​While we're still in the spirit of a new year, join me in being a little more organized in the kitchen!  I have always tried to plan ahead when it comes to dinner, but nevertheless, I fall short a few ingredients each week.  Who wants to spend MORE time at the grocery store and LESS time at home? Not me!

Sunday is usually my day to plan.  I like to think through the week and what all we have going on.  Busy nights call for quick and simple dinners (or leftovers!) and slower nights produce some of our favorite home cooked meals.  Either way, I try to make a plan that fits our schedule and the time I have to prepare.  On some nights, I even try to prep what I can for the nights to come!  Chopping, grating, marinating...there's always something that can be done ahead!

Our local grocery store sends out a sale paper every Wednesday.  It's helpful in the planning process to know what's on sale, and it even helps me come up with dinner ideas as I flip through the pages!  We also have a wonderful local Meat Market that is always ready to help!  It is so nice to shop local and know that your food is fresh.  Phillip is good about helping me come up with dinner ideas--it is always refreshing to have requests, that makes my job a lot easier!  I also try to keep my pantry and freezer stocked with items to pull from, just in case something comes up!

​You may not know this about me, but I majored in Consumer Economics and minored in Consumer Foods.  For a whole semester I studied dietary needs and how to plan nutritious meals that fit the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  I absolutely loved my major/minor combination and it proved to be perfect training for what I do day-to-day!

Here's a breakdown of what the Food Pyramid recommends.  I have included an example or two to give you an idea of what a serving looks like!

Milk, Yogurt, Cheese, 2-3 Servings per day.
(1 cup of milk/yogurt or 2 ounces of cheese is 1 serving)

Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs & Nuts, 2-3 Servings per day.
(1 chicken breast or 2 eggs is 1 serving)

Vegetable Group, 3-5 Servings per day
(1 cup raw leafy vegetables or 1/2 cup cooked vegetables is 1 serving) 

Fruit Group, 2-4 Servings per day
(1 apple, banana or orange is 1 serving)

Bread, Cereal, Rice & Pasta, 6-11 Servings per day
(1 slice of bread or 1/2 cup cooked pasta is 1 serving)

Here is a simple example of a balanced meal plan for one day.

Breakfast:  cereal, milk, banana or fruit juice
Lunch: turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato and cheese, apple
Snack: popcorn
Dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce, spinach salad and garlic bread

Servings required per person may look a little different--so check out this Food Guide Pyramid booklet for more detailed information!

​If you are from the South, you should be familiar with the Meat'n'Three mentality--which in my opinion, helps you reach your food planning goals! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this article by Southern Living.)  I usually plan one meat, one to two vegetables, and one to three starches (grain).  Every meal is different, and some may lack in one area but I'll try to make up for that another night!

​Side note: Growing up, we ate at the Osceola Restaurant here in downtown Ocilla, but it's closed now. Two of my current favorite Meat'n'Three inspired restaurants are in Athens--Kelly's Jamaican Food and Weaver D's.  When I was in need of comfort food, you could find me at Kelly's eating a hefty serving of mac and cheese.

So, I hope all of my rambling has inspired you to sit down and do a little brainstorming!  Get in the groove of thinking about the week ahead and what you can do to make dinner run a little smoother.  In summary, here are a few tips to help you in the planning process!

• consider weekly obligations/time management
• plan for leftovers
• keep canned vegetables, rice, frozen meat etc. stocked in the pantry
• shop the sales
• use the food guide pyramid to create balanced meals
• ask the family for suggestions
• be flexible!

If you're like me, having a fun notepad or planner makes planning things a little more bearable!  How cute is this new Everyday Meal Planner by Rifle Paper Co.?

This weekly planner has 52 pages to help you stay organized all year long, and comes complete with a perforated shopping list on the side!

I can't wait to start using this planner myself, and enjoy the planning process a little bit more!  I hope you'll join me in making dinners a little more fun and a little less stressful this year.  Enjoy dinner with your family.  Don't sweat the prep because, in my opinion, it's the most magical time of the day!

After much research (read: way too much time spent on Pinterest), I created a system where they can pack their own lunches. I had everything all set up at the beginning of last school year, and it worked great! For a couple of weeks. Then, my car decided to wrap itself around a tree. Since I had just stocked everything, my system worked well for my husband who suddenly found himself playing the role of “Mr. Mom.” Then, suddenly, the baskets were empty. And, since my loving church family kept bringing food so my family would survive without me in the kitchen, there was no room for baskets in my over-flowing refrigerator! I couldn’t drive or work, so I didn’t have any place to be at any particular time. Because of that, packing lunches didn't stress me out like it once did, and that was one thing I could do to be helpful.

Here we are, a year later, and I’m trying to get my system back into place. Now that my older son is in middle school where there are more options, and all our schools now have free lunch (high-fives all around!), he usually eats in the cafeteria. That helps me tremendously! My younger son tends to be a little more picky. Not like he’ll only eat chicken tenders and french fries, but more like he sometimes wants all fruit in his lunchbox. He usually doesn’t care for his foods to be mixed together, although he loves nachos. And, texture plays a big part in whether or not he likes a food - french fries and oven roasted potatoes are fine, baked or mashed potatoes are not. He has eaten a whole tomato like an apple and entire containers of cherry tomatoes, loves chili and spaghetti, but doesn’t like “cooked” tomatoes. Somehow, all his food preferences make sense to me, but because the school cafeteria that has hundreds of kids to feed every day doesn’t tend to cater to what one child likes, if I don’t want him to go hungry, then we’re packing his lunch. 

So, my system is pretty simple. I fix the “entree” of his lunchbox, whether it’s leftover taco soup in a thermos, a turkey bacon ranch wrap, a chef salad, or his all-time favorite, the old standby, PB&J, with Southern Mercantile Jam (any flavor, he loves them all!). Sometimes, on super busy mornings (or when I’m moving especially slowly) he’ll just grab a nachos or pizza Lunchable. Really, I’m just trying to give him something with protein that will fill him up. He also really likes cheese (real cheese, not string cheese) and yogurt, so I encourage him to grab one of those if I think he needs a little more protein or dairy. 

Next, I have a basket of fruits and veggies from which he can pick two. I try to prepare ahead of time and have bags of cut-up celery, baby carrots, or grapes ready to go, but there are also apples and clementines..