Painter Mommy

Fun stuff in the Everyday Life of a Busy Mom & Entrepreneur

Pinterest – Great Place to Find New Family Meal Ideas

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I have recently joined Pinterest and I have already become completely addicted.  Being an artist myself, I love that it is based on all visuals. So, if you are not yet on Pinterest, I am sure you are wondering what it is all about and how in the world can you find meal ideas there?

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.

It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the internet. People use pinboards” for all different things such as planning a wedding, decorating a home, and even organizing recipes.

You can also browse pinboards created by other people.  It is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

A board is a set of pins. A board can be created on any topic and you can add as many pins to a board as you want.  For instance, here are some of my board titles:

  • Childhood Memories – toys and other things that I had and did as a kid
  • Inspiration – for quotes and other inspirational things
  • DIY / Craft Projects
  • Home Decor Ideas
  • My Style – ideas for outfits and color combos
  • Places I would like to visit
  • Books – for books I have read and would like to read
  • Cool Art
  • Jewelry
  • Food Ideas – this is the one I am the most thrilled about

 

Find Food Ideas on Pinterest

Here is an example of what Pinterest looks like when you search under a specific term.  This one was under “recipe ideas”.

As you can see there are a bunch of different images that you can click on that will open the pin and eventually take you to the site where the recipe is located.

I am not a huge fan of cooking and being that I am so busy with work and other things, I don’t often get too creative when I cook.  And my kids always complain anyway.

After getting completely bored with the usual boring meals that I make, I was seeing some very cool meal plan options on Pinterest so I started to pin away.  Just by searching a little bit, I came up with a bunch of new dinner ideas for my family.

Here is a screenshot of my pinboard for “Food Ideas”.  I have found everything from chicken cheese broccoli casserole (which I recently made and came out fab) to stuffed mushrooms and eggplant lasagna.

You have to try it!  Do a search under “Dinner Ideas” and see what you find.  And the neat thing is they are always changing because people are pinning new things all the time.

I love that Pinterest is based on visual images and photos.  It is so much fun and even addicting once you get on and see all of the cool stuff and begin building your own pinboards.

So, if you are in need of dinner ideas for your family, then definitely try Pinterest and be sure to come back and leave me a comment and tell me what new meal you made.   And if you are already on Pinterest, I would love to hear what your favorite thing is about it and leave your Pinterest link so I can follow you!

 

Limiting Sugar Cereal

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I have never been a big fan of sugar cereal.  I guess it comes from my upbringing.  My mom did not allow my brother and I to have much sugar cereal as children.  The main reason was because we were both pretty hyper-active and sugar just made it worse.  So my mom did what she could to limit our sugar intake.  Of course we hated it, I mean what child DOESN’T want to have sugar?  LOL  But now that I have my own children, I totally understand.  A hyper child is NOT easy to deal with.

Well, I also do the same with my children.  I would rather them NOT have sugar cereal for breakfast.  There are lots of healthy alternatives.  Some of the usual cereals that I keep in the house are  Cheerios, Kix, Life, and Rice Krispies.  I am sure those of you on the WIC program notice that those are some of the cereals allowed for purchase.  There is a reason for that.  These are much more healthy than the cereals that are loaded with sugar.

I do not intentionally buy sugar cereals, but every once in a while our church food ministry blesses us with bags of food (huge help in these trying times).  Well, this last time, there were 2 boxes of sugar cereal (Froot Loops and Apple Jacks).  Of course my kids want to eat it EVERY single morning for breakfast and even for snack.

So, I came up with a plan to limit their sugar cereal intake by only allowing them to eat the cereal if it is mixed with a NON sugar cereal.  I have them pour on of the regular cereal in their bowl and then top it off with a small amount of the sugar cereal.  So far this idea is working well.

How about you?   What are your thoughts on sugar cereal?  Do you love it?  Hate it?  Do you think it matters whether or not our children have a healthy breakfast?  Would love to hear your comments!

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