Keeping Fresh Ginger

Yesterday I did my victory lap of "everyone is better and we're back to our routine"! It feels so good.

I also shared the recipe for Tom Kha Gai soup and mentioned that it is easy to keep the main ingredients on hand. If you've ever purchased fresh ginger and had it go bad fairly quickly, you may be wondering about my statement about keeping it on hand. 

Wonder no more, my friends! Here's how to always have fresh ginger. (You want to always have fresh ginger. It is so yummy!)

This is a small knob of fresh ginger. It's all that I had left before deciding to take these pictures.

Scrape the skin off with the edge of a spoon. Can you see the flesh?

Place a piece of plastic wrap on the counter or draped over a container and grate the ginger finely. I don't have a microplane grater and this works just as well for me. The idea is that you want to keep the pulp and the juices.

Roll up the plastic wrap, smooshing all the pulp and juices together into a cylinder. Twist the ends, place in a plastic bag and freeze.

Now you have fresh ginger all the time, just cut off however much you need.

At a loss for what you might use fresh ginger in? 

Try this Citrus Ginger smoothie. 

For supper try Chicken and Vegetable Lo Mein (It calls for shiitake mushrooms but I use regular mushrooms). 

I'll stop now. What about you? What do you love to use fresh ginger in? 

Meal Planning

Recently a friend asked me if I planned meals and I was happy to enthusiastically tell her I did. I relayed this story to her:

I was sitting at the counter one evening either working painfully slowly or lamenting about working on it or procrastinating altogether about my meal planning when it occurred to me that this should not be an issue in my life. I have been cooking/baking/providing meals every day for 18+ years. Sitting here with this kind of attitude wasn't doing me any good. That thought cut all my excuses to the quick and I decided to put a stop to it once and for all. 

So here are the tools I use and how I meal plan.

First off, figure out what to have for supper tonight. Make sure that is taken care of. I mean, stop reading this right now and go figure it out if you have to. This idea is from FlyLady.

Second, print off the Dinner Menu from Paperworks or assemble some writing material for planning for about a month.

Third, look at your activity calendar. Its important to note what days you might need specific meals or types of meals. Since Thursday is both basketball practice and speech, having Parmesan Chicken Strips that I hand bread isn't going to work. I want a casserole that can be ready to go or reheated once the late stragglers come in. 

Fourth, start writing in meals. Write specifically and as much as you need. Don't think you will remember where that recipe is located when you get to it two weeks later- example: honey glazed pork chops/Nourished app, etc. Go about it any way you want but write it out and do it fast. Fill in as many meals as you can right then. Later you can fill in the blanks. Don't over think it. You can do this!

My rating system: a star means definitely make again, a bullet points means maybe, an x means never again (and I get rid of the recipe)

Fifth, assemble your shopping list. Use whatever you want for that. On a very rare occasion do I write out my shopping list. When I do, its because I'm planning something bigger, like family coming for an extended stay with many meals or my brain just isn't clicking and I've got to write it out. However, I always use ZipList for my final go to the store list.

I'm quite excited about ZipList! 
It's an app that functions as a recipe box and a grocery list maker (You can also add other lists, too.) so you have it with you always.
It's a recipe clipper that you can tag and organize. This is an online function in which it will capture the recipe on the webpage you are on, make the ingredient list for you and allows you to decide what you need to purchase.
These two functions sync between each other.

Confused? Don't be. Go to Ziplist.com, create an account and add the recipe clipper to your toolbar (like the Pin It button for Pinterest). Also download the free app to your smartphone and get those synced. Now visit a webpage with a recipe you want to make. Hit the Recipe Clipper button and a box should pop up with the recipe in it and usually (but not always) a picture. From there you can tag the recipe- chicken, oven baked, etc.- whatever tags you want to use. Or add the recipe to the calendar feature it has if you want.) Or add ingredients to your shopping list. It will split out what you might need and what you might already have but no matter you can add what you need from whichever list.
Clipping the recipe allows a couple of things to happen more easily. You have not only the ingredient list/shopping list with you, you also have the recipe with you. I've found this to be handy on several occasions when traveling or when I need refreshing with how that recipe is made. Also, with the tags you can pull up, say, only crock-pot recipes for better meal planning. 

Sixth, go shopping. Sometimes I will shop for only a week's worth of meals at a time, sometimes I will shop for meals for everything I have planned. (I almost never plan an entire month at a time.) I generally go to the grocery store once a week because of fresh produce since that is always gone first and I only have so much fridge space for it.

This isn't a post on how to save money on groceries. It's how to plan for feeding yourself or your family every day and not let it stress you. Sort of like my training plans where I don't want to think, I just want to run and get it done, it's the same with meals. I can't let it consume more of my time and energy then it should. 

A few last tips

• Make sure to plan "normal food" at least once a week. "Normal food" is Ben's way of saying "Please make regular spaghetti and not only Mexican Beef with Spaghetti Squash." My kids are good sports and I think stretching their taste buds is a good thing but I have more willing kids when I keep "normal food" in regular rotation.
• Clean out your fridge. Starting with the condiments and only one shelf at a time, take them all out. First check the expiration date. Toss if it's past. {gross} Wipe the shelf out and put the rest back. Keep the jellies together, the salad dressings together, etc. Do the same for the main compartment. Unless it's a leftover that you will eat for lunch or that is supper tonight- toss it! Wipe the shelf off and move on. Top to bottom. Set a timer for 15 minutes and see what you can get done. 
• Do the same for your freezer. Wrap properly and label it well. Toss unkept/unmarked/freezer burned/suspicious looking items. I did this last week and it took me less than a half hour total even though I split up the fridge and freezer work into two separate times. 
• Make a list of what is in your freezer and meal plan off of those items. If you know what you have then you'll use it. It's also budget friendly.
• Do the same for your pantry/cabinet items sometime. (Do fridge/freezer first)
• "It's leftover night, honey. What do you want? We've got steak, chicken, pasta…" The Incredibles movie is maybe my favorite Pixar movie. Leftovers. First off, make sure you leave a meal for them- maybe Sunday night or Saturday lunch or even lunch the next day. Then make the leftovers consumer friendly. Store them properly. In containers. With lids. And labels. Eat them (within a week or less) or toss them. Nothing gets pushed to the back of the fridge without you knowing it. Plan for them. Make a giant pot roast for a meal then shred the meat for something else you plan to eat in the next day or so or freeze it (add it to the freezer list).  

I'm obviously a list/planner girl. I really can't imagine how some function without either. Even so, I have to let that not overrun me. The point isn't the planning and the lists. The point is caring for my family. You can do this!

Alrighty, I'm wordy and bossy today. I don't mean to be. Now it's your turn. What works for meal planning for you? And, what are you eating tonight?

Paperworks Months and Weeks

Sorry I totally disappeared on you for a couple of days. I didn't mean to but it happens. 

Last time we met, I shared with you the planning system, Paperworks, I use by Emily at JDC. Starting today, I'll show you how I use it.

Right off, I print the monthly calendar. I pull up the family icalendar and jot down general things. No times unless its something very specific I should remember. I need the activity of writing to help me feel in touch with the month. (A total aside note: Writing was one way I helped my students learn their music. I told them I wanted as many senses involved as possible. If I could have made their music scratch and sniff, I would have.) It may look like overkill to have a digital calendar and a paper calendar and for some it is but this is what works for me.

Then I print out the weekly calendar. This is where I plan out more details. Basketball practice at 6. Overnight kids on Tuesday. Clean out fridge on Wednesday. 5 miles on Monday. It all gets put down here. I use the bottom portion for notes and goals. Sure, I've got this in my Wunderlist app (the productivity app I'm currently using, free version) but it helps me breakdown my week. 

I love the Wunderlist app because it's where I collect my thoughts and to-do's and always have it with me. However because of that very reason, it tends to collect my to-do's and gets very overwhelming. The paper week by week, keeps me focused. I don't have to look from this thing to that thing and get distracted (as much). Tuesday is a 4 mile tempo run and in the kitchen I need to wipe down the cabinets. I want simple and clean and get it done kind of mentality. (This is also why I like training plans and house-cleaning plans. More on those pending another post.)

I try to get my planning done on Sunday. It feels right to do it then. Then they go in a 3-ring binder which I can grab and cross off when completed. When the week is done, I transfer anything I need to and then throw it away. (There is a day planner page in the new planning system but I won't be using it.) There is plenty I don't write in. I don't write in personal Bible study time. I don't write in "read 15 minutes to the boys". I can't write it all in; it would feel to stifled and regimented. 

It would be very easy to focus just on the to-dos and the cross-it-offs and the like. That's my kind of personality. It takes work for me to balance it all out. I was directed somehow to this post by Ashley Ann about how she makes it all work out. She would first tell you it doesn't always all work out. (And my friends, I think we need to comes to terms with that. For real. There will be some unchecked tasks.) After I read her four goals for each week, I have started trying to incorporate them into each week. In case you don't hop over to her post, here is what she says: "Each week I give myself one goal in the following areas: Home Organization, Project completion, Something for Someone else, Each Kid." Ashley Ann from Under the Sycamore blog

 I'm an extremist and I'll go uber-tight or completely lacksadaisical. I need to infuse grace into this Martha mentality of mine, be it Martha of the Martha and Mary duo or Martha Stewart. At the same time, I don't think Jesus for once dismissed Martha's work. She just happened to miss the mark in one particular instance (that gets recorded for all time in Scripture). It's just that when Jesus happens to be reclining at your home and your sis is soaking Him all up, you can't exactly get Jesus to bend to your will because you tattled on her. This may be earth-shaking news only to me but people are people, not projects. 

I'm all over the place it seems but I'm still in process of figuring it out. Does this make sense to anyone else? I'd love to here from you. What encouragement do you have for me, for us? What's working for you? Here's how Emily uses portions of her Paperworks.

School Papers

You know I couldn’t go much longer without showing you how I organize something else. Here’s what I’ve found for organizing those school papers.

Find these at, um, Staples. Probably Office Depot, too, but there isn’t one nearby where I live. I’d suggest buying the next size bigger since construction paper projects fit better.

Each kid gets one per year. Here, I have Luke starting with 2005, when he was born and ended up marking it all the way to Summer, 2010. Then his preschool box says: Luke, Preschool, 2010-2011.

Don’t forget to mark on each paper person, age, etc. When I come across something I want to save, it just slips in the box.

Done. Easy.

Unclog Your Drains

I’ve been noticing our shower drain has been draining much slower lately and decided I needed to take a look at it. I unscrewed the drain cover and found myself face to face with the most disgusting goo I have ever seen. I did not take a picture. Do clogged shower drains ever happen to anyone else?

I grabbed my Queen of Clean book and here’s what she said to do: Pour 1 cup salt (any salt, I used rock salt because I had a cups worth) and 1 cup baking soda (I buy it at Sam’s because baking soda is a great cleaner) into the clogged drain. Then follow it with a kettle full of boiling water.

I did and it worked!! It loosened up the nasty stuff to the point where I could pull the mass out. I did the whole thing again because I wanted to make sure the drain was clear. She doesn’t say to do it again, but after seeing what I saw, I wasn’t going to stop until I knew the whole thing was working 100%.

For regular maintenance of drains, she suggests pouring a handful of baking soda followed by a 1/4 c. vinegar into them once a month. I suppose you could add a few drops food coloring and let the kids have homemade volcanoes! It’s non-toxic and cheap!

Here’s another little clogged drain story. When we were first married, Bill and I managed apartments. The owner had this little duplex that a couple of foreign guys had rented out for a while. They call us to say their kitchen sink is clogged. Bill calls Roto-Rooter, who comes over to snake the pipe. The Roto-Rooter guy calls Bill back and announces that they’ve struck oil, in the bathtub!! Eew! They had been pouring all their cooking grease down the sink!

Now that I’ve left you with that nasty image, go unclog some drains!

 

More Organization

While I was taking pictures of the cabinets, I decided to take pictures of my kitchen drawers.

Bill’s cabinet clients come to our home for the design process and our cabinets are his models. Bill consistently hears comments about how organized my cabinets are. So here’s how I do it.

I went through one drawer at a time and pulled everything out (and cleaned the crumbs out, too). Then I really evaluated exactly what I used. If I used it all the time, I kept it. If I only used in once in a while, I put that in a different pile to decide on later. If I never used it, I got rid of it. A sample of what I got rid of: spatulas of various sizes and flexibilities that I NEVER used. I have been cooking and baking for Bill and I for almost 16 years. I know what I use! So, toss it.- it’s not worth the space and ease of accessibility.

I have really big drawers and I don’t like it when things slide around (no matter what the drawer size). I had seen these great drawer organizers in Target (kitchen section). I liked the fact that 1) they were stylish (not white plastic), 2) they were big for those large utensils 3) they had various sizes to be consistent in the whole kitchen. So I just purchased a bunch and got to it.

This is all I have! I don’t have another box or drawer or any other place holding my kitchen stuff. Strike that- I do have a utensil container holding my most used spatulas and wooden spoons and a knife block, both on the counter and I have another drawer with some miscellaneous items such as my rolling pin and kitchen scale.

How this really works for me is that I don’t like a lot of gadgets in my kitchen. I don’t have a garlic press or a quick chop Pampered Chef thing because if I’m chopping garlic, chances are I’m chopping something else that neither of those two items can do. I have a knife and a cutting board. This system also helps the kids (and Bill) find and put away things more easily.

In the “junk drawer” I don’t have junk. Those two round containers are from World Market and hold rubber bands and paper clips. Nothing else gets put in there. Pens and pencils are on the counter in something else. But again, all the pens work, all the pencils are sharpened. I get rid of it if it doesn’t work.

I stay on top of it all, but it’s not hard to do. When Bill’s client come, I want them to see his cabinets for how great and functional they are, not for the junk inside of them. I don’t worry about the insides. I mostly work on wiping off the gunk on the outside that has been encrusted by 1 – 4 children.  

Socks for Oil

I was going to entitle this post "Do you think this sock makes my butt look big?", but decided it was too long. And weird. I mean, weirder than normal, maybe.


Pressing on... I don't remember where I got this tip but it's a handy one.
I cut the toe off a stranded sock, depending on the size of the oil bottle and slide it over the bottle. It catches all the little drips that seep down the side after you get done pouring. 

I've done this to all my oil bottles and also my oil spray and it's kept my shelving much cleaner.

Unstick Your Lipstick

So, ever wash a whole load of jeans with a tube of lipstick? And the lid came off? And it got all over the jeans? Yeah? So whad'ya do?

Well, just in case that hasn't happened to you YET, here's what you can do.

1. DON'T DRY THEM

2. go through various Pastor Tom type prayers (i.e.- thank you, God for teens, jeans, for washing machines, for running water, for the job that provides the money that you've really given ultimately in case I need to replace any of the above, except the teens)

3. grab your teen and their afflicted clothes and your husband's WD-40 and get to work. Spray WD-40 on the lipstick spots, work in a little, let set 10 minutes, then wash out.

4. wash again, if needed

I know, I know! Here again is another one of Mindy's far-fetching ideas (i.e. Hellman's Best for your lice, which needs an update by the way), but hear me out. This is not my idea! It is The Queen of Clean's and her ideas work. And the lipstick did come out of the jeans!! 

I discovered The Queen of Clean one day on a trip to Border's when I was looking for a book on how to clean those problem areas. I bought a general cleaning book and a laundry book. They both had fantastic ideas that work and most of her cleaning product suggestions are easy, cheap and not too weird.

Here, also, is the link to WD-40. Weird, amazing stuff. 

Happy, lipstick-free laundry!

Lord of the Lice

So, I didn't plan on writing again about the whole lice issue. It's been at least a week and I've been silent on here. That's because lice are persistent little buggars and until you cannot see one tiny speck of their eggs (nits) anywhere on your child's head, you are not in the clear. Seriously.
Somehow I was missing this point. I was lead to believe that if I used the special shampoo as directed, then applied the gel as directed before combing through the hair, as directed, the lice would be RID of. Yes, well perhaps the first indicator that this was going to be a long haul was finding many live lice still after the said killing shampoo immediately, 1 day later, 2 days later and still 10 days later. Or the fact that the box didn't say you must pick out every single tiny stubborn nit or they can hatch and lay up to 8 eggs themselves a day- but they weren't supposed to hatch. The gel was supposed to kill them.
So here's the dealio. If lice enter your household by whatever manner, you will be bound to your home, your child's head, your washing machine and your vacuum cleaner until they are gone. You must wash all of the infected person's clothes and bedding in hot water and dry on hot temperature. You must sack up in plastic bags all stuffed animals and non-washable items and store away (preferably someplace hot like the garage in the summertime) for two weeks. Take their comforter to the dry cleaners and tell them about the lice. Back to the bedding: you should wash it every day. EVERY DAY!!!

Now, let's get to the hair. Boys- easy- shave 'em. Not my preferred look for them but it takes care of the issue pretty quick. (The boys didn't have it, though, thankfully.) Girl- easy- shave 'em. Hah! Okay, you could if all parties agreed, but since that is highly unlikely, follow along.
1. Call your mom. Most likely, you or a sibling had it growing up so she knows all about it and is a sympathetic ear. It's part of mom-hood and someone should tell you about it before you decide to have babies.
2. Call your sisters and tell them. They need to know. They have stories and then they'll quarantine all the nieces and nephews until you wave a white flag.
3. Go to Sally's Beauty Supply or whatever beauty supply place you live near. Buy some tea tree oil shampoo, plastic cape, shower caps and a lice/nit comb. Make sure it has metal teeth- NOT PLASTIC!
4. Go to your local grocery store and buy some real mayonnaise (not miracle whip) and some vinegar.

When you get home comb through girly girl's hair with a fine toothed comb to smooth out. If you happen to catch any live lice in the teeth of the comb, wipe them into a paper towel or toilet paper and put in a sandwich baggie. They can hop around pretty quickly and don't squish to death very easily, so you want to trap them. Then start with the mayonnaise and coat thickly every single strand and bit of hair with mayo. Truly. Barabara at Sally's says the cholesterol kills them (lice having heart attacks- funny!). Who knows? But the mayo traps them and suffocates them. Leave this on for a good while. We left it on overnight for Audrey. That's why you need the shower cap. In the morning, rinse the hair with vinegar. The vinegar is breaking down the shell of the nits so basically they die. Rinse it really well with vinegar. Believe me, you do not want to do this more than once, so don't hold back. Rinse everything out as best as you can with water. Then start with the tea tree shampoo. This shampoo has some sort of essences that the lice do not like, so they are repelled by it. I had Audrey wash her hair with the shampoo two times but she still smelled a little salad-y when I was combing through her hair.
Now grab that lice comb with the metal teeth. It is VERY FINE. If there are any tangles whatsoever in the hair, you will have tears galore, so make sure again, you can comb through it easily before you start. Start at the base of the neck and near the ears. Lice hid and lay their super-glued eggs near the scalp. In small sections comb through all the hair, removing anything from the comb with paper towels and pinning aside gone through hair. If you see any nits, remove them with the comb, your fingernail or even snipping it out with scissors (but not too many snips). Hopefully you will not see any live ones. If you do, bag 'em. Wet hair is easier to comb through, dry hair is easier to see the nits. Once you are done, have them shampoo up again. Check everyday, removing any nits you see. I combed through quite a bit with the nit comb since it pulled them out very well and also dug up any live ones. If you do see live ones, you are going to have to check on it a bit longer.

Sorry to bore you with the details, but this has been my last week. Consumed by lice. But God again is teaching me things through it. Like the chance for Audrey and I to be together. Sure, we wouldn't choose this as our all time favorite thing to do, but it still has put us together and has given us the chance to practice patience and long-suffering with each other. Plus we watched some fun movies, like The Music Man. (You need to be prepared with some entertainment for them as combing through her hair took at least 2 hours every time.) And also, I am VERY THANKFUL for a washer and dryer. I ran that thing night and day. Anything you kid touches with her hair has the chance to become infected and then spread to another family member. So you should wash it. You may seriously contemplate locking them in their room and sliding toast under the door for meals until the whole ordeal is over with!

I know the treatment is weird. And you may not want potato salad for a while. But the other alternative is harsh chemicals. I tried that and it didn't work and the little plastic comb that came didn't work either. I felt a little scammed. Maybe it will work for you. It isn't the end of the world, like in my previous post, I thought it was.
The end will be when the ants and fruit flies completely take over the house. (I do not know what is the deal with the pests this summer!)


My mom found the mayo/vinegar combo at this site and it helped the most.