{using ideas from favorite blogs}

If you've been here a while, you may know that I'm a big fan of Google Reader.  If you'd like to know more about why I love it, see the bottom of this post.  I save a lot of great ideas from blogs that I read, but only get around to doing a small portion of the things I'd like to. 

My brilliant, yet unoriginal suggestion to you is to utilize this wonderful information to the betterment of your family and home.

Here are some things that I've done recently that I learned about from favorite blogs:

I made these cute ghost pancakes for our family to eat for dinner one night.  Around here we love eating breakfast for dinner...maybe even once a week!  Along with the pancakes, I tried cooking our bacon in the oven.  Way less mess and it didn't shrink!  We loved it.

(didn't my ghosts turn out cute?)

Yesterday, we made CrockPot Pizza Soup.  It was the perfect chilly fall day and it was so yummy!  My 9 year old daughter made the whole thing.  The only thing I did was cut the pepperoni.  She loved it so much that she wanted me to pack it in her thermos for lunch today.  It is definitely a keeper recipe!  By the way...if you haven't been to that wonderful CrockPot recipe blog, you need to go.  Now.  It is amazing.

(this picture is from A Year of Crockpotting)

For more kitchen tips, go see Tammy.

More about Google Reader: I love that it virtually delivers new posts directly to me from all of my favorite blogs.  P.S. - I have a lot of favorite blogs.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the vast amount of wonderful ideas flooding into my reader.  I liberally use the star function in reader to flag posts that I'll want to refer to later.  I also love the fact that I can search by keywords from all of the blogs that I subscribe to.  That way, if I've forgotten where that brilliant idea is to be found, I simply search for it.  Another great thing is that I can view the posts (either in regular delivery or search mode) by the expanded view or the list view.  The list view makes it easy to scan through posts to find the specific one I'm looking for.

{kid's school lunches}

So today is the first day of school in our neck of the woods. It involves a ton of preparation so the mornings run smoothly around here. The 7:30am school bus comes awfully early! So the more things I can get done before the morning, the better.

I've been enjoying posts like this and this that have really got me thinking about what I can do ahead of time. The kids and I spent some time creating a master list for school lunches broken into 3 categories: main dishes, fruits/veggies, and snacks. The list is upstairs and I'm down, so I'll give you a sample list from my brain (its scary in there, I know).

Main Dishes

• spaghetti-o's
• chicken salad sandwich or crackers (will be referred to as s/c)
• tuna salad s/c
• egg salad s/c
• pb & j sandwich
• turkey, ham, or bologna sandwich
• homemade lunchable
• leftovers
• bagel & cream cheese

Fruit/Veggie

• apple
• applesauce
• oranges
• mandarin oranges
• banana
• cold veggies & ranch (carrots, celery)
• fruit salad

Snack (salty treat or dessert-type treat)

• crackers
• nabs crackers
• chex mix
• homemade quick breads (banana, zuccini, pumpkin)
• cookies
• homemade muffins
• chips
  

Remember, this is just a sample list of some of the things I remember from our custom list. I have been a menu/meal planner for quite a while now...really since I've been married (our 11 year anniversary is this month!). But for some reason, I've only pre-planned and written out our dinners. Never breakfasts or lunches. But I am going to add that into the planning session from now on. It is going to be so freeing not to have to "dream up" what to pack in the kids' lunches each morning. It will already be decided...AAAND...I'll have everything in the house, because those ingredients will have been added to my grocery list during that planning session. Some of those items might already be pre-prepared, packaged up, and frozen. Seriously...such a simple solution, but something I hadn't done, nonetheless.

For more kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes.

Blog notes: the cute picture is a bento lunch . I'm going to be learning more about that type of packing method soon!

Yummy, Easy Crockpot Chicken Alfredo, Anyone?

Simple, easy, & yummy. These are my requirements for a winning recipe at my house.

Here's one for ya...shared by a friend from college...Danielle...if you're out there, shout out!

Yummy, Easy Crockpot Chicken Alfredo
4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (uncooked, frozen is even ok)
1 8oz. block of cream cheese (I use the 1/3 less fat version...still yummy)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 soup can of water
1 packet dry Italian dressing mix
1/2 stick butter

Throw it all in there. Stir to mix. Cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 3. Serve over any type of noodles. Easy peasy!

For more kitchen tips, go to Tammy's Recipes for Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

Take 2 Of These And Call Me In the Morning - Organizing Medicine

Where is that perfect location to store medicine? We've been told that it is definitely not in the bathroom, due to all the heat and moisture, even though that is where the medicine cabinet lives.


I keep mine in the kitchen. It seems the most convenient spot for my family. In this house, I've kept in on the tip top shelf in the pantry, you know, the one my kids can't reach (I can't reach it either, for that matter). So I dread getting medicine out. Especially since I get lots of free and cheap medicine due to the CVS deals. What's a girl to do?


How 'bout this?

Do you have one of these roll-up makeup/toiletry bags laying around from when you used to sell Mary Kay (and then you used it to tote scrapbooking supples when you sold Close to My Heart)? Well - I did. And it didn't have a use until recently. As in yesterday. Now it hangs on my SKINNY pantry door and holds all the medicines and medicinal supplies (I sound so smart, huh?) that we need to be convenient to get to. As in band-aids and neosporin. And Benedryl and tums...you get the picture.

So go find your leftover roll-up toiletry bag and put it to use (a new use, that is).

This is my challenge to you to think outside of the box, use what you have, and make it work for you.

How's that for inspiring?

What are you currently doing to use creative/out of the box/not what it was created for storage solutions in your home?

For more of my Works for Me Wednesday ideas, look here:

Gimmie 5 (or less) - Recipes with 5 ingredients or less
Painting the Easy Way
Summer Schedule

This is my next organizing project:

The rest of the pantry (cue scary music - cover your eyes and peek through your fingers...don't say I didn't warn you!) There is seriously no rhyme or reason in there right now.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, see Rocks In My Dryer, here.

Keep That Fridge Clean

(pretend this picture is rotated...it is on my hard drive, but when I put it here, it turns...grrrr)

I promised y'all another fridge tip last week and here it is. Now, this is not earth-shattering, or anything, but it helps me keep my fridge clean - so hopefully it can help you too! (Not that your fridge is messy or anything...I'm just sayin').

Problem: Fruits or veggies leak or somehow rot and drip nasty smelly juice all in the drawer make a mess in your produce drawers.

Solution: Place a couple of paper towels in the bottom of the produce drawers to catch any stray drips or other (ahem) messes that might happen there.

Like I said...not earth-changin', but definitely helpful!

For more kitchen tips I've shared check out these posts:

Organize & Conquer: Fridge Edition

Kid Snacks for Less

Leftover Juice Popcicles

For even more kitchen tips, check out Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Tammy's Recipes.

Organize and Conquer - Fridge Edition

Here's the problem:

Everything is all jumbled in the fridge and freezer and you can't find anything you need even though you know you bought it and it has to be in there (run on sentence anyone?).

How 'bout this for a solution?:

Round up some plastic organizing baskets (or something that can be used in place of them!). I was in this predicament described above, so...last week I picked up some baskets at the dollar store. I did a SERIOUS clean out of aforementioned kitchen appliance and threw out a lot of food. If you've been hangin' around here for a while, you know I enjoy being frugal, so throwing away food felt like throwin' money in the trash can (except it smelled a lot worse).

I now have a basket in my fridge for meat. When I shop for meat, I buy up a lot when it is on sale. For ground beef, I seperate it into 1 pound ziploc bags and pop it in the freezer (labeled, of course). Sometimes I cook up a bunch, then seperate and bag it up. Then I couldn' t find it when I needed it. Now, I have all bagged up meat (and other things like hot dogs, etc.) in the meat basket.

The other basket holds miscellaneous things like frozen fruit and baked items. I want to begin baking more frequently, so I will soon have a basket just for baked goods.

In the fridge, there is a basket for just yogurt, individual containers of fruit (like mandarin oranges), and puddings. An easy go-to for the kiddos & it keeps that small stuff contained in the fridge.

I know this isn't a new idea, but it seems to be a great one. I am looking forward to enjoying a more organized fridge and freezer and wasting less food.

If you are looking for more kitchen tips, check out Tammy's Recipes.

P.S. You know, I had to sneak in a post about my clean fridge and freezer so you guys could see some pictures of all the hard work I did. I'm a sucker for a pat on the back. I didn't take before pictures, though. That would've been too embarassing. Stay tuned for another fridge tip tomorrow (and yes, another picture!).

Kid Snacks for Less

Who doesn't love convenience? I know I do. But convenience usually comes with a price. When it comes to individual servings of kid snacks, do the math. With this solution, you still get the convenience of grab and go kid snacks, but don't have to break the bank.

Sometimes it is pretzels, other times it is Chex Mix. Whatever you have that you kids love to snack on, you can use this tip for it. Using sandwich or snack size plastic baggies (one of my can't live without staples), make your own bags of snacks. I use a measuring cup to scoop the snack out of the big bag and into the small bag. This way you determine how much each serving includes. You can also use this trick for homemade goodies as well. Put all of the bags you made into a decent sized basket in the pantry or cabinet. Let the kids know where to look for the snack basket. Mine know where to look in our pantry. :)

For more Kitchen Tips, check out Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Tammy's Recipes.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

I found this fun post at Tammy's Recipes and decided to participate this week. I LOVE to read tips that will make my life easier. Here's something I do that my husband loves.

It is actually something that his mom did growing up, so I can't take the credit! Hi Ruth Ann! :) Whenever I use canned pineapple (for fruit salad or smoothies, for example) I pour the juice from the can into a ziploc baggie and pop it in the freezer. It makes for a yummy treat later and saves something that would have just been poured down the sink.

For more kitchen tips, check out Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.