How To: Meal Planning

I love meal planning because I just love planning things in general, but also because it saves me time and money. There is nothing more frustrating that spending one hour and $200 at the grocery store only to have "nothing to eat" in the house three days later. When I don't meal plan I end up with a house full of food but nothing to make a meal with, and a ton a spoiled veggies.

I started meal planning long before it became a necessity and have had plenty of time to master my system. I feel like meal planning is a very personal process. Certain things I do may not be necessary for you and you might have faster way of getting the job done. This is definitely not the only way to meal plan, so take this concept and tweak it so it works for you!

What you'll need to start meal planning:
          - notebook
          - recipes
          - shopping list pad
          - meal planning pad (optional)
          - a killer pen that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside......I have a bit of a pen obsession....

In true Kendra fashion I get most of my supplies from Dollarama/Dollar Tree. Why spend $5 on a notebook when you can spend $1.25 for basically the same thing? Personally I like keeping all my recipes written down in a book because going online to look at them all the time gets on my nerves. A binder with everything typed out (and maybe a photo of what each recipe looks like) would also be pretty stellar if you have the time to put it together. In the top left corner of each page I like to give each recipe a short, one word, review so that I know for next time if I should bother with a recipe or not. I secretly hope that one day Roman and Bianca are fighting over these recipe books because they are filled with all their favorite meals.

Finding good recipes is obviously key to meal planning and freezer cooking. If you're new to freezer cooking I suggest checking out a website like Once A Month Meals. For a small annual fee you can subscribe to their website and get access to tons of recipes as well as prep, freezing, and thawing directions for each recipe. Once you get the hang of freezer cooking you can pretty much figure out how to turn any meal into a freezer meal.

I LOVE making lists so I have a ton of these note pads kicking around the house. In fact, Santa even dropped some off in my stocking at Mom & ad's house at Christmas time.  Santa is a smart dude, he really gets me. If you don't have a meal planning pad, you can also use the same list pad that you use for you shopping list. I came across this one on Zulily but I know you can also find them at Chapters.

The number of recipes you select is going to depend on how many days you want to prep meals for and how much time you have to cook. I freezer cook every two weeks, so I try to have enough meals to cover suppers for each of those days. Obviously there are going to be leftovers, which are great for lunches, but they will also likely cover 1-2 suppers, which means I have extra meals that will carry over to the next week.

On my meal planning pad I write down each recipe I want to make and all the ingredients I need to make it. *TIP: if you also write down the amount of each ingredient you need you can be sure to buy the exact amount you need. This saves on having a bunch of leftover ingredients and having them spoil, or not having enough ingredients because you only bought 3 peppers when you actually needed 7. Once I have all my meals and ingredients written down, I head into the kitchen to see what I have. There is no point in buying more garlic powder if you have an entire bag of it already.

The last step is to make a grocery list of everything that you need to make your meals, as well as anything else you need to pick up (obviously). If you've read my "Tips for shopping at Superstore" post then you're familiar with my system of writing my grocery list. I always wright down what I need in the order I encounter them so I don't have to run all over the store looking for things, and I don't have to scan my entire list every time I go to a new area of the store.

Tuna Cakes

Roman loves tuna and has since he was little.  He would quite happily demolish his tuna straight out of the can with a spoon, but something inside tells me I shouldn't feed my son this way.  Probably because it reminds me of feeding cats straight out of the can.  That being said, it would save on dishes....

Many moons ago when John and I were living in our first apartment we went through a crab cake phase.  We ate those darn things at least once a week and because of that I was a little leery to try this recipe.  I was presently surprised because these cakes aren't fishy at all, they are actually quite delicious! I even fought off Roman to have the last tuna cake for leftovers a few days later!

Tuna Cakes (Make 6 cakes)
12 oz. solid white tuna (3 - 120g cans), drained
1/2 cup chopped green onions
3/4 cup Panko
2t Old Bay seasoning
3 eggs

Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl.  Measure out 1/3 cup patties and cook in a small amount of oil over medium high heat for 3 minutes on each side.

To Freeze:  Allow cakes to cool completely.  Flash freeze on a baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag.
To Serve:  Reheat in the microwave or oven.

So it's probably not the most complicated recipe I've ever shared, but I promise that it is super tasty!  Easy recipes like this are awesome for freezer cooking days because you can make a lot of them in no time flat.  Your house might smell like a fish market, but your freezer will be full of delicious food!

These would be super easy to send with the kids to school or even to cut up and throw on top of a salad for a little extra protein.  This time I decided to serve them with a side of asparagus and a little tzatziki for sauce. Like most kids Roman loves sauce, specifically tzatziki, so adding a nice dollop on his plate always ensures that a good portion of his meal will be eaten.

Follow Us Friday - Two Kids Version

I'll admit I was a littler concerned about documenting a day in this house. Bianca tends to be hit and miss with napping and happiness so it's always a toss up as to which baby you're going to get in the morning. Well, here goes nothing!

7:00am
Well today is off to a dandy start, Roman slept in!!! Yes, this is considered sleeping in in our house.  I was actually awake a few minutes before he was but I didn't dare breath, let alone get out of bed, for fear of alerting him that I was awake.

Today was garbage day so the first thing Roman had to do was check on our garbage can, as well as the neighbors. Unfortunately he missed the truck because he slept in and he was a little bummed.

7:30am
Miss Bianca decided to grace us with her presence at a fantastic hour this morning.  I don't know what I did in a past life to earn such mercy but miss Bianca has been sleeping through the night since she was about 1.5 months old. Considering Roman was up every 2-3 hours for at least the first 3 months of his life, Bianca feels like a vacation!  She wakes smiling and happy as a clam so I usually go ahead and get her dressed right away. We seem to be past the puking/spitting up stage so I don't have to worry so much about going through 3 outfits before noon.

8:00am
Roman decided it was time for breakfast and requested "eggs with toast" like he does every morning.  When I say every morning, I literally mean every morning.  I now have to buy eggs three dozen at a time because Roman eats so many. I have managed to get him off of plain eggs with cheese and this morning he chose mushrooms and spinach as his veggies of choice. I had mine Denver style of a slice of bread, while Roman had his topper with cottage cheese and toast on the side. Bianca decided she was happy just munching on her fists for the time being.

8:15am
Another thing you will quickly learn about Bianca is that she is a horrible eater! This girl has to be in a very specific mood and location to eat, and the bottle nipple must be in just the right place. If anyone one of these things are off there is a very good chance she's going to refuse her bottle. Sure enough, this morning she just wasn't feeling it. So instead, I got Roman and myself dressed and ready for the day.

Here is something that's new since I took my blogging break. Roman is potty trained!  During the day anyway. Shortly after we came home with Bianca Roman decided diapers were for babies (now if he would only make the same decision about his soother). I won't go into too much details about how we went about potty training, but if it's something people are interested in I could definitely do a separate post on it!

9:20am
Bianca has finally decided she is hungry! Off we went to her room to rock in the rocking chair while she happily but slowly drinks her formula. Roman is actually pretty good about being quiet in her room and will usually hang out on the floor and play with a quiet toy while I feed Bianca and put her down for a nap.  Today he retrieved himself a packaged of cheese and bread sticks from his snack cupboard and ate it on the floor. Once he was done he climbed up n my lap and I rocked him and Bianca for a bit before putting Bianca down for her nap.  I LOVE when he does this! It can be so hard to juggle both kids and make sure they both get the attention they need. Fills my heart right to the tippy top!

9:30am
I've been starting to watch what I eat again so I decided to make some iced tea.  Roman loves tea too so he was all too willing to help me.  This time we made a combination of Sami Sweetheart and Italian Orange Soda; amazing!  With tea in hand we sat down at the table to do some crafting.  Roman has really started to love crafting so I have a little stash of stuff that I keep upstairs for his impromptu crafting sessions. Today he chose stamps and scissors.

10:30am
Is it sad that an hour is actually a fantastic nap for Bianca? At this point I take what I can get with this girl.  I think I got spoiled with Roman and his killer napping skills as a baby.

Today is grocery day, so we all headed out to Superstore to pick up everything we need for the next two weeks. I've been doing a lot of freezer cooking lately and it has been my life saver. Bianca usually has her fussy time from 4-6pm which can make cooking nearly impossible.  Being able to toss supper in the slow cooker or oven and walk away has been amazing!

Shopping with two kids can sometimes be a little challenging, and I thought today was one of the better days, until we got to the checkout.  Just as I started unloading the cart Bianca finally hit her limit with being awake and was starting to really pitch a fit.  Enter an amazing angel who totally saved me and my sanity!  My friend Lisa happened to be shopping with her two kids and stopped to rock Bianca while I finished unloading. I appreciated the help SO much and I can't wait to return the favor some day!

12:30pm
Roman decided on a canned ham sandwich with pickles and tea for lunch. Of course he had to help me prepare the ham. I on the other hand had some leftover chicken soup. To be honest I don't know how long this soup has been in the fridge, but I do know that it needed to be eaten and didn't make me sick!

1:55pm
After hanging out and cooing for awhile, Bianca decided it was time for a nap. If there is one thing I know about Bianca, it's that you never count on an afternoon nap. A morning nap is fairly predictable, but an afternoon nap is like trying to see a whale in the ocean, you just have to show up and pray. I hope you appreciate the risk I took to get this photo of her napping!!

Now that both kids are asleep it's time for me to unpack all the groceries and prep the salmon for supper. John was nice enough to haul it all in for me when he came home for lunch, so I only have to put it all away. Am I the only person that has a spice drawer that looks like this? I could barely get the new spices I bought into this drawer, so I decided to reorganize the drawer. I know I moved some of these spices into the house 3 years ago so I just tossed them out without even looking at them. If I haven't used them by now it's time for them to leave. I put all my bagged spices into bins to keep them together, cleaned out the drawer, and lined everything up nicely.  Ahhh my OCD has been satiated for another day.

2:45pm
Well Bianca's nap lasted longer than I thought! Still not amazing, but I'll take it. This blog post is actually pretty helpful, it make me realize that Bianca sleeps better than I thought. I swear in the moment that she's in her bed for literally 5 seconds before I hear her crying again. I guess that's what happens when you spend for "down time" doing chores.

3:30pm
Now that is a nap!  I can always count on Roman to have a good nap. I might have to fight with him for half an hour to get him down, but once he is, he sleeps like a beast! I hope he naps until he's 10.

One of Roman's new favorite games is jumping off his headboard onto his bed. I know I should discourage this activity but he loves it so darn much and it tires him right out for bed! Once that lost it's luster we moved on to cars and sitting practise for Bianca. It was the first time I actually tried to prop her up and she did really well, so I decided to pull out the Bumbo chair. She had a blast sitting up so we'll definitely have to use it more often. Roman thought it was pretty cool to see Bianca "sit like a big girl!".

4:00pm
Here we go again, Bianca decided to have a nap...

4:45pm
She's awake, and cranky haha. 

6:10pm
Tonight I made Honey Teriyaki Salmon for supper. As a side I decided to make Pineapple Punch Matcha rice and it was pretty tasty! Roman was being a bit of a dork so he ended up finishing his meal while sitting on my lap. I don't usually cave but sometimes you just need them to eat.

6:30pm
Bath time for Bianca has been John's territory lately so I don't have any evidence of what goes on (I'll get on that). What I do know is that regardless of how exhausted or cranky she is, Bianca is always her happiest in the bath.  Which serves well because she completely freaks out after wards because she's usually exhausted by this point in the day.

6:45pm
Time for Roman's bath! I'm the lucky sucker that gets drenched by this maniac most nights. He's pretty good about keeping the water in the tub but sometimes he just gets so darn excited. Or he doesn't realize that the spout of the bottle is pointing directly at me when he squeezes it with all his might....

While I bathe Roman, John gets to daunting task of putting Bianca to sleep. She knows exactly when and how she wants to be put the sleep but unfortunately she can't communicate very well. So we are left trying to solve the puzzle of exactly how she wants to be rocked, when she wants the bottle and when it's safe to lay her down. Oh the joys of newborns!

7:45pm
After reading a few stories, it's off to bed for Roman. He used to go to bed so easily but lately he's figured out that he can request things to stall. I need socks, I want my socks off, I want daddy, I want mommy, I want my puppy, where is my bear, snuggle me, rub my back, I have to pee (he's still in diapers at night), where is my water, and finally, I have to poop. The last one is the only way he gets out of his room.  He refuses to poop in a diaper now, and after a horrible 3 months of dealing with constipation, I will always bring him out of his room to poop. 

After all Roman's demands are met it's usually around 8pm. This is when we attack the dishes, finish blog posts and generally vegetate until 10pm when we turn in to pumpkins and go to bed. Phew!

Corn Dog Mini Muffins

I hate lunch! I think all moms hate lunch. It's that awkward meal in the middle of the day that lands right between, shopping, playgroup and chores. The only thing worse than making lunch every day, is trying to figure out what to take/send to work/school every day. The struggle is real!

Now before you starting commenting about how unhealthy/nasty hot dogs are, you should probably know this isn't an every day meal in our house. I usually save these tasty little devils for days that I don't feel like cooking, Bianca is fussing and I can't sit her down to cook, or we just want some delicious hot dogs. I know you secretly like a hot dog now and then, don't lie.

I originally started looking for a corn dog recipe because Roman loves himself a hot dog so I thought he'd really like a corn dog, and came across this one from Savoury Simple.  Turns out he could really care less about the corn muffin and I have to withhold the tasty meaty centres until he eats some of the muffin. John and I however could probably eat an entire batch ourselves, and I don't even like corn dogs!

Corn Dog Mini Muffins
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4t baking soda
1/4t salt
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
6 hot dogs, cut into 1" pieces

*If you don't have buttermilk on hand, which I never do, add 1T vinegar to 1/2 cup regular milk and let stand for 5 minutes.  This will sour the milk and thicken it right up.

Preheat over to 375°.  Combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together buttermilk, sugar, butter and egg.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, mixing just until moist.  Spoon 1T of the batter into a mini muffin cup and place one piece of hot dog into the centre.  Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes.

To Freeze: Allow muffins to cool completely.  Flash freeze on a baking sheet and transfer into a freezer bag once frozen.
To Serve: Reheat in the microwave.

So obviously my corn dogs don't look like muffins. My Mom (Hi Mom!) gave me this handy silicone mini loaf pan from Epicure for Christmas and I thought this would be a perfect use for it.  The cornbread tends to bread off the ends of the dogs, much to Roman's delight because it's easier to get at the hot dog, but it's not a deal breaker for me. These tasty little morsels would be great for a kids birthday party or even if you're having people over to watch a football/hockey game. Plus, since they freeze so well you don't have to buy the pre-made boxed appies! Saves you money and time!

Greek Meatballs

I stumbled upon this recipe in one of the most unlikely places.  I was watching LisaSZ09, one of the beauty gurus I follow on YouTube, but this particular video was one of her vlogs.  As soon as I saw this recipe (Originally from Rachael Ray) I knew I had to give it a shot because I'm always interested in trying a recipe that makes chicken interesting.

Meatballs are one of my favorite freezer meals because they are super quick and easy to make on my cooking day, and they reheat super fast.  It's also nice to have the option to just pull out a few meatballs if I'm scrambling for lunch for Roman.

Greek Meatballs
1T olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 gloves garlic, minced
1 pkg chopped spinach, defrosted and water squeezed out
3/4 cup crumbled feta
1 lb ground chicken
1T grill seasoning*

*I use Clubhouse LaGrille Chicken seasoning but Montreal Steak spice, of whatever you have on hand would work just fine.

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.  Form into meatballs and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes.

To Freeze: Prepare as directed. Flash freeze on a baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag.
To Serve: Reheat in the microwave or oven.

Easy, peazy, lemon squeezy!  I like to use an ice cream scoop to form my meatballs.  This was each meatball is the same size which is good for my OCD but it also helps the meatballs cook evenly.  Plus you don't end up with nasty chicken hands!  I like to serve these meatballs with tzatziki and broccoli.  If you're feeling really fancy you could make your own tzatziki, but I prefer to buy mine, it's just easier.