Homemaking Organized Blog

One of my best friends is newly pregnant and sent me an SOS. Feeling queasy and out of energy she wanted to know what she could make for hubby for dinner that required 30 minutes or less.

If we weren’t separated by close to 3000 miles I would cook dinner for her. It’s hard when friends move. My friend is a bit of a food and a very into organic and natural foods. She has two freezers stocked with the basics.  But how to turn them into quick meals? She probably has no canned food in her home.

So what’s a girl to do? Admittedly I survived on pizza and tacos when I was pregnant. I couldn’t stomach anything else and the spiciness seemed to settle my stomach.

Quick meals in my home (that don’t com out of the freezer) are…

• Spaghetti with meatballs
• Minestrone soup (I chop quick and go)
• Canned soup and sandwiches (usually on Saturdays)
• Stirfries
• Sauteed chicken with veggies over rice
• Bakes salmon (I find this incredibly easy and it is often our Monday meal)

I’ll be coming back to this topic of course but what does one cook when one can barely stomach food?

 

 

 

Get Quick & Easy Family Dinners Cookbook from Gooseberry Patch for the Kindle free on Amazon. Don’t know how long this will last but it is $0.00 as of this writing.

If you don’t have a Kindle never fear. I don’t either but use the Kindle App on my Macbook.

Check here to see if your device can get a free App for your device.

Gooseberry Patch is offering free downloads of the chapters of their cookbook Circle of Friends (see pic below).

• Click the link which takes you to the page.
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Enjoy!

Thanks MoneySaving Mom

One of my goals this year has been to be a bit more organized about my cooking plans. I do love to cook on the fly but it does help to have a meal plan just in case. My meal plan works more as “just in case” than an everyday rule.  I’m figuring if I keep a list of how we ate for the month it will help with future meal planning. This is a no brainer really. My software does it already for me if I bother to open it. Which I do often because it houses all my favorite dishes. I’m just not the best about the menu planning option.

So beginning on January 9th I started inputting what we ate for breakfast and dinner. This doesn’t really include side dishes, just main dishes. But give me a hand! This took some effort!

If you’re curious we always have fruit with dinner and breakfast. Pears, apples, and/or bananas. Side dishes are usually broccoli, spinach, zucchini, cabbage (I love cabbage), carrots, peas, maybe a salad but not so much in winter, some form of potaoes, rice, pasta, or couscous.

 

Menus

Monday, January 9, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Best Buckwheat Pancakes
DINNER
Sauteed Zuchinni
Lemon Shrimp with Parmesan Rice

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Toast and Scrambled Eggs
DINNER
Stone Soup

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Cream Scones
DINNER
Garlic Lime Chicken

Thursday, January 12, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Cream Scones
DINNER
Apple Sausage with pasta, tomatoes, broccoli, onions

Friday, January 13, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Leftover Scones
DINNER
Spinach Ravioli Bake

Saturday, January 14, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
7 grain cereal and fruit
DINNER
Leftover Stone Soup

Sunday, January 15, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Best Buckwheat Pancakes
DINNER
Chuck Roast in Foil

Monday, January 16, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Best Buckwheat Pancakes
DINNER
Chuck Roast in Foil
These were all leftovers

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
7 Grain Cereal
DINNER
Makeover Pork Chops with Gravy

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Store bought bread, eggs
DINNER
Stovetop Roast Chicken with Lemon-Herb Sauce

Thursday, January 19, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
more store bought bread, eggs
DINNER
Skillet chili mac America’s Test Kitchen

Friday, January 20, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
DINNER
My Version 3 Bean Pasta Soup

Saturday, January 21, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
DINNER
Salmon Quiche

Sunday, January 22, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Best Buckwheat Pancakes
DINNER
Franklins Salmon

Monday, January 23, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Best Buckwheat Pancakes
DINNER
Leftover 3 Bean Soup

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Scrambled Eggs and Toast
DINNER
Lazy Day Lasagne

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

MENU

BREAKFAST
Cranberry Cream Scones
DINNER
Garlic Lime Chicken

Exported from Shop’NCook Menu 4.0

p.s. – if you are interest in a recipe just comment

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So yesterday I mentioned that I’m going to be putting together my own housekeeping card file. Since I have so many irons in the fire I’m going to go about this slowly.

About the Housekeeping Card File System:

You may have heard about this way of setting up your household system from the SideTracked Home Executives.  I first read about in an old Emilie Barnes book but later read the SideTracked Home Executives version too. I tend to gravitate to Emilie Barnes stuff because of her views on making the homemaking process a beautiful one. Things are decorated and made to be attractive not just serviceable and that is how I feel about my Housekeeping Card File.

Yes I could do this in a day with the cards I have on hand and the plastic index card box I already have.

BUT!

I’m one of those that believe that housekeeeping and homemaking comes easier when it’s done with beauty and grace.

I do not want to just slap something together. It will need to be cute and appeal to me to make me want to open it each day.

I have a few of the items needed to put my file together at home. And of course the computer. But I won’t head out to the craft store until tomorrow (Wednesday is library and errands day).  This is going to take me a little while and maybe even a few mishaps. So until then I will give you some eye candy of chore housekeeping index card files (I really don’t know what to call them at this point) around the web.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I finally worked out what my husband calls my “time-and-worry-saving family cabinet.’* I bought a drawer, illustrated herewith, of 3 by 5 inch filing cards. The drawer will hold a thousand cards costing about 75 cents. I divided the cards under subheads which I will classify later, and which, of course, must depend upon the needs of the family. I keep this drawer on the top of my desk, where I can use it every day, and when you see how much information is packed away into that little drawer fifteen inches long I think you will be surprised.” ~Christine Frederick, The New Housekeeping

~~~~~~~~

By now I know, if you are a regular reader of the website or blog, that keeping up with things in the home goes a bit better with a Homemaking Notebook (or is it Home Binder? Or Housekeeping Notebook! Oh goodness I can’t keep track). What ever you call it it can make things run really nice and smooth.

Sometimes we think things like this are brand new and someone just thought of them in the past few years. But truthfully they have been around a while. They went forgotten when homemaking was no longer vogue. And have come out of hibernation again in the last few years because…well goodness it just works!

I’ve worked through a few Homemaking Notebooks in my home trying to improve on them etc. No matter how often I’ve tried though, for my day to day stuff, I need something small and compact. For long term records, schedules, appointments, the binder works well. But for day to day stuff I work within a small comfy cozy space and a spread out full sized binder is just too big.

So the past week or so I’ve decided I want to dust off the idea keeping house with the card file and make one that I LIKE!

I first read about them in my Emilie Barnes books Survival for Busy Women  and More Hours in My Day. Emilie discusses how to put a housekeeping card file together and use them these nifty boxes to organize your home and daily activities. I’ve also read about them in the S.H.E. (Sidetracked Home Executives) books. They are put together a tiny bit differently there. Not much to be an issue but I’m going with the Emilie Barnes version. I believe there are less divider cards and the less the better for me.

By the way if you want to know what I am talking about check out Spring Clean, Year Round. She has put a lot of work into these  lovely boxes.  Since I’m going to “try” to do some customizing in mine I thought I’d better go ahead and make my own. Besides I’ve been really crafty (for me) as of late and this is something I really want to do.

So far what I have in my head is an idea and some templates.

I’ll start talking about the process tomorrow and I’ll post some more about Housekeeping Card Files on the site in the weeks to come.

Stay tuned (oh the quote up top was the vintage part).

 

 

I noticed my friend Roxanne over at HavenofHome has a nifty new blogging schedule. I love her blog because she posts these thoughtful everyday things with occasional (more often than not) touches of the past.

Anyway it got me thinking that I probably should have a blog schedule and get my head out of the clouds. Truly some days I forget I have a blog. Life does intrude you know.

I also like that she has given herself weekends off. That is so important.

So in the interest of keeping organized even on the internet I’m going to try and give myself a blogging schedule because I really like to take action on timely advice such as this. I’m also going to shamelessly copy Roxanne’s ideas for what to post when as this is the sincerest form of flattery. Okay I did change a little bit.

So here is the goal…

• Monday: Vintage Stuff
• Tuesday: Cleaning – or series
• Wednesday: Goals update
• Thursday: Cooking Stuff
• Friday: Crafts of other blog sightings
• Saturday and Sunday: No posts

Here is a tip. Never look for my blog posts in the morning. I’m not a morning person. I may blog at midnight though so you could see it the next morning. This is something I really need to rectify but so far it’s working for me.

So I guess I’d better go do my food stuff blog and write this schedule down so I know what I’m supposed to do.

Do you keep a blog schedule? I guess in the business world it’s called Editorial Schedule.

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