Silicon Valley Suburb Life and Meal Planning

The last time I blogged, I was living in San Francisco dealing with a destroyed kitchen. Fast-forward to today, and my family has moved south to Sunnyvale to be closer to my husband's work, but we're settling in quite comfortably in the much-dreaded suburbs. But no worries, it's still the bay area and there are plenty of fun things for families to do in the South Bay! I'm even enjoying being a two-car family, which is necessary for suburb life. While cruising around in my mama-ride, I've been exploring and running into Indian markets, Japanese markets, Chinese markets, larger-than-usual Whole Food markets, and farmers' markets. Living in San Francisco is a food paradise, but there was so much inner-city traffic and parking was always a fierce competition. Now it's easy wide-street! Okay, not really, but it is nice having a little more room and easier access to a greater variety of food sources. We are feeling grateful.

After settling in a bit and feeling the fog of baby brain finally dissipate, I've been trying something that really helps save time -- and money — when it comes to feeding the family. I've been meal planning. The first two weeks I created a Google Spreadsheet and fumbled with the cells between my iPhone and laptop, but then I found something so much easier that I haven't yet stopped this money-and-time saving practice. AnyList is a mobile app that allows users to create reminder lists and share them so that two people can use the same list (like a grocery list) and update in realtime. My husband and I have tried other apps, but this one is superior. As if I didn't like this app enough, AnyList is also the best way to meal plan. I can create recipes or import recipes from online then simply add them to my meal plan. I can add the ingredients to my grocery list straight from the recipe. I'm kind of a geek when it comes to using new technology to live life more conveniently. I keep trying new apps, but this one is hands-down, one of my favorite and most useful apps. As a mom and home chef, I'm in love with this app! Can you tell?

​Check out my little step-by-step process below for how I added Food52's Quinoa and Kale Crustless Quiche recipe to my AnyList. Later I cooked a version of the recipe for my own family. Of course I snapped it and shared it on Facebook. Here's my version of the recipe I promised my friends: Kale and Quinoa Crustless Quiche