"Bin" Crazy......

There is absolutely nothing fancy to this bit of organization, but I guess that is why I love it so much. Since I am a freezing guru and have a bit of a love affair with storage bins, I combined the two loves. I love these cheap little plastic bins to organize my frozen goods. I have them in both freezers and have the bins organized with different groups. ie, in the kitchen freezer, I have one that has my frozen fruit for the smoothies and one with nuts and other baking goods like the chocolate chips for easy access. Outside I have one for cheeses, one for meats, etc. It is so nice to know where everything is so I don't have to dig around in my big freezer. I also like to be able to see when I am running low on certain items. I also love the square ziplock reusable containers in all sizes. They stack much better than the round and use up space better. There you have it, a little more of my cheap and no frill organization tips that always make me wonder once again, why didn't I do this earlier!!

Contain It!

I had a couple of areas that were driving me nuts and decided it was time to do something about it. Why didn't I think of this before or take the time? It was so easy and now makes me breath a bit easier. First, my medicine cabinet in the kitchen was full with all of the wonderful holistic remedies that I read so much about, but it was almost impossible to find what I needed. These cheap little baskets fit perfect in the cupboard from Walmart for only 97 cents a piece. I have them organized into categories; cold remedies, allergies,bandaids, pain medication, etc. I love it! The second issue was with shoes. I am sure you know the drill. With seven pairs of feet in my house, we have too many shoes. I first put this shelf in the garage right by the door for them to put shoes on so they will not be in the house by the door. They keep the nice shoes in their closets. The shelf became piled high with shoes , spilling onto the ground so you couldn't even get into the garage. My 5 year old could never find his shoes before school. He was always missing one. I bought these cheap bins , one for each of them and it has worked out great. I have a big basket on the bottom for the dirty shoes, like cleats and river shoes. I have found that my children actually like organization and if they have a specific place to put something, chances are they will put it there. If there isn't a designated spot, things are lost, cluttered and disorganized. What a trip t walmart will do for a gal!

Failing to plan is planning to Fail!

Back in the 7th grade I won the state oratory contest for a little speech I wrote about succeeding in life through preparation. I remember this speech so well and especially the quote, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." I use that little gem on my kids all the time when they just "happen" to run out of time to do the things that they need to do or want to do. It's all about the planning. As I have talked on previous blogs, I usually lay out my dinner plans for two weeks. This past week, I just didn't make the time. The day I usually make out the list was on the night of my bread class so I was busy. It just didn't happen after that. So, each night I stand in the kitchen with a look of puzzlement of what I am going to make and a quick run to the store to get the ingredients if I don't have what I need. Consequently , my week has not run too smoothly. My lack of planning has really cost me lots of time. I get asked quite frequently how much time I spend in the kitchen, with all of the cooking that I talk about, surely I must live there 24/7. Well, to the contrary, because I plan, I probably spend less time on meals than those who think they don't cook. This past week reaffirmed this for me. My meals have been a lot less creative and I have spent a lot more time in the kitchen. We have eaten dinner late each night and I still need to go to the store, again! The moral of the story, No plan of action= wasting time. Wasting time=still laundry to fold, still shower to clean, still tired. What a little lack of planning has done to my night time schedule is amazing. I can't wait to write my list again.


On that note of saving time, I wanted to fill you in on one of my favorite time saving tools. The George Foreman grill. A few years ago, my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I really didn't know so just to give her something, I told her the George Foreman. I really didn't understand what I was asking for but it was something for the kitchen that I didn't have yet. Little did I know how much I would fall in love with George. George has delivered me beautiful cooked chicken from frozen tenders to cooked tenders in 4 minutes. He has given me perfectly cooked steaks, pannini's , grilled veggies and burgers. The time to cook is so quick because it cooks from both sides. It is also great because you don't need to add oil. Everyone needs one of these.(Go for the bigger & better one, they work better.) I am a huge fan of the chicken tenders because you get more marinated flavor with them since they are thin and they cook really fast. Always have a big frozen bag in your freezer for dinners in a pinch. Everyone has 4 minutes to make chicken. While it is cooking, tear your lettuce, cut some fruit, toast a bagel and have a great chicken salad all in under 5 minutes! You can't even get through a drive thru in that time.

My point is this, you don't have to spend all day in the kitchen to eat a home cooked, healthy meal. You just need the tools and the plan.

Here's a little marinade recipe my sister-in-law passed on to me. It is great for salads and any southwest type dish.


Southwest Chicken Marinade

2 T. olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1 t. chili powder
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. dried oregano leaves
1/2 t. salt
1 pound chicken

Combine all ingredients, coat both sides of chicken. Marinate in fridge a couple hours or just go ahead and grill on the spot if no time! Still tastes great.

Remember to make extra and freeze some for the future dinner!

What's for Dinner?

I have had quite a few emails lately about dinner planning and execution. Dinner is always a hard time of day, but we all must eat dinner. We shouldn't be shocked everynight and most of the time, we are in charge. The more you can do to plan ahead of time, the easier it will be when the time comes. For me, I favor the two week list. I write out a list of meals for two weeks, I cook usually 5-6 nights a week. I write down recipes that I like and a few new ones to try. I then save these lists so that I have ideas to pull from other times when I can't think of ideas. If it is a new recipe, I will write down what recipe book it is in and what page. I try to plan out the meals so that I am cooking ahead. Here's a little example from last weeks schedule:

Monday: Thai Peanut Wraps
Tuesday: BBQ chicken chopped salad
Wednesday: Shredded pork chalupas
Thursday: Linguini with Basil and fresh tomatoes
Friday: Grilled pizzas

So, here is the execution - Since I had already shopped for the two week menu all the ingredients should theoretically be in the house. I know ahead of time what I am going to make that night so many ingredients are planned ahead. For instance: the Thai peanut wraps had nothing prepared ahead of time but I saved some of the peanut sauce for the grilled pizzas at the end of the week, Thai pizza's are delicious. Then next day, I made the BBQ chicken salad and used some left over grilled BBQ chicken from a previous week that I had frozen and chopped. All I needed to do is chop the lettuce and add the other ingredients, I had beans in the freezer also from a big batch I had made a few weeks ago. The next day I made shredded pork in a big batch also to freeze for another week to make enchiladas. Thursday was Linguini with Basil and tomato. Since I had bought a big bag of basil, I made some pesto to store for the following week. I just used that pesto last night for a pesto pasta dish. Simple and delicious. Friday night was supposed to be grilled pizza's but we went out instead. I saved the ingredients to make this week, some pesto for a pesto chicken pizza, some peanut sauce for a thai pizza.

Not all weeks go as easy, some weeks are more of the preparation weeks but if you get in the habit of thinking ahead, dinner time can be cut in half. You can make a dinner faster than you can get take out. It just takes time to plan. You must first take the time to be "dinner organized." Stock up on reusable tupperware containers to freeze everything. I hate to waste anything. I feel that it is not showing gratitude for my food if I do. I also hate leftovers so I will freeze what's freezable then bring in back, reincarnated into a different type of dish. I saved about 3/4 cup of spahetti sauce a few weeks ago for a calzone another week. I also buy a big bulk size of ground beef and will cook it up with onion and garlic. I freeze it up in small containers and can pull it out easily for tacos, sloppy joes, etc. When you grill chicken, double batch it, chop it and freeze it. You can use that chicken for all kinds of quick dinners.

Move over Rachel Ray...I can get dinner done in 15 minutes!

**Fellow E.H. April Haymore says the Happy Baby baby food is great for the little mouths to feed. You can find it at Target in the freezer section. So much better than the canned junk! Thanks, April for the comments!

Baskets

Hello! I'm Molly who Shari once introduced many months back as the one who would be posting organizational tidbits for you! I have to apologize for the delay, but now I'm ready to roll and have lots of new ideas for you! I have to say, that none of these things are rocket science, and most of them I feel pretty silly even posting, but I figure that we all learn so much from each other, so here we go! First, I'll have to give you a little backround about me, I LOVE to organize things. It doesn't necessarily mean that I "am" organized, I just love to organize things and make sure that things have there place. I have a hard time functioning in a place that is un-organized and really just a mess. I remember growing up my mom had this never ending stack of junk on the counter that just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Mail, bills, cards, wedding announcements, you name it, it all landed in this pile. She would constantly complain about this pile and how badly she wanted to get rid of it. But, to this day- it's still there! And now every time I visit home I tease her about the pile and that she has to get rid of it!

So, fellow bloggers- whatever your "pile" may be- I want to help you get rid of it! Let's get organized together. Today, I chose to write about baskets. You're probably laughing, but I have baskets all over my house! First, I use them to organize my cards- greeting cards that is. I have a small stationary obsession so for a while I had cards all over my house. I finally got a long basket ( I buy most of my baskets at Cost Plus World Market), and made note cards and labeled them with my *p-touch. Birthday cards, wedding, everyday, Easter, etc. I have them all 3 baskets up in my closet so I just have to pull them down whenever I want a card. They're all right there and I just have my pick out what I want. Baskets also work great is closets to hide "stuff". At the end of my hallway is a closet and in the baskets I have rags, travel toiletries, candles, etc. Each one has something different, but when you open it up it looks so much nicer that all of my stuff just thrown in there. You can see I also have my kids board books in baskets, and baskets on my living room bookshelf to hide more "stuff". You can get these type of baskets at target, Michael's, Joann's, cost plus, wal-mart, etc.

Go through your house and identify spots where you can use baskets to help organize things. Closets, cards, foods, snacks, craft supplies, ribbon, you name it- it can all be neatly organized with a basket!

* If you don't know what a p-touch is- I'm so happy to be the one to tell you! All office store sells these amazing little label machines. You can label anything and everything. And example is in the photo ( a little blurry) of how I labeled the notecards. These labelers come in very handy and range in price from $20- over $100. I've found that some are very tricked out with various fonts and sizes, but you really only need the basic one for everyday labeling. Good Luck!

In Bed for Back Rubs

I don't know about you, but 8:00 pm is bewitching time at my house. This is the time of day that I no longer want to be a mother and need everyone to go to bed so I will still like them. However, they seem to feed off this and work very hard to make bedtime a ritual of not obeying, hurting each other and waiting until mom starts to elevate the voice (pleasant way of saying "screaming). I am tired of this ritual and am quite tired of not being heard until I get mad, so here is a little game that has changed all of that - My friend Tracy was telling me one day how she started to give her son back rubs at night to bond with him better and to help him calm down. She told me how much this helped both of their relationships. I thought that was a perfect idea for one of my boys that desperately craves my attention. We all need to be touched and nurtured, especially by our mothers and it seems that it is so hard sometimes to just find the time to spend with each of them. I decided to give this a try. Of course, he loved it and the other little ones wanted one too. I decided to make a game out of it, If they were in bed by 8pm on the dot, they would get a back rub. If I didn't have to ask them and they were in bed, they would get a back rub with lotion. I didn't know how long this game would work, but it has now been one month and it is golden. I don't have to get mad at them every night and they can't wait for bedtime to get their alone time with mom. I love it too, to just be with them one on one. My older ones don't play this game but the little guys think it is the best game ever. Little do they know how this simple back rub has transformed my evening ritual from one that I dread to one that I look forward to.

Canister Crazy

I have to admit that I have a bit of a love affair with containers. I especially love these square containers for all of my grains,beans and baking ingredients. I have at least 20 in different sizes. The best thing about these is that you can buy all the bulk foods and save the cost of packaging. Shar's kitchen center also sells her products in these great containers so everything matches. I also like them so I can see what I have and what I need to buy since they are clear. The square shapes are great because they fit so well in the pantry. I also have small ones in the fridge for my yeast and other grains. You can buy these at smart n final, Shar's and possibly sams club. They are real cheap and are a good quality.

If you do not live by a sprouts or natural food type store, you can order grains and cooking items online at www.bulkfoods.com. The prices are pretty good and shipping is low cost. I have ordered many things from them when I couldn't find them anywhere else.

Simply Organized

A simple way I have discovered to eliminate the "Where is that paper....?" is to have a hanging file folder for
each of my children in my file drawer where they can access. Anytime I get a paper that I will need ie. dance
recital information, soccer sign up sheet or class phone number list, I know just where it will be. If my little ones make a picture for grandma, we will know right where it is the next time she comes over. The kids know that if they have a special paper they did at school, they put it in their file. When the file gets too full, it is time to sort through it and empty as needed. The special papers they still want to keep go into their big rubermaid bin that they have for their favorite pictures and school papers. I will send that bin off with them when they are married. This system has worked great for me. Before I had file drawers, I just had a pocket folder for each of them.

While I have some simple organization tips to pass on, my friend, Molly, has many "cute" organization tips to pass on. I am not a "fluffy" person, too practical, but Molly makes everything cute. I have asked her to write some blogs for me with her tips . She is known for her talents in this area. So, keep your eye out for her upcoming column. If any of you have an area of expertise or info you would like to pass on, email me or make a comment and I would love to have you guest blog. That was my intention of this blog, all of us sharing our ideas. Thanks for all of your emails and comments. I have learned from you all.

The "Post its" are Back

Why does it seem that every morning, it seems to come as a surprise to my children that they have a job to do, the same job they have had to do for the past year? Why must they be asked 10 times at least to get it done? This seems to be the theme every morning this month. Contrary to what my children may think, I do actually hate to yell at them, and think it quite unfair that I am pushed to this point to simply get some work done. Therefore, the "Post it " system is back! This system was a little brain child of mine a year or so ago that revolutionized the way the morning ritual went in my house. We seemed to forget it so they will remember beginning tomorrow morning. Here's how it goes:

I no longer have to ask them to get the work done. They know what their jobs are and know that they must be completed before they go to school. If, by chance they do forget this very simple thing, when they return home from school, there will be a post it on the counter with their name and a harder job that must be completed before any food or privilege is to be received. That is in addition to whatever job they missed in the morning. I told them that I hope they forget their morning job because I have a really big job I need done in the afternoon that would really help me out. Well, it took only two days for them to figure out that doing the morning job was a lot easier. I didn't have to yell or even say one word. It worked like a charm, at least for a good year. We seemed to forget this game so they will remember tomorrow. Try it out! Our job is to teach our children responsibility, not to teach them to respond only when we get mad. We need to teach them that they work because they are part of a family not because they get money. We have to teach them that in the real world, Mom will not be there to tell them daily to get the work done! If they don't, they will loose jobs, fail classes and loose friends. That is life.

Simply Organized

Last year was my year to get my house totally organized.(I'm almost there!) Everything in a place.My favorite accomplishment was all of the loose papers in the kitchen- those handouts from enrichment, ward lists, kitchen manuals for all of the kitchen novelties I buy, etc. I went to costco and bought a bunch of binders and sheet protectors. I have many binders each with a different topic, Kitchen manuals, Phone lists, Recipes, etc. They are each filled with sheet protectors so that when I get a new paper or manual, I just slip it into the plastic. I always know where everything is. I especially love having all of my manuals in one place. I keep the warranty card with it so I never have to wonder, "Now, where did I put that information!"I have one for my year supply so I can list what boxes I have and where in the house they are stashed along with dates of when I bought them. This helps me with rotation. My other favorite binder is for my loose recipes. Whenever I print one off or get one from enrichment, I just throw it in the plastic. This was so simple and left me wondering, why did I not do this before!