More Decluttering - People Actually Get Rid of Books?!?!

Because I like decluttering my house and I live with people who like to keep me busy by cluttering up the previously decluttered,  I spend a lot of time reading about organizing.  Lately a lot of people online have been talking about "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up".  I was tempted to buy it but there is so much online about it, I don't feel like I really need to.

I followed along as people on You Tube purged their clothes.  Easy - I do this on a regular basis anyway.  I even went through my daughter's clothes (with her help, I didn't just get rid of her clothes on my own!).  She was able to get rid of 75% of her pants!  We condensed all her stuff from 2 closets down to one and emptied 2 dresser drawers.

Then everyone online started doing their make up and jewelry collections.  I only have a couple pairs of earrings, 2 necklaces and one bracelet so that was unnecessary.  I also have only one basket that holds all my make up but, for a laugh, I went through it and actually found some things to get rid of.

Not sure why I was digging around these items everyday to get to the things I actually use.

But then it came to books.  I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to get rid of books, ever.  Right?  That has to be a rule somewhere.  I love my books.  I love reading them, I love holding them, I love looking at them.  (I also talk about my love of books in my birthday post.)  We have bookcases in almost every room of our house.  In the family room I keep my old hardback books which I use as decoration (I have actually read all of them).  The other bookcases are hidden away in spare rooms and the basement.  I ran out of space quite a while ago and slowly started filling the computer room closet, hall closet and my bedroom closet.  I was considering buying more bookshelves but then I was forced to admit that I probably didn't need to keep all these books.

A couple weekends ago, I grabbed a bag and quickly looked through my books.  I was shocked that I was able to relatively quickly and painlessly come up with 4 bags of books that I didn't think I'd ever look at again.  Then I had my daughter go through her one bookcase and she came up with 4 more bags.  Hers was a little easier because she is 18 but still had books in there for 3rd graders.

My husband is not a reader but when he saw what I was doing, he immediately protested.  Turns out he likes having the books around, just to look at apparently!  I promised him that the bookshelves would still look quite full and that I wasn't touching any of the old, hardback books in the family room.

Then the question was what to do with the books.  We found a group called Better World Books.  They resell what books they can and donate others to libraries, schools and hospitals.  A portion of the money they raise goes to help various literacy programs.  I did some research and felt pretty good about them so that is where our 8 bags of once loved but no longer needed books went.

So far it seems that I have survived although I do have an urge to buy more books!

Catch-All Room

Despite what feels like constant chaos in my house, I love decluttering and organizing the different areas whether it is a room, closet, or just a drawer.  There are certain parts that I've done over and over but there is one room that I have put off because it was so overwhelming.  I wish I had thought to take pictures before we cleared the room.  It is truly impossible to even imagine how bad it was.  But I guess that is why there aren't any pictures!  I did find a couple to show that it was actually a functioning room at one time.

This room used to be my daughter's room (as you can see from the random Winnie the Pooh items).  When she was about 8 years old we moved her down the hall to what was then a spare bedroom.  That's when the disaster started.  First, we took the water bed that was in the other room and put it in this room.  The problem is that we didn't actually set it up as a bed so we started piling boxes and general junk into the big open bed frame.  Finally, we came to terms with the fact that we weren't going to have (nor did we really need) a spare bedroom and got rid of the water bed.  We decided to use the room as a "study room" for Kayleigh.  We set up my parent's old kitchen table for her to do her homework.  A couple months later, she got a sewing machine for her birthday so it became her sewing room.  Then a few year's ago, she really got into baking so the table was used to store all her baking supplies.  

Kayleigh sewing back when you could actually see the top of the table.  

There was even enough room for the ironing board.

Through all this, the room served several other purposes as well including a place to feed the cats, store Bill's bowling and bike supplies, keep the paper recycling, and general junk collection place.   We used to clear the table off every year for Christmas and use it as a second table for the food.

Here is the best I could do for a disaster picture.  I took this last year to show Kayleigh's cake decorating supplies organization.  Yes, we tried to organize in the middle of a big mess.  We were trying at least! You can barely even notice what we were trying to show because there is also a tower of scrapbooking paper, a bike wheel, a bowling bag, a random cup from when I was in college, and a tea pot.  You'll have to just imagine what the other 90% of the room looked like!

Eventually that became too much of a hassle so we just started shutting the door. When we were remodeling the family room and computer room, we started simply piling everything from those rooms into any open space in here.  Then, as I decided not to move some of the stuff back into the original rooms, they started to collect dust.   It was terrible.  It was almost impossible to even find an open spot to feed the cats.  The worst part is that you look straight into this room when you walk in the house.  

One day about 2 months ago, I decided I'd had enough and started clearing everything out of the room.  We took the table down and then looked around at the space.  We decided that the bowling and biking stuff would get permanently removed and that the other items needed to be better contained.  Kayleigh and I ran to Target for something completely different but stumbled across these shelving units that were on sale.  Then we found the bins and everything came together.  

Recycling is still there but hidden in that basket in the corner.  This unit has several of our larger items that used to be under the table including a pressure cooker, serving dishes and Kayleigh's sewing machine,  And, of course, there is always Dot!

This is the other shelving unit.  We managed to get tons of stuff hidden into those containers but it is still all very accessible.  My scrapbooking supplies are to the left.

One of these is holding Bill's extra water bottles and the other is actually empty!

There are Kayleigh's baking supply drawers that we were trying to show off before.

All the other, larger, baking items are in these.  

Here's inside one.  I couldn't believe everything fit so well.

 

Just for reference, that is the main door to our house as seen through the kitchen.

And this is what you see now from the kitchen.  Much better.  And there is Dot, again,.

The room still isn't perfect.  You'll notice a huge piece of drywall still pushed against the wall (not sure what that was even bought for) but it is so much better.  Every time I walk in this room or even just glance in from the kitchen, I feel so good.  I wish I had done this years ago but better late than never!  

The dry wall along with Dot.  Can you tell it was almost dinner time when I took the pictures.  She couldn't figure out why I was in there without her food bowl!

Please tell me I'm not the only one with a energy draining junk pile in their house.  I guess all that is left now is to tackle the basement, or maybe the garage!

Spice Organization

This is a really simple idea but something that has saved us so much time and frustration.  We use a lot of different spices and I've tried a million different ways to keep them organized.  Ours are in this cabinet in our kitchen:

The problem is that you are looking down at the tops of the lids when you open the cabinet.  That means we had to pick each bottle up and read the name, then put it back until we finally found what we were looking for.

I've tried organizing them by type of spice, size of jar, alphabetically.  The problem was that they always get messed up after a few meals.  A few years ago I brought a different brand of turmeric and were thrilled to see that they printed the name on the top of the lid.  Each of us would often say "why can't they all be like this"?  One day I was again rearranging the spices and decided to just go for it and label the tops of all the lids.  Kayleigh soon came in to help.  When Bill saw what we were doing, his reaction was "That is FANTASTIC"!  I thinking looking for spices was his most hated part of cooking!  We did this over a month ago and it still looks great and is working perfect.

We decided to keep the font large and abbreviate the name so that they were easier to see.  When we run out of a spice, we either switch the lids, if it is the same brand, or move it to the old container.  We could always make a new label but I'm hoping to avoid that when possible.

This is the label machine we have if anyone is interested.  It is really easy to use.  Warning - it will make you want to label everything in your house!

Label Maker

Vacation - Food

From June 19th through the 29th, we were in Wisconsin for the Tour of America's Dairyland.  Bill has been racing for about 10 years now but he had never done more than a few races during a weekend.  Last year he did 3 or 4 of these races but we thought it would be interesting for him to compete in the full 10-day series.

Personally I am not at all spontaneous and really prefer to stick to my routine.  I've learned to deal with my stress by controlling everything I can!  My main concern for this trip was our food.  I really don't feel well when I eat restaurant food and you can never be too sure if there will be any vegan options other than a side salad.  Bill added another issue to the food plan because, since he would be racing every day, we had to make sure he got enough calories and the right kind of foods to keep him going.  Thank goodness Kayleigh has no issues when it comes to food - two troublemakers are more than enough for any family!

Bill ate lots of bananas.

Because of this we chose to stay in a hotel that offers full kitchens.  Our particular suite had a 2-burner stove, microwave, full fridge/freezer and a dishwasher.  There was also a community grill available.  Although pots, pans, plates, silverware, etc. were provided, we brought along our own pasta pot because Bill eats A LOT of pasta when he is racing.  It took a little maneuvering but we finally figured out how to get it to work in the very tight kitchen.  We also brought along several other small appliances, some more useful than others.  In the future, we can reduce the list quite a bit and save tons of space in the car.

Rice cooker - very helpful, especially since there were only 2 burners.  That's a keeper.
Vitamix blender - another must have.  I used it every morning (probably to the horror of our neighbors) for my smoothies.
Food processor - didn't use
Waffle maker - didn't use.  Turns out the hotel had a free breakfast.  I had my smoothies for breakfast and Kayleigh can eat dairy so she just made waffles downstairs.  I actually didn't notice what Bill ate except for potatoes but he also ate downstairs.
Stick blender - Actually didn't use.  If I wanted to be more considerate and not so noisy, I could have used this instead of the Vitamix, but for whatever reason, I didn't.
Popcorn popper - Leave at home!  Bill just got a new popper and the whole trip up there and back I was scared we were going to break it.  It seemed to always be balanced so that it could easily fall out of the truck when we opened the back hatch.  Somehow it didn't break but Bill only used it once.  He admitted he really only used it because it was there.  We thought he would snack more but he didn't.
Large skillet - We ended up not using it because it didn't really fit on the stove.

So I guess next time we bring just the rice cooker, Vitamix, and pasta pot.  That will help so much when packing the car!  I can't really think of anything that we regretted not bringing.

I tried really hard not to bring too much food with us.  We arrived late Thursday so I figured we needed stuff for breakfast and lunch the next day but then we could get to a grocery store after the first race (they were mostly at around 1 PM).  We also brought a few things  that I wasn't sure if we could get such as non-dairy milk, tofu, tempeh, etc.  Plus we had our favorite energy bars and supplies for PB&Js, but we take that stuff even when we are only going to be gone for a few hours!

Bread, smoothie (vegan!), cookies (non-vegan), kale, beets with beautiful greens,

 asparagus, broccoli, and parsley.

I had researched local farmer's markets. Saturday morning there was one in the town where our hotel was (Oconomowoc).  It was fantastic!  There was so much great produce that we barely needed anything from the grocery store.  We had to get a little creative when cooking though.  I never realized how much we put in the oven.  Luckily we brought foil so we made little packets of the vegetables.

The only seasonings we had were salt, pepper, and lemon juice but it all turned out pretty good.  During the trip Kayleigh discovered a love of grilled potatoes.  Unfortunately we don't have a grill at home but she ate plenty during the trip.  I also made a few sautees.  One was just beet greens, my favorite, but without my hot sauce, it wasn't the same.

Later in the week, I needed to use up the last of the produce so I sauteed tempeh, kale, and broccoli with some stir fry sauce we bought at the grocery store.

We ate out more than we wanted but tried to keep it healthy.  On Saturday we stuck around at the race site longer than expected so we stopped at a vegetarian restaurant.  It is called Cafe Manna and I've never been anywhere like it.  We have vegetarian restaurants in Chicago (not many but some) but they mostly serve diner type food, just vegan.  This was actual food.  I had a curry with eggplant, zucchini, and squash served with quinoa and rice.

Bill and Kayleigh both got pretzel-coated tempeh with mashed potatoes and green beans.

The fork wasn't as long as it looks!

It was like the food I make at home!  Kayleigh really liked hers.  Bill was always hungry so everything tasted good to him!  We also ate at PF Changs one day which was delicious as well.

We always took a packed lunch with us but a few times Kayleigh and I found restaurants to eat at or at least to add to our packed lunches.  My favorite surprise was a bagel shop in the middle of the race course in Beloit.  It had a vegan brownie.  Brownies are my weakness.  That thing was unbelievable and I made it last several days!

 At another race, they had food trucks.  As we walked past I saw one called Urban Caveman and I said to Kayleigh "doubt I can get anything there".







Turns out, that was the only one with a vegan option!  It was riced cauliflower with mushrooms and greens and some kind of sauce.  It was so good I ate half of it before I could even get back to the car and take a picture!








At the Downers Avenue race in Milwaukee, Kayleigh and I found a restaurant on the race route that was so good for lunch that we took Bill back there for dinner.

View of the race from our table.

We ended up with the same waiter so that was pretty funny.  They had vegan pizza as an option which I decided to wait until dinner for only to discover they ran out of vegan cheese.  Dang!  I still got a vegan pizza with lots of veggies and no cheese.  I don't like vegan cheese much but I was still really excited about having that option in a restaurant.

My lunch was a wrap with tons of mushrooms and olives.

Overall I think we did really good.  We balanced trying new places while we were out with regular home cooked meals.  Bill kept his energy up through all 10 races and I didn't have any stomach issues.  I wasn't sure if we could pull it off for so many days but it ended up not being too bad.  The only thing I would change (besides not bringing so many appliances) is to bring some basic spices along with hot sauce and maybe soy sauce.  But in the end, it worked pretty well.


Other pics:

Is that Bill eating tofu?  Yep!  Like I said, he was really hungry!

Kayleigh's favorite grilled potato.  By the way, I took these pictures half way through dinner.  They started with more food than that.

Bill eating another banana.

Our typical sack lunch (besides peanut butter and jelly).  Cherries, rice and avocado, salads from the grocery store and, of course, more bananas.

Here is what Kayleigh picks when I let her go down alone for breakfast - donuts and fruit loops.  Really?!

Yes, we are those crazy people down the hall from you at the hotel cooking sauerkraut!

Links if you find yourself in Wisconsin:
Cafe Manna:  http://www.cafemanna.com/
Beloit Bagel Shop with the vegan brownie: http://www.bagelsandmore.net/
Juice bar with smoothies, juice, vegan chocolate pudding: http://www.freshecocafe.com/
Oconomowoc farmer's market: http://www.oconomowoc.org/events/summer-farmers-market/
Via: http://viadowner.com/
PF Changs, Wauwatosa: http://www.pfchangs.com/index.aspx
Urban Caveman: http://urbancavemantruck.com/
Fond du Lac restaurant with vegan option: http://www.bagelmeister.com/
Staybridge Suites (hotel): http://www.staybridge.com/hotels/us/en/oconomowoc/
Pick N Save (grocery store): http://www.yellowpages.com/oconomowoc-wi/mip/pick-n-save-459619321?lid=459619321

Back to School Update

Hey, I just remembered I have a blog!  Actually even though it has been 2 months since I posted anything, I have actually been writing posts in my head all the time.  The problem was sitting down and actually writing them.  My chaos that I couldn't talk about before is continuing but it is becoming more routine so that shouldn't interfere so much any more.  Summer in general is kind of crazy which is funny because it is really only Kayleigh's schedule that changes but that seems to throw the whole household routine off.  And the worst part is just as I start to adjust, she goes back to school!

So, the ongoing process of getting my Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) designation.  I had planned to study about 6-8 weeks for the first part, take the exam, study for the second part, take that exam, etc. After studying about 5 weeks for the first part I was feeling pretty good about it so I decided to schedule the exam.  I was hoping to take it within the next 2-3 weeks.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any openings for almost 2 months.  I was horrified.  After freaking out for a couple days, I decided to move on to studying for part 2.  Now that I knew the time slots filled up fast, I went ahead and scheduled the second exam for 2 weeks after the first.

From the beginning I had mapped out my studying day-by-day to keep me on track and that became really important now that I was studying for two parts at once.  I ended up completing my study units for part 2, two weeks before my part 1 exam.  So at that point I switched back to reviewing part 1.  My study materials said that only 57% of the people pass the individual parts on the first try so that bumped my nerves to a whole new level!  I am happy to say that I passed part 1 on the first try.  I was so nervous and then so relieved, only to be followed by being nervous about the next part!

After I passed the first part, my co-workers got me a fruit bouquet and balloons which was fantastic.  I couldn't stop smiling for days.  I quickly realized that I had part 2 coming up in less than 2 weeks though, so had to come back down to earth and continue studying.  I passed part 2 on my first try as well.  I really can't believe it because I did not feel very confident.  I followed the study guide exactly how they suggested and I'm convinced that was the secret.  Shortly after passing part 2, we went on vacation so I haven't started studying for the third and final part yet.  I plan to start tomorrow.  Part 3 contains a lot more material (20 chapters in the study guide as opposed to 7 in the previous) so I'm feeling a little intimidated.  I'm sure I'll feel better once I jump into it though.

So I am living proof that you can do anything you put your mind to if you truly commit to it.  I had plenty of moments of doubt through the process but even though I haven't had to study for the past 20 years or so, I was able to get back in that mindset and do what I needed to do.

In a similar fashion, my husband just did something much larger than anything he did in the past as well.  We just got back from 10 days in Wisconsin where he competed in the Tour of America's Dairyland.  You can go here for their website and here for the Facebook updates if you are interested in more information. I have several posts planned about the competition in general and also what we did to plan for the trip, what we ate, and how Kayleigh and I fit in exercise around his races.  I'll give you a sneak preview though and tell you that he got first place overall for the 45+ Masters Category 3/4.  It was so exciting and, at least for me, completely unexpected.

Bill with Greg Hayes and Ross Giese

Masters 45+ Cat 3 & 4

Meal Plan - Last Week and Next Week

The bad weather and stress of the past couple weeks finally got to Bill and I and we both caught a cold last week.  We are big advocates of zinc to fight off colds so we've been taking that like crazy and it is keeping the symptoms minimal.  Still we haven't been overly motivated.  I had planned to post a recipe during the week but every night I said - "Maybe tomorrow"!

We did get through most of the recipes planned for the week though. We had a few changes during the week though so you can see that there is some flexibility within the plan.  

Tuesday was the first night where we made an adjustment.  We still had the soups but instead of the southwestern greens and pinto beans, we made Rockin' Reubens from Robin Robertson's "Quick-Fix Vegetarian" with the left over sauerkraut from Sunday.  My husband would eat these reubens every week if I let him!  The funny thing is that none of us have ever had a traditional reuben so we have no idea how it compares but we love them.  Since we didn't have the pinto bean dish, I had extra spinach which I threw into smoothies during the week.  Spinach never goes to waste in our house so that was an easy adjustment to make.

The only other change we made is that we had leftovers on Friday and we are having the meals planned for that day tonight (Saturday).  I did this because Kayeigh had to work last night so I thought leftovers made more sense.  

As I had mentioned, we had a lot of new recipes last week.  My favorite hands down was Thursday's quinoa with kale, sweet potatoes and pecans.  This was the only night I wasn't home to cook.  Bill came home and went straight to bed so Kayleigh made it by herself and she did a great job.  It was so good!  I really liked the texture of the kale.  It was cooked but  not soggy and the whole thing went together really well.  We forgot to roast the cauliflower and broccoli though so those left overs and still hanging around.  

Speaking of leftovers, my husband was concerned we didn't have enough to make a meal last night.  Here is what I pulled out of the fridge:

Yeah, we had plenty!  The roasted garlic mashed potatoes and multi-veg hash browns are the only things left.  We weren't too thrilled with either of them so I think I'm going to puree them together today and have them for lunch as a kind of mashed potato thing.  

Overall we did well last week but this week I'll be back to work and Kayleigh will have practice after school so we'll see how it goes.  I received my January/February Vegetarian Times in the mail yesterday so I picked several things from there along with a few things from Robin Robertson's "Quick-Fix Vegetarian" because Bill really likes that cookbook.  Here is what I have planned:

Sunday

Breakfast - Cherry Turnovers - Veg Times p. 64

Sesame-Ginger Broccoli Soup - Veg Times p. 24Quinoa Pilaf with Spinach, Apples and Walnuts - Quick Fix p. 99

Monday

Tahini Chickpea Patties (click here for recipe from our old blog)

Oven-Fried Truffle Chips - Veg Times p. 63

Tuesday

Black Bean Tostadas with Kiwi Salsa - Veg Times p. 56

Wednesday

Red Curry Veg Soup - Veg Times p. 26

Brown Rice

Thursday

Fettuccine with Rainbow Chard, Golden Raisins, and Pine Nuts - Quick Fix p. 125

Friday 

Linguine with Edamame Pesto - Quick Fix p. 130

I also want to make the Bittersweet Cashew Cream Truffle Squares on page 50 of Vegetarian Times sometime this week.

I won't even mention my weekly exercise challenge results!  You can imagine how it went if I couldn't even get up the energy to post a recipe.

Weekly Meal Plan

Our produce for the week

On Christmas Eve this year, my sister-in-law ask me to send her my weekly meal plan so that she could follow it or at least get some ideas.  I've been planning my meals for years now and I always have people asking me about it so I thought I'd start posting some of them here on my blog.

Now that I have returned to work, I have to plan the week around meals that are quick and easy so that Bill and Kayleigh can prepare them.  I also tend to repeat recipes more often than I used to because they get pretty irritated having to figure out a new recipe every day!

I'm thinking that I'll post my menu plan for the upcoming week on Saturdays so that if anyone decides to use any of the meals, there is time to go grocery shopping.  I probably won't post every week's plan but I'll try to get at least two in every month.

When planning meals I usually pick 2-3 cookbooks for recipes and then add in some of my own recipes. I'll list the cookbooks that the recipes come from and try to post one of the recipes here sometime during the week.

This week I picked 3 cookbooks:

"Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations" by Alicia Simpson

"Vegan Holiday Kitchen" by Nava Atlas

"Wild About Greens" by Nava Atlas

I selected the two holiday ones because a lot holidays fall in the winter so they both have good choices for this time of year.  I feel like our diet hasn't been as healthy as it should be lately with everything we had going on so that is where the Greens cookbook comes in.  When in doubt, eat more greens!

So, here is my plan for this week.  I'm going to be home all but two of the days so this isn't one of the quick and easy menu plans but it still isn't too difficult.

Sunday
Sauerkraut
Roasted garlic mashed potatoes - p. 180 Celebrations

Monday
Multi-veg hash browns - p. 270 Holiday Kitchen
White bean and greens burgers - p. 114 Greens

Tuesday
Southwestern-style greens with pinto beans - p. 105 Greens
Baked potato soup or Spinach & fennel soup

Wednesday
Hoppin' John - p. 274 Holiday Kitchen
Cornbread

Thursday
Quinoa with kale, sweet potatoes, and pecans - p. 85 Greens
Roasted cauliflower and broccoli

Friday
Pad See Ew - p. 122 Greens
Tempeh kuku paka - p. 224 Celebrations

All of these recipes are vegan except for the baked potato soup.  I've tried to veganize that but it just didn't taste good so Bill and Kayleigh will have that and I'm having the spinach and fennel soup.  Saturday is always leftovers or whatever we can throw together.  Some of these recipes are new to me so I'll let you know at the end of the week how they worked out.

Menu Planning

With my new job starting next Monday, my mind has been all over the place the past two weeks.  Not only have I been unemployed for 8 months, before that I worked part-time for 7 years, and before that I had 4 years of working 6:30-3.  My husband and I started out pretty equal in our cooking and housecleaning duties but once I started getting home earlier than him every day, I slowly started taking over more and more.  It didn't make sense to have all of us cleaning on weekends when I could do that in the afternoons, leaving our family time for more fun activities.  It also didn't seem like a good idea to wait for him to get home and cook dinner when I was getting home 2-3 hours earlier.

Now that is all coming to an end!  We are all a little nervous about how this is going to work.  Bill and Kayleigh both realize that they've had it rather easy over the years but I also realize that I've been able to do everything exactly how I want it.  So we are all preparing to make adjustments.

I am quite organized so that should help with the transition.  One of the most important tools for working parents (but also something that I used even when I wasn't working) is a meal plan.  As soon as Kayleigh was born, I started planning our meals.  I just didn't have the mental capacity to work all day, survive my long commute home, take care of a baby and figure out what we could eat based on what food was in the fridge.

Not only does meal planning save you time during the week, it also saves you money because you can buy only what you need at the grocery store and be sure that you will actually use all of it during the week.

My first meal plans looked like this:

Yep - we had a 4 week rotating menu, one for summer and one for winter.  The meals actual rotated even more often than that because there were some duplicates.  A few things make this menu really nice to use.  First of all, you don't have to write a new menu each week.  Also, I kept several of the days somewhat general such as "pasta" or "breakfast food".  That gave us some room to personalize the menu but still took a lot of the thinking out of it by giving us a category.  Believe it or not, we used these menus for 6 years.

When I first got married, I didn't really know how to cook but by the time Kayleigh was born, I had a few basic meals down.  After several years, I took a stronger interest in cooking and started expanding my recipes so that is when I decided to create a new menu each month like this:

These menus always had at least 2 days a month that were reserved for trying new recipes.  By changing the menus monthly, it allowed me to add in any successful experiments.  It was also nice to be able to work in holidays, birthdays, or any time something unusual came up and give them their own special meal.

After a couple years of that, my cooking really started changing.  I was making more and more new recipes and creating several of my own.  This was also around the time that I started getting home earlier so I had more time to prepare the meals.  I made the choice to plan my meals one week at a time.  Sometimes they are nicely planned out and include side dishes and desserts.  Then other weeks they look like this:

I usually post them on the fridge so everyone knows what to expect.  We are so busy now with our various activities that it makes sense to plan only one week at a time.

Whatever way you decide to plan your meals, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Add a "leftovers" day in at least once a week.  Even though I take leftovers to work for lunch we still end up with little odds and ends in the fridge.  If  by some miracle you don't have any leftovers, you can always use this as a "restaurant" day or "eat out of the freezer" day.
• Check every recipe on your list and make sure you have all the ingredients.  There is nothing more frustrating than getting half way through cooking and realizing you are out of chili powder!
• Be flexible.  Some days you just don't feel like having what is on the list.  There is nothing wrong with switching two days as long as you eventually get to all the items.  This is especially useful if you have some evening event come up changing your available time or when the weather becomes unseasonably warm and you had planned stew.
• Don't be too flexible.  The menu becomes useless if you decide to have sandwiches every night instead of what you planned and all that fresh produce you bought goes to waste.
• This may be too much organization for some but if you have a lot of recipes to choose from, you might want to develop a spreadsheet listing all recipes and where they are located.  My list is divided by type of recipe (main dish, side dish, dessert, etc).  It took awhile to put together and I'm always updating it, but if it all of a sudden disappeared, I think I'd cry!  I couldn't function without it any more.

The few times I've been lazy and not made a menu plan, I have always regretted it.  People (meaning my mom!) often tell me they can't plan a menu because they aren't organized but I always say that having a menu plan keeps you from needing to be as organized during the week.  Spend 10 minutes planning out your meals on the weekend and you don't have to think about what to eat for the rest of the week!