How do you do it?

I always get questions like, "How do you get everything done?" Well, first I don't get everything done but that would be a short blog and would definately not include any pictures.

So over the next couple of weeks, I plan on showing you "How I do it"
First, organization is the key. It starts on Thursday of every week.

1. I plan my goals for the week; personal and professional.

What does that mean?

I have long list of projects I want to get done, who doesn't? But every project is broken down into smaller pieces. I then sit with a large calender and figure out the timing of each piece. We will discuss this process in the future.

Thursday, I sit down to plan out the week. But I am not starting from scratch. I have a clear vision of what I need to accomplish in the next week. All meetings and events are taken into account. Then I start planning a menu. Now I have been doing this for 25 years this process does not take as long as it used to when I was first married.

Let's talk about food first. How do you get a week's worth of menus for a family? How do you prepare meals like this during the week?

Courtesy of Southern Living

2. Once the week's plan is done, I make my list of things I need whether groceries or hardware store, etc.

3. Friday, I run errands and grocery shop.

On a side note, from now to Thanksgiving, I have been a different Christmas cookie dough every week for the last three weeks, I measure out all my dry ingredients for every item I am going to bake on Saturday.

4. Saturday is cooking day. I am way too busy during the week to cook meals from scratch and I hate frozen food in the grocery store. So I get up early Saturday and start baking. This week, zucchini bread, ham and cheese muffins and I made four batches of Hershey kiss cookie dough. I also pick a meat, cook it and portion it for weekly meals. This week, I made ground hamburger and a meatloaf. So I have three meals done. If I want to make chili, no problem. The ground beef is in the freezer and labeled. Now remember I do this every week, so I am not eating ground beef all week. I have a freezer full of cooked pork, chopped and diced chicken, cooked bacon, etc.

Before, keeping it real!!!

5. I am usually done by 11 a.m. and this is the mess I have to clean up. But I am done. Done cooking for the week. I now only assemble the rest of the week.

After and done for the week.

Let me give you this week's menu:

Sunday: Chicken Asparagus Crepes
Monday: We go out.
Tuesday: Lemon Pork Roast on a Salad
Wednesday: Meatloaf and baked potatoes
Thursday: Paninis with leftovers from the week. If I do not have leftovers, it is BLT's.
Friday: Chili, I double this so I have an extra meal.

And it starts over. Next week, we will talk about party planning.