By Melissa Batai

If your schedule is jam-packed as most families’ schedules are, you may find yourself without a dinner plan night after night, forcing you to either go through the drive-thru or make boxed food for your family. Not only is this expensive, it’s also not healthy for your family.
Jennifer Mason used to be like that until one day she resolved to stop wasting money and come up with a system to get a homecooked meal on the table for her family every night. She was successful (after a few months of trial and error), and now she shares her method with others in her ebook, Perpetually Prepped Kitchen: The Simple Method for Meals in Minutes .



This ebook has three parts:

Part I: The Perpetually Prepped Method

This section contains eight steps so that you are never without a meal again.

• Step One: Create Your Meal Plan A
• Step Two: Create Your Plan B
• Step Three: Plan Your Prep Time
• Step Four: Plan and Shop
• Step Five: Prepare for Anything
• Step Six: Expand Your Pantry Baskets
• Step Seven: Build New Habits
• Step Eight: Putting It All Together

Mason uses a variety of strategies to make sure she is always prepared to make a meal for her family including assembling pantry meal baskets (literally baskets that she keeps in her pantry that each contain all the ingredients that she needs for one complete meal), prepping individual ingredients to put in the refrigerator and freezer, and making freezer meals.

Mason also encourages readers to shop from the pantry to save money, and, most importantly, to create new habits that are healthier and cheaper than going through the drive-thru.

Part II: The Recipes

This part of the ebook includes 14 pantry basket recipes. Mason generally makes three to five pantry basket meals a month, so using that amount, there are enough recipes for approximately three months. These recipes can also serve as a springboard to give you an idea of what other recipes your family likes that you can turn into pantry meal baskets.

Part III: Appendices

This part includes 27 pages of printables such as goals, freezer inventory, keep it in stock list, grocery list, etc. One particularly handy one is Quick Freezer Meals ideas. On this sheet, Mason offers a mix and match style meal where you can choose one protein that you have on hand, and then a few other items to add to make the meal Mexican, Italian or Homestyle, and finally, seasonings to add.

Final Thoughts

If you scramble to get dinner on the table every night, this ebook can help you successfully do so with minimal prep. Pantry meal baskets are a novel approach to having meals ready in just minutes, which we could all benefit from.

Melissa, a mom to three little ones (ages 7, 3 and 1) blogs at Mom's Plans where she writes about living a fulfilling life on less and focuses on cutting expenses, budgeting, paying down debt, saving money and once a month cooking.

My husband picked up an amazing haul of fresh veggies and fruits from my local Bountiful Baskets pick up today. We were so blessed to score 50 pounds of cabbage, one of my favorite foods. But we need to eat it up fast, so I spent all day looking for delicious ways to use it up.

I settled on this awesome Braised Cabbage recipe, which I tweaked just a bit for my tastes. It's so caramelized and awesome -- well worth the 2 hours cooking time!



You'll need:

• 1 head cabbage with 1st outside layer removed, cut into large chunks (save core)
• 2-3 large carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 large white or yellow onion, roughly sliced
• 1/4 cup melted ghee
• 1/8 cup homemade or store-bought compliant chicken broth (I use the drippings of my crockpot chickens mixed with salt and pepper)
• salt and pepper to taste (I love Kosher salt!)

Simply spread the ghee and chicken broth in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Add in the veggies, sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, and give it a little mix and toss before wrapping it tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Remove foil, toss veggies slightly, then replace foil and bake for another 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. When done, the edges and top will be all caramely and good! I especially love the core, which is soft like butter when prepared this way!



What an amazing side dish! I kept picking at it long before dinner. Can't wait to make it again soon!

With Winter here, the cold, snow and cabin fever are sure to follow. Finding fun, unique activities for your children to do can be a bit of a challenge. Kids of all ages will love these fun painting activities that won't take a lot of preparation, supplies or money.

Babies and Toddlers

• Edible Paints – Babies are always putting things in their mouths. Whether it's their fingers, toes, a nearby or something you left lying too close, babies are bound to put it into their mouths. While most paints are non-toxic and safe for babies, why not give them something that you know is 100% safe. Pudding makes a great paint. Mix it with water instead of milk (add it slowly until it's to a paint consistency). It will dry like paint does and you won't feel bad when baby puts his or her fingers in their mouth. Other options include baby food (carrots would make a great option), dark jams, or ketchup. 

• Trucks, Trains and Tractors – Anything with wheels will be fun for babies and toddlers to paint with. Tape down some paper, put some paint down and have your little one roll their vehicle around in the paint. 

• Brushes – Why use boring old paint brushes when you could be using scrub brushes, toothbrushes, wide-tooth combs and old hair brushes. Anything with a different texture will make a unique piece of artwork. Depending on the age of the child, you might want to save this one for the outdoors, paint can fly from the brush easily. 

Preschoolers 

• Hand Print/Fingerprint Painting – This is a great activity for kids who have difficulty conceptualizing an image. Use their hands to make shapes. Paint a reindeer by using the foot as the face and hand prints as the antlers. Use a few cut out hand prints, that have been painted yellow to make a sunflower. You can also make a large variety of shapes with fingerprints. Put a small amount of paint on a plate and have your child dip their finger into it before printing on the paper (much like a stamp). The sky is the limit with the paintings you can make using hands, feet and finger prints. 

• Polka Dot Painting – Making art work with polka dots can be lots of fun. To begin the project for smaller kids like preschoolers you can cut out paper in the shape of an animal, a vehicle or any shape you want then have the child add dots of color to it. As they get older, kids can make their own shapes if they choose. Tools to use for making dots can be bingo daubers, pencil erasers, or Q-tips. 

• Drinking Straws – A really fun activity for preschoolers is to make blown art using straws, thinned down paint and some paper. Put a drop of paint on the paper and blow the paint through the straw. This is a great way to make flowers, fireworks or just fun abstract shapes. Kids love this activity. 

There are so many fun things you can do with paint that doesn't involve a standard paint brush. Anything can become a tool for painting, you just have to think outside the box a bit. If you want even more painting activities for your kids but have trouble coming up with ideas, check out Pinterest. A quick search will give you many more options to choose from.

Need supplies? Start here: