Family Meal Planning

Family meal planning is something that has worked very well for our family for sometime now. To start with makes life easier when you have a toddler who needs all the attention after her parents are at work the whole day.

So a while ago I came up with a plan to cook our meals on the weekend to help us get through the week. By doing this we have reduced eating out and spending money on meals when there is really no need.

This is how I work out a weekly meal plan:

1. Saturday- Hubs and myself work out a meal plan of what we would like to have through the week and accordingly shop for groceries. We have a little template that I created on excel to help us.

2. Sunday Morning-

•  I start all the prep work by 9:30AM- this includes- cutting all the veggies, defrosting any meat, washing the rice, etc. 
• I usually make about 2 veggies dishes, 1 meat dish, a simple dal and one rice dish.
• Snacks- we pack all our snacks for the week on sunday too- We use small plastic container to make 10 portions of any one of these - carrots with home made hummus, fruit bowls, pita chips, etc. We noticed by carrying a small snack along with our lunch we stopped eating junk food from the vending machine to get stuff. 

I will post a picture of this week's meal plan on sunday. I try to mix Indian meals with simple salad's or wraps for the week.

This is just a copy of a meal plan we had a few weeks ago-There have been weeks when we have not been able to stick to such a strict plan but we get there on most weeks.

I plan to start posting my meal plans in advance in case anyone needs help for the week.

I hope this post is helpful

SJP

	BreakFast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Banana+oats	Sunday leftovers	Carrots+Hummus	Roti+dal
Tuesday	Orange+bread sandwich	Rice+veggies+dal	Pita chips+ranch	Roti+egg curry
Wednesday	Banana+oats	Channa+roti	Fruit or yogurt	Home made Pasta
Thursday	Granola Bars+muffin	Rice paluv	Boiled Egg	Roti+ Lentils
Friday	Fruit+ bread sandwich	Either left overs or we eat out	cookie or fruit	We like to have this meal out on most fridays
Saturday	Indian Breakfast-Poha or dosa	Chicken or meat dish	Muffins	Roti+non-veg curry
Sunday	Indian Breakfast-Poha or dosa	Usually Briyani	cookie or fruit	Bread Sandwich

Stenciled Entrance Window

Our entrance window didn't provide the best privacy. I noticed when we moved in that we had people at our door step looking right into the living room. And at times when you want to hide from that sales person you couldn't.

This was the before:

I found the inspiration to this on website: http://7thhouseontheleft.com/ and for the template you can click here :http://7thhouseontheleft.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/7hl_windowstencil.pdf

All that is required for this project is contact paper- I got it off amazon.com, I've seen it at Joann Fabrics too. Cost me around $5-$6.

I stenciled the pattern on the contact paper and glued directly to the glass.

Contact paper is easy to use and does not damage the surface.

Really bad lighting but I just couldn't get a better pic.

So there to one more completed DIY project

SJP

Tiled Mirror

We had very boring builder grade mirrors in our powder room, to spice things up I bought small square tiles from Home Depot to update our mirror.

I will have more detailed pics and better lighting going forward-
I bought two sheets of square tiles and tile adhesive ($3-$5) 
Before you start this project, make sure you have moved all stuff from the counter and also have wiped the mirror clean.

I used windex to clean the mirror before I got started.
Next I cut each tile out from the sheet and used a little adhesive (I used Kwik seal) and lined up the tiles  across the border.
In case of odd spots, you can get a tile cutter (again Home Depot or Lowes) to cut through the tile.

The project did take me a entire sunday afternoon, again I had breaks in btw. 

We have had a number of compliments when guest have used the powder room.
This project cost $25-$30 much cheaper than replacing mirror, patching dry wall and painting.

A house is made of bricks and beams. A HOME is made of hopes and dreams :)

SJP

I'm Back

Hi All,

Its been a while since I've blogged. Well to begin with we moved countries, I started a full time MBA program and had a baby :). Phew thats a lot. But now I'm back, my little munchkin will be 2 this april.
We also settled into our first home. I've done a few DIY projects around the house the last couple of months.

Going forward I will be sharing my DIY projects on my blog. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding how to get stuff done.

So here's my first DIY post:

When hubs and myself were settling up home, we got ever possible piece of furniture in a light beige color- who knew a year later the munchkin would be walking, crawling, climbing all over the furniture.

so this is where it all started- See the pic of the chair on your right hand side-really sad state I must say.

Surely knowing the thrifty me, there was no replacing them for new ones- So I re upholstered the chairs with fabric.

I'm sorry I do not have before and after pics separately- reminder for next project :)

 Supplies used in this project are:1. 4 chairs- require 1.5 yards of fabric (I used outdoor fabric '54 inches as they are very sturdy)- from Joann Fabrics ($12 with discount coupon) 2. Large staple gun+ pins (Home Depot- I had bought it previous- But I guess you could find one for $10-$20 depending on size)3. ScrewdriverI first cleaned the chairs down with a damp cloth to take off any food or stains, I then unscrewed the seat from the frame.Lay out the fabric on a flat surface and place the old seat. Cut at an angle, I cut about 3-4 Inches from the outline.Starting at one side of the seat, start to staple your fabric in. The edges might be a little difficult but the staple gun does a good job of holding fabric together at the edges.As this was my first DIY project I didn't take step by step pics.However 2-3 hours later (interpreted by hungry hubs and child) I was done with our four chairs.Below is a closer look at the final finished project.

Its been a couple of months now and the fabric has held well, we have had a few spills and food on them. But they have wiped clean.

Thanks- SJP