Food Management - Meal Planning

A large part of Food Management, for me anyway, is meal planning.  As I shared previously I use a Pantry List to manage our Food Inventory and as long as I have those items in the house I can pretty much make anything we want for meals.  It is a solid system that has worked very well for me for many, many years.

Meal planning helps me in a number of ways.  The biggest thing is that with a plan I am not stressed at all about what to fix for dinner each night.  And since I make enough for leftovers I pretty much have our lunches covered for the next day.

Egg Roll In A Bowl

I brainstormed a list of our favorite meals so I can draw from that when I do my meal planning.  I will also ask my girls if they have any special requests.  Throwing in a new recipe from time to time gives us more variety so we don't become bored.  Here is a list of some of our standard "go-to" meals:

Egg Roll In A Bowl

Grilled Steaks or Chicken

Pot Roast

Tacos or Taco Salad

"Crack"pot Chicken

Pork Verde

Meatloaf or Meatballs

Stir Fry Beef, Chicken or Pork

Pizza or Pizza Bake

Pork Chops

Lasagna or Spaghetti

Pizza Bake

I like to rotate side dishes to go with the main entree.  Salads, sauteed green beans, steamed broccoli, cauliflower bake, and asparagus are among our favorites.  Soups are also great meal options, especially when paired with a fresh green salad.

Taco Salad

The bonus to having our meals planned out is that we save a ton of money.  I'm better able to manage the food we have on hand as well as any leftovers so very little is wasted.  I also find with meal planning that I purchase a lot less food to begin with which saves me quite a bit.  Along with saving money I find I save a lot of time as well.  With our busy schedule I really appreciate that.

Pot Roast

Do you meal plan?  What are some of your favorite meals you prepare?

Minding My Pennies

If you mind your pennies the dollars will take care of themselves.  And I find this to be true.  It may seem foolish or a waste of time to some people, but I do watch the pennies.  They really add up, quickly too.

I use a gas rewards card to receive a 5¢ per gallon discount every time I fuel my vehicles.  It only took me about 5 minutes to sign up for it online and in the past year I have accumulated nearly $20 in fuel discounts.  Add that to the fact that this station consistently offers fuel at 10¢ a gallon less than other stations around town and my discount is now tripled.  The fact that this gas station is also conveniently located across from where I work is another bonus.  I regularly look for these type of opportunities.

I use store rewards cards at two of the grocery stores I frequent.  By signing up and swiping my card each time I shop I get additional discounts at the register on the items I am buying and rewards points for each dollar spent.  I often redeem these points for free items or additional discounts.  Since I shop and use the card these stores send me coupons, give me special digital coupons for items I use most often, as well as additional free item offers on a regular basis.

I save my change.  Whenever I pay with cash I keep my change and put it in a jar.  After a year I'll dump it out, count it up and place it into coin wrappers.  I usually accumulate around $50 and a quick trip to the bank puts it into my savings account each time.  Doing that for several years helped offset some of the cost of our trip to Disneyland.

I look for ways to tuck away extra money to save for the things we need, want and for our future.  It has always amazed me how I can find that extra little bit in our budget to fund our Christmas, a vacation, an upcoming expense or our emergency fund.  You can always find a way.

I track my expenses.  I track my spending.  I know to the penny what is in my checking account, wallet or savings account at any given moment.  I keep an annual financial statement and update it every year so I know what my net worth is.  I run my home and my finances like a business.

It may seem ridiculous, but if you mind those pennies, the dollars will appear.  They will take care of themselves.  I encourage you to actively seek out ways to spend less, especially on those things you purchase the most, like fuel and groceries.  It may not seem like much at first but over time it will add up.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday I felt like I really needed a day in the kitchen so I cooked.  And then I cleaned up and cooked some more.  I love to get into my kitchen and really get my creative juices flowing.  The Basil Pork I made for Sunday dinner was a real hit as it had been quite some time since I last made it.  I really should make this more often.

Before I did any cooking, however, I did get myself dressed and off to Winco to pick up the week's groceries.  I needed to fill in a few gaps in the pantry and I find Winco is the perfect place to shop when I need to do that.  It was a quick trip and then I was home and cooking!

Monday was our busiest day with early morning practice and a basket ball game that evening.  A long day for both of us, however we had a much quieter week ahead to look forward to.  I made the most of our free mornings and evenings by getting caught up around the house, writing, financial planning, meal planning and loads of cooking.  We ate very well last week.

With Friday being Valentine's Day I treated myself to a well deserved day off from work.  My daughter had school so that left me with most of the day to myself and it was a little slice of heaven.  I took my time, didn't rush and thoroughly enjoyed my day.  I even took time to smell the flowers.

I used items I already had on hand to make Valentine gifts for my girls and our friends.  I made a batch of Confetti Cookies for the girls with items I already had in my pantry and used treat bags and ribbon I had in my gift wrap organizer to wrap them up.  I gave a dozen eggs to our friends as the hens haven't been laying much this winter and I knew how badly they wanted some farm fresh eggs.  I gave everyone one of my handmade Valentines.  It was a very nice no cost, no stress Valentine's Day.

Saturday morning I treated myself to a book on eBay.  It is another research book for doll collectors and I'm super excited to get it.  It is used and I paid $6.30 for it with free shipping.  I'd say that is a pretty darn good deal.  My little Valentine gift to myself.

Saturday afternoon the girls and I started going through their dolls and deciding what to keep and what to let go off.  Holy moly what a mess we made!  But, it is definitely time for us to go through all of these things and make some decisions.  Some of this stuff is going to go up on eBay in hopes we can make a little bit of cash.

I received my state income tax refund, added a little more to it to round it up a bit and transferred it into my savings account.  Every little bit really helps.

Bye bye Miche bag!

I spent 15 minutes de-cluttering and re-organizing my bedroom closet.  I decided to go ahead and donate my Miche bag and all the covers.  I used it for a month, kept knocking the covers off the bag and found I couldn't fit as much as I liked inside the bag.  With that being the case it is time to move it along to someone else.  I gathered it all up and put it in the donation pile along with a few other little items I found in the closet.

I washed out a couple Ziploc bags to reuse.

We gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens.  We did not contribute any trash to the landfill last week.  We added some items to the compost bin as well as the recycle bin.

Less clutter!

Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - cleaned window inside & out, vacuumed floors, cleaned mirrors & light fixture, scrubbed floor, sink & toilet, washed rug.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed floor, cleaned dining room window & sill, wiped down china cabinet, dusted chair rail, dusted light fixture.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & mopped the floor, cleaned base cabinets, cleaned window inside & out.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - cleaned closet & linen closet shelving, vacuumed & dusted, vacuumed trim & cobwebs.  Cleaned mirror & light fixture, mopped floor, washed bathmat.  Daily swish & swipe.

Other - two large loads of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry, cleaned doors & switch plates in front entry.  Cleaned living room window inside & out, cleaned sill.  Swept front porch.

How was your thrifty week?

Valentines Day

Wishing you a lovely day.

Be A Good Steward

I try to teach my children that if you simply manage yourself you will not only make life easier on yourself but also for those around you.  The best way to manage yourself is to be a good steward.  To be a good steward is to be fully mindful in all that we do, think, say and in how we act.  We are in control of all of those things and with that we are immensely powerful.

As a good steward I am always working to improve myself and my surroundings.  At work I greet everyone I encounter each morning with a smile and a hearty "good morning".  It sets the stage for how the rest of the day will be.  Whenever I answer my desk phone I try to really personalize the conversation by asking the caller how they are doing and using their name when I speak to them.  The same with emails and instant messaging.

I take action rather than to allow things to just happen.  If something needs to be done I will do it to the best of my ability or find someone else who can if I am unable.  If the light goes out in the ladies room I have no problem calling to get it replaced.  If someone is rude/lazy enough not to replace the toilet paper I'll do it.  When I wash my hands at the sink I do not to leave a sloppy mess behind and I make sure my paper towel ends up in the trash and not on the floor.  The company kitchen is another area that tends to get destroyed and it baffles me as to why that is, although to be completely honest I am sure if I went to the homes of the mess makers I'd see the same situation there too.  But just because someone else leaves a mess behind is no excuse for me to do so too.  It is amazing to me how much less work we create simply by picking up after ourselves.

I hold doors for people with their hands full and I thank those that hold doors open for me.  In nasty weather I wipe my feet on doormats before entering a store.  I take my shoes off before entering my friend's homes.  I pick up trash if I see it and I throw my own trash away properly.  I offer to help elderly and short people get things off the top shelf.  I smile at strangers and I don't mind talking with them either.  Sometimes just a simple smile or a kind gesture can really turn someone's day around.

I try really hard not to create a lot of trash myself.  I recycle as much as I can, limit packaging on purchases to the best of my ability and reuse items whenever possible.  We mulch, burn and compost our yard debris.  As a result we grossly overpay for trash services we don't use but that's okay because we are limiting our negative impact to the earth we live on.

It is a daily habit we've developed to be neat, tidy and pick up after ourselves at home, at work, at school, wherever we happen to be.  It makes our experiences much more pleasant as well as for those around us or those who follow after us.  We are mindful of our manners and try to be considerate of others.  I have yet to force others at the grocery store or in a restaurant to listen to one of my personal phone calls.  I don't talk my way through movies or concerts either.

With all the being said are we perfect in our actions?  Hardly.  But we try and we constantly work to improve and do better.  As long as we do that we make our world a better place to be.  We hold ourselves to a higher standard, we set examples, we create our own reality and in the process vastly improve the quality of our lives.  Can you imagine if more people did this what kind of life we would have?  It would be amazing!

Food Management - Inventory

I have always managed to keep quite an inventory of food in our house.  I pantry that was full beyond capacity and spilled over into other areas of our house and two bulging freezers.  It may have been a bit of overkill and as a result I've cut it back considerably.  Instead of more food than one family could easily consume in a year I have scaled it back to about a six month supply.

Our freezer is one of the smaller ones which is easier for us to manage

Now instead of trying to amass as much food as possible I'm more interested in maintaining my pantry and the freezer I keep in our garage.  This year I'm focusing on replacing items we use and rotating items regularly so nothing gets lost in the back and expires or gets freezer burnt.

The pantry list is a great tool.  I keep a copy in my day planner.

I operate off of a pantry list.  As long as I have all of the items on my list in the house I can pretty much make anything.  Recently I updated my list and created a Keto pantry list.  With my oldest not interested in Keto, my youngest doing it about 75% of the time and me going all the way with it I have found it very helpful to have both lists to work with.  If anyone is interested in my pantry list or the Keto version let me know and I will happily share it with you.  Drop me an email and I'll get it to you.

Planning out weekly meals & shopping lists

Keeping a six month supply of food on hand allows me to easily manage our food inventory without exhausting too much time.  Rotating items is crucial so everything stays fresh and doesn't go to waste.  It also keeps things fresh in your mind as to what you have for meal planning.  Managing a six month pantry is also quite affordable and I find it easier to stay on budget.

All of these items were on sale, markdown & I had coupons

Every week I check the grocery ads and digital coupons against my pantry list and draw up my grocery list.  I try to purchase everything I can on sale as it pops up in the ads so I get the most mileage out of my grocery dollars.  Managing a well stocked pantry and freezer allows me to feed my family very well without spending a lot of money to do it.

Basil Pork

This is a recipe that my daughter in law taught me many years ago.  She is from Thailand and she "Americanized" it to use ingredients commonly found in U.S. supermarkets.  I'm sure the original version is much better, but this way is pretty good too.

Marinate to thinly sliced boneless pork chops in 1 Tbs. minced garlic, 2 Tbs. soy sauce and 1 Tbs. dried basil.  Massage these ingredients into the meat to combine well, cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

In a large pan or wok heat 2 Tbs. hot oil, add salt and pepper to the meat and toss to combine.  Saute meat until just about cooked through.  Add one thinly sliced onion and several thinly sliced mushrooms.  Once meat is cooked and mushrooms and onions are soft add remaining ingredients.

Stir in one can coconut milk, 2 cups chicken broth, 2 Tbs. soy sauce, 2 Tbs. fish sauce, 1 Tbs. dried basil, 1 package shredded coleslaw mix or equivalent in shredded cabbage.  Let simmer about 20 minutes stirring occasionally.  Adjust flavors to suit your taste.  Serve with steamed rice and garnish with sliced green onion sprinkled across the top.  Also very good with Sriracha or Thai chile paste.

Keeping mine Keto - no rice
So delicious!

This is a fairly easy recipe and it makes quite a bit so you'll have plenty of leftovers to enjoy later.  We love this recipe.