Thursday, April 7, 2011

Dinnertime!!

With three small children, work, and all our activities, I find being organized is essential to running our household smoothly. One way that I have found to stay within our budget, provide healthy meals for our children, and save time, is to do three very important things. Plan a menu, make a grocery list, and place my grocery order online. Sounds really simple but it does wonders in making dinner time SO much less stressful. Once a week I sit down and plan a menu. I type it out on the computer and save it so that I can reuse it on another week later. I get online and find lots of easy recipes and also visit friend's blogs to try their recipes. I have found some of the best recipes on friend's blogs. I try to choose crockpot recipes for days that I work, so that I can throw everything in the crockpot in the morning and eat without prep when we get home. I have found almost anything can be made in the crockpot from spaghetti to chicken enchiladas. Just about anything! Next, I type out my grocery list and make sure to include EVERYTHING I'll need to make each recipe as well as all our other household needs. Then I print it out and visit the Lowe's Foods website to place my order online. This is great because I do it while the kids are at school and the baby is napping and I can sit in my own livingroom and take the time to really shop the store and find the best deals. I usually do this on Tuesdays and put my pickup time for after Hailey and Mary Kathryn's cheer/tumble class. After class is over I just swing by Lowe's Foods press the pickup button, tell them my name and they bring the grocerys right out to my car and load them for me. It literally takes less than 15 minutes. And the best part of all is that all my kids remain snuggly belted in the car! No crying baby in the grocery car or countless "May I please have this or that" questions. Saves so much time and stress. Here is an example of this weeks menu. It starts on Wednesday because I shop on Tuesdays:

Wednesday- BBQ chicken (crockpot), mac & cheese, greenbeans
Thursday- BBQ ribs (crockpot), baked sliced potatoes & ranch, corn
Friday- Homemade pizza & cookies
Saturday- Sloppy joes & baked fries
Sunday- Pork tenderloin (crockpot), rice, peas
Monday- Mexican soup w/ tortilla chips (crockpot).
Tuesday Grocery day/ eat out


Most of all it feels so nice to just come home and know exactly what's for dinner. It takes all the guess work out and I always know I have the ingredients for everything I am making. Of course, even with all this planning I forget things every now and then and have to make a quick grocery run but for the most part it works out great for our family. I hope if you do not already have a grocery routine that this helps! Happy Eating!!:)





3 comments:

Jess said...

I live for Lowes Foods and their online shopping and pick up. I do the same thing!

Tara said...

What a great plan to keep you organized and eating healthy! Love it!

Graceandjoelroberts said...

I love that Erika! Now you need to post recipes ;-)! Super Mom!