Did you miss my article over at Military1?
At the start of 2014, I determined that my goal for the year would simply be to do better at life in general than I did last year.
Two big parts of that goal? Moving more (which I discuss in Get your fitness on with FitBit) and planning better meals for my family.
Now, there are a lot of military spouses out there who use Pinterest for inspiration. When I look at Pinterest, I just feel overwhelmed. I see all the things that I could be doing with my family and then feel a bit of guilt that I haven’t done any of them.
I think I feel this way because I’ve met some amazing women in our military world who are wonderful stay at home moms, or love homeschooling their kids, or excel at coaching.
You name it, they’ve done it.
Truthfully, it’s been a bit of a challenge to stop shaming myself for not being as good as everyone else who is excelling at something that I’m not. It’s easy to feel shameful because most of us are constantly comparing ourselves to others, especially within the military spouse community.
While perusing Pinterest usually leads to frustration and feelings of guilt for me, I have found resources that are actually extremely helpful and feasible for improving my family’s life.
Ziplist.com is one of them.
Looking back over the previous year, I realized that often times I’d let the day get away from me and suddenly, it was time to cook dinner. I’d have no plans and would usually throw together one of the same 12 recipes; it was boring and not well thought out.
I knew I was better than this.
That’s when I found a great “life hack” for planning amazing meals and easily assembling shopping lists. Ziplist.com is a free website that allows you to search or browse over 75,000 recipes from sources like Martha Stewart and Better Homes and Gardens. You can even add your own recipes.
And it gets better.
You can even create daily, weekly or monthly meal plans.
Once you’ve saved your recipes into a meal plan, Ziplist.com creates your shopping list in a snap. It even offers suggestions for the items you probably already have in your house, like flour and butter, and those you probably need to buy. When you’re done planning your meals, you can also add the other items you need from the store that weren’t included in your meal plan.
The first time I used my Ziplist.com shopping list at the store, I shaved off at least 20 minutes from my usual shopping trips. It was a snap. So much more efficient than my usual messy, disorganized list which would have me traversing the grocery store several times over to get everything.
For all of you who are fans of couponing and sale items, there’s even a section of the website dedicated to sale items at local grocery stores from various brands.
If you’re like me and get easily overwhelmed with the age-old question of, “What’s for dinner?” I highly suggest that you download this free app for your phone, or visit the website on your computer. It’s made my life so much easier already, I’m a little upset I didn’t have this earlier.
What is your favorite “life hack” in the kitchen? Share in the comment section below!