Making Dinner Easy - Prep Now, Save Time later

If you are anything like me, you love to cook, but by the time dinner rolls around, you are tuckered out and not in the mood for the prep, cooking, and dishes to wash. I cook most of my meals from scratch, and have a few tips on how to make the task more manageable. First, I do a weekly meal plan. This way, I only have to think about what I am making once a week, and I never buy more than I need at the grocery store. This was born out of necessity after one too many $200.00 trips to the grocery store, only to find I had nothing to eat.
Also, I prep in advance. I have to do my dishes by hand, and this can become a monumental task if I do them all at once. I am the type of person who eats, and is done for the day - as much as I try to force myself to do the dishes promptly after dinner so I can wake up to a clean kitchen, it never happens. Instead, I generally wake up and stumble to get my coffee, shoving dishes out of the way in a kitchen so messy and full of pots and pans that it looks like the contestants of Top Chef just completed a quickfire challenge in there.
So my solution has become prepping/cooking in the morning or during nap time, so everything is ready to go for dinner with minimal clean-up. I am far more motivated to wash the dishes I use during the day than I am at 7:00 at night, and it helps me to get dinner on the table in a more timely manner, rather than underestimating the prep time of a meal and having it take 2 hours.
You can cut your veggies far in advance, stored in plastic bags or containers for meals you are making that week, wash your produce when you get it home from the store, check your meal plan so you can pull your meats from the freezer to thaw, etc.
For instance, today I am making chicken alfredo for dinner. So this morning I roasted and cut up the chicken. Now at dinner, I only have to throw pasta in a pot and make the sauce. If I am making tacos, I roast or poach the chicken, then shred it and toss it in the fridge. That way, at dinnertime I only have to re-heat it in a pan with the taco seasoning and serve.
For me, it is much easier to find the motivation to do the prep work of cooking at 11am than it is at 5pm, and it makes the dishwashing fly by.
Here's a tip on food safety: If you forget to thaw your meat the night before, and do it in the microwave, it must be cooked immediately to prevent food borne illness. Please do not thaw meats in the microwave and then put them in the refrigerator while they are still raw.

If you are anything like me, you love to cook, but by the time dinner rolls around, you are tuckered out and not in the mood for the prep, cooking, and dishes to wash. I cook most of my meals from scratch, and have a few tips on how to make the task more manageable. First, I do a weekly meal plan. This way, I only have to think about what I am making once a week, and I never buy more than I need at the grocery store. This was born out of necessity after one too many $200.00 trips to the grocery store, only to find I had nothing to eat.
Also, I prep in advance. I have to do my dishes by hand, and this can become a monumental task if I do them all at once. I am the type of person who eats, and is done for the day - as much as I try to force myself to do the dishes promptly after dinner so I can wake up to a clean kitchen, it never happens. Instead, I generally wake up and stumble to get my coffee, shoving dishes out of the way in a kitchen so messy and full of pots and pans that it looks like the contestants of Top Chef just completed a quickfire challenge in there.
So my solution has become prepping/cooking in the morning or during nap time, so everything is ready to go for dinner with minimal clean-up. I am far more motivated to wash the dishes I use during the day than I am at 7:00 at night, and it helps me to get dinner on the table in a more timely manner, rather than underestimating the prep time of a meal and having it take 2 hours.
You can cut your veggies far in advance, stored in plastic bags or containers for meals you are making that week, wash your produce when you get it home from the store, check your meal plan so you can pull your meats from the freezer to thaw, etc.
For instance, today I am making chicken alfredo for dinner. So this morning I roasted and cut up the chicken. Now at dinner, I only have to throw pasta in a pot and make the sauce. If I am making tacos, I roast or poach the chicken, then shred it and toss it in the fridge. That way, at dinnertime I only have to re-heat it in a pan with the taco seasoning and serve.
For me, it is much easier to find the motivation to do the prep work of cooking at 11am than it is at 5pm, and it makes the dishwashing fly by.
Here's a tip on food safety: If you forget to thaw your meat the night before, and do it in the microwave, it must be cooked immediately to prevent food borne illness. Please do not thaw meats in the microwave and then put them in the refrigerator while they are still raw.

The Long Awaited Thank You Cards

So, I finally made them. Don't get too excited - they have yet to be addressed and mailed; however, since today is Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday, I have two days to get it done. Of course I had to go buy new embossing powder, since I am a perfectionist, and of course I ended up using a powder I already had.
I went through several designs, and then ran out of white cardstock. Just as I was about to scrap the whole idea due to not having the perfect paper, I tried it on some ivory cards I had. I loved it! Here is the final design, along with some of the preliminary ones. You can't tell so much from the pics, but the ivory cards have blue embossed snowflakes, and the white have blue/silver embossed.

So, I finally made them. Don't get too excited - they have yet to be addressed and mailed; however, since today is Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday, I have two days to get it done. Of course I had to go buy new embossing powder, since I am a perfectionist, and of course I ended up using a powder I already had.
I went through several designs, and then ran out of white cardstock. Just as I was about to scrap the whole idea due to not having the perfect paper, I tried it on some ivory cards I had. I loved it! Here is the final design, along with some of the preliminary ones. You can't tell so much from the pics, but the ivory cards have blue embossed snowflakes, and the white have blue/silver embossed.

The Room I Dread

I finally packed up the Christmas tree and decorations today (yes, I know it is January 12th). If any of you are wondering, no, the thank you cards have not been sent out, since I have once again fallen into my usual trap of waiting to make them by hand. I'll keep you posted on that feat!
I have now decided to turn my attention to the room I dread - the spare room.
It is supposed to be my crafts room, and I tell you what, there are quite a few crafting supplies in there, but by no means is it a craft room. It is the catch all room, and I would like to see if I can get it organized and orderly.
I know, somewhere amongst the clutter lies my beloved Cricut, endless spools of ribbon, embellishments for scrapbooking, and other surprises. Unfortunately, right now it looks like a scene out of the show Hoarders.
The sad part is that this clutter room is in addition to a large storage unit filled with more clutter, and I go back and forth - do I clear out the storage unit, or the clutter room? I need a week and a full time nanny if I want to do both at the same time, not to mention several trips to the dump.
I have decided to take on the craft room, to turn it into a craft haven, all while on a budget.
I'll keep you posted along the road to having a great craft room on a tiny budget.
To begin, this is how it looks now:

I finally packed up the Christmas tree and decorations today (yes, I know it is January 12th). If any of you are wondering, no, the thank you cards have not been sent out, since I have once again fallen into my usual trap of waiting to make them by hand. I'll keep you posted on that feat!
I have now decided to turn my attention to the room I dread - the spare room.
It is supposed to be my crafts room, and I tell you what, there are quite a few crafting supplies in there, but by no means is it a craft room. It is the catch all room, and I would like to see if I can get it organized and orderly.
I know, somewhere amongst the clutter lies my beloved Cricut, endless spools of ribbon, embellishments for scrapbooking, and other surprises. Unfortunately, right now it looks like a scene out of the show Hoarders.
The sad part is that this clutter room is in addition to a large storage unit filled with more clutter, and I go back and forth - do I clear out the storage unit, or the clutter room? I need a week and a full time nanny if I want to do both at the same time, not to mention several trips to the dump.
I have decided to take on the craft room, to turn it into a craft haven, all while on a budget.
I'll keep you posted along the road to having a great craft room on a tiny budget.
To begin, this is how it looks now:

Competitive Child Rearing as a Sport - How to keep it a Spectator Sport.

It starts when you find out you are having a baby - at least for many first time moms, there is so much information available at the tips of your fingers, what stroller to buy, whether or not to co-sleep, homebirths, vaccinations, the perfect Pottery Barn crib and bedding.
There are also opinions. On one hand, having so much information is a huge benefit, and it certainly seems that today's parents are more well informed than ever before. The difference today is that everywhere you go, parenting seems to have become a sport, a barrage of "little Johnny is speaking 7 languages and he is only 2", or "my nursery cost us 20,000 and we brought in a designer from Italy". It is all too easy to get sucked into this world or at least the idea of it, since as parents we all want the best for our kids.
When I was pregnant, I bought into some of this, thankfully not all of it. Nevertheless, when my son was born, he and I lined up, with him strapped into his Maclaren stroller, ready at the starting line to engage our competitors. And you know what? It never happened.
You see, competitive child rearing is only a sport if you choose to play and if you surround yourself with others already in the competition. You have to engage it, you have to choose to participate. I chose not to, which is not to say that I don't observe other parents or children who are similar in age, or wonder if my son is as socially adept as others, etc. What I am saying is that one day, if the neighbor throws one of those seemingly ever popular birthday parties for a one year old with 20 live giraffes and a 3,000 square foot bouncy house, I'm not going to try to match it. I don't care. Nor will I worry that I am scarring my child for life by not providing the same fanfare. Treat those parties like a trip to the zoo or a carnival. Your child wouldn't expect to bring the zoo or carnival home, so use that as reasoning why he or she isn't going to have the performers from Cirque du Soleil give a private performance at his or her party.
If you are engaged in such a battle with other competitive parents, try not to complain or feel inadequate, just change your mindset to enjoying the sport from the bleachers. If we engage such behavior, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

It starts when you find out you are having a baby - at least for many first time moms, there is so much information available at the tips of your fingers, what stroller to buy, whether or not to co-sleep, homebirths, vaccinations, the perfect Pottery Barn crib and bedding.
There are also opinions. On one hand, having so much information is a huge benefit, and it certainly seems that today's parents are more well informed than ever before. The difference today is that everywhere you go, parenting seems to have become a sport, a barrage of "little Johnny is speaking 7 languages and he is only 2", or "my nursery cost us 20,000 and we brought in a designer from Italy". It is all too easy to get sucked into this world or at least the idea of it, since as parents we all want the best for our kids.
When I was pregnant, I bought into some of this, thankfully not all of it. Nevertheless, when my son was born, he and I lined up, with him strapped into his Maclaren stroller, ready at the starting line to engage our competitors. And you know what? It never happened.
You see, competitive child rearing is only a sport if you choose to play and if you surround yourself with others already in the competition. You have to engage it, you have to choose to participate. I chose not to, which is not to say that I don't observe other parents or children who are similar in age, or wonder if my son is as socially adept as others, etc. What I am saying is that one day, if the neighbor throws one of those seemingly ever popular birthday parties for a one year old with 20 live giraffes and a 3,000 square foot bouncy house, I'm not going to try to match it. I don't care. Nor will I worry that I am scarring my child for life by not providing the same fanfare. Treat those parties like a trip to the zoo or a carnival. Your child wouldn't expect to bring the zoo or carnival home, so use that as reasoning why he or she isn't going to have the performers from Cirque du Soleil give a private performance at his or her party.
If you are engaged in such a battle with other competitive parents, try not to complain or feel inadequate, just change your mindset to enjoying the sport from the bleachers. If we engage such behavior, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

New Year's Resolutions

The time is upon us - the time of year when we sit down and make unrealistic goals for the New Year. We cavalierly set our timers for January first, somehow believing that if we make something a resolution, we will now accomplish it. Of course, if the goal had been that important to us in the first place, we would have done it a long time ago. Somehow, the idea of beginning a transformation is easier to swallow if we wrap it up with the new year.
I have never been big on New Years resolutions, given that I know myself and my penchant for not only procrastination but laziness. Last year, however, I did make a resolution. It was to be a better communicator. I wanted to be better at staying in touch with the people I loved, which has long been a problem for me. I accomplished this task, but truth be told, it was because I finally gave in and got a Facebook account, which takes the work out of it.

Having such success has inspired me to once again make a resolution, but where do I start? There are so many things I want to change, want to do, want to stop doing. To say the choices are overwhelming would be an understatement.
Thus I have decided to begin with a 30 day project, rather than fool myself into thinking I can maintain a total personality makeover for an entire year.
The 30 day project will include the following:
Doing the workout "30 day shred" - I started this before, but quit after 10 days for reasons unknown to me
I will also re-start the Flylady's 30 days of babysteps. Again. If you aren't familiar with Flylady, I highly suggest you check her out, that is if you are like me and have problems with organization and perfectionism.

That is it. Maybe if I can accomplish those two goals for 30 days, I can move on to the rest of the things I would like to fix in 2010.

The time is upon us - the time of year when we sit down and make unrealistic goals for the New Year. We cavalierly set our timers for January first, somehow believing that if we make something a resolution, we will now accomplish it. Of course, if the goal had been that important to us in the first place, we would have done it a long time ago. Somehow, the idea of beginning a transformation is easier to swallow if we wrap it up with the new year.
I have never been big on New Years resolutions, given that I know myself and my penchant for not only procrastination but laziness. Last year, however, I did make a resolution. It was to be a better communicator. I wanted to be better at staying in touch with the people I loved, which has long been a problem for me. I accomplished this task, but truth be told, it was because I finally gave in and got a Facebook account, which takes the work out of it.

Having such success has inspired me to once again make a resolution, but where do I start? There are so many things I want to change, want to do, want to stop doing. To say the choices are overwhelming would be an understatement.
Thus I have decided to begin with a 30 day project, rather than fool myself into thinking I can maintain a total personality makeover for an entire year.
The 30 day project will include the following:
Doing the workout "30 day shred" - I started this before, but quit after 10 days for reasons unknown to me
I will also re-start the Flylady's 30 days of babysteps. Again. If you aren't familiar with Flylady, I highly suggest you check her out, that is if you are like me and have problems with organization and perfectionism.

That is it. Maybe if I can accomplish those two goals for 30 days, I can move on to the rest of the things I would like to fix in 2010.

Thank you cards and Miss Manners

I should tell you that I love Miss Manners - LOVE her. For leisure, I snuggle in with my mother's old copy of her "Guide to Rearing Perfect Children". I am not kidding. Those who know me will find this surprising, since I seem to focus more attention on the art of being blunt than the art of proper manners. But I digress. I understand the point of thank you cards, and I wish more people did. I, for one, spend countless hours designing perfect thank you cards, carefully cutting out the tiniest details with my Cricut, using every scrapbook embellishment I have to make the most exceptional card one could ever receive. Which is nice, since they will never receive them. You see, I never actually send them out. I spend all year planning out the perfect Christmas thank you cards, imagining the glittering snowflake scenes and embossed gold lettering, always with the intention of sending them out promptly after the holidays. This has not happened once.
Sometimes, I wonder if sending thank-you's for Christmas is appropriate or neccesary. I have been informed by my family that indeed it is. I come from a long line of prompt thank you sender-outers, which further cements my place as the black sheep.
So this year it will happen. They may be generic, rather than hand pieced works of art, but they will be sent out. So what are we up to now? Bathing, putting on nice clothes, and sending out thank you's.
Well, it's a start. Although I should mention that it is the 16th of December and I have yet to begin on my Christmas cards, so chances are the Christmas cards and Thank- You's will go out in the same mailing.

I should tell you that I love Miss Manners - LOVE her. For leisure, I snuggle in with my mother's old copy of her "Guide to Rearing Perfect Children". I am not kidding. Those who know me will find this surprising, since I seem to focus more attention on the art of being blunt than the art of proper manners. But I digress. I understand the point of thank you cards, and I wish more people did. I, for one, spend countless hours designing perfect thank you cards, carefully cutting out the tiniest details with my Cricut, using every scrapbook embellishment I have to make the most exceptional card one could ever receive. Which is nice, since they will never receive them. You see, I never actually send them out. I spend all year planning out the perfect Christmas thank you cards, imagining the glittering snowflake scenes and embossed gold lettering, always with the intention of sending them out promptly after the holidays. This has not happened once.
Sometimes, I wonder if sending thank-you's for Christmas is appropriate or neccesary. I have been informed by my family that indeed it is. I come from a long line of prompt thank you sender-outers, which further cements my place as the black sheep.
So this year it will happen. They may be generic, rather than hand pieced works of art, but they will be sent out. So what are we up to now? Bathing, putting on nice clothes, and sending out thank you's.
Well, it's a start. Although I should mention that it is the 16th of December and I have yet to begin on my Christmas cards, so chances are the Christmas cards and Thank- You's will go out in the same mailing.

So, Which Desperate Housewife are You?

I recently started watching Desperate Housewives, being behind the times as I am, and I wonder this often. Aside from the murders, sudden deaths, criminals, etc. it is somewhat accurate. I find that I strive to be Bree (minus the drama), but usually ending up feeling like Susan, or worse yet, Lynette. I don't think anyone wants to be Lynette. So which are you, and who would you rather be?

I recently started watching Desperate Housewives, being behind the times as I am, and I wonder this often. Aside from the murders, sudden deaths, criminals, etc. it is somewhat accurate. I find that I strive to be Bree (minus the drama), but usually ending up feeling like Susan, or worse yet, Lynette. I don't think anyone wants to be Lynette. So which are you, and who would you rather be?