPRISE!! a couple weeks later there it was again....damn those bags.

Now these same Empty Nesters, will cook a meal and let the remainder spoil in the fridge because "I already had that once this week.' or "It just isn't the same reheated".

Not in my house.

Actually, I want to share how we "manage" the leftovers. I know it may sound a little silly to say it that way, but it is something that you can't let get away from you. No one wants to take the lid off of the "fuzzy stuff" in the blue container. And no one wants to sniff the "mystery meat" to see if it has one more day in it. There's nothing more appetizing than hearing someone say. "Well, if you don't eat it, I'm just going to have to throw it away."

Really? Those are the options? My mouth or the landfill.....mmmmm...... #tasty

We have a pretty good system- what the heck, I'm going to say that we have a GREAT system that keeps food moving IN and OUT of the fridge in a way that shouldn't scare anyone.

When dinner is over. We use two types of storage containers. The main squeeze isn't here for dinner most nights, so we make a plate that is just like if he were at the table. It is divided into thirds and has a vent for steam on top. It's perfect. He takes that to work the next day. So he is usually a dinner behind us. But it's new to him.

Anything that didn't go into the "Dad Plate" goes into container that is only divided twice. It is a flimsier container- but it is going straight to a plate- so no biggie there. In those containers, we are making servings. (That's the key). We put the meat on one side and the starch on the other. It is just enough to be a meal if someone were to choose it for leftover night. Some nights we get two containers made like that- which makes it easier on leftover night because now the boys don't have to fight. (Nothing like needing a bouncer at the microwave)!

I think one of the things I used to do wrong was put all the meatloaf in one container and all the mashed potatoes in a different container. Then things get pushed around back there in the fridge and the two foods never end up pairing up again. But not this way. This way there are meals. And all they have to do is put the whole container in the microwave.

Since these are all in the same type containers, they are easy to stack in the fridge. Sometimes the stack gets higher faster than I had anticipated it would. When this happens, I have to institute an Emergency Leftover Night. Only I have the power to make that call. It's good to be in charge (sometimes).

I will show which ones we use to make this so easy.

These are the "Dad Plates". They work perfectly for his lunch box. The vent makes it easy to heat up his dinner. We picked these up at Wal-Mart, but they are everywhere. (These are very durable).

These are also from Wal-Mart. They only have two compartments. They are perfect for a meat and side. They are sturdy enough for the dishwasher, but also cheap enough that if anything does get lost back there in the depths of the fridge it won't break the budget to toss them out.

Having the distinct containers makes it easy on everyone. They know that anything in this container is "fair game" and Lord Grantham knows which one to put in his lunchbox in case I'm not here to pack it up for him. 

Believe it or not, I really don't have an issue with them when it is a leftover night.

 1)  For the most part, they eat what I cook. They have a say in the menu, so often times it's something they initially picked anyway. 

2) They like having the choices.

And I definitely don't have issues with it because:

1) I didn't have to cook anything new.

2) I didn't have to cook anything new.

3)I didn't have to cook anything new.

It's a win-win!! 

Seriously though, for us it's something that really works. Maybe you can use part of it to smooth out your week and even get a night off from cooking! Our system keeps us on track and keeps us from wasting a ton of food each week. It's also keeping me from breaking out the "cream of something and the ritz crackers"! :)

Enjoy your week.

The Dreaded List

It seems like the more you love something, the more time you give it. For instance, my boys love video games, so they devote a lot time and (all) their money to it. Chickadee loves to read, so she takes time to read everyday. 

With this being the pattern, you would think that I MUST LOVE meal planning, shopping, and cooking, right? I mean that only makes sense. Because I spend so much TIME doing it!

Wrong.

We all know how I feel about it. And I KNOW that I am NOT alone.

Just because we do it, doesn't mean we like it. I don't gripe about it so verbally with the kiddos around; I don't want them to automatically feel the same way. They can grow up and hate it on their own. LOL! Just kidding.

Since there is NO getting around it, and they insist on eating everyday, I have done my best to try and minimize the workload on my end. Here are a list of things that have helped:

1) I ask for their input. IF I can get at least 2 out 4 to give me a suggestion about what they would like to eat for dinner, then there's 2 less thoughts that this exhausted brain has to come up with on its own.

2) I have them write things on the dry erase on the fridge as they run out of it or decide they need it so that it is there when I am making the list for the store. This means that I don't have to read their minds, like they apparently think that I can.

3) I take one of them with me to the store. Yep, I am not doing that by myself. I usually take one of the boys. Littlest Little is actually the best shopper. He is a no non-sense guy like me. We get in and we get out. Chickadee ups my grocery bill by about $20 every time because she throws stuff into the cart when I'm not looking and then distracts me when we are at the checkout- I am aware of her evil plan, and yet she gets me. Every. Time. 

4) Once it's all purchased, they (usually the boys) help me decide what night we will have which meal- that way we can put it into MEAL BOARD and on calendar. We take into account who has to stay after for what on which day and how long that certain meal takes to prepare and who all will be home to be at the table that night. Whew- there's a lot to consider!

5) And of course, we all play a part in the cleaning up. Mine is small. I took a stand on my 40th and made sure that everyone was either proficient or above average when it came to the kitchen chores!

So even though I do have quite a bit to do when it comes to preparing for the coming week's meals, there is help. There are the occasional moans and groans and resistance to the plan- but then I snap out of it and realize that it could be worse, I could be totally on my own when it comes to all this work. Therefore I am thankful for the pitching in that they do!

Tonight, I want to share with you how I get my list together for the store. I NEVER enter the store without a list. That is shopping suicide. It must be a thorough and complete list with all the meals' ingredients, lunches, toiletries, cleaning products, etc. 'Cause I am only going to the store once a week. That is it. No more. No less.

After the meals that are going to be prepared for the week are chosen, I have to get the ingredients listed.  The list that I use helps me to do both.  I made a simple template for my grocery list on a spreadsheet. Take a look.

See where it says "Ideas"? I use this column to help when we are picking meals. If someone calls a pasta dish, I write it there and then no one else can pick another pasta dish. The same goes for soups. One heavy soup a week is enough. And so on for sandwiches- we consider those to be anything that has buns or rolls, burgers, BBQ chic, dagwoods, etc. And I usually like to only have one meal a week that is chicken (prepared a million ways), a starch, and a vege. The "Ideas" section is categorized the same way as my MealBoard, but there wasn't enough room to add all the categories to the list so there are blank spaces for adding in others.

After we have at least 6 meals in the Ideas, we move them over to "Meals" and add sides. Then I can start filling in the rest of the list. Going one meal at time, placing each ingredient in its spot. (I print the template, and write in the items).

Things that we get every week are already printed on the list. And the list kind of follows the steps we take in the store. Like a map. 

My written list always looked like this- little untitled columns that only I understood why they were where they were on the paper! So I decided to make it a little neater and easy for anyone to read. Not that anyone else is going to go do the shopping, but a girl can dream!!!

If you haven't read the Hallelujah praise that I have for MealBoard, check that out here. I am still loving all the simplicity it has brought to my life! 

I've added a link my List here so that you can grab it, make a copy, and edit it to fit your needs. 

Grab it here .

Would love to hear in the comments if you found this helpful! 

Have a great week!

Morning Time Saver for Mom

So here we are almost a full month into 2016 and I am just now getting around to posting this. I started this post over Christmas break because I thought it would be nice to share with some of you busy moms and dads before school started back. 

It didn't work out that way.

It's still a very helpful idea for us though, so I still want to share.

When I left my position in 2014 and began subbing, I found myself in the middle and high schools during lunch. Which I was never there before. Have you been? HOLY Lunch Madness!

It isn't always what's on the tray that is so surprising, but all the hoops and lines and ropes and procedures they have to go through to get it. I used to hear horror stories from Chickadee, but she's a drama queen, so I just assumed it could only be about 1/4 as bad as she was claiming it to be. (Sorry, Chickadee)

The kids only get 30 minutes for lunch. They have to walk to the cafe. Stand in line to get the food. Stand in line to pay for the food. And then find a seat. They now have 15 minutes to scarf down whatever was left by the time they got to the line. Oh, wait, did I say 15 minutes? I meant 12 because they still have to stand in line to throw it away. Stop at the bathroom. And make it back to class on time. 

The boys decided that was all too much! And I agreed! So we started packing. (I started packing). It wasn't so bad at first, but then we found that while I was buying the things they wanted to put in their lunchboxes, the little weasels were eating it before it had a chance to make it to lunch. So inevitably, every Wednesday night, I was running to Walgreens to get drinks or chips or "something sweet". Argh.

I put a stop to that about a month in by putting three baskets in the pantry with their names on them- and after grocery shopping, I putting 5 of everything in each basket. (And yes, I was guilt-packing lunch for Chickadee for her last semester of high school- and actually, I still am in her second semester of college) . This was working out very well for us- we were guaranteed to have everything we needed for lunches for the whole week! Most nights, I could even convince them to pack the unrefrigerated things into their lunch boxes and put them on the counter, so that all I needed to do was add the sandwich and fruit in the morning!

It is still working out great for us- with one little change. The baskets were taking up a little more room than what we have in our pantry. And with them getting jostled around, cookies and chips were getting crushed. And when you are having a crap day in middle school, the last thing you want to happen is to sit down at the lunch table and find that you have chip crumbs and cookie dust.

To alleviate that problem, I added a 3 drawer sterilite container to the bottom of the pantry. One drawer per Little. It works out so much better because nothing can get stuck on top of  and crush the food that is in each drawer. And the drawers are much larger than the baskets were. 

When we go shopping on the weekend (which don't be fooled, I still hate the shopping part),  each one of the not-so-littles will open boxes and add 5 of everything to his/her drawer. If there's anything left in the boxes, those go up on the shelves with the regular snacks. The best part is they ALL know that those drawers are off limits during the week for snacking! They also know that I will NOT go back to the store during the week to buy things that are supposed to be in lunches. (This ensures that they stay out)!

The drawers turned out to be a space saver and a time saver. 

Hopefully this is something that can make your mornings a little easier with your littles!

Have a great week!

Meal Planning Made EASY

Those of you who only know me from following, know that there are a handful of things that I cannot stand! (Those who really know me, know that there are possibly two handfuls). 

Either way- one of them is cooking and the one right behind that is meal planning.  

I cringe when I look at the board and there are only two planned meals left. That means I have to start pestering everyone, trying to hit them up for ideas. Preparing myself for the moaning, bitching, and complaining that comes with telling everyone what the plan is. 

"Ew, only she likes that!"

"Aw, man! Didn't we have that like a week ago?"

"Why don't we ever have what I like?"

To answer those- 

It's a lie. Everyone eats it. 

All of our weeks run together, so yes, you've had this before. 

And finally, because we can't have skittles and Mountain Dew for dinner. 

Every week. Without fail. I plan. I shop. I cook. I reheat. I cook again. 

Every week. When they wake up, they ask "what's for dinner?" When they get off the bus, "what's for dinner?" WHILE we are AT the dinner table, "What's for dinner TOMORROW?" Aghhhhh!!!

It's a never ending cycle!! 

But I think I have found some help. Some beautiful-bathed-in-the lights-of-heaven, angels-singing-on-high-kind-of-help! 

(And you may already know about this. I could be late to the party- probably because I was in the freakin kitchen! But I'm going to tell you about it anyway! 

It's an app called MealBoard. 

It's not free. It actually cost $3.99. I normally don't buy apps without having heard someone gush over them- but I was desperate and the description looked promising. So I splurged. 

I have talked to everyone in the house about it! They are sick of hearing it. I don't care, I'm the oldest- they have to listen to what I say. Boom. 

There's just so much goodness in here!! 

I started writing what we had for dinner on our calendar back in mid September. Just so we could try and stay out of the "dinner rut".  I am so glad that I did!

Because you can go backward on this app and add what you cooked on any day. 

You can even choose breakfast, lunch dinner- side, appetizer, dessert. 

My main concern is dinner- the main dish and sides. I just click the calendar, select when I want to start adding in recipes. And then click the + next to the day to start adding.  

Everything I add in is saved! And then I can go back and add "categories", like tags. So when I am thinking of what to make later on I can just search for an ingredient (like chicken, beef, sausage...) 

AND LOOK! It tells me the last time I cooked it!! So no one can say "we had that last week!" (Except for the Italian Sausage Sandwich because we totally had that last week). 

Since I have so many meals in there, I can scroll through them and click and choose if I want to add it to this week's plan. Super simple. But wait....

Y'all, there's more. Now that I have 6 weeks of meals in here, I can go to anyone of these weeks and then choose "Save Meal Plan as Template" and it will place that WHOLE week for the coming one!! That's the whole week planned! All I have to do is make a list for the items I need -  I don't have to ask anyone for anything!! (Can you hear the hallelujahs)? 

I'll probably wait for a month or so before I start copying whole weeks- but you can bet I will!!! 

I can even export it to an iCal that we share !

(I just had to set my phone down for a second and catch my breath.) 

You can also import recipes! 

You'll have to get in there and play around - it took me a day to get 6 weeks of previous meals from the wall calendar into the app and get them categorized so they are easy to access. 

A day well spent I am sure!!

I seriously doubt I will use the shopping feature. And I can't see me running an inventory of my pantry. But this meal planning super hero app designer has just made this gal one happy squirrel!!

And then my brain started spinning - what if I had a friend or two who was using the app? We could email back and forth a few weeks so that we can add something new to the mix! {another hallelujah !!}

If you end up giving it a try and love it - let me know! Maybe we can share a couple of weeks with each other- unless you have skittles and Mountain Dew for dinner, cause I already kinda vetoed that one! :)

The Shared 15 Just Got Easier

Days come and go and I often say to myself, "Self, this is a great idea! You should share it!" And then I either get too busy, too lazy, or forget all together.

This great idea to change our Shared 15 happened almost three months ago- maybe longer - and I wanted to share it. I did on Periscope. (thank goodness those disappear in 24 hours!! I shudder to think that it would last forever).

Rather than just copy and paste an old post about The Shared 15 and tack on the change/update, I'm going to explain it a little more clearly. This post is about the actual 15 and how to set it up- not the QR REWARDS- (that is linked here)

However I will paste this in- just in case it's the first time you've ever heard me talk about The Shared 15:

(FROM JAN 4, 2015) 

Now, What is the "Shared 15"? That is something we started a couple of years ago- and it WORKED. For a long time. And then life got crazy and shifts changed and it stopped being enforced.

So it is BACK!

IMMEDIATELY following dinner (before the dishes are done) everyone has to devote a SOLID 15 minutes to a SHARED LIVING SPACE. The living room, bathroom, dining room, hall, stairs. Anywhere that we all SHARE. This keeps everything so tidy and makes it really nice when the kitchen is finished and we can all relax. To make it a little easier to remember and to be fair (so no one gets stuck with the toilet all the time, there is a rotation ). Everyone gives 15 minutes a day- and  there are 5 of us- so that's 75 minutes of work EVERYDAY. That's - hold on let me get my calculator- 525 mins a week - which is the same as almost 9 hours of cleaning a week!!! AMAZING!

Doesn't that sound good?

Now, for setting up the chart of jobs and how you will assign them.   What type of job you add is obviously going to depend on the age of the children involved. Mine ranged from 10-17 when we started this. Because of the way it rotates, you have to keep in mind that the job the 17 year old did, will also have to be done by the 10 year old in a couple of days. So you'll have to find a happy medium. 

Jobs/ tasks that make it tidier around here are things like :

Sweeping

Clearing out personal things from shared living space(We call that Stuff Patrol)

Dusting

Wiping down the toilets 

Wiping down the vanity/ taking out the bathroom trash

Sweeping the deck

Cleaning the dog area 

You get the idea- things that are out in the open where we all spend time together.  

I made a simple table with days of the week for columns and a row for how many jobs a day will get done. . 

 

After we figured out what needed to be done daily and what could be done just  once or twice a week, I filled in our chart. I also wrote a small description about expectations for each job.

After I got our chart filled out I had to figure out how to decide who did what on which night. At first I was writing their initials and the number of the job on EVERY block in the calendar- that was pretty time consuming- worth it- but time consuming nonetheless.  I got tired of writing it in at the beginning of the month- it was a pain and I would confuse myself sometimes!

So I started playing around with this spinner/slide idea. I thought if they could see the number on the spinner, all they had to do was find the number and the day of the week on the chart and match them up! Easy peasy! 

Here's how I made mine:

You want to make 2 circles on card stock, one a little larger than the other, so that you can make a "spinner".  I used two nesting bowls from the kitchen and a brad that was  in the bottom of the junk drawer. #luckyfind

You will want to divide your smaller circle into as many parts as you have people participating. Two people= draw a line down the middle. Three people= divide into thirds (which is NOT easy).  I had so many failed attempts at this, that at one point I thought it would just be easier to add another kid! NOT!

Now that your circle is divided, write your numbers in. 

After you have it colored, put the larger circle underneath to guide you so that you can write the names of the those participating in The Shared 15. 

We have three names, so I just wrote them towards the middle of each section of color (on the larger circle).  Then attach them to each other with the brad.

This spinner stays above the calendar and job chart on the garage door.

Setting up the calendar:

 I used these three colors to alternate coloring the dates on the calendar. So basically these colors show up every three days. See how fast I can do this part:

I decided to put her name on top since she is the oldest . Her name is also the marker for what the day is on the calendar. So really, whatever color the day is on the calendar is her job that day. For instance, the 8th this month is green - so I turn the spinner to green under her name.

 That means she has job #3.

 The 8th is a Tuesday this month. 

So she takes a glance at the chart and looks for job #3 on  a Tuesday- she has to wipe down the shower. 

The boys will look to see which number falls by their name - which 1 and 2 is always the same for them. For our family, #3 is the only job that changes daily- so you only have to look at the chart if you have job #3. (You could choose to have every numbered job be the same everyday, but somethings didn't need to be done everyday.) And really it goes in order, if you have #1 today, you will have #2 the next- and so on.....

To recap- and this is the beauty of it-

All I have to do is spin to make her color and the color on the calender match. Really, that's it.

 After dinner on the 8th, their toilet will be cleaned, their shower will be wiped down, their bathroom will be swept, from the hall to the kitchen will be swept, and all things things that don't belong in our shared living space will go to it's respective rooms. Then they will head to their rooms to do any straightening they need done until the 15 is over. And I don't have to say anything except "Okay, let's knock out our 15".

When the 15 is done, we head into the kitchen to get it cleaned up (which usually I am almost done by the time they finish, so it goes pretty quick.) And then whatever else it is that we do for the evening, we get to do in a tidy shared living space! And that dreaded weekend cleaning isn't so bad because we keep it up throughout the week. And if a neighbor pops over, we don't have to pray that they don't have potty while they are over! LOL  It truly is a lifesaver,

If I didn't sound like such a dork, I would make quick video- but seriously- it's super easy- list, color, spin, clean, repeat. 

I know for a fact that one of the things we lack the most is time. In fact, I am willing to bet that while you were reading this you thought of 6 other things that you needed to be doing! (I know I did while I was writing it). I just really love how The Shared 15 makes everyone responsible for something everyday. We all live here- it all belongs to us, so let's take care of it!
I really hope this is something  that some of you can use and if you do- I would love to hear about it! And if you have any questions about it- feel free to comment or email!