Feel free to hop on over and share your thoughts too…see you there!

As I was looking back over the items I discovered, used and loved most for my home and family, I thought I’d take a moment to mention some of my very favorite ones to all of you.

Favorite Menu Planner: Most of you know that I believe that many of our monthly expenses can be pared down by simply planning a good menu (and only buying things that you KNOW you need NOW).  This isn’t always easy and, let’s face it, moms are busy and it’s nice not to have to think of everything on our own all the time!  Recently I was skipping around the web and happened upon a site offering one year menu planners.   Intrigued I read more, and it looked like an excellent idea.  Having a much larger than average family though, I decided to email the site owner (and menu planner) to ask her opinion on if it would work for us.  She was super fast to reply and said that most of the meals were made in casserole dishes or in the crockpot so only a few would need to be modified to work for us.  I promptly placed my order.

I will tell you right now that it has changed my life.  Ok, maybe not really changed it, but it has made a huge difference in meal planning!  Seriously!  About now you’re starting to talk to your computer screen to tell me to stop gushing about it and give you the link already …… fine!

It’s called My Family Meal Planner and it plans out 4 meals per week for one year for your family to enjoy.  It is true that most of the meals are enough to feed our family of 8, so smaller families will enjoy having some leftovers the next day.  Every single family member has LOVED almost every meal, so you can be encouraged that they are indeed “kid friendly”.  Keep in mind while considering purchase that the price is for an entire YEAR of planned meals with recipes and shopping lists.  You can also purchase a combo with a separate weekly shopping list, but I actually think that using the list in the planner is enough since you have to rewrite the lists anyway.  Oh, and if you’re a single parent or it’s just you and your hubby, there’s a planner for two.  Also if you are planning on getting healthier, she also offers a “Light” meal planner.

I know I need to move on, but there’s one last thing I want to mention (as if you weren’t already over on the site placing your order by now) … this is the FIRST meal planner I have found that plans the ENTIRE meal for you.  Entree, side dish, fruit &/or veggies.  I’d say that this fact (combined with all the other conveniences of having everything in one planner) is what really made me fall in love with it.

Favorite Natural Household Products: I’m blessed that the nearest grocery store carries a very decent selection of Natural and Organic products.  My very favorite ones for household cleaning and laundry is by far Mrs. Meyers Household Products.   For dishes, I like Seventh Generation.

I can’t think of anything else at the moment and as I think back over all the products I reviewed last year it is honestly overwhelming to try and consider the “favorites” among them. But here’s a few reviews that stand out in my mind ….

Safety: My Precious Kid (huge variety of safety products for children)
Baby Variety/Mom-Owned Shop: Micah & Co. (Prices are good, the owner is so sweet and the products are very nice)
Chore System: Mom Can I Help Around the House? (get an extra chore book for each child – comes with one)
Educational/Learning: Wiggle Giggle Learn (complete preschool education)
Baby Product: Evenflo Symphony All In One Car Seat (affodability, safety and durability all in one product)

Maybe the next thing isn’t a discovery so much, but while I’m listing my favorites, I simply had to mention this one last favorite …..

Favorite Book – I absolutely cannot choose just one, so you will see my list from each genre at Froggy Reviews soon.  If I was forced to choose one favorite among all the wonderful books I have reviewed it would be …… Before the Season Ends by Linore Rose Burkard.  I am absolutely looking forward to the release of it’s sequel this spring .

The first shift makes up my husband (who rarely eats anything in the morning anyway) and our oldest son CJ, both of whom are perfectly capable of making their own meal quickly if they need to.  CJ likes it to be simple, nothing complicated, give him a couple fried eggs (though he cooked 5 eggs for himself one morning a couple weeks ago), 2 slices of toast and a glass of milk and he’s happy.

The other boys all eat right after that, depending on when Monkey and Bugs get up (sometimes in the middle of the first shift) they can be appeased with a slice of toast usually.  They aren’t the most patient people in the morning though and can stir up quite a fuss if they get too hungry … not ok in my book, but totally unpleasant to listen too regardless.

The most common breakfast around here hands down is Granola!  Seriously!  I make it about 2 or 3 times a week.  Yes, you read that correctly…I MAKE it!  It is soooooo very simple though.  Once you get used to the idea, you can get very creative and when you have all the ingredients it takes only a few minutes to throw together.  I usually mix it up as I’m waking up CJ, pop it in the oven, take my shower and not too long after that it’s ready to go.

Here’s the recipe:

Basic Granola

6-8 cups of rolled oats (not cooked – amount depends on how much your pan can hold)
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 T Cinnamon
1/4C Brown Sugar
3/4C Honey
3/4C Vegetable oil
1T Vanilla

*Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

*Put the vegetable oil, vanilla and honey in a microwave safe dish and microwave the mixture for about 1 minute (warm not hot).

*Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients in a shallow baking sheet (a very large cookie sheet works great, needs to have edges).

*Pour the warm liquid mixture over the top of the dry ingredients and mix together until ALL of the dry mixture is coated with the wet ingredients (you can add a little more oil if it isn’t covering).

*Place sheet into oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

*Let mixture cool slightly then move into an airtight container (do not put hot mixture into a plastic storage container).  Make sure that you use a spatula to lift all of the granola off the bottom of the pan BEFORE it cools all the way (even if you don’t take it out right away) or it will be VERY difficult to get up later.

HINT: When you have finished mixing all the ingredients prior to cooking your hands are likely to be a pretty gooey, sticky mess ….. BUT follow this suggestion to rinse it off and you won’t be sorry: Just go to the sink and put a little warm water on your hands, take them out of the water and scrub them together for a minute (front and back), then rinse off the mixture under the warm water while still rubbing your hands together.  It is actually a GREAT sugar scrub.

Suggestions: A smaller family may want to half this recipe. This recipe is ULTRA versatile, you can add slivered almonds before cooking (or other nuts, though you won’t be able to get away with it with all children), or dried fruit afterward.  It is great for making into granola bars or trail mix.  You can serve it with fresh fruit, thawed frozen fruit, warm fruit, yogurt, etc.  My kids all like it a little different, so feel free to get creative or set out a bunch of toppings and mixture suggestions and let them go for it!

ENJOY!

The boys’ all time favorite toast is Cinnamon and Sugar of course, but they RARELY get it. Their Daddy is still trying to convince them that he invented it … none of them have fallen for it yet (I think they got wind that I grew up eating it too and they’re just a little too logical). He says it’s different than the toast I had as a child since his is called “Special toast” LOL.

My hubby just asked me yesterday morning if I ever thought in my life I’d be making toast in the oven. My reply… I didn’t even know it was possible until it became necessary.

A toaster or toaster oven worked great when we had four children! But with 6 we started running into some SERIOUS time issues! When my boys get up in the morning, especially the little ones, they want to eat NOW, not in 20 minutes (about the length of time it would take for a 4 slice toaster to crank out enough toast). It became a very tedious task to butter and dole out phase after phase of toast that way.

I like to feed them a solid and healthy meal, and because I end up doing a couple different breakfast shifts with CJ needing to be off to school an hour earlier than the elementary boys, this still works well. I can make oatmeal or eggs on the stovetop and I broil toast in the oven. Twelve slices at a time – woohoo!

I know that probably sounds like a lot of bread for most families, but it is the PERFECT amount for my 6 guys (and hubby if he’s still home) and it cooks in half the time! In less than 10 minutes the toast will be ready. It does require some extra attention though since it needs to be turned over and pulled out before it overcooks, but I love how quickly it’s ready. When it’s done, I form an assembly line of buttering and dishing up, then we’re good to go!

So there you have a large family’s take on toast!

Incidentally, this wall will be painted very soon

Tip One ~ Organizing the meal plan:

If you are using a meal planner, print out that week’s meals and assign a day to them all, write the name of the meal on your calendar and have a specific spot you keep each week’s recipes.  It’s best if you have one day set aside that you read through, organize and shop for the following week’s recipes.  This also applies to those who would like to print out meals a month in advance and for those who are not using a meal planner.

Be strategic about the meals you assign to each day, keeping in mind variety, activities and meat thawing time (see below).  You may have family members that do NOT want to have chicken 2 nights in a row and if there are 2 mexican meals you may want to spread those out a bit too.

Tip two ~ the answer to a common problem: not getting out frozen meat in time to thaw in the fridge. 

Gone are the days where were we could pull meat out of the freezer in the morning to thaw on the counter for that evening’s meal.  Now we are supposed to thaw all of our meat in the fridge which requires a lot more planning ahead!  Most meat takes 24 to 48 hours to fully thaw in the refrigerator, more if it is a very large item like a turkey. 

There are quick ways to thaw meat and it isn’t unheard of to use the microwave’s defrost settings, but I personally don’t love the inconsistent temperature of the meat I pull out (the edges are cooked and it’s still frozen in the middle making it a funny combination of rubbery and not ready)

So, here’s my recommendation:  As you are going through that week’s recipes write a note on the recipe telling yourself what meat you need to get a day or two before!  So if you’re going to need that frozen chicken on Friday and it takes 2 days to thaw write it down on the bottom of the meal page for Wednesday.  If you aren’t using recipe pages you can also write this information on your calendar!!!

Another tip along these lines would be to plan meals using fresh and frozen meat strategically so that you are using up the fresh meat at the beginning of the week and giving yourself plenty of time to get the frozen meat thawed for the end of the week meals!

Happy Meal Planning!

How much to they eat? Welll for starters many of them are fairly young and/or still self-proclaimed non-meat-eaters – LOL! Our 11 year old usually eats quite a bit more than me and our 8 year old is quickly catching up to him. Our 7 year old it a bitty-thing and won’t touch meat right now – dinner can be interesting with him! Our 3 year old eats breakfast and lunch great but isn’t so sure why we serve the things we do for dinner – after all we should have PB&J for ALL meals! The babies are still fairly new to the whole eating big people food thing, so they don’t eat a lot yet.

This week’s menu!
I have to back track a little to give you the full menu, here it is:

• Sunday – Goulash – would have been awesome, but I added too much spice
• Monday – Shredded Beef Tacos – yum yum yum!
• Tuesday – BBQ Country Style Pork Ribs in the Crock pot – yeah!
• Wednesday – Vegetable beef soup and rolls (leftover beef from monday)
• Thursday – Stroganoff
• Friday – Meatloaf? (sometimes we’ll order out)
• Saturday – Steaks

There you have it!