Let's Eat! Meal Prepping For The Week

Meal planning is kind of one of those tedious but necessary things for me to do.  I prep meals for a couple of reasons:

1.  To be less wasteful.  I cannot stand throwing food away.  

2.  To eat less junk.  If food is already prepared and ready, I might not be eating 20 cookies.

3.  Save money.  No need to eat out so much If you've already got something that's already prepped and ready.  

4.  Weight loss.  Ties back in to #2.  

We like to make subs because everybody loves them.  I try to make them as close as I can to a restaurant style sub.  You know you don't want to feel like you're being totally deprived.  This sub could have been made by Subway. Lol I have some medium sized containers for fruit cups.  These are easy to make and grab.  I'll  pack these for Andre (big Dre) in his work lunchbag. So this is what our fridge looked like last week.  We have a small fridge and a house full of people.  We can only make a few meals at a time and are usually near empty of meals by day 2.  This fridge has been the real mvp. 😁  There are times I  don't always prep on a regular basis due to the size of the fridge and the size of our family. Enough food.  Not enough fridge.  However, it makes things a whole lot easier.  It has to been done in stages, though. Here's some of the meals that I made last week.  Of course, I had tiny helpers.  My mini chefs were on deck to help with the subs until they started eating all the meat and throwing spinach on the floor.  Toddlers. You can see sausage biscuits that we made in the background for breakfast.  Boiled eggs and muffins are somewhere back there too.  Those usually go into lunch boxes, breakfast or afterschool snacks.
This is a shrimp, broccoli and cauliflower bake that was about to go into the oven.  My sister introduced me to this and it's been a favorite ever sense.  

I like to season it with this Kick'n Chicken seasoning and sometimes a bit of seasoning salt.  The Kick'n Chicken is a bit spicy so you might want to pass if you don't like spicy foods. I think I baked this for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Then, I made some salad containers using cubed ham.  I left one of the compartments blank because I couldn't decide whether I wanted to add something sweet or not.  I always have to leave myself the option of getting something sweet so I don't go crazy with it later.  However, I ended up being full after the salad and fruit and didn't add anything. GO ME!

After about 2 days, the meals are clearing out in the fridge.  Big family-small fridge problems.  So it was time to make some more.  I made more subs and this time decided to add some pasta salad.  It's just made with with tri colored rotini, cut up shrimp, cubed ham and house Italian dressing. This is the fridge currently and I've cut up and separated everything.  It makes it easier than having to wash and pull grapes off a vine or cut strawberries daily.  I did make some salads and some grilled chicken wraps wrapped in that parchment paper. I plan to go ahead and cook the chicken for quesadillas this week, but that'll have to wait until more space frees up. Are you planning any meals this week?

My 2018 Word Of The Year

A new year.  Another chance at life.  Another year of possibilities. Some new goals. Some old goals.  

I usually make a few goals every year, but I also try to make goals throughout the year.

I usually list my goals, make a vision board (write the vision. Make it plain.).  This year I ordered a goal setting book that I'll blog about later.  It asked you to pick a word of the Year.  I've never chosen a word for the Year.  It took me a while to choose one too, because I kept switching between several.  I finally settled on "BLOOM."

Last year, I ordered a bloom daily planner and fell in love with it.  The thought of blooming into your whole self, your best self...  I absolutely loved it and this planner.  I ordered it again this year.  However, the only one that had the layout I wanted had this quote on the cover:

Bloom Where You Are Planted

I felt like it was speaking directly to me.  A few weeks earlier, I strolled acrosd two different sermons and a host of instagram posts all related or directly talking about growth and blooming.  I just couldn't shake the word.  I tried to.  

So I was like, "Ok God, I hear you."  It's time.  Not that I believe in waiting for "the perfect time."  I'm just still trying to manage it.  Ummm...twin toddler life!  Busy! Busy! Busy!  I be knocked out and asleep in a heartbeat.  So finding time to crush goals without falling asleep is a struggle.  Some things get easier as they get older.  Some things get harder.  I'm still figuring it out.
Another thing - I'm kind of quiet, kind of introverted, kind of keep to myself, kind of me. Lol.  Nothing really wrong with that, but I'm working on that too.


So in 2018, I plan to bloom.  Bloom in my faith, bloom in my relationships, bloom in work, just beautifully bloom in life.

Bloom and let yourself be free.

How I plan to bloom -
Really listening and praying for God's direction in my life.  You can always use more of that. Making sure I make the most of every opportunity.  Saying "no" to some things so I can say "yes" to myself. Using all resources available to me to the fullest extent.  Not putting fear over faith Really utilizing the gifts God gave me Taking more risks Enjoying the moments and the journey.  



So here's to blooming in 2018.  It's time.  Maybe it's your time too.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 2018

Now, we hardly ever get snow in the south.  When it was announced that there was a winter storm coming and there was a chance of snow, the kids started going crazy.  Then, the announcement of the county under a state of emergency plus the school employees being off Wednesday really set them off. I was pretty skeptical at first.  We've gotten snow warnings before and nothing happened.  My skepticism almost put a damper on Cate's hopes. Mom of the year. So, I had to redeem myself and say "Well, it is a pretty good chance. It probably is going to snow."

When we first woke up, it wasn't snowing at all.  Cate was disappointed.  However, a few snow flurries started coming down around 10 and everybody flew outside.  It didn't start coming down good until around noon.  All you heard was screaming.  The kids were scrambling to get their coats on to go out. Here are some of our snow pics of the day.





Who doesn't stick their tongue out to taste the snow?



Problem: Doesn't want to hold the snowball anymore.  Also doesn't want anyone else to hold it.




The twins had a lot of fun!  They didn't even want to come in to get warm.  Cason threw his gloves a few times.  Once he touched that cold snow, I bet he didn't do it again.

Even the teenager decided to come out and get a feel of the snow.

We got a lot more than I expected. 



After we got a good bit on the ground, I got the shovels and buckets out for the twins.  



Cate went right to work making giant snowballs.



We managed to make a family of snowmen before all the snow melted.  Cason kept eating the carrot noses, though.


At about 7:30, our little snow family was still partly holding up. One our "twins" has fallen over.  Snow imitating real life.😁

We watched "The Snowy Day" and read the book to add to theme of the day. I also did a little snow craft to go along with the book with the twins.  We used white paint for snow and let the twins paint their paper.  Then, they glued Peter on.  For tot school next week, the theme is winter.  So the winter snow storm was a good intro.

This is definitely a snow day for the books.  Lots of memories made!  I probably took more videos than I did pics.  I really wanted to capture their excitement and all the fun.  I'll be posting the video to my CuddlesKissesNChaos facebook page.   

The Change Savings Challenge

The new year is here and with it comes many New Year's goals and resolutions.  One resolution that is always common among most is saving more money.  It's probably one I make every year.  Now, there are lots of different savings challenges out here.  However, one that should be pretty easy and probably one of  the most painless is the save your change challenge.  You are basically just saving all your change for the entire year.  

Yeah, there's a couple of pop tabs in there.  We save those, too, for the Ronald McDonald House. 
We've been saving change forever.  Back in the days it started out of sheer necessity.   We wrapped change just to put gas in the car, buy groceries, or add to the checking deposit so a bill wouldn't bounce.  Let's be real.  Somebody knows what I'm talking about.   Now, we're wrapping to add to savings goals, reduce debt, etc. 
 So I gathered up all the rest of our change to deposit before the Year was up.

I got the kids to help too because 1.  I need help. 2.  They need something to do  3. It's a teaching opportunity



The twins practicing scooping and pouring as Cate shook coins out of a Powerade bottle.

Caleb making different combinations of change.

You know when you are short a few coins to make a roll, and it's going to drive you crazy if you don't finish.  I was digging in this wallet looking for coins.  After it was all wrapped, we ended up with $265.  Add that to an early deposit this year of $162, and we have a total of $427.00 for the Year 2016.

It was less than last year's total, but still good.  I can tell you where a lot of that difference comes from.   1. Our washer and dryer broke at the end of 2015 into 2016. How our washer and dryer had the audacity to break in a family of 7 is beyond me!  We were using all of our change at the laundromat. 2.  At the beginning of the Year, the kids came home collecting change. One had a little box for UNICEF and one collecting a certain coin each day at the middle school.  They pretty much drained our little jar.  Atleast, it was for a good cause. 3.  I was using my debt card more.  Sometimes shopping online is easier than getting out the door and managing 1 year old twins and bulk boxes.  

So $426.00 for 2016 $561.50 for 2017
I've already got my change jars (which is really a Tide pod container and a Gatorade bottle) ready for this year.
Will you be saving your change in 2018? What savings challenges are you participating in this year?