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09 February 2013

My Favorite Finds of the Week

Someone amazing I discovered this week: Col. Chris Hadfield. What an amazing person and artist! He has been posting these absolutely amazing photographs he is taking of the earth from space on his Facebook page, please go just him out! He's also on Twitter, you can check that out here.

Something I find so challenging is silhouette photos. Hopefully this tutorial from Click It Up a Notch will help me out!

I want to try some of these homemade Valentine ideas this year over at A Beautiful Mess. I especially like the His and Hers Pillowcases and the Pie Inspired Pop tarts look so delicious! And what about that cute bow hairstyle? Too cute!

This DIY Chalkboard Art Display from Baby Rabies is totally on my to do list! It is so adorable and the prefect way to highlight the kids art!

What did you discover that is awesome this week?

08 February 2013

It's Dinner Time!

I have been stressing about dinner and what I am feeding my family. I am so exhausted at the end of the day, everyone is starving, we don't even get home until 5:30 (that's with good traffic, which if you live in NOVA, know that's rare), and a lot of days I was just throwing together whatever I could find in the freezer for the boys and Chris and I would fend for ourselves. it wasn't working.

I would try every weekend to come up with a meal plan and grocery shop but it was taking too much time and we were eating the same 3 or 4 meals all the time. Boring!

So, I heard about The Fresh 20. It's a weekly meal plan subscription that is focused on fresh, easy, and quick meals. Every Friday, you get your weekly meal plan that includes a grocery list, meal prep directions, recipes, and nutrition for each meal. You can choose from three types of meal plans when you sign up: Classic, Gluten Free, or Vegetarian. We went with Classic. You get 5 meals each week and they serve 4. We typically have leftovers for lunch the next day since the boys don't eat much.

On Saturday or Sunday I do the shopping, then on Sunday, Chris and I do the prep. The prep takes about 30 minutes total (that's for 5 meals), and then, during the week, meals average about 30 minutes to make. We have a fresh, delicious, and quick dinner on the table every night now. It's kind of a miracle.

One of the best things about this is that I am not stressing anymore on my way home from work about what I am going to feed everyone. It makes my evenings much easier and happier, I think for everyone actually. Everyone has been happy with almost every meal we've made from the plans, too. It's exposing the boys to such a wide range of things I wouldn't normally make, too, like blackened salmon tacos (the boys loved those) and lat night we had citrus marinated tilapia, so yummy!

The recipes are very easy, so if you aren't someone who cooks regularly, just follow the instructions and the food will come out great. I've been cooking for so long that I typically tweak the recipes a little and make them what I want and they are still awesome.

Check it out at The Fresh 20.
 

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The men enjoying their dinner

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Owen liked it, too

I was not provided with anything in exchange for this post, these are my honest opinions based on my experiences.