Food
Mindful Eating: Creating a Meal Plan
Oh what a loaded topic I have on the blog today! Food, meal plans, healthy lifestyle choices are loaded subjects for me. While I was not a large child, I would have never considered me skinny either – which is strange because looking back, I really was in a healthy weight range throughout high school and college. As an adult, after children, my weight has crept on. Issues like insulin resistance and polycystic ovary syndrome complicate the weight issue even more. My plans for 2024 have been to make healthier eating choices to help with not only my weight but also the hormonal changes that come with middle age. This post will focus on mindful eating: creating a meal plan.
Focus on your main goal when creating a meal plan.
For me, my main focus is reducing the amount of sugar in my diet. When my sugar intake decreases, my overall health increases. I see multiple benefits of limiting sugar in my meal plans.
Focus on what your main goal is and create a meal plan that moves towards that goal. One of the easiest and most consistent changes I have made is switching out how I prepare my morning coffee. Instead of a sweet creamer which I would give a heavy pour into my coffee, I now add a scoop of collagen (protein and joint benefits), a touch of Stevia, and a little half&half.
In my meal planning, I try to do the same thing – look for little changes I can make that will reduce that sugar intake. I have incorporated more sweet potatoes into my diet as they are a healthier veggie than a basic baked potatoe. I’ve really cut back on the amount of bread served with our meals. Little changes can contribute to healthier long term lifestyle choices.
Know the basics when creating a meal plan.
It is helpful to understand the very basic food categories to help you create a nourishing meal plan. Foods have carbohydrates, proteins, and/or fats. Understanding that keeping carbohydrates paired with protiens and fats paired with protiens while keeping carbohydrates and fats separate has been a tremendous help to me. Trim Healthy Mama has been a big resource in guiding my mindful eating habits. With this knowledge, creating a meal plan is easier.
I love finding healthy recipes on Instagram that I can try. The Galvaston Diet book has also been an asset for understanding this new season of life and I am in. It is amazing what power and medicine is in the foods we eat. In this book, I am learning the value of protein and fiber in my diet as well as the benefits of weight lifting for overall body health.
Create One Week at a Time Meal Plans
It is easier to be mindful when there is a determined number of days. Seven days of creating a meal plan is a doable amount for me. As I have shared before here, I function best when I eat every 3 hours; therefore, I have three meals a day and 2-3 snacks a day.
I’ve recently found an account on Instagram where the mom shares meals that she makes for her family. The ingredients are purchased from Aldi’s. Now, next to having a good plan, I love saving some money! Alison Havens is the mom’s name and here is one of her weekly meal posts. For whatever meals I plan, I can always tweak them to a healthier version if need be. Honestly though, my suppers are not my biggest health concern – my mindless snacking is. Another resource I have discovered that does provide healthy snack and meal options is The Peachy Spoon. A friend sent me this recommendation and I am grateful!
Incorporate your favorites into your meal plan.
I’m uncertain why I buy into the lie that I need different healthy foods each and every day. When I eat horribly, I go to the same foods over and over again. Why can’t I apply that to my healthy food choices. Love a great chicken salad? Fix it everyday if need be. Found just the right treat to satisfy your sweet tooth? Keep it on hand.
You can incorporate favorite meals and snacks again and again. Just about any type of roasted vegetables are amazing to me. No matter what the main course is, adding some roasted veggies are always a healthy choice for me.
So go ahead and create a meal plan following these tips: focus on your main goal, know your basics, plan only a week at a time, and incorporate your favorites! Please let me know how your meal planning goes.
Healthy Snack Ideas
When making choices that are healthier for you, I’m surprised at how much (or maybe I should say how often) food you should eat. It is best to keep your body fueled every 3 hours. That could add up to six meals a day: 3 meals and 3 snacks. Read along for ways to add healthy snack ideas to your day.
Quick and Easy Healthy Snack Ideas
I did not think that I would like hummus. In fact, I really only like one flavor thus far – roasted red pepper hummus but the single serve containers of hummus with some sliced or chopped veggies are an ideal snack. Another quick and easy snack is the Lesser Evil popcorn. (As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission on any viable links. This is at no extra cost to you.) This popcorn is AH-mazing! It tastes wonderful and is popped using coconut oil. My kids make fun of me because I am a firm believer that coconut oil can do anything. Another quick and easy snack idea – fruit! Dark berries are really good for you but I think you can’t go wrong with fruit in general.
High in Protien Healthy Snack Ideas
Costco carries a great protien bar put out by Genius Gourmet. Their peanut butter and chocolate bar is my favorite. 000 Greek Yogurt by Oikos is also a great source of protein. Both of these snacks are super quick to grab and go! Including a bit of protein with every meal/snack is important to staying healthy.
Something Sweet
I LOVE sweets and cutting out sugar makes my sweet tooth ache! Lily’s Chocolate Bars are my salvation. (as an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission from any viable links at no extra cost to you) My favorite kind is any that have sea salt in them. Lily’s Chocolate Bars use stevia and erythritol to sweeten its bars. Lily’s Chocolate also produces chocolate chips for baking.
Another great sweets idea is smoothies. I love a good protein smoothie. One of my favorites I call the Big Mama. I got the recipe from the Trim Healthy Mama book and it calls the recipe Big Boy smoothie. For some reason I could only remember Big Mama and it’s stuck! Ha! Place one cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk in a blender. Add in a scoop of whey protein, Stevia to sweeten, a dash of vanilla, a cup of ice, a dash of salt, and a few frozen strawberries. Blend to the consistency you like. This hits the sweet spot for me! You can find the exact recipe here.
If you are trying to make healthier choices in your food selections, I hope these healthy snack ideas have been beneficial. This year I am focusing on making healthier choices myself and have shared some healthy habits I am working to implement in a blog post, here. Check it out and as always, please let me know what you think! Here’s to healthy eating!
3 Easy and Nutritous Breakfast Ideas
We all know breakfast is an important start to your day but sometimes knowing what to make leaves one stumped. Here are three easy and nutritous breakfast ideas to get your day going!
Eggs and bacon
Eggs and bacon are about as easy as it gets. Why is this considered a nutritious breakfast? It includes fats and protein. Our bodies need fats, protiens, and carbohydrates in a healthy balance. Consuming fats and protiens together in a balanced amount allows your body to take in nutrients and maintain a safe blood glucose level while keeping your body satisfied for the three hour time block between meals. I like my eggs fried and for convenience, I cook my bacon in the oven.
I learned from Martha Stewart a few years ago how to cook bacon in the oven. Lining a baking sheet with aluminum foil, place your bacon on the baking sheet in a cold oven and set the oven to 425 degrees. After 25 minutes, your bacon is ready!
THM Pancakes
Trim Healthy Mama pancakes are an amazingly wonderful, nutritous meal. As I have shared in a previous post, Trim Healthy Mama is a program that works to balance your blood glucose level in order to help with weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight.
Trim Healthy Mama has multiple offerings in print including an introductory book to their program as well as cookbooks with great recipes to incorporate into your meal plans. Here is the recipe for these energizing pancakes that are made with protein and carbohydrates as the main macronutrients. Combining these macronutrients creates a meal that provides energy for your day. For a sweetner, I use Stevia in my meals that call for a sugar substitute. Here is one type of stevia that can be ordered from Amazon. (As an Amazon Associate, I am eligible to earn commission on any viable link. This is at no cost to you.) Trim Healthy Mama also sells its own type of sweetner.
Sweet Potatoes with Avocado, Egg, and Cottage Cheese
Oh my goodness, I discovered this magnificent breakfast recipe by following Trim Healthy Mama on Instagram. This meal is considered a “crossover” meaning it has all three macronutrients involved. While a crossover meal will not help you lose weight, it can be a great idea for maintaining a healthy weight balance. For me, this meal is a choice that keeps me interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It is delicous! You can see how easy it is to make in the video below.
Well there you have it! Three easy and nutritous breakfast ideas to get your day going in a healthy way. What are your go-to nutritous breakfast recipes? I would love to hear from you!
5 Daily Habits for Healthy Eating
Eating healthy may seem overwhelming or like an insurmountable tasks; however, establishing healthy eating habits creates positive outcomes in your life. With the implementation of 5 daily habits for healthy eating, you will see an improvement in your overall health.
1. Take a multivitamin.
Multivitamins provide nutrients that your body might be lacking. For me, Vitamin D and C are two vitamins that I need more of in my body. When I take a daily multivitamin, my energy levels noticably improve. Of course, the addition of raw fruits and vegetables will also increase the nutrients available to your body. While the increase in energy levels is wonderful, I will caution against taking any vitamins on an empty stomach. Please eat a full meal before taking vitamins in order to reduce the possibility of nausea and always consult your doctor before taking any new vitamin or supplement.
2. Drink water.
Sure this habit is a no brainer but if you are like me and not a huge fan of water, you might want to get creative in how to get your water intake higher. Setting a goal for how many ounces you will drink per day, using a pretty water bottle, or adding a no sugar sweetener to your water might be ways to make drinking water daily an easy habit. Since reducing sugar in my diet, I find that I am reaching more for water and allowing myself one Coke Zero per day.
There is a drink that Trim Healthy Mama created called “Good Girl Moonshine” and it has water, apple cider vinegar, ground ginger, and stevia in it. I’ve made it with a flavored tea to give it extra punch. This drink is a healthy sipper and also helps with weight loss – the apple cider vinegar can help to invigorate your metabolism.
3. Plan ahead.
This habit is CRUCIAL to my success. Creating a meal plan the weekend before the next week helps me keep on track for healthy eating. Designating specific times to create meals and snacks saves me from becoming too hungry and eating anything in sight. With the proper preparation, I already know what my next meal or snack will be. I have sat down with my own schedule and written in meals and snacks; however, I believe you could use a calendar as well.
Part of my planning includes researching various healthy eating sites via Pinterest and Instagram for meal and snack inspiration. My favorite is when I can find a Trim Healthy Mama weekly meal plan and pull meal ideas from it. In 2022, I set a goal of providing 365 different meals for my family. This task definitely required planning ahead! You can read all about it here.
I recently discovered The Peachie Spoon on Instagram and love the variety of recipes she has that help stabilize blood sugar levels. 4. Eat every 3 hours.
Trim Healthy Mama is the eating plan that I am most closely adhering to and one of its pillars of success is the habit of eating every 3 hours. This time frame allows your body to process the food from the previous meal without overloading its systems.
When I create my meal plan, I write out the times I will be having my meals and snacks. Typically I have a meal at: 6:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m. My 6:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and my 6:00 p.m. times are for meals and the other times are for snacks. The key to success is pairing either fats with protein or carbohydrates with protein but NO MIXING fats, carbs, and protein. I highly recommend the Trim Healthy Mama book. The sisters that wrote the book spent years in research on ways to provide the best nutrition to your body.
As an Amazon Associate, I may be eligible to earn commission on viable links. 5. Celebrate the wins.
Making healthier choices is hard. Celebrating each little win is a great habit to establish daily. Do you feel more energized? That’s a win. Did you lose half a pound? Consider that a win. Are you able to think more clearly? Another win. Celebrate your ability to grow and change for the better. This is a habit to incorporate in every aspect of life!
By implementing these 5 daily habits for healthy eating: take a multivitamin, drink water, plan ahead, eat every 3 hours, and celebrate the wins, you are sure to feel the positive results in your body!
Tips for developing your landscape and garden
There are a variety of tips for developing your landscape and garden. Allow me to share a few tips that I incorporate in my landscape and garden.
1. Create a list of what you enjoy.
Taking your environment into consideration, create a list of plants, flowers, trees, and shrubs you enjoy. If planting your garden, what vegetables do you and your family like to eat? When thinking of landscaping, what flowers and shrubs make you smile time and time again? What plants and shrubs match the look of your home?
2. Design a map of your yard.
Designing a map of your yard allows you to craft a layout for where you want your landscape design and garden to reside. Making a map gives you a visual for what space you have available to utilize. For example, drawing out my front yard and backyard gave me a view of what actual areas were available for landscape and/or garden organisms.
We purchased our current home in December of 2021 and it is a total remodel. You can catch up on some of our progress by reading an older post here. In relationship to landscape and gardening, I have determined where I want flower beds and where I want my raised garden beds. Once you have a map design, get to work!
3. Use hardscapes in your landscape.
Hardscapes are a new concept for me. Hardscapes are hard landscape materials that are in the environment structures of the landscape and/or garden. For example, a wooden trellis to hold cucumber vines. I had my husband construct a wooden A-frame structure and will use it in allowing my climbing vegetables a space to move up and down the wooden frame.
Wooden raised bed can be a hardscape. Choosing to connect beds with chicken wire, pvc pipe, metal caging all are examples of hardscaping. Garden decor such as metal design incorporated throughout a garden is hardscaping I believe.
Love the hardscape features that have been designed in this space. 4. Use what you have on hand.
Our current home is old. Our house was built in 1939. I share this because canvasing our small property has produced a wealth of landscaping materials. When we purchased our home, the previous owner left behind a variety of planters and garden decorations. Some items I have culled due to differing taste while others I have kept because I can use them in our flower beds and garden.
Behind our garage, we have found OLD brick which I feel makes the perfect flower bed border. Our backyard contains two gigantic pine trees which produce a large amount of pine straw. I love using pine straw as mulch in flowerbeds.
The previous home owner placed pea gravel throughout the entire backyard. While moving this gravel out of the yard has been a headache, I am making lemons out of lemonade and redistributing this gravel as border to my raised garden beds.
For my garden, I keep whatever seeds I do not use each year in my freezer. Some people say this will not work; however, the only seeds I have had issue with so far are bell pepper seeds. I feel like keeping my bell pepper seeds in the freezer is not the issue. I think I need to prep my bell pepper seeds using a different method. Living in the city provides the perfect opportunity to container garden. Have a planter or container? Plop a squash or zucchinni plant in it. Have just a small raised bed? Google square foot gardening and see how many vegetables you can grow in a small space. Companion planting is a wonderful subject to research. This subject allows you to see what plants grow best near each other.
5. Determine what materials you need to purchase.
Once you have taken inventory of what materials you have on hand, create a list of what you need to purchase. Don’t have any vegetable seeds? Start listing the vegetables you enjoy eating. While I love the idea of a big massive garden, I have to be honest with myself – what am I going to actually eat? What meals do I like to cook using these specific herbs and vegetables. I love seeing herb gardens but if I am honest, I’m not a big fan of mint or dill. Why place items in my garden that I am not going to use? I purchase my seeds either at a local grocery store (herbs) and a local Feed & Seed store (vegetables).
Do you need border material or mulch? Do you need containers? How many plants or shrubs do you need in your space? Make certain that you have a firm understanding of how wide and tall your plants will grow and allow for adequate spacing before you plant. In our flowerbeds we used: Dwarf Holly bushes, Peonies, Gardenias, Rose bushes, and Tea Olive trees. List your big ticket items first and go from there. It is okay to build your garden over time. Creating a successful garden is something that I have been working on for years and I am still learning! This home is the first one in several years that I am taking the time to create a landscape design and garden space I can use and enjoy.
6. Enjoy the journey.
Enjoy the process of creating a lovely landscape design and garden. Life is a progression. You do not have to achieve perfection this side of Heaven. Practice makes skills. Every time I am out in my flowerbeds or garden, I am learning a little more about my home.
Technology is amazing. Researching information via Google or Pinterest or Instagram or YouTube provides a wealth of information that you may use in your outdoor spaces.
I would love to hear from you. I am hopeful that these were helpful tips for your landscape and garden. What tips did you find helpful? Do you have tips that I left out but you feel are important to share? Let me know in the comments and happy gardening!
While I am not at Toni’s level, I absolutely love following along on her garden journey and learning from her. What I Learned from 365 Meals
Have you ever felt like you were stuck in the same cooked meals rut? I did. Last year I challenged myself to have (notice I didn’t say cook) a year of different meals and here is what I learned from 365 meals.
1. It’s okay to ask for help.
At the beginning of last year, I started posting questions to my Instagram followers asking what their favorite meals are. I also asked my family what meals they love. After I received some responses, I made a running list. I even included restaurants that I loved. My overall goal was to get out of the rut of making the same meals over and over. Whether we ate out or cooked at home did not matter as long as I was experiencing a different meal.
Asking for help or input regarding meal plans opened up my knowledge to different family traditions and different cultural foods. It was enjoyable trying new recipes.
2. Use a meal service.
After asking friends and family for meal ideas, a friend recommended the meal service company Hello Fresh. At first, I thought a meal service would be too expensive; however, with the increase of food cost, I cannot even take my family of five to McDonald’s for under $40. I would much rather have a home cooked meal than fast food. There are a variety of meal service companies (Blue Apron, HomeChef, EveryPlate, etc.) My friend gave me a coupon code for Hello Fresh and I went with this meal service company. My experience with them has been a mostly positive one. The biggest positive from using a meal service is it hits my goals of providing different meals. Hello Fresh gives you a variety of meal options to choose from then sends three meals per box your way. I selected the meals for a family of 4. While we are a family of five, I selected meals that would go farther (rice or pasta based meals). Through this meal service, I discovered I love roasted vegetables.
3. Save recipes and ideas.
We live in an amazing time of technology. I used my access to social media to help meet my meal goal. Instagram reels, Pinterest pins , and YouTube videos all provide a wealth of opportunities to find new recipes to try. Instagram reels were remarkably easy to save then reference at a later time when I wanted to recreate the meal I saw. I also shared in a post from 2021 some tips in helping to plan your dinner menu. You can check it out here.
Grateful is what I feel for my year of trying to have 365 different meals. This experience allowed me to push myself to try new recipes and meals. Let me know in the comments if you would like me to share the list of meals we had in 2022.
Five Day Trips in Alabama for Labor Day
Labor Day is quickly approaching and I have crafted five day trips in Alabama for Labor Day! As a child, I heard a speaker once share that she was clueless to the notion of Labor Day being a holiday because her father had convinced her family it was a day to labor on cleaning their property. Ha! That was a pretty smart father until his children became teenagers and aware that others were not cleaning their properties on Labor Day.
In preparation for the upcoming HOLIDAY, I have put together five day trips in Alabama that would make for quite a fun Labor Day.
1. Visit WildWater Cullman.
Here in Alabama, there is a new water park located in central Alabama, Wildwater Cullman. About an hour north of Birmingham, this water park would provide a wonderful day of water fun for the holiday. If you live outside of Alabama, do a quick Google search and see what water parks are near you. For most water activities, Labor Day marks the end of the season and a perfect way to celebrate the summer’s end.
2. Plan a hike.
Spend the day outdoors on a beautiful nature trail. Red Mountain Park is a nearby locale that provides miles of trails to hike and explore. Hiking is not the only activity available here. This is a place you can walk, hike, and mountain bike. There is also a dog park on the property.
Red Mountain Park provides ample trails similar to this one to hike and explore. 3. Host a cookout.
Don’t want to go far? Have no desire to get in your car and go for Labor Day? Don’t! Host a cookout in your backyard or in my case, an alleyway. Invite friends, neighbors, or family over to eat and fellowship together. A cookout is another great way to celebrate the summer’s end. Pinterest lends a hand when finding guides like this one for how to host a cookout.
4. Visit a waterfall.
What is it about a waterfall that makes life seem peaceful? Located north of my home is Bankhead National Forest. It has been nicknamed “Land of a 1,000 Waterfalls”. What an apt name for a locale that hosts such amazing beauty. Labor Day provides a wonderful pause in life to go exploring a waterfall.
Sougahoagdee Falls in Bankhead National Forest 5. Visit a Labor Day Celebration
Tannehill State Park will host a Tannehill Labor Day Celebration on Labor Day. This includes Alabama’s largest Moon Pie eating contest. In addition to this celebration, Bham Now includes other Labor Day Weekend activities to explore. Tannehill State Park is a wonderful campground that we have visited in the past. We love to go camping and we recently purchased a popup camper and put our own decor touch on it. You can read all about our camper and what to do when camping, here.
Bonus activities.
Choose Labor Day to get out and go biking. Another bonus idea is to check out a new spot you have not visited. With the hosting of the World Games, Birmingham did a wonderful job of creating a City Walk. My family and I have yet to visit it. Labor Day would be a good time to check it out! Leave a comment below and let me know what you are doing this Labor Day.
What to do at Seagrove Beach
A vacation to Seagrove Beach is a trip packed with fun! My family recently stayed at this beautiful 30A community and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. With lots of free activities, plenty of eating options, and gorgeous water, Seagrove Beach is a fantastic vacation destination.
The waters off of 30A are beautiful! Where to Stay
AirBnB and VRBO are my two go-to sites for vacation rentals. I am uncertain if AirBnB still does this trick but in the past if you “favorite” a location then come back to it later, the site will increase the price. I have learned to keep a running, written list of houses I like then go back and type in their description in order to avoid the price increase. On one hand, the fees are ridiculous but on the other hand, there are several whole house rental options that are a good fit for my family’s needs.
I do strongly encourage you to read the reviews left by previous guests. Do not only read one or two reviews – do a deep dive to see what a place is truly like. This advice was given to me years ago in an attempt to reduce being scammed or tricked by a fake rental host. Thus far, we have had great experiences with both our AirBnB and VRBO sites.
What to Do
There is an app called 30A and it provides a wealth of information about the stretch of highway 30A that includes several coastal communities in Florida. This app provides a running list of ongoing events in the local 30A communities. During the summer time, there is no shortage of free concerts, plays, and family movie nights.
We had the privilege this year of vacationing during the week of July 4th. The night of July 4th was nothing short of magical. From our beach chairs, we were able to view the fireworks shows from Destin, Seaside, Alys Beach, Panama City, as well as the fireworks shot off at our very own Seagrove Beach. The comradery of other beach goers along with the cool ocean air and music playing freely provided such a neat holiday experience.
This year, we were able to vacation with extended family.
Cousins are friends for life!As I have shared in other vacation posts, here and here, bike riding is a biggie for me on 30A. Another reason I like bike riding at the beach…it’s free! Seagrove Beach has several bike paths and gravel roads that will give you an abundance of adventure options. We would even ride our bikes to the Publix in Watercolor to pick up sundries.
Biking in Seagrove Beach Another free activity is games. Many vacation rental homes will have card or board games available to play. Don’t have a lot of money to go out and spend while on vacation? Stay in and play a board game as a family. We brought the game Taboo with us this year and played with my extended family. We laughed until we cried. This was a cheap way to make good memories!
Where to Eat
While on vacation at Seagrove Beach, we did not eat out every night. The 30a Farmer’s Market provides several meal options to make at your vacation rental. My family loves the tamales from It’s Tamale Time! We also picked up chips and guacamole from Alligator Pear Foods.
Local seafood markets such as Buddy’s Seafood and Goatfeathers Seafood allowed us to have a low country boil one night. We ordered our shrimp from Goatfeathers – it was delicious!
Low Country Boil for the win! Two restaurants we did visit this summer are Le Crema in Rosemary Beach and Bayou Bill’s Crab Shack in Panama City Beach.
Le Crema is located in Rosemary Beach –
a beautifully designed seaside community.No matter your tastes and likings, Seagrove Beach provides a wealth of options to enjoy your beach vacation!
Getting Ready for Vacation!
Lots of preparation goes into being ready for vacation. This summer my family will visit Rosemary Beach, a beach community located on the beautiful 30a highway of Florida. Read along to pick up ideas that may assist you in getting ready for vacation.
Make a Packing List
A packing list is a guide for me to ensure I do not leave anything important behind when heading out on vacation. Items included vary from clothing to toiletries to beach supplies to kitchen aids. When a family is gone for a week or longer, there is a lot to pack for said trip!
Not only do I keep a running list nearby in order for me to jot down items when I think about them, I like to also draw on the experience and expertise of other mamas who have been there, done that. Here is a blog post of a packing list I pinned from Pinterest.
The Folding Lady is also one of my favorite influencers to follow and check in with regarding how to get all my family’s items neatly and efficiently into our suitcases.
Bring Products that will Help You
Any mama or person in charge of packing for an entire family will have an idea of what products make your trip easier. For me, individual laundry bags like these help my kids keep up with their dirty laundry. When it is time to wash clothes, I simply consolidate the laundry bags and wash as needed. The bags can also be used to hold clean and folded laundry for me to return to each kids’ room.
Vacation is always a fun time to buy a few new things for the beach! We found a cute patriotic swimsuit from Target for my daughter.
You can check it out here!While I have yet to try them, I have heard a lot of people rave about packing cubes to use for organizing clothing and toiletries for trips. Here is a best seller on Amazon.
Travel size toiletry bottles are helpful as well as a variety of product bags. Rolling luggage is a plus on vacation. The ease of rolling your case along side of you allows you the space to carry other items in your arms or stack on top of your luggage. Our daughter got this set a couple of years ago. She gets a lot of use out of them. Truth be told Jeff and I need a new set for ourselves.
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Create a Meal Plan
While I would love to share with you all the fun activities to do and places to eat while on 30a, I am going to save that post for the future. You can read up on our last year’s trip here. For this post, I simply want to focus on the preparation of vacay readiness.
Taking the time to think, dream, and discuss what food you want on your trip will help you save time and money while you are away. We have stayed at many beach houses over the years and when all the family is together, there is never a shortage of starving kiddos (at least they all think they are starving). Having a rough idea of what foods to bring, what foods to buy, and what nights you are eating out, makes for a smoother vacation experience.
While we have some favorite places to eat (The Donut Hole), we have some new places we are going to try out as well this year. My goal is to blog about everything we will do in an upcoming post.
For this preparation, you will need to make another list as well ( I love lists!). How many nights do you want to eat out? What special occasions are taking place while you are away?(birthdays, holidays, anniversaries?) Take this time to determine if any of your party has food allergies. Also, what are some favorite meals? For me, when I head to the beach, I want fresh, local shrimp. We have a funny but not-so-funny-at-the-moment story of the time my husband went to Publix and bought shrimp instead of going to the fresh seafood market while we were at the beach. Who knew Publix shrimp could cause such an uproar? 😉
Being ready for vacation will actually assist you in enjoying your vacation once you arrive at your destination. Hopefully, this post has given you ideas to implement as you prepare for any upcoming trips. Enjoy!
3 Steps to Gobble til You Wobble
Thanksgiving is next week! Let’s look at three steps to gobble til you wobble. I love a good numbered list. It keeps me on track. Here’s another numbered list for how to decorate for fall.
1. Consider your audience.
As you begin to prepare for Thanksgiving, think of who you will be entertaining or who’s house you will be attending for the holiday. What are their likes/dislikes? Are there any food allergies? What are the ages of your audience? Toddlers and littles may make it worth considering to serve finger foods. Do you know your uncle’s favorite dish? Is there a certain recipe that seems to be a family tradition? For example, I typically bring a pecan pie. I can still remember one of my first Thanksgivings at my in-law’s, I made a homemade Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Pie with a made-from-scratch crust. During baking, the crust bubbled up into the top of the pie! It looked more like some type of cobbler and was very doughy. Since then I have nixed the bourbon and the made-from-scratch crust – ha! Pillsbury does a fabulous job with their ready-made crusts.
A nice table setting sets the mood for Thanksgiving. 2. Divide and conquer.
Once you’ve determined how many Thanksgiving meals you will be attending (we will be attending my husband’s family dinner one day and my family’s dinner the next) and who your audience will be, hatch a plan on who’s bringing what. If “what can I bring?” gets you nowhere try, “what are you making?” When your family members respond, then add in dishes that you know will compliment what is being brought.
For my in-law’s side, this will be a new experience. My mother-in-law, who always put on a big spread, passed away in December 2020. This will be our first Thanksgiving without her. I am feeling that void in more ways than one. For my husband’s side, I needed to talk to the other family members to decide what will be the main course, what the other family members are bringing then adding in what food I will bring. Having one member bring the appetizers and drinks while another brings dessert and side dishes helps to evenly distribute the work load on cooking.
Give thanks. 3. Plan a cooking schedule.
After your menu is set, plan a cooking schedule in order to know how many days out from Thanksgiving you need to start. For example, my father-in-law is providing the ham and turkey for the meal; however, I am going to pick them up this week in order to prep and have them ready for next Thursday.
For my side of the family, I am working with my mom and sister to see what is on the menu and deciding when I need to start my prep work. I can make my pies at the beginning of next week and let them sit for a day or two. Personally, I believe pecan pie tastes better the longer it sits. Other parts of my cooking schedule will include: purchasing my supplies a week before, making a cheese ball over the weekend and storing it until Thanksgiving, and prepping any side dishes a day or two ahead of the big day.
In planning your cooking schedule, are there any decorations you need to prepare ahead of time? Will you be in charge of setting the table or can you bring a floral arrangement for the host?
This pin from Pinterest shares a pretty good prep schedule for having your dinner ready or at least prepped for the weekend before Thanksgiving. Like any other event in life, taking a few moments to map out a plan of action will help the event run more smoothly. What dish are you bringing to your Thanksgiving meal? Whatever it may be may you gobble til you wobble!
(One year my sister-in-law gave me a Mud Pie dish towel. It was the cutest accessory to my kitchen. This towel I included above would make a cute hostess gift. *As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a commission off any viable links.*)
