Meal Planning!

One of my friends was wondering about my monthly meal rotation, so I thought it would make a good blog post! 

I sit down every month and choose 20-25 (depending on what we have going on) recipes that we will have, most come off my Pinterest Cooking board (https://www.pinterest.com/beefhayley/cooking/) some are just old standbys! 

 Once I figure it all out, I print the list (see pic above) and put it up on the fridge, then we just mark them off as I make the meal. It works great since I do my big grocery shopping trip once a month too (with the exception of running to our local store for milk and fresh fruit when we need it). So I have all the ingredients for every meal on the list! Every morning I just choose from the list what we will be having for supper! Super simple!

I started doing once a month grocery shopping when I was 7 months preggo with McCoy and it was way too hard to shop with Merritt and my big bump! I could certainly take them both with me once a week now, but I just really love going once a month and not have to worry about what's for supper or when I can get to the store! It's kind of my Mommy Time to leisurely peruse the aisles with no whining! And I spend less this way too! Win/Win!

Fall is the most fun for meal planning for me! I love Soups and Chili! Yummo! 

Below is my line up for September:

Meals for September:

1. Hamburger Helper

2. Pulled Pork (I use a McCormick Season pouch-this roast will make 3 meals for us) & broccoli slaw

3. Pulled Pork Nachos

4. Pulled Pork Pizza (I use canned dough, BBQ sauce, red onion, cheese, and the pork)

5. Sloppy Joes and Fries

6. Pizza (I use canned dough, pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni)

7. Chicken tortilla soup (in Set It and Forget it Cookbook, will do a post about it, best I've ever had!)

8. Cream Chicken buns (canned chicken, cream of mushroom soup, ranch season)

9. Steak

10. Burgers and Fries

11. French Dip Sandwiches

12. Roast Beef Crescent (I use leftover roast beef from French Dip)

13. Frito Pies (a bowl, Fritos, canned chili, nacho cheese sauce- amazing!)

14. Crockpot cheeseburgers

15. White Chicken Chili over rice

16. Mississippi roast

17. Leftover roast casserole

18. Bacon cheeseburger soup

19. One Pot Chili Cheese Mac 

20. Slow Cooker Beefy Nacho Soup (will be first time trying)

21. Cheeseburger Party Buns (haven't tried these yet, but how could they be bad?)

We eat a lot of beef (and you should too! hehe!), I usually only buy one bag of frozen chicken breast a month, which usually gets me through 2 to 3 recipes. Unless stated otherwise, I have some sort of veggie/easy side with every dish! I love frozen vegetables for a quick side! This summer we have had a lot of Suddenly Salad! Soo good! We will also have the corn we froze, at least once a week! A few of these recipes will make enough to eat it two nights, but for the most part any leftovers get eaten at lunch the next day! What am I gonna do when these babes get grown boy appetites?!?! :)

Maybe I will share my meal list every month for inspiration!! 

Orange is the new Black!

I just had to get pics of the boys before church in their cute orange pants!! :)  I'm a boy mom, these are the things I get excited about...don't judge! Hehe!  Merritt calls them his Great Pumpkin pants!! Love it!

Merritt's Open House is tonight, then we leave for Mississippi in the morning!! Soo excited! Merritt says "Just one more sleep!!"  :)

Howdy!

I have been trying to get this sign done for awhile, but couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to do it! I finally settled on tracing and painting the letters and I loved the way it turned out! Bonus: I didn't spend a dime! Just used paint I had on hand!!

I thought it would be easier to use pre-made wooden/metal letters but I couldn't find any that looked western, and the ones I liked would have cost way more than I wanted to spend! So I printed out the letters on cardstock (used the font, Saddlebag, get it here free) cut them out, stapled them on the old door (I didn't have to worry about little holes since it is a rustic sign!), traced, then painted!! It really was SOO easy!!

The door..before!

I had The Farmer cut it down smaller so it wasn't too big!

The cardstock letters, all stapled on, ready to be traced!

Traced!! I used a brown Sharpie, worked perfectly!

All painted, I thought this was going to take forever, but it went so quick! It helped that the letters were big, so there wasn't much detail work.

Mommy's big helper!!

Love the way it looks by my front door!! Next project is spray painting the gold hardware on the storm door a pretty hammered bronze!

I will update again when I get all my outdoor fall decor up! It's going to look super cute with pumpkins and mums surrounding it!! Can't wait! 

Joy sign post- here
(Similar sign I did for Christmas!)-

Prepping for Preschool!!

Yall! How is it even possible that my chubby little snuggly baby is old enough to go to preschool?!?! He is super excited, so it's hard to be sad for very long! 

The Open House is next week, so we are getting everything ready this weekend! And yes, I monogrammed his teachers name on a market tote so she can keep it once his supplies are emptied and put away...this child is going to need all the brownie points he can get!! haha!! I saw the idea on an applique site I follow and thought it was such a cute thing to do! I mean you have to put the supplies in some sort of bag anyway, might as well make it fun! Right?!? 

Am I "that Mom" already and he hasn't even started yet?? HAHA!! :)

All his supplies ready to go!!

Could this apple letter be any cuter?!?!

 And now for the cutest backpack EVAR!! :) It's Stephen and Joseph brand, my friend, Britt, gave it to him when he was a baby...I have been saving it for this occasion! I just added his name!

He looks soo adorable when he puts it on his back! I die a little inside, but it's still adorable! :)