Make Ahead Day - Part 1

Here's how Make Ahead Day goes for me...

The Night Before:

• Clean up all dishes
• declutter kitchen counters
• make sure the list is ready
• find all recipes that I plan to use (sometimes this means searching the web)

The Morning of:

• Wear comfortable shoes & clothes
  
• Have two timers ready; one that counts up is very helpful.
  
• Tie my long curly hair back in loose pony tail (hair in food? - very unappetizing!)
  
• Wear an apron (I'm a messy cook)

10:30 Progress report:
I had to wait till my daughter left for preschool about 9:30, then I did a quick clean up of a few breakfast dishes and gathered the ingredients for the yogurt. The milk went on the stove just before 10:00. It's now in the crock-pot, wrapped in a beach towel, incubating for 8 hours. Next up... Granola Bars for hubby.

11:10 report:
Granola bars in oven (My recipe to be posted here). Dishes washed up. Grabbed a quick snack. On to the Muffins!

11:45
Granola bars cooling; these will cool for several hours, then I'll put them in the frig, probably overnight, before cutting. I find that they stay together better when I do this. Whole Wheat Banana Chip Muffins are in the oven, dishes are washed for next batch of muffins. Must get last batch in oven and hot chocolate ready before daughter gets home at 12:45!

12:10
Banana Chip Muffins cooling, Blueberry Muffins in oven. Washing dishes.

12:40 - Time for a Break!
The Blueberry muffins are out of the oven and cooling And the Hot Chocolate is ready for when my daughter gets home. Now it's time for a real break. The baking part of the day is done, so I've turned off the oven. I've washed a "bazillion" dishes and my hands feel like the Sahara. My daughter will be home from preschool in about 5 minutes. This is a good time to sit down, have some lunch and visit with her for a bit. I'll pick back up on the rest of the list after she goes down for a nap at 2:00PM

Stay tuned for more later in the day.
To see the saga of the whole day from beginning to end, go here.