Meal Plan Week #2

Well, it's that day again, time to put together our meal plan for the week, pick up the few things we need until shopping day and organize my shopping list. Since I posted a couple weeks ago about my meal planning I thought I would update with this weeks entrees for week night meal ideas.

This week we will be having:
 Baked Mac & Cheese with a panko crust and some broccoli
Loaded Nachos. (not very healthy but you can add any ingredients you want to healthify it)
Corn Chowder and breadsticks. (Pillsbury now sells breadsticks in a can.)
Homemade Pizza/Calzone
Homemade Chicken Finger with a Panko crust, peas and fries
Burgers on the George Foreman and Oven fries
Panini's with leftover chowder
Chicken Caesar salad with homemade dressing (Here is the pin. This stuff is amazing!)

Some staples your will need for this plan is your standard chicken, hamburger, oil and sauce but don't forget to pick up some pizza crusts (tip: spaghetti sauce works just as good as pizza sauce and doesn't go bad as fast.) You will also need some block cheese, panko and maybe some fancy bread for the paninis. You know, if your feeling especially adventurous.

Well, off I go to check out some sales. Good luck and happy shopping.

Snack Mix For All

Warning: My daughter has no known food allergies so I have included peanuts in the recipe. If your child is allergic to nuts please don't attempt to feed some to them.

Earlier I posted my snack pack ideas here and mentioned my snack mix. This stuff is magic to kids. Have you even been ready do give your little one a snack and they can't decide what they want or won't eat what you gave them. Fret no more fellow mommies! Seriously, it's as simple as throwing all kinds of  similar ingredients into a container and going on about your day.

This bad boy is filled with pretzles, goldfish, raisins, honey roasted peanuts and cheerios. Really anything can be used in these. I have mine in an air tight storage container but mason jars work great too. You can always add things like dried fruit, different nuts, seeds and even those yogurt dipped snacks.

Be creative and if your kids are old enough this could be a great activity for them to do during the week. One less thing you have to do and we all know... there is too much to do.

Good Luck!

DIY Snack Packs

Traveling with a toddler is quite the endeavor sometimes. Have you ever noticed they eat.... constantly! My rugrat has always been a good eater but this also means she wants to eat all the time and packing snacks in a diaper bag doesn't always work out as planned. Snacks get left in the bag and go stale or the apple sauce will spoil when the car heats up and cheerios... friggan... everywhere!

While my methods are still in, what I like to call, the planning stages, I have found a few hacks over the last year or so that have made my life slightly easier and I'm here to share them with you guys.

I found this idea on Pintrest and adjusted it to suit us.

 My daughter had mostly formula as a baby and I had dozens of these plastic containers lying around. (I also use them to store crafts like beads, pom poms, washi tape and rogue crayons. Highly recommend holding on to a few of these if you are going to buy them anyway. The scoops also work great for the DIY detergent I posted yesterday. DIY Laundry Detergent)  A few staples I throw in these are oatmeal, fruit cups or fruit snacks, animal crackers and those squeezy applesauce packets. You can obviously adjust the contents for whatever you kids may prefer just don't forget to take some of the perishable stuff out and throw it in the fridge when you get where your going. These little guys are perfect for a night at the Grandparents house. (My parents don't usually have a lot of kid type food around.) A trip to the park or the beach. (Wishful thinking!) I also make a snack mix that she just loves and it saves a little packing time when getting ready to go. I will be posting my snack mix soon so you guys can give it a shot.

As always feel free to share and comment away and I hope this helps you guys in your own planning stages.