The Age Old Question – What should I make for dinner? By Jannine Gallant

How much time do you waste staring into your refrigerator, wondering what to make for dinner? My guess is (if you’re anything like me) you go to the same old standbys, tried and true recipes you’ve made a million times before. I know I’m guilty as charged. The problem is, eating the same old thing gets boring when you’ve already made it three four times that month.

Now, to our organization theme. A few years ago, I pulled out my recipe cards and my cookbooks. I went through them, making a list of recipes my family loves and where I could quickly find them. It gave me a fast reference guide. So instead of that old standby, I can run through the list, and say, “Hey, I haven’t made this chicken dish in a while.”

If you’re really organized and motivated, you can sit down with your master list on Monday, and plan dinners for the whole week. Wow, imagine not stopping at the store every day, standing by the meat counter thinking, What should I make tonight? Less trips to the store means more time for writing, reading, painting your toenails… It’ll also save you money because you won’t be tempted to buy that bag of pistachio nuts. (That’s one of my husband’s weaknesses when I’m foolish enough to send him to the store!)

To get you started with your list of awesome recipes, I’m including one of my favorites below. You can also find more of my recipes on my blog, Food For Thought.

Chicken Stroganoff

4 slices bacon

1 ¼ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into strips

1 medium onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

½ tsp. paprika

salt and pepper to taste

1 can less sodium chicken broth

1 cup reduced fat sour cream

2 Tbsp. flour

4 cups hot, cooked egg noodles

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and crumble. Leave some of the bacon drippings and sauté chicken. Add onion and garlic – cook until wilted. Add seasonings, broth and bacon to pan. Simmer 10 minutes. Combine sour cream and flour in a bowl, stirring until smooth. Add to pan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for two minutes. Serve over egg noodles. Yields 4 servings.

Visit my Website for info on my current and upcoming releases. Bittersweet will be available from Whiskey Creek Press in February!

I've Got a Bruise on my Forehead.

This is "get organized" month, and I dread every day of it. Organization is not my strong suit. Heck, it's not even my weak suit. With every lovely post on the fine art of organizing, I've gotten more and more depressed. I mean, isn't it bad enough Twinkies has gone into bankrupcy?

Everyday when I open our blog, I slap my forehead, and it's gotten so bad, my forehead is bruised.

"You should put something on that," Calvin suggested, his hand in the cookie jar.


When I opened the door to our medicine cabinet, two bottles of Nyquil hit me on the nose. Darn if I didn't have to clean the cabinet out just to find cotton balls to shove up my nose to stop the bleeding.

When dear Calvin saw my swollen nose, he said as he opened a bag of chips, "Maybe you should put ice on that."

Well, my ice bag is kept in the freezer. You know, just so I know where it's at. But when I opened the freezer, two half-gallons of ice cream fell on my feet and broke all my toes--or so it seemed. So I had to clean out and organize my freezer just to find the darn ice pack for my nose.

Altnough the ice took the swelling out of my nose, my toes were too swollen to squeeze into winter shoes, so I had to find a pair of sandals in my walk-in closet. I knelt and reached between stacks of plastic tubs full of summer clothing to find my favorite pair of strappy, comfy shoes. How was I to know that's where our neighbor's cat we're babysitting, while they're gone, takes his afternoon nap? Mr. Cuddles (NOT) scratched my arm to bits. So, I had to clean the darn closet and organize it just to find my sandals, flipflops, Dr. Schols...anything for my swollen tootsies.

Calvin saw me pouring peroxide on my arm. "You should probably wrap that," he suggested as he poured another cup of coffee. I shot him a dark look.

Problem was when I cleaned and organized the medicine cabinet, I put all the overflow into the linen closet. How...how was I to know Mr. Cuddles, still in a feline huff from having his hiding place disturbed, had laid claim to the linen closet?



I'm telling you I can't take any more organizing! I'm just not cut out for it. And if you think that picture is of me, let me say that dear helpful husband gave me one TOO many suggestions.

A Little Organization Takes the Pain out of Editing By Jannine Gallant

I’m up to my eyebrows in edits. I got round one back on a full length suspense novel from one editor a week before Christmas and am expecting the same on a historical from a second editor any day now. Bittersweet is scheduled to release in February, which means editing the entire book in one month! Am I a little stressed—take a wild guess. LOL

In going through the track changes on the suspense novel, it occurred to me that a little organization would have made a lot of the edits unnecessary. How many writers don’t have a few bad habits? If you just yelled, “ME! ME!” I’m guessing you’re in rarified company. My editors (I’ve worked with three so far and am about to add a fourth) have pointed out plenty of my little foibles. On my earlier manuscripts, I used lots of dialogue tags. It was gently noted that this is BORING and that action tags are a whole lot more interesting than he/she said. So, being the overcompensater that I am, I set about writing a 90,000 word novel with only a half dozen he/she saids in the entire book. What did I do instead? In the one I’m currently editing, my characters “let out a shuddering sigh.” Okay, there’s a serial killer on the loose, so a few shuddering sighs are warranted. Probably not 58 of them! (I’m guessing at the number but it can’t be far off.)

Here’s where the organization comes in. When you use phrases to describe actions, make a list. Here are few of my favorites.

Shuddering sigh
Brows beetled
Bit her lip
Touched her arm
Blah, blah, blah

I won’t bore you with the rest. Before you hit the send button on your incredibly perfect manuscript, do a word search for your list of phrases and change them up when you discover you’ve used a few on 36 occasions.

My next piece of advice on the organizational front is to make a short character sketch every time you introduce a character. This doesn’t have to be done in advance if you’re a panster, but it will save you time in the long run. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hunted through a manuscript to see what color eyes I gave a minor character. When you add a new character, it’ll also help you avoid the same letter start. If you already have a Sue and a Sally on your list, you might not want to call the next female character Sarah. Just saying. I tend to get in first letter ruts.

So, in honor of Get Organized Month, I’m determined to spend the extra minute here and there to take a few pertinent notes when I’m writing. I KNOW it will save a lot of time and energy and headaches down the road.

For more information on my current and upcoming releases, check my website at http://www.janninegallant.com/.