Planner Supply Organization

I've been trying to get organized with my planner supplies and this week I dumped all of my supplies on my work table to see what I had so I could come up with a organization system that works for me.

Currently I have a decorative box that I was keeping the things I was using in but I found that the smaller items got lost in the big box, so I needed to find something that could hold those smaller items but I could see at a glance.

I went looking online for organizers but everyone wanted more money than I was willing to pay,  so I had to come up with something else.  Looking at other options, I decided to go on the hunt for those cheap plastic photo albums that I see everywhere and I found them at Michael and on sale.....buy one, get one 1/2 off and there were only $1.99 a piece anyway....cheap score!

I found a couple of cute ones!

Now I just needed to decide how to organize the supplies themselves.  I decided to keep the items from each designer together.  I've found lots of freebies to print online and even discovered a couple of etsy stores that are favorites. 

I had to cut some of the sheets up to fit in the page sleeves but once I was done, I was pleased with how much they hold and how economical they were.

If you enjoy the whole "decorate your planner" craze like I do and need a cheap way to organize your stash, try those small photo albums.

My Casserole Hating Husband

I'm married to a man who isn't particularly fond of casseroles, stews and even a good majority of soups BUT that doesn't mean I don't make them, because I like them and if I'm cooking, you get what you get.

That said, I made a chicken casserole for dinner that he LOVED and announced "THIS ONE is a keeper", so I thought I'd share it with all of you.  It's also super easy and quick.

If you're a cream soup hater, you might want to stop reading right now and turn your hating can soup heart somewhere else because this recipe does use a can of cream soup.

French Onion Chicken Casserole

Serves 6

2 cups cooked chicken breast

1 can Healthy Request Cream of Chicken Soup

1 small container of light French Onion sour cream dip

1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

12 oz. of egg noodles (or really whatever kind of noodle you want to use)

1 cup of French Fried Onions

Prepare the noodles according to directions.

Combine the cooked chicken (I roasted mine, then chopped the breasts up), soup, sour cream dip and cheese in a large bowl.  Once the noodles are done, drain well and add to the chicken mixture.

Pour the chicken and noodle mixture into a greased casserole dish and top with the onions.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Let stand a few minutes before serving.

Since I had just a little bit of shredded cheese left in the bag, I sprinkled the rest of it over the dish and let it melt after it came out of the oven.  I was also out of egg noodles, in fact the ONLY noodles I had were rotelle and bow ties, so I used those and the husband loved them and he is SO not a pasta person but he said "they go well in this dish".

The nutritional information isn't too bad either......per serving:

302 calories

21 grams of carbs

14 grams of fat

21 grams of protein

1 gram of sugar

If you decide to try it, let me know what you think!   Enjoy!

For Your Listening Pleasure

It you know me well, then you know that I LOVE rock music, it's one of my passions.....classic rock, soft rock, southern rock, country rock, hard rock and even a little heavy metal and even though I may listen to an occasional pop song, I rarely venture outside my comfort zone of music.  It's taken me years, but I think I have finally complied what I call my perfect "Best Rock Songs Of All Time" playlist.  I have honestly been working on this list for years and have had various versions of it on my iPod, but I think I have finally finalized it.......so without further ado....in no particular order....

• Second Chance - Shinedown
• Fire Woman - The Cult
• Back in the USSR - The Beatles
• In My Blood - Black Stone Cherry
• The Hand that Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
• Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
• Pride; In the Name of Love - U2
• You're Going to Get What's Coming - Robert Palmer
• Somebody Told Me - The Killers
• Black - Pearl Jam
• Bitch - The Rolling Stones
• Whole Lotta Rosie - AC/DC
• Stone In Love - Journey
• Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
• You Wreck Me - Tom Petty
• Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin
• Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
• Thunderstuck - AC/DC
• Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones
• Not Strong Enough - Apocalyptica
• Burden In My Hand - Soundgarden

As you can see, a couple of bands made it on the list more than once, AC/DC and The Stones and I was fortunate enough to see AC/DC twice with Bon Scott before he passed and once with Brian Johnston, but alas, have never see The Rolling Stones.  Same goes with Led Zeppelin, they NEVER played Iowa and by the time I lived anywhere that they would have possibly played, Jon Bonham was dead and the band was no more.

Another note.....there is one lead singer that appears twice on the list in two different bands....Brent Smith, lead singer of Shinedown.  He also lent his voice to the Finnish heavy metal band Apocalyptica on their single "Not Strong Enough" and just because these guys are so unique, I'm going to link you up....check it out!



I also hesitated to have Ted Nugent grace my list because of how bat shit crazy he seems to be these days, but "Stranglehold" is a kick ass song from a kiss ass album, so I'm holding my nose and including it.

The rest are songs that have been absolute favorites of mine that I find myself playing over and over again, in fact, Nine Inch Nail's "The Hand That Feeds" is one of my ring tones.  :)

It's certainly an eclectic mix of rock, but that's always the way I have always liked my rock.
Enjoy!

"What's For Dinner?"

I'm so darn tired of trying to figure out what to plan for dinner for the myself and the spouse.  I'm married to a man who likes to know "what's for dinner" and the young adult in the house is rarely around at dinner time so we don't worry about him, but funny how, when I'm making a favorite of his....pasta, burgers....he seems to be hanging out. 

I started thinking about making it easier on myself last fall and scoured the Internet for ideas, so my idea is bits of pieces of the information I did find, but with my own twist on it.  Some meal planning is by day....Monday's are meatless, Tuesday is chicken, Wednesday is pork, well, you get the idea.

My idea is super simple and involves your favorite meals, so the first and most important step is to get a pad of paper or open a word processor program, sit down with whomever it is that you are eating with (your family, your spouse, your parents, etc.) and list 30-35 of your favorite meals.  List all those meals that your family asks you to make and jot down your favorite sides that go with the main meal.  

The philosophy behind this is you'll have 30-35 of your favorite meals right at your fingertips. 

Once you have your list of favorites ready, you'll want to make a meal card for each meal.  It's completely up to you....hand write them on index cards, print them on index cards or cardstock.  I was having issues printing directly on to the index cards, so I did it the hard way and created a word document and listed our meals in that, printed, cut them out and glued them to the index cards.  Printing directly on index cards or cardstock would definitely be easier. 

Of course, I'm going to embellish my meal cards....that's the fun part!  I just took some of my many markers out and while watching that three OT college men's basketball game between Kansas and Oklahoma the other night, I doodled on all of the cards.  I used a simple line and dots but it jazzed them up a bit. 

I also like to look at the meal plan cards as a prompt too....maybe seeing it will remind me of a recipe we liked.  I was somewhat vague on several of the cards (like the photo below) so that you have some flexibility in the plan.

"Chef's Choice" when mentioned on the cards is a favorite recipe for that food.  I also made room for any notes that I might want to jot down when using that card.

If your family is like mind, we don't cook all seven nights of the week.  There is usually a leftover night in there and there is usually a night where one of us isn't that hungry so we "fend for ourselves".  Currently, we also have a surplus of make ahead freezer meals, so I doubt I'll use seven of my cards a week.

I decided that I didn't need a box to store these.....I think I ended up with 35 cards and that's not enough to use a box, so instead I embellished up a chipboard envelope that I re-sized with some minions paper (I LOVE minions) which works perfect with my meal planning/coupon basket.

What? you say a meal planning/coupon basket?  Yep.....I've been using this basket for at least 15 years to stash my coupons, my grocery ads, my freezer inventory sheet and clippings of recipes we want to try.   It's 10x14, it's slim and it fits inside a drawer or cabinet easily...it's Longaberger too..

My meal planning routine happens on Sundays...usually in the evening....it's multi-taking at it's finest.   Meal plan, clip coupons, look at grocery ads all while watching the latest movie DVD we've rented or while watching Netflix......then I'm all ready for my Monday grocery shopping and around here, Monday morning at the grocery store will make you feel like you own the place.

So...when you're racking your brain trying to come up with ideas for meals, you'll have an envelope full of ideas to choose from!

I hope sharing my "30Plan" with help all of you with your meal planning.  Enjoy!

I'll be back soon!

In addition to some other New Year's resolutions that I made for 2016 which is surprising because I haven't made a New Year's resolution since 2003 which is when I quit smoking cigarettes....January 3, 2003, so today is the 13th anniversary of not smoking cigarettes......I am also going to start blogging again.....

I think I need more of a routine than I've had the last 15 months and since I'm not taking any classes this spring semester, I'm going to devote more to doing things in a more scheduled way.  As far as my blogging, I'm shooting for twice a week....three at the most if I have anything extra fun or interesting to share (which I know is in the eye of the beholder), but I hope you enjoy letting me share.

One of the things I'll share next week is something I've been working on since summer......meal planning!  Although our son still lives with us while going to school and working, we don't see him much at meal time, unless it's pizza or pasta, so I am back to planning and cooking for two again and after almost 30 years, I'm getting tired of coming up with weekly menus......

I am married to man that wants to know what's for dinner and he's used to having that information, but I'm getting burnt out.....doesn't make sense considering I have the time but it's just coming up with things so we aren't eating the same things all the time.

I call it "30Plan" and all you need are index cards and a good pen or make a template in your word processing program.  You'll also need a small index card box (I'm planning on making mine) to hold the cards and I'll probably embellish mine out with my scrapbooking supplies.

Can I tell you how much a love index cards?  I would but that could be a whole blog post in and of itself.....I used them for so much things.   You can also use card stock or whatever you have, just make it index card size....3x5 or 4x6.

and if you've stopped by, thank you.....and next week I'll share with you something that has made meal planning for me a lot more easy AND I have a bunch of crafty things to share too!