Let's Get Organized!

Picture me dancing around to Olivia Newton-John as I type this: "Let's get organized! Organized! Let's get organized! Let's go get organized."  Here's hoping someone else get's that reference!

 

Life with 1-year old twins is chaotic, to say the very least.  Most days, I'm lucky to make it to the office with my shirt on the right way (though not always smushed-banana or peanut butter free).  By the time we make it home after work and picking up the kids from the sitter, it's nearly 6:00pm and I'm frantically scrambling for something to throw together for dinner.  While we're on that topic, by the way, do any other toddler parents suffer from the we-can't-keep-food-in-the-house plague?  Pre-kids I religiously clipped coupons and categorized them, scoped out the best deals, and made some pretty decent dinners.  Grocery shopping these days includes rushing  through Meijer with Brooke (she's the most patient) while Brad keeps tabs on Aiden.  Needless to say, because of this fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants shopping style, most nights include some form of processed chicken, peanut butter and jelly rollups, or *GASP* frozen pizza.  "Mom of the Year" award I will NOT win!

 

In order to bring some BIT of organization to our lives, I am going to attempt meal planning.  Enter Ziplist! I'll admit it, I found this website on Google, but I'm officially obsessed.  Ziplist contains literally THOUSANDS of recipes - seriously - I was even typing in restaurant recipes to see what would pop up (Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken, you get in my belly!).  You can save recipes and create your shopping list based on recipe ingredients.  There's even a feature that allows you to create meal plans for each day of the week.

 

Brad and I have committed to sitting down together every few weeks and planning out our menus for the upcoming 2 weeks.  I think it will be a great tool for controlling the chaos, sticking to a budget, and adding some variety to our meals (seriously, one can eat so many chicken nuggets!).

So here's our "checklist" if you will:

1. Decide what sounds good. Browse recipes
2. Plan meals and snacks for each day at least two weeks in advance
3. Create a shopping list based on recipe ingredients
4. Search stores (also on ZipList) to find best deals

 

Check it out for yourself: http://www.ziplist.com - let me know how it works for you! I'd love to know your tips for organizing your life; feel free to share what works for your family!