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I'm no food blogger (nor food photographer, clearly, LOL) but this Church Picnic Chicken is our go to recipe when we need a delicious, quick grilled meal in the summertime.  We had a volleyball double header last night and even though we really need to do a shopping trip, and even though it was so late (10:30pm!), we were still able to pull a proper meal out of thin air  and enjoy the heck out of it. If you're local to Johnstown, this is very similar to the St, Gregory Chicken recipe from back in the good 'ole days of summer church picnics.  It's been a few years since we've had one, so I'm not spilling any secrets, right?  Sharing the delicious wealth is how I'm going to think of it.   Ingredients :  4-6 chicken breasts/tenders  1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup vinegar 2 tsp salt Heat grill to medium/high.  Melt the butter and mix in the vinegar and salt to create the marinade. Salt & pepper the chicken.   Use a basting brush to paint the chicken ...

It's the end of another month and I'm getting ready to start my next month's meal planning and grocery list building.  If you read here regularly, you'll know that I do monthly meal plans and we do one big grocery trip a month and supplement produce (and lots of gallons of milk!) throughout as needed. I've been planning my meals monthly for about three-ish years now and it suits my sanity levels come dinnertime.  My method is to plan five meals during the weeknights and mark them in my planner on those particular days.  Weekends are left to leftovers, grandparents house visits, eating out/ordering in, or something we are craving (like buffalo mac&cheese this past weekend!) Now, if we arrive at the actual day and I glance at my planner and for whatever reason have an aversion to whatever it is I had planned weeks ago, I skim the rest of the week's plans and swap the days' dinners.  And sometimes if we're having a particularly difficult day (kid tantr...

The start of another month means another meal planning session to cover us for the next four weeks.  My monthly meal planning is an essential piece in Tabitha's Sanity plan (hah) as it wipes out that daily panic come dinnertime about what I'm making and what this family of ours is eating.  In big part, thanks to Pinterest, I have enough recipes to keep me usually not bored with meals and also enough I-know-the-kids-won't-whine-about-this family favorites to get us by each month. As a mealplanner, I would always suggest to mommas out there that hate that nightly panic about dinner to try planning out meals in advance (or mommas looking to save some money in the food department).  Monthly plan works for me because I hate (triple hate, loathe) going grocery shopping and spending time pondering about food prep.  but if you've never done it before, planning by the month probably seems daunting.  You can start with just trying one meal/day a week.  Or jump for th...

Something about the cooler weather gets me in a much better mindset at meal planning.  I don't want to jinx myself but we've been in a little bit of a roll over here for meals and kids actually eating.  We haven't had any leftovers in days! And I'm still incorporating the lessons for myself that I learned in 21day fix about portions and eating to fuel my body in the best way possible.  I'm hoping to get back into a regular workout routine too, but I'm not quite there yet with our daily schedule.   Here's what we have on the docket for the month.  I have some fall-themed ideas for some breakfasts and desserts through out too.  We also have Brandon's birthday, our anniversary, and Halloween!  So much fun that can be celebrated through food and meal times.  Happy dining to you all! October meal plan: October 3-7: M: Chicken, Stuffing & veggies casserole T: (National Taco Day!) ground beef Tacos W: Birthday Beer Pairing dinner with Gigi & Papp...

With back to school and the weather (incrementally) cooling off each day, I was happy to get this next month's meal planning done.  Am I the only one that sometimes doesn't even feel like eating when it's so hot outside, let alone cooking!  It's time to get back in the kitchen and getting our weekly dinners more regular now that Grey and I are both back to school - and all of the fall activities we have lined up (football! Violet's birthday! homework!) My main goal this month was for it to be mostly easy to make the meals (still getting a hang of this part-time working, full time mom'ing of four thing) and as usual, meals that the kids aren't going to complain about too much. For the past three years, I've planned out our meals for the week nights and leave the other two meals to left overs, random stuff we dig out of the freezer, or grandmas' houses visits :)  Brandon usually takes nightly leftovers as his lunch to work (if there are any). I was tal...

I finished meal planning for June yesterday with the knowledge that all the while we will have our new little baby here for the meals, probably sleeping, but still - we will be all together. I love that part of the ending of pregnancy when you start seeing dates and thinking to yourself, 'oh, our baby will be here'  Like even the perishables in our fridge have an expiration date that exceeds our new baby.  With the excitement and blessings that a new baby brings, I am also feeling deeply grateful while meal planning after the big kids and I attended our first Empty Bowls event last week.  One of the local high school's key clubs spent the last few months creating hundreds of pottery bowls all for the special night.  Greyson, Gemma, and I each got to choose a bowl we liked best and then had a meal of soup, bread, and drinks where the proceeds went to local organizations that help combat homelessness and hunger.  The kids love their new bowls and literally keep s...