Don’t Order the Pizza!

The kids are going back to school. You are going back to work. The holidays are officially over and your life has to resume the craziness of everyday life. But now there is another feeling setting in. Carb overload? Holiday wipeout? Whatever it is it kind of feels like a long lasting hangover. Now it is up to you, the Superman (woman) of the family to ensure things get back to order and the natural flow of things – well, comes naturally.

I know that these are the times when we feel like ordering a pizza, or going out to eat. It’s easier, we reason. Everyone is happy and you can use those precious 45 minutes waiting for the pizza to remember what life was like pre-Christmas break. Checking homework, double checking the family schedule for the week. Just taking a moment to breathe. I know.

But really, do you want that pizza? After weeks of holiday buffets and heavy meals, and the snacking…… Isn’t it time for a simple family dinner?

In the time it takes to order that pizza and wait, you can make your family a delicious meal, and eat it. Not only will it be cheaper and more fulfilling, but believe it or not, it will save you time!

This recipe, found on Foodnetwork.com, takes less than 30 minutes and is deliciously satisfying. Try it tonight and you will be so glad you did. Pizza, schmizza.

Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts with Tomato and Basil and Potatoes with Peppers and Onions

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Total Time: 27 min

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 12 min

Yield: 4 servings

Level: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds fingerling potatoes or red skin baby potatoes
• 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
• 1 Italian mild green pepper, cubanelle, seeded and thinly sliced
• 1 medium yellow skinned onion, thinly sliced
• 4 large cloves garlic, cracked away from skin
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Coarse salt and pepper
• 2 cups shredded Parmesan, available in tubs near deli — make sure to get shredded cheese, not grated
• 4 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 4 plum Roma tomatoes or small, vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 15 to 20 leaves fresh basil, pile leaves, roll then thinly slice — chiffonade

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Cut fingerling potatoes into halves or quarters, depending on thickness of fingerlings — thin, small fingerlings may also be left hole, larger potatoes should be quartered to speed cooking process. If you are using small red potatoes, halve or quarter them in the same way.

Cover a large cookie sheet with foil. Place potatoes on cookie sheet. Combine with peppers and onions, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Coat the potatoes, peppers and onions with extra-virgin olive oil just enough to coat vegetables in a thin layer, 2 to 3 tablespoons. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Place potatoes in the oven and roast 20 to 22 minutes, until potatoes are just tender and peppers and onions are crisp at edges. Toss mixture with tongs, turning the potatoes after 15 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, transfer them to a serving dish and peel the foil off the cookie sheet and discard for super-quick clean up!

While potatoes cook, prepare chicken. Roll out a 2-foot piece of waxed paper or foil near the stove top. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat — your pan must be very hot when the chicken is added. Pile the shredded cheese on the work surface created with the waxed paper or foil. Season your chicken breasts with black pepper but no salt; the cheese will add enough salt to the taste of the dish. Press the breasts firmly into the cheese. Coat both sides of breasts with as much cheese as possible. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil to the skillet, 1 turn of the pan. Set breasts into the skillet and cook 7 minutes on each side, until cheese forms an even, golden casing around the tender chicken breasts.

While chicken cooks, combine chopped tomatoes with basil in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to your taste.

Drain off any excess oil from chicken as you remove it from the skillet. Top chicken with big spoonfuls of raw sauce and serve with potatoes, peppers and onions.

Like it? Find this recipe and more here. Your family will think you have been in the kitchen all day, and you will get those few minutes to cope with your busy day afterall!

Luxury Time Featured by AAA!

Christmas is past, and the lights must come down. The New Year is upon us and our Resolutions are being made.

What are your Resolutions? Cleaner, more organized, homes? More time to enjoy the people and hobbies you love? Whatever your New Years Resolutions include, know that Luxury Time can help. With an expanded list of services we can bring you into the New Year with all of your chores done allowing you more time to focus on what pleasures life has in store for you.

AAA and Luxury Time are proud to present a New Years package that would allow you to start 2012 fresh and stress-free. Choose from two packages:

3 hours of concierge service for $37 -or-

10 hours of concierge service for $99

Start the New Year off knowing that your To-Do’s are being crossed off the list, by efficient professionals at a savings of 51%.

Save money! Have more time! That’s probably 2 of your Resolutions right there!

If you missed this deal before Christmas, now is the chance to purchase it through AAA. But hurry! This offer is only good from December 29, 2011 through January 5, 2011.

Click here to take advantage of this deal on the AAA Member Deals web site. Once it’s gone, it may be gone for good!

And don’t forget to “Like” us on our facebook page found here to get time saving tips and deals that you would not be able to get anywhere else.

Oosouji – A Japanese Custom Becomes Your New Year Tradition

“Oosouji” is the name of a Japanese annual ritual; it’s literal translation is “the big cleaning.” “Oo” meaning big,”souji” meaning cleaning.

At the end of every year, usually on New Years Eve for many families, Japanese homes are meticulously cleaned in an effort to drive out any impure influences that may have taken up residence during the previous year.  The timing is important: It’s considered inauspicious to drag old business, clutter and dust into a brand-new year. Purification is the key objective here, the end result (i.e. a clean and uncluttered house), is something I’m sure we all want and strive for.

This resonates with me. I know all too well that clutter can derail productivity. It’s distracting. And it can be downright depressing. Clutter wastes time and is uninspiring. The more clutter the more time is wasted.

Christmas 2011 is past, and if your house looks anything like mine, you might indeed be uninspired. How did this happen? Look at all this STUFF. Ugh! Where do you put it all? How do you organize it all?

New Years is less than a week away, and you are determined to be organized, use your time more wisely and in turn be less stressed. Why not take a page out of our Japanese friends old customs? It does after all make sense, a lot of sense.  Most Americans wait until spring to do the Big Cleaning. It is between now and then that we become lethargic and depressed with the weather and state of our own households, waiting for that nice spring day when the birds start chirping and we decide now, this is the perfect time to get our homes in order.

But this day won’t be here for a few months. And the New Year is upon us. How do we keep to our New Years Resolutions when we are doomed to sabotage them before the year even begins?

This week do yourselves a favor. Commit a day to Oosouji.

Start at the top.  The kids rooms are always the hardest to do, but what more perfect time than when they are home on break? Go through their toys and clothes with them. Use the 1-2 Rule. For every toy or item of clothes they received for Christmas, donate 2 items to charity.

Another tip, take inventory of what Christmas items you have and what you will need next year as you put them away this week. The stores are having their clearance sales on all of their left over holiday items and it might be a good time to go buy wrapping paper if you see that you will need more next year. Just be sure that you pack it away and make a note to yourself that you won’t need to purchase it next year. This will not only save you money, but save you stress when the holidays come around next year.

Keep your holiday storage boxes numbered (i.e. 1 0f 5) and keep your inventory list in the first box that you will open  (you will be relieved when you pull it out next year, trust me this is something I have done for 2 years now and I always breathe easy once I see and remember the best gift I could have given myself, that awesome list telling me what works, what doesn’t and what I have and what I need).

Continue on to every room in the house picking up the clutter, making a pile of things to donate and things to trash.

There are some amazing lists that you can find online for “spring cleaning”.  Click here to find one that we found that has every possible task that needs done.

This New Year, go into 2012 with a positive mind and a clean house and you will be getting a jump and the upper hand on your New Years Resolutions.

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Luxury Time Featured on Living Social!

What can’t Dasher, dancer, Prancer and Vixen carry in their sleigh?        Time!

With 6 days until Christmas time is running out! But fear not my friends! Luxury Time and Living Social have come together to save your sanity and last minute Christmas gift ideas, or maybe just some time for you to enjoy these last few days before Christmas!

December 19 – 21, 2011, Living Social will be featuring a wondrous Christmas miracle! The gift of time brought to you courtesy of Luxury Time Personal Concierge Service! Perfect for helping you wrap up those last minute details so you can enjoy the time with family and friends, or perfect for the people in your life could use a little break from the stress of daily training to outrun the clock.

These packages are set at prices only fit for this magical season! We are so excited to be able to offer you this deal available only through Living Social!

You can find the deal Monday December 18- Wednesday December 21 on the Akron/Canton Living Social web site here.

And don’t forget to “Like” us on our facebook page found here to get time saving tips and deals that you would not be able to get anywhere else.

Hiring A Professional

Hiring a professional can not only save you time, but it can also save you money in the long run. Let’s face it, when you do your own projects around the house you probably take shortcuts, that can end up costing you more time and money down the road when you have to redo them. A professional does it right the first time ensuring the quality and longevity of the project.

One of the best parts about a concierge company is that they have a list of qualified, quality professionals that they work with to ensure you are getting the best work for the best deal. Luxury Time has an extensive list of contractors and vendors that we work with because they are the best in their business. One more way we save you time…

Check out this article by Real Simple on When to Hire a Professional.

http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/home-improvement/yourself-when-hire-pro-10000001581970/index.html

Get More Done….Have More Time

Part of the problem with time is that we feel like we don’t have enough of it because there is always something else that needs to be done. How can we fix that? Well, our friends at Forbes have shared with us 8 ways to get more done in 2012. Their helpful tips include little things that make sense like unplugging from the virtual world and focusing on what needs to be done and defining tasks. My personal favorite is the gut check.

Make sure you check out that article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2011/12/08/eight-secrets-to-getting-more-done-in-2012/.  Apply these tips to your life and you’ll be glad you did when you realize how much more you accomplish and how much time you have left to do something you really wanted to do.

What’s for Dinner?

Don’t want to cook because take out is quicker?

In the time you order and pick up or have it delivered you can make this delicious home cooked meal!

 
Pork and Potato Skillet 
4 4oz boneless pork loin chops
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 cups frozen Potatoes O’Brien
2 cups frozen peas and carrots
1. Sprinkle both sides of chops evenly with salt, heat 1 tablespoon oil in skillet over medium high heat. Cook chops for 3 minutes. Turn chops and cook 3 more minutes or until brown. Remove from skillet.
2. Add 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add potatoes, peas and carrots. Season with salt. Cook 6 minutes. Stir often.
3. Place chops on top of potato mixture. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 7-9 minutes more or until chops are no longer pink.

Enjoy!