Why You Need to Start Menu Planning Save Time Waste Less and Eat Healthier

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

I'm jumping in here quickly to share the idea of menu planning, again. It's such an amazing habit to develop and practice. You will thank yourself. Trust me. To help you out, I've designed more coordinating kitchen printables.

Let me explain how I do mine and you can determine if it's for you or if ya need to change it up to make it fit your life.

Every Sunday morning, when all four of us are sitting in the living room with tea and coffee, I find out everyone's week's schedule, ask if there are any cravings and get to work planning our meals for the next 7 days.

I write down each meal, usually just dinner, but sometimes breakfast and lunch, both in my paper agenda and on a piece of 4x4 paper with the menu on one side and a grocery list on the other. Then I simply stick the paper on our familial white board in the kitchen so everyone can see what's on the menu.

Writing down the menu in my agenda is something I've been doing for over 10 years. It's really fun to go back to old agendas and see what we were eating and how our diets have evolved into incredibly healthy and nutritious meals.

You can write down details about the meal. What was the family's opinion or yours or both? Did you need to add something else to pimp it up or suit your family's needs? I often make up stuff according to what is fresh in the fridge and if it turns out great, I can write the recipe in my agenda for future use.

I made this pizza with weird leftovers from the fridge, A lonely premade dough, three different cheese sorts where there was only a little left, a tiny handful of hamburger that was somehow leftover, the remnants of a bbq sauce jar (it was really strong and super spicy. So, I didn't need much.) a nearly shriveled green onion and some fresh basil.

I love flipping through my agenda when I'm not feeling so motivated. I often start at the beginning or jump to the middle, depending on where we are at in the year and can quickly pull together my menu.

A friend of mine shared what her family does: 

"My husband uses Ai to suggest 4 recipes per week. He has it create a grocery list and sort it base on the department it would be in at ... (name of grocery store) I then delete anything on the list I know we have and add anything else I know we need like toothpaste..."

Isn't that a neat idea? I also lovED Pinterest, but some annoying aliens came and destroyed Pinterest. At least I still have my boards with thousands of meal, drink and dessert ideas. Today's lame ass Pinterest is full of ads, Ai and countless Pins of which I have absolutely no interest in. You can always hit up our many boards on Pinterest. They are full of healthy-ish, easy-ish ideas and I even have a vegan board which I like to hit up now and then.

Here's another great way to clean out the fridge. Old, wrinkled veg and the remnants of cream cheese.

You will save a lot of headache when you plan and when you are prepared to cook. You'll waste a lot less, too. You might even be able to zip through the grocer if you've got a great, ordered list. I sure do! This may be cheeky, but sometimes when I go to a store that is very tempting, I only take two bags and NO cart. I get what's on the list and if I still have room I can get things that are not on the list. This might take some discipline! Hehehe...

I endeavored to write nearly a year's worth of weekly menus that you can access on our blog and or our Weekly Menu Planner board on Pinterest. There's a Lunch for the Little Ones board, too. It has great, healthy-ish ideas for kids lunches and yours.

These are a ton of work. I only make them on my hub's birthday. I had the youngest help me and he learned how to make fresh, buttermilk biscuits and homemade sausage patties. I'll be sharing the recipes later. I used Paula Dean's biscuit recipe. It's my favorite so far. Feel free to share your favorite. I find these difficult to make and time consuming.

I've got another blog with some kitchen hacks and another menu planner printable. Here's another blog with more printables that might suit your needs better.

This blog has some ideas as well as some super cute printables for in the lunch box. We have learned to eat a lot healthier than what I posted then. I am in the middle of updating most of my blogs and plan on talking about the improvements we've made over the years.

Here's one of my all time favorite blogs.

Both our boys have Autism and they both were such terrible eaters. My youngest didn't even want to breast feed! The youngest was the best breast feeder ever. Yay! Then he got Autism and everything changed. Including his eating habits. He had PICA. Goodness gracious, is that something to go through. I'm feeling ya if you are dealing with this, too. Click on that link and read some tips that will totally help you.

Our oldest was so darn skinny and so darn hard to get to eat. We really had to get creative. Over the years we found many tips and tricks. Read the blog, share it with other parents that are finding it difficult feeding their kids healthy food or any food for that matter. It might save them a whole lot of hassle.

You're all set now to get planning and get shopping. Remember, if you're trying to eat healthier or trying to not eat processed food, don't frig'n buy it. Hehehe... We gave away our fryer so that we don't eat fried stuff. We eat fried food when we go to restaurants which is hardly ever. You may have to start off with one thing like soda. Don't buy soda. Maybe after going a few days without soda, have a small soda when you're out. Make your own with all natural ingredients. It's easy! Slowly but surly, start buying less and less processed junk. That's what we did, too.

80% of what we eat is made from scratch. We buy local products whenever possible and shop at mom and pop stores. Your neighbors will do all they can to give you good products or you won't go back. Besides, they don't want to poison their neighbors. When you shop at big chains, full of large corporation food companies like Nestle, Tyson, Kraft and Pepsico they don't give a rat's ass how healthy their food is or how healthy you are. Plain and simple! They are rolling in it, too. Unlike your local little guy. You'll feel so good knowing you are helping support your neighbor. I realize this isn't always an option. I have to go out of my way too and shop at a couple of different stores to get everything I need. I'll be going in to much detail about grocery stores, shopping and health in future blogs.

Come on back and learn more about food shopping so you and your family can live healthier, longer lives.

Thanks for checking us out. Enjoy all of the free designs.

Leave us a comment with any tips you've got or recipes that your family loves. Links will work, too.

Bon appetit!

Summer Boredom Busters For the Little Ones and the Not So Little Ones

Welcome to The Cherry On Top!

Summer has started. For some of you, the summer vacation is almost over. By now your kids might be driving you crazy. I know mine are!  Hehehehe.... I am dedicating this edition of The Cherry On Top to parents, child carers and sitters. In this edition you will find all kinds of activities for  kids. Not just the little ones, but the older ones, too.

I have two young boys with Autism and keeping them constantly busy is a must. Create a list of things to do when boredom starts to settle in. Popcorn and a movie, Wii, computer games, yoga, exercise, outdoor play, hopscotch, swimming, Lego, boardgames, story telling, craft, paint....This is a necessity and a huge help to keep things cool around this crazy house.

The first two images are linked up to The Tip Junkie. I love this site and visit everyday. Yes, everyday! There are so many great ideas, tutorials, boredom busters, beauty tips, crafts, pretty much everything The Cherry On Top is all about. Make your own playdough from Koolaid for the smaller kids and then make your own lip gloss for the bigger sassy girls. I love that idea!

How cute are these bracelets?  For girls or boys and all ages, too. These images are linked up to the Tip Junkie as well and there are a lot more ideas there.

 This image to the left, I thought was totally cool for older kids and capable young'ns. The image is hooked up to a tutorial!

















And now for some outdoor fun. I have to pretty much push my kids out of the door, but when I have stuff planned or an arsenal to hit up, it usually turns into hours of fun. This image is also linked up to the Tip Junkie and there are a lot more ideas for more than one kid, too.

Another way to get hours of fun outside is taking your road carpet outside. My little guy loves to play with his cars on the carpet, outside in the shade.

How about spending time picking berries? Then coming up with something cool and refreshing to do with them. I've got berries ready for picking and the heat is on. My boys love picking berries and making stuff with them. We make cake pops, muffins, pancakes, waffles...they just love being in the kitchen.  If it's too hot, cook outside. We put the fryer outside, the crockpot, the BBQ of course. I even have a small oven in the basement so the heat can stay down there.

Another thing to keep the summer calmer is planning. Don't ya just hate when you have to think about what to eat? No one wants the same thing, you don't have the groceries, blah, blah, blah...Every Sunday I sit down and plan all three meals. Then I make a list and buy. It saves time, money and garbage. I totally recommend it. I also will not be buying sweets this summer. If they want a snack, they are going to have to make it! I have fresh fruit, nuts, pretzels and other healthy snacks that they may have, but no junk. If they want the junk they are going to have to make it themselves!

Are you familiar with Six Sisters? You will thank me for introducing you to this site if you don't already know it. I make a lot of recipes from here. Click on the image to get the link.

Below is another cool idea. Especially, if you have some not so nice fruit sitting in your basket that keeps attracting those pesky fruit flies. It is hooked up to an instructional tutorial.

Lastly, is some more outdoor activities for the kids. We all know how important it is to get our kids outside. Most kids do like nature, but grudgingly admit to it. We plan on camping in our own back yard and roasting marshmallows on the BBQ. We will talk about the things we see, hear and smell at night. It's a real treat for them! When they crash, we sit in our lawn chairs with a chilled glass of rose wine. Hehehe....

I hope this edition of The Cherry On Top will be of help.  If you have any more tips for us, leave them in a comment.