eMeals Week 1 Review

We have completed our first week of eMeals! That means we got our new menu and shopping list today. Woohoo!

Chris and I were pleased with the first week of meals. There were only two recipes that Chris wasn't that crazy about and one of those two I did not care for at all. Both involved fish. Chris was not crazy about the "Tilapia and Veggie Packets" and "Nutty Salmon." I did not care for the "Nutty Salmon" but loved the tilapia. My favorite of the week was the Crockpot Pizza. I ate leftovers for lunch twice! I love that the recipes are enough to serve 6 so we always have leftovers. Brayden only eats a small portion of what I cook. He isn't a big eater at all. Corinna cannot eat many of the meals yet, however, she did enjoy the tilapia and rice.

The meals this week included Crockpot Pizza, Taco Casserole, Tilapia and Fish Packets, Herb and Garlic Chicken, Chicken Continential, Nutty Salmon and Smoked Sausage. Each night had sides that went with it. My favorite side of the week was Linguine with Tomato and Basil. So yummy.

We are excited to try this week's menu plan which I think looks even better than last week!

Nesting Phase 1

Saturday, I woke up in the mood to organize. I started in the boy's room. I did not take any pictures of the before because, well, it was quite embarrassing. You couldn't even see the floor. I honestly felt like those thieves in Home Alone trying to dodge Kevin's booby traps. We had Hayden this weekend but Hayden and Brayden helping clean their room usually is disastrous. I wanted to actually throw some stuff away. You know, those little pieces or random animals that you aren't sure where they belong. Throwing stuff away doesn't exactly happen when the kids are involved though. So, Chris took the boys to see The Croods and Corinna assisted Mommy. After working all day Saturday, I can see the floor and I don't feel like I have to fear for my life but it's still not photo-worthy. In fact, it is still a work in progress. I mean, the kids have been in there since Saturday. Enough said.

In addition to working in the boys room, I washed our bedding along with the typical laundry for the day. I put away said laundry and some of the mountain of laundry that has been waiting to be put up in Corinna's room. I was going to put away the kid's winter wardrobe but thanks to the crazy Alabama weather, it is sitting in a tote in the middle of the girl's room.

Sunday, I kind of took the day off from nesting. I did normal household chores and cooked but nothing extra. Today, we started potty training again and I'm about to go attempt to finish the boy's room. Maybe a picture will result from this cleaning session!

Organizing the Chaos-Part 1

Welcome to our little spot in Cyberspace! We are just a typical American family just trying to stay organized in this crazy world. However, most of the time it is just chaos. With an 8 year old, 3 year old, 10 month old and another on the way, it is pretty interesting in our house ALL OF THE TIME. Chris, the hubby, works as an engineer and has a great job but he travels a lot. That leaves me, a full time graduate student and substitute teacher, in charge of all of the kiddos. With a new arrival on the way, we both are feeling the need to add some much needed organization into our life. 

Enter eMeals! It is an awesome little service that does all of your meal planning and grocery list making for you. Sounds great right? It must be. Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, endorses it. Chris heard about it on the radio and I already knew about the service so we have decided to give it a shot. Today, we signed up. We picked the classic plan but there are so many to choose from. There is low fat, low carb, clean eating, slow cooker, vegetarian, organic and clean eating slow cooker to choose from. After you select your plan. You can select the store that you shop at the most. We shop at Walmart usually but Aldi is listed so I may try that store next week! You can also opt to add a lunch plan and a breakfast plan. I added the lunch plan because I typically eat junk that the kids eat and Chris eats out a lot so I thought it would be a great way to stay healthy and save some money. 

Today I left the kids with my grandmother (Bless her sweet heart!) and set off for Walmart with my list in hand. Ok, so maybe I will stop here and tell you how I usually shop. I usually shop with Corinna in the top of the buggy and Brayden in the basket part of the buggy. I go with no list and basically randomly grab things that looks good at the time. I rarely get a week's worth of food and frequently go back during the week. This wastes gas, time, and, if we added it all up, probably a ton of money. Needless to say, this took a lot longer than my usual trip so I was so thankful that I had left the kids with Grandmother. I also felt like I spent more than usual but once I got home and did the math. I got enough food to feed us for less than 20 dollars a day. Chris probably spends almost half of that when he eats lunch out at work. 

Now for the menu, tonight's recipe was Tilapia Packets with Rice. It was basically Tilapia, some veggies, spices, and butter in an aluminum foil packet that I baked. The rice was just Rice-a-Roni rice. I liked it. Chris ate it but turns out he doesn't like tilapia. Brayden didn't touch it. Corinna loved it. She even signed more for it. I uploaded a video to my Facebook that you can see over there. I was pleased with the results tonight. I'll let you all know how the rest of them turn out.