Mom, the Lunch Lady

Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money every week!   Merry Christmas!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Though it was very different this year we had a lovely time. We had my SO's mom and nana over for dinner on Christmas Eve and stuffed ourselves silly with a seafood and pasta feast. The evening was spent talking, laughing and watching It's a Wonderful Life. Then Christmas day, we went to my SO's mom's house to celebrate with his sister, her partner and nana. We ate way too much with a delicious brunch consisting of lemon cranberry scones (made by me), a charcuterie board (made by me), waffles, hash-browns, and Christmas pancakes. Oh and you can't forget the mimosas!! Dinner was a team effort and I brought homemade rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, pie (cherry and pecan) and an assortment of Christmas cookies I had been making all month. We also had turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, rutabaga and corn. Again we stuffed ourselves silly and h...

 Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money every week!  I have officially finished Christmas shopping! OK that's not quite the truth, I need to find a few more things for my SO, but other than that I am done. Now I just need to wrap what I got. It was a quiet week last week, with a pretty good storm Monday through to Wednesday. Every year I dislike snow more and more. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't constantly accompanied by ice.  All this snow makes me want to hibernate, but I've been pushing myself to work out every day. I never thought I'd enjoy working out, but that rush you feel after a good sweaty 30 minute workout, is indescribable. It was a bit of a struggle fitting it in near the middle of the week, since I had several baking orders to work on, but I took the time to care for myself. SO important! I will be completely honest and say that I only made 2 of the dinners I had planned last week. Wednesday to Friday were exhausting, so there ...

 Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money every week!  Wow, we are already at the end of November, which means the holidays and Christmas will soon be upon us. Not having worked in 6 months has been stressing me out about the holidays. Not that I usually go crazy buying presents (although my SO says I do), I've had to set a strict budget for gifts this year. I lucked out and have been saving points on a few loyalty cards, of stores I frequent often and was able to get 90% of my stocking stuffers purchased for only $19. It's a trick I use every year to cut costs.  Since I've been stressed and worried, I took the time this past week to think about what Christmas means to me. It helped me come to terms, and make a plan, so we could have the best Christmas possible. For me it's not about gifts under the tree. It's about family. I am so blessed that we are all healthy and thriving during this pandemic. Who cares if there isn't a ton of gifts under the tree...

 Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money every week!  Happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a great week! Ours was fairly quiet but we did finally get our new stove! My oven had been acting up and the element had started sparking, so we told our Landlord almost a month ago that we needed something new. He finally brought us a new on yesterday. So now I'll be able to start my Christmas baking!!! I have so many things I want to make, but we are staying home this year, so I can't go over board. Both me and my MIL are trying to eat healthier! This weekend we are trying to get some Christmas shopping done, before we possibly go into lock down once again. Cases here are rising unfortunately :( We aren't going crazy this year, gift wise, but many of the gifts we had planned to purchase the kids are at non essential stores. So they need to be taken care of ASAP. I just hope other shoppers remember to be kind, during these stressful times! Here is my Meal Plan for this week ...

Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money every week!  Happy Sunday!! I'm a little glad the week is over. The gorgeous warm weather has left us once again, so I feel like I am back into hibernation mode. It wasn't an overly busy week, but Thursday night I started not feeling so well. About once every 2 months or so, I happen to eat something that doesn't agree with my Crohn's disease. So I spent Thursday night, through to Saturday evening in pain. I'm feeling 100% today, so am planning on making a huge roast beef dinner. This upcoming week is going to be spent organising the house. I hope to grab some paint, so we can finally paint the entrance way and hall leading to the living room. Before moving in (this past April) we painted the living room and all the bedrooms, but told ourselves we would paint the entrance way and hallway, after moving in. It's yet to happen and Christmas will be here before you know it, so I'd like to get it done.  Here is ...

  Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money, every week! Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission from these links. I offer them to you at no extra charge. Last weekend was Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. My SO's sister, and her partner, hosted a lovely intimate dinner for us, and SO's mom. I fell in love with the tablescape, that they created for our meal. It was great to get a bit of normalcy in, even if our dinner was not as big as years past. I wasn't able to visit my family for the holiday, but we decided it would be more prudent to stick to our social bubble.  Dinner was delicious! We started with a Curried Butternut Squash Soup, followed by turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rutabaga, green beans, fresh cranberry sauce and homemade rolls (which I brought). Dinner was followed by a fire in the back yard and a video call from family, to wish each other a Happy Thanksgiving. We ended the night...

 Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money, every week! Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission from these links. I offer them to you at no extra charge. This summer has come to an end and the kids are now back to school. We opted into distance learning, so they both are learning online daily. They seem to be liking it and I don't have to worry about them possibly getting sick and bringing it home. What an odd time we are living in.  A few weekends ago, was our last official weekend at the cottage. We brought the dock and boat in, and prepped it for winter. We may still sneak up on weekends with nice weather, but the trips will be few and far between. We had the chance to take in the gorgeous fall colours before the close of the season. Some of the views during our drive and at the cottage were breath taking.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada, so we will be spending a quiet day with our social bubble. I ...

 Meal Planning is a great way to save time and money, every week! Welcome to the first Sunday Meal Plan post, from Mom, the Lunch Lady. I will be honest and say that I stopped meal planning when my SO and I moved in together about 2 yrs ago. While he isn't a picky eater, I was still trying to figure out his likes and dislikes. So our dinners often consisted of foods he was used to eating and I threw in easy meals when he was at work. Our work schedules are opposite, so during the week he is not home for dinner.  Since the pandemic, I've noticed that I am spending more on groceries, and that I have a lot of food sitting in my pantry that I am not touching. Since I'm not sure when I will be returning to work (I've been off since March!) and money is a little tight, I though this would be the perfect time to start meal planning again. Plus I like having a list to choose from, instead of standing in front of the fridge at 5pm, hoping dinner will make itself.  Here is the p...

(image credit: Getty images) It's 5 pm and I'm exhausted from a busy day in the cafeteria. Weary I stand in front of the open fridge debating whether the brownies on the counter would be an acceptable dinner. Sound familiar? With so many pressures of everyday life, it's easy to take the easy way out and reach for your cellphone to order take out. It gets delivered right to your door! But like many others, our income took a huge hit with the recent pandemic. As income decreased, our eating increase. What else are we suppose to do stuck at home? I've always been a fan of meal planning, but when I stopped blogging 5 yrs ago, the meal planning also stopped. I was no longer sharing with you guys, and exhausted from returning to work after 14 years of being a stay at home wife and mother. The result? I fell into the take out, "let's go out" rut. It's a delicious rut to be in, but not great for your health, or your wallet! So today I wanted to shar...