Ninja Cooking System as Stove/Oven Stand-In

We're redoing our kitchen, and as you can see in the photo, our stove is out of service. (Note plug taped to the back.)

I was able to bake chicken for dinner last night just like in an oven, though, thanks to the Ninja's versatility. And the night before, I could boil pasta - like normal people do on a stove. I sometimes use it to make rice slow-cooker-style, like I mentioned in the last post. That's a great trick for those two-slow-cookers-necessary days when I have to take the kids to something in the afternoon and we need dinner waiting for us by the time we get home.

My toaster oven, microwave, and slow cooker keep busy too; I can use all the help I can get from my robot kitchen underlings, and I tend to require multiple appliances for a single meal. But if you don't already have a slow cooker and/or your toaster isn't a toaster oven style, the Ninja is super handy... especially if you don't have an oven or stove.

Making rice in the slow cooker

Just follow the directions on the rice for the right ratio of rice and water, and cook on low for two hours. 

This has greatly improved my dinner-making ability. 

I spend most of the early afternoon stuck at home managing school bus arrivals and the after-school routine. Some time between 4 and 5pm, though, half the time I have to hustle the kids off to whatever their extra activity is. Then we stumble home 90 minutes later, tired and hungry. I already have a handle on setting up the slow cooker in the early afternoon for the main course, but now to be able to get the rice going in the late afternoon makes things that much easier. It helps that I have multiple slow cookers.

One Panty To Fit Them All

...OK, most.

I have a hard time figuring out the right size and style for underpants for myself. Wacoal takes the size issue out of the equation with these panties that stretch to fit size S to size XL. I'm definitely somewhere in that range, so they fit fine. It cracks me up that they came up with this, and I imagine they are a very popular choice for those who have to buy panties for others. "Is she an M or an L? Oooh, if I get these, it doesn't matter!" I bet these panties help a lot of marriages, come Valentine's Day.

Busboy dish bin for table cleanup

I

I admit this is aspirational, because sometimes I forget to put out the bin, and even when I do, I forget to remind the urchins to put their place setting in it. But! When I DO remember, it makes after-meal cleanup much easier.

Older kids can certainly carry their goodies to the sink themselves, but my oldest has to squeeze behind her sister's chair, which is particularly dicey and unwieldy when she has a stack of dishes and silverware. Also, having everyone put their things in the bin at the table means it arrives sink-side pre-stacked and in a bit of order. And even the toddler can participate.

The photo above is from breakfast. The photo below is from lunch. At least I remembered to put out the bin, sigh.

Running Playlist based on song length

I have a playlist for jogging/running that's just every upbeat song in my iTunes that is between 3:15 and 3:45 minutes long. That way I can use the songs as a general gauge of how long I've been running/walking: about 3:30 per song, give or take a few seconds.

Shareable Grocery List Phone App

My husband and I have been using "AnyList" for the past year or two. It's a free iPhone app where you can make a grocery list and share it and whoever you share with can update the list immediately. So I can text my husband that I'm going to the store, and he can check the list and add anything I've forgotten. 

There are several nice programs that do this; we like some of the features in AnyList. I like that I can make shortcut lists of frequently-bought items, so I can go through that list and tap on the ones I need and they get added to the shared grocery list. I only rarely use the recipe features, but they are very helpful for shopping for a recipe you make regularly.

Chalk Markers for labeling

I use chalk markers to label almost everything - everything stored in glass or plastic. From refrigerated leftovers (shown) to craft supplies (not shown), these "flourescent wet erase" markers are used in almost every room in my house.

Monthly storage of kid art

I have the kids put all their precious creations in a scrapbook storage box labeled with the month. I start a new box each month, and the old box works as an archive. The older box (in the photo, December) gets moved to cheaper real estate (basement, under parent bed, etc) and I have a month to pick through it for a few gems. The rest goes to recycling, and since it's been 6 weeks at that point, I don't worry about a kid coming to me to find some old piece of art.

Sticky-side-out packing tape inside a kitchen cabinet door

Collecting box tops for school is tedious, but I've made my life easier by putting a sticky-side-out length of packing tape in one of my kitchen cabinets. Now I just cut out the box top and stick it to the tape. When I run out of room, I send the tape to school and start a new one.

Companion crafts and activities for your kid's favorite books

Again, maybe I am late to the party on this, but google the title and author of a kid's favorite book along with the keywords "PDF printable" and - oh my! Enrichment! 

I discovered this because it seemed obvious there would be resources for Marceau's "Windblown", but then I fell down the rabbit-hole of other book series. Serieseses. 

If anyone else tries this, I would love for you to share what you found in the comments.

Write down what we had for dinner

I know that the best thing is to plan a week's worth of meals and spend Sunday prepping all the food or whatever, but I rarely plan dinner 24 hours in advance.
I have a bunch of go-to meals, but I worry about having some of them too often, especially the less-healthy ones like mac-n-cheese with peas.

Solution!
I write each meal down (after dinner) so I can keep track of when, and how often, we are having each meal. It also helps me track how often we order out. As you can see in the photo, I'm not specific about the meals; just enough to get the gist of the main course.

An unexpected benefit is that I can use the calendar to come up with the night's meal by seeing what I *haven't* made in a while. It also helps me figure out how old some of the leftovers in our fridge are.

Reuse glass jam jars for nuts and dried fruit

My husband has expensive taste in jam. Or should I say fruit preserves. He buys this fancy, boutiquey brand. It seemed extravagant... until I realized how lovely and useful the jars can be.

The labels come off clean in the dishwasher top rack (without falling apart), and the jars and lids stand up to the dishwasher top rack for repeated washes. The 8oz size is just right for keeping snacks on hand.

We buy our raisins and craisins in bulk, so it's helpful to have a convenient jar to grab for sprinkling on cereal instead of the enormous Costco bag. The rest of the bags of nuts from Trader Joe's go in the freezer, to keep the oils in the nuts fresh, donchaknow.

I like to cut the labels from the bags and stick them on the jar with clear packing tape. The tape can weather a few runs in the dishwasher, but it's not a tragedy to peel it off and start over.

Clementines in glass vases

I think the wood boxes they come in are cute, but vases create vertical storage and take up a smaller countertop footprint.

Treat the whole house like a Target bathroom

Ever notice the back of the bathroom door at Target stores?

They keep a log of when the place was last cleaned. Brilliant! I decided to do that for myself, to keep track of the dates I cleaned, changed, or accomplished various things, by using masking tape and small magnetic dry-erase boards on the inside of the bathroom mirror/cabinet.
PLEASE NOTE: I DON'T ALWAYS REMEMBER TO RECORD EVERYTHING, SO SOME OF THESE DATES ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. For example, I rotated some toys just yesterday.
I admit; this would work much better if I kept up with it more. I'm usually better with it; the holidays got me off my game.

Ziploc divided containers for daycare lunches

I love LOVE these Ziploc containers for making the girls' lunches. They have three separate parts, so it's easy to just check off my mental list:
sandwich
fruit
veggie
dairy

AND the boxes fit in the girls' Skip Hop lunchboxes. I usually stick a Gogurt or a juice box in the lunch box too.

The containers are really cheap and fit in the dishwasher's top rack. If I forget to unpack the girls' lunches all weekend and end up with a Hideous Mold Situation, it's not the end of days to sacrifice a container.

Simple Dresses for Clothing a Three-Year-Old Girl

Does she want to wear leggings? Jeans? Pants? Tights? A cotton dress works with any of those options. My 3yo loves to TWIRL, so the secret there is to only get dresses with drop-waist twirliness; that way she can run, jump, play, climb without it getting in her way. This is her latest everyday dress. I have Gap credit so it's free to me, but for the a few bucks more, you can get 2 similar dresses at Old Navy.

Floss and brush teeth right before a shower

Maybe everyone's been doing this forever, and I'm a little late to the party?
It feels really great to floss and brush before I get in the shower, because when I step out, I feel SUPERCLEAN.
Additionally, I am bad about flossing, so attaching it to an existing routine means I floss regularly.

Velcro detergent cup to the side of the washing machine

A few weeks ago, the measuring cup for the laundry detergent mysteriously disappeared.
My husband joked that we should Velcro the next one to the side of the washing machine, so we don't lose it. I thought that was a brilliant idea.
This only makes sense if you use the same detergent all the time, or have a lot of little Velcro stickers. I put the fuzzy side on the machine and the hook side on the cup, but it probably doesn't matter much which goes on which.

Write the remaining balance on the gift card at checkout

I have lots of gift cards with store credit, and I tend to use them pretty regularly. In order to keep track of how much is left on a card, I often ask the cashier (at the time of purchase) if they have a price-tag-making machine (those little handheld things), and if they can use it to print out a sticker with my remaining balance. That is the best way to get the remaining balance onto your card, because pen wipes off too easily, and marker can be large and forever. The sticker can be peeled off OR you can write a new balance over the old. I usually also write the date of the balance, so I know when a card was last used. Some gift cards lose balance when they aren't used, so you have to be careful about that.

World's Best Cat Litter

I love World's Best Cat Litter; we've been using it since we first got our kitty 5 years ago. It's a clumping litter made of corn, which means that there's no mining issue (if that's something that concerns you). It's flushable, if that interests you, and it's safe to eat, for what that's worth.

What I like about it particularly, though, is that it's quite good at clumping and odor control. We use a litter locker, which means we scoop the clumps, so having scoopable clumps matters.
No matter what litter you use, you're bound to smell a cat's fresh deposit (unless you use an F.O.R.A., like we do), but once the litter has absorbed the material, the scent from the litterbox is a gentler scent than the overbearing perfumes from a Fresh-Step-type litter.

What reminded me of writing this post is that I saw a full-page ad in Entertainment Weekly for a rebate program they have going on right now. Yeah, a cat litter ad in a media periodical IS WEIRD, right? But still, $12.99 back for what I buy anyway. You too; follow this link.