Put A Pin In It

Yeah, I have to be the last person in the world to get on the Pinterest bandwagon.  I do my best to not spend much time on there, but its a good way to suddenly waste several hours clicking on pins.  There are a million great ideas out there!

One thing I found that I really want to try out are the Crockpot Freezer Meals recipes I found.  It seems simple enough - you buy a TON of ingredients, do the prep work all at one time, bundle up in gallon sized bags, and stick in the freezer.  Then, on your way out the door to work, just dump a bag in your crockpot, turn it on, and come home to a nice dinner :)  I could go for that!  I was talking with a few other new moms at church, and I think we are going to get together in a couple of weeks and make these up together.  We will use the church kitchen (LOTS of room), and we can each go home with 10 meals or so to stock the freezer with :)

We have also been using eMeals since September.  I LOVE it!  There have been very few meals that we don't like (I can think of 2 in the past 8 months).  I love that we have the shopping list, organized by sections of the store, so that I can get everything I need in one quick trip.  We are using the Walmart low-fat plan since we are trying to eat better.  All meals are about 400-600 calories each and they taste GREAT!  Even my picky husband happily eats whatever we have.  I take the list to Aldi first, and if I need anything else, then I hit up Price Chopper.  This is helping us stick to a grocery budget of about $400/month max (which also includes all food for baby & the nanny that comes twice a week too (she gets cookies & all kinds of "fun" foods - but sometimes they don't stick around until she comes, LOL!)).  Since our total food spending pre-baby was $800-900/month, this is totally worth it!  *And yes, I know that is a ungodly amount to spend on food in a month.  Even including eating out 3-4 times per week.