Some of the ladies over at my favorite photography forum have been discussing using e-Mealz for meal planning.  We’ve been using e-mealz for quite some time now and it has been such a sanity saver for us!  I wrote a post about it a while back, which you can find here.  I mentioned over there that I use a Google Calendar in conjunction with our 3 other Google Calendars for all our going ons, and it’s super slick!  So, I thought I would do a blog post about how I use it in hopes that it would help others.

Before I dive in, I will tell you WHY I use this method.  I am a very electronically based person.  I can’t keep a paper planner and I like my devices in life (hello iPad & iPhone!) So, by using a Google Calendar method, I am able to pull up our menus & recipes on my phone, iPad, or the computer too (or any computer for that matter, so long as I have an internet connection!)  All this to say, this is what works for me, and I encourage you to tweak this so that it works for YOU!

Now…onto the good stuff!  Let’s get started

1.  Create a Google Calendar for Meal Planning.

Start by going to Google Calendars and setup your Google account if you don’t have one, or log into your current account.  Create your new Calendar (just click the Add button at the bottom), I call mine Meal Planning (creative, I know )

Your calendar should now be created and show up in your My Calendars list.  You can also color code your calendars, as you can see, mine is Orange.

2.  Start Adding Meals to your Calendar!

This is where the fun begins!  I do this step about once a week, at the same time I’m ordering groceries.  I log into my e-mealz account,  and download the current menus for our meal plans (our family subscribes to the Low-Carb and Portion Control Meal Plans for Any Store).  The meal plans are in PDF format, which fortunately, allows you to copy and paste.

So, to add a meal to your calendar, create a new event in your Meal Planning Calendar.  Then, title your event the title of your meal.  Next, simply copy and paste your ingredient list from the menu into the description of your event.  Do the same with the cooking instructions and save!

You can also do this with your family’s current favorite recipes as well!

3.  Plan ahead 

This next part is my absolute favorite part.  You may have noticed it in the graphic above…see if you can figure it out…

.…

.…

Repeat.

You can plan your meals out for months and months ahead by simply clicking on the Repeat box in your event!

I usually choose to have them repeat every 6 or 8 weeks, and that way, you have an ever-growing list of recipes for your family that are automatically showing up on your meal planning calendar!  If there’s something we want to skip, then I just delete that particular “event” (don’t delete all of the instances) but then the meals continue to show up at my chosen increments.  It’s so slick!!

So, when my week is done, this is what my calendar looks like (I have my other ones hidden).  I can easily see what meals we have coming up and what days we are missing things on (or maybe are eating out that day).  It’s easy to click and drag and move things around to different days.

Whew!  Ok, that was a lot of steps and info.  There is one more little bonus thing that I do as well, but I will save that for another post this week.

Feel free to post questions if I missed something or if something isn’t clear!  You can also email me at amylemaniak@gmail.com too.  :-)

Happy Meal Planning!

Since Ty and Bailey’s birthdays are about a month apart (March 14 and April 18) this year we just decided to do one joint family party somewhere in between the two of them.  So, the first weekend in April, we had our “family” party.  Since Tyson was going to be having a separate kid party closer to his birthday, I decided to have a more girly theme to this one for Bailey.  Since we still have a major Olivia the Pig obsession in our house, and Bailey had a perfect white and black polka dot dress I bought back in August for this event, I figured that would be the perfect choice!

Inspired by this blog post, I got rolling!  My first project was of course the feather boa wreath for the light in the kitchen.  It was SUPER easy to make.  You can find the instructions here.  Mine didn’t turn out as fancy, but still cute nonetheless!

Now it was onto the food.  The party was at 1 pm, so I just wanted to have a bunch of apps and finger foods.  I’ve been looking for a reason to make Bakerella’s Cake Pops for some time now and since Olivia is all about all things red, decided that red velvet cake pops would be the perfect addition to the party.  They were so.yummy!!  I also made these super easy Oreo Cookie Suckers.  These were a HUGE hit too!

We also had Olivia’s “Rules of Life’ on little cards around the house.  That’s one of my favorite parts of the show and her books!

Happy Birthday Bailey & Tyson!

If you love the contrast of chocolate and cherries, then you are going to love these amazing cookies!  This was one of the new recipes I tried this year because Tony loves cherries and loves chocolate, so they were begging me to try them.  And they did NOT disappoint!  They are SUPER gooey and delicious and you won’t be able to eat just one!

Chewy Chocolate-Cherry Cookies

Ingredients

• 1  cup  all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
• 1/3  cup  unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1  cup  sugar
• 1/3  cup  butter, softened
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1  large egg
• 2/3  cup  dried tart cherries
• 3  tablespoons  semisweet chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Then, place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended.

Add vanilla and egg and again, beat well. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture. Beat just until combined. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or just until set (I think I baked mine more like 15 minutes, so check them around 12 to see if they’ve set enough or not). Remove from oven; cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy.….….….

Every year I take one day off of work a couple of weeks before Christmas to do all of my baking.  So, I thought it would be fun to do a Cookie Week and to do one post each day to share what I made and the recipes and photos!  I just always love trying out new recipes and scouring them on the web and other blogs, so I’d love to hear some of your favorites too!

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls — courtesy of my co-worker and Cooks.com

Side note — these are DANGEROUS!  Make at your own risk!  If you love Reeses peanut butter cups, then you will be in heaven with these!

Peanut Butter Ball Ingredients:

• 2 c Peanut Butter
• 1 lb. Powered Sugar
• 1 stick Butter
• 3 c Rice Krispies

Mix all above ingredients well and form into balls.  Chilll thoroughly.  (You could also chill the dough first and then make the balls, but this is how I did it).

Chocolate Coating Ingredients:

• 1 (6 oz.) package of Chocolate Chips (I chopped up some chocolate squares)
• 1/8 cake Paraffin Wax (found in the canning section of the store.  The paraffin makes the chocolate coating shiny and is completely tasteless)

Combine the above in a double boiler and melt until smooth and creamy. (I have an older version of this double boiler and it works great!)

Once the balls have chilled, take each one and dip it into the chocolate mixture.  Place on Parchment Paper to set.

I’ve been storing them in the fridge so that they don’t get all melty, but they sure didn’t last very long in our house!  SO YUMMY!!!

Coming up tomorrow…Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies!!!

Thanksgiving \Thanks“giv‘ing\, n.

1. The act of rending thanks, or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies. [1913 Webster]

I know it’s cliche, but we have SO much to be thankful for.  We have a happy, healthy family with two wonderful children and couldn’t ask for a more supportive and giving extended family.  We are so blessed!

Each year we alternate Thanksgiving between my Mom’s & Dad’s house each year, so this was the year at my mom’s house!  It’s always so fun to see everyone that we don’t get to see as often as we’d like.  Of course the food is always one of the best parts of this holiday as well, and what T’giving post would be complete without some food preparation shots?!  LOL

The food was amazing and while I usually bring the old traditional version of Green Bean Casserole, this year I decided to try out a new version of it.  I made the Pioneer Woman’s Green Bean Casserole and I have to say, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the old kind.  This was SO much yummier and fancy holiday worthy!

I also have decided that Thanksgiving must be Bailey’s favorite holiday.  You see, this girl can EAT.  Like, a lot.  She eats more than Tyson on a daily basis.  So, she was LOVING this day (despite not ever taking a nap too)!

Tyson’s feast consisted of turkey and grapes…need I say more?

Then, we have the Chocolate Turkey.  I will preface this by saying that this was NOT my idea.  In fact, I knew it was trouble from the moment I saw it sitting on the table.  And she spotted it on the table about 2.5 seconds after we got there too.

Here’s Grandma, in all her glory letting B indulge in the chocolate turkey.  Good thing her dress is brown.  You’ll see why in a moment…

And then the sucking began.  She sucked and sucked on it for a good 10 minutes and WOULD NOT take it away from her mouth.  It was like a pacifier!

And this is the end result…brown dress is good…

Finger lickin’ good…headless turkey…

Hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving as well!