Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Meals at home

I hope everyone had a great Fat Tuesday. Kylie made this fun Mardi Gras mask and her teachers handed out beads for the children to wear.
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Last year, I gave up Diet Coke for Lent. It was tough because I drank 2-4 Diet Cokes a day. The first 2 weeks were the worst. The funny thing was that I tried to drink it after Easter and found it tasted horrible. So I've not had any in a year. You could have knocked me over with a feather because I was seriously addicted to the stuff and thought I would go back to drinking it by the cartloads.

This year, I'm giving up eating at restaurants for Lent. No Chik Fil A, no Friday night pizza, no Subway salads for lunch, no Chili's burgers. Nothing. No restaurants and no carry out food. We had a "last" meal on Sunday at California Pizza Kitchen. I was wacky enough to ask the waitress to take a picture of the momentous moment.
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I thought it was interesting when I saw my favorite blogger Ali Edwards had posted today a free weekly dinner menu planner just as I was gathering my menu planning guides.

I use the Eat Sheet from MommyTracked.com. They used to sell these in packs but now I see they make them available as a free download. And some of you long-term readers might remember that I blogged how I write my grocery lists in quadrants. I still do that for short post-it note lists but I also sat down one day and created a grocery list in Excel. It seemed extremely anal at the time but let me tell you, it has saved me lots of time! I keep a stack of them printed out by my coffee maker and I just start checking things off when I notice I need them and again when I plan the menu for the week.
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I found skinnytaste.com through my pinterest board and have made several of the recipes found there. If anyone has another website for healthy entrees, please leave me a note in the comments.

I can use all the help I can get. Wish us luck on our Lenten Adventure!
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3 comments:

westmetromommy said...

A lurker checking in here....

Thank you so much for sharing your menu planning resources. I really struggle with menu planning and one my 2012 goals is to find a system that works and stick with it. I checked out the printable you referenced and I think I'll give it a try!

Unknown said...

For Lent one year, I started a FB community called "Eating In" and went through Lent not eating out at restaurants. It was a LOT of fun, especially as cooking became an event and not a chore. Kudos, and good luck!

Two Moms said...

Great idea! Since eating healthier and losing weight I have found it much more difficult to eat out anyways. I am cooking more at home and I think this will help so much.