Tips in the Kitchen: meat

Me giving tips about anything in the kitchen is kind of like Skeeter from The Help writing the "Miss Myrna" column. I really don't have any business sharing kitchen advice! 

There are, however, a few things that help me out in the kitchen {I need help} and this is one all about meat.

First, we don't eat meat that often. I usually put ground beef/turkey in tacos, a couple of casseroles, etc. Second, meat can get really expensive, so I try to find inexpensive meat when I can. In the meat department at grocery stores, there is usually a section of discounted meats. They are less expensive because they are typically going to expire that day or the next. Since I am buying food for two weeks out, meat that expires that day needs to go into the freezer when I get home. I usually get it out the morning that I have a meal with meat and it thaws and it's all good.

Another option, though, is to go ahead and brown the meat. Whether it's ground beef or turkey, I typically brown it for all my recipes. You can go ahead and cook it before it expires, drain the meat, then put it into a freezer Ziplock bag and freeze it. I typically only need one pound of meat at a time, and sometimes meat is less expensive if you buy more than one pound. I will cook it all, then portion it out into ~one pound sections and put one pound into each Ziplock bag. I don't season the meat or anything, just brown it. When I'm ready to cook something that I need ground meat for, I pull a bag out of the freezer, let it thaw, then season it and add it to my recipe. This not only saves a little money on the front end, but it also saves time on week nights when it's mealtime.

Happy Monday!

LOCK UP ALL THE TOYS!!!

I still haven't quite decided if this idea of mine is genius, or a little cruel. But it is working for us, so I'll share it anyway.

We have two small closets in our playroom. There wasn't a whole lot about our house that I loved when we first bought it, but I've always loved the space we enjoy in our upstairs bonus room. My wise husband was able to see past the wallpaper, popcorn ceilings (those aren't going anywhere anytime soon) and brass fixtures and see the great potential for the rooms in our house. All I saw was 1993. It was a great time, really. We were all watching Family Matters and Full House and all was well for me as a third grader. But, just so much floral wallpaper. So much.

Back to the playroom. Our house has dormers, so the space between those windows has small closets. The playroom has two, one with shelves already and one with a clothes hanging rack. Not too long ago, I had an epiphany. Or I got really tired of always picking up toys and decided right then and there something had to change.

I put almost all the toys in a closet. And installed a lock.

In my true I don't care if things are clean, but I like for them to be organized fashion, I gathered similar toys into some boxes, put puzzles in others, etc. Then I neatly placed them into the closet and chain locked them away.

The deal is, I will get one box out at a time. Once they are finished playing with that box, they have to pick it all up and then I'll get another one out. On the other hand, since I'm the one who put them all up in an order that makes sense to me, if they're looking for something specific, I can usually put my hands on it pretty fast. Also, in desperate times, with permission, our oldest can get up on a chair and unlock it herself. It's mostly the two year old that is the most destructive, but no one likes to pick up a room full of toys.

You may not have an empty closet that you can lock toys away into. Another trick to keeping the toy clutter down is putting toys that they don't play with often into a 30 gallon tub and storing it out of sight: garage, attic, back of a closet, grandma's house.. Every season or so, I bring that tub out, empty it, then fill it back up with toys that they've had out recently. I usually do this about the same time I'm changing out their clothes for a new season. They are hilarious. "Oh YE AH! I love this! I forgot all about this! Thanks so much for getting this out, Mom, you're the best!" (having no idea I just filled it back up with other toys that had been in the playroom) I think other moms call this cycling toys, and it works. Again, that is only helpful if you have room to store these things. If not, fill up that bucket/box with things they don't play with, take it to a thrift store and drop it off with no regrets! Our kids need to play outside more anyway with sticks and rocks and stuff. 

Here are some other options I saw today at HomeDepot that get the same job done without looking so dungeon-y. 

Fall is a great time to purge and those of us with multiple kids understand the need to purge toys every now and then. Handing down toys is also a great thing. We have several younger cousins. Sometimes I bargain with mine and offer them a dollar if they will donate a toy, or pass it along to a cousin or friend. I don't make them, but that's when you know they really don't need it anymore if they're willing to part with it for $1. Keep sentimental toys for grandkids. I love that our moms still have some of the toys we played with as children. Don't trash it all, but don't let toys overwhelm you. That's pretty silly. And no fun! 

You know what is fun?!? It's the first day of fall! My very favorite time of the year!! Hooray!!!! Mums galore!

Jammies Drawers

Most of our furniture was given to us and it sure has saved us a lot of money! I admit that I have moments that I long to walk into Pottery Barn or an antique store and just buy it all. Or even better, visit Joanna Gaines' storage unit. But then that passes and I'm happy to have our things (I won't say "pieces" because I remember my husband said that word gets on his nerves when he endures HGTV with me) that have history - furniture that my husband and I have memories growing up with. We were the ones that caused some of those dents and imperfections. I thought my mom was going to get rid of her bed one time --she didn't-- and even though I've never actually wanted it, I almost cried thinking about her not having it anymore. I remember spinning down the bedposts of that bed and it means something to me. What does that have to do with Jammies drawers, you ask? Well you first may have asked yourself what on earth are Jammies Drawers!! We call pajamas "jammies" at our house. There is a specific drawer in the dressers in our kids' rooms for jammies. Jammies Drawers. Cleared up, now.

The Jammies Drawers are both in dressers that belonged to our parents. We grew up with this furniture in our rooms, and now our children are. That's pretty special.

My brother's childhood desk that I painted for our daughter:

The changing table that was used by my in-laws:

Moving on.

I have been folding our kids clothes this way for about a year and I love it. I know for those that don't have little people with lots of laundry, how you fold your kids' pajamas is probably a ridiculous thing to care about. I understand. I am also the one who washes, dries and puts away all the clothes for these three little people and I am telling you that folding this way makes my life easier and happier.

This is the technique I use to make sure they fit into the drawers best. I do this without laying it in the floor, just in my lap, but I took these pictures in hopes that it would help you get a visual.

Cute little girly candy jammies, it's time to put you away.

Once they're in the drawer, we can see what is what and it all fits pretty nicely in there. Our daughter can choose her jammies each night without any trouble.

We have two boys, 4 and 2, that share a room and a Jammies Drawer. I use the same technique to fold the clothes. I have a dollar store plastic container to keep them separate. That little drawer also holds the jammies for each boy that match each other. If they have matching jammies, they may as well wear them at the same time. This makes it easy for me to find them.

The two year old can wear hand me downs from the last two winters. The four year old was given several pajamas and I got a few on sale last spring, so the second drawer actually is full of footed pajamas for this winter. I think footed pajamas are the cutest and I will be buying them for our kids as long as they can fit in them.

Yes. I'll take two sets of Carter's pajamas, please. Size 14-16.

Happy folding!

Grease is the Word

When I was in the sixth grade, I remember some friends talking about their favorite movie: a musical named Grease. I had never heard of this movie, so when they started describing high schoolers on the beach and some of the other scenes, I was thoroughly confused.

You see, the only Grease I had ever heard of was a country. Spelled Greece.
So, I was trying to imagine people in togas at a sleepover, dancing around and singing about cars.

I always think of that when I hear the word grease!

This kind of grease is even more annoying than the movie, which I don't care for.

I am bad to just throw stuff into the washing machine and straight into the dryer and hope for the best. These little oil spots show up and since I've already dried it, I'm in trouble. I would always spray it with stain treater and wash again, but that just never works. 

This stuff has saved grease spots several times. I use this Dawn Simply Clean, or just regular blue Dawn. We wash our pups with this, so I usually have plenty.

Squirt your grease spot, making sure to cover it completely.

Rub it in really well.

This time I let it sit overnight. I threw it in with another load of colors the following day in cold water. I hung it instead of drying it this time.

Completely dry, look how much better it looks!

I will iron it this time since it didn't go through the dryer, but the grease stain appeared to be completely gone. 

Happy de-greasing!

Taco Seasoning

We usually have tacos or taco soup every week, so I make my own taco seasoning. It's delicious and I just make a big batch (usually quadrupling the recipe) when I get low and it's so convenient to have on hand. Give it a try!

 

Homemade Taco Seasoning

 

Garlic Powder -- 1/4 teaspoon

Onion Powder -- 1/4 teaspoon

Dried Oregano -- 1/4 teaspoon

Red Pepper Flakes -- 1/4 teaspoon

Paprika -- 1/2 teaspoon

Black Pepper -- 1 teaspoon

Sea Salt -- 1 teaspoon

Cumin -- 1 1/2 teaspoons

Chili Powder -- 1 tablespoon

 

Pour it all into a container and mix well.

 

I store a few of my spices in baby food jars that I spray painted the tops. I tried to make my pantry really pretty one time, but I gave up for now!

This jar is a salsa container.

I keep my taco seasoning in a small OXO container.

Yum! We're having tacos tonight!!!!

DVD Storage

We have a lot of children's DVDs. We have just accumulated a lot over the years and storing them all takes up quite a bit of space. I decided a couple of years ago that the stacks of DVD cases that our little ones kept finding, opening, and tossing movies around was not working.

I waited until the scrapbooks at Hobby Lobby were 50% off and bought this nice book for $10.

I think we already had the CD sleeves from an old CD case and they just weren't being used, so I inserted those into the book. If the movies had a cover in them, I just took it out of the old plastic case, cut out a square and placed it into one of the sleeves. The only reason I did that was so I could tell if a movie was missing or something, and I'd know which ones were still where they're supposed to be. I inserted each of the children's DVDs into this case and threw out the plastic cases. Maybe I could've found another purpose for them, but at the time I just wanted them gone.

It has held up for over two years, even with three children turning those pages fairly often. I love that they don't take up nearly as much space, plus it's portable so we can take all of the kids' DVDs with us when we go on long road trips. Score. I found several options online with zippers on the side and I do think that would be nice, especially for the car when we sometimes end up tossing the whole case into the back seat.

The downside is, it would be tough to pass the movies along to someone else since there is no case. You can always use a plastic CD case or purchase empty DVD cases if you decide to.

Also, any chance of reselling them at a consignment sale or something would basically be gone. Actually, before I did this, I went through the movies I knew my kids don't watch and some that I don't want them watching for one reason or another, and sold them in a consignment sale.

We still have the movies that my husband and I watch in their cases in a cabinet. I have thought about doing the same thing with those, just to save us some space! Here are some easy online options if you're interested in storing your movies this way, but not interested in going to the store to find it!

DVD STORAGE
MORE DVD STORAGE

Dear New Mom

**This is the first in a series where I will address expectant and new moms and try to pass along advice or helpful hints especially geared toward those special first days.**

Dear New Mom,

Add your new baby to your health insurance.

I thought you just picked your baby's name while you were at the hospital and there wasn't really any other paperwork involved. Wrong. There will be all kinds of paperwork to fill out while you endure the rollercoaster that is the first 48 hours as a new mom. Yes, a lovely representative from the Social Security Department will tell you that you must name your child before you leave the hospital and they will ask you several times to spell that name until you start to feel self conscious.
Is this name that hard to spell?? I mean, I thought it was a nice name, but why is she asking me over and over again if this is really the name I've chosen for this tiny human. I mean, I think that's her name. Unique, but not weird. It's a family name, ok, lay off! Can I change it later? And I have to pay for a birth certificate? whaaat?
One of those hundreds of papers you get at the hospital (it's not that many) will be a Birth Verification Form. This is not the same as a birth certificate. The birth certificate will come in the mail later. This form is the one with basically the same information as a birth certificate, but you have it in your hands when you leave the hospital. Your insurance company needs this form to be able to add the new baby to your insurance. I believe you have something like 10 days to get this done. If you FORGET ::ahem, ahem:: even if you don't realize that you forgot, your baby will not have health insurance.
That form looks something like this:

I forgot to do this with our first child. My husband was a full time student and I was working at the time. I did take maternity leave, though, so I didn't go back to work until I had to. The folks in HR needed this paper and I didn't realize that she was not on our health insurance plan until she was about 5 months old. We had a mild panic attack together in our little townhome, and realized that she could have catastrophic health insurance with a $1000 deductible in case something horrible happened, so we immediately added that via State Farm. Fortunately, she only had well visits, but there were several of those in that first 5 months. Then, she couldn't officially be added to our health insurance until Open Enrollment in October, and that wouldn't kick in until January. Just, save yourself the hassle and put that sweet little bundle of joy on your health insurance plan if you've got one. Our other two children had health insurance for the first 8 months of their lives because I knew to hold onto that paper and those well visits cost much, much less.

Lesson Learned!

Stinky Laundry

Whether it's gym clothes, damp towels or that bag of wet kids swimsuits you found in the back of your car from 4 days ago, clothes get stinky. This tip came from my mother-in-law and it has worked wonders on our especially smelly laundry!

Add about a cup of white distilled vinegar to your load of laundry.
Yep. That's it.

I do not measure it, I just estimate and pour a little into the washing machine in addition to my regular detergent. In my experience, the clothes do not smell like vinegar at all. In fact, they always smell more fresh than I expect! I have also never had any trouble with it affecting the colors of the clothes at all. {I just googled affect vs. effect to make sure I got it right.}

I keep a gallon of white vinegar in my laundry room by my cleaning products because I use it a lot in cleaning. It can usually be found in the grocery store near the baking supplies; at least that's where they keep it at my Kroger!

I hope this helps keep your clothes smelling so fresh and so clean, clean.

Digital Photo Storage

We take so many pictures now. I know I certainly do. It's hard to decide what is the best way to store the thousands of pictures we take, especially since people don't really print pictures now until we need to put one in a frame or for a school project!

I am not particular about SO many things. But for some reason I have stayed on top of the photo storage. It's probably because I started a Shutterfly account before I had kids, so it just made sense for me to keep using it. This is how I manage the bazillions of photos I take every week...

• Shutterfly

www.shutterfly.com is a website with free unlimited photo storage. You can order prints, photo books, Christmas cards, all sorts of things from there. I mostly use it for the storage, but by default I usually end up ordering my prints from there as well. I have the free app on my iPhone, which is super convenient. I store my photos on the website by year, then month. At the end of each day, or sometimes at the end of the week, I pull up my Shutterfly app and load the photos from the day/week to the album I've created labeled September 2015 (or whatever month/year it is).

 Usually, after that, I delete the pictures off my phone, unless I know I plan to add them to a post on my personal blog - more on that next. I also have a nice DSLR camera that is a little more trouble, but the pictures are infinitely better. I do the same thing when I am starting to run out of room on my memory card for what I call my "Big Camera". I just load the pictures onto the website from my laptop into the folder for the month that the photos were actually taken (not for when I get around to loading them ;)..). I can delete the photos from my memory card if I am finished with them. Even if I think I am and I'm really not, the pictures can always be accessed by visiting Shutterfly after that. I love that my phone and Big Camera's memory stick usually have plenty of space because I clear them off frequently. The downside is that if you try to save that photo from Shutterfly onto your computer and print from another company, the quality is not nearly as good as ordering the original image from Shutterfly. I have probably spent more money by having to order from that company than others, but it's worth it to me to know my photos are there.

The other great thing about it is that if you need a photo in an hour, Walgreen's, Target and CVS photo are all partnered with Shutterfly so you can pull up those pictures and have them printed in an hour. So far, I think they only print 4x6 photos in the one-hour photo places. If you need larger prints, you'd have to order from the website and wait a few days. It's been a nice feature that I've used several times.

• Personal Blog

I keep up a private blog as well, mostly with pictures of our kids and dogs and personal events. I have the Blogger app on my phone and usually post from there, but sometimes I use my laptop. I load my photos to Google Plus because I ran out of storage a long time ago and that was the only way Blogger would allow me to continue adding photos without paying a monthly fee. I've had that blog going since 2007, so three kids and thousands of pictures later, it's pretty full of info. I use Blurb.com to order a Family Yearbook where all of those photos and entries from my personal blog are printed into a very nice (rather thick) hard back book. I have only completed two years of that and would really like to catch up, but it's time consuming, and it's not cheap. I will share more about that process one day.

For now, I hope that helped a little with ideas about storing your digital photos. I love taking pictures. I have a horrific memory and taking photos helps me remember things. I also think pictures end up being priceless once time has passed and you can never have too many. Maybe don't share all of them with the entire world, but keep taking them!

Meal Planning

Meal planning is time consuming, sometimes frustrating and pretty boring. Then you have to go buy the stuff. Then you have to COOK IT! I tell my husband that it is a strange feeling for me to not make money and only be spending it, but I try very hard to save our family money by cooking most of the time {even though I don't enjoy it. Not one bit.}. I have found that taking the time to plan ahead, as obnoxious as it may be, really saves us money and makes my daily life easier. Everyone is different. Isn't that wonderful? This, usually, is how I go about feeding our family. Take a deep breath...Exhale. Now, let's dive in.

I shop at Kroger the vast majority of the time. The main reason is because it is close to our house. They also have several different size carts, which really only matters if you have three small people along with you for the trip. They have a good selection of organic food. That's pretty low on my priority list at this point, but sometimes the organic foods end up being less expensive for one reason or another, so it's nice to have that option. They have fuel points. They have really good sales occasionally. They have eCoupons. Our store is less than 4 years old, so it is nice and new. They also have a Starbucks in my store and I have treated myself a few times.

I try my very best to go to Kroger once every two weeks. If I'm not in the store, I'm not buying stuff. Unless it's Amazon, of course, which is sometimes waaaay too convenient. We do end up usually needing produce before the two weeks is over, so I will stop in Aldi or Sprouts (similar to Whole Foods) when we are in need of non-mushy bananas.

First off, I keep a small magnetic notepad on the fridge where I write down things we will need as I think of them throughout the week.

I have used several different things to actually write the meals down. This magnetic pad was at Walgreen's for 50 cents a while back, so I picked up a couple. It has been very helpful.

Sometimes, someone else fills in the pages before I get a chance..

There are lots of free printables out there, though, and I have printed something out in the past to write on. Of course, you don't need a pretty piece of paper, but it  does make the whole process a little more pleasant. Here are some cute options:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/post/meal-planner/

You will quickly realize that my meals are incredibly basic and I do plan for ordering pizza or going out to dinner on special occasions. I also plan breakfast, lunch and dinner because we eat at home all of those meals so I need to buy them when I'm at the store. I also write in ballgames or other things we have going on as an attempt to try and not forget something, and it helps me decide what type of food to make. Casseroles that I can make earlier in the day are easier for nights with church or practices, and I save things like pancakes for when they can be fresh.

While planning the meals, I write down the ingredients I'll need. I first transfer the items from the list on the fridge onto this paper. Then I look through my pantry, fridge and freezer to see what all we already have that I don't need to duplicate. Then I write down the other things we'll need. I write beside each item if I have a coupon. This helps me compare generic brands to those that I have a coupon for pretty easily. This is list number one. I don't like cooking. I do like making lists.

Once I have written down all the things I need to pick up at the store, I rewrite the list in an order that makes sense to me as I walk through the store. Don't make fun, ok? Once I'm in there, things can get dicey with two boys in tow and I am on a straight up Mission. This keeps me from getting to one side of the store and looking halfway down the list to find one thing that's all the way on the other side. It's helpful and I need all the help I can get!

The final step is clipping my ecoupon list, shopping list and coupons together. I make sure to have a pen to mark off as I go.

When there are children with you, try to plan around their schedules. I usually do all this planning ahead in the evening while the kids are sleeping, then RIGHT after breakfast, about 8am is the best time for us to go. Sometimes they stay in their pajamas. Who cares?

No one is hungry or sleepy and the store is empty. 

I also keep dumdums in my purse. Always.

Happy shopping!

Baby Books

You are not a bad mom if you don't have baby books.
They are tough to keep up with, and honestly the nice ones can be really expensive! Not everyone is into scrapbooking or keeping up with everything, and that's perfectly fine.
Here's how I do it. We have three children and they each have a "Baby Box". The boxes are stored inside the top of our guest room closet.
I have three more boxes that store other things because these containers came in a set of six. I'll tell ya what's in the other three later!

Each box holds..

• a specific baby book that you can find at baby stores, Target, etc.
• a 12X12 scrapbook
• an accordion folder
• baby clothes and other keepsakes

This box is Henry's. It's his birthday today! This is his Baby Book:

It has the pre-typed spaces to fill in certain things and I've tried to keep it up. I am pretty good to keep my personal blog updated, so I sit down with it every 6 months or so and fill in things. I also have pictures just stuck in there and when I have the time I cut them and tape them down on the appropriate pages.

Here is the accordion folder. This is where I keep his birthday cards, Bible class papers and papers from preschool. I DO NOT keep them all. No No No. I am very selective and only keep the special ones.

I also have a 12X12 scrapbook in there. I am not into scrapbooking. I did these before I had the actual boxes to store things in. This is where I put things from his newborn days that did not fit or have a place in the Baby Book. I cut out the written notes people sent me when he was born and taped them in here so they were easy to find.

I had access to an ultrasound machine every day, so that is why I have an unfair amount of pretty 3D ultrasound pictures!

Also in the box are some of his sweet newborn clothes and pictures. It's nice to have these items all in the same place.

When the kids get something I know I want to put into his or her box, I usually just set them on the top of the box inside the closet (out of the reach of little hands). Then when I have some extra time and think about it, I will pull the boxes down and try to put the things where they belong. I usually do this after birthdays since we have invitations, new pictures, birthday cards and pediatric check-ups around that time and it seems to be a good time to look back at their little things, too.

*The boxes came from Bargain Hunt, but you can get that style basically anywhere. The baby books came from either Carter's or Babies R Us. The scrapbooks are from Hobby Lobby (40% off coupon or 50% off sale week). The accordion folders are from WalMart.