Meal Plan Monday

Alright, here we go!

Friday: We had a date night with a gift card we got for Christmas and it was lovely :)

Saturday: Pizza loaf! (I bought a pack of three loaves of bread so I plan to make this next week too! I'll share the recipe soon)

Sunday: Birthday party! Yay! I made a dessert from my mother in law's extensive recipe collection

Monday: Crescent Chicken Bundles

Tuesday: Green Chili Chicken Tacos (Taken from Sarah's blog!)

Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

Thursday: Double date to mexican with some friends!

For breakfasts this week I'm making these pancakes. They are so delicious and so easy!

This week was super easy meals so it isn't terribly exciting, but there you go!

Friday Favorites No. 2

This week went by so fast! But I did manage to take a bunch of pictures so here comes a photo dump!

Every Saturday morning we have cinnamon rolls from a can. I could probably make some homemade ones, but I don't love to bake and these little guys from Aldi are so yummy! It's a nice little tradition for us and makes the weekend even a little more special. 

I ordered these sheets from Amazon and they are WONDERFUL! They were only $35 because January is a white sale month so it's when I buy new sheets/towels/pillows all that fun stuff. We don't have high standards for sheets, we just needed more than one set (#reallife) but these are so soft and make us feel fancy ;)

Two favorites in one picture! My BFF and I had a great time on Monday night. We haven't lived in the same city for a while so being able to just pop over to her house and run to target is so fun for us! Also, that jacket is my new favorite and it was only $24 at Forever 21! It comes in three colors and is the perfect lightweight jacket for this Charlotte 'winter' we're having! 

I spent my Tuesday afternoon in the laundromat. We have a white comforter and I really wanted to clean it but our washer can't handle it! So I went to the laundromat and it's so fresh and clean now! I use the Oxiclean white revive and it is AMAZING! It leaves everything, even colors, looking brighter and fresh again. My mom gave me this recommendation and I won't turn back!

I tried on this dress in Target and it was 50% off! It was so cute but I really didn't have any reason to buy it so I just tried it on and admired it's cuteness. Also, I was having a good hair day and needed to document for posterities sake, of course ;)

Last! This cute little steamer was at Target and I think it would be so handy to have! You don't have to lug out a huge ironing board or a giant steamer. They had a bunch of colors too :) This is a PSA, go get one! 

My 2016 Reading List

I'm linking up with Victoria and Sarah this week for Book Club Thursday! These are two of my favorite blogs so be sure to head over to their sites to see what they're reading!

One of my goals for 2016 is to read! I love to read but I'm super inconsistent so I've committed to reading this year! I've selected a bunch of books and planned them out for the year. I don't know if I'll be able to stick to the plan I made, but grace ya'll. It's a mix of genres to keep things interesting and I really want to focus on reading things that will enrich my life. I want to learn a lot from this season so I was very intentional with the books I selected. Also, I left off books for November and December because, real life, I'll probably get behind or someone will suggest a book to me and I'll read that one one month instead so I built in a buffer for myself :) So with that, here's my reading list for 2016! 

January:

The Elite by Kiera Cass (I'm obsessed with this series thanks to Victoria!)

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey 

The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller

February:

His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.

Sheet Music by Dr. Kevin Leman

(Un)Qualified by Steven Furtick (that's our Pastor!)

March:

The One by Kiera Cass

The Finishing School by Valerie Woerner (her blog is wonderful too!)

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

April:

Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster

The Heir by Kiera Cass

You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity by Francis Chan

May:

168 Hours by Laura Vanderkram

Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist (read this last year but you can't read it too much)

June:

The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

July:

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko

Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs 

August:

1,000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp (again I've read it, but HELLO!)

September:

The Truth About Style by Stacy London (any What Not to Wear fans out there?!)

October:

Simplify by Bill Hybels 

Meal Plan Monday: How I Meal Plan and Grocery Shop

I've just recently discovered the absolute joy of meal planning! I don't love to cook. But I do love to provide for our little family and honor the budget that we've set and that means we can't order pizza for every meal. My husband loves home cooked meals and I fought it for a long time (sorry honey) but once I got the hang of meal planning, my tune was changed. So I'm going to start sharing my meal plans and recipes to keep myself accountable! In this post I'm also going to share how I meal plan and grocery shop. Because I love reading how other people do it! My method is not glamorous or intense, it's just what worked for me. It got me into cooking and now it's something I look forward to every day. And we don't cook gourmet meals and I am huge fan of frozen pizza and salad in a bag so don't look for that here! But we do eat like real people and we have a real budget so here's how I do it! 

I write my meal plans and grocery lists in this notebook. I've had it for like 3 years and it's had various uses over it's life but since we've been married I've used it as a grocery notebook (that shows how much I've grocery shopped in our 3.5 years of marriage. Ooph) But anyways! 

I start out by writing down the days of the week that will happen after I shop and I fill in our date night out or any evening plans we have that would mean one less meal we needed to eat at home. We are both home generally every evening for dinner so I plan for at least 5 meals a week. That allows for a date night and leftovers because I hate throwing out half meal! I also half most of our meals or make half in a container I can freeze! I will include the side we are going to eat next to the meal so that I buy accordingly. I like to have sides with my meals, it makes me feel fancy (insert sassy emoji here)

So as you can see I wrote out all the meals for this week and then below that I write out the recipe. I do this for every recipe even if I think I don't need too. I need too. I have learned that if I don't get all the recipes written out then I don't make an accurate grocery list and I forget to buy things! And that's a bummer when you open the pantry expecting to have something and lo and behold you didn't buy it! So that's my method. I don't like toggling between pinterest recipes and ones I have written on a card so this works great for me! 

Next, I make my list! It always looks like this. I make up my own headings and they are always this and always in this order (it just works for me, ya'll!) I draw a little box next to everything so when I get to the store I can check them off and I know I have it in my cart. I know they make lots of cute grocery lists but I just can't justify buying them write now. This paper is free and I like my little boxes. Meal planning and grocery shopping are so fun for me. It's a way I can honor my husband and provide for us and so I find a lot of joy in making my little lists. And I'm sentimental so I keep the lists and look back on them. I know, I'm weird. 

Anyway! The little numbers next to some of them signify that I need more than one haha it's so simple, ya'll. I don't want to overcomplicate it because then I just feel overwhelmed standing in the aisles surrounded by potato chips and swiss rolls and I just buy those and eat them all on the way home (#truelife)

One last little bit, I grocery shop pretty exclusively at Aldi. I can do a week's worth of groceries for around $60. I also buy things for Adam to have for lunch and cinnamon rolls because we have those every Saturday morning. Aldi has great prices and if you don't need to have the brand name on your packaging, then get your little self to Aldi and stock up! I want to do a little post on my favorite Aldi products so you guys know the gold. I mean, it's all gold, but some a little more than others.

Hope this helps someone! I'll post my meal plan for this week a little later today :) 

Friday Favorites

This week has been lovely. It's been a lot of rest and fun little things like helping my best friend move into her new home! She just moved into this sweet little house in Charlotte that I spent a significant amount of time swooning over. I love charm and old homes and this house was all of those things. I mean just look at that arch and the light and the crown molding and the floors! (OK STOP) But seriously it's a beautiful home and I love it even more knowing she and her sweet fiance will be there together come May! Yay!

Excuse the terrible quality of this photo, but this beauty showed up in my mailbox today!! I've been wanting one for so long now and with a little Christmas money I had, I snagged one from the sale section and I am SO excited for all the mornings I'm going to be spending with this pretty thing. I love Gretchen's heart and the vision she has for women to spend time with Jesus daily! So great. 

Adam and I are doing pretty well so far sticking with our budget for 2016 #8daysstrong. We went on a double date earlier in the week with some sweet friends from our small group and only had $5 left for a date night. I kind of assumed we'd never spend that, but we were out grocery shopping and were planning on stopping by a goodbye dinner for a friend but didn't want to spend money at the restaurant. So Sam's club came to the rescue! Two hot dogs and two big cokes for $3! I'll be sharing more of our budget in a later post.

I'm loving Nicole's beautiful bathroom! Take me to that tub! 

See ya Monday for a meal plan Monday!