{Taking Care}

Ever wondering "how can I treat my jewelry right"? Listen up!

1. First things first: Last on, first off. Your jewelry should be the last thing you put on when you get ready in the morning, even after your perfume, and the first thing you take off when you get ready for bed at night.
2. Give it a little polish after each wear with your Stella & Dot polishing cloth, which has special micro-abrasives that will clean but not scratch your jewelry.
3. Keep your jewelry out of the shower and pool. That's just asking for trouble!
4. Don’t store your jewelry in the bathroom- it’s humid in there! Try to store in air tight containers, especially while traveling. Our Jewelry Traveling Cases also provide suede lining to prevent scratching and several pockets to keep chains from tangling. 

What Causes Silver to Tarnish? The presence of Hydrogen Sulfide in any material that silver comes into contact with is one of the prime culprits. Touching jewelry after a meal causes tarnish. Wool, perfumes, lotions, hair spray and other cosmetics also cause tarnish. Humidity speeds tarnishing as well.

How Can I Clean Tarnish? Ok- so you’re the girl who forgets to take off her makeup before bedtime, not to mention your necklace and despite your love of your favorite earrings, you still swims in your jewels. Read jewelry polishing instructions carefully and use ones made for jewelry. No toothpaste or baking soda - too abrasive!

Keep those jewels sparkling!

{Simple, Easy, Affordable Jewelry Organization}

Check out the pieces seen in this video here!

Also see these fun ideas that I posted to Pinterest

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Have you purchased your Mother's Day presents yet?

{Magnetic Meal Planning}

I used to post my meal plans for the week on Mondays. Not so much lately... So, in the spirit of being a better meal planner, I found this great reader post at IHeart Organizing. This mom has made magnetic tabs to place on her magnetic dry erase calendar to help her meal plan for a month at a time.

And all her recipes are kept in binders.

You could essentially create the same thing by just writing on the dry erase board, but the magnets do make it look neat and clean.

A couple other good resources I found are Clean Mama, she did a whole meal planning series and IHeart Organizing's post about her own family.

Monday Menu Planning & some helpful hints

Week of May 30th

Sunday: FEND (Aaron grabbed Torchy's Tacos and I had a bowl of cereal)

Monday: Aaron Grilling: BBQ Chicken with foil potatoes
Tuesday: Fettucini with Cilantro Jalapeno Pesto
Wednesday: Crock pot Pork Tenderloin
Thursday: Aaron Grilling: Hamburgers
Friday: Spanish Paella adapting from here
Saturday: Taco Night

Helpful hints: Themes help. 
I noticed that I usually make one pasta a week, Aaron grills once a week, use my crock pot once a week etc. If I start with these "themes", i.e. "pasta", it's easier to fill in the blanks next to that "theme", i.e. Fettucini Alfredo.

But remember: 
Things come up, people get sick/tired, plans change and you can always choose to switch things up, make something the next week or not at all and order a pizza. Menu planning isn't a strict set of rules for me causing extra stress because I forgot to defrost the chicken or don't have a can of tomato paste. Instead, it's a game plan or rough outline that makes the day move more smoothly so I don't have to worry about what we are eating for dinner!

I also found great Menu Planning Boards on Pinterest and had to share!

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Monday Menu Planning

One of the things I love about blogging is the sense of accountability it brings. Since posting about my daily routine I've never let myself miss a day and the same goes for menu planning. I posted my menu plan last week, I thought I would make it a regular feature (read: until baby arrives and it all goes to h*ll.)
So without further ado, here is this weeks dinner menu, with a couple of easy recipes included:



Sunday: Indian Take-Out (from our favorite new place)
Monday: Beef Broccoli (adapted from Pioneer Woman's Beef & Snow Peas-- just love her!)
Tuesday: Crock Pot Chicken Tacos (recipe below)
Wednesday: Aaron's night to grill (probably pork loin, potatoes, and broccoli)
Thursday: Tomato & Spinach Pasta
Friday: Pad Thai
Saturday: Chicken with Farfalle Pasta

Beef Broccoli
adapted from the one and only PDub
Ingredients
1-½ pound Steak, Sliced Very Thin Against The Grain
½ cups Low Sodium Soy Sauce
3 Tablespoons Dry White Wine
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Ginger
12oz Frozen Broccoli
1/4 small onion chopped finely
3 Tablespoons Peanut Or Olive Oil
Crushed Red Pepper, For Sprinkling
White Rice, Cooked According To Package

Preparation Instructions
In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, wine, brown sugar, cornstarch, and ginger. Add sliced meat to bowl and toss with hands. Set aside.
Heat oil in wok or heavy skillet over high heat. Add broccoli and stir for 45 seconds, or a 1 minute and a half if fully frozen. Remove to a separate plate. Set aside.
With tongs, add half the meat mixture, leaving the marinade in the bowl. Spread out meat as you add it to pan, but do not stir for about a minute. Add half the onions. Turn meat to the other side and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove to the plate with the broccoli.
Repeat with other half of meat. After turning it, add the first plateful of meat, broccoli, and the remaining marinade. Stir over high heat for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Mixture will thicken as it sits.
Serve immediately over rice. Sprinkle crushed red pepper over the top to give it some spice.

Crock Pot Chicken Tacos:
I will cook this meat for tacos and enchiladas, or add beans and veggies for a chicken chili. Options are endless!
Ingredients
2 to 3 chicken breasts (or whatever chicken meat that you have on hand)
1 can of diced tomatoes (rotel works well for this)
1/2 to 1 cup of water (just enough to cover the chicken)
1/2 packet of taco seasoning
1/2 cup of corn optional (canned or frozen, but make sure it's drained)
1/2 cup of bean optional (black or kidney beans will do, just be sure to drain)

Preparation Instructions
Place chicken in crock-pot.
Sprinkle taco seasoning over the chicken
Add tomatoes, corn and beans, then add water.
Cover and cook until the chicken shreds easily with a fork, about 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 on high.
When the chicken is cooked, remove from slow cooker, shred with two forks and return to mixture.
Serve with flour tortillas or taco shells and all the fixings.

Do You Menu Plan?

We menu plan... kinda.

I've tried different ways of going about it, like menu planning every meal for a week, for two weeks, or specifying certain days of the week to cook different things (i.e. Taco Tuesdays). But now in order for me not to pull my hair out meeting the insane criteria I've set myself, I just do this:

Breakfast:
On Sundays, I check the pantry and frig to make sure we have cereal, bread, pancake mix, milk, eggs, creamer, fruit, yogurt, and refrigerated cinnamon rolls. These are the family breakfast staples. If we have these items, breakfast will take care of itself in the morning. Even if we only have half of these items, I don't worry too much.
I do lunch last....

Dinner:
Here is where I really menu plan. I try to plan about 5-7 days worth of meals.

1. I look at our calendar, and take into consideration any outings with friends or family we have planned in the evenings (excuses for me not to cook). That will knock out at least a day or two.
2. A is a great cook, and he will usually cook dinner grill dinner about once a week. One less day for me!
3. I schedule one crock pot day. It's usually the day that I am the most busy and would rather have dinner taken care of in the morning and not have to think about it the rest of the day.
4. If the week isn't too hectic I plug in one new recipe for the week. I really enjoy cooking and trying new things, but if we have a lot going on it's best just to stick to the basics. 
5. Then, I just plug in our basics-- pasta recipes, taco night, or an easy skillet meal and leftovers

Here's what our dinner menu looks this week (I started it on last Friday):

Saturday: fajitas in margarita marinade & Mexican rice

Sunday: steak, corn on the cob, pasta side, salad (Aaron grilling for Mother's Day) 

Monday: Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce (new recipe for the week)

Tuesday: FEND (dinner plans with my girlfriends and A has to  "fend for himself"=leftovers or pizza)

Wednesday: crock pot chicken (this could be anything, but probably will include some veggies that we need to eat before they go bad)
Thursday: leftovers or FEND 

Friday: taco night

See, easy peasy!

Lunches:
I plan lunches last and determine if we might have leftovers that we (Lily included) can eat. Then, I might decide to cook "extras" for Lily. For example, if we are having a pasta night, I might cook a little extra pasta for Lily to eat for lunch without the sauce or with the sauce on the side. we call this "dip dip" This will work for her dinners as well since she usually eats before we do, so not necessarily the same thing we are having that night.

Then make sure we have our lunch staples: bread, lunch meat, sliced cheese, peanut butter, fruit, frozen veggies, salad ingredients, snack cracker/chips and frozen pizzas. 

Taking a little time out to do this once a week keeps our groceries and eating out budgets low, and there's less stress in the house trying to figure out what in the world we are going to do for dinner.

So, do you do this? How? Any fun recipes to share?

Linking up to: 

Show Us Your Life: Organization

Last week at Kelly's Korner, "SUYL" was all about organization. I'd like to think that I've always done a pretty good job at staying organized, but I found out when you throw a baby in the mix, it's time to refresh the routine. I have two rules that I live by daily, the "Rule of Three" and "15 Minutes At A Time"

Rule of 3: I get the same three things done every morning:

1. Make the Bed. I read on another blog, that if you can't keep your own bed made than you might as well give up on being a tidy person. I wouldn't go that far, but it does feel nice to have a made bed every morning. 
2. Do a Load of Laundry. I do a load everyday, about 5 days out of the week. It is so nice to never live out of a laundry basket or have the clothes avalanche waiting for me in my hamper. Folding laundry everyday might sound like a pain, but when it's just one basket, it goes by fast and Lily loves to help as well. 
3. Load/Unload the Dishwasher. We aren't the best about loading the dishwasher after dinner. A lot of times I rinse dishes and pans while I'm cooking and set them in the sink to wait for the next day. I'm okay with that. I'll usually load the dishwasher while I'm feeding Lily breakfast the next morning. Or if I was diligent about cleaning out the sink and running the dishwasher the night before than I'll unload. Either way dishes are getting done in the morning.

Having clean dishes and clothes and a made bed make me feel like I got something accomplished everyday. Even if only that. 

15 Minutes At A Time
When I started my get re-organized campaign back in January, I was all about gutting every closet, drawer, and shelf in our house. But, I learned if I started in one room at a time, for 15 minutes at a time, I would get the job done more effectively. 15 minutes is the perfect amount of time to see a little bit of change, whether it's cleaning out the bathroom drawers, or shredding 5 year old cable bills (yes, I found these in our files), you would be surprised what you can get done. I set the timer on my phone, allow myself to concentrate on that one thing for 15 minutes and done. I commit to using the first 15 minutes of Lily's naps to do these things or other tasks that seen overwhelming and it's really made a difference! My files are updated, the flower beds get weeded, and every drawer in our house is organized, etc, etc.

Lastly, a great book on the subject is Unstuff Your Life. My neighbor recommended it and the author's mail routine alone is worth the read! I'll admit that I didn't follow ALL of his advice specifically, but rather customized it to fit our lifestyle. Like I said the mail routine alone has changed our lives! Oh, and always putting your keys in the same place. Seriously the best and simplest piece of advice that has made life easier at our house. We now have a specified area for mail, keys, sunglasses, purse, wallet and diaper bag. Genius!

Any tips you guys can throw my way??

Interested in menu planning, check out this post.