PICKY, PICKY, PICKY!!! - The Challenge

Hello and happy Monday!

I hope your weekend brought you much joy.

The weekend at the Wenndt house tends to go by too quickly... A lot of times, if I don't plan out dinners for the week, I forget what I am making... I don't thaw the chicken in time... and we eat frikkin' pizza. 

Since we are on "live healthy" mindset, I wanted to be more thoughtful about meal planning and well... our lives in general. 

One of the HARDEST things for me to do is to plan out meals.  WHY? Because of picky eaters.  There is NOTHING wrong with being a picky eater, in my opinion (you know what you like, don't like), but when you have five picky eaters like I do, you have to find a common "food ground." 

So, instead of making FIVE different meals, here is what I started to do, and well...we are in week FOUR and it is totally working! 

So, how do I make this a fun activity for a 15 year old?  I get her to help me plan it out.  Every Saturday we sit down after breakfast.... after searching Pinterest for our experimental dinner for the week, we sit down together and build out our "weekly planner."  She helps me and we make sure that everything we make is lower fat lower calories and something that everyone will like.  Before we plan it out, we make sure that everyone has had input (like Maddy always wants cheese burgers or macaroni and cheese or a Mommy's special--- which is just a salad with ranch).

This little experiment is a win-win.  Everyone knows what we are planning out for dinners and they have a moment to veto it before it is printed out.  AND when I go food shopping (such a New Jersey term, FYI and one of my favorites)... I know exactly what I am buying for the week, which cuts my spending down.  For our family of five I spent a total of $120 at the grocery store this week for our meals for a week--- that includes snacks, breakfast AND lunches.  Which to break it down is less than $3.50 per person per day for food.  Not too shabby.

A visual reminder of activities, workout schedule for Alex and I (I like that because I feel as if I am bound to the agreement by putting it in writing... LOL), AND meals.  A great way to plan for a large family.

Here is our planner for the week.  It is on the side of the fridge so everyone can see it as they walk by.  It is in a great location and now that we are in week four of the planning, it is become a habit for us to use it. 

 

 So here it is.... Our planner.  It has been a great way for us to stay organized!  (yes, I do NOW see that my OB appointment is there---oh well. It is for my annual boob smashing... er mamogram. LOL)


Have a fantastic week!  I challenge you to try to "organize your meals"!!!