Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Welcome to Homemaking Diva!

Welcome to Homemaking Diva!

I am not an expert, but I'm learning and I have great resources that I'm learning from! Right now, my three mainstays are FLYlady, Leanne Ely of Saving Dinner fame, and my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

I want to help new wives and homemakers see that it's really not that hard and that you, too can be a Homemaking Diva!

FLYlady helps me keep my act together and Leanne has been convincing me that cooking is not really that hard if you have a plan. And my cookbook is just a great reference. I'm sure that other cookbooks are great, but I just need one good reference cookbook and I bought this one on recommendation from my oldest sister (plus it's kind of fun that we both have the same cookbook and can do some things together and talk about cooking and baking with a common frame of reference).

If you haven't heard of FLYlady, you need to check her out. This is one lady who used to live in CHAOS and organized her home by using routines and by being nice to herself. She gives her system away for free, it's definitely worth your time to try it for a few months and you will see how much she can help you. I have been a FLYbaby (follower of the FLYlady) since May 29, 2008.

Leanne Ely is The Dinner Diva, and yes, I borrowed my name from her. She is actually a friend of the FLYlady and shares some of her recipes with the FLYbabies. She has two websites: LeanneEly.com where a lot of free resources, recipes, and her blog are, as well as SavingDinner.com where she sells menu mailers (a week's worth of recipes with grocery lists), freezer menus, and much, much more! She has published several books including her most recent, Saving Dinner (a new edition that came out this year, it's the same as her original Saving Dinner, but revamped and with Freezer menus added). I have this book and am loving it so far.

A little about me: I'm a stay at home wife, qualified as a junior-intermediate math teacher, FLYbaby, librarian, and internet junkie. I am doing my best to be a good homemaker and that in itself is half the battle: making homemaking a priority. Now, my DH is not forcing me to do any of this. He is wonderful, and when I was super busy in my final year of university and doing classroom placements for my teaching degree he took over the housework because that was fair. But now, I'm off and he's working, so most of the homemaking falls to me, and that's fair.

Now, today was a very good day, and I've gotten a lot done. We had an appointment in town at 9am, so we just grabbed some breakfast bars since we didn't get up early enough for a full breakfast (which is a little too normal for us) but we came almost straight home afterwards and I did an experiment and made 'egg mcmuffins': english muffins, eggs over hard, cheese, and peameal. They turned out great. I think I'll make them again tomorrow.

I'm doing Leanne's Rubber Chicken this week, for the second time. OK, I know you want to know what that is! Rubber Chicken is a cute name for this because it makes chicken flexible - hence, rubber chicken. It's basically one chicken eaten over three days in three different meals (not just leftovers). Day one is roast chicken with mashed potatoes and salad (I've been cheating and getting a cooked one from the grocery store, but one of these days I might try roasting a raw chicken), day two is chicken and bean burritos (using up the leftover chicken meat), and for day three you make chicken stock out of the bones and make soup that you serve with lots of bread. (I'm sharing all of this because I know I got this recipe for free, so I can share it.)

So anyway, today is rubber chicken soup, so I made the chicken stock shortly after 'breakfast' and I also put on some beef stock since I had a bone from a roast we had earlier in the week. That's just about done, so I need to finish up this post. Anyway, I made both stocks, and since there's only two of us, I'm keeping some of the chicken stock aside and will freeze it for future use (last time we had lots leftover, so I know I can do this). I'm also planning on making corn muffins with the recipe from the Saving Dinner cookbook I have.

And I have choir tonight. That's why I started the stock so early. So now, I'm not rushed. I also got a load of laundry done and put the dishes away. I know this all sounds like a lot, but this was a VERY productive day for me, I'm not this good all the time, but I don't need to be. I just do what I can, as I can. Take yesterday, for example. I was at my sister's house all day (which I tend to do about once a week) and we had leftovers for dinner and all I got done was hand washing the dishes. Life varies.

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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