small things

Simplified Dinners {giveaway}

Today’s giveaway is from Mystie, author of Simplified Dinners.  Mystie is a homeschooled homeschooler, married to her high school sweetheart, educating their five children ages ten and under.  She writes at Simply Convivial and Simple Pantry Cooking about homemaking, homeschooling, and managing a home and family well.  You can also find Mystie on Pinterest and Twitter.  Today she is here to share the practical, sanity saving guide she created to help you simplify meal planning!

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Have you noticed that most home management systems claim that having a menu plan is essential? It’s true. Knowing what is for dinner and having the ingredients on hand promotes peace in our minds and homes. But we usually make it harder than it needs to be. With Simplified Dinners, your grocery list never changes and you always have flexible dinner options on hand. This cookbook is intended to provide the home cook with plenty of options for simple but delicious home-cooked meals that require little preparation time and can be made out of a simply, frugally stocked pantry.  And for those of you eating a gluten and dairy free diet, there’s a special guide available for you too!

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I started creating this system six years ago after I gave birth to our third child. I enjoyed cooking, and shopping frugally was one of my hobbies, but after baby three was born, I no longer had the mental energy to page through
recipe cards, cookbooks, bookmarks, keep track of ingredients needed, and remember it at the right time. While I used to be able to keep information in my head, now I found myself lacking the brain power and the energy.
Paring down my pantry, purging my recipes, and printing out the processes freed up my mental energy for other things in life – even making it easier to let the children help in the kitchen!

Being able to walk past 90% of the grocery store’s contents with a peaceful, “Nope, that’s not part of the plan,” is freeing. It even makes shopping with kids easier, because you’re making few decisions on the spot, so you’re more available and present rather than wrapped up in comparing salad dressings or wondering if this or that is a good deal.

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For today’s giveaway Mystie is offering one winner a download of both the regular, gluten- and dairy-free editions of the book.  In addition, receive 30% off the e-book using the discount code smallthings through November 22nd.
For your chance to win, simply leave a comment on this post.  Comments are closed and the winner is Mary, who commented, “I’d love to win.”

Thanks, Mystie!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Simple sounds good I need all the help I can get in the kitchen not a great cook or planner. Thanks!

  8. Oh, I need it for sure. Lately I’ve been skipping cooking, cleaning, laundry for the sake of knitting. I need to get back on track!

  9. I love this idea! and as always thanks for a fantastic blog! I use it as a “treat” at the end of a long work day. Thanks.

  10. oh, this would be just perfect! i love cooking, but with kids around me it all gets too much sometimes. i have a feeling this would help me relax and focus on more important stuff than shopping lists and “what shall i cook today?”. great idea!

  11. This is an amazing idea! We often don’t have a lot on hand to make meals thus requiring many trips to the store-something I want to get out of the habit badly! Thanks for a great giveaway!

  15. Its sounds good, actually it would help me since I am not very good at planning, almost at anything and it would be a start at least with the meals. Thank you!

  29. This is exactly what I need right now. Ginny, you have so many good ideas, references and connections.

  34. You are proof that extra effort at the beginning reaps big rewards at the end! Thanks for the opportunity to win!

  35. I would love to try this. We are dairy free and my husband is gluten free. Meal time is stressful, and this would really help!

  42. I really need help with meal planning – I spend too much $ at the grocery and feel like we never have anything to eat

  48. Who wouldn’t love to win something that would help make meal planning easier! I need all the help I can get these days! Thanks for the opportunity!