Goals

I’m happy to say I made it through last week, barely. As I’m sure you know by now, my blogging fell by the wayside. Between working late and preparing to go out of town to visit family I wasn’t able to do any writing ahead like I had hoped to do.

Our trip turned out pretty good even though we did have to drive nine hours in that horrible weather that blanketed the Midwest last Thursday. I was able to get together with my favorite cousin twice! We had a big family get together Saturday night, I enjoyed seeing everyone. Unfortunately a lot of time was spent at the hospital visiting my grandma. She had a stroke at Christmas and still needs a lot of care. Not having her at the house while we were there was a little sad.

While I was in St. Louis I also was able to meet up with another blogger that I met through our blogs. Susan lives fairly close to the hospital my grandma is staying in so we met for lunch at a local Greek place. The food was excellent; my son is hoping we can eat there next time we’re in town!

I did throw my back out when we were down there.  The time in the car plus sleeping on air mattresses is just to much for my back.  Getting my back in order will need to be my primary goal this week.

Here is my list from last week. As you can see I did excellent on my work goals, only so-so on my personal goals.

Work

• Finalize details of customer presentation – Monday EOD
• 1st draft of documents for new project - Monday EOD
• Prepare PowerPoint for Thursday meeting – Tuesday EOD
• Prepare documents for auditors – Wednesday EOD
• Start presentation for meeting – Due 1/17 EOD
• Shop for 70’s outfit (my trip at the end of the month requires me to dress in 70’s garb – this is adding quite a bit of stress to my life right now)

I didn't have any time to start looking for my outfit.  I was hoping to either do it one night before I left or find time when we were in St. Louis, unfortunately neither one of those things occured.

Home 

• Finalize agenda for trip (we’re visiting relatives and there’s a lot of coordination needed to catch everyone!)
• Pack for trip – make sure kids pack appropriate clothing
• Pick up snack food/sandwiches for the drive (I may delegate this to the kids even though it will cost me more money)
• Send out passport renewals
• Renew Michael’s license plate

Personal

Exercise - I did pretty well on this one while I was in town.  The bad weather when we were out of town made this difficult.  I had planned to walk outside but the weather didn't cooperate.

Here are my goals for this week.

Work

Last week was an anomaly as far as my listing all my work deadlines.  I added them to my goal list because I had so much to get done in a short amount of time and I knew it would require some late nights.  Typically I won't post that list here.  However, I do have a few things I need to do for work that I'll be doing on my own time.  Those include:

• Find a 70's outfit
• Find an outfit for the banquet night.
• Write thank you notes

Home

• Send out passport renewals
• Renew Michael's license plate
• Finish organizing my Christmas items (everything is down but I'm re-organizing so I have a little more work to do)
• Make new batch of cranberry relish

Personal

• Exercise x3
• Read Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham.
• Get a few blog posts in the hopper for next week when I'm out of town.

That's my goals for this week.  What's on your list?

I'll be linking this up to Money Saving Mom

Menu for the Week

Does anyone else have days when they just don’t want to be the “mom” anymore? Those days when we don’t have to be the responsible one and take care of everyone else? I’m having one of those days today. Today is one of those days when I don’t want to be the mom. I’m not feeling the best and would love nothing more than to crawl into a warm bed and hibernate.

 

Unfortunately instead I need to make sure my mom hat is on tight and plan my menu, grocery shop and run errands this evening. My son now has school on Monday nights and my husband is working tonight so I guess I’ll put my big girl pants on and stop whining.

 

As far as the menu, I’m taking it pretty easy this week with the exception of Saturday. On Saturday we are having some friends over for a turkey dinner so that will be a little bit more work. Typically I start my menu on Sunday, but yesterday we were at a football party so I didn’t need to plan anything for dinner. That’s why you’ll only see six items on the menu.

 

• Fend for yourself night  
• Lasagna, salad, corn, garlic bread 
• Leftovers 
• Baked Chicken, strawberry salad, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, biscuits 
• Dinner out 
• Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, corn, dinner rolls

 Typically I wouldn’t serve chicken and turkey in the same week but I just need easy this week and nothing is easier than baked chicken!

 

That’s what is on my non-eventful menu. What’s on yours?

 

I’ll be posting this at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

 

Goals for This Week

I am stressing big time this week. January is hitting me with both barrels and I’m struggling to remember to be calm and focused. I’m going to take a deep breath, make a plan and then work it. Plus, repeating “I can manage, I can manage” several hundred times might be helpful as well.

 

My biggest issue this month is that I have two trips going on. The first is personal while the second is for business. Of course it really doesn’t matter if it's business or pleasure; both require me to be out of town and not at work or home. In addition, my department was given a very large project last week that needs to be implemented in a very short time frame. It will also be important that I still find time to exercise since that is one of my goals for 2012

 

When I find myself stressed and overwhelmed I find that putting a timeline to my items helps me prioritize and focus on what needs to be done.  Here is my goal for this week

Work

• Finalize details of customer presentation – Monday EOD
• 1st draft of documents for new project - Monday EOD
• Prepare PowerPoint for Thursday meeting – Tuesday EOD
• Prepare documents for auditors – Wednesday EOD
• Start presentation for meeting – Due 1/17 EOD
• Shop for 70’s outfit (my trip at the end of the month requires me to dress in 70’s garb – this is adding quite a bit of stress to my life right now)

 Home

•  Finalize agenda for trip (we’re visiting relatives and there’s a lot of coordination needed to catch everyone!)
• Pack for trip – make sure kids pack appropriate clothing
• Pick up snack food/sandwiches for the drive (I may delegate this to the kids even though it will cost me more money)
• Send out passport renewals
• Renew Michael’s license plate

 Personal

 

Exercise! I’m not going to let this one fall by the wayside. This is the only personal goal I have for myself this week.
Enjoy the trip - I'm going to have to do some work on this trip.  However, I'm going to focus on not letting the work take over the whole trip and enjoy the couple days I have with my family.

 Ok, I feel a little bit better having this on paper. Now I better get cracking because I have a number of items to complete yet today!

 

I’ll be linking this up at Money Saving Mom

 

What's in Your Purse?

Toni over at A Bowl Full of Lemons is hosting a "What's in Your Purse Party".  That sounded like a lot of fun so I thought I'd join in.

The first thing that I did was take the test she found on line that tells you what your handbag says about you.  Here is what mine says about me.

• You tend to be relaxed throughout the day. You are naturally at peace.
• You are a high maintenance person. You feel lost outside of your normal environment.
• You are a very creative person. Your life tends to be a whirlwind, but you always seem to pull it together.
• You are an outgoing and expressive person. You always speak your mind, and you're very approachable.
• You are a very unique and special person. There's no one else who is anything like you.

I have to say that I really don't agree with the "high maintenance person".  I don't think I'm high maintenance or feel lost outside of my normal environment.  I also don't know that I would be described as relaxed.

Here is a picture of my purse.  The red crocodile is kind of my personal signature, at least it is according to my mother.  Every purse that I've owned over the last 5+ years has been made of varying degrees of red crocodile printed leather.

I found this purse hanging in the window of a store downtown when I was attending the Farmer's Market and immediately fell in love!  I didn't buy it right away because I didn't want it to be an impulse buy but after drooling over for a month or so I did pick it up.  What's cool about it is the outside is a changeable shell.  If you are one of those women who like to change your purses on a daily basis, you can buy multiple shells.  The shell slips on over the inside liner which actually holds your items.  This allows you to change purses without going through the hassle of actually changing purses.  Since I'm a buy one that I LOVE and use it for a year kind of gal it's not much of an incentive for me.

My purse is typically a mess of receipts and papers.  Before this Christmas I would throw my ID, debit cards, gift cards, money, etc somewhere in my purse.  However, as a Christmas present my mother bought me this swanky new wallet.  I've never been a wallet girl, but I put this one to use and have been pleasantly surprised by how much easier it makes my life.  Now if I could only keep my family from taking all my cash!

I'm not going to show you the inside of my purse because then I would feel the need to organize it so I could show you an after picture and I'm too tired to do that.  However, here is a list of what is in my purse (besides the receipts and papers)

• Floss
• Pens (yes that would be plural)
• Make-up (because I put it on in the car, at work, pretty much anywhere besides my mirror at home)
• Lotion
• Two cell phones (a personal one as well as an IPhone for work)

Those that know me they would probably be surprised their isn't a calculator in there, I tend to be permanently attached to one at work.  However, I find that the calculator on the phone works well for the limited amount that I need it.

That's what is in my purse, how about yours?

Menu Planning Week of 1/7/2012

As I've entered the 2nd week of the pantry challenge, things have been going pretty good.  We finally used up the meatloaf last week that had been languishing in the freezer for quite a while.  I've also been using up some other odds and ends from the freezer that have been sitting there for a while.  The best news of all, for the last two weeks we've come in under budget at the grocery store.  Both weeks I only spent about $175, not bad considering I needed to do some baking this week for a party.  If you are looking for some delicious bars, check out Paula Deen's recipe for Toffee Gooey Butter Cake.

The Pork Carnitas that I told you we were trying last week were pretty good.  The kids turned their noses up at them so I offered them pulled pork sandwiches which they were happy with.  I think I need to play around with the rice a little bit, didn't taste as much like Chipotle Grill as I was hoping.  Overall the meal was a success and will be added to the rotation.

This is a pretty easy week for me in regards to menu planning.  The kids and I are taking a quick trip to St. Louis to see some family so I really only need to worry about the first half of the week for meals.  My husband is good at fending for himself, most likely he'll grill a bunch of chicken breasts and live on that while we're gone.  The kids and I will mostly be eating out or at a relatives house. 

 

Here is what's on our menu for the week: 

• Spaghetti and meatballs, strawberry salad, corn, garlic bread, Toffee Gooey Butter Cake
• Chicken and stuffing, salad, glazed carrots, applesauce, Parmesan biscuits
• Leftovers

What are you planning on serving this week?

I'll be linking up over at I'm an Organizing Junkie

Toffee Gooey Butter Cake

Yesterday we had an after Christmas party to attend.  It was a potluck and I had been "requested" to bring my Paula Deen Toffee Gooey Butter Cake.  I say "requested" because I wasn't really given a choice.  These are so popular that I don't think we would be allowed in the door without them!

I found these a number of years ago and they are a family favorite.  A word of warning, they are incredibly sweet so you definitely want to cut them small.

Toffee Gooey Butter Cake by Paula Deen

Ingredients

Cake:
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 (18.2- ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 large egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (1 pound) box confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup toffee bits

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan and set aside.

In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, eggs, vanilla extract, confectioners' sugar and butter. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Fold in the toffee bits with a spatula.

Pour the filling over the cake mixture and spread it evenly. Bake until the center is just a little bit gooey, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into pieces and serve.

Note:  I would check it at 30 minutes because this recipe tends to get done quickly.  The center will be "loose" but should firm up as it cools.  You need to plan on letting this cool a number of hours before cutting them to serve.

Saving Money at the Grocery Store

Anybody out there not need food? I didn’t think so. Food is one of the basic requirements to sustain life; all of us need to eat. For most households, the food bill is one of the biggest chunks of the budget next to housing. Food prices rose by 3-4% in 2011 and are projected to increase by another 3-4% in 2012. Personally, I think our family’s impact has been closer to 10 – 15%.


For the pantry challenged issued by Jessica over at Good Cheap Eats, I’ve challenged myself to get our grocery bill under budget. For the last few months we have been over our $200 a week budget, sometimes significantly. $200 a week seems like a large amount for a family of four but there have been times when I’ve been amazed at how little was in the cart when we went over budget.

Here are some of the strategies I’m using to ensure we come in under budget.

1. Have only the budgeted amount available to spend.

Typically I just use our general checking account to pay for groceries and don’t worry too much about going over since I keep some slush in there. I think back to the days when money was tight and I only had X amount available, not a penny more. By being mindful of what went in the cart we always managed to squeak by at the cash register. Keeping track of what you are spending as you walk through the grocery store is critical to coming in under budget.

2. Plan a menu.

I'll admit, menu planning can be a drag. Thinking ahead for a week or a month as to what you are going to serve your family for dinner can be a little daunting. Menu planning serves a number of purposes. The first is that you are able to make a shopping list of only what you need. If you go into the grocery store without a plan you will most likely overspend. The second benefit is you know what you are serving for dinner and can plan ahead, saving money from the take out budget. Third, if you have a plan you can get help from the family in putting dinner on the table. As a working mom, I rely on my husband and kids to do a lot, if not all, of the prep work for family dinners.

3. Make a list

If you have a menu plan, making a list of needed items is pretty easy. By having a list of what you need, and sticking to it, you will not overspend in the grocery store. This is one area that I’ve fallen down the last few months and has contributed to us being over budget. I’m working on a list of items that we typically buy, laid out in the order of the grocery store we shop at. Currently when I’m making my list I try to mentally go down each aisle, but it never fails that some kind of produce ends up at the bottom of my list. Fortunately my husband is usually with me and doesn’t mind being the “procurer of forgotten items”, that doesn’t work so well if you are shopping alone with small children.

4. Inventory your pantry

How many times have you bought something only to realize you have plenty at home? Spending five minutes to look in your cupboards will save you substantially in the long run. Last year when we did the pantry challenge I found a month’s worth of dog treats in the pantry. We were in the habit of buying them every week whether the dogs needed them or not. Buy only what you need!

5. Utilize more coupons

As a working mom I don’t have a lot of time to cut and organize coupons or run to various stores for deals.  I usually find that my savings don'tt justify the time spent. However, I can snag a few minutes to go online to some of the coupon sites and see if there are any coupons available to print. By printing out the coupons right before I need them and clipping them to my list, they are available and handy when I need them without a lot of time or energy spent.

6. Target something fun with the savings

If possible, I would suggest that you target something fun with your savings. Knowing you’ll be able to do something fun with the money that you may not otherwise do can be very motivating. If I can come in under budget every week by $25 I could treat my daughter to a mother/daughter massage on our upcoming vacation.  That's pretty motivating for me.

The final suggestion I can offer is to make sure that you are shopping at the cheapest store in your area. Keep in mind that sometimes the cheapest store isn’t in your city. There are three large grocery stores within two miles of my house that I rarely shop at because they are so expensive. We drive a half hour to go grocery shopping because the items are consistently so much cheaper. If you live in Wisconsin or the Chicago area I would encourage you to look for a Woodman’s. It’s a big store and can be overwhelming but is definitely cheaper than most other stores. Woodman’s does not accept credit cards.

That’s how I plan to save money on grocery shopping. Do you have any other tips for saving money on your grocery bill?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom

2012 Financial Goals

Do you like the picture?  I've been playing around with adding more pictures to the posts for some visual interest.  I thought this would tie in nicely with Financial Goals posts, the small change really does add up.

Yesterday I shared where we ended our 2011, today I'm going to share our plans for 2012.  While we aren't necessarily big on "down to the penny budgeting", I have found that setting financial goals and tracking them monthly has been a great way to stay on track.  This will be our third year of doing so and I'm quite excited about doing so.

1.  Create a vacation account

Traveling is high on our list of wants but not something that we regularly save for.  Typically we pay for our vacations by paying large chunks with disposable income, but that's not really the best way to plan for something if it's important to you.  While it may have worked out for this vacation, I want to make sure that we are covered and have money for our future vacations. 

My plan for this year is to open up a savings account specifically for vacations.  We'll most likely pull from it for our trip this spring, but after that we'll be saving for the next family trip.  Hopefully that will be sooner than five years from now!

2.  Create a decorating account

I wrote about my twelve decorating/organizing projects for 2012 here and have decided that the best way to finance this is to set money aside every paycheck for it.  Most of these projects aren't terribly expensive, but it would be nice to have $500 accrued in an account for my new window treatments instead of juggling our finances around to purchase them.

3.  Increase our retirement savings

Time flies by and before we know it we'll be retiring, I'd love to do so earlier versus later.  While we are doing fairly well, at least according to various Internet resources, I would like to ensure that our retirement is well funded so that we aren't financially strapped in our later years.

I don't know for sure what this increase will look like but one I can say that if I get a raise this year I will up my retirement by that amount.  We'll see what we can do over and above that.

4.  Decrease our debt

Paying down debt is important to us and something we want to keep on our radar.  The arbitrary number that I have chosen for this year is 55%.  If we hit the end of the year at that number we will have made up for the amount that we missed in 2011 and be on track for our four year plan.

With that being said, we may need a couple of vehicles this year.  I was hoping to pay off our vehicle loans and save to pay cash for a new vehicle but I don't know that we'll be able to hold off much longer.  My husband's truck is a bit of a lemon and he is really chomping at the bit to get a new one.  I've been able to talk him out of it for the last year but I don't know if I'll be able to do so much longer.  Also, our daughter will be getting her driver's license at the end of the year and we'll be buying her a car.  Many may see her getting a car as an unnecessary expense and get by without their children having vehicles, but with my husband's schedule and my long commute it is a necessity for us.

5.  Buy a motorcycle for me

My husband got a motorcycle a few years ago for his fortieth birthday.  Since then we've wanted to get one for me but there always seemed to be something else that we needed to get instead.  My husband's bike is to small for us both to ride comfortably for long distances, we'd like to be able to take weekend rides and the only way we'll be able to do so is with me getting my own bike.  Of course, he did offer to buy himself a larger bike so I could ride comfortably but what fun would there be in that?  Besides, a bike specifically for me would actually be cheaper than going with a larger bike for him.

6.  Complete my list from "Getting Your Financial House in Order in 2012"

I wrote about 12 things I wanted to do to get our financial house in order this year, you can read about that here.  Re-writing that list here seemed a little redundant but in addition to writing each month about them I'll  post my updates here.

I'm actually excited about this series, I plan on doing some research to determine the best approach to each task.  Hopefully I'll be able to write a post that you will find information and meaningful when it's time to share.

That's pretty much it for our goals this year.  Keeping the list reasonable and targeting a few items that we can apply laser focus is important for our success.

What are your financial goals for 2012?  Feel free to share in comments.

My 2012 Word - LIVE

I've been introduced this year to the ritual of choosing a word for the year.  The purpose of choosing "one word" is to set your intentions, the one thing you really want to focus on for the year

One of my greatest fears (I have several) in life is that I'm going to get to the end of it, look back and realize all the things I wanted to do didn't get done because I was so busy getting through life that I forgot to LIVE it.  Life has a way of passing us by if we aren't careful.  We need to grab it with both hands and not let it slip through our fingers when we aren't paying attention.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present

For 2012 I will:

LIVE in the present - Stop worry about yesterday because I can't do anything about it.  Stop worrying about tomorrow because it will take care of itself.

LIVE every day like it's my last - We don't know how many hours we have left.  I want to make sure that everyone I care about knows how I feel.

LIVE with better balance between family, fun and other obligations.

"No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy the sunlight today, mix good cheer with friends today, then enjoy it and bless God for it. Do not look back on happiness or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated of it." - Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1878)

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could, some blunders and absurdities have crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)



What's your word for the year?



Special thanks to Melanie at Only a Breath for making this great button for me.

Say Yes to Carrots! 50% Off

I'm not a "deal" blog, but occassionally I find something so great I need to share.  My daughter is struggling with acne right now.  Her skin is so sensitive that we've been having problems finding products that work for her without drying out her skin.  Also, I'm not a big fan of all the "stuff" such as parabens and sulfates in a lot of products so I'm always on the look out for afforadable natural products.

Enter the "Say Yes to Carrots" line.  I found this acne kit called "Say Yes to Tomatoes" at Target one day while browsing and decided to give it a try.  This product has really helped my daughter's skin.  Her skin isn't completely cleared, but it's definitely made a significant improvement.  When I bought another brand (out of convenience) we had a few tears since she feels so much more comfortable about her skin with this product.  Fortunately her brother was nice enought to ryn her out to the store to pick up what she needed.

"Say Yes to Carrots" is running a promotion on their website until approximately 5pm Central time today where you can get anything for 50% off.  The prices are the same that I see at Target and if you buy $50 worth of product the shipping is free!

I've decided to use this opportunity to try the "Say Yes to Blueberries"  line which is for us "mature ladies" who want to keep youthful skin.  I recently tried the L'Oreal line of anti-aging which resulted in a horrible reaction, I couldn't believe how splotchy my skin was or how swollen my eyes got.  Since this is a mostly natural product I shouldn't have any problems with my skin.  I'll let you know how I like the "Say Yes to Blueberries" line.

To take advantage of the 50% off use the code NEWYEAR at checkout.  Like I said though, I think this will only be running until about 5pm Central time today.

There are no affiliate links in this post, I just really like the product!

Let me know what you think about the product.

Pantry Challenge & Menu for the Week

Last year (can you believe we can say last year already!) was a year of great strides for me.  Two blogs, Life as Mom and I'm an Organizing Junkie, jump started me on a journey that I'm happy to say has led to a more organized house and a more conscious awareness to the way we approach our menu planning.

The journey started when I participated in the Pantry Challenge issued by Jessica at Life as Mom and Good Cheap Eats, I chose actually cleaning out my pantry for my portion of the challenge.  You can read that story here.  The next step was thinking about actually menu planning ahead of time, not waiting until I walk in the door to stand in front of the freezer and then order a pizza.  Participating in Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie's weekly menu planning and 52 Weeks series has helped keep me on the path.  One of my projects in the 52 Weeks was to organize my spice rack within the pantry, it was really driving me insane!  You can see my success story here.  Let me tell you, a clean and organized pantry never felt so good!

So, let me get to the guts of this post.  A new Pantry Challenge has been issued, one that I feel needs to be answered.  Since the pantry has stayed clean and organized, I've decided to make my food budget and menu the focus of this pantry.  Here are my fundamental issues:

• We are always over our food budget, our food budget of $200 a week!  I'm sure some of you are gasping at the amount of our budget and wondering how on earth we can go over that amount.  Let me tell you, it's easier than you think!
• We tend to get into a food rut and eat the same things over and over and over and over.......  Now, one of the reasons we do eat the same things time and time again is because my husband is resistant to change.  This is a man who can eat two cans of plain tuna a day for months on end.  Does he sound like someone who enthusiastically tries new recipes?
• I need to lose some weight.  Yeah, I know I say that all the time but I really do need to lose some.  1) We're taking a big trip this year and I'd like to look halfway decent in pictures 2) My 25th class reunion is this summer 3) I needed to start taking medication for my blood pressure and I'd really like to get it down naturally, without medication.

Based on the above issues, here is my plan.

1.  Make it impossible to go over budget

I have allocated a special checking account to grocery shopping, through payroll deduction I am putting $400 per paycheck in that account.  It will be like the days when money was tight and I would tell my husband, I have X amount in my purse.  If we go over that amount something will have to go back at the checkout.  Whatever is in that account is what can be spent.  Period, end of story.

2.  Look for new recipes I think the family will eat

Just because he isn't thrilled with new recipes doesn't mean my husband isn't willing to occasionally try them.  My plan is to spend some time scouring the Internet for recipes that I think he may like and introduce some of them over time.  If he likes them (like the haddock), we'll add them into the rotation.  If he doesn't (like the Tuscan Stew), we'll ditch them.  I won't be adding new recipes every week because a) I don't have that much ambition and b) I don't want him to start twitching.  I'll be sure and share the new recipes as well as what we think about them with you.

3.  Eat healthier

This is much easier said than done.  One of my biggest issues is my lack of planning.  If I plan ahead I can eat breakfast at home versus McDonald's.  I can eat a healthy lunch versus one from the vending machine.  When eating out I can order a healthier choice versus what looks fabulous on the menu.  I will also be looking for ways to make the food I serve at dinner slightly healthier without taking away the taste.

With all that being said, here is our menu for the week.  Take note - I've added a new recipe into the repertoire!

• Dinner with family (my FIL was a New Year's baby so we have a get together every year on the 1st)
• Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, applesauce, bread
• Pork carnitas - NEW RECIPE
• Meatloaf (the poor meatloaf that I've been saying we would eat for weeks and never get to), rice pilaf, glazed carrots, cranberry relish, biscuits
• Left overs
• Take out
• Holiday party

Are you planning on making any changes to your eating habits or menu planning this year?  Feel free to link up any food related posts in the comment section.

I'll be linking this up at Good Cheap Eats and I'm an Organizing Junkie