May 1-9 Family Meal Plan & Grocery Haul VIDEO

My grocery shopping this month will be very different. We begin our move this month so I'm trying really hard to only buy what we absolutely need. With that said, I feel like I spent more money during this haul than what I normally do.

Between trying some new items, restocking spices and grabbing some things for the kitchen I wasn't able to stick to my goal budget. Not worried about it though. Everything will balance out towards the end of the month.

So here we are. I never made the white chicken chili from the last menu so that carried over to May. I love it when that happens. Less to buy, less to plan. Because we are moving my goal is to make sure we are completely emptying the fridge and freezer. 

What did you think of the haul? I can't believe we are in the final days of our time in Texas!

April 16-30 Grocery Haul VIDEO

This grocery haul turned out pretty good. I was able to stay on budget leaving some money leftover for some of my room Mom responsibilities that are coming up. I spent $147 at the Commissary ($152 with the bagger's tip) and about $44 at Costco.



If you have any meal planning or grocery shopping questions for me feel free to leave them here or email me.

April 16-30 Family Meal Plan

April is half way done. Can you believe it? That means that we are that much closer to a moving truck showing up at our house. I am not ready. At least our dinners for the rest of the month are planned.

I think I'm going to attempt grocery shopping today because it's suppose to rain all weekend. I have a hair appointment Saturday morning and I really don't want to get caught out in the rain grocery shopping with freshly straightened hair. So I may shop today. I need to make a grocery list first.

I am anticipating a larger grocery bill because there are other things we need for the house. I was able to carry a meal or two over from the last dinner menu so maybe that will balance some things out. We shall see. I'll share my grocery haul and answer some of the questions I received via email in the video. Thanks for watching those! 

If I look a little sleepy in the video (or on snapchat) it's because my husband is in training for his upcoming promotion and that has left me pretty busy with the kids solo. Moses has been sleeping well but he's still not sleeping all night. Pumping is literally draining the life out of me but I will push through like all the other Mamas out there. There is a blessing in being tired and that is how I push through the tough times. I'll share my philosophy on that in another post.

Happy Friday, Mamas! Do something special for yourself this weekend (after you go grocery shopping)! 😉

April 1-15 2016 Family Meal Plan

Where is 2016 going? Why is she in such a rush to be over with already? April got here super quick. As promised I am going to share our family dinner menus throughout the month.

I'll also share my haul after I have gone shopping. The video will share deals I found, where I shopped and how much I spent. You'll be able to view the videos and all that info here on the blog but you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when a new video is posted.

To make things easy I decided to break things up by two weeks. So here is the menu for the first two weeks.

I'll share the next half of the month on the 14th. Please let me know if these are helpful. I appreciate any pins, shares, comments as this let's me know that you want me to continue sharing our meal plan.

What do you think about our menu for this month? Stay tuned for the haul video and follow me on snapchat (TheChicSAHM) to see behind the scenes shopping footage! Happy April!

Back to School Tips & Hello Fresh Giveaway

Back to school season is in full swing. Savannah's teacher called me last week to schedule our meet and greet before school starts in a couple weeks. We met her once before during the PreK Kinder event they had for all of the new students back in April.

The event was informative and gave all of us a chance to meet the teachers and get a feel for the school. I'm so excited for the upcoming school year. Savannah grew up so much during preschool last year and I know she's going to handle PreK like a boss!

Over the Summer I made sure that we kept learning. I didn't overdo it though because my other mission for the Summer was to make sure the kids played outside as much as possible. Now that we are about two weeks out from the start of the school year I have been transitioning the kids back to our regular schedule.

I thought it would be helpful to share how we're getting ready for back to school season as a family.

Get back to bed on time - Over the Summer I allowed the kids to stay up past their bedtime a few times a week. The weather is so hot here that they can only play outside first thing in the morning or later in the evening. Playing in the evening was great but it did put them in bed much later than they are use to. Last week I started implementing their regular bedtime. My goal is to be out of their rooms with bedtime stories and prayers done before 7:30.

Plan your meals - The evenings go so much smoother when you don't have to figure out what you're having for dinner. You know I'm a fan of planning my meals for the entire month. If that seems overwhelming for you start by planning your meals a week or two at a time.

Implement quiet learning time - If you haven't been having some type of focused learning time over the Summer create some time for it before school starts again. 

Attend Open House - This one is a must if your little one is heading off to school for the first time. Before school actually starts Savannah would have had three different meetings with her teacher. If your child's school is offering an open house or "meet the teacher" event, go! It will make everyone more comfortable on the first day.

Join the PTO - Okay, so this one is optional but since I'm all about being involved I'm going to suggest joining the PTO. You don't have to be President or hold a position on the board. Sign up to be a member and when your schedule allows volunteer at your child's school. There are also opportunities for behind the scenes volunteer work too. For example, Sav's school is holding a luncheon for all the teachers and they have asked PTO members (and parents who want to help) to bring in different items for the luncheon. I signed up to bring drinks because I'm not available to volunteer in person that day.

Create a family calendar - I know most of us plug appointments and places to be into our phones but I love the idea of a family calendar that everyone can see and have access to. It doesn't have to be fancy at all. It's a great way to share doctor appointments, extra curricular activities, school functions and family events. I also use this calendar with the kids everyday during our morning routine, they love it.

Be consistent with routine - Try to be consistent with your daily routine the week's leading up to school starting. Whatever your family's regular schedule is try to stick to it as much as possible.

Back to School/End of Summer Party - I love giving myself a reason to throw a party for my family. Have you ever thought about celebrating back to school season? We plan to make a big deal out of it by going out to dinner as a family and letting Savannah choose the restaurant. We'll talk about going to school and what she's excited about learning the most. We'll also give her a little back to school related gift. It'll be something small like a school supply kit with her favorite characters on them.

So, those are some of my tips for getting ready for the back to school season. I wanted to do something special for my readers because I know how hectic back to school season can be for Moms. I am giving away this Hello Fresh gift card to one lucky Mama. As you might remember from my Mama Boxes unboxing I received this gift card in my second trimester box but I want to pay it forward and give it to a Mom that might need a little help getting a healthy meal together for her family.

If you have never tried their service this giveaway is for you! (please read the giveaway details in the box below) Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

May 2015 Meal Plan

Hello, May!

I can not believe it is already May. This is a busy month for us. School registration is next week, Savannah's social calendar is full of birthday parties and we have so school activities this month. Not to mention Little Mike is quite the runner and climber these days so I have been very busy chasing him.

This is my first monthly meal plan in a couple months. I didn't realize that people were enjoying them as much as they were. I appreciate all the feedback that I received on instagram. As promised, here is a meal plan for the month of May.

I hope it helps you as much as it helps my family. This time around I included links to some of my favorite recipes. Click here  or on the pic below to get the version with the links. If these monthly calendars are helping you please let me know in the comments!

Have a great weekend!

Monthly Meal Planning: February 2015

It's almost February which means it's almost MY BIRTHDAY!!! (screamed like Oprah)

Since so many of you said you would attempt planning out your meals for the month starting in February I decided to go ahead and share our meal plan early in hopes of encouraging you to stick with it. Remember, you don't have to grocery shop for the entire month like I do but you can plan your meals.

Having a meal plan for the month frees up so much more of my time during the week. I don't have to spend time thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner. All budgets and families are different but if you are a weekly or bi-weekly shopper I encourage you to still give this a shot. Even if you keep your same shopping schedule I bet you'll experience a sense of relief knowing that you've already selected your meals for that month.

So who's still planning to try this for February? Feel free to share your meal plan with me on Instagram using the hashtag #ChicFEBMeals. Don't forget to tag me as well, @chicsahm!

How I Plan a Month of Meals

The monthly meal planning post got a nice response. Thank you to everyone that commented here and on IG. The feedback was great and I enjoyed hearing everyone's responses. A few of the main comments were:

• "I could never do a monthly plan."
• "Do you really do this?"
• "It seems like a lot of work."

The answers to these questions are:

• Yes, you can.
• Yes, I do.
• It kind of is but not really. I'll share how I do my planning and maybe it will help you. 

This is our January dinner meal plan. I do not normally type it up and make it look all fancy. That should make someone out there feel better. On the last day of every month I sit down with the previous month(s) plan and I begin to create a new month of meals.

Step One -Make a Calendar/Chart

The first step in my planning process is to draw a calendar on a piece of notebook paper. If I run out of space I flip the page over and put the last few days on the back. Normally my squares are always too big. I'm pretty sure that someone more artistically inclined can make a better looking chart.

Anyway.

Once my chart is made I label the days to reflect the calendar for that month. Easy, right?

The "X" means we've already eaten that meal.

Step Two - Fill in the meals

The next thing I do is fill in all of the Sundays. Sunday meals are important to me so I square those away first. Next I think of any days that will be busy for us. If I know in advance that we have long days of errands or appointments I automatically plug-in a crockpot meal on those days.

 Then I look at my previous plans to see what meals my family really enjoyed and what meals they didn't like as much. I always take into consideration that on Fridays I don't really ever feel like cooking so I try to put my "easy" or "fun" meals there.

After that it's just a matter of using some of the meals they enjoyed from the previous month(s) and finding new recipes to try on Pinterest. I also really love AllRecipes and the Food Network.

Don't forget to throw in a couple "Eat Out" days or days where you can expect leftovers.

Step Three (Optional)

Transfer your meal plan to a prettier calendar if you'd like. Make your grocery list based on the meals you've planned. I also make a weekly produce list at this time too. I put the weekly list in my purse so I always have it when I'm ready to stop at the store.

This whole process might take me about two hours. It really depends on how often I get asked to make a cup of milk or a snack while I'm trying to get it done. I haven't gotten to that point in my life where I save things like this until after they've gone to bed so I do this during the day.

So. It's not that much work and yes we really do follow the plan. As you can see we skipped Prime Rib night but we'll be having it one day this week. The plan always seems to work itself out even if you have leftovers you weren't expecting or if you skip meals due to your taste for that day.

I hope this answers a lot of your questions. Please let me know if you need me to clarify anything. I always respond to the comments.

Do you feel like you could try this out now? Oh. And by all means give yourself more breaks than I do. We're just not eating out much these days to save money. Gotta love a saving season!

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?

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?

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?

Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

I guess this is an addition to my Swiper Noooo Swiping posts. A few of you mentioned in the comments that grocery shopping is where you needed a little advice on saving. Now. Let's be real. I am in no way an expert on savings or budgets. I am not an "extreme couponer"or anything close to it. I'm just a regular wife and mother that has managed to save my family a little money by doing a little organizing before hitting the store.

Like many of you, I plan meals. I write down two weeks (or sometimes a week and a half cause we eat leftovers) worth of meals. If it's something that I am making for the first time I'll write down the recipe too. Then I go through the kitchen and scratch off what we already have. Non grocery items have their own place on my meal plan too. I only write everything down once and that's the only piece of paper I take to the store. 

Before I leave for the store I go through my coupons and find the ones I'll need for my trip. Since I don't buy anything that's not on my list I don't have to worry about taking all those coupons with me. When I get home from the store I put the list on the fridge to remind me of the meals that I've planned. As we eat one, I cross it off the list. It may seem crazy but this reminds me of what we have in the house. In those moments where I'm scrambling and I'm about to order takeout, I check the fridge. Nine times out of ten I'll see a quick meal that can easily be made. No eating out. Money saved. 

Now. Keep in mind (*resisting the urge to quote Erykah Badu) that we are just a family of three. So I don't have to make huge meals everyday. We normally have leftovers and we eat them. Food does not go to waste in my house anymore. Not since I started planning our meals. Another quick note I want to make is that we don't buy a lot of snacks. I buy fruit for Savannah and we always have at least two bags of tortilla chips in the pantry. (I make salsa on a regular basis) That's it. Hopefully this helped with some of the grocery questions. I know these concepts aren't new but I just wanted to share my grocery shopping and meal planning process.

Shopping list from a week and a half ago organized by meal w/ random items at top

I do not throw away inserts until I am absolutely sure I am done with it. It's probably at least eight inserts in that stack.

As you can see my grocery list isn't long. We still have a meal left. There's normally enough from each meal for us all to have three meals. Dinner, Lunch and dinner again. For some, I know that they couldn't imagine eating the same thing that many times in a row. There are times when I'll cook even if we have leftovers but I'll never have more than two meals sitting in the fridge at the same time because something will go to waste. Which is a waste of money. And yes, I do buy name brand products. Tide, Charmin, cereals etc. But I read the circulars to find who has what on sale and then apply my coupons. And no, I'm not driving all over San Antonio for an item here and an item there. I limit myself to the commissary on base, Wal-Mart and Target or another local grocery store. Three places tops.  Any thoughts or tips for me? Was this helpful at all? Can't wait to read your comments!

P.S. Even though the commissary is a military grocery store on base it does not save us tons of money. Meat and cheese is cheaper on base but you really have to "learn" your stores to know who typically has the best prices on certain items on a regular bases.