It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

It was up over 60 today for the second day in a row :)

I started using e-mealz last week. They have a menu to download each week with 7 meals (dinner) on it. It lists the ingredients and directions next to the name of each meal and on a second page has a grocery list with the meal number next to each item in case you aren't going to make that meal this week. It costs $15 for three months worth of menus, but I used coupon code "dave" to get $2.50 off --as in Dave Ramesy.

We tried 4 meals last week and used family favorites for the other days. It worked well, and made my grocery list making so much easier. The meals we tried were all simple to prepare and included side dishes. I was worried when I looked at the menu that it would cost more than what we were already spending, but it was about the same. I think it would cost more if we did all 7 meals, but we didn't and probably won't ever do that. The kids will always want some of their favorites.

So...this morning I printed out the menu/grocery list, had the kids pick a meal (they've been each cooking one night a week), and marked off what we weren't cooking that week. I then marked off ingredients that we already have, and added things for dinner meals that aren't on that menu and for lunches and breakfasts. It didn't take much time to be ready to go shopping for the week :)

After shopping, we all went to the duck pond at MSU and fed the ducks barley that was going to be thrown out. It certainly was a beautiful day :)