6 Free Meal Plan Resources

2013

Our upcoming challenge for the Slim Down For Summer Fitness Challenge is to plan/write out a full week of meals. When I first start to meal plan (and I am still not the best at this), I always draw a blank! So, I rounded up some FREE resources, including a Glueten-Free and Vegetarian options, and wanted to share them with you! Whether you are participating in the challenge or just on the lookout for some free meal plans, I hope these give you some good ideas!

Change Your Plate Change Your Life

This is Nuturionist Traci Hittman’s site: ItsYourPlate.com. She offers a free 7 day meal plan when you sign up for her newsletter on the right sidebar. The meal plan comes at the end of her free ebook “Top 5 Power Foods” that you also get with your sign up. Expect to see a review on here of her Home Study Course coming in the next few days.

100 Days of Real Food

They offer free 5 weeks of “Real Food” Meal plans. You have to like their facebook page to get weeks 1-4 and sign up for their newsletter to get week 5.

Food On The Table

You must sign up for this Free Meal Planner Creator, but the service is free, too. You get to choose up to 3 local stores you shop at and what types of food you like (meat selection, gluten free, etc.). Then it tells you what your 3 stores have on sale and lets you select from a list of meal ideas that might match the sales. It is actually pretty cool! I am sure there is an upgrade option that is not free, but for 3 stores, it is not bad. They also have an app available for your apple or android phone. It will sync with your account that you created on the computer so you can plan on the computer and then have your shopping list on your phone when you leave your home.

Everything Mom

Offers lots of free meal plan ideas. Meals are not listed in a chart form, but more of by themes…i.e “5 Quick and Easy Spring Dishes.”

Living Locurto

She also as a ton of free weekly meal plans. 24 weeks, to be exact. They are not all necessarily healthy, but there is a variety to choose from and they do look yummy.

Eating Well

And for our Gluten-Free and Vegetarian friends, here is a FREE 7 day Gluten-Free meal plan and a Free 7 day Vegetarioan meal plan. It shows you one day at a time and then you have to select the day of choice from the drop down box. You can also choose how many calories you want to eat.

ENJOY!!!!

*top photo image courtesy of Marcus/freedigitalphotos.net

Filed Under: Health, Slim Down For Summer Tagged With: Tips

The Gift of Giving: November Family Challenge

2012

Leave a Comment

This month our Family Challenge is hosted by Janine from True Aim {Parenting and Education}. I love her site and am so excited to be working with her. She has a great challenge for us this month….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The “Gift of Giving” Series

It is easy to tell our children to share and as long as we are there to enforce it, they probably will. But, how do we inspire a spirit of generosity? How do we train up children who give to others, not because they are told to, but because they have a genuine desire to help people in need?

This month I have partnered with the Family Network to bring you some insightful and exciting ways to develop a giving heart in your children. Join us, as we “Give the Gift of Giving” to our families.

Give the Gift: Give back to your community as a family. Then leave a comment, add a photo to Facebook, or email me about it. You can also link up any ideas on how to give back with your family, favorite charities you support, or how to develop giving hearts. We will be featuring your posts throughout the holiday season! So, make sure you follow us!

This link up will be included in each post in the Series. That means your posts will be featured for a whole month!

Posts in this Series:

Teach Compassion
Be an Elf
Elbow Grease

A Timeless Gift

Follow our Pinterest Board

Feel free to grab a button!

Family Network Partners:

Play with Your Family
Fun on a Dime
Serene is My Name Not My Life
LDS Parenting
True Aim

*By linking up, you are granting me permission to use and/or re-post photographs from your blog or website.

Filed Under: Family Challenges Tagged With: Tips

Applications Open for Exclusive Review Panel

2012

Leave a Comment

I love entering giveaways and even better, winning stuff! I have actually been pretty successful considering I have limited my entering to just a few sites. One of these sites that I enter for giveaways on is HappyFreebie. It’s different from other giveaway sites and I love how easy it is to enter. There are only a few entries available for each giveaway. Simple and to the point. Who doesn’t love that?!?!

As HappyFreebie just launched earlier this year, they are ready to expand and are looking to create a small exclusive review panel of 15 internet savvy shoppers and writers. Being a part of the panel has some very fun perks, too, in my opinion!

Panel Perks:

Review opportunities
A budget for Pinterest Parties
An invite to attend their yearly company meetings in vacation destinations throughout the world.

There are more details over on the site and the application is simple to fill out.

Hop on over HappyFreebie to learn more and to apply!

Don’t think you have what it takes? You never know, so just apply!

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: Tips

Free Admission to the Arizona Science Center

2012

Leave a Comment

Note: The following tip I just heard about is for Arizona Residents. If your state has a program similar to this (other than the library summer reading program), let me know and I am more than happy to share it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attention Arizona Residents!

Every child who reads 5 books (with or without a parent) can earn free admission to the Arizona Science Center. This is available for any child 11th grade in school and under (and yes, any child under age 5 counts!). Check out the Governor’s Summer Reading Program for more specifics on the book requirements for each age group.

I was expecting the list to be difficult reading choices, but was pleasantly surprised. This is definitely something we can do.

This is in addition to the regular library summer reading program. So, double the summer fun!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: Tips

5 Mother’s Day Gifts On a Dime

2012

7 Comments

WARNING: Ladies, if you are reading this, email it to your hubby or leave it up on the screen for your family to see. Maybe they will get the hint! =-)

We all know the best Mother’s Day gifts are from the heart. When I was a younger my Dad used to go into panic mode when it came to Mother’s Day and trying to make it nice. One year when I was a teenager he told us that our Mom was not his Mom and so we needed to do the planning. He would go get anything we needed from the store (we usually made her a breakfast) or help make anything needed. We just needed to make a list and tell him what we needed help with. We just had to remember that Mother’s Day was not about big extravagant gifts but showing our appreciation for our Mom. Suddenly Mother’s Day became a lot more fun and had a lot more meaning for everyone.

Here are some meaningful Mother’s Day ideas that are perfect for any Mom, can even be done last minute and will not break the bank. These are all gifts that can be Dad driven or kid driven and are definitely from the heart!

Personalized Breakfast

Check out how to make an easy Personalized Breakfast. You can do more than just pancakes. A super easy way to make an ordinary breakfast a little more fun and personal!

Personal Notebook

Make a personal notebook that will be a keepsake for years to come. We did one when I was in my twenties (youngest sibling was 7) that we put together the night before. My mom still has it! Click here to get more details on how to make your own.

All About Mom Video

This is part of our family tradition that we do ever few years for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It is one of my favorite gifts! Click here to see a video and a list of questions that will get you started.

Chocolate Madness

Another night before or day of gift that any chocolate loving Mom will be excited about. Super easy to do and my children L.O.V.E. to help dip anything in chocolate. They are getting pretty good at it! Here are more details and simple tips to make chocolate dipping a breeze and super fun for everyone participating.

Heart Attack

You can never go wrong with a heart attack! What Mom does not like to see or hear nice things being said about them? Cut out hearts from paper, write nice things about Mom on each heart and tape them all over a place she will get to see them often, like the kitchen or her bedroom. My children love to contribute and are just as excited about taping the hearts up!

Filed Under: All Ages, Birthdays/Celebrations Tagged With: Crafts, Fun, Tips

Personalized Notebooks

2012

1 Comment

An easy and very personal gift for any Mom is to put together a personalized notebook. And don’t think you are too old for this! You are never too old!! You can do pictures, hand prints, notes, or whatever you think your mom will love best. Here are a couple of ideas that we have used for my Mom.

Favorite Memories of Mom

Idea # 1: We made this book with all the children in our family ages 7-25 and spouses were included. The youngest drew a picture or the cover. Every member of the family has 2 pages in it. One to share their favorite memories of my mom and the second for a painted hand print. (We thought it would be funny to add a hand print. lol) Everyone typed something up (or told/gave me what they wanted to say and I typed it up) and we placed each sheet of paper on a piece of colored card stock. We attached all the pages together with 2 hole punches and some colored yarn. Honestly, we used what we had and we put this together the night before Mother’s Day. My Mom loved it and still has it 8 years later!

Here is the Cover:

The Cover was followed by a list from the youngest of things she liked about our Mom and then her hand print, which she embellished with glitter (her idea).

The following pages were letters and hand prints from the older children. Most were specific stories and memories they loved to remember about our Mom. My other sister added a foot print to her “print” page.

To Have a Mom Like You!

Idea # 2: This was put together by my Sister-In-Law, Emali. It is a simple folder with clear plastic sheets. We were each asked to write “What it means to have a Mom like you”. Most are letters that start just with that. The youngest made a cute colorful page that spelled out “MOTHER” and a word for each letter. Below is an inside cover. And again, this is another of my Mom’s favorite Mother’s Day keepsakes.