Saving Dinner

I fell off the FlyLady wagon, oh I don't know, about a year ago? I am trying to get back on again.

I keep seeing the testimonials from the FlyLady list for Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner. I decided to check out the site a couple of weeks ago and have been debating joining. I finally decided to try it out, and luckily for me when I joined the menu mailers for three months were on sale for $6.95.

You can try a free sample menu without signing up. It was a little confusing when I joined. First off, I used PayPal and the money had to move from my checking account, so there was a delay on my subscription. Secondly, you only get access to a sample menu mailer until the first Tuesday after you subscribe. They don't make that clear, at least I didn't grasp it, and was unsure as to why I wasn't able to get to "my menus".

Saturday night we had our first meal from the sample menu mailer. I am very picky about how things taste, and this meal was truly delicious. It was chicken breasts with lemon slices, olive oil and zucchini squash, topped with the feta cheese I started earlier in the day, which Kev finished making so I could leave to go to Home Depot with dh.

I decided to start with the "Body Clutter" menu mailer. The neat thing about this service is Leanne not only gives you six days worth of dinner meals, with the recipe, but she also makes a shopping list which shows what you'll need to make all the meals. You just go through the shopping list and check your fridge and pantry and cupboards and cross off anything you already have "in stock", leaving you with a list of what you need to buy.

Oh, and I guess a new feature is she used to subscribe you to just one menu mailer, if you signed up for Body Clutter, that's all you could access. But now she allows you to subscribe to one, and have access to all. The others are Regular, Heart Healthy and Low Carb. The Body Clutter menu seems to be quite Low Carb. I hate to admit it, but I am so sensitive to carbs that I feel much better when I avoid them.

For our family, the shopping list caused a little bit of a problem because well, it is becoming obvious to me that we eat too much food. The menu creates meals to serve four people, and there is no way we could get by with preparing that small amount of food. I have food issues, it is becoming more and more obious that my dh has food issues, and on and on. Anyway, if Kev or I dared cook only four servings there would be mass hysteria and rebellion.

So we'll have to take it slow. What I decided we'd do is make double the menu. This also offers the option for me to have lunch for leftovers the next day. We were supposed to make a vegetable to go along with the meal, and a salad. But we only got the dinner part cooked.

I am also trying to incorporate some FlyLady routines. I've never really got them started, and it is so difficult for me to get to work on time for all I have to do in the morning. I am trying to get a weekend routine put together, which would include getting my clothes ready for work for the entire week. Last Thursday morning, it was 4:50am and I was trying to find a shirt to wear that wasn't wrinkled or stained. I ended up wearing one of ds1's shirts that was very huge on me, had cat hair on it, and I'm sure I just looked like a mess. I've also been having a problem deciding what to wear for church on Sunday.

So if I get my clothes ready on the weekend, including what I'll wear to church, I can eliminate that stress.

I have also started having scrambled eggs for breakfast for me and dh, and I really like that little bit of time we have together in the morning. It only takes about 15 minutes, but it has been making me late for work. We switched milking to mornings, because it's too hot in the afternoon now, and the flies bother us. That takes up at least 30 minutes. And I need to figure out something for my lunch for the day, plus 2 to 3 snacks so I'm not tempted to stop for something from a convenience store, or fast food. I also have to get my vitamins together. So I'm hoping to move these things to the evening prior, as well as looking at the Saving Dinner menu to see what's for dinner the next evening and taking the meat from the freezer so it can start to thaw.

Until next time.