A City Life For Me

I have used many different methods of meal/menu planning since I got married.  My “style” changes with what is going on in our lives, the budget, and where we live.  When I was a new wife with no kids I did the menu one week at a time.  It was easy to shop at 4-5 different stores to get the best bargains on whatever we were wanting to eat.  I went through a phase where I didn’t want to be restricted to a menu plan.  So I made a list of meals, had the ingredients on hand, and at supper time we picked what we wanted to eat from the list. Now that I am without a vehicle most of the week, can’t walk very far, and have two toddlers that make dinner prep difficult, I have reverted to planning my meals a month at a time.  It’s one less thing to think about.  I plan a little flex into my schedule…leftovers, easy meals like soup & sandwich, and have a few back-ups just in case I really don’t want what’s on the plan. In February I did a lot of freez...

We’ve made a few changes around the Hamilton household recently.  They really are just little things, but we are enjoying the new and I thought I would share.  They are mostly diet changes.  We didn’t eat bad things before, but things were probably not quite as balanced as they should have been. I suppose my first indicator came when Elaine started asking for cookies all the time.  Or maybe when she walked out of the kitchen with a bag of potato chips before breakfast.  And I confess that my pregnancy cravings were not healthy.  And Elaine got to indulge in everything that I did when I was expecting Nolan.  Most days Ben dashes out the door without breakfast, or with just a piece of toast.  And he frequently reminds me that diabetes runs in his family so we should be careful with the sugar.  I used to make a batch of cookies every week.  I would set some aside for Ben’s lunches and Elaine and I (and sometimes Ben) would help to ea...