On a Roll

Happy Sunday morning! I hope everyone's having a great weekend so far. Yesterday was rather gloomy and overcast so I took advantage of the dreary weather, stayed inside and did some major housekeeping.

The biggest thing on my "to-do" list was a complete pantry clean-out. I have the worst cabinet system in my house, very deep shelves which makes it nearly impossible to find anything in there! My solution is to make wise use of Tupperware but still, things often get pushed to the back and lost. So, yesterday I took every single thing out, wiped down the shelves and examined every item before putting it back. If it was outdated, it obviously got tossed, same thing with open items that weren't stored properly (ahem..thanks, kids!) but I also cleaned out some "junk food" that nobody needed. I know it might have been wasteful to toss the stuff, but much better for my waistline, you know?

This clean-out not only benefited my kitchen and my body, it also allowed me to take a good inventory of what I have on hand, making menu planning much easier. I'll be writing about that tomorrow, plan to gather some recipes tonight and make a grocery list.

So, as I was working yesterday I was thinking about the question Mark asked on my last post, wondering how I can work 5-6 meals into a busy day. As I told him, the way I do it is to pack a cooler. Since I have a desk job with a refrigerator and microwave nearby, it's not as difficult for me as some but I still think it's do-able in most working environments. Since I'm only bringing lunch and a couple of snacks, I am able to pack everything into this cool lunchbag I bought from Costco (I paid about $18 and it included containers!), but if you are a bigger eater or need to bring more meals, a little Igloo-type cooler would be perfect.



In here I packed a salad with chicken & olive oil, cup of Green yogurt, blueberries, string cheese, apple, sliced cucumber and an ounce of cocoa-almonds for when the afternoon sweet craving hit. Because the bag expands it really holds a lot of stuff!

So, there you go. I'd love to hear how everyone else plans their meals & menus! As for me, I have some more chores to do before I head out to the pool, better get to it!

Have a Beauty-full Day,