October Meal Plan

I am shocked I am getting this out on time considering the week I had last week.  I did however have a lot of down time, so I was able to work on it here and there.  I am going to try to add some ideas for the sides we would eat with each meal.  Remember, I don't make this complicated.  Sometimes I add a fruit for desert, ie strawberries or blueberries with a little bit of sugar..works for desert and fruit.  My kiddos already eat lots of fruit throughout the day, so I am really never worried about that.
Mon 1          Broccoli cheese soup and rolls
Tues 2          crockpot chicken salsa dip with chips
Wed 3          Beef strogenoff with green beans
Thurs 4         crockpot cheesy chicken spaghetti with broccoli
Fri 5             Pizza-sometimes I add a fresh salad
Sat 6            Grilled steak, rolls, corn on the cob, green beans and some fruit
Sun 7           Ranch chicken kabobs with rice and fresh cut veggies
Mon 8          Pasta alfredo with broccoli
Tues 9          xc dinner
Wed 10        crockpot chicken tacos (veggies included)
Thurs 11       crockpot mac and cheese with fresh veggies
Fri 12           Pizza-sometimes I add a fresh salad
Sat 13          worlds best chicken with green beans and rolls
Sun 14         out to eat to celebrate Bren's b-day
Mon 15        Grilled chicken burritos with fresh veggies
Tues 16        Left over loaded potato soup with rolls (frozen from last month)
Wed 17        Girls and I in Michigan for a wedding.  Boys have frozen Stoffers Meal
Thurs 18       Girls and I in Michigan for a wedding.  Boys have prepared chicken wings
Fri 19           Girls and I in Michigan for a wedding.  (Brenna's 7th birthday) Boys have Pizza
Sat 20          Girls and I in Michigan for a wedding.  Boys have frozen Stoffers Meal
Sun 21          Girls and I in Michigan for a wedding.  Boys have a frozen Stoffers Meal or leftovers
Mon 22        Sloppy joes with fresh veggies
Tues 23        Steak fajitas with veggies included
Wed 24        Jambalaya veggies included
Thurs 25       Tacos with veggies included
Fri 26            Pizza-sometimes I add a fresh salad
Sat 27           Chipotle chicken salad with veggies included
Sun 28           Sesame chicken with rice and carrots
Mon 29         Goulash
Tues 30         BLT's with fresh veggies
Wed 31       

Life is easier when...

 I love anything that makes my life easier, ideas that help me spend less money and are just plain convenient.  Here are a few ideas from our house from the last couple months.  

I am always looking for snack ideas for the kids for after school.  They love jello and I love how cheap it is.  You can buy a box of jello mix for cents at the store and buy a bunch of these little 4-6 oz cups for around $5.00.      

 Here is the final product.  A snack the kids can grab when they get home from school or I can throw in a cooler bag to take to the gym or wherever we are going.   

I tried something new this month when it comes to our meals.  If you follow my monthly post for meal plan you have noticed it.  I found it on pinterest and it worked awesome for our busy family.  We already use the crockpot many times during the month so I love this idea.  After I did my monthly grocery shopping for the month and came home, I fixed 9 crockpot meals (which took about 2 hours), put them in bags, labeled them and froze them.  So 2 times a week I already had food prepared.  In the mornings I got the meal out of the freezer, put it in the crockpot and turned it on.  I did not have one complaint!   

I posted the end results of these shelves on facebook and got so many compliments.  I have to say that it is as awesome as a looks thanks to my hubby.  It took a little while to build because he had no directions as to how to build it.  I just told him what I wanted and showed him a couple pictures and he went off of those.  Aidan joined in to help during those hot days.  This is how it came together...

The shelves are all filled with shoes, football pads and containers.

What are some ideas that make your life easier?  I love to learn what other people do.

September Meals

We are on to another month.  The freezer meals from last month turned out awesome.  It was incredibly convenient and I spent about 5 minutes preparing the meal instead of 30.  I will take any time saving ideas. 
I had some questions from some people about the recipes..
1.  We have pizza once a week.  Almost always on Friday.  Where we get the pizza depends on week to week.  If I have good coupons for pizza and it is on sale, the pizza comes from the store frozen.  If we are out and about, we pick up if we are on our way home or eat somewhere like Old Towne Pizza in downtown Dawsonville. 
2.  Almost every meal, we have fresh veggies.  (Cucumbers, carrots, celery, broccoli, etc)  If the recipe is for example Beef Stew, than we don't have veggies.  If the meal has pasta in it, we won't have bread...except when we have Spaghetti or Lasagna, I add garlic bread.  I buy frozen bread loafs or crescent rolls, once again depending on what kind of coupons I have.  If you don't know yet, I do not buy anything with out a coupon and/or it being on sale.  Other than that, sometimes I add rice or fresh fruit and a scoop of ice cream for desert or a homemade cookie.  I love making different deserts and that happens randomly. 
3.  I rarely do boxed meals, ie mac and cheese.  Maybe on weekends for a side.  I would grill chicken and then add mac and cheese for a side.  Mostly I use homemade.  May be a pain sometimes, but much cheaper and healthier in the long run.
4.  We eat lot of chicken.  Why?  One word, CHEAP!  I get it where I can find it the cheapest.  I don't do organic unless and I can get some tremendous deal.  I survived..and so will my children. 
5.  I get nearly all of my recipes from 1 of 3 places...1.  allrecipes.com     2.  pinterest   or 3.  My mom.

Hope that answers your questions.


Sat 1          college football kick off.  crockpot queso blanco with chips and chicken wings 
GO BLUE! GO BRONCOS!
Sun 2          bratts on the grill   
Mon 3         cookout and friends
Tues 4         healthy BBQ chicken crockpot
Wed 5         spaghetti and meatsauce
Thurs 6        crockpot chicken tacos
Fri 7            Pizza
Sat 8           sesame chicken strips
Sun 9          at lake-picnic dinner
Mon 10       BLT's
Tues 11       chicken and dumplings casserole
Wed 12       jambalaya
Thurs 13      crockpot chicken fajitas
Fri 14          Pizza
Sat 15         worlds best chicken
Sun 16        cheesy chicken ranch lasagna
Mon 17       loaded potato soup
Tues 18       chicken roll ups
Wed 19       tacos
Thur 20       chicken tetrazinni
Fri 21          Pizza
Sat 22          grilled pork loin
Sun 23          lasagna soup
Mon 24        grilled fish
Tues 25        chicken and dumpling bake
Wed 26       sour cream and bacon crockpot chicken
Thurs 27       crockpot mac and cheese
Fri 28           Pizza
Sat 29          hamburgers
Sun 30         porkchops

Summer review in 13



It is hard to think that the summer is over...well technically it's not over, but because school has started and we are hoping for cooler weather, we will call it "sumall."  Some amazing things happened this summer.  These amazing things were not always good or happy things and I know for sure that the summer of 2012 will never be forgotten! 

I am going to go a bit backwards.  This whole new blogspot set up is screwing me up.  So 1. doesn't mean the first thing that happened.  Here we go...here are the top 13 on the 13th.  Let's start the review...

1.  Boating on Lanier is so much fun...especially swimming.  The kids love being on a boat.  It is in their blood.  I grew up boating, Brad grew up sailing...this family just loves to be on the water.  I learned how to ski at a young age and Aidan learned how to water ski when he was 6.  Now I am not to sure if he will ever water ski again. 

This is the kids before the accident...

 

2.  This is Aidan on day 3 after the accident (trust me when I tell you that you do not want to see what it looked like after the accident..lets just say the girls screamed to the hosptial..they were freaking out).  Many of you are on facebook and followed the whole story.  For those of you that don't know, Aidan fell while water skiing and hit the front tip of the ski with his head splitting it open to the bone and requiring 20+ stitches.  Thanks a brilliant pediatric plastic surgeon, Aidan and his scare are great.  We are grateful that it wasn't a few cm in the other direction.  Not only that, but the next day, the news announced a high alert of bacteria in the lake and river that helps form the lake.  Aidan was already on an antibiotic for a RARE ear infection from the week before. 





   3.  For a birthday present for Aidan last year, my brother bought 5 private lessons at a sports training facility in Augusta.  He is friends with the owner (yes who happened to be on the Bachelorette).  This is a great facility even though it was a 3 hour drive to get there, it was totally worth it.  Here is Aidan and one of his instructors, Courtney.  He did a great job and we hope to be able to see him again!

4.   We were able to stop and visit some dear friends of ours on the way back from the state swim meet in South Georgia.  It had been a while, but felt like it was just yesterday when we saw them.  We are glad they are back in GA, but still wished we lived closer.  The kids played great together and the adults had a wonderful time visiting.  Thanks Perdues for your hospitality!  From left to right, Brenna, AnnaKate, Carsyn, Judd, Aidan, Sadie, and Jake.

5.  Mom and Dad were here for the 4th of July parade.  Brad and I have lived here for 11 years and never have gone to the parade in Cumming.  It was HOT, but the kids had a blast collecting candy.

6.  Swim season started the week before school got out.  With it being an Olympic year it made it that more exciting.  It was Brenna's second year and she did awesome.  Not only did she improved greatly, learning all 4 strokes and racing them all, but she practiced with the 10 and up kids at 8 am and kept right up with them.  She is doing awesome.  She just tried out for a year long program and made the team, we are now just deciding on what is best for her and the family. 

7.  Aidan made it to State in the max number of races which is 2.  He swam the 25 breast and 100 IM (which is a 25 of the 4 strokes).  Here is is a state during warm ups talking to one of his coaches.  Not only does he amaze me at his work ethic at 8 years old, but he swam this race 5 days after getting stitches while only kick board training all week because he couldn't put his head in the water until that morning of the race.     

Carsyn took this shot while waiting for the races at state.  I may have a photographer on my hands. 

 The big race...he had to swim prelims in the morning and finals in the evening. 

 Brenna getting ready to swim backstroke at one of the local races.  She ended up taking 1st.

 Love these kids.

Aidan got 2nd in the state for boys 8 for the 25 breaststroke.  Only loosing to a boy he has been battling all season that swims year round.  Not to bad!  He also beat his IM time by 2 seconds coming in 3rd place while later hearing that he was DQed due to a leg separation in his butterfly.  He was so bummed, but we couldn't be more excited for him!  He is top left on the stands.

 8.  We were able to go to the beach 2 times this summer.  The 2nd time we went was with the whole girls basketball team for a camp at Coastal Carolina.  Even though this is not my sweet girl, it is our head coaches little girl, Kylie.  It happens to be my favorite shot of the summer. 

 My sweet babies....

9.   Playing in the pool with Grammie.  Carsyn was able to spend 8 days with my parents by herself at their house this summer.  My parents try to take all the kids 1 on 1 sometime during the year for some fun.  Aidan went later for 5 days.  Bren still gets to go later this year. 

10.   The 1st time we went to the beach was a extremely memorable trip.  We had Brad, his two brothers, their wives and children and Brad's dad and Janet all in the same place (city) for the first time.  We each had our own 2 bedroom condo (in thanks to my brother in law, Mark and his wife Amanda.).  Although the weather at the beginning of the week was not good, it made up for it and the end of the week.  We did hire a photographer to take some fantastic family shots on the beach.  We made some amazing memories!

As blended as we are, the kids get along so well.  From left to right..Katelyn, Chris, Zoe, Jackson, Carsyn, Aidan, Brooklyn, Brenna, Brynlee and Kaia.  Ages 2-11.

 Kaia, Zoe, Brenna, Carsyn and Aidan.

 11. Thanks to my awesome gardening husband, we had some of the most beautiful flowers and now veggies in our garden.

 12.  We lost an amazing man this summer.  Brad's grandpa White (his mom's father) passed away suddenly.  I am so blessed that we had him close in Chattanooga this last few years.  The kids have grown up knowing him and being able to see him regularly.  We are grateful for Brad's uncle, who was an amazing, loving caretaker.  We just happened to have been at his apartment just a couple weeks before having dinner.  I have been doing some family research on Brad's side of the family.  I had just done a long interview with him on camera about his whole life.  What a treasure that is now.  The cool thing is that he accepted Christ 2 days before he died.  He lived an incredible life.  As a teenager in the army he was deployed and landed in Casablanca in WWII.  He was shipped to Italy, only shortly being bombed and nearly losing his leg.  He has lost his wife and 2 of his 3 daughters.  He has 7 grandchild and lots of great grandchildren.  Grandpa Tom, you will be missed! 

13.   We also lost another loving member to our family, our beloved JJ.  At 14 she lived a fulfilled life.  Even though she has become an outdoor dog in the last years of her life, the kids loved her more than anything.  Brad got her the summer we started dating.  She was our first baby.  We love and miss her lots! 

We hope that your summer was jammed packed with lots of memories. 

August Meal Plan

This month is going to have lots of new recipes.  I am trying out something I found in pinterest to save lots of time!  I made 9 freezer crockpot meals at the beginning of the month and when I need them, I pull them out and throw them into the crockpot.  The bags include all the meet and veggies.  It took me about 2 hours to cut up everything and put it into bags.  Most nights we are either at the gym or on the football field and the last thing I want to do is cook at 9 pm.  So here we go..I will let you know next month how it works.  If you would like a particular recipe, let me know. 
Wed 1st             Bread bowls
Thur 2nd           chicken rollups
Fri 3rd               Pizza
Sat 4th               chipotle chicken salad
Sun 5th              grilled chicken
Mon 6th            BLT's
Tues 7th            Spaghetti
Wed 8th            chicken and dumplings casserole
Thur 9th            tacos
Fri 10th             Pizza
Sat 11th             hamburgers
Sun 12th            ranch chicken kabbobs
Mon 13th          egg salad sandwiches
Tues 14th          crockpot Hawaiian chicken
Wed 15th          goulash/beef stew slow cooker
Thur 16th         slow cooker beef burritos
Fri 17th            Pizza
Sat 18th            Anniversary-out to eat-Mac and cheese for the kiddos
Sun 19th           Lasagna
Mon 20th         chicken and dumpling bake
Tues 21st         broccoli Alfredo
Wed 22nd         crockpot teriyaki chicken
Thur 23rd         slow cooker chicken fajitas
Fri  24th           Pizza
Sat 25th           Grilled pork loin
Sun 26th          Bratts
Mon 27th        slow cooker BBQ chicken
Tues 28th        slow cooker garlic honey chicken
Wed 29th         vegetable beef soup slow cooker
Thur 30th        slow cooker teriyaki porkchops

July Meal Plan

Sun 1st            Grilled fish
Mon 2nd         Turkey burgers
Tues 3rd          bratts
Wed 4th           Barbecue NY strip steak
Thur 5th          Lasagna
Fri 6th             Pizza
Sat 7th             Hotdogs and mac and cheese
Sun 8th            Chicken tacos
Mon 9th          goulash
Tues 10th        BLT's
Wed 11th         chicken and rice
Thur 12th        spaghetti
Fri 13th           chicken strogenoff
Sat 14th           Pizza
Sun 15th          lake-picnic dinner
Mon 16th        chicken and dumplings
Tues 17th        pork loin
Wed 18th         baked rotini
Thur 19th        state swim meet
Fri 20th            state swim meet
Sat 21st            state swim meet
Sun 22nd          enchiladas 
Mon 23rd         sloppy joes
Tues 24th         creamy pasta with ham and broccoli
Wed 25th          quesadillas
Thur 26th         grilled chicken
Fri 27th            pizza
Sat 28th 
Sun 29th
Mon 30th
Tues 31st

June Meal Plan

We are going to be gone 2 weeks out of June, so I decided to do pantry dinners.  If you know me well, I love to stock up on frequently used items and deep freeze most things.  If I get stuck with a recipe idea, I just type the item I had into allrecipes.com and it comes up with recipe ideas.  The only thing I need to buy at the store is stuff for vacation, milk, fruits and veggies.  We will end up saving lots of money.  Who would have thought...vacation=saving money on groceries.  Have a great month!