Meal Plan Monday

Hello everyone! How were your Christmas holidays?  We had a fantastic time, celebrating with family and friends.  We've had lots of company, which has been very fun.  We are looking forward to a quiet New Year's Eve and a few more days off before it's back to school and back to work (for me, my hubby went back to work on the 27th).  Now that we are getting back into a routine (and now that we have finally run out of turkey!) - I am back to meal-planning.  Here is our meal plan for this week:

Sunday - Homemade Turkey Soup (recipe coming soon!), Dinner Buns


Monday - Slow Cooker Meatballs, Rice and Corn

Tuesday - Tandoori BBQ Pork Chops, Perogies, Grilled Peppers

Wednesday - Steak, Baked Potato, Caramelized Brussel Sprouts, Green Salad

Thursday - Beef Stroganoff (recipe coming soon!), Green Salad

Friday - Sweet & Sour Chicken, Rice, Green Salad

Saturday - Leftovers / Fridge Clean Out (we have a busy day at the hockey rink, no time to cook, good thing for leftovers!)

See you next week, for my first meal plan for 2014!

CST - Beyond the Blue Line

Growing up, my brother and I were always involved in something.  Whether it was swimming lessons (both of us), skating (on our backyard ice rink). basketball (me), competive cycling (my brother) - and more - we were always on the go.  Education was also very important to our family.  My brother and I had to keep up our grades in order to keep up with our extracurricular activities - and going to College and/or University after high school was stressed as "an important thing to do".

In a time when RESPs did not exist (we were born in the 70's), my parents still saw the value of saving for our post-secondary educations.  In a recent survey completed by CST Consultants, 89% of parents expressed that they believe it is important to them to help pay for their childrens' post-secondary education. 
 
Families often struggle to try to balance paying for extra-curricular activites and saving for post-secondary education.  Now that I am all grown up and have a family of my own, I am sure my husband and I are having the same conversations that our parents had when we were kids.  My husband grew up in a hockey-playing family, and that love of hockey has been passed along to our boys.  We currently have 1 son in hockey, and our second not far behind.  Already we are feeling the crunch when it comes to paying for hockey and saving for our kids' educational futures.  For us, we do our best to split the expenses.  In the months when we need to pay for hockey, our savings towards education may be reduced, but in the non-hockey months, there is more for those education funds.  Check out this great info-graphic on the Cost of Hockey.
 
A lot of people wonder about "when" to start that education fund.  For us, we started saving as soon as our kids were born.  We figured this way we would have a good start on savings before the kids got into hockey.  Plus, there are many grants available to us for education savings.  Be sure to check them out!  We are also pretty realistic about our kids' hockey futures - even though hockey is in their blood, we have no expectations that either of them will make it to the NHL - all we want is for them to love playing and have fun doing it! 

The folks over at Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan love hockey and they recognize that our kids shouldn't miss out on playing sports because we were too busy saving for their post-secondary educations.  There is a balance to be found, and the folks at CST can help!

CST Consultants has launched a community education initiative for teams - learn how you can enter your team to win $10,000!  Yes, $10,000! Contest is open until December 31, 2013, so don't delay, enter today!


Disclosure: I am part of the C.S.T. Consultants Inc. – Beyond the blue line blogger program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own

Meal Plan Monday

Hello friends, how are you today?  How are your Christmas preparations coming along?  I'm busy in the midst of writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts (shopping is all done!), menu planning for the big day, and prepping for company!  This week we also have Christmas concerts, a school dance, a daycare Christmas party, hockey, and on and on!  All great fun :-)  We've even got a little bit of snow at our house, though the rest of our city is still fairly green.

Here is this week's meal plan:

Sunday - Lasagne (with Dawn's Tomato Sauce)

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - BBQ Chicken, Caramelized Brussel Sprouts, Perogies

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Soup & Sandwiches

Friday - Out for dinner!

Saturday - To be determined...

Have a great week!

Meal Plan Monday

Hello everyone! I am sure that like me, you are in the midst of all the busy-ness that the holidays bring.  My recipes posts have been slow - I'm still cooking up a storm, but my blog time has been reduced given all the other commitments these days.  As soon as I catch my breath (and get the Christmas cards written and the gifts wrapped and...lol) then I will get back to finishing those 30+ drafts that I have waiting for my attention!

As always, I am planning our weekly meals, and without further delay, here is this week's meal plan!

Sunday - Beef dip and Dawn's Baked Beans (and Cinnabun Cake for dessert!)...and Broccoli Cheddar Soup for lunch!

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Zesty Shrimp

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Beef Barley Soup (Slow Cooker)

Friday - Out for dinner!  Night off from cooking, yay!

Saturday - To be determined...

Happy menu planning, friends!

Meal Plan Monday

Hello everyone!  How are things in your world?  Tis the season of busy days - it's a busy time at my day job, add in all the added fun around the season...having a blast, but a little slow with my posts lately.

I'm back with my family's meal plan for this week.  Here we go!


Sunday - Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Monday - Sweet and Sour Pork Chops, Perogies and Corn

Tuesday - Homemade Hamburger Helper

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Savoury Fish

Friday - Leftovers for the kids, Mom and Dad are off to a Christmas party!

Saturday - Still to be determined...hey I can't always be THAT organized! ;-) 

Enjoy your week!