Monthly Meal Plans & Grocery Hauls Coming SOON

If you're a friend of the blog's on Facebook then you may have been asked to take a survey about what you'd like to see more of here on the blog. First of all I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that took the survey.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. The number one thing that people said they wanted to see more of was food. Mainly - the monthly meal plans that I did once upon a time and the grocery hauls to go along with them.

So, here's how it will work. On the first of every month I'll post our menu for the month. It will either be broken down by the week or I'll post the entire menu calendar style. I'll also share my grocery list and shopping plan.

Once my shopping is done I'll share my haul on Youtube. Subscribe to my channel now so you never miss a haul or anything else that I may randomly put on my channel. :-)

I'm not sure if I'll do all of my shopping once for the entire month (because now I have more kids and I'm not sure if that's realistic), weekly or if I'll try a grocery delivery service (because those seem like they might be Bae).

Whatever I do I'll share it here and give you my best tips and tricks for feeding a family of five on a budget.

Stay tuned - April's menu will be up soon! Can you believe it's almost April already?! 2016 is not here for games....

Sushi Snack for Kids

Today I spent almost two hours sitting on the floor of the bathroom waiting for Mikey to stop holding his pee long enough to go potty. I'll do another post this week about how potty training is sucking the life out of me...

Once I got up off the bathroom floor it was time for errands, lunch and soccer practice. I loaded everyone into the car and headed to Costco. Costco is my new Mommy hangout. I had to get some stuff for my husband and while we were there I grabbed these rice rolls I had been wanting to try.

I thought it would be a fun base for a sushi activity to do with the kids. I was right.

I sliced one roll into five little sushi pieces before icing them with chocolate spread. Once that was done I let the kids decorate them using sprinkles and fruit. We drizzled honey on top to make them extra sweet. Now they can go to soccer practice and burn off all that sugar.

These were so good. Savannah is on Spring Break this week. It's been nice having her home during the day for activities like this. Yesterday we went to an amusement park and a good time was had by all. The same goes for this activity. It was all smiles as we left for soccer.

Will you be trying these with your little ones? Pin this for later and share it with your friends on Facebook if you like it!

Kitchenista: Easy Peach Cobbler

The other day I shared a pic on the blog's Facebook page of one of my favorite desserts, peach cobbler. Since there was such a nice response to that post I figured I'd share my super easy recipe. I also said I would share it and I try to be a Mama of my word so here it goes...

This is what you'll need...

Recipe Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Toss peeled and sliced peaches in 1/2 cup of sugar. You can use less sugar (but I like all the 'syrupie' goodness that comes along with more sugar). Cream butter and 1 cup sugar together. Mix in flour. Add egg and vanilla extract. Poor mixture over peaches. Bake for about 40 minutes. 

*I always bake cobblers, pies and cakes on a cookie sheet because spillage happens when I don't use one...*

I have also used this same recipe with honey crisp apples and it was delicious!

Easy enough, right? I'm trying to add to my list of desserts. So far I can make a really yummy pound cake, peach cobbler and chewy cake. What are your favorite desserts that are pretty easy to make?

Monthly Meal Planning

Back in December I decided that I was tired of making multiple trips to the grocery store. It seemed like every visit resulted in us getting things we had no intentions of buying prior to our trip. Which means that we ended up spending more than we intended too.

Then eventually at some point during the month I would wonder, "Where did all of our money go?". I know where it went. Right to all those extra little things I felt like we needed. Impulse buys.

In an effort to save money and stop spending so much of our extra money I started making a meal plan and shopping once a month. I still go to the grocery store once a week for milk and fresh produce. The difference is now I go by myself with a very short list. There's no one with me asking for Oreos or "tiger chips" (Cheetos).

So on the the last day of every month I sit down and make a menu for the entire month. I only plan dinners. My husband takes leftovers for lunch and the kids and I will have something here. We'll either eat leftovers from dinner, a salad or something else quick and kid friendly like sandwiches. 

What I love about meal planning is it takes the guess work out of what we're eating everyday. What I dislike about meal planning is that I literally cook everyday except for the one or two days I schedule a dinner out or eating leftovers. Pushing through my exhaustion and laziness did help in a big way in December. We only ate out twice in the entire month of December. Once for our wedding anniversary and we drove through Chick-Fil-A one day while we were hanging out. To give you an idea of how much we use to eat out -- On any given week we would probably visit Chick-Fil-A for lunch at least 2-3 times. Resulting in about $15-$20 per trip and that would be on the low end. Whenever I get a salad it's more than that.

Needless to say that was about $60 a week that we were spending on eating out. Not good. Creating a meal plan helps me to see what we're eating too. I cook everything from scratch. Everyday. (the black beans do come from a can. Sue me.) I try to create a mix of the soul food my husband loves with healthier options that I need and fun foods that the kids like.

I'm still working on getting it down to a science. The relief that monthly meal planning has given me is life changing. No more random grocery store trips. 

Do you plan your family dinners for the month? Have any tips for me? 

A Chic Thanksgiving: My Cooking Plan

Now that we've made a menu and gone to the grocery store let's talk about our plan of attack. How are we going to get all this done? With little kids and no one to help it can be difficult to cook such a large meal. To keep frustration and rushing to a minimum I start prepping days in advance. Doing a little bit each day helps me stay organized and in the holiday spirit. 

To start off the week of Thanksgiving I normally check (and double check) my grocery list and recipes to make sure that I have everything. I do any last minute store runs and get all of my fresh produce. If I plan to buy flowers or anything like that I go ahead and make those arrangements too. Or I take note of what my grocery store is offering for decorations. Normally when it's the week of Thanksgiving you can get a pretty good deal on anything Fall/Thanksgiving related.

On Tuesday, I do my mise en place. (Can you tell I'm a Top Chef fan?) I chop up all my celery and onions. I clean and shuck my corn and cut it off the cobb. I cut and clean all my veggies. Once everything is clean and chopped up I place everything in a zip-loc bag or a tupperware container. Everything goes back in to the fridge.

Wednesday afternoon, maybe around lunch I'll start cooking. I make the cornbread for my cornbread stuffing. While that's in the oven I start on my pie fillings and appetizers. When my pies are ready for the oven I get all my veggies going. After my collards, corn and green beans are on the stove I make my potato salad. So by the time Wednesday is over I've cooked all my desserts, the potato salad and all the veggies. If you're like me and you only have one oven then you know it only makes since to make some this stuff a day ahead. 

I normally wake up at about five on Thursday morning because I like to have my dinner ready around one or two. I make my rice and dinner rolls the day of too. Thursday morning is all about the Turkey and casseroles. I make the Turkey last. While the stove is working hard I mix up the lemonade and make sweet tea. I begin heating all the veggies about half way through the Turkey's cook time. Once the Turkey is done I let it rest for a while and then it's time to eat!

This is how I tackle getting all that cooking done. I plan to have Savannah help me as much as she wants. I know it may seem like a lot but splitting it up really helps. I have been asked about sharing the recipes for the Thanksgiving menu I created. I am working on that and hope to share it early next week. How do you prep and plan for big dinners?

A Chic Thanksgiving: The Menu

I have been anxiously waiting for this week to come so that I could start my series on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I do love what Christmas is about but because that is often lost with the "fuss" of Christmas, Thanksgiving has hands down become my favorite holiday.

I love the time of togetherness with my family. I love the way Thanksgiving smells and the way the air feels outside. Y'all already know I'm an Autumn girl and Thanksgiving is one of the main reasons why.  It's a great time for reflection and recognition of all of our blessings. It's also a time to enjoy some amazing food guilt free.

During this series I will be sharing four different posts. The first is about a traditional southern Thanksgiving menu. Right after I got married my Mother made me a Thanksgiving cookbook full of all of our family's recipes. It has everything from appetizers to desserts. She even wrote me a beautiful letter about life, love and marriage. I hope to pass the book down to Savannah with a letter for her when she gets married. 

As a young woman it was so helpful to have this menu. At the time, I wasn't the cook I am today. As an Army Wife, not living near family, I needed this book as a guide. It taught me how to pull off a very successful Thanksgiving dinner with no help. I actually get excited about Thanksgiving. It's like the Super Bowl for women who like to cook, it's a big deal. I find that part of my success comes with keeping it simple and traditional. 

So. If you're someone that doesn't live close to family but you still want to have a bomb Thanksgiving... OR you're someone that just needs a plan for how to do Thanksgiving dinner without getting all stressed, this series is for you.

Here is what we're making for Thanksgiving this year. It's very simple but it's PACKED with comforting flavors. You will love this easy to do meal. 

Coming Up in this series:

A Chic Thanksgiving: The Shopping List & The Grocery Store

A Chic Thanksgiving: Getting It All Done

A Chic Thanksgiving: Decorating and Hostess Tips

Hello Autumn...

Do you guys remember when I posted this video on the first day of Fall last year?

My calendar says that the first official day of Fall is tomorrow but since everyone is giving Fall a shout out today I will too. Autumn is my favorite season.

I love how crisp the air is and the way Fall smells. Something about Fall makes me want to just kick back and spend time with my family. It's so peaceful.

Right when the season starts I like to make some Chow Chow to enjoy for the next couple months. I also love to make boiled peanuts. Savannah loves them. That's the Carolina in me - loves me some salty boiled homemade peanuts. Have you had them? Thank me later.

Everything about Fall makes me happy. The overuse of my crockpot, planning and cooking Thanksgiving dinner and making Fall favorites like Pinto Beans, yum! Fall food is so comforting.

Of course, I also love Fall fashion. Leopards, greys, layers and being able to wear black almost everyday.

 

Now that my favorite season is here I'm ready to take the kids to a pumpkin patch, make some warm tea and take naps on Sunday afternoons while football plays in the background.

Are you as excited about Fall as I am? Any special Fall traditions you want to share?

Oh. And just in case you aren't quite ready to leave Summer behind visit my Autumn Pinterest board for all things Fall.

7 Days of Love: Romantic Dinner Date

They always say that the way to a man's heart is thru his stomach. That couldn't be more true for my husband. I make him dinner everyday but every now and then I make something a bit yummier than my normal crock pot one pot weekday wonders. When I really want him to feel extra special I make one of his favorite meals that he'd order if we were out at dinner.

He always orders a salad with his meals when we're out for dinner so I make sure to do that for him at home. Then I'll make his favorite pasta dish and we'll have brownies for dessert. Come to think of it tonight's dinner would have been perfect to share. I made a steak and shrimp pasta with mushrooms, spinach and roasted zucchini. It was delish. 

I tried to find some pins that are similar to what we had tonight. Pair this with his favorite wine (or beer if he's a beer guy like my man) and one of those outfits from yesterday's post and you're all set for a great start to a nice evening. 

Visit Fatima, Drea and Carissa to see more romantic dinner ideas!

Quick Dinner Idea: Sofrito Shrimp Tacos

This is one of those dinner ideas that you accidentally stumble upon because you're tired of eating all of your normal meals. You're in the grocery store and you just grab things that you've heard people say a lot on the Food Newtork…Am I the only one that's done that? Maybe so.

This is a less than 30 minute (cook time) dinner. It is so good. When I say good I mean it's so good that there weren't any leftovers. Maybe we were hungry or greedy but it was banging.

So the first thing you'll want to do is season your shrimp with this...

This is the main ingredient for this Sofrito super fast tacos. I get the Goya brand. Cause you know, if it's Goya...


I use about 4 heaping teaspoons for a pound and a half of shrimp. You want it to look like this. Covered and smothered. Pop that in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes.


I then chopped my veggies.


And sautéed them with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper...


These are the tortillas we use. They are so good and good for you...


Here they are on my plate. (don't judge me. i needed all three of these.)


And folded up ready to meet their fate. Yum!! So easy and so fast. I topped them with some of my homemade salsa. That recipe is here...

Will you be making these? They are so good and so fast and easy to make. I can't say that enough, LOL! They are a little spicy if you add the salsa so keep that in mind when you plate for the little ones.

Kitchenista: Cornish Hens

If you follow me on FB you know that our internet is messing up again. I really don't get it but I do know that Time Warner Cable makes me sick. Ugh. All I want for Christmas is an Internet connection that doesn't go down every other month.

I'm doing this post from my cell so I apologize if it's a weird layout. I wanted to share a quick tasty dinner idea with you all. Tonight I made Cornish hens for dinner and they were amazing.

All you have to do is make the stuffing according to the box. Drizzle some olive oil on your birds. Sprinkle your hens with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme. Stuff your birds. Put a little scoop of butter on the breast before you place it in the oven.




Cover with a lid or foil and bake on 350 for an hour. Remove the lid/foil the last twenty minutes for browning.



This was so good. The hens were so moist and full of flavor. We are before I remembered to snap a pic of the finished product. These little birds are inexpensive and they take an ordinary chicken dinner to the next level. Will you be trying this?

A Chic Thanksgiving: The Recap

Well. Well. Well. It is Monday night and I honestly don't think I have fully recovered from Thanksgiving. Talk about tired. Girl, I am tie-yurd. I had a great time cooking dinner and hosting Thanksgiving this year. We even had our guests over again to eat leftovers. Here are pics of some of my dishes. 

sweet potato pie with streusel topping

squash casserole 

turkey stuffed with lemon, garlic and onion. marinated over night. it was delicious.

cornbread stuffing

mac n cheese

sweet potatoes. ran out of time to do the casserole.

fried corn

chewy cake

green beans

Sav after dinner…

Sorry I didn't get pics of the banana pudding or potato salad. It was all so yummy and we had a great dinner. How was your Thanksgiving?

A Chic Thanksgiving: The Recipes

I had a few people request recipes for the Thanksgiving menu. I created a PDF for the recipes that I've never blogged about or do not have a pin for. Please let me know if I missed anything. If so, I'll share it via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Enjoy and I hope this helps!

Here is the menu in case you missed it…

Click here to get the recipes included in this menu…

And for the recipes that have been previously shared on this blog...

Potato Salad

Banana Pudding

Chewy Cake

I realized that I didn't have the squash casserole in the PDF. I knew something was missing! I'll be sharing decoration ideas for your Thanksgiving dinner this weekend! Let me know if you have any questions about the recipes. Happy Planning!

Making Your Own Baby Food

A few weeks ago we introduced Baby M to the spoon. He had no problems eating and loved his cereal. Now that he's five months old it's time for me to start making and freezing baby food. When I had Savannah a friend of mine told me about making baby food. Not only does making your own food save money but it also gives you peace of mind. You know exactly what your baby is eating. 

I decided to make Baby M some sweet peas for his first food experience. You can find baby food puree   recipes all over the web so I'm going to share my quick and easy process for making and storing food. Of course, you have to start by cooking your food. 

Once the peas were done I put them in my blender. I never bought one of those baby food making gadgets because I already had a blender with a puree button. Call me cheap but I prefer low maintenance. I just don't see the point in buying an additional appliance when you already have something that does that same job. See how close we've become. I didn't even try to clean off this counter for y'all. Notice my little sous chef. I let her push the puree button on the blender and she thought she was cooking for real!  Here is my finished pea puree. Isn't it so pretty. It taste pretty good too. 
I took a spoon and filled all of the cubes in my two trays. I reserved a little of the puree for dinner. From 14oz of peas I got 24 servings of food. 



I use the Fresh Baby trays. (I'm not getting paid for this.) I like them because they come with a lid. I was only able to find them online. The best deal I found was ordering them though WalMart online and picking them up in the store to save on shipping. I got two trays with lids for eight bucks. What I love about these is that I can also use them to freeze breast milk. That way, when I make his cereal I won't have to defrost whole bags of milk. I'm crazy about my breast milk and do not like wasting it.
After the puree freezes I pop the cubes out and place them in a labeled ziploc bag. Overall, I think I really like these Fresh Baby trays. It took me some time to get one of the lids on but other than that they performed right up to where my expectations were. I'd recommend them.

A Chic Thanksgiving: Getting It All Done

Now that we've made a menu and gone to the grocery store let's talk about our plan of attack. How are we going to get all this done? With little kids and no one to help it can be difficult to cook such a large meal. To keep frustration and rushing to a minimum I start prepping days in advance. Doing a little bit each day helps me stay organized and in the holiday spirit. 

To start off the week of Thanksgiving I normally check (and double check) my grocery list and recipes to make sure that I have everything. I do any last minute store runs and get all of my fresh produce. If I plan to buy flowers or anything like that I go ahead and make those arrangements too. Or I take note of what my grocery store is offering for decorations. Normally when it's the week of Thanksgiving you can get a pretty good deal on anything Fall/Thanksgiving related.

On Tuesday, I do my mise en place. (Can you tell I'm a Top Chef fan?) I chop up all my celery and onions. I clean and shuck my corn and cut it off the cobb. I cut and clean all my veggies. Once everything is clean and chopped up I place everything in a zip-loc bag or a tupperware container. Everything goes back in to the fridge.

Wednesday afternoon, maybe around lunch I'll start cooking. I make the cornbread for my cornbread stuffing. While that's in the oven I start on my pie fillings and appetizers. When my pies are ready for the oven I get all my veggies going. After my collards, corn and green beans are on the stove I make my potato salad. So by the time Wednesday is over I've cooked all my desserts, the potato salad and all the veggies. If you're like me and you only have one oven then you know it only makes since to make some this stuff a day ahead. 

I normally wake up at about five on Thursday morning because I like to have my dinner ready around one or two. I make my rice and dinner rolls the day of too. Thursday morning is all about the Turkey and casseroles. I make the Turkey last. While the stove is working hard I mix up the lemonade and make sweet tea. I begin heating all the veggies about half way through the Turkey's cook time. Once the Turkey is done I let it rest for a while and then it's time to eat!

This is how I tackle getting all that cooking done. I plan to have Savannah help me as much as she wants. I know it may seem like a lot but splitting it up really helps. I have been asked about sharing the recipes for the Thanksgiving menu I created. I am working on that and hope to share it early next week. How do you prep and plan for big dinners?

A Chic Thanksgiving: The Menu

I have been anxiously waiting for this week to come so that I could start my series on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I do love what Christmas is about but because that is often lost with the "fuss" of Christmas, Thanksgiving has hands down become my favorite holiday.

I love the time of togetherness with my family. I love the way Thanksgiving smells and the way the air feels outside. Y'all already know I'm an Autumn girl and Thanksgiving is one of the main reasons why.  It's a great time for reflection and recognition of all of our blessings. It's also a time to enjoy some amazing food guilt free.

During this series I will be sharing four different posts. The first is about a traditional southern Thanksgiving menu. Right after I got married my Mother made me a Thanksgiving cookbook full of all of our family's recipes. It has everything from appetizers to desserts. She even wrote me a beautiful letter about life, love and marriage. I hope to pass the book down to Savannah with a letter for her when she gets married. 

As a young woman it was so helpful to have this menu. At the time, I wasn't the cook I am today. As an Army Wife, not living near family, I needed this book as a guide. It taught me how to pull off a very successful Thanksgiving dinner with no help. I actually get excited about Thanksgiving. It's like the Super Bowl for women who like to cook, it's a big deal. I find that part of my success comes with keeping it simple and traditional. 

So. If you're someone that doesn't live close to family but you still want to have a bomb Thanksgiving... OR you're someone that just needs a plan for how to do Thanksgiving dinner without getting all stressed, this series is for you.

Here is what we're making for Thanksgiving this year. It's very simple but it's PACKED with comforting flavors. You will love this easy to do meal. 

Coming Up in this series:

A Chic Thanksgiving: The Shopping List & The Grocery Store

A Chic Thanksgiving: Getting It All Done

A Chic Thanksgiving: Decorating and Hostess Tips

Dinner Idea: One Arm Chicken

Sunday I made the famous crockpot chicken tacos that are floating around Pinterest right now. I only used half of the chicken breasts from my pack for the tacos and needed to use the other half. I normally don't have luck with chicken breast. I asked my twitter friends to tweet me some of their favorite chicken breast recipes and I was very happy with the suggestions. 

I got a tweet from Walmart. (yes that Walmart) They suggested that I check out their chicken dinner Pinterest board. (I didn't event know they were on Pinterest.) There were a lot of good recipes on their board. I found a picture of a meal that looked pretty good and easy enough for me to whip up. I couldn't find the actual recipe to accompany the photo so I tried my best to replicate what I saw. Here it is. My "One Arm Chicken". I will explain how I named this dish after the recipe.

Season both sides of your chicken breasts with this...

Heat your frying pan/skillet and pour in some olive oil and a scoop of butter...

Also pour in a little white cooking wine and some minced garlic (not pictured)

Once your butter is melted a good bit add your chicken to the pan...

Cook until done... Flip the chicken to brown it on both sides...

Once the chicken is done remove it from the pan...

Pour a little of the white cooking wine in your pan to loosen up any of the chicken bits and flavor...

For the sauce: Add some minced garlic (to taste) and dried basil (i sprinkle in A LOT) to your pan. Pour in a cup of cream. Drain a can of diced tomatoes (you can always use fresh) and add that as well. Cook this on low for a few minutes. Drain the mushrooms. Add them to the pan...

Once your sauce thickens a bit. Add the chicken back to the pan and cover it. Cook on low for about 15 minutes...

It should look like this once it is done... (I know it looks a lot like the first pic but you should see a difference.)

This is my husband's plate...

The potatoes were roasted in the oven and the broccoli was steamed... This chicken was AMAZING!

And I called this recipe "One Arm Chicken" because I cooked it with one arm, haha! I know this may not be the healthiest meal with all the cream but every now and then I have to cheat. I don't normally use canned mushrooms but they were a great alternative. It would have been really hard to chop mushrooms holding a baby. Normally I'm able to put the baby in one of my wraps or carriers when he's fussy but today he wanted the real thing. 

Oh. And not to be out done Savannah drew an entire picture on the counter tops. Thank goodness for anti-bacterial wipes. They clean everything.

Will you be trying this recipe? What are some of your favorite chicken breast meals?