march 2015 meal plan

It's that time again. Time for me to get all-OCD and make a meal plan. For the month. For three meals a day. And a daily snack.

I'm sure it's totally normal... you do this, right?

No?

Well, then, use mine!

As usual, if you have any questions about recipes, etc, ask away!

If you need me to send you the file so you can adjust the menu to fit your needs (or if you just can't read the tiny writing) email me at fromcuptocup@gmail.com

Happy Eating!
Ashley

Also:
If you are into self-deprivation, here are all of Katie's Whole 30 recipes
Here is the archive of all our recipes on this blog.
Here is a tour of where the magic happens.
And here is the archive of all the monthly meal plans.

september meal plan

I have decided to break the silence with a really exciting post: what we are eating this month!!!

This may have been interesting if all breakfasts didn't have to be made quickly, lunches were less kid-foodish, and dinners were not all super simple meals that can be made with all Costco purchases (I am so not into running around to a million different grocery stores these days), but these are all the things my meal plan this month needed to be. James starts preschool and awanas next week and I pretty much have to deep clean and organize the whole house before the baby comes while still soaking up quality time with my two current kiddos. Basically, I needed to have meals all decided for the month and I needed them to be easy. I figured I would post the plan in case anyone else is in the same boat.

So, here it is (albeit three days late)...

As you can see, I already have quite a few freezer meals planned to make ahead for baby time. Any suggestions for other meals that freeze well and can be thrown together quickly?

Thanks for reading and happy meal planning!
Ashley

PS if you can't view the menu well and would like the Word doc sent to you, or have any questions about recipes, you can always write in the comments or email me at fromcuptocup@gmail.com

meal plan for the month of may

Hi everyone! Holy shnikies (sp?)! It's May!

Here is the meal plan for our family for this month (remember, because I am being super-organized... ha).
If you can't see it well, but you are interested, I can always email it to you. Just send me an email at fromcuptocup.gmail.com ...(I promise I won't spam you. Neither would I know what to spam you with. I am very anti-chain letters.)

Happy May Day!
Ashley

operation get organized: monthly meal plans

The past couple months, I have been blessed to meet with a very dear lady from our church on a regular basis. She raised six children and has something like nineteen grandchildren. Needless to say, she has so much wisdom to share with me and I am gladly taking in as much as I can. 

One thing she said to me about having a large family was "I realized I had to get organized." 

This stuck with me. Although we only have two and one on the way, I realized I also need to get organized. 

The first task: organize meals.

I am generally a very good meal planner. I plan out a week or two of meals, make a list, shop smart, and by the end of the meal plan, we are out of food and I repeat the cycle. However, when I had morning sickness I couldn't even think about food, let alone meal plan. 

But! Now that I am feeling much better (except coffee, sniff), I have been meal planning like nobody's business. In fact, I went a little overboard:

I put a lot of thought into every little detail. For example, Wednesdays are easy meals because James has Awanas that night, so we have to eat early. I also tried not to repeat foods in one day; for example, we don't eat quesadillas for lunch on days we are having south-of-the-border type food for dinner. 

It may seem weird that I shared this with you, but I was inspired by a meal plan I had seen online*, so I thought this may inspire someone also. I can honestly say that I feel slightly more calm going into the day (and week, and month!) knowing exactly what I am going to feed my family for each meal. It also makes grocery trips fewer and further between, and writing out my shopping list is a breeze. 

I know the image is a little difficult to see, but if you are interested in obtaining a copy (it's not weird, a friend on mine saw it on our fridge and asked for a copy), I would be more than happy to email it to you. Just email me at fromcuptocup@gmail.com

Happy Planning!

Ashley

*The meal plan I found online was from Erica, the gal behind the blog Confessions of a Homeschooler. I found her blog while searching for free printables to use at home with James. It is chock-full of useful resources. 

the great christmas take-down of 2013

If your Christmas was anything like mine, it made its way to the far reaches of your home- seemingly erupting in every nook and cranny. And if you are like me, you looooooove Christmas and all the decor it brings, but when it's over you are more than relieved to take it all down.

Last night I decided to de-Christmas our home after the kids went to bed. I also decided to reorganize the four gigantic boxes of holiday paraphernalia that we have accumulated.

In my organizational fantasies I have large, well-labeled, stack-able plastic boxes, perhaps with compartments or more well-labeled boxes within them. Truthfully, I actually just have some big cardboard boxes that are falling apart.

In order to keep organized and to keep things from breaking I had to get creative with the resources left to me (aka the recycling bin and wrapping paper still strewn all over the floor). I want to share just a few tips, but really I am hoping that I can gain some tips also. So, here are a few of my decor packing ideas that you may want to utilize:

Pack ornaments in beer boxes. The little compartments are perfect for breakable ornaments and you can load lighter, more durable ornaments on top. The little tins and sturdy boxes everyone gave you cookies and candies in are also great for ornaments.

Wrap strings of lights around toy boxes. James' duplos set and new art supplies came in just the right size boxes to wrap lights around. This way, they will be all ready to unwind and string up next year.

Wrap fragile decorations in used tissue paper and wrapping paper. I don't know a lot of people who still receive the newspaper, and I usually don't have packing peanuts lying around. What I do have the day after Christmas is loads and loads of crumpled wrapping paper. Perfect for wrapping the fragile ornaments.

I would love to hear your holiday put-away ideas!
Ashley

panini bar

A couple Saturdays past, we had a few friends over for dinner and games. This was not our typical dinner party, due to the fact that we had invited over a greater number of adults than children. In fact, the ratio of people over the age of twenty-seven to people age three and under was a whopping two-to-one. This was huge for us.

I was thrilled that I didn't have to work within the confines of "kid food that adults will also eat", but I did not want to be in the kitchen the entire day. I decided upon create-you-own grown-up grilled cheese: the panini bar.

The day of the get-together I was able to play with my kids all morning, go for a run/bike ride with the toddler, go grocery shopping, and prep dinner about twenty minutes before the guests showed up.

When they had all arrived and had beverage in hand, we distributed "order forms" on which they wrote what they would like us to fill their panini with (I had all the options written on a chalk board next to the table). One of our friends exclaimed "I didn't realize I was going to a restaurant for dinner!"

We (okay, the hubs) grilled the paninis up on our humongous counter top plug-in griddle, which we only pull out of storage for events such as this. (keep your oven on low and store the cooked paninis in there until they are all made so that you and all your guests can eat together. Otherwise, it's not really much of a dinner party.)

Right before everyone showed up I had (very quickly) cut out little tags and taped them to toothpicks so that guests could put their names on them and we would not lose track of which panini belonged to who (whom?) while we were cooking them. There are probably many ways to create a personal-panini-tracking system, but I threw this together fast and it worked just fine.

Dinner turned out great, and everyone raved about the meal (which they had picked out themselves, basically). I served it with a huge salad, but I think I would add a couple bowls of fun-flavored, crunchy kettle chips next time.

What do you think of this idea? Would you or have you done a panini bar for a dinner party? What options would you have added to our list? (I think cranberry sauce and artichoke hearts would also have been good... but not together.)

Happy entertaining,
Ashley