Weather In My Planner

I try to focus on the details that make a planner work better for my Loyal Readers. Here's a detail that might work for some of you:

You don't see it? Look again, right next to "Thursday, 3."

It's the weather forecast for Thursday. 83 degrees as the high and 67 degrees as the low, plus rain. I also have a repeating task (noted by the circle) to look up the weather for the rest of the week. (I don't like to look more than five days ahead, as the forecast can change in five days.)

It's a simple little task, but by checking the weather in advance, I can glance at my planner at night and pick out tomorrow's outfit without much trouble. On Thursday, I'll throw in an umbrella and raincoat, especially as I'll probably have outside duty at the school where I substitute teach. But I don't have to carry my raincoat every day, saving me lots of space in my tote bag.

Take a minute to look up the weather and put it in your planner. It's a little thing that makes life easier.

Etcetera.

Dedicated Kids' Chore Areas

I sent my kids into their bedrooms and bathrooms with a single mission: get them ready for my inspection.

It was an act of faith. You see, for eight years now, my husband has guided the children in organizing their rooms and I've been teaching them to do all of their other chores independently.

But to let them attack their rooms alone? Scary.

I put aside my OCD, dangled a carrot (time playing with electronics, which is limited in our home), and promised a consequence if not done (no electronics until it is, even if it takes weeks).

They did a good job. I wouldn't let a guest use the bathroom without a once over by me, obviously, but the 8 year old and the 5 year old did a respectable job and even took care of details that I would not have required.

It's kind of amazing.

From now on, unless we expect company, the kids will take care of cleaning that side of the house. I kind of love this plan.

Etcetera.

The Order Of Cooking

Yesterday, I shared my recipe for Enchilada Pasta. 

Sure, cooking it is easy enough. But cooking leaves the kitchen a disaster, right?

It doesn't have to, you know. You can cook more efficiently and have plenty of leftover time to clean up by making some simple changes.

1. Boil the water and preheat the oven first. If you are boiling anything (pasta, seafood, potatoes), put the water boiling right at the beginning of cooking. If you are baking something, make step one preheating the oven. That way, they are ready to go when you are.

Note: My husband HATES when I take pictures of my stove, because it looks so dirty. All I can say is that I do clean it regularly - and NEVER buy a white ceramic top. Shrug.

2. Set out ingredients in the order of use, with the first ones nearest the stove. Not having to scramble for ingredients helps ensure that you don't burn anything or let anything boil over while getting the missing ingredient out of the fridge. (In this picture, from left to right: pasta, boiling water, heating pan, veggies, liquid ingredients, and toppings.)

3. Use the vegetable bag or a small plate for scraps when chopping ingredients. It keeps the scraps off of your counter and keeps your counter clean.

4. Use the colander to rinse vegetables and fruits while you are busy cooking. It keeps them off the bottom of the sink (always gross, no matter how much I clean it) and the colander is likely to be clean.

5. Leave the colander in the sink while cooking for collecting chopped ingredients to make room on your cutting board or for draining boiling items. You don't want to hunt for a colander with hot pasta about to over boil.

6. As soon as you run low on an ingredient, add it to the grocery list.

This will save you tons of time later!

7. Dedicate counter space to oil, salt, and pepper (or whatever you use ALL THE TIME). You probably use salt more often than you use that blender, after all, so why does the blender get the most convenient space?

8. Speaking of convenience, put stirring spoons, spatulas, and pot holders right next to the stove.

9. Clean while you are cooking. Sauteing veggies for 10 minutes? Use that time to wipe down the sink or counter or to toss scraps and load dishwasher.

10. Erase the evidence. Actually, assign someone (in my house, I do the stove area and leftovers while hubby and kids do the table) to erase the evidence of the meal. We do this right after we eat as part of of normal routine.

Happy cooking.

Etcetera.

Recipe: Enchilada Pasta

Enchilada Pasta Recipe

*Oil - drizzle of vegetable oil or nonstick spray
*One onion - sliced
*Two bell peppers (preferably red and yellow or orange...can be made green, but changes taste) - sliced
*Two cloves of garlic - minced or chopped roughly
*Two large tablespoons of pickled jalapeno peppers (yes, the kind that you use on nachos)- chopped roughly
*Beef, Chicken, or Veggie stock or broth - 8 to 12 ounces
*Cream cheese - 2 ounces
*Penne pasta  - 12 ounces
*Salt
*Pepper
*Taco Seasoning (I used Old El Paso, but homemade is fine) - about 1/2 teaspoon

Optional Garnishes (any of these jazz up the pasta nicely):
*Parmesan cheese (my favorite topping)
*Grilled shrimp, chicken, or pork chops (I generally use rotisserie chicken to make it a main meal.)
*Cooked Black Beans
*Shredded Cheese
*Tortilla Strips
*Sliced Pickled Jalapenos

In tomorrow's blog post, I'll discuss some tips for "orderly cooking," so come back tomorrow (March 29, 2014). In the meantime, here's the recipe...

1. Boil water and pasta (while doing everything else) according to directions on package. I usually put the pasta in the boiling water after step 4.

TIP: Start water boiling immediately and just let it keep boiling until you are ready to dump in pasta.

2. Heat a large saucepan to medium high. Add a tiny amount of oil (just enough to prevent sticking) to saucepan. 

TIP: Always heat pan before adding oil. Nonstick sprays can leave residue on pans, so consider a drizzle of oil instead.

3. Put vegetables in pan and salt lightly.

4. Saute all vegetables (including pickled jalapenos - don't leave them out) until just soft (about ten to fifteen minutes). Stir occasionally. If they start to stick, pour in a dash or two of the vinegar from the jalapenos to deglaze the pan. (This is the magic step. Do NOT skip it.)

5. Once veggies are soft, put the pasta in the boiling water and set timer. Add half the broth/stock to veggies and lower temp to just barely boiling. Cook for about 7 minutes (to let broth reduce).

6. Add rest of broth and reduce for about 3 1/2 minutes. (It's probably time now to drain the pasta. :) )

7. Season with taco seasoning (but not too much, be careful) and pepper (as much as you want). Turn off heat.

8. Add cream cheese in small chunks and let it melt, stirring constantly, into broth.

(Yes, you could just add cream. But I don't, because I never have cream in my fridge and always have cream cheese.)

9. Add pasta and any pre-cooked meat.

(I won't add meat today, since it's a Lenten Friday and I am Catholic. With cheese, this is a perfect Lenten or vegetarian meal. It'll be even better with freshly grilled shrimp tonight when I eat the yummy leftovers for supper. Yes, this meal is BETTER leftover, because the creamy broth soaks into the pasta.)

Make sure to stir in the pasta well so the penne can get lots of creamy broth in the holes.

10. Garnish and serve.

Etcetera.

Two Planner System: An Update

I've been working with two planners for about a month now. One planner is a Franklin Covey Classic-sized (about a half of a letter sized page) and is dedicated to work. The other is my Franklin Covey Boston compact (4 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches) and is for everything else.

I've been busily working on a project for my job during the work day, picking the kids up from afternoon carpool, and doing dinner, childcare, housework, and chauffeuring to karate practice mostly by myself, since it's my husband's overtime season at work. The work project is particularly interesting and tends to absorb my attention to the point that I have to use alarms to remind me to take my medication, eat lunch, put laundry in the dryer, check on dinner, or go to carpool.

Last night, I forgot to look at my personal planner. I did all my work tasks, picked the kids up, made supper...and zoned completely out. I didn't pack the kids' lunches or make sure that they had clean clothes. (I did watch The Voice and read a novel. It was kind of glorious.)

Other than forgetting to check my personal planner yesterday (a major fail), my two planner system is working pretty well. I wanted to shares the things that are working, in case anyone is considering a two planner system.

1. I still schedule all meetings and hard deadlines in my personal planner.

It helps that I have very few meetings and that most of my deadlines are soft. If I had constant hard deadlines, my system would be really complicated.

2. I keep work information confidential by coding meetings and hard deadlines in my personal planner to reference my work planner.

There is NO reason to put any information about my work in my personal planner, and good reason to leave the information OUT of my personal planner. I am a lawyer, and should any court or my employer ask to see my legal work, I don't want to have to give up my personal information, too.

An entry in my personal planner might say, "9 a.m. W - T/C" (which means a work-related telecom, or telephone call, at 9 a.m.). The entry in my work planner would be much more detailed, "9 a.m., T/C with ABC re: Project - Example Name." The work entry might also have goals of the telephone call or questions to get answered noted on it.

3. I schedule work in my personal planner and try to stick to the schedule.

My work schedule is flexible, but in order to get it done, I try to have to schedule certain hours in my planner.

4. All notes, meeting logs, and project planning happens in the dedicated work planner.

5. I always use the smallest planner that works effectively for my tasks.

I use my personal planner everywhere, so it must fit in my purse. For my work planner, it mostly sits at my desk (at home, since I work from a home office). If I do need to go to a meeting, I carry a larger leather bag instead that fits a classic-sized planner. I can afford to have a heavier, bigger planner. The extra space lets me take all of my research notes right there in the planner. If my job required more errands, I'd probably use a smaller planner and a notebook, instead.

So far, the system is working for me. I love having two planners. I just need to remember to keep working BOTH systems.

Etcetera.

Tiny Changes Challenge Day 7: His Homework, My Planner

I have a second grader. Mostly, he's really great about doing his homework. He writes it in his planner at school. (His planner is one provided by the school.) He packs his bag. He brings it home. He does homework quickly. He brings it back to school.

Except, every now and then, when he forgets to write it in his planner. Then the work doesn't get done. (Like mother, like son, right?)

Mostly, he doesn't write in his planner because something happened to change his routine at school. When we go over what happened, I realize I'm not going to be able to improve his behavior. For example, they have religion class (with a special bag and no time to grab their planner), so he just has to remember that he has religion homework. But he doesn't remember, and he doesn't go straight back to class to write it down immediately.

For a long time, I was looking up his homework on-line every night. That took forever as the on-line homework program the school uses is clunky. So I started writing everything in my planner every week. But I hated it on my daily entries, because it was FYI only and took up valuable space.

So I put the homework in the corner.

Kabooma! It works.

The lesson here is that some things are truly need-to-know, but that doesn't mean they need the important spaces in your planner.

Etcetera.