Comfort Food Made Easy Every Night

Part of having comfort at home is having something delicious to eat.  Especially something delicious and home-cooked for supper.  But cooking something for supper every night when everyone is busy with work and after-school schedules and meetings is a difficult task.  

How can I make getting a delicious and satisfying meal every night easier?  By menu planning.

Menu planning is something I do occasionally but not always.

When I do plan our Menus, then the world at Ferrell Farm is a happy world. . . . a world of roast, gravy, chicken, and mashed potatoes.

When I don't plan our Menus, then the world at Ferrell Farm is a little less a happy world . . . . it is a world of frozen pizza and corndogs.  Seriously.

I've tried planning our menus on a daily basis.  I've tried planning our menus on a weekly basis.

And I've tried planning our menus on a monthly basis.  I've even used a website that plans the menus and emails them to me with the corresponding grocery list.  The online plan I subscribe to is emeals.com.   

*I am not being compensated by emeals to mention their site. * 

*This is my opinion only and based on my own personal use of their plans.* 

There are lots of advantages and disadvantages to each method. The one I'm using right now is the monthly method.  Sort of.  :)

I made a monthly menu for the months of August and September.  With the beginning of school and then with circuit court, I knew having my meal planned out would be easier and better for my family.  Then  I started on the menu for October, but didn't finish it. 

Tonight I plan to finish the October menu.  I know.  There's less than 10 days left in the month of October, but I'm of the better-late-than-never mindset.  :)

In planning my menus, I sometimes use the emeals menus.  I have downloaded the plans and saved them on my computer.   Between pinterest, emeals, and the Ferrell family favorites, planning our meals isn't really that difficult.  Planning my menus for a month in advance takes a little more time to do, but then you're through with your menu planning for a month.  Also, I am flexible with my menu plan, changing and adapting as I need to during the month. 

I decided to start by making a home-cooked meal tonight for everyone.  I've actually been a little sick the past week or two . . . some kind of sinus thing I think . . . so we've been eating a lot of pizza and corndogs for supper.  :)  
A little less than happy world at Ferrell Farm.

Tonight I cooked a Ferrell favorite:  Spaghetti and garlic bread.

If I can figure out how to post my monthly menu on here, I'll do that . . . in case some of y'all are interested.  And it's also a great reference tool for me to find my recipes if I have it posted on here.

So that's Comfort Food for tonight.  Another aspect of comfort and home that I'm focusing on in this last part of October is the comfort of having less clutter in your home.   Getting rid of clutter has been sweetly referred to by a fellow Mississippi blogger as the  "Decrapification Process".

I started on my Decrapification Process this afternoon.  If you remember last night's BEFORE picture:

See all the stuff packed in there.  The drawers were full too.  Full of video games, card games, board games, and toddler clothes.  The bottom drawer was stuffed with keepsakes from Alex and Zach's years in day care.  It also contained every instruction book for every baby swing, stroller, monitor, and toy we've ever bought for the boys.  Really.

After a good 30 minutes of working on it . . .

Blissfully empty.  You'll be happy to know that I sorted everything in there into 3 main piles: 

1)  Throw Away;  2)  Donate or Give Away  or 3)  Keep

Here's the Keep Pile:

Mostly the board games, card games, and video games.  

I spent another 30 minutes going through the video games. . . . sorting them, etc.

Here are the video games after I sorted through them:

I plan to go through the remaining Keep Pile tomorrow.  I will go through each board game and make sure we have all the pieces before I store it back in the wardrobe.

Missing pieces = goodbye game.  Here's the Keep Pile

I've already delivered the Give Away pile and the Throw Away is already in the garbage can on the side of the road.  Aaahhhh.  Such a good feeling.  

Here's the wardrobe as I leave it tonight:

Now that's a comforting sight!  All the drawers are empty too.

It's been a really good evening here at Ferrell Farm.  In the course of my sorting through the video games and cleaning out the wardrobe, I found some video games and movies that the boys had been looking for and couldn't find.  So the Ferrell boys were really excited and had a great time this afternoon playing some long-lost video games.

Everyone was thrilled with the home-cooked meal of spaghetti and garlic bread for supper, and all the boys quickly got their baths for the night so they could watch a little bit of television before going to bed.  

It's quiet here at home.  Quiet and peaceful and comfortable at Home tonight with 

                                 the Ferrell boys and me!

Check out my other posts from my 31 Day Writing Challenge in October on the topic of "Comfort and Home"  HERE.