Simplifying and Organizing

My New Year's resolution was to simplify and organize my house.  Minimize.  Make sure everything has a place and everything is easily kept in its place.  I'm taking baby steps as my budget allows.  Here is the progress I've made so far.  No "before" shots, simply because I forgot to take them.  

One of the hot spots for clutter in my house is the "tupperware" cabinet.  Specifically my son's dishes.  Kid's plates are always so oddly shaped and/or have sections and just don't stack very nicely.  So, one thing I did was buy a plastic magazine file.  I just laid it on its side and slid the plates in.  It keeps the bigger, more awkward plates in one place without taking up too much space!

Another issue we had was his cups.  So I got a small dollar store basket that fits all his cups nicely. You can see the magazine file behind it, holding those annoying plates.

This little set of drawers has been very handy in the kitchen.  The top drawer holds bill-paying necessities, middle drawer holds some spice bottles that didn't fit in my cabinet and the bottom is the best part.  K-cup storage!  This sits on the small counter next to my coffee maker, so it's the perfect spot for k-cup storage.  I love it!

 In the basement we have what I call the "pantry room."  I don't have a typical pantry closet in my kitchen so we have dedicated a small spare room to extra food/toiletry and paper storage.  One thing I did to keep the shelves from getting too cluttered was to buy a hanging shoe organizer.  In it I can keep the smaller things that would otherwise get lost on a shelf.  Small bags of rice and noodles, seasoning packets, frosting tubes, cupcake liners, random small boxes and bags of things that just clutter up my shelves.  I love it because I can easily see everything that's in there and grab it quickly.

One last thing I wanted to talk about is meal planning.  I've always been one of those "5 o'clock scramble" type of people.  I can cook a good meal on the fly but I hated the rush. And I hated the rut I was in, always cooking the same things because they were familiar and easy.  Grocery shopping was getting tedious because I never really knew what to buy.  I'd buy things I was used to using and could build easy meals from.  But that gets stressful and the meals get boring.  So, I needed to make a change.  I am meal planning with intention.  I've only done one month so far and I'm currently working on the March meal plan.  It's gone very well.  Yes, it's a large time commitment up front.  Researching the meals, making shopping lists, doing the prep work....all takes time.  But on a day to day basis, when it's time to make dinner, this meal plan has saved me so much time and headache.  I love the challenge of trying new recipes and I love feeling the relief of being organized!

One thing that makes a difference when it comes time to shop is that I color coded the recipes.  Pink for proteins (including meatless ones), orange for fruits and veggies, yellow for condiments/sauces/spices and blue for carbs.  I also created a simple code system to categorize the meals, so I would know at a glance what kind of meal it was.

CM-Crock Pot meal

OM-Oven meal

FM-Freezer meal

NC-No Cook meal (sandwiches, leftovers, etc.)

EM-Easy meal (quick prep, quick cooking, etc.)

MM-Meatless meal

I hope these tips have been helpful for you.  I'd love to see how you organize your home.  Be sure to follow me on Pinterest!  

Quick Tip

One of my favorite places to shop is the dollar store.  And one of the great things about the dollar store is their organizational products.  Every time I visit I check out all the baskets and bins and other products they offer to make organizing your home a frugal venture.  A recent find was these cute little baskets that fit very nicely in that small shelf in my refrigerator.  You know the one, next to the cheese drawer.  The one that is so short that it barely holds anything.  Well, I store my yogurt there.  But my son was becoming frustrated with that because he would have to take all the yogurt cups out to find the one he wanted, since they tend to get shoved to the back of the shelf.  This little basket fixed that.  It fits 6-8 yogurt cups nicely.  Now he can easily pull the entire basket out, choose the flavor he wants and return the rest with no mess and no frustration.  The baskets came as a 2 pack so I still need to find a use for the other one, but I'm so glad I picked them up.  They are perfect for that short shelf!

Christmas Do-Over

Time for a quick (and very late!) Christmas wrap up then we'll move on to other things!

Our son has a small tabletop tree in his room, which he decorates every year with mini ornaments.

Someone's been messing around in the refrigerator!

It's our elf, who my son named "Crispy Cat."

That elf sure likes being silly with refrigerators!

We enjoyed a second Christmas at my parents' house.  My mother's tree was Santa Claus themed.

She Always does such a lovely job of decorating it.

This guy was my favorite.

One of my favorite gifts this year was a Starbucks holiday mug.  There's no simpler pleasure than drinking your favorite beverage from your favorite mug.

Our modest Christmas morning.  That green race car was a hit!

This was our Christmas Eve dinner.  We nibbled on this throughout the evening while decorating the tree and watching The Polar Express.

My mother-in-law sent some Angry Birds ornaments for my son.  He loved them!

Testing out the remote control car on Christmas morning.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  I'm ready for Spring now!

Hiatus

Sorry for the hiatus!  My computer was slowly dying so it was time to replace it.  Now that I've got a faster machine I'll be able to blog more frequently!  I'm sorry there was no Christmas post.  I'll still do a brief one and then move on to other things!

Christmas Pickles

Every year I make these pickles for a family Christmas party.  They are a variation on a traditional bread and butter pickle.  These are not shelf stable!  I'm not canning them.  They are cooked on the stove and need to be stored in the refrigerator.  They will keep in the fridge for several weeks.

Here's what you'll need.  Recipe follows blog post.  Ingredients are: cucumbers, sweet onion, kosher salt, apple cider vinegar, sugar, ground mustard, red pepper flakes and mustard seed.  The original recipe calls for pickling cucumbers but since I make this in winter they are not available where I shop.  I've always used regular cucumbers and it comes out fine.  If you use regular cucumbers you'll need to scrub them extra good.  They are likely coated with wax and if you don't scrub most of the wax off you'll end up with a film on top of your pickles.  It won't affect the taste but it's not terribly nice to look at.

Dump all your ingredients, except for your veggies, into a large pan on the stove.  Stir it up and heat until boiling.  Stir often to help dissolve the sugar.  Most years I have extra liquid left at the end.  It depends on how many cucumbers I use and how big my jars are.  So, don't worry if you don't use it all.

Meanwhile slice up your veggies.  I do this freehand with a knife.  A mandolin would work fine if you want uniform slices.  It doesn't matter too much to me, so I just use a knife.

Ditto for the onion.

Once your liquid is boiling you're ready to go.

Dump in HALF the veggies.  Don't overcrowd your pot.  You don't have to bother bringing the mixture back to a boil.  Just stir them around so they all get submerged at some point.

You'll know when they are done because they go from bright cucumber green to dark pickle green.  You all know what color a pickle is.  This is the start.  Bright green.

Be sure to light a candle when your son comes into the kitchen and tells you that it's "too stinky in here."  This recipe will stink up your house.  So crack a window, light some candles, etc.  The smell lingers.

Keep stirring and moving things around.

This looks about right.

Remove pickles with a slotted spoon and allow to cool slightly in a separate bowl.  At this point add the rest of your raw veggies and cook them.  While they are cooking you can move the first batch to their jars.  I just use tongs and shove them in there.

Pack them in there well but not too tightly.  Once all the pickles are cooked and into jars I let the liquid cool for a bit.  Then I ladle it into the jars slowly, giving it time to settle.  Until the jars are full.  Cover them loosely and allow to cool on the counter for a while.  When they are cool enough to touch you can tighten the lids but I don't put the jars in the fridge until they are much closer to room temp.  DO NOT PUT HOT JARS IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR!!!

Mmmm....the onions are my favorite part.  Enjoy!

Shelly's Christmas Pickles

-2 cups sugar

-2 cups vinegar

-3 Tbsp kosher salt

-2 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds

-1 tsp dry yellow mustard

-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

-12 small pickling cucumbers OR 3-4 large cucumbers

-1-2 sweet onions

In large pot bring all ingredients (except cucumbers and onions) to a boil.  Stir often to help dissolve sugar.  Add about half the veggies and cook over med-high heat until cucumbers turn dark green.  Remove to separate bowl until all veggies are cooked.  Pack into jars.  Allow liquid to cool slightly before pouring over pickles.  Cover loosely until cool to the touch.  Tighten jars and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in refrigerator.  Keeps in fridge for several weeks.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Meatballs...a non-recipe

I've been cooking for a long time and as a result I'm mostly an "eyeball it" kind of cook.  I generally do not follow recipes, unless it's something I'm unsure of making or something that needs to turn out the same every time.  And of course if it's a family recipe that's been passed down to me I will follow it closely.  Why mess with perfection?

But as a result of my reckless cooking style I have a very hard time transcribing recipes.  But I did want to share this little gem that I came up with.  Meatballs stuffed with goat cheese.

These are the ingredients I started with.  One pound of ground beef, goat cheese log , parmesan cheese, oregano, garlic salt, parsley flakes, crushed breadsticks and one egg.  Variations on this are endless.  I actually prefer a "meatloaf mix" for the meat portion but didn't have that on hand.  You could also add or subtract pretty much any of the other ingredients.  Sometimes instead of garlic salt I'll use minced garlic.  Or I'll add two eggs if I have more meat.  Normally I would use bread crumbs or cracker crumbs but didn't have any so I crushed up some breadsticks I had.  You could use most any goat cheese flavor.  This one was garlic and herb.

If you're like me, you're in a rush and have to thaw some of your meat in the microwave....

Throw everything in the bowl and mush together with your hands.  Yes it's messy but it's really the best way to incorporate everything.  Use your hands for meatloaf too.  A spoon just doesn't do it.  As for measurements?  Um, this is the hard part.  I don't measure anything here.  I just shake stuff out until it looks good.  If you're an "eyeball it" kind of cook like myself you'll figure it out. If you're a novice in the kitchen my "recipes" won't help you.  Sorry!

Spray a pretty little dish with some non-stick stuff.

No picture of the process because it was a two handed job but basically I took a wad of meat and made a thick patty.  Then I put a dent in that for the cheese.  Added a little more meat on top of the cheese and formed it into a ball.  One trick I did with the goat cheese is that I cut it into cubes and then froze them on a paper plate.  That helped keep them from melting too fast and oozing out of the ball.

Preheat your oven to 350 and bake for a while.  Maybe 35 minutes?  I'm really bad at timing stuff.  I don't ever really burn anything.  It's just from practicing.  I check on things often and try to follow my nose.  For these, I covered them for the first part of cooking and then uncovered them so they would get a little bit crispier on the outside.  They turned out great!  I'll definitely be making them again.  Although the recipe will surely not be the same.  ;)

All decked out for Christmas!

Well, now that the blog is all decked out for Christmas it's time for a new post!  I did not participate in the final week of the WLW November challenge because it called for holiday decorating and with two cats in the house my holiday decorating does not happen until much much closer to Christmas.  So, I re-decorated my hutch instead.

Before


After

And a little tour of the goodies on my shelf.  

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