What I've been up to with planning, and what is next for you

     If you were to walk into my house right now, you would see Christmas is in full swing. If you drove by it you would too (oh yes the lights are on at night). What's more I've been helping a friend of mine with getting her stuff together too. Tonight the two of us will be going to one of the Christmas sales we mentioned a long time ago in a post, Hope to get some pics and stuff from that. We got a ton done yesterday too.

    Most of the people who read these posts live in the Greater Saint John area or the HRM. I know Saint Jon has it tomorrow, but I think the HRM has their big Christmas parade in the evening. From my years working in radio in Saint John, let me stress to avoid parking on the parade route after 4:30 or so, because that's when they will start towing cars.

     SO you're assignment this weekend is take in anything that's going on that you said you wanted to take in on your master list (remember that thing you wrote up in September?) And meal planning/ prep. I know some people go to the grocery store when they need to, or just buy a bunch of stuff they like and make it when they feel like it. If I do either one of these, I spend WAY more money (like double or triple), I buy less healthy things (or the healthy stuff goes bad), and I never know what to make. I have to plan my weekly menu, and what's more I take time on the weekend to do meal prep. Now I'm not pressing this notion on you completely, but over Christmas, early meal prep you can heat and eat later may just be your best friend. The other option is to pick up heat and eat options and just, well...heat and eat them.

     I've been doing meal prep for a bit now, and actually another benefit from it is coming in another blog post later today (already wrote it, you'll see the score later),

     Keep it as simple as possible. Soups freeze well, and can be the perfect thing after a long day of shopping. Also when you're cooking now, if you make a stir fry or casserole, double the recipe, and freeze the other half. This doesn't have to be hard, remember it's meant to help you.