Menu Planning and end of January!!

Ahhh January is almost over - just over 12 hrs left - at least in Alaska. Then comes February and once we can get through these two months I feel like life can continue on. These I think are a couple of the hardest months. The days are dark - although getting longer and a little more light. But still it has been cold enough and at times slushy enough to not be able to get outside. I don't even have great reasons, I am just not a fan of Jan and Feb and I even have a birthday in Jan! And football ends, and what do you do with a weekend when there is no football to watch? But anyhow - I do think I've made the most of our Jan and feel refreshed in my house currently. I have made some serious headway and am looking forward to taking a donating my collection for other people to be able to use later today.

Based on the look of my calendar, January was a relatively busy month!

I really didn't get on here to complain, what I wanted to share is how excited I am about a Feb project I have going. My amazing, wonderful friend Rachel has made me a menu for the month of February!! I have been so bored with food and with cooking the last couple of months, and usually I do love to cook, but have felt very uninspired and seem to go to our standbys (not an altogether bad thing, I just needed a change for a bit!). So I got my menu last week and yesterday I was able to sit down and plan out my week, combining meals with what the day's activities are. Simple quick dishes or crock pot meals on busy days and the ones that take just a bit more time on not as busy days. And then also looking at trying to use up fresher, quicker to spoil produce earlier in the week. Since our produce here can tend to go bad quickly. So, I got my menu out yesterday afternoon while Jonathan slept and Jeremy was at the gym and started pulling together recipes and making my grocery list. I love to be organized and I loved doing this. I don't know exactly why, probably because I didn't have to make any decisions. I hate making decisions and often just like being told what to do (well, sometimes).

My organizing and bringing together of schedules and meals and finding recipes

The beginning of my February calendar - with main courses filled in on the first week

SO, anyhow, now I have my list all ready to go and once Jonathan wakes up from his nap we will have lunch and then head to drop off our give away stuff and then to do some grocery shopping. I'm excited about a somewhat new adventure and cooking someone else's ideas for meals! (and, much better than from a magazine, because she knows me a bit better than a magazine and it is customized for our likes) :)