Fresh 20: Fail

You Guys, look at this amazing Fresh 20 meal I made.

Just kidding. It's a Freschetta Frozen pizza with some added grape tomatoes and parsley as a garnish to throw you guys off. I posted last week about how awesome Fresh 20 is and how much we love it and how I planned to share some of our meals with you guys and then this week fell apart.

I was a good girl and went to the Franklin Farmers market on Saturday while Josh was out of town to pick up some of our ingredients for the week. Then Sunday afternoon got away from all of us with another epic post-church nap (why are those the best) and we never got the remaining ingredients for the week.

Enter Monday - Felix isn't napping so all hopes of making it to the grocery without a melt down are shot and the rest of the day is history. We wound up at Blue Coast burrito for some Baja Fish tacos and then Tuesday night we sort of just chose an easy route because we had lots of errands to run, Josh was meeting up with a friend and we weren't super hungry come dinner time.

But that's ok. Life is crazy and we are flexible! We used some of the grape tomatoes form this week's menu on our frozen pizza and we have plans to eat up the "Turkey" (read: chicken) cutlets for tomorrow nights meal. Stay tuned. I'm sure a riveting post about cutlets will be coming your way, or not. ;)

The Fresh 20

Food is important around here. In the past Josh and I would end up eating out for dinner probably 3 times a week and even though we are wanna-be foodies, we don't have the budget to hit-up every fusion, french or fancy restaurant in town. So we often times would resort to pizza, chipotle, chick-fil-a, or subs from somewhere quick.

We decided recently that this was NOT a good plan for our waist line or our budget and we wanted Felix to grow up in a home that had meals around the table together, so we committed to eating at home more often.

Now, this was a good idea in theory, but I lacked imagination in the meal planning department and had no knowledge about how to do this in a cost effective way. Often times I would plan a meal the day it was to be eaten and then go out and buy all the ingredients for said meal. Ending up in about 30 bucks spent at the grocery store. We would have left overs, but in my head if I was spending that much on one meal for 2 at home and still dealing with clean up afterwards, we may as well be eating out.

Enter a few weeks of feeble attempts and frustration that led to a random discussion on Sunday afternoon about meal plans, a quick Facebook post asking for some advice and my friend Amanda suggesting The Fresh 20. It was down hill from there.

Being food lovers, busy and on a budget the Fresh 20 was perfect. It compiles a weekly menu (5 nights a week - not the overwhelming 7 like other meal planners) then gives you an itemized grocery list of 20  ingredients to purchase for ALL your meals that week. That's it. 20 items. Some ingredients are in multiple dishes, others are used up on one night. And because the list includes in-season items that you use multiple times throughout the week (so you can buy in bulk) it helps save money  So far our weekly dinner costs on the Fresh 20 has been about 70 dollars or less and many times the meals have leftovers to carry our lunches as well.

Meals like garlic chicken with massaged kale and avacado salad, Grilled sausage pizza with homemade pesto sauce and cantaloupe, or grilled chicken tacos with pineapple salsa are a few of our favorites. I'm loving it. I'm trying new dishes that I would never come up with on my own. And they are WAY healthier than my regular go-to dishes but these are still packed with flavor. I'm hoping to document some of our meals and share them here on the blog. Stay tuned!

How do you meal plan for the week? What are some of your go-to dishes?

Weekend Miscellany

1.

Boscos

One of me and Josh's favorite restaurants is Boscos Brewery. over the last 3 years here in Nashville we have had some really fun memories there. Brewmasters Dinner with Nate and Jo, Josh's 23rd birthday dinner, Josh surprise 24th birthday party, late night dinner and drinks with friends, Sunday morning brunch seeing Dave Ramsey there, meeting there for lunch when we both worked downtown because it was the perfect in between place , and on and on. This past Friday we made yet again, another memory at Boscos.We met up with our good friend Mike and his girlfriend, Christina who is new to the area, for a late meal. It was a great time of chatting and getting to know the two of them as a couple and not just single mike. :)

2.

Steak Dinner

My parents and littlest sister came to visit this weekend. Last Thursday was Emily's 18th birthday and Saturday was my Dad's brithday so they come on down to Music City for a special celebration. It's so great having them around. There are two major things you can count on when you are around my family. One is that there will be great conversation. My dad being a philosopher and my mother being the wise woman she is always have amazing insight into things and bouncing a discussion/idea off of either of them is always a good time. Layer that with me and my 3 sisters talking over each other getting louder and louder, laughing harder and harder and you are sure to end up with some lively conversation, and a stomach ache from laughing so hard. The other thing you can count on is that you will eat. and you will eat well. Saturday night culminated in a classy steak dinner complete with baked potatoes, asparagus, corn on the cob, crusty bread and 8 steaks the sizes of your head. Wash it all down with some carrot cake and ice cream and you have yourself a recipe for being "full as a tick" as my sis-in-law jo-jo would say and "happy as a clam". It was worth it though.

all around deliciousness.

3.

Sunday morning

Worship was amazing. My Hubby preached. I was super proud of Him. God showed up. Nuff said...

4.

PF Changs

The family decided to meet up with working woman and doctor extrodinare, Cynthia for lunch after church since she was one call at the Hospital Sunday morning till Monday afternoon. Cynthia's choice for food was PF Changs. Unlike Boscos, PF Changs has been less than impressive to me over the years. Horrible service and cold food at one in C-bus, and stuck in the mall hallway at one in Indy led me to believe that PF Changs wasn't going to live up to it's reputation of awesomeness. However, this past Sunday changed all that for me. Our server was probably one of the best servers i've ever had and the whole experience from crab wontons and lettuce wrap apps to the dishes we all ended up spontaneously turned to family-style once the plates hit the table to the giant 12 layer chocolate cake dripping in raspberry sauce goodness. My heart has been won over to PF Changs for good now. No good pictures at the actual table, but these ones are keepers.

This is what 30 years of marriage looks like! I'm so thankful for my parents.

Sister love.

Brotherly bonding while despising photos together.

I'm pretty sure I have another photo that looks exactly like this...like wearing the same outfits and everything that was taken a couple years ago at the Causey's house....yup...there it is.

5.

Tour de Hospital

Got to see where Cynthia works after lunch. It's a hospital. No big deal. She saves lives and stuff. I'm pretty amazed at how awesome she is.

Josh taking full advantage of the free soda/coffee offer in the doctors lounge at the hospital. that's my man.

6.

Libera

So the whole point of the trip for my family down here this weekend was to surprise lil-sis Emily with a concert to see one of her favorite groups. It was super fun to see her eyes light up and her huge grin when Dad nonchalantly told her what we would be doing Sunday evening. The concert ended up being great. we arrived no less than 2 hours before the performance to ensure we had good seats because it was general admission and there were already people waiting in line to see that boys perform. I say boys because this isn't just your average 18 year olds favorite band performing, this is literally a boys choir from south london. Apparently they have a cult following and they were actually quite good. pure crisp clean voices soaring notes higher than you and I can even imagine. Their voices are angelic and they came out wearing white monk style robes that cover from head to foot. Here's a picture...

Just kidding. Here's one.

Just kidding again. (p.s. I miss paint. the software program from my childhood.) Really though...this is the only picture I got the whole night. They wouldn't let us take pictures during the concert.

Overall, it was a very peaceful and calming experience that I'm so glad I got to be a part of with my family and I'm so glad Josh was able to endure. Love you babe! Check Libera out here.

7.

My adorable dog.

Just for fun - a stoic picture of willow.

She's so freaking cute!