Managing the Mundane

Managing the Mundane

Everyday helps and hints for everyday life

A collection of ideas for meal planning, recipes, and cooking and cleaning tips and tricks

Let’s face it. Except for holidays and a few special occasions throughout the year, most of life is routine – dare I say – mundane. We get up, we go to work or go about our day, we take care of kids and our spouse, we cook, we clean, we attend after-school activities, church activities, and sporting events, and we fall into bed exhausted, just to start it all over the next day. That’s where this site comes into play. My goal is to help you manage your daily routine a little more efficiently and hopefully make things a little easier and more organized for you. Check out the About tab for more details about me and how this all started. You can get some suggested meal planning with recipes under the Menus tab and some planning, cooking, and cleaning pointers on the Helps and Hints tab.

Check it out!

  • There are over a year’s worth of menus available on the site now, so I’m not publishing any new menus. However, come back here often as I will continue to post any new recipes that I have found and tried so that you have some new ideas as well. If I come up with any other new helps and hints, I will also post those.

    And here are some of those new recipes that I have tried!! The ones that were previously posted are under the button New Recipes to Try! And go back and check out some of the other menus as you plan for your last few weeks of the summer season. I go back and look for dinner ideas all the time!

    Bowl of Mexican rice with grilled chicken, melted cheese, pico de gallo, and cilantro

    Mexican Chicken and Rice – In most of our Mexican food restaurants around here, they call this dish the Steven Special. I thought I would give it a try making it myself. I will say that I need to try it again and tweak my technique. I don’t think I let the rice cook long enough, so it was a little sticky. I also don’t think I let the flour in the cheese sauce cook long enough, so the taste and texture was a little off. But give this recipe from kitchenguide101.com a try and see what you think.

    Three chicken tostadas with black beans, shredded chicken, avocado slices, lettuce, crema, and cheese with lime wedges on a plate

    Chicken Tinga Tostadas – Never forget how much we love Mexican food and flavors! This is a lower-calorie meal that you can try from fedbysab.com. You create your own chicken tinga. This makes a large portion, so do it for a larger group, so you can have leftovers for the week, or so that you can freeze the rest of the chicken for another time. We actually had it as tacos rather than tostadas.

    Casserole dish with five browned chicken thighs on yellow rice with peas and red bell peppers

    Chicken and Rice Bake – This is an easy one-pot meal for weeknight meals from thereciperebel.com. It uses pantry ingredients and chicken thighs. One of the suggestions is also to add some frozen vegetables to the rice when you cook it so that you have a complete meal.