Our first Quiltathon of 2010 is this coming weekend.  Planning ahead is essential in order to devote as much time as possible to sewing during the weekend.  It really doesn’t matter if you sew 2 hours or 20 hours or 30 hours this weekend.  What matters is that you plan ahead and maximize your sewing time.  Because I love to cook, I can spend all day every day in the kitchen but that takes away from my sewing time.  Here’s my menu for this week:

If you click on the menu, you should be able to get a larger version.  On Saturday, we’re having hot tamales, chili and corn & black bean salad.  I’ll make the chili Thursday or Friday.  Tamales are in the freezer.  Corn & black bean salad is better made a day or two ahead so I’ll make that Thursday or Friday.

For Sunday, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Salad and Crusty bread.  Meatballs are in the freezer.  Spaghetti sauce is from jars that I canned during the summer.  I’ll stir up the bread on Friday or Saturday and bake it right before we eat.  All I’ll need to do is make a salad.

With just a little planning ahead, I’ll hardly have any cooking to do over the weekend and everything we have is yummy!  Except for the green salad on Sunday, every single thing can be done ahead.  I could even buy the salad in a bag already made but I usually don’t.

There will be leftover soup and leftover chicken stuffed manicotti.  Everyone is on their own for lunch on weekends.  I fix a big breakfast and we don’t usually eat til about 9 a.m.  Lunch is usually more snacking than a meal on weekends.

Got your weekly menu made?  Try it . . even if you aren’t doing the Quiltathon with us — you may be surprised what a difference it makes to have everything planned out ahead.