Simplified Pantry sent me three of their e-books to review recently. I have been blessed to read Mystie’s Simplified Dinners ($12.99) book, Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free ($12.99) book, and my personal favorite the Paperless Organization ($3.99) . I have loved making the switch from my original household notebook that I have used for years and written about often here on the blog to the paperless one that is outlined in this e-book.
It was a tedious process that took a whole morning to do but Mystie walks you through setting up each account and syncing them together in such a way as to make it totally doable for even the most illiterate of technology users. She even includes screen shots to help you and gives you step by step instructions through the whole process! And she only uses free apps that are available for both Android and Apple devices. So, you can’t go wrong.
There has been a bit of a learning curve I will be honest with you. But at this point I say it has been worth the extra time and effort. My favorite feature of the whole thing is the ability to have endless lists going at the same time, and I don’t loose them and don’t forget them at home. I can have lists for different stores, and for church and home. And because I shop once a month and use mostly the same ingredients each month I can reuse my list and my meal plan over and over again while easily making changes to it as the need arises. Using the calendar feature has also helped me to not overbook myself, and to be better about writing down deadlines for the blog, bills, and appointments as well as play dates, soccer games, and even tasks that must be done at a certain time on a certain day. While I am still learning all the in’s and out’s of each app I am enjoying it and I can see the huge benefit of it as well. Because now, I have a place to organize links for school books that I am interested in and unit studies that I want to do. And since it is all digital it is as simple as copy and paste. Digital does have its benefits for sure!!
In the Simplified Dinners cookbook I found a style of cookbook that I had never seen in print before and yet it so closely resembled my own style of shopping and cooking that I thoroughly enjoyed gleaning even more ways to streamline my meal planning and dinner preparation methods. The whole premise of this book is to keep your pantry stocked with a list of simple and frugal ingredients and then build your meals off of this list. Using this list allows you to pass up many aisles in the store and to avoid the temptation of the boxed and frozen meals, the specialty sauces and seasonings, and will help you not to find lots of half used bottles of such things in your pantry and freezer.
These books also are different in that each section begins with a process and then lists several meal options that use this process. For example, you can use the process for cooking a roast in the crock pot and then follow the recipe for barbecued pork or savory beef depending on what cut of meat was on sale that week at the store. I fell in love with these books at this point. I am such a HUG frugal sale shopper that any cookbook that helps me to shop the sales and still have a meal plan for the month is my kind of cookbook. And there truly is something for every family in these books. She has pages for bean dishes, Mexican style meals, vegetables, and pastas too! And if your family has very specific dietary needs she offers the great gluten free/ dairy free edition of her book as well.
These books are easy reads and yet thorough and informative. Mystie has done a great job with these e-books. She has kept the pricing affordable and the wording easy to read and understand. They are great resources that would be great wedding shower gifts at this time of year or a great gift for a friend that is starting their own business. And to make this an even more affordable and convenient gift Mystie is offering 30% off readers enter TOS2013 at checkout. The discount will work on any or all of the eBooks, from May 20 through June 3rd.
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