Hi Friends! Yep, I am still in organize and clean mode… this little place has tons of stuff just jam packed in so I am working as hard as my broken back will allow me. I thought I would share a couple of more photos of my progress. The first is my new basket filled with hosting items, such as, paper goods, plasticware, etc. I thought it would be great to have a centralized basket that I could just pull out when guests show up.

And my bottom shelf in my pantry… DON’T JUDGE ME! This was a catch-all type of shelf and it did too good of a job living up to that title… This is where I now store my large containers of broth, drink syrups, grains, flours and a couple of other consistently used items.

My latest venture is Dinner Planning! This will be my first week actually laying out a plan for our dinners. I’m thinking that having it all planned out will save us from eating out so often (save money and no more gained weight!) and keep me from having multiple grocery trips per week.

I definitely can’t promise to share my meal plans every week but from time to time I plan to share the recipes and my plan for the week. Keep in mind that there are only two of us in our household, but many of the dishes I make are made to have leftovers so I only have to cook several times a week (genius, right?!).

So here is the first plan of the year (better late than never…)

• Monday: Baked Potatoes with BBQ Chicken and Corn
• Tuesday: Broccoli and White Cheddar Mac n Cheese with Fresh Fruit
• Wednesday: Nacho Ordinary Taco Salad with Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing
• Thursday: Dinner with Community
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Date Night
• Sunday: Coconut Lime Chicken with Chiles

Snacks:

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars (my “cookie” of the week)
• Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Many of the recipes linked above were found on Pinterest, which I am guessing will be my main source. But Google and AllRecipes.com are a huge resource — I tend to search for recipes with the word quick or easy in the title or description, I love to cook but I also enjoy life outside of the kitchen :)

Have a great week everyone!

Share/Save

How in the world am I ever supposed to get any sleep when Pinterest has my world filled with millions of new recipes and ideas?! These muffins are a big time winner according to myself, my handsome and many other sources. While the recipe says to make twelve giant muffins, I had more people to feed so I did 24 regular sized muffins (which were more than enough!). I highly recommend this recipe for some amazing muffins!

Another great find this week is that the Dollar Tree has sour cream — exactly 1 Cup for a buck! I was happy to see this because I can not tell you how much money I have spent on half used tubs of sour cream for my baking. Now I know :)

If you are still not on Pinterest, you have got to get in on the goodness! It is such a great resource and awesome way to file all of the great ideas, recipes, etc that are out there! I added a few new boards recently: Menu Planning and Organize It!

Thanks for checking in and enjoy those muffins if you decide to try em out! Have a great Sunday!

Share/Save

Hi Friends, I’m going to share a little secret with you about my handsome hubby — this guy can easily eat 2-3 packages of cookies on a weekly basis! It is beyond me when I purchase a new package of cookies and it is gone within two days! Therefore, I am putting another step toward saving money by eradicating  those 2-3 packages of cookies that often times cost $3 each (and sometimes more, ugh!).

Let me introduce you to Cookie of the Week — I have decided that I could knock out two birds with one stone by baking a batch of cookies on a weekly basis. First, I have 3-4 delicious cookies for my handsome to snack on and second, I get my baking fix! The latter is equally important ast the first because I seriously must bake something yummy weekly in order to be a joyful and pleasant person. It is a stress relief, sometimes a challenge and honestly, I feel like it’s what I’m best at.

The cookie of the week will {usually} be a new recipe each week. Yes, I threw a usually in there because I can’t make any promises — some weeks can get pretty crazy and I am leaving room for my standard chocolate chip cookies to do the job when those weeks come along. For variety, I will be baking half of the cookies and freezing the other half of the dough so that each week I have two types of cookies to bake for my handsome {insert good wife points here}

This week’s cookie was Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies by The Girl Who Ate Everything. The cookies turned out just as we would have liked, although next time I would add a half teaspoon of coconut extract because the coconut didn’t stand out as much as I would have liked. I didn’t have any limes on hand so I used the lime juice I had in the fridge and the zest of a lemon because I was afraid the lime juice wouldn’t be enough to stand out. I suppose we will never know but the flavor was perfectly delicious with the lemon zest (also, I only did about 1 tablespoon zest because lemon can be so strong).

The cookies turned out like a Sprite flavored sugar cookie and the texture was great. Next time I would like to use the lime zest and coconut extract to see what I get! Great combo! Below is a close up shot, just because! You can see the yummy sugar glistening alongside the lemon zest. Yum, yum. Have a great week everyone!

Share/Save

I am excited to finally have all of my Home Management forms designed and ready to use. One week has gone by and they have helped greatly with my goal of being in control of my home (and my mindset). So this weekend, I am offering one of my new favorite tools as a FREE download.

CLICK HERE to download this awesome tool — the Pantry Inventory!

Create an inventory of your pantry & spices so that you always know what you have on hand. The best part about having this around is putting an end to over-spending! Have you ever been at the grocery store stuck wondering if you have a certain ingredient? Well now you don’t have to! While making your shopping list simply grab your inventory and double check your stock.

So here is how it works — Click on the link and you will be directed to Scribd which will allow you to download the form. Once you have printed out your form (or multiple copies if you have a large stock!), perhaps you should take this opportunity to clean out the pantry, cabinets and spice rack. Throw out the expired and restock/reorganize the necessities. To update the inventory, simply list your item and use one slash through each of the corresponding boxes according to quantity. For example, if you have 3 cans of diced tomatoes, you will have a slash through 3 corresponding boxes. The next time you use a can of diced  tomatoes, simply cross out one of your slashes, noting that one can has been used. I recommend keeping your inventory on a clipboard hanging on the inside of the pantry door for easy access.

Easy enough, right?! Now go download the form while it is still FREE! Just two days and then it will be gone… if you miss the opportunity, no need to fret, I am also offering my Home Management printables for purchase on my Etsy shop!

Enjoy! And happy inventorying!

Share/Save

Nice to meet you, this is the new organized me! Truly, I have found so much inspiration, guidance and lovely organization examples through Pinterest and the wonderful world wide web that I am getting more and more excited about being organized (not so scary anymore)… So this weekend, my hubby and I decided to kick start our organization (and the gutting of our tiny apartment) with a few projects: Recycling and the Pantry.

Did I mention that I have the tiniest pantry in the history of the world? Well, that may not be completely accurate but some days it does seem pretty darn small. I am about to humiliate myself with the photos I am about to share, but I decided that I must be honest if I am going to inspire or help anyone else with their organizing projects (sigh).

One shelf at a time – Before and After

My normal “routine” is to pull everything from the shelves at the beginning of the year and reorganize. The way I did it in the past simply put me in the position of shoving whatever wherever where it would fit! And by the end of each year, it looked like these before photos I am sharing — frightening!

Instead of having all of the cans and items stacked into our 2 foot deep pantry shelves, I used the bins to store my cans. To the left you can see some quick oats – there was just enough space to place a few items along the bins (Oats, bread crumbs, tall bottles and large cans of broth). The bins will soon have labels, but the front bin has my most used canned veggies, beans, etc and the back bin has my canned fruits — easy to pull out and go through!

This shelf was another victim of the stacking shenanigans I was pulling. Now there are two smaller bins to the left; one for vitamins (front) and one for condiments, cooking wines, vinegars, etc. The smaller bins to the right stack perfectly for efficient use of my space. This is where I store my broths, cream of soups and other soup-like items (6 cans to a bin). I ran out of these smaller bins and will be stopping in to get a couple more for the front area soon.

This was my baking basket. As you can see, it is overflowing (actually, more than overflowing). To the left I have two smaller bins; the front holds all chocolate items for my baking (since there are SO many!) as well as anything caramel. The back bin holds all of the sugars (brown, powdered) and other baking needs such as coconut flakes and nuts. On the right side, I slipped some boxed baking supplies in the back and two stacked bins which include my basic supplies like baking powder, cupcake liners and frosting.

I couldn’t resist a sprinkle bin and of course must share my chocolate bin :)

And finally, the complete before and after of the pantry. It is not including the bottom shelf of the pantry because I havent even begun to think that one through. Im hoping to complete that task later this week. I love how accessible everything is — which is tough when your shelves are sooo deep. Now that the pantry is organized, I can set up a Pantry Inventory that will allow me to see what I have at all times! No more overspending on things I am not sure that I have at home for the new recipes that I am trying. I created this one below to use and love it so far — I just may be offering this as a free download soon too!

Wanna know the best part!? Every single bin and basket that I got was from the Dollar Tree!!! Just $16 and that is including other items to help me organize some of my drawers and other shelves! LOVE IT!

If you thought we were done here, you’re wrong! Garrett worked on our recycling and while that seems like a simple task, this year it wasn’t. We had a patio full (and I mean FULL!) of recycling. I am not sure how we got away with not bringing it in sooner but somehow we survived. I will never wait that long again. In the end we had a huge surprise waiting for us — $91.00! We were two happy campers. All in all a wonderful, productive weekend!

Share/Save