Jan 3, 2011

Planning my Week - Menus and To Do List

The holidays are behind us, and it's time to return to "normal" here. I've had 10 days away from babysitting, but Mr. B returns on Tuesday, and we resume our Tuesday, Thursday and Friday schedule. To be honest, I'm missing the little guy!

This week (and probably next and possibly the one after that!) are all about re-organizing my house. I'm doing my annual re-organization of my sewing room, which has a domino effect into the den (I'm taking antique cabinets from there), the guest room (my sewing room is temporarily emptied into the guest room so I can shampoo carpets, wipe down walls, etc.) and the dining room (currently the landing spot for everything that had to come out of the cupboards from the den). Now that the Christmas decorations are put away, the family room could stand a good cleaning too. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it.

So between babysitting and heavy duty furniture arranging and thorough cleaning, I need to keep meals simple this week. I also have a goal of cooking one meal a week from the cookbook I found last week from the 1940's, OHIO STATE GRANGE COOK BOOK. Now this cookbook is written by ladies from different counties in Ohio, so I decided the best way to start is to find the first recipe from the county I live in, Butler County. The recipe is "Corn Meal Muffins". I will include the recipe at the bottom of the weekly menu.



MONDAY
Spaghetti and Meatballs
(make extra meatballs for Thursday)
Green salad
TUESDAY
Ham and Lentil Soup (crockpot)
Corn Meal Muffins* (1948 recipe below)

WEDNESDAY
Baked chicken breasts, gravy
Rice, brussel sprouts

THURSDAY
Hot Meatball Subs
(made with leftover meatballs and sauce)
Green salad

FRIDAY
Chinese Take Out

SATURDAY
Leftover Ham and Lentil Soup
Grilled Cheese sandwiches

SUNDAY
Breakfast for Dinner
Vegetable crustless quiche
Sausage links
Mixed fruit

Breakfast Ideas
Oatmeal, whole wheat toast, egg/sausage roll-ups

Lunch Ideas
Cold cut roll-up, leftovers, meatball sub, fruit and yogurt

You can post your own menu or read others at Organized Junkie.

CORN MEAL MUFFINS
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp lard

Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl, add milk and melted lard and beat well. Bake 20 mins in hot oven. (Mrs. Frank Selby, Poasttown Grange, Butler County)

Notice the instructions are not as detailed as modern recipes, but this is exactly how the recipe reads in the book. You can link up your own To Do List and read others at Domestically Obsessed!


OK, now on to the To Do List for the week. Honestly, I don't know where to start or how to list everything I have to do. But I'll try!

THE SEWING/QUILTING ROOM
Empty the sewing room completely. (Want to see how disorganized it is? Check out this previous post.)
Shampoo carpet.
Wipe down walls.
Wash windows, curtains.
Paint antique cupboards (pistacchio green?)
Buy/hang new shelving in closet.
Fold all fabric (use ruler method)

THE DINING ROOM
Find a home for the books that came out of the cupboards
Box up some books and take to thrift store. (Tuesday)
Wash curtains.

THE DEN
This is used to be our formal dining room, but it's too small to be comfortable, so I did away with our formal living room - which no one used - and made that into the dining room. This little room is right off the kitchen, and currently filled with Mr. B's toys, games and crafts. I want to put a TV in there and two comfortable chairs and make a room for my husband to play video games. I've been talking about doing this for months - the time has come!
Wash curtains
Shampoo carpet
Organize/purge toys/games
Wash windows, woodwork
Move desk/filing cabinets to guest room to be moved to sewing room later.


OTHER
Babysitting Mr. B. (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday)
Grocery Shopping (Monday)
Collect all trash (Wednesday)
Check for old food in fridge (Wednesday before trash goes out)
Bake muffins or banana bread (Tuesday)
Coffee with friend, here (Wednesday AM)
Take box of books to thrift store (Tuesday)
Stop by Thrift store and look for storage ideas (Tuesday)
Check all rooms for stray Christmas decorations, move storage boxes to basement

That's enough. If I write more I'm going to feel overwhelmed and not do anything!

Enjoy your week!

4 comments:

Ammie @ domesticallyobsessed.com said...

Um, can we talk about your sewing room to do? You are A SUPERSTAR!!!!! SHampooing the carpet??? You go girl! Can't wait to see the after pictures! Don't keep us hanging!

Thanks for linking up! This is one awesome looking list!

Kia @ A View From Here said...

Your menu sounds great.
Looking forward to your follow ups on the sewing room.

Dixie said...

Joan... IF I ever grow up, I want to be just like you! Organized!!!

Happy New Year! Dixie

Sandra said...

Good luck with the muffins today! I love trying out new recipes. My favorite cookbook at the moment is The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It's wonderful, although, not as healthy as I'd like! :0)