Menu Planning Mondays…..Made Easy!

So its Monday here at my house.   That typically means that there are piles of laundry, a mountain of dishes, obstacles of toys and NO FOOD!

And I am in a super awesome mood to tackle all of this, (Martha Stewart would faint if she saw the current state of my house.)  Bring it on!

Obviously the first thing to take care of is….. Laundry!  Just kidding!   Its obviously food.  Which means menu planning.  (groan, laundry is looking pretty good right now, right?)

Brooke was having a hard time with coming up with dinners when she and her husband both work full time jobs.  It was a lot easier to stop and grab a quick dinner on the way home from work.   (Preach!)  So she wanted to come up with a way to help make grocery shopping more convenient so they could save money and eat healthier.

Menu Planning is KEY to staying on track with your budget, time, and diet!

But how to make it more fun???

If anyone can do it Brooke can….

And she DID!

Brooke has a bucket of dinner ideas written on popsicle sticks!  (Totally having a flashback to school where the teacher picks and activity written on a stick out of the can.) And an amazing Menu Planner that makes it easy!

Brooke and Loren set aside a day of the week to menu plan.  If this seems difficult to you, trust me its not.   This 15 minute planning session is brilliant!   Each Saturday they sit down with their Bucket of Ideas, Recipe holder, and the menu planner, and a calendar!  They take turns pulling out ideas and then pick a day on the menu planner and calendar to see what day works the best for that meal.

Ideas:

• Some of the sticks has numbers that correspond with the recipe, so you can find it easily and quickly.
• color code the meals based on categories, (e.g. blue means 30 minutes meals, green means vegetarian)

• Having your kids and spouse involved makes it fun!   Your kids will be excited to be involved!

After they have picked out their menu and assigned it onto a day on the menu planner, they use the shopping list on the right side of the menu planner.

This makes it easy to organize what foods you need into categories to make grocery shopping easier.

 

After shopping you place the menu planner on the fridge so that you don’t have to stress about what to make for dinner that night!  Until you get your own personal chef that is….

Want to make your own?  Its EASY!

Here’s what you need: And a Free Printable!!!   YAY!!!

 

 

 

Over the Top Hot Cocoa Bar

 

So… Its January…. its cold…  smoggy (is that a word?)  and did I mention its cold?   I am convinced that the only reason that I was born in January was to provide a wonderful moment amid the darkness of winter.

But one of the greatest things about winter is Chocolate… HOT CHOCOLATE!!!

Brooke recently had a game date night with another couple, and took it to a whole other level with the TARGET ONE STOP SECTION!   Hot Chocolate Bar anyone???

Everything you see in the picture above excluding the chalkboards was found at our favorite guilty pleasure shopping spot…. Target!

Brooke spoiled her guests by providing each of them with their own personalized mug!   (they got to take their own mug home as a party favor gift!)

Brooke’s Guests got to choose between different hot cocoa mixes such as, milk chocolate, peppermint, dark chocolate (hey its good for the heart!).

 

Then they got to top it off with any mix in they wanted!   Brooke had peppermint sticks, mini marshmallows, and caramel vanilla creamer (I had to stop to wipe the drool from my mouth!) The possibilities are endless! And of course the darling paper straws to top it all off!

As I said before, Brooke took this Game Date night to a new level!  Perfect for Valentine’s day, Superbowl parties (you can make it while you pretend to watch the game….  you can’t break during the commercials!)  and those cold winter nights with friends and family!

Enjoy!