Kitchen Drawer Organization

Who doesn't need a little organization in their kitchen drawers?  I need to organize/reorganize mine at least twice a year.  I most recently organized my junk drawer and utensil drawer.

Our junk drawer, like I am sure all of your's, is a catch all for everything left on the counters that I don't know where else to put.  Here is the drawer before:

You can see that on one of my organizings, I started to use silverware tray to house different items.  This works great, it just needs to be cleaned out.  For example, one area of the tray is used to house different size batteries.  When we purchased more, we didn't talk them out of the cardboard container they came in.  We just stuck the entire thing in the drawer.  Well, the cardboard container doesn't fit in the tray so then we had batteries all over.  This is something that we are going to have to work on.  

To reorganize this drawer, first I took everything out and put them in different groups on the counter.  I had a trash pile and then I grouped like items together.  I ended up throwing a lot out!  Here is the finished, newly organized drawer:

The next drawer to be reorganized was one of the kitchen utensil drawers.  This drawer holds different kitchen items such as the can opener, measuring cups, measuring spoons, whisks, etc.  Here is the before:

At one time I tried to organize this with little black baskets.  This worked for a short time, but then either the baskets where too small or I still had too much stuff.  I ended up with a very disorganized drawer where I had to dig around to find anything.

I again took everything out of the drawer and put them in piles with like items.  As I was taking the item out, I thought about when was the last time I used that utensil.  If it has been over year, I really thought hard on if I needed to keep it.  I also go rid of duplicate items.  If they were still in good condition, they went into a donation pile.  I was able to really pare down the items I had.  Here is the finished drawer:

I continued to use the black baskets, but hopefully I have gotten rid of enough stuff that they will work and will be able to keep the items in them contained.

What kitchen drawers do feel always need to be reorganized?

April Recipes

Here are the new recipes that I tried this month...

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
I love peanut butter and banana smoothies and I am getting tired the the basic banana muffin so I gave this one a try.  They were very easy to make.  I did mine in a mixing bowl inside of a blender and I think they turned out fine.  I also topped my with chocolate chips.  I tried them right out of the oven and did not like them.  Once they cooled however, they were delicious!

Baked Ziti
Who can pass up a good, comforting, baked pasta?  When I made this recipe I cut it in half.  The original is for 12 people; a little much for my family of 4 (1 being a small child and 1 being a newborn).  My husband loves Italian sausage so I didn't use any hamburger and used all Italian sausage.  He really enjoyed it.  It tasted very much like lasagna to me.  It was very good.  The next time I make it, I will make the full recipe, but put half in the freezer for another night.

Cheesy Hasselback Chicken
This chicken is another take on Chicken Cordon Blue.  It was very easy to make and very good.  I think it would be fun to play with the types of cheese used.  My grocery store was out of Colby Jack so I used Monterey Jack cheese.  I think a sharp cheddar would also be very good.

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:

• Yummy Snacks                       
• Slow Cooker
• Delicious Desserts                     
• Soups
• Drinks                                       
• Daily Dinners
• Good Morning Breakfast             
• Lunches
• Smoothies
• Recipes to Try

** Image from freedigitaphotos.net.  Photo by Sicha Pongjivanich. 
Published on 20 November 2011  Stock photo - Image ID: 10065169  

February Recipes

Cheesy Wild Rice Soup
My mother gave me a recipe for a cheesy rice soup and this is the closest thing I could find online.  There are only 5 ingredients so it is super simple!  When I made it, I used milk instead of the half and half and brown rice instead of the wild rice. The next time I make it, I may try it using this version of the recipe to see what one I like better.

Taco Cups
This recipe has been on one of my Pinterest boards for a long time.  I finally made them to snack on as we watch the Super Bowl.  They were very simple and very good.  They are the perfect finger snack.  (To see the recipe, you will need to hover your mouse over the picture.)

Creamy Peanut Butter Dip
This is a very healthy dip for any type of fruit.  It is also a good source of protein because of the Greek yogurt.  I love honey, so instead of using maple syrup to sweeten it, I used honey.  I have been taking this in my lunch just about everyday since I have made it :)

Streusel-Topped Banana Bread
I have a ton of frozen bananas.  Instead of using the all for smoothies, I thawed some and made some banana bread.  I found this recipe and the streusel top intrigued me.  It was delicious!  My husband would have eaten the entire loaf in one sitting if I would have let him :)

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
Yummy Snacks                       
Slow Cooker
Delicious Desserts                     
Soups
Drinks                                       
Daily Dinners

Good Morning Breakfast             
Lunches

Organizing the Spice Cabinet

My spice cabinet has always been very cluttered.  Awhile ago I bought some baskets and a tiered rack hoping that those items would help clean up the cabinet a bit.  It helped more in grouping the clutter then organizing it.

What I needed to do was really look at what was in this cabinet.  Basically, I need to get rid of some stuff.  First I took everything out.  I grouped the items into three categories - 1.  Baking  2.  Cooking  3.  Oils.  Then I really looked at the items in each category.  If I haven't used it within 6 months I got rid of it.  I have heard that spices should be replaced every year.  Some of mine I have had since I got married - much longer than a year ago :)  

I then started putting what was left back into the cabinet.  The top shelf I designated for my baking items.  I don't back a lot so this is a good spot for them.  I put all of them in a white basket and was able to place my containers of powdered sugar, white flour, and wheat flour.  

The bottom two shelves are for all my cooking spices and oils.  I placed all the oils behind a white basket that houses the back-up spices that I use to fill the spice rack that is on my counter.  Next to that basket I placed larger boxes and spice containers that didn't fit in the basket. On the bottom shelf, I placed the tiered rack with all of my WildTree spices on them.  Next to that I placed the salt and pepper.  On the cabinet door I have a hook where I hang my monthly meal plan and any recipes I will need for the week.

Here is the finished look:

It doesn't look like a huge change, but I can already see that this is going to be easier for me to find something when I need it.  I now know exactly what spices I have so I wan't be purchasing doubles anymore.  

January Recipes

Here are some new recipes that I tried this month...

Holiday Bacon Appetizers
These were so simple!  My mom made them for a party we went to on Christmas Eve and they were so good I had to make them for one of our other family gatherings.  I did choose to do the brown sugar instead of the Parmesan cheese.  I love the combination of sweet and salty!

Brown Sugar Spiced Baked Chicken
This chicken was pretty good.  It was really easy to make and would make a good freezer meal (I plan on adding it to my rotation).  Remember to put foil or parchment paper on the pan when you are baking the chicken.  The brown sugar takes a lot of arm muscle to remove from the pan if you don't.

Whole-Wheat Monster Cookies
My daughter wanted to make cookies; I am trying to cut back on the sweets I am eating so I wanted to try and find a cookie recipe that is a little healthier for you than most.  This one fit the bill for me.  It is loaded with oats, some protein, and dried fruit. I also made all the dough, but froze over half of it so that I don't have all these cookies around to eat.

Cheesy Bacon Chicken Casserole
Amazing!  I am not a casserole person, however when I saw this recipe I liked everything in it so I thought I would give it a try.  Who can say no to cheese and bacon?  I am so glad I did.  My husband and I love bacon so the only thing I would change about this would be to add more bacon :)

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
Yummy Snacks                         
Slow Cooker
Delicious Desserts                       
Soups
Drinks                                         
Daily Dinners

Good Morning Breakfast               
Lunches

Family Cookbook

I love to try out new recipes.  I have accumulated such a collection of ones to try, that I created a recipe binder to help organize them.  You can see how I did that here - Recipe Binder.

What I need now is an organized way to store my families favorite recipes.  The ones that I go to on a weekly basis because we love them so much.  I decided to create a family cookbook.

I set it all up in Microsoft Word.  I have a title page and title pages dividing up the different sections - Breakfast, Appetizers / Snacks, Soups, Dinners, and Desserts.  I then created a standard layout for each recipe.

I typed each recipe up in the appropriate section and printed it all out.  I placed the pages in page protectors before putting them in the binder.  I liked this idea because I can pull the page out of the binder when I need the recipe and it will be wipe-able if I happen to get the recipe itself dirty while cooking.

As we try different recipes out, if it is a family hit after making it a couple of times, I open up the cookbook on my computer and add it to the cookbook.  I only have to print out the page with the new recipe on it and then replace the old one with the new one in the binder.

I think this binder system better than a recipe box because it is easier to keep the recipes organized in categories.  If it falls off the shelf or a two-year old gets a hold of it, it can't be dumped all over the floor and have to be reorganized again :)  I also don't have to worry about having to find new recipe cards that I like or that will fit into my particular recipe box.

How do you organize all of your recipes?

November Recipes

Here are some new recipes that I tried this month:

Pumpkin Scones
I am up for trying anything pumpkin.  These were very good.  I didn't have any powdered sugar to make the glaze with and they were still good, so I am excited to try them again with the glaze :)

Pumpkin Pancakes
This is another great pumpkin recipe that I tried this month.  I loved how the pumpkin and maple syrup tasted together.  I am sure you could use this same recipe and turn them into waffles.  Maybe I will try that next month.

Pumpkin Smoothie
With the different pumpkin recipes that I tried this month, I had extra pumpkin pie filling.  I found this smoothie recipe to be a great way to use it up.  The graham crackers were a nice finish to this smoothie.  Through this recipe I also discovered that I could freeze the filling so I can enjoy this smooth at any time.

Caramel Pecan Pie
I am always in charge of bring the pecan pie to Thanksgiving dinner.  This year I wanted to try something new and this looked delicious.  It was very easy to make and everyone at dinner enjoyed it.

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
Yummy Snacks                           
Slow Cooker
Delicious Desserts                         
Soups
Drinks                                           
Daily Dinners

Good Morning Breakfast                 
Lunches

October Recipes

Here are some new recipes that I tried this month:

Avocado Hummus
This was a great lunch.  I love avocados and I love hummus so I figured this was going to be a winner.  The only change I will make for next time is to cut the recipe is half and make it two mornings in a row.  I made a full batch on Monday and by Tuesday morning it was pretty brown.  Still tasted good, but didn't look the best.

Pita Pizzas
This website has a lot of great ideas for school lunches.  I tried the one that was just like a pizza Lunchable.  I cut a whole wheat pita into slices and brought along pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni in separate containers.  You have to like cold pizza (which I do) to enjoy this one.

Smoothies
I tend to be very busy at my desk over lunch so I had the idea of bring a smoothie for lunch.  Something easy to eat while I check emails, grade papers, etc.  This site has a ton of great smoothie combinations.  I don't know if I will get through them all, but I might try :)

S'more Croissants
This is a great, easy little dessert.  We have pigs in a blank frequently, and I always have croissants left over.  Now, I can take those extra ones, add a little chocolate chips and marshmallows and have a yummy dessert waiting for us after dinner.

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
Yummy Snacks                             
Slow Cooker
Delicious Desserts                           
Soups
Drinks                                             
Daily Dinners

Good Morning Breakfast                   
Lunches

September Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
Yummy Snacks                               
Slow Cooker
Delicious Desserts                             
Soups
Drinks                                               
Daily Dinners

Good Morning Breakfast                     
Lunches

Here are some new recipes that I tried this month:

Personal Pizzas

The pin said that these tasted just like the personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut.  They were right :)  These pizzas were delicious.  The recipe makes 3 large personal pizzas.  I think next time, I could cut it in half and make two smaller pizzas for my husband and I.

Broccoli Penne

This is a very simple dish which is great for a school night.  I am not a big fan of broccoli, but due to the fact that is covered in cheese in this recipe I could handle it :)  

Baked French Toast

This was a great breakfast for Sunday morning.  I like to relax, to be able to take time to sip my coffee and read the newspaper on Sunday mornings so the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time making breakfast.  However, Sunday morning is the only morning that we can have a family breakfast so I want to make it something special.  This fit the bill.  I could make it all Saturday night and leave soak in the refrigerator over night.  

Chicken Bacon Avocado Chopped Salad

I love avocado so when I saw this salad, I had to try it.  I tend to take quite a few salads to work for lunch because I can usually prep them the night before or if I have to do it in the morning it doesn't take too long.  However, this is one that I found out wasn't going to work for school.  When I opened the salad at lunch, my avocado had turned all brown and mushy :( Maybe next time I will bring the avocado whole to work and cut it up for the salad right before I am going to eat it.

August Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
                               Yummy Snacks                                   Slow Cooker
                               Delicious Desserts                                Soups
                               Drinks                                                  Daily Dinners

                               Good Morning Breakfast                       Lunches

Here are some amazing recipes that I tried this past month.

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Birthday Cake
My husband loves the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, therefore I wanted to try and make a chocolate and peanut butter birthday cake for him.  I had never made a cake from scratch, but this chocolate cake recipe was very easy and tasted great.  After doing some searching, I found this peanut butter frosting recipe that was also very easy.  I decorated the cake with mini peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces on the top.  My husband was very surprised :)

Waffle Cinnamon Rolls
This isn't really a recipe, but a new way to cook an old favorite.  Many Sunday mornings, we have the cinnamon rolls that come in a tube.  We have tried many different bands and flavors.  I was very intrigued when I saw a pin on Pinterest showing them cooked in a waffle maker.  They were amazing!  My whole family loved them.  My husband liked them the best with the white icing and syrup (not the most healthy thing in the world :) )

Corn Salsa
This corn salsa was so easy to make and very good.  I am always trying to find side dishes for when we have Mexican food such as tacos or enchiladas.  After doing a quick search on Pinterest, this is one that looked delicious.  I have had many corn salsas at work that other people have brought in to share so I thought I would give it a try.  The only thing I will change about this recipe is to add less corn :)  I know it is corn salsa, but it my husband said it was a little too much.  If we are not going to eat it all at one meal, I would also add a little avocado each time we eat it instead of all at the beginning.  The avocado got too brown and mushy the next day.

Side Note:
I recently went to a Wild Tree Freezer party.  In a nut shell, I got together with seven other women, drank some cocktails, ate some snacks, and prepared 20 meals for my freezer in about 2 hours.  20 meals!  It was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again.  My plan is to use most of these once school starts, to make getting dinner on the table a little easier.  If your interested, you can head to their website for products and to find parties in your area.

July Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
                               Yummy Snacks                                   Slow Cooker
                               Delicious Desserts                                Soups
                               Drinks                                                  Daily Dinners

                               Good Morning Breakfast                       Lunches

Here are some amazing recipes that I tried this past month.

Pancake Mix
This site has a ton of make at home mixes.  I have only made the pancake/waffle mix twice and it is delicious.  The recipe makes quite a bit of dry mix so I store it in a plastic container that I got at Walmart.  There are several other mixes that I want to try such as one for corn bread and an all purpose quick mix that you can use to make coffee cake and cinnamon rolls.  The site even has printable labels that you can attach to your containers to always know the wet ingredients you need to add to the mix.

Skillet Corn Bread
I love to watch Food Network, and the Pioneer Woman is one of my favorite shows.  On her blog, she gives a very tasty recipe for corn bread.  It calls for an iron skillet which I don't have.  I used a glass dish instead.  I preheated the dish in the oven to warm it to simulate cooking it on the stove top.  The corn bread still got a crispy crust on the bottom.

Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken
I am always looking for new chicken recipes and this one is a winner.  It was very simply to make and tasted amazing!  The only thing I would change for next time is to add less water to the dressing to make it a little thicker.

Caramelitas
A very good friend of mine makes these and they are delicious so I thought I would give a try for the family gathering we were having at the lake.  I watched Kelsey Nixon make these on her her show Kelsey's Essentials and it looked pretty easy.  First, you have to make this salted caramel sauce to use in the bars, but I am sure you could use an caramel sauce you wanted.  They were very good!

The 4th of July @ My House

My husband's favorite holiday is the Fourth of July so we tend to do celebrate this holiday more than the average family.  I thought I would share some of the craziness that goes on around our house in the beginning of July.

Decorations
Flags and the colors red, white, and blue are all around our house.  The front of the house has bunting on the porch, an American flag flying, and something patriotic hanging on the front door.

At the back door guests are met by Uncle and a festive star hanging on the back door.

  

Inside the house, little flags are tucked all over.  Here is the center of my dinning room table.

Festivities
Of course there are always great places to go and people to visit on the Fourth.  We usually head to Kewaskum to visit my brother and sister-in-law and watch the spectacular fireworks show there.  Then we also have Celebrate Waupun attended at home.  This is a four day long festival with live music, rides, and of course more fireworks.  We also usually hit up at least one cook out, either at our house or a friend's place.

Food
Of course when you travel to the cook-outs and watch fireworks, you need some good food.  Here are a couple of treats that I made this year.

I make these cupcakes every year for my husband to take to work.  Of course I try to keep a couple at home for myself.  This year my daughter helped with the sprinkles and the flags.  I think there were more sprinkles on the counter and floor than the cupcakes, but she had a good time helping mama :)

These Rice Krispie treats are a new treat this year.  I found them on Pinterest and thought they looked like something that my daughter could eat with out making a huge mess.  I made these during her nap to try and keep the sprinkle mess to a minimum :)  I do think I need to get a better star cookie cutter for next year.

I hope everyone has a great and safe Fourth of July!  After all the craziness, come back and share what  fun things your family does to celebrate the holiday.

June Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
                               Yummy Snacks                                   Slow Cooker
                               Delicious Desserts                                Soups
                               Drinks                                                  Daily Dinners

                               Good Morning Breakfast                       Lunches

Here are some amazing recipes that I tried this past month.

Nutella Yogurt Fruit Dip
I made this dip to go along with some fruit kabobs that I made for my sister-in-laws baby shower.  It was delicious!

Fruit Salsa with Baked Cinnamon Chips
My mom and I also made this for the baby shower.  It was so easy!

Ravioli with Sausage & Tomato Cream Sauce
My family loves ravioli so I am always looking for a new way to try it. I found this one in my Taste of Home magazine and my husband loves sausage so I thought this would be a good fit.  After dinner he asked to have this meal again :)

This month was a little slow on the new recipes.  Sorry!  I have been enjoying spending time outside with the family so we have been grilling the basics - hot dogs, brats, chicken, etc.  Hopefully next month I will get back in the routine of trying something new once a week.

May Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
                               Yummy Snacks                                   Slow Cooker
                               Delicious Desserts                                Soups
                               Drinks                                                  Daily Dinners

                               Good Morning Breakfast                       Lunches

Here are some amazing recipes that I tried this past month.  I found all of these on Pinterest.

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
This sandwich was amazing.  My husband and I love buffalo wings so we are always willing to try anything with the word 'buffalo' in it.  It was extremely easy to make and the fact that it is a weight watchers recipe is an added bonus.

Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake
I really try to make something special for breakfast on Sunday mornings.  I make the cinnamon rolls found in a can very often so I was excited to find some new way to cook with them.  Again, it was very easy and was a big hit with the family.

Peanut Butter Granola Wraps

I am trying to eat healthier and I hear over and over again how important it is to eat breakfast.  My mornings are very busy so I am on the lookout for quick breakfast meals that I can eat on the go while I am driving to work.  This one fit the bill and was delicious.  The cool thing is the recipe is very flexible.  You could switch out the fruit or use Nutella instead of peanut butter to get a total different flavor.

Skinny Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones
I could eat these all day long.  I have made these as a snack to have with a cup of coffee in the afternoon and I have made it as a breakfast on the go (what girl doesn't like chocolate for breakfast!)

April Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
                               Yummy Snacks                                   Slow Cooker
                               Delicious Desserts                                Soups
                               Drinks                                                  Daily Dinners
                               Good Morning Breakfast                     Lunches

So here are the new recipes that I tried this month.

Peanut Butter Fruit Dip:  This dip was amazing!  I am trying to set a good example for you daughter and to eat healthier, which includes eating more fruit.  This dip helped to jazz up eating a plain apple.  

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings:  This is made in the slow cooker which I love.  I enjoy being able to put dinner in the slow cooker in the morning and have it waiting for me when I get home from work.  I have always liked chicken and dumplings, but have never found one that measures up to to the Banquet Frozen Chicken and Dumplings that I had as a child.  This came pretty close.  

Spicy Tomato Basil Soup:  Nothing beats a nice warm soup on a chilly day.  You won't think we would have chilly days in April, but it seems to be taking Spring a while to appear in Wisconsin.  This soup was really easy to make and was delicious.  I made a double batch and frozen some for another day.

Pepperoni Roll:  This is going to be a new family favorite.  We love pizza.  We could probably eat it every day so it is nice to find new way to serve the taste of pizza.  It is again very easy and quick to make on a busy week night.  The recipe uses frozen bread dough that you have to let rise.  To save on time, I use a tube of pizza dough instead.

Monthly Meal Planning

About the time my daughter turned one, I found it very difficult to do my usual weekly grocery shopping with her.  I started doing some research (on Pinterest :) ) about monthly meal planning.  I was a little worried because I had recently dived into the world of couponing and I didn't know if I would be able to take advantage of the good deals if I was only really grocery shopping once a month.  Over the past year, I have developed my own system which has allowed me to do one big shopping trip a month, but still take advantage of good deals with I see them.

To start the planning process, I created a document where I plan out twelve meals for the month.  We don't eat at home every night and it seemed like this was the average number of meals I was cooking in a month.

Monthly Meal Plan

I use various sources to help me choose what meals to prepare for the month - my recipe box, recipe binder, my family's favorite meals, and of course suggestions from my husband.  I write down the meals on my meal planning sheet and on a piece of notebook paper, record everything I am going to need to prepare that meal.  After I have chosen my meals, I take all the ingredients on the notebook paper and compose a grocery list comparing that list to what I already have in my pantry and freezer.  If there are items that I have to buy fresh  the week that I am going to cook the meal, I write that item on my monthly meal planning sheet.  All other items get recorded on this template on my computer:

Grocery List

Once the list is printed, I go through my coupon binder and highlight anything I have coupons for.  These coupons I place in an envelope which I paper clip to my grocery list when I head to the store.  After shopping and putting all my groceries away, I have to update my pantry and freezer lists so I know exactly what I have at all times.  I keep these lists on dry erase boards on the side of my refrigerator right above our weekly meal plan board.  This way I can easily adjust the amounts or erase items when I use them.

I still go to the grocery store once a week, but I can usually pick up what I need in about 15 minutes which makes it much easier to have my daughter with me.  I look at what items are listed on my meal planning sheet that I need to purchase, what items I may need for lunches, and what is on sale that week.

It does take me about 2 hours to plan my big shopping trip, but overall it makes life much easier.  I know what I will be cooking for dinner that night and it allows me to save money by purchasing items in bulk because I know that I will use the ingredients before they go bad.  It is well worth the time and I hope you can figure out a system that works for you.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies...Ever!

I love warm, chewy, homemade chocolate chip cookies.  With most recipes that I have tried, the cookies start out chewy but after a couple of days they are now longer that way.  They are still good, but not chewy. I will no longer look for recipes because I have found the best chocolate chip cookies ever!

I made my last batch of cookies on Saturday with my new recipe and it is now Friday (almost a full week later) and they are still just as chewy as when they came out of the oven!  Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies is the recipe that I found on Food Network's website.  My oven can only handle two cookie sheets at a time, so I only scooped out dough for two cookie sheets at a time.  While these sheets were in the oven I kept the rest of the dough in the fridge.  I think this helped to keep them from spreading out on the cookie sheet while cooking.

If you love chewy cookies, please give this recipe a try.  They are delicious!

Recipe Binder

I love to cook!  I love to try out new recipes.  Over the past year, from all the different cooking magazines I have subscribed to, I have collected a huge amount of recipes to try.  The pile was starting to come overwhelming and when I did want to find something new to make for dinner, it would take me forever to go through the pile and find something that would work.  This weekend I decided to do something about it.

I sorted the recipes into main categories -  Breakfast, Snacks, Dinners, and Desserts.  I put these into folders labeled appropriately.

Now where to store the recipes that I really like once I try it out.  I currently use a recipe box, but I no longer have the time to sit and re-write the recipe onto a card.

Then I found an old picture album with the pages that are sticky and have a plastic covering.  This is going to work perfectly as a storage device for the recipes that I like from my pile.  I printed divider pages off of the computer with the same recipe headings as the folders.  When I like a recipe, I am going to cut it off of the page and place it in this binder.

The nice thing about the plastic covering is the recipe will be protected from food splatters and I am cooking it!