Back To Meal Planning

Ayden's fever was finally back to normal today.  He still has a lingering cough and runny nose so even though his fever was gone he was not 100%.  He had a very short fuse and we had a lot of toddler moments but we all made it through the day!  

Ayden's masterpiece today.
"I draw a dragon!!... Or maybe a man with a band aid."
Ha. It would be easy to get those confused!

I took some time yesterday to do something I have not done since last Winter.  I meal planned! I stopped meal planning last summer when we were getting all of our groceries from the farmer's market.  We just went there once a week, got everything we needed and then just winged it as far as putting the ingredients together to make meals throughout the week.  This Winter, we still got our meat from the farmer's market and then I'd get our produce from our local grocery store.  I never got into the routine of looking at the meat that we bought, finding specific recipes for it all, making a grocery list and only making one weekly stop at the grocery.  I would just kind of wing it a day or two at a time and by the end of the week I would have made 3 or so stops at the grocery store.  Not only is that a lot of taking a toddler in and out of the car, and a waste of gas but it ends up being more expensive.  I'd always make a couple of impulse buys or we'd be out of something like clementines and I'd go ahead and buy another bag instead of just making do with the other fruit we already had. We started going over on our grocery budget again and I just did not feel like I had a handle on our food situation. I have been getting really tired of stopping by the grocery so much and decided that it was time to do some meal planning in an effort to get back to making just one trip a week.  Since Ayden was feeling bad enough to just lay around yesterday, I took the opportunity to assess what we had on hand and plan out some meals just like the good old days.  I bookmarked the recipes and made my grocery list.  I went to the grocery today while David was home to be with Ayden so it is not even on my to do list for the week!  I am going to try my best not to set foot into a grocery store until next week.  This summer things will probably change back because we have joined a CSA but at least we will still have a one stop grocery shopping experience at the farmer's market again.  I just need to remember to get back into the habit of meal planning once the farmers stop bringing as much produce.  Winging it was fun for a while and I gained more confidence in my cooking through the process but I am excited to be recipe hunting again.  I like to try new things and meal planning is definitely the way for me to achieve that!

Are you a meal planner or do you like to wing it a day at a time?  Just like when I am ready for the change in seasons when it comes, I think I like going back and forth between the two just to change things up.

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Bee Happy"

And two years ago today: "Milestones"

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