2012: Results of One Little Word

This year I chose the word CONSISTENCY to help me throughout the year. This year was definitely a challenge with health scares, hospitalizations, ambulance rides and significant dietary changes. I was fortunate to have two months of my new habit under my belt before the craziness started.

Some of my goals for this year were to lose remove weight, get my finances in order, keep my house 15 minutes from company ready a la Fly Lady, do meal planning and work on relationships to keep me connected. I am happy to report that I had wonderful results in all areas. I was even able to keep up with my Project Life, which also makes the crafty part of me uber happy! I was even able to squeeze in a little scrap happiness as well.

Here's how the year wrapped up: I managed to remove 24 pounds (primarily due to the significant dietary changes mentioned above). Finances are looking up. We bought a new house and aside from the moving boxes that still need to be unpacked it's looking pretty good. I started doing freezer cooking which has helped the dinner time quandary and has saved my sanity more than once. With a house feel of people eating gluten, dairy and allergen free, I'm glad I found Once A Month Mom. And, I feel more connected to my immediate family than I have in prior years. The challenges became opportunities to strengthen our relationships and for that I am thankful.

Freezer cooking is the new fast food

With life getting busier and busier by the day around here, I was looking for options to make mealtime easier. Luckily, I happened to stumble this website, www.onceamonthmom.com and it's awesome!! Not only did she explain how to do freezer cooking (pre-prep and/or pre-cook and freeze meals for later use), she makes it so darn easy.

Her website allows you to choose from several different menu options, surprisingly enough, one of them is gluten and dairy free - MAJOR SCORE FOR THIS HOUSEHOLD! Being new to this whole idea I didn't know where to start and she even has specific posts geared as newbies. When I actually printed everything out to take a look at what I had to do I was even more pleased. The recipe list allows to select the number of servings you'd like to make, this auto calculates everything for each recipe and then my favorite part happens... all of the ingredients are entered (with the proper totals) into the grocery list, which is already sub divided by category to make shopping a breeze! Then there are even prep night and 'day of' cooking instructions to guide you through how much of which ingredient to dice, mince, chop, etc. It totally takes the guesswork out of everything.
My first time through I made a mistake but it still turned out ok. Next time I will take her advice and chop the night before. This time I chopped and prepped on the same day and I was just a bit tired at the end! After two hours of chopping, and 6 hours of prepping and freezing, I had 16 family dinners, 30 individual servings of breakfasts and 12 individual servings for lunches.

Now the next two weeks will be a breeze to get dinner on the table! Oh, and did I mention that this is all free - that must be the cherry on top!