Planning my Work and Working my Plan

I'm having a difficult time focusing on things this week and have been struggling with a headache the past few days, as well as being distracted with waiting for something. I thought I should go back to my old standby of making a list. I've always tried to plan out my work and then work my plan so I'm not looking back at the end of a week and not seeing anything accomplished or having what I'm experiencing this week and having a hard time getting started.

So I'm putting things down on paper (or blog, in this case) so I can have something for which to aim. I find if I don't aim at anything I generally will hit that every time. So having some goals for each week is helpful.

Here are the major things I would like to get done this week:

•  Write up a quarterly report for our district executive committee
•  Follow-up on something with the hotel where we are having a spring conference 
•  Sew a custom order for two clients
•  Deep clean the master bedroom
•  Declutter things in my sewing room/sunroom
•  Finish planning out my consecration service and get the order to the participants
•  Fill out tuition assistance application for Emily

Obviously, I still have laundry, cleaning, cooking, and other things to do as well. I still have things like the Bible study I teach, worship practice, etc. But these are the bigger items.

I also thought I'd share a recipe I put together the other night. It was very tasty and there wasn't much left over which is a sign that everyone liked it. I had ground beef out for dinner and wasn't sure what I was going to make. I was thinking hamburgers but it wasn't enough for that so then I had the thought that I should turn it into a casserole of some sort and came up with cheeseburger casserole.

Cheeseburger Casserole

Ingredients

4 slices bacon, cut into small pieces

1 lb. ground beef

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. Monterrey jack cheese, shredded (can use other cheese if you prefer)

1 box rotini or penne pasta

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil.  In the meantime, cut up the bacon into small pieces and cook in a large sautee pan until crispy. Remove onto paper towels to soak up the extra grease. Sautee the onion, pepper and garlic in the bacon grease until soft, add the ground beef and brown. Mix in the diced tomatoes and spices. 

Once the water comes to a boil, add your pasta and cook until al dente. Mix together the pasta and the meat mixture, along with the bacon in a 9x13" baking pan. Add in all but 1/2 cup of the cheese and mix well. Top with the remaining cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

I didn't add a lot of spices to this because I wanted it to be cheeseburgery-like. But you could probably add any type of seasoning you want. If you like more spice, use jalapeno peppers, etc.