Rising Early

I'm not sure why, but Monsieur has been getting up extra early since we returned from Chicago. I never really thought of him as the type to get jet lag--he's never gotten it before. But for the past two days he's been up at 6:30 a.m. (Yikes!)

Today, I suggested that he go to work early and come home early, and he took my advice. He left at 7:30 and by 7:45 I was out the door, too. First I went to Starbucks for some coffee. Then, I went to Trader Joe's and to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping. Two major errands were checked off before 9 a.m.

Back home, I put away what I bought, did some laundry, tidied up the house, and performed some pool maintenance.  10 a.m. Then, my maman came over and I helped her run a few errands since she's having some work done on her house. We had some lunch, did a couple more errands, and by 2 p.m. I was back home.

By that time, I must admit I was feeling a bit pooped because I'd been going nonstop since rather early. Unlike monsieur, my natural wake up time was not 6:30 a.m.

Now it's 4:30 p.m. and all I want to do is take a nap!

Luckily, I already planned dinner and it's one of my easiest and favorite menus.  Roasted chicken wings, rice, and a salad. Once I've prepped the chicken and gotten the rice going in my rice cooker, all I have to do is make the salad, and that's usually pretty quick.

I could get used to this early schedule, but I'm not sure monsieur will like it. The (theoretical) advantage of going to work early was supposed to be getting home early, and there's still no sign of him, so...

But in either way, at least I felt super productive today!

Planning: La fête d'anniversaire

I've been running around non-stop today, getting ready for a weekend gathering to celebrate Monsieur's birthday. We are expecting at least 18 people for a backyard BBQ, only I'm following Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa)'s advice and I'll be cooking some, ordering some, and assembling some.

So far, the menu includes assorted kebabs (ordered), spanakopita (from the Kokkari restaurant cookbook) and Greek salad (cooked), dips with pita (assembled), and a fantastic birthday cake (definitely ordered).

The challenge will be to enjoy myself without diving face first into the cake. ;-)

Anyway, as a result, today has been crazy and there's no sign of things slowing down before nightfall, so this will have to do for today's post.

Wishing all the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and godmothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

Strategy for Success: Menu Planning

As I've probably already mentioned, I tended to easily fall into the pattern of waiting too long to eat and then grabbing whatever to satisfy my by-then-ravenous appetite. I  was at especially high risk at lunchtime, since that's when I would often be out of the house and away from healthier food options.

But, it could also be a problem at dinner, too, especially if I had been out all day and there was nothing on hand for me to easily and quickly cook up when I arrived at home on the later side. That's when I would often resort to ordering some take-out or going out to eat.

I realized that I needed to be more organized and more prepared, but it was just so hard to change my bad habits.

Then, some weeks ago, I found this handy meal planner at The Container Store:

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This meal planner is divided into two sections. Across the top, there's space for you to enter your meals for the week: lunch, dinner and snacks/dessert. In the lower half, there's space for any important meetings or activities (a.m., noon, and p.m.). 

This planner is marketed to moms and the idea is that you might want to know that on Thursday evening you have Annie's school play, so for Thursday dinner you'll be ordering pizza, or that sort of thing. But mom or no, I think this is still quite a good tool if what you want is to organize your menu and plan your shopping accordingly.

Now all I have to do is be consistent and come up with creative meals to fill in all the boxes!