Meal Planning and Organising Recipes

Life has been crazy about the Crooked Household and it is set to get crazier.

We have just had the inside of the house painted and the outside is soon to start. With that came A LOT of cleaning, redecorating and the implementation of some new organising systems. A bit of hard work, but a lot of fun for someone like me. I hope to share some of the changes  with you soon.

I am returning to part-time work shortly so lots of planning is underway so that it all goes smoothly. And so came about the topic of today’s blog post – meal planning and recipe organisation. I know that if I want to avoid ending up a frazzled mess that I need to have this sorted. So today, with the kids away at daycare and school, I sat down and planned my attack. Here is my planning thus far…..

1. What types of meals do I need?

I am lucky that with my teaching timetable that I only have one full day of teaching per week, the rest of the days I have to be in for morning or afternoon classes. This gives me some time for meal preparation, but I really want to avoid being stuck in the kitchen. So I need easy and quick meals and some good slow cooker and freezer meals. I also need a good freezer load of lunchbox treats for the boys.

2. Gathering the recipes

I keep most of my recipes on Pinterest. I have written about that here.

I also have quite a few Thermomix and Jamie Oliver cookbooks which are perfect for quick and easy meals.

Normally I am all for conserving paper, but until I have this ‘Working Mum’ thing under wraps, I thought it best to print or photocopy our most used recipes. This way they are easy to find, especially for hubby should he be on cooking duty.

3. Meal Planning

I am pretty happy with how I meal plan so that will be left as is.  I plan out what we will eat for dinner on the weekend and pin-up the recipe names on a magnetic board inside the pantry.

You can read more about this here.

3. Storing the Recipes

I have broken the recipes up into categories – Baking, Breakfast, Easy Meals, Slow Cooker and Freezer Meals, and placed them into folders.

These folders will sit in the kitchen in this nifty organiser I picked up from Kmart.

Lots of other space for organising ‘things’ there. Exciting! Or,  perhaps tragic?

So there is one planning task ticked off the ‘To Do’ list.

Stay close by the blog in the next few weeks. I have lots to show you.

 

Freezer Cooking: Quick, Kid Friendly Lunchbox Snacks and Midweek Meals

My eldest starts school this week so I have been making a few lunchbox snacks to keep in the freezer. As I am also anticipating a lot of exhausted and hungry afternoons, I thought it might be best to get together a few kid friendly meals that I could whip out of the freezer if I needed to.  Here is what I made….

Cheese and bacon scrolls and cinnamon scrolls, ready to defrost and bake.

Fruity Pikelets.

Bliss balls.

And for dinners…..

Kid size lasagne,

and pumpkin arancini balls.

This bit of effort should save me some trouble in the next few weeks. Whoo-hoo!

I also have dozens of other lunchbox recipes and ideas I want to get around to trying out.  I have been pinning madly so that I don’t loose them! If you want to gather some inspiration, or grab the recipe for any of the things I made above, take a look at my Lunchbox Recipes Pinterest page.

Have a great week.

Organising Children’s Art Supplies With Tupperware

A while back I gave my pantry a makeover.  With the addition of the Thermomix in the kitchen, my pantry underwent a change.  There were a lot less cans and processed foods and a whole lot more basic ingredients. I desperately needed more storage containers and I was just not prepared to drop a grand on Tupperware to house it. As I hate to miss-match, the Tupperware I did own, came out of the pantry and went into storage.

Looking at the Tupperware taking up space in my storage cupboard today, I decided I had to make use of it.  I went to my most hated storage solution, the kids’ craft tub and decided that Tupperware might just save the day.

The old craft tub was huge and filled with a million bits and pieces. The half empty packets and the buttons and  beads laying loose made finding what I needed a challenge.

After a good purge and some help from the littlies to sort, we filled most of my spare Tupperware containers.

If our little collection of craft supplies should exceed our Tupperware collection, I will just pick up the super cheap knock-off version you can get in Kmart.

I love that I regained some space and made good use of the once wasted Tupperware.  I think that craft time will be a lot less painful with this storage solution. 

Starting School: Lunchbox Preparation

Next week my eldest starts school for the first time <Insert welling tears>.

Here in Australia, the school year follows a calendar year. So, after a long summer holiday celebrating Christmas and New Year, we have to prepare to return to a new school year.

I am trying to bury my growing nervousness with organising ourselves for this new adventure.  Oh. So. Much. Organising!

So far the most challenging for me has been lunchbox/lunch logistics.

In the past I have been less than organised in this department and I plan to rectify that this year.  Here is the game plan…….

I have created myself a Lunch Box Planner.  The idea will be to sit down and organise what Master O will take for the week when I create the household meal plan. Hopefully my munchkin will help out with that bit!

I have printed and laminated the planner so I can write on it with whiteboard markers and wipe it clean.  I have secured it inside the door of the lunchbox cupboard using velcro dots so I will be able to remove and replace it each week.

With lunchbox planning sorted, I turned to organising what the lunch would be taken to school in.

I researched heaps of different lunch boxes/cooler bags and settled on a Fridge to Go. They guarantee that they stay fridge cold for 8 hours.  Important in our very hot climate.

 

I want to make Master O’s lunchbox as rubbish free as possible, so I purchased some Keep Leaf snack and Sandwich baggies.

Some Sinchies for yoghurt.

And some Nude Food Movers for other bits and pieces.

For Kindy last year I bought Master O a Contigo drink bottle.  Despite the punishment my 4-year-old gave it, including almost daily dropping on concrete,  it is still going strong. This year we thought we would try another Contigo.

The final preparations for Master O’s lunchbox continues later this week as I bake a few snack  items to freeze. I have been fishing for some new healthy recipes to try. I will share what I end up making later in the week.

If you are planning for a return to school, good luck! For the rest of you, have a great day!

 

 

DIY Christmas Pocket Book

In the hope of avoiding  the shopping centre crush at Christmas time, I have well and truly begun my Christmas shopping.

In years past, my present buying had been a bit haphazard. This year I was determined to be organised by writing a list of gift ideas and items purchased, as well as keeping my receipts in one place.

I decided I needed a pocket book in which to keep this information. Instead of going out to buy one, I made one using left over craft paper from last Christmas.

The whole thing was really simple and quick to make.

I didn’t have any double-sided paper left, so I stuck some coordinated prints together to make three,  30 x 30 cm double-sided pieces of paper. If you wanted to do this,  you could use paper or light card and alter the size and number of  sheets to suit the size pocket book you need.

I folded the base of each sheet to make a little pocket.

 

I held down and secured the sides of the pockets with a glue tape.

I folded each sheet of paper in half, using a ruler to get the folds crisp.

I stacked the pockets on top of each other and used the sewing machine to bind them together along the fold line.

This configuration of folded sheets gave me a good number of pockets to place receipts or vouchers and some blank pages on which to write my Christmas present ideas.

I have divided each spread up for the different individuals or groups/families I buy gifts for.

The front cover was screaming out for a little prettiness so my youngest helped me glue some buttons in a wreath shape on the front.

This little book now lives in my handbag. I am never without my ideas list at the shops and my receipts can be stowed safely inside straight away.

How do you keep your Christmas buying organised?

 

Children’s Flash Card and Activity Book Storage

For the last week I have been on a mission to organise those annoying bits and pieces about the house and garden. I hope to pop some posts up about these little projects because even if your abode doesn’t suffer from the same annoyance, you might get some inspiration to help you with something about the house. I know that is often how I get my ideas on how to tackle things. Today I focused on the tackling some kid’s mess.

My 4-year-old loves activity books.  You know the sort… with pre-writing, easy letter or number activities?

A while back I bought a whole heap of them on sale and they each came with a set of flash cards. He has every conceivable set available – numbers, letters, words just to name a few.

I had these stored in a basket but the boys had got into it for some card-throwing fun.  All the sets were jumbled and their cardboard cases squished.  They needed some organising know how.

Not too long ago I picked up one of these very cute A5 accordion file at Officeworks for just a few dollars.

I loved the green colour and knew something or other would benefit from its addition to the house.  Enter the flash cards.

After spending a ridiculous amount of time rearranging the cards into their packs, I slotted them into the file and labelled each section.

Now the flash cards are secured inside, no accidental drop will send these babies flying.  The box also has a handle which makes it easy to move around the house.

As for the activity books, they had been kept messily in a  drawer. I thought it best to pull them out and place them into something that made them easier to see and access.

I rummaged through my storage cupboard to find a Mimi Separator from Howards Storage World. I had used it to store things in my freezer of all places but it was no longer needed.

It has handles and is perfect for moving to where the action is taking place

Now that these things are neat, I have decided that they are more than welcome to stay out.  I found a place for them in the kids’ playroom. By adding this cute container that once had a life as a recipe holder, I added some pencils and made a little station for these activities.

I love it when you find a nifty solution to your organising problems. Especially when you find the solution amongst the items making your storage cupboard messy.  It is like killing two birds with one stone!

Homework / School Paperwork Drop Zone

As Kindergarten approaches last term and primary school starts next year for my eldest, we know our relatively ‘carefree’ parenting days are over.  Around the corner looms homework, permission slips and assignments, just to name a few.

At the moment, most of the paperwork that comes into the home from school is managed at the fridge – with magnets, or worse, is kept in the car glovebox!  It is beginning to look messy and things are being forgotten.  Increasingly the tasks sent home require some action from my son and I wanted these pieces to be more accessible to him.

So I set out to create a drop zone for all this ‘stuff’. I decided the best place to keep this was on the back of his bedroom door. That way it wasn’t taking up precious space in our living areas and it was accessible for my son.

Here is what the completed zone looks like.

The zone is made up of …..

• My After School Routine printable,  downloaded from Living Locurto.  We have had it pinned around the house for over a year now, so it makes sense for it to be placed in this zone now
• A magnetic white board calendar (Quartet). Perfect for recording all those easily forgotten dates
• Different sized plastic organisers (Ikea Pluggis).  These provide spots for holding pens for signing paperwork, writing on the calendar and Sharpies for labeling items heading to school.  Small containers for holding bits and bobs like ID cards and badges. Finally, a file to hold items like signed permission slips that need to be returned to school    
• Plastic file holders (Martha Stewart Large Vertical Plastic Pocket) . One to hold general school paperwork like newsletters and tuckshop menus, the other for classroom paperwork like homework.

I have started to transfer the paperwork from my various ‘filing’ areas into this zone – a useful project as I found out that I am meant to be a fundraiser this weekend!  I am looking forward to testing its full usefulness beginning next week.

Organising the Pantry: Spice it Up

This week I decided that I really needed to handle the spice situation in my pantry.  They were contained in baskets on the pantry shelves but it was just too hard to find what I needed, when I needed it.

A plan developed when I found these adjustable spice racks made by Storage Box at Bunnings.

Hubby kindly screwed two of these to the inside of the pantry door for me.  They were really quick to install.

Rather than throw my mishmash of spice bottles into the shelves, I went to Howard’s Storage to find some Decor Tellfresh Spice containers.  I had some of these at home and I found they fitted nicely into the new spice rack.  Unfortunately they no longer seem to make the clear lid containers and instead have shiny red ones.  I love them but my desire for things to match didn’t.  Deciding I just had to be a big girl and suck it in, I bought the red set.

So here are all my spices within easy reach.  There is heaps of space remaining for any other items I might need to store here.

The best thing about this spice solution is that I have utilised the unused space behind my pantry door and hence freed up shelf space.  The fact that the shelves are adjustable mean I can rearrange them in order to store something other than itty bitty spice containers.

One problem solved this week….another 1001 to go!

How do you store your spices?

Project Life Nook

A little while back I wrote about starting up a Project Life album.  You can read that post here.  I was hesitant as to how committed I would be to the whole process, but I have found it so much fun and an easy creative outlet for time-poor me.

Once I realised just how much I liked it, I had to ‘organise’ myself and the project.  I set out to create a little Project Life  work station for myself.

In my study makeover, I had created more than enough bench space to dedicate to my Project Life materials. You can read about the study/craft room makeover here.

On a shopping trip to Kmart I came across their new range of office supplies, that just happened to be in red polka dots, like my Project Life album.

I picked up a set of tabbed folders that are perfect to hold layout ideas, kids’ art work, brochures and other nick nacks that I want to include in my album. I had a vertical file going unused, perfect for storing the folders in an easy-to-see manner.

I also scored a binder of cute sticky notes in various sizes.  I use these to make a note of dates, journal ideas or lists of photos to be inserted when I am yet to complete my layout.

Finally, I grabbed a set of two boxes.  The smaller one fits my journaling cards, the larger one holds my favourite journaling pens, stamps and processed photos.

So here it is, all stowed on my craft bench….

If I couldn’t make all my Project Life ‘stuff’  look neat, pretty and coordinated there is no way I would allow it to remain ‘on show’.  Keeping it visible is important to me, it reminds me of my goal to keep a better record of our lives and makes it easier to do so.

The big bonus to organising myself and making it look pretty is that it only cost me $8. Cha Ching!

 

 

Dabbling in Freezer Cooking

After a visit to my favourite butcher who sells bulk meat, I dreaded the prospect of breaking the meat up into batches and vacuum sealing  it to be frozen.  I did however, feel slightly more enthusiastic about cooking.  So I set out to make some freezer meals.

I have at various times dabbled in freezer cooking.  I certainly loved the convenience of having ready-made meals when I was busy at work or when I was a new mum.  I didn’t hate the cooking days, in fact I quite liked them. So I wondered why I never really stuck to it and made an art of it.

I think in my case it came down to not having enough of a freezer meal catalogue.  In the old days I made the same things ….spaghetti sauce, lasagne, cottage pie, a curry or two and soups. Boring. If only I had looked to the internet for inspiration!

There are hundred of sites and bloggers out there praising freezer cooking.  Many have it down to a fine art – menu plans, recipes, shopping lists, cooking days, even providing sticker templates to print and  attach to your made meal.  There are thousands of amazing recipes out there to suit every taste and even cooking preference.  It really is an eye opener.

As it is coming into winter here in the Southern hemisphere, I am keen to get the slow cooker working.  I found whole sites devoted to creating frozen baggies of ingredients, that you defrost and pop into the crock pot to cook.  Really, who thought you could make crock pot cooking even easier than it already was?

The more I traversed the sites, the more I was beginning to be sold on the idea of freezer cooking.  I don’t know that I would have the majority of meals out of the freezer as I like to eat a fresh, clean and raw as possible, but it definitely has benefits.  It undoubtably saves money as you can shop the sale items and use seasonal produce.  You are less likely to resort to expensive take out on the days when you don’t feel like cooking.  I can see there would be less washing up and probably less food waste.

So if you are keen to dabble in freezer cooking like me, here are some sites that are worth a visit.

Money Saving Mom – Huge recipe selection and some great printables for those organising freaks, like me.

One a Month Mom – Everything you need to be a freezer cooking genius.  Menu plans for all sorts of dietary needs including paleo, vegetarian and baby. Heaps available for free on the site or become a member to receive ongoing menus and recipes.

Who Needs a Cape? – Make 40 meals in 4 hours! Lots of crock pot freezer recipes here.

Life as Mom – Lots of tips on how to freezer cook and every month a new cooking plan to follow.

I have also started to pin some of my favourite freezer meals.  You are welcome to follow along here.

So what did I cook and freeze the other day, you ask?

Healthy Butter Chicken – I used a fantastic spice mix from this company

lasagne

Chicken enchiladas

Slow cooker braised lamb

Pear and raspberry coconut bread.  Yummo! I will share this recipe with you soon.

If you are interested in freezer cooking, be sure to follow along.  I intend to do a lot more freezer cooking and I will share what I make on here.

Have a great day.