How I Meal Plan

Ever since I discovered the world of mommy blogs, I've found so many helpful tips and tricks. I'm sure so many of you already do this but if you don't, I highly recommend meal planning! Before I started meal planning, I never brought complete meals. I would always need to run to the store and buy an item, or put a meal together quickly. Meal planning saves me time and pressure. I keep all of our meal planning stuff in our home binder (I plan on going through mine in a different post). My binder helps me keep all my paper together and in one place.

There are a couple different sections in out home binder, and meal planning is one of them. In this section I keep blank calenders, coupons, meal ideas for Baby B, my dinner list, and anything else I might need.

 I'm not the best cook and I'm a very picky eater, so I have a number of dinner items I rotate. I have them written down, as well as saved on my computer. This way I can scan the list and decide what to cook on each day. I know I need to get some more recipes (please don't be afraid to leave some ideas!)

I always meal plan for 2 weeks, since that's when we food shop. I find this to be most important because if I only meal plan week to week, then I'll have to food shop every week.

I always plan for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This way I have everything we could need and don't buy a ton of junk food. This was another issue I'd have, we would buy a ton of cookies, ice cream, chips and things like that. When I meal plan I try to make 1 snack a fruit and the other can be something more tasty.

I also plan for Baby B's meals, he tend to not like a ton of things, so if we're having something I know he doesn't like then I'll already have something else prepared. The current week get hung on the fridge so I can take out whatever I need before work.

Food shopping easier, as well as making our shopping list. I can see exactly how many pieces of chicken we'll need, how many pounds of ground beef, or how much oatmeal we'll eat. I do keep our grocery list saved on the computer so I can just makes the changed needed. It's kinda like our "master" list. I do want to say that I buy things that Bobby likes, like ice cream such. Also if we don't follow the plan exactly that OK, it's just a guide that I like to use in order to food shop efficiently.

The template I use to meal plan is available here if you'd like it.

Thanks for for reading friends! If you have any tip or tricks, please share them with me. I love hearing from you!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY!

Happy Hump Day! Our work week is half way over, which I love, but the weather has been pretty craptastic! No post just sharing a picture of my green eyed boy that I took the other day. He's becoming such a little boy. He says so many word and just loves to laugh. He truly makes life so much more exciting! See you guys tomorrow with a new post about how I meal plan!

New Drugstore Makeup Review!!!

Right now there's a lot of talk about drugstore make-up products. I want to give you my thoughts on the ones I've brought. I first want to say that I've tried all different make-up brands,  but always liked higher end makeup. Not because I'm a make up snob, just because the color payoff was a lot better. Over the past couple months drugstore make up brands have come out with a bunch of new products. The ones that I've tried I've surprisingly loved.

1. Revlon Lip Butters- They are a mix between a lipstick, lip gloss, and chapstick. They glide on so smooth and feel super light. The color payoff for some can be too sheer, but Red Velvet is amazing. It's a dark red that's amazing.

2. Maybelline Color Tattoos 24hr Cream Gel Eyeshadow- This product is comparable to the MAC paint pots, which I know a ton of people use. It's an eyeshadow that can be worn as a base or by it's self. I absolutely love my MAC paint pot in Soft Ochre. But I was very surprised at how well these worked. I only used Tough as Taupe, it worked as a great base, went on smoothly, and lasted all day. They did come out with some bright colors, which aren't my style, but would be great for some bright eye looks. I will be buying more of these.

3. Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer- For a drugstore concealer it's okay, but I do think it tends to fade as the day goes on. It glides on nicely, and the coverage is OK.I don't think this is something I would re buy. I have pretty dark circles some days, so I basically need paint!

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4. Loreal Colour Balm- I only tried one color and ended up returning it. These lipsticks have the same concept as the Lip Butters, with none of the color payoff. I was underwhelmed to say the least. The color was nude, but barely showed up on my lips. I would not re-buy this product at all.

I also want to share two drugstore foundations that are new but I love and highly recommend. Maybelline Fit Foundation and Dream Mousse Liquid are two of the best foundations I've found. I've re brought both of these and couldn't be happier with the way my skin looks when I wear them. The Fit Foundation gives your skin a dewy finish with a lighter coverage. The Dream Liquid Mousse is a heavier foundation but gives  the best coverage. I've had girls tell me how nice my skin looks when I have this on. I truly believe these two foundations are great foundations, drugstore or not.

I hope you all had an amazing weekend! I sure did!!!

Guess Who's Back!

I’m back baby! I’ve been gone for way to long. I wish I could say it was for a good reason. Like I backpacked through Europe, or traveled to a warm and sunny island, or drove cross country exploring each state, but I wasn’t. I’ve been so busy with life as a working mama, it’s hard to balance everything. When I was home with Baby B it was a lot easier to blog. Now working a full time job, I’m trying to find that balance of work, family, and self. I’m sure all you moms can relate, regardless if you’re a SAHM or working mom. I tried to over compensate not being home, by spending every minute with Baby B and hubby. Now I’ve decided I have to do things that make me happy as well. So with the start of the New Year I want to put more effort into my blog and share all the ideas I’ve been thinking up.

Other than that, I have a super active 11 month old, which has become such a little ham! He loves to laugh and be chased around the house. He’s on the verge of exclusively walking, and it’s so funny to watch him walk because he’s so tiny. Baby B loves to dance. Any time there is music on he stands up and does the Beyonce booty dance. He love the LMAFO “Party Rock” song, seriously he even dances in the store when it’s on. He says dada, Titi (which he calls 2 of his aunts), and the occasional hi. I’m such a proud mom and can’t believe how quickly this last year has gone. I look forward to sharing this year with as we start on our new journey, of juggling life with a toddler.

There is a short video of the baby doing his dance while B sings Lmafo "Party Rock"!

I hope everyone is doing fantastic! I want to know what’s going on with my followers, please introduce yourself and tell me little bit about you. If you have a blog make sure you share that as well, so I can check it out.

Halloween Costume Ideas

I know I"m probably getting ahead of myself thinking about Halloween, but I am! I can't help it, I'm really a kid at heart and love to plan and things. So I've begun my hunt for the baby's Halloween costume. I've only looked on Toy's R Us.com but they have a ton of cute costumes. I talked to my mom and we've made plans to take B to the campground that they belong to in the Poconos Mountains. She said the weekend before Halloween they have different activities for kids, including a parade and trick or treating. I'm really excited for that and plan on finding a great family costume idea for all of us. Then on Halloween we will get the baby dressed and go out around our house. These are a few costumes that I saw for Baby B and plan on finding "the one" my the end of this month. What are you and your little ones going to dress up as, any ideas yet or am I the only one excited?

This is my favorite one

The  Incredible Hulk costume is so adorable

Woody from Toy Story

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Making your own baby food and My Birthday!

I've growing a love for making homemade baby food. It's fun for me and I love knowing that I'm giving him fresh food that's made with love. I always say food that's made with love tastes way better! It's not hard at all and can become kind of time consuming if you don't have the right appliances. I feel that making our own baby food is cheaper then buying the jars. I talked to you before about the Ella's Kitchen Organic baby food that I give to B. This is only because it's hard for me to get green beans made in the right consistency. They also have some amazing combos like spinach. apple, rutabaga that I've given to B. This is still new to me, so once I get the hang of it I'm sure I'll be making it all myself.

 To start your going to need something to puree the food. If you have a food processor at your home, that's perfect to use. I started out with a small grinder, it's perfect if your going to be doing something quick for that day. I didn't know if I would like making the baby food so I didn't want to end up wasting money. I use this for now to make all the baby food. Believe me when I tell you at the end my arm hurts! So hopefully I'll be able to upgrade to the Baby Bullet soon. The Baby Bullet is a another way to puree it does the same job as a food processor but smaller. The good thing about this is it comes with all the storage containers you can refrigerate and freeze all the food you make. This is a popular one among moms. The Baby Brezza is a system that I've been looking at as well. It steams and purees all in one bowl, this would save so much time. It's the most costly of the three, costing about $100.00 on Amazon, but saving time is always a plus.

Munchkin food grinder $10.00 on Amazon

Baby Bullet $60.00 on Amazon

Baby Brezza $100.00 on Amazon

Cuisinart food processor $35.00 on Amazon

 For the first couple months all fruits and veggies should be cooked. Either by steaming, boiling, or baking. I suggest taking a look at my favorite baby food website they have tons of information on which foods should be steamed, boiled, or baked. If you are steaming you can use a food steamer or what I use is a colander inside a large pot of boiling water.

Once your fruits or veggies are cooked your going to puree them into the consistency that right for your baby. You can thin out your puree with water/breast milk/formula or thicken with cereal. I would suggest you do this before you freeze your puree. Once the puree is completely done I use ice cube trays to freeze them. Cover the trays in plastic wrap and place into the freezer. I normally will do enough food to fill 2 trays. Once the puree is frozen you can remove them and place in Ziploc freezer bag. Make sure you write the date on the bag so you'll know. For optimal quality you only want to keep for 3 months, even though they'll remain safe for 6 months. If you choose not to freeze your baby food keep refrigerated for 48 hours (many safety authorities say 72 hours is fine).

When your ready to feed your baby you can thaw the baby food in the microwave, but be careful because this can cause hot spots and burn your little ones mouth. Many bottle warmers also will steam your food to De-thaw, this is what we use most of the time. You can place frozen cubes in a closed container and refrigerate over night.

I know making your baby food may not be an option for everyone, but I hope your able to try it out and see if it's for you or not. You can buy organic or regular old fruit I've found that farmers markets have some great prices. Whole stores like Sam's Club and BJ's also have bulk size fruits and veggies that can be cheaper per pound. With meats you can save a little of whatever you make, for example I made fajitas for dinner and before I seasoned the chicken I took out some for B. I ground it up really small then placed it in his puree. Since he just started out on meats he doesn't need a lot, but I plan on just saving whatever we make for dinner then freezing it for him. I hope you were able to get some ideas and tips, if you have any new information to share with me I would love to hear it.

Today is my birthday and I had a wonderful day celebrating turning 26. My wonderful fiance brought me a watch that I've been eyeing. He made me pancakes this morning and woke me up with the baby signing happy birthday, it was so sweet. Then we spent the day lounging by the pool and just hanging. It's been one of my best birthdays. I got to spend it with my two boys, and for that I couldn't be more thankful!