I hope you enjoyed my first week of Tuesday’s Tips that I am co-writing with Angie from Life as Mom Knows It. If you didn’t read the first week, I recommend you read that first because today’s post will continue where we left off. You can read the first post HERE and the second part HERE.

Now Angie already started a discussion about where to keep your recipes but I will give a brief description from my point of view. I will admit that this has been a huge project of mine for years now. My hopes are that 2012 will be the year that I will get completely organized, especially with my recipes.

My favorite ways to organize them are the following:

*Hat box—These are the recipes I cut out from the magazines/newspapers that I’m dying to try, recipes that I’ve printed from the Internet, or recipes that I’ve received from friends and family. I do hope to get these all in a binder that I would have them protected and easy to sort through. The hat box works well because they are never lost BUT is a time waster since I have to dig through the box.

*Folder in my email—I mentioned that I subscribe to a few recipe newsletters and if they send a recipe that I know my family would like, I move that email to my “recipes” folder in my email account. It is great because it is never lost, I can use the “search tool” to find something specific and I can access it from any computer. Using a tablet or laptop is easy in the kitchen and then the recipe is right there in front of me.

*Computer software—In the past, I have used a recipe computer software that I received as a gift. It was really great and SUPER easy to use! I apologize but I can’t remember the exact name of it but there are several available and they all work similarly. The problems I had with these is taking the time to type all of the recipes into the computer and also having them on one computer. When my laptop crashed, I had lost all of my recipes that I typed in there including some favorites. Maybe I should have backed it up somewhere else but honestly I just didn’t think of it. If you do go with this route, make sure you back up your recipes on an external hard drive or another location.

*Cookbooks—I have a few cookbooks that I just keep on the shelf with some of the pages flagged. It makes it easy to find my favorites.

Other ways to organize your recipes include:

*Old fashioned recipe box
*Scanning pages from cookbooks and saving them on your computer labeled by food types

What ways do you organize your recipes?

We will also discuss making a shopping list in this post.

I have done my shopping lists two ways. I’ll share my old way (before kids) and my new way (after kids). Notice that I like things simple since my family has a busy schedule all of the time!

Old Way: The old way started with choosing 5 meals for the week that my husband and I wanted to eat. In an excel spreadsheet I’d type those meals in a column on the side. Then I’d type in any ingredients that we did not have in the house for those meals in column next to it, adding in extras like produce, milk, eggs and other staples. Finally I’d print the list to take to the store.
New Way: The new way started when I had a need to save more money (because I have 3 healthy, hungry boys to feed) and had 3 extra picky eaters. Now I make my lists from the sale items or items that I have high coupons for. I usually go to 2-3 stores in a week for my groceries. I make a list for each individual store and sort my list by categories so it is easy to get through the store and not miss anything. The categories I choose to sort my items are usually dairy, packaged, frozen, bread, meat, beverages, baby items, other.

Angie from Life As Mom Knows It has the second half of this post HERE! Enjoy! Remember to tell us your thoughts about our Tuesday’s Tips series.

How do you write your grocery lists?

Join us again on March 6th for our next post on Saving Money Using Price Match Ups!

Here are a few images from the day!

Kiss

Love Letters

Twin Love

Sweet Baby Love

What did you do for Valentine’s Day today?

Sometimes we all spend so much time and effort trying to get those special moments like birthdays and holidays or even firsts. I’m not saying that those are not important because they are but so is the everyday. I mean children learn new things everyday and we see it but we don’t always capture it. Sometimes all I have with me is my camera phone (which is nothing to talk about) but having that super low quality photo is better than nothing in my opinion. Of course, I’m making a promise to myself this year and that is to get more photos of the everyday and hopefully high quality ones too. It takes a little more effort to get out my DSLR camera instead of snapping a quick one with my point and shoot or the dreaded camera phone but it is SO worth it. Here are some fun photos I took of my 2 year old this past weekend just sitting in his booster seat and being a goofball. I probably took over 100 photos and would love to share them all but here is a collection of my favorites! Enjoy and make sure you get out your cameras for the everyday, in between the important events moments.

Some ideas are reading books together, laying in the grass, blowing bubbles, eating something messy, baking, building with blocks, lining up all of the stuffed animals, playing with their tea sets, wrestling with their siblings and watching their favorite tv show.

Just Peachy Photography does offer a “Day in the Life” specialty session to capture an everyday event with your child. Email me for details. Erika@justpeachyphotog.com

What “everyday” moments do you wish you could capture more often?

What to Wear Guide from www.inspiremebaby.com

It is best to choose 2-3 colors to build around and have fun! I love the color palette on this guide and the adorable patterns and child’s winter hat too! I’d love to see some ideas you have for items to add on so please post a link to your favorite clothing items below!

Image taken from my Thanksgiving meal 2011

It is time for another fun February birthday month announcement!  In addition to sharing more with you on my own, I will also be introducing a special blog series with a dear friend of mine, Angie, from Life as Mom Knows It.  This series that we have designed together will be a whole set of blog posts on organizing your home.  Between the two of us, we have 7 kids so we feel we have some experience with this topic and would love to share our knowledge and experience with you.  We’ll be starting with Meal Planning and this series will be posted every other Tuesday in my new set of “Tuesday’s Tips.”  We would love to hear from you about how you organize your home too so please share in the comments below!

Recipe planning is very important especially for those of you who work away from or in your homes or families with multiple kids. It is hard to find recipes that are tailored to meet everyone’s taste buds and provide nutrition too. It is so hard to find recipes that work for my family because every single one of us are picky eaters. Truly, it is kind of funny how we work but I still do my best to accommodate everyone and have learned to adapt our needs to recipes I find.

Here are some places I like to find recipes:

The Internet:  I have a few favorite websites but also sign up for emails from some great online food based websites. Some that I have in mind are Kraft, Campbells and Swansons. Food magazine websites also have great recipes and I subscribe to a few. They all have easy recipes that are fast to prepare and have minimal ingredients. The recipes are simple too for the picky eaters (like my kids)!  I also LOVE allrecipes.com! My favorite feature of theirs, is to insert ingredients that I have on hand to see what they come up with as a meal. If you are low on groceries for the week and don’t have your meals planned, this is a great option!  The site also allows viewers to rate the recipes, which is nice so that I don’t waste my time making it and find out something doesn’t work in it. If there is something specific I want to make, I’ll search the name of that food dish in a search engine and look for something that fits my needs.

The Library:   The library has SO many great choices of recipe books and I love to explore them every once in awhile. If there are only a few I like, I’ll type them up or write them out but if the whole book seems like foods my family would enjoy, then I might wait and purchase the book. Some of my favorites are the desserts and slow cooker recipe books.  The other great thing about browsing the library for recipes is that they are always getting new books in and I can reserve them and just pick them up at the front counter!

Friends and Family:  If I find that me or my kids enjoy a dish at a party or other event, I always ask the host/hostess to share their recipe. Also I’ve gotten recipe exchange emails in the past where everyone types up a recipe and passes it on! You can always start one if you want! It is a great way to get recipes that you know are tasty and easy. Make sure to talk to elderly family members and you may find recipes that have been passed on through generations. We have a couple yummy recipes that my mom got from her mom and she got from her mom. You get the idea!

Magazines:  This is one of my favorite places to find recipes!   Many family or women centered magazines have great recipes that are quick to prepare, healthy and have minimal ingredients!  They frequently hold contests and post the winners’ recipes too.  I usually cut them out and save them for later.  I’ve seen these in Good Housekeeping, All You, Family Circle and Martha Stewart Living has fancier gourmet recipes if you have the time and patience!

Where do you find your best recipes?

To read Angie’s ideas about finding recipes and the rest of this post, please go HERE!

Thanks for reading the first post in our Home Organization Tuesday Tips series.  Please join us back on Tuesday, February 21st for the next part on how to store/organize your recipes!

After 2 amazing years, I’m ready to embark on a new (fiscal) year!  Just Peachy Photography is officially 2 years old and going into the third year as of February 1st!  I am very excited that I have made it this far and have met so many wonderful people along the way.   I really hope that my third year in business will be the best yet!

Since I spent the last few months playing Santa Claus and giving away some REALLY amazing prizes, if I do say so myself, I am going to celebrate Just Peachy’s birthday month with news and announcements!  I really hope that you enjoy hearing about all of the fun things I’m doing this year!  I sure am excited to tell you about it all!

I’ll start today with our first announcement!   You will hear a lot more from me this year as far as my blogging posts go.  I am going to try to lend more of a voice to share more about me, more about Just Peachy Photography and what it can offer you, and more about raising a family.  You will have some regular posts from me to read along with other surprises.  If you do not have an email or RSS subscription set up yet, I suggest you go and do that so that you don’t miss out!

My regular posts that I’m going to start with every other week will be:

On My Mind Monday:  Just will speak what is on my mind (posts will vary)

Words Wednesday:  I will share a special design with everyone to print or save for your enjoyment.  Each post will have a new quote that I found inspiring in some way.

Fashion Friday:  I will post what to wear guides so that those of you who struggle with putting together outfits for your children or family portraits have some new ideas.

Finally I will be starting a continuous series about organizing your digital images on your computer very soon that will show you some ways to keep your digital photos organized so that you can find them, print them or share them.   This will be bi-weekly as well.

I have my second announcement coming tomorrow!  Remember, get those subscriptions set up!   And if you haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet, that is a quick trip to the left tab of the website!  Don’t miss out on our monthly newsletters and other promotions!

Since my littlest son turned 2 in January, I thought it was only appropriate to borrow one of his cake photos to celebrate Just Peachy Photography’s birthday!  Enjoy and I’ll post more fun photos from his Elmo birthday party later!

We are participating with other wonderful local children related businesses mid-February.  Make sure you check in for all of the details.  It is a prize that I know most of you would love to win!  This one is for the adults!

Well onto our GRAND PRIZE winner!

Prize:  A complimentary family portrait session, Take the Whole Orchard Digital Collection and $20 Print Credit!

Make sure you congratulate all of our winners!  12 lucky people!  Thank you again for participating and sharing our information with new people!    I appreciate each and every one of you!   Also make sure you check back on Wednesday for some very exciting news!  I can’t wait to share!

On to our Day 11 winner!

Prize:  Leapfrog Leap Pad

Wow!  What a lucky winner!

Congratulations to all of our giveaway winners so far!  Tomorrow night I’ll announce the grand prize winner of the Free Session and Take the Whole Orchard digital collection (including all 25 images from the session on a keepsake cd and small print package) as well as the special extra print credit of $20!  I finally know who the winner is!  BUT I won’t spill the beans until tomorrow!  Check back!  Thanks!

On to our Day 10 winner!

Prize: $20 Stride Rite Gift Card

Congratulations and thank you for entering! Tomorrow we’ll be announcing the winner of the super cool Leapfrog Leap Pad! My kids LOVE the one that Santa brought them this past year for Christmas!