Meal Plan Tuesday

I've had great feedback on my Meal Planning post, so I thought I would do a small follow up.

Saturday morning Husband had to go into work, so the kiddos and I had a lazy day. We literally did not get out of our pajamas until 3pm. For Booger, that meant she spent the day in a t-shirt and her underwear...Chunk actually spent the entire day in his onesie, but he's a baby so who knows the difference, right? I put him in a fresh one before bed, so I can still call myself a good mama. Don't mind the fact that he hasn't had a bath in probably a week...

I let Booger watch TV or play her puzzle games on my iPad while I couponed and made lists. I wrote out all the meals (listed below) for the week and what ingredients go into each.

Here's a printable version for you! Meal Plan List

After that, I went and made another list separated into sections. I know my Target pretty well by now, so I tried to make the list in order of the store. Produce, then meats, then canned/boxed, etc.
Here's another printable for you!   
Grocery List

After plugging in the staples and extras not associated with dinners, I went back to my dinner list and added all the items from there. If there were multiple, aka avocados are in several dinners, I put tally marks next to the item. That way, in the store, I know how many of each item I need in order to have enough to cover all meals. We do tend to go back to the store after a week to stock back up on produce.

This week, I decided to switch things around. We're trying to get away from processed food like Goldfish, fruit snacks, etc and eat more real foods. We are by no means perfect, and still like our "junk", but we try to do better where we can. Especially with Booger. She loves fruits, and will eat some veggies, but also loves her graham crackers, fruit snacks, cookies, etc. A treat is a treat, but I'm attempting to do away with things in packages.

So this time, in addition to the dinners, I made ideas for breakfasts, lunches and snacks too. For breakfasts, I added items like English muffin breakfast sandwiches and breakfast burritos. Those I am planning on making today and freezing. That way, we can pop them into the microwave and have a nice healthy meal with minimal work.
Some other things I'm planning on making ahead:
** mac and cheese (freezing into smaller batches for Booger for lunch and dinners)
** trail mix (bought nuts and raisins, adding some popcorn, cheerios and maybe fruit at the time)
** cheese and crackers (bought block of cheese, going to cut into squares for snacks)
** meatballs (easy to add for pasta nights, or even for a lunch for Booger)
** pancakes (put into the freezer and popped into microwave for breakfast)
** popsicles (for snacks; made by blending fresh fruit; using a popsicle mold we bought from Ikea a few years back)

It'll be quite a bit of work, but will pay off in the end.
Here are some of the ideas I put together for Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks.

And here are the dinners I planned for the next few weeks:

Now, to go update my Menu chalkboard!

Kiddo Krafts-- Stained Glass Painting

We love crafts in this house. Play dough, beads, painting, coloring, you name it, we like it.
However, crafting with a toddler is difficult. Usually it takes longer to set up the activity than Booger actually spends doing it.
Paint, for example. Booger loves to paint and make pictures. She likes to paint wooden items like frames, birdhouses, letters, etc. Its a great activity. It only takes about 3-4 minutes to set up (put the paint in the cups, make sure she has a bib, paintbrush, etc). On some days though, the painting activity only lasts as long as 3 minutes. "All done painting!", she says after putting five brush strokes on the paper....

Safe to say, painting is a bit more of a rare occurrence at my house. But when I found this option, I knew she would be all for it. It entertained her for about 30 minutes, and she demanded I leave it on the window for later!

Stained Glass Painting:

Materials--
** Paint
** gallon sized Ziplock bags (double zippered on top is nice to make sure the paint stays in!)
** painters tape
** optional: q-tips, paint brush, anything soft to move the paint around

1. Squirt a generous amount of paint in each bag. We did 2 colors per bag, but you can do more if you want! Make sure theres a decent amount, it'll make it easier for the pictures to "erase" by spreading the paint back around.

2. Get most of the air out of the bag, and close up tight.

3. Using painters tape, adhere to a window, sliding door, floor, table, etc. The stained glass look comes from it being on a window or door, but it could be just as fun on a table if needed!

4. Let your kiddo make pictures with their fingers, paint brush, or anything they can find that won't puncture the bag.

Some things to do:
** use it as a learning tool: write numbers, letters, shapes, words
** pucker up and kiss it for an outline of lips!
** press your hands on it and see your hand print
** zig zag the middles to combine the colors (bonus if you have colors that make another one-- red and yellow to make orange in the middle)

Have fun!

Room Makeover- Chunk's Nursery Part 3

This week, I finally tackled his closet and got it nice and organized.

The problem with his closet is that it was custom made for my husbands militaria collection, which includes numerous shirts/jackets. Husband and his dad made shelving and re-did the closet just for his collection. It has two bars with a shelf in the middle, which is unusual for a normal closet. We chose not to change it at this time, as it is usable. Once Chunk is older and using the closet on his own, we may change it (I can barely reach the top bar myself, and I'm 5'7". Husband is 6'4" so he was able to use it easier).

Also, when we replaced our upstairs carpet a few months back, we did it in stages-- the kids rooms/guest room first, then the hall and master bedroom second. When it was time to do the master, we moved some of our items from our closet low bar into Chunk's room so they could access our closet floor easier. And there the clothes stayed for months. Husband actually thought I had donated some of his shirts he was looking for the other day (we did a small closet purge on Sunday), and lo and behold, mama found them in Chunk's closet! Whoops!

Now that our clothes are out, Chunk's have some more room on the bar. Since it's summer, he only has his little t-shirt onesies hanging. I'm not a huge fan of hanging every size (though there are some super cute clothes dividers out there!), so I only hang the size he is currently in. That also helps when Booger or Husband is getting him dressed. Yes, Booger picks out Chunk's shirt every morning :-)

I organized the other items in his closet as well: on the floor holds two toy bins with toys he is no where near ready to play with (but Booger would take out constantly, which is why they are in the closet for now), a large tub full of clothes (I was blessed with a family I taught swim lessons to that gave me a ton of boy clothes from their child for Chunk!), and a "too small" box. Did you know diaper boxes make great additions to any room of your house? More on that later this month! I have a box in each kid's closet, so as soon as I find something that is too small, into the box it goes. Once the box is full, the clothes get taken out.

Now that I have one of each- boy and girl- I don't have to store the clothes anymore. I either try to sell them to other moms for cheap (which is how I get a lot of the kids clothes), give them to friends who have kiddos, or donate them. We will be purging all the clothes in storage by the end of the month for sure (that garage sale we thought we would have never happened...)

Anyway, I didn't take a before picture because I did all the organizing while also helping Booger do other things and Chunk playing under his play gym, and I totally forgot. But here is the after! It looks so much cleaner, neater and more pleasing to the eye. 

Left to do:

** paint inside of window frame
** fix window screen (to the best of our ability so we are able to open the window in nice weather-- the whole window needs replacing, but we are not at that stage yet)
** fix closet doors (when carpet was installed, the doors became too long, so they drag on carpet)
** install shelving or some sort of organization for books and toys

Stay tuned: 

Next week is the last Room Makeover- Chunk's Nursery addition. I'll be posting two options for September Room Makeover for you to help me decide which room is next!

Also, I'll be posting more Kiddo Krafts, the final reveal for the family room bookshelf (the trip to Ikea earlier this week helped finish it off decor wise), and *hopefully* my likes/loves/needs from the new Ikea catalog-- if it ever comes in the mail!