How I Simpified Meal Planning ~ a review and a giveaway

I love to cook. I like to make up new recipes, to find creative ways to make delicious food with dietary restrictions, to make a beautiful plate. Really I like to play chef.

Cashew Sesame Noodles

But I am also a mama, a wife, a housekeeper, a homeschool teacher, a chauffeur, a writer, a volunteer in my community, a goat nanny... the list goes on. It is a full life.

Unable to keep up with it all, I realized a few years ago that I needed a way to simplify my kitchen activities. I tried planning simpler menus but kept forgetting to actually plan, and would spend silly amounts of time each day figuring out what I could make with what I had on hand. I was terrible at getting dinner on the table on time.

So when a local homeschooling mom sent out a call for beta-testers of a new meal planning website a few months ago I signed right up!

Pepperoni Chicken

I was so impressed by Build A Menu's service, and their heart to do good, that I became a paying member this January after they launched their full site.

Since I am finding Build A Menu to be such a help to me as I go about my busy week, and because I feel so passionately about using our gifts to serve others (as Build A Menu does with its support of orphan care), I decided to do a review to let more people know about this wonderful new service.

Hash Browns with Greens (all steamy in the pot)

Build A Menu was started by sisters Karee Blunt and Lisa Holcomb to help families both simplify meal planning and stay within a budget.

My subscription costs me $2 per week, and allows me to customize a menu based on my favorite store. Every week they publish a great selection of recipes that take advantage of sales at that store. Hooray for the budget!

Each meal shows its total cost as well as ingredient list before I choose it, so I can make decisions based on price and the ingredients I already have on hand. Once I select the menu I want for the week, I print all of the recipes, as well as a shopping list (oh do I love the shopping list!)

A really cool feature of the service is that I am not limited to a specific seven meals each week like other meal planning websites I have looked into. I can pick any seven dinner recipes from across all of the menu categories. In fact, I have run into the problem of wanting to use more than seven dinner recipes in a given week!

The store options:

• Fred Meyer
• HEB 
• Kroger
• Safeway
• Walmart
• Whole Foods
• Any Grocery Store 
• coming soon Costco (YAY!) and Publix

And the menu category options:

• family friendly
• low fat
• low carb
• sensible portions
• gluten free
• vegetarian
• slow cooker
• soups on!
• crowd pleasers
• grill a meal
• manly meals

These women totally get my life. It's like they somehow know that I have several days with afternoon activities so need a few crockpot recipes, and I cook low carb for my husband, and even occasionally prepare meals for friends who eat gluten-free! Regular people have complicated lives, sometimes even in the kitchen. I'm so glad Build A Menu doesn't restrict the menu options.

Now here is where my heart is completely captured by these wonderful folks. Karee and Lisa both mother biological and adopted children. Their passion for adoption led them to decide to give a portion of Build A Menu's proceeds to orphan care ministry. In fact, you can even choose which organization you want your portion to go to!

Please take a moment to read this beautiful blog post Karee wrote a few months ago. It is incredible to me that I can contribute in a small way by using a service that benefits me so much.

And now for some more yummy pictures! I made all of the recipes in this post in a two week period....

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup

Crock Creole Chicken

Bean and Kale Ragu

Slow Cooker Artichoke Pasta

Curried Tomato Bisque

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Spicy Fish

Quiche with Hash Brown Crust

Thai Basil Chicken

I pay for this subscription because I think it's worth it. I emailed Karee and Lisa to tell them I was going to review the site, and guess what?

They have offered a free two month subscription to Build A Menu to one of you! I think you will find it a great blessing!

There are three ways to enter the Build A Menu two month subscription giveaway (please leave a separate comment for each... one comment = one chance to win):

1. "Like" Build A Menu on Facebook
2. Tweet "I just entered to win a free meal planning subscription to @BuildAMenu! http://goo.gl/NB0Qv"
3. Tell me... which of those yummy dishes above would you want me to serve if you came to hang out for dinner at the farm?

Please include a way to contact you (via email, twitter or facebook) in one of your comments.

The Build A Menu giveaway will end on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 11:59 pm CST. The winner will be chosen using random.org.

I hope you win!  


All photos by Patti Brown, all dishes made from Build A Menu recipes.

Disclosure: I am a paying subscriber to Build A Menu. I did not receive anything to do this review and giveaway. I just think you will love them!

Nibbles the Wonder Goat

Our little Nibbles... 

he of the hypothermia and tub faucet nibbling... 

the re-enactor of the parable of the lost sheep...

and the blessed recipient of an adoptive mama's goat-y love...

 

 

 

...is doing just dandy, thank you very much.

The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

~ Psalm 145:9 ~ 

I Once Was Lost

Last week I shared a wee story at Do Not Depart about Nibbles.  You remember Nibbles? Our orphaned tub-dwelling bottle-baby turned adoptee kid goat?

Well, the very first night that sweet Nibbles was left in the field with his brand new mama, things went awry. In the morning when my fabulous hubby, aka The Bard, went to check on the goats, Nibbles was missing. Gone.

The edge of the sun is just peeking over the horizon when the back door slams.

“I can’t find him,” my husband reports. Happily sleeping with the herd last night, one tiny goat has wandered off and is nowhere to be found.

I pull on my boots and a jacket and head out into the chilly morn. Walking the goat field, I carefully check every hollow and corner. Baby goats frolic near their mothers. It has been a good year for kidding.

But there is no sign of our missing baby. The lump in my throat grows as I open the gate to leave the field.

... read the rest of the story here...

You make me happier than a bountiful tomato harvest! {a paraphrase of Psalm 4}

A rockin' one-day tomato harvest in 2008

As always, I am enjoying the newest bible study from Do Not Depart. The current study is called Run2Him and is based on the Psalms. Last week's topic was "I Cry Out Because He Hears" and was based on Psalm 4.

As part of my reflection on the Psalm, I tried something new, and found it fruitful. I wrote it out in my own words, a paraphrase of sorts. Yesterday at our morning family bible time, my husband read Psalm 4 to us all, then I shared my paraphrase. He thought I should share it with you all, so here it is (remember this is not ME speaking, but the psalmist, lest you think I am boasting about good behavior)...

Psalm 4
Patti's paraphrase

(1) Please listen to me God, because you have before!

(2) People around me, when will you shape up? My good behavior makes you look bad! When are you going to stop loving worthless things and trying deceive?

(3) God has set apart godly people for Himself, and He hears me when I call Him.

(4) You should be afraid! Don't sin! Lie on your bed, silent and still, and think long and hard about your heart.

(5) Offer PROPER sacrifices, and trust in the Lord.

(6) Many are asking who will show them even a little bit of good. Lord, please look at us with your light-filled face.

(7) You have put gladness in my heart, God... YOU! Even more than when the harvest is amazing and there is an abundance of food and wine.

(8) I will lie down and go to sleep peacefully because You, and only You, make me dwell in safety.

Kind of makes me wonder if this is how Eugene Patterson wrote The Message.  :-)