Organizing the Kitchen

We moved into our new place back in July, right before I went on a business trip. We are just now, finally getting organized. So now, I have some tips on how organize your pantry. We have a SUPER tiny pantry to start off - it's only about 2 1/2 feet wide with three shelves and a giant space at the bottom. Not that great of a pantry, see?

The blue block at the bottom is my dust pan, which is attached to the broom and everything in that bottom space is paper bags (from the grocery store), the swiffer, the broom, other random items that fit down there. The top shelf is for appliances that aren't used everyday or boxes for the ones that are. The middle shelf is called the baking shelf - everything I need to bake except oils, found there. The bottom shelf is the 'other' shelf with drinks (a box of tea bags, cocoa packets in a box, etc.), tuna, peanut butter, other random items that did not fit into any category I made. In the two basket on the door, the top has storage stuff (tin foil, saran wrap, ziploc bags) and cooking spray. The bottom basket has all of the jello and pudding mixes, as well as smaller drink mixes (kool-aid packets or single-serve packets). The baskets are held onto the door simply by ribbon. I think it looks pretty:

That other door goes to the backyard and my apron hangs on the hinge because it won't fit anywhere else. I have a weird kitchen. Onto the mini-fridge. We originally wanted to use the mini-fridge just for drinks, but we realized, we actually don't stock the fridge that much. So, one day I turned it off, unplugged it, and now.... it's a second pantry!

The top freezer part, I just took that little door off and canned veggies and beans now go there. Next layer is for the pastas! We love our pasta. Below that is the breakfast shelf - oatmeal and cereal go there. In the door, we have the oils and sauces (plus a random box of corn bread mix. The absolute bottom part would house extra bottles of gatorade if we had just bought them or we wanted some warm or whatever. Next we have the little armoire for additional pantry space - the top has recipe box, recipe books, take out menus, daily products like a mixing bowl, strainer, toaster and at the very top, adult drinks. I didn't bother taking a picture of the upper-half. But more importantly, the drawer - bread drawer! We have almost no counter space, let alone space for a bread box.

Then, the bottom section has snacks that are easy to get to and rice, another food staple for us.

Then, because I'm obsessed with organizing, I even have places for everything in the freezer and fridge. The freezer main section has 2 'sections', entrees on the right 1/3 and appetizers taking up the rest of the space, divided between frozen veggies on the far left and 'other' in the middle. Under the ice box is our ice packs. In the door, the top part is frozen fruit (fruit drink mix) and the bottom has my Velata chocolate or other sweet things that need to stay cold until used.

The fridge now; the door has the more common condiments on the top shelf, the little closed section is for eggs (dollar store eggs work just as well as any) and the other side has butter, and the bottom shelf has other condiments like ice cream toppings, salsa, etc.

The main part of the fridge has drinks up top (to keep them the coldest), juices on the right, milk in the middle, and adult drinks on the left. The middle area has left overs, anything that doesn't fit in the drawer, etc. Tortillas seem to be the only thing that lives on the top of the bottom drawer, it's not that tall, either. Then of course finally, the drawer (the only one in the fridge, of course) has meat on the top right, veggies normally bottom right (We need to go shopping, I think.), cheese on the lower left and then fruit top left!

I think this works well for us, it's easy to find everything, at least! Hopefully you can take away some tips for organizing your small (or even large) kitchen. Maybe I'll take a photo one day so you can see how small my kitchen is. ;)

Bananella from Brownies

This is a serious, serious condition that you can get, similar to how you can get Salmonella from eating raw eggs, you can get Bananella from eating a raw banana. This is just tomfoolery, however. Bananas are good for you and even can help your muscles, should you be having a charlie horse or something similar. How did I come up with Bananella, you may ask? Well, I discovered today that you can replace eggs in a baking recipe with bananas! Why did I discover this? Well, I started to make brownies and discovered this about my eggs:

They were frozen. Not cool, nor helpful for baking. Pun intended. Therefore, I pulled out a frozen banana from my freezer, nuked it for 30 seconds and it made it's way into the brownie mixture!

Yes, that is a sprinkle container - it's my 'special' ingredient in brownies. No, I didn't use the whole container, just used the rest of it. Anywhos, bananas in brownies is my newest revelation. You can also eat the little bit of leftover without the fear of Salmonella! Even more fun! Yay! So now you know two new little baking secrets. But trust me - bananas instead of egg will be my new thing from now on! 1/2 a banana equals 1 egg, that's all you need! Also, everyone LOVES sprinkles in brownies - it's a fun surprise and if you make them from scratch, you only need half the sugar called for, as the sprinkles add as a substitute! All sorts of fun baking knowledge in this post! I'm jealous of y'all. ;) Enjoy some virtual brownies!

You know that feeling you get....

When you were supposed to do something but you kept putting it off and eventually forgot about it? Well, that's what happened (again) with this blog. That's what also happened with a weekly assignment I have for one of my classes this semester. How did that happen? Well, like usual, I got sick the first couple of weeks of the semester (which is probably the most obnoxious tradition my body has started) and so I accidentally skipped an assignment for one of my classes called 'Fantastic Archaeology'. This is where the trouble begins. Because I forgot about it in my sick stupor, the following week I forgot about it, and I almost forgot about it for the 3rd week in a row when I got an e-mail from one of the T.A.'s. Granted, this is a 100% online course and so all I have to do is type something up about the assigned topic and hit submit. I got that 3rd one done, but then we come to earlier this week. I knew I had a bunch that I had missed, trying to go back and get things done, being thrown into the position of president for a club and just life happening (as well as more sick stints and family coming down to visit Disney). I looked to see which week we were on, exactly, coming to realized that I had missed 6 assignments. Kind of like with this blog, having missed 8 months. Luckily the day before I had been e-mailing with the professor requesting to be allowed to turn in these assignments late. Of course he said yes and in fact told me that as long as all of our assignments are turned in by December 5th, he really does not care. That's my kind of professor! Although also bad for me because well, I procrastinate way too much. But I decided hey, I have a whole day where I am not obligated to do ANYTHING. Work had called and told me I didn't need to come in, it was Monday so I had no classes - PERFECT! I turned on Netflix with Bones (My newest obsession.) on play and slammed out all of those missing assignments. Now however, I feel really awkward about posting them all at once. The T.A.'s both know that I am allowed to post them, however I feel like I would be insulting the other students if I just slam the discussion board with all of my missing assignments. I did notice a few people with missing assignments however and some missing more that I was so maybe I should post it and get it over with. Lesson learned - stop freaking procrastinating! I haven't been too bad this semester though, I spent all of the last two weeks going back and forth to the libraries to get sources for my 3 projects this semester. I have a pretty good stack for each, if you consider the parameters I have been given. I have another fully open day so I guess I will get to work on my projects. Step 3 for my Renaissance Art Project is due next week, so that's important. Be on the look out for more posts about my researching woes, back tracking as to what all happened in the last 8 months and also some DIY projects I've been working on.