Putting the new kitchen to work

Well, one of the silver linings to last years' suckiness was our kitchen remodel. The silver lining part is that I got a new kitchen and our home owner's insurance paid for the bulk of it. The suckiness was that we found out our deductible went up to $1000 without warning, our payments have now gone up because of the claim, and we didn't have a kitchen for two months. So, we ate out. Most every meal. It was expensive and unhealthy. Mike and I stayed on our healthy eating plan as much as possible, but it was still unhealthy.

We love to eat out, don't get me wrong. When it's the two of us. We do not love eating out with a moody adolescent, an active toddler, and a VERY busy baby. So, we're done with that. Our New Year's Resolution is to cut out fast food completely and cut other dining out to very special occassions.

So, we have to cook. Daily. We don't mind. We love to cook. But, we often find that we didn't get the right ingredients in the store, don't have this or that, make a quick run to the very overpriced grocery in our little town and spend $50 on randomness and blow our grocery budget. I am trying so hard to be more organized, so I came up with what I think is a good idea. It's probably been done before, but I haven't seen it anywhere, so maybe it's original :) I doubt it, though.

It's meal cards. Basically, I made a list of all the meals we enjoy. Then, I printed one side of an index card (those will go through most printers, who knew? My husband did, that's who) with the name of the meal. Then, on the back side, I printed all of the ingredients needed, in list form. Then, when I'm meal planning, I just choose the cards I want, flip them over, and can make my list right then and there. Some of the cards are just a main dish, like roasted chicken. Those are meals that we eat veggies with and I ALWAYS have a freezer full of veggies, so I didn't add those on there.

Pretty cool, huh? I'll let you know how it goes ;)

I'll upload a pic later, blogger won't let me right now. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I put a picture there.