Weekly Meal Plan

We got our cookbooks (finally) unpacked and are excited about some new meals this week!  Yum!

Day	Dinner
M	Black Bean Tortas w/ Coconut Chipotle Mayo (Thug kitchen pg143)
T	Carrot, Sweet Potato and Ginger soup w/ Baby Bok Choy (FF veg pg33)
W	Winter White Bean Salad w/ spicy cilantro pesto (Forks pg73/24)
R	Vegan Cauliflower Bites with a simple salad
F	Lemon Asparagus Pasta
S	Potato Tacos with bean dip and rice
S	*Leftover Night*

Produce Dairy Packaged Goods Spices/Sauces

M

Coconut Chipotle Mayo

·         1 cup canned Coconut milk

·         1/3 cup hot sauce

·         ¼ olive oil

·         1 tablespoon ground flax seed

·         1 teaspoon lemon juice

·         Salt

Creamy Black beans

·         1 teaspoon oil

·         I yellow onion

·         3 cloves garlic

·         1 tablespoon chilli powder

·         ¾ teaspoon ground cumin

·         2 cans black beans

·         1 ½ cups vegetable broth

·         1 lime

·         Salt to taste

Torta trimmings

·         Crusty rolls

·         Lettuce

·         Tomatoes

·         Red onions

·         Avocado

T

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-pound carrots
• 1-pound sweet potatos
• 1 bunch scallions
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• Salt
• Cilantro
• 1 lime
• 1 jalapeno
• 6 ounces baby bok choy

W

• 1 pumpkin or similar winter squash
• 2 cans Cannellini beans
• 1 medium red onion
• Salt and pepper
• Basil pesto

R

·    1 small head cauliflower

·    ¼ to ½ cup hot sauce (we use siricha or buffalo sauce & omit for kid ‘nuggets’)

·    ½ cup flour (whole wheat flour works fine, so does white flour)

·    ½ cup milk

·    1 teaspoon salt

·    1 teaspoon ground black pepper

·    ½ teaspoon garlic powder

·    1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

·    1 cup panko bread crumbs

Simple Salad: Spinach
Tomato
Cucumber
Croutons
Dressing

F
1 bunch asparagus (12 ounces), trimmed and washed

Sea salt and black pepper

2 lemons

Olive oil

3-4 large cloves garlic, minced (~2 Tbsp)

10 ounces (~5 cups) bow tie pasta (see notes if GF*)

2.5 cups unsweetened plain almond milk

3-4 Tbsp all purpose flour (sub another thickener if GF*)

1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (for a subtle cheesy flavor | optional)

S

bean dip
1 can pinto beans, drained
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup pepper of choice (anaheim, pasilla, jalapeno, etc), chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp fresh lemon or lime juice
1 Tbsp olive oil

5 russet potatoes
salt
tortillas
tomato
avocado
lettuce

Rice

Amazon Fresh : Review 1

In case you were unaware, we have four kids ages 5 and under. To say we were EXCITED to try Amazon Fresh was an understatement.

The idea of ordering our entire meal plan online and having it all delivered at one time... Sign. Us. Up.

Here's more info about signing up, straight from Amazon.

Typically we have to run to at least two different stores to get everything for our meals. We do the bulk of our shopping at Aldi and then go to Wal Mart or our local grocery chain for any items we have left over or aren't typically available at Aldi (here's looking at you, tofu).

I sent Cor a dinner meal plan and he did all the ordering over his lunch break. Here's a few things about ordering you need to know.

Orders of 40$ or more ship for free (not a problem for us). Other orders ship for $9.99.

The service costs $14.99 a month for Prime members but is FREE for the first month.

There's a $25 off your first order of $100 or more coupon out there in the universe. Google "Amazon Fresh Coupon Code" to find one.

Cheapest items will NOT show up first. For example, when Cor searched for carrots, the first to show up were rather expensive. He scrolled right on down and found a less expensive option.

Check out the size of items. Crackers were buy one get one free. The photo made it look like a full sized box, but it was a smaller snack box on sale. Check the ounce size on items.

Keep an eye out on when items are (or are not) available. Honeycrisp apples would have delayed our order for a few days. Gala apples would allow it to be delivered the very next day.

Other than that, ordering on Amazon Fresh was just as easy as ordering on Amazon. There's even specialty sections like "Kid Snacks" and speciality diet sections like "Vegan" and "Gluten Free." And the best part, our order is saved and we can quickly and easily reorder an entire meal plan worth of ingredients to add or subtract from in the future. Oh. Em. Gee.

Our order was sent and scheduled for delivery the next day. Awesome.

Everything came nicely packed and iced via USPS right to my doorstep (no more lugging grocery bags up my exterior stairs!) The kids were thrilled. As was I. Watch us unboxing our order on YouTube.

The quality of items was great too. Our grapes looked nice. And I was pleasantly surprised by the freshness of our vegetables. They even took care to package bread on top and (while we didn't order eggs) I noticed an old "Take Care: Eggs Inside" sticker on one of our totes (Amazon recollects these and reuses them to cut down on waste.)

We got to work unpacking the 4 Amazon Fresh bags (they're huge). We put everything out on the kitchen table.

I really wish Amazon included a paper inventory sheet with each order. We were warned to go through our order because some people have had items missing. A paper inventory sheet just seems logical for someone packing groceries to literally check off as they go, but maybe they still do this electronically. Technology, yo.

Anyway, I pulled up our order and realized TEN items were missing. That's a lot. I almost felt like maybe the USPS guy missed a bag, but ours were labeled 4 out of 4.

Cor was at work so I sent him an email of what was missing and he contacted Amazon. Customer service was great. They got back to us same day and provided a refund plus an additional credit towards a future order.

But alas, the convenience of ordering online groceries was lost. Cor had to run to the store after work and get the things on the list. He then had to go back a second time when we missed something in the original check. In addition to an earlier quick trip for items that weren't available for next day delivery when we initially ordered. Additionally, some Amazon Sale items weren't included in our order. So we lost both time and money. Woooomp.

We get that this service is VERY new to our area and that there's probably a lot that they need to work out. We'll ride out our full month trial (3 more shops for us) and see how it goes (and let you know too!)

Weekly Meal Plan

We are SO excited about this week's meal plan. Not only do we have a ton of new Fall recipes to try out, we also tried something new and ordered from Amazon Fresh (more on that in a later blog post).

We've already had the Thai Basil Noodles and not a drop was left. Even the kids gobbled it up.
We added some chips with the rice, black bean, and avocado bowls that were recommended to us by a sweet friend - you're going to want to make that sauce and add it to everything. The whole thing was delicious.

Enjoy!

Day	Dinner
M	Butternut Squash soup
T	Rice, Black Bean and Avocado bowl with chips
W	Thai Basil Noodles
R	Mediterranean Stew (Veg CrockPot) w bread
F	Tofu Ricotta Stuffed Shells
S	Carrot Dogs
S	*Leftover Night*

Produce Dairy Packaged Goods Spices/Sauces

M

• 2 butternut squash cleaned and cubed.
• 2 Honey crisp apples peeled, cored and cubed
• 3 carrots peeled and cut into large pieces
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1-2 tsp curry powder
• 1-2 tsp red chili flakes plus more for garnish
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice*
• 4-5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup coconut milk the one from the jar
• salt and pepper
• pumpkin seeds for garnish

T
For the rice

• 2 cups brown rice
• 1 cup tomato puree/sauce (not tomato paste)
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon regular chili powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt

For the beans

• 2  cans black beans, drained and rinsed well
• 2 teaspoons regular chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the Sweet Chili Mustard Sauce (makes 1 cup)

• 1/2 cup regular yellow wet mustard (120 g)
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (60 mL)
• 2 tablespoons regular chili powder (use 1 1/2 T for less heat)
• 2-4 tablespoons water

Garnish

• 1 medium avocado, chopped
• 1 cup tomatoes, optional

W

• 1 package of firm tofu , drained, pressed, and cubed 2-3 TB olive or sesame oil
• 1 small onion , chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups shiitake mushrooms
• 4 small bok choy
• 8 oz rice noodles
• 1/2 cup basil cut into ribbons

SAUCE

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 TB chili paste
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 TB rice wine vinegar

R

• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 eggplant, chopped
• 1 15oz can artichoke, drained and chopped
• 1/2/ cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
• 2 15oz cans diced tomatoes (we use low sodium)
• 4 cups (usually a whole box) Vegetable Broth (again, we use low sodium)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• French Bread
  

F

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 16 ounces extra firm tofu
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 10 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted
• 1 box jumbo shells
• 1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce

S

• 2 large carrots
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 TB seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 TB sesame oil
• 1/2 TB apple cider vinegar
• dash liquid smoke
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp dried ginger
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp granulated onion powder
• olive oil cooking spray
• 2 whole wheat hot dog buns

You Light Up Our Life Mason Jar Firefly Craft Card

Shh.
We have a secret.

We're sending our favorite grandparents some super sweet cards for Grandparent's Day and we're giving you a free printable to do the same!

I'm all about sticking as much on one printable as I can, so here's one sheet of 4 mason jars you can print and cut out for your favorite people.

Click Here for the printable PDF.

I intentionally left the printable free of "Happy Grandparent's Day" so we could write it in ourselves with our cute kindergartner handwriting. It would also make a great card for a birthday, mother's day, father's day, or any day! We printed our cards on white cardstock, but you could also print them on a color cardstock too. I think a blue or a light gray would be super pretty! You could also print on some printer paper or construction paper and call it a day. Grandparent's just love anything from their favorite tiny people!

You can either trim the cards around the mason jar itself, or keep them squared off like I did (because I'm in get-it-done mode. Sorry not sorry.)

Next, grab your kiddos and have them put a few fingerprints on the card with yellow paint or ink. Because I have so many children, I just let each of them put one firefly because I wanted to add their names under it, but go crazy if you want! When dry, take a fine tip Sharpie or a black pen to draw in some little winged creatures and add each child's name under their print (if you want. It's totally optional. You do you, boo.)

Get extra credit by punching a hole around both sides of the jar and adding a ribbon bow. So sweet! I used a fork to help pop the ribbon around the front and then brought it back around through the back and tied a bow.

I keep a box of 4x6 envelopes on hand. They are perfect to pop a photo in or stick a cute kid-made card in the mail to Grandma.

Enjoy!

DIY School Years Keepsake Organization Bins

Like any mom, I like to keep things the kids bring home from school. This idea helps collect their memories.

Each month we hang up their artwork and fun things on our wall and (if I remember) at the end of the month I snap a monthly picture of all the art together. Like this.

But there are a few items that I just have. to. keep!

If it's got a kid's handprint on it, I'm keeping it forever.

Got a photo on it? Keep that!

Any sort of "About Me" or about a family member, keeping it!

An Award or Program. My baby got an Award! My baby was in a Play! Gotta save that forever and ever.

Anything that is uniquely special. I'm gonna keep that too (like that one time Car made a picture of a rooster with forks... I need to frame that for my kitchen!)

But by the end of the school year, I end up with a bunch of  paper and artwork that is all special. So, how do I store all of it forever and ever?

This is what I came up with.

I have four paper trays that live in our kitchen. Artwork or items to each specific kid ends up in these paper trays and this is where they live until they go down to their forever home. These trays are conveniently located next to the trashcan, so letter practice, or bingo dots on the letter M, can easily be disposed of (in secret when no little eyes are watching! because that can lead to the end of the world!). Even the baby has a tray to put her growth charts and important documents in.

When the trays get filled, I go through each kid's and weed it out again (maybe that fork rooster doesn't quite go with my kitchen décor... but it makes me smile and I still want it!) Then what has survived goes into their SCHOOL YEAR BIN.

Here's how to put together your own SCHOOL YEAR BIN.

Get a bin. I got four of these at Target for about $4 a bin. If you want to get fancy, you can order waterproof locking bins here, but I'm just not about that and I think these bins will do well stored inside in our office for the duration of their lives in our home.

I also got letter and number stickers and folders. So. Many. Folders. I found an 8 pack of folders at Dollar Tree and bought enough so I could color code the schools (Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High) but you don't have to color code them (but why wouldn't you?!?)

Take each folder and pop a sticker on it for each year. I needed to label a bunch of folders so I got creative and turned some I's into 1s if needed. Label ALL the years. Get folders for ALL the years. Get enough for ALL your kids (I even got a bin for Air so they are all uniform). Get it all done NOW so it's set up and ready to go for the rest of your child's school days. Then all you have to worry about it collecting art, awards, and fun memories.

Pop those folders into your bin! Use some extra letter stickers and put each kid's name on the outside of the bin. Boom. Done. Fill each folder with your special memories and you're all set and clutter free.

My hope is that each kid will have ONE bin to keep all of their school-year memories in. Hopefully they will fill them up with art and certificates and trophies and fun things. Then one day they will have everything together to take with them (or not. I don't care. I'll keep that fork rooster forever!)

Watch hot-mess me (and Car and Ay) put it together here

Baby Hudson's Woodland Adventure Baby Shower

Guys.

Parties are my jam. I love everything about parties. Like. Seriously. So when my super adorable cousin announced she was pregnant, I couldn't wait to start working on a baby shower for baby Hudson.

I co-hosted the shower with two others (my cousin, Danialle and my sister in law, Anna) and we had some help from our Aunts. There's some affiliate links throughout the blog to link you to items like what we used.

We devided the shower up into three parts so it would be easier for us to plan (the three of us do not live in close proximity to one another, but technology, yo!)

Anna took the lead on food.
Danialle took over games.
And I took on decor.

We had one group text and kept everyone in the loop with ideas and plans. I couldn't have asked for better co hosts. We work well together.

Food.
We invited about 50 people to the shower so were making the party for 40. We needed a way to feed a ton of people for not a million dollars and that everyone would enjoy eating (especially with a few special vegetarian/vegan diets).

Insert the best party food idea ever.

The Taco Bar.

Anna was on point. She made a spreadsheet of all the taco foods and we prices them out at Aldi. We were super prepared. We made most of the taco bar ourselves but had Qudoba cater the rice and queso.

We also decided to put together a cute trail mix bar. I got jars from Dollar Tree! And the kids loved all the little snacks.

Shout out to Aunt Tammy because she made the CUTEST Very Hungry Caterpillar veggie tray.

And Danialle took on cake responsibility and came through with super cute rustic cupcakes.

Games.
Danialle came up with some super cute game ideas for the party. We just HAD to play the clothes pin game. It's basically tradition for our family baby showers.

Everyone gets a clothes pin and can't say the word "Baby." If you hear someone say it, you get all their pins. Most pins at the end of the party wins a prize.

We also played the left / right game with a twist. There's a ton of left right games we found on Pinterest, but this one was fun and a twist on the game that people didn't expect.

We also asked everyone to fill out an envelope and drew prizes. This was a nice way to give Lauren a break when opening gifts so she could grab some food or walk around a bit. So every so often we would stop the party and draw a prize. This will help out when she goes to send her Thank You Cards too.

Everyone LOVED writing Lauren notes on some "late night diapers" We had quite a bit of clever and artistic people at the shower. And some super sweet and encouraging notes for the mom to be. Some favorites were a hand drawn poop emoji, Point It Down (a practical reminder for any new boy mom. Haha), and "Call me if you need me. Love, Mom" (how. flipping. sweet!)

We also had people sign a book staring the baby to be (Just go on Amazon and search "Hudson children's book" or any baby name and see what you can find. This one was super adorable and my kids gave it four thumbs up!)

I also used my Silhouette Cameo to make a custom onesie for Hudson. We used fabric markers and had everyone sign it so Hudson always knows he's so so loved. Especially since Lauren and Hudson live out of state, so what a sweet reminder of all his Maryland family.

Décor.
Lauren sent us a text of some super fun nursery inspiration and we ran with it. Cor taught me how to use our jigsaw and I may have gotten a bit carried away.

I cut and painted arrows to match arrows she showed us in the text. I also cut signs and used my cameo to make some stencils. I designed the signs myself and was basically obsessed with how they turned out.

When we cut down the holly trees in our yard, I made sure Cor held on to them so I could have chunks of wood and wood rounds for centerpieces.

We used table cloths to match our color scheme (teal, navy, white, and gray) and added craft paper on top. Each centerpiece had arrow fabric topped with burlap and a wood round, candle, succulent, book (like this Bob Marley Book!), jar of crayons, and a jar of flowers.

I also used this technique to chemical burn some wood signs.

I printed the taco and trail mix bar signs out and wrote over the titles with a metallic sharpie. I just popped them into some dollor store frames.

I ran some dollar store paper bags through my printer and made cute bags for favors so everyone would be "Ready for Your Next Adventure".
Each had some candy, trail mix, and some no dent elastic hair ties (I made those too. Because I'm a crazy person who likes DIY errrything). See a tutorial here soon! (Future Link)

Overall, the party was so much fun and we had a blast celebrating baby Hudson and his sweet Momma! We cannot wait to meet you, little boy.