Time Management

The week seemed to fly by and I have not taken the time to write. It's been a nice week of cooking which is good, but my desk time has not been as organized as I would like. I think this will change in May as we're making some changes in daycare schedules and I hope this will give me the time I need to devote to starting the business. I've got an extensive To Do list both with the business and other household management duties and my execution of them has been sub-par. I think it is time for me to breakdown the hours in the day and schedule tasks that way. I have not wanted to operate at that level of control freakiness, but it's become apparent to me that I need this sort of structure for myself or I will end up running around starting and stopping all sorts of things and never completing anything. It's funny because I watch the clock so much throughout the day but still run out of time. And yet come dinner time, I watch the clock and manage how each element of the meal will come together and timing it all perfectly. I have to apply that same sense of management to the other parts of my life.

This week I sent out some recipes to friends who are willing to test them for me. It's important that when I begin creating the weekly meal plans for e-mealplanning.com that I am offering recipes that have been tested and given favorable reviews. Sometimes I will use my own personal creations but mostly I have been doing a lot of research to find recipes from other sources. Something I noticed in my research for my potential competition is they mostly provide all their own recipes. I don't think I need to be yet another recipe website. I'd much rather rely on tried and true recipes from well known sources (like Martha Stewart, Food TV and Cooking.com) and with those try them myself or have someone I know try them. My site will be a portal to all of the quality cooking and grocery shopping resources already out on the web.
I have also launched my market research survey and it's been great to see the results. I think some people might have taken it as fishing for customers and I actually had not even considered that. I really want to know if the assumptions I'm making about the profile for my target market is correct and I wanted feedback on pricing so that I structure my pricing to be reasonable. I'm happy to see that I am on the right track as well as learn some more about people's perceptions and expectations. It also confirmed that I have a lot of foodie control freak friends (like myself) who have no use for my services. But I knew that, and appreciate that in spite of that they still have positive encouragement and still think it's a good idea.

In cooking news- This week I tried several recipes and I liked them all.
Orange beef stir fry- I added zucchini and snap peas from my produce delivery and used the organic oranges and their juice too.

Grilled chicken w/balsamic glaze- I did manage to clean up the grill and add new lava rocks to it and it's ready to use. So I made a glaze of honey and balsamic vinegar to to baste the chicken.

Slow Cooker Sausage Lasagna- This is a very quick way to have lasagna on a week night. It's not the same as the real deal, with ricotta but it was quick and easy and very tasty and liked by everyone in the house.

Tomorrow I will do my major shopping for May, so I'm finalizing my lists and doing a little coupon research. I will report back on how that goes.