Thursday, December 6, 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Monday, November 26, 2012

Monday, September 24, 2012

Easy slow cooker chicken and Wild Rice recipe

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Easy slow cooker chicken and Wild Rice recipe


Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 6 hours

Total time: 6 hours 10 mins

Serves: 4

This is a very easy yet yummy and creamy chicken and wild rice soup. Recipe adapted from Landlakes website

Ingredients


  • 1 lb of boneless skinless chicken

  • 5 Cups of chicken stock or broth

  • 1 small onion chopped

  • 1/2 Cup of carrots cut or shredded

  • 1/2 Cup of uncooked Wild rice

  • 1 Cup of kale

  • 1 Cup of sour cream

  • 1/3 Cup of flour

  • Salt and pepper to taste


Instructions



  1. Put everything except the flour, Kale, and sour cream in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours.

  2. Fifteen minutes before serving, take out the chicken and lay it on a cutting board.

  3. Add the kale to the slow cooker. Shred the chicken or cut into cubes and put it back in the slow cooker.

  4. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream and flour. If the slow cooker was set on low, set it on high and add the sour cream and flour mixture. Stir and let it cook for another 5-10 minutes.

  5. Serve warm with some bread or corn bread or by itself in small bowls.





Friday, March 9, 2012

How To Watch Your Favorite Shows without paying for cable

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Today, I am guest posting at Family Friendly Frugality about how you can watch your favorite TV shows without shelling out a lot of money on cable.

Here is a snippet of the guest post:

A few months ago we made the tough decision to cancel cable, but it was one of the best decisions we ever made. We were not big tv watchers during the day, but at night we did enjoy watching some shows, and managed to keep the news on as background noise, yet somehow the thought of not having cable TV was difficult to accept.

As it turns out, after we finally took the plunge, made the dreaded call, and cancelled, we don't miss cable TV much at all. In fact, it was one of the better decisions we have made, to "de-clutter" our lives.
So if you would like to save over $1000/year, head over HERE to read more about the many ways you can do to watch your shows for free or cheap .

 

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Pantry Organization: Part 3

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It seems like every few months I find myself reorganizing the pantry. This time around, I wanted to make it more "colorful" so I bought some colorful budget-friendly baskets I found at Target (it seems like I am always at that store :) to make the pantry more bright and organized.

The flour, rice, and pasta are stored in clear plastic containers.



I used baskets to store snacks, salmon pouches,condiments, oil etc...

I also store medicine, lightbulbs, batteries, and crafts in the pantry. Baskets and shoe boxes are great for storage.

There are many products out there to organize the pantry. Baskets are always the most budget friendly to keep everything contained. Lazy susans are also a great way to store oil, spices, etc...

Check out my tips on how to organize the pantry. Also, Andrea at organized living recently wrote a great post on how to organize and stock the pantry.

Are you having a hard time organizing your pantry? What's the biggest challenge that's keeping you from organizing the pantry?

 

Monday, February 27, 2012

How to organize under the kitchen sink

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A few months ago, the water started leaking from under the kitchen sink. It was a complete mess and has been ever since. I stashed everything from cleaning products to paint material and buckets to sponges and fish food and .... Well, it just seemed like I stashed everything underneath the kitchen sink. It was a complete disaster.

As I was searching through pinterest a while ago, I came upon a picture of an organized under-the-sink cabinet. That was enough to convince me to stop putting off organizing under the sink and start clearing that mess as soon as possible.



I went to Target and bought a couple of baskets ($1 each), command hooks, a plastic grocery bag holder ($2.50) and some wrapping paper ($1) then stopped by Home depot to get a tension rod ($3).

Here is what I did to clear that disgusting mess (it was absolutely horrific, I couldn't get myself to take a picture of the before)



  • Clear everything from underneath the sink and put it on the kitchen island.

  • Discard any product you don't need and empty bottles and containers.

  • Clean the surface of the cabinet then lay out the wrapping paper.




  • Adjust the tension rod to fit underneath the sink then hang the cleaning bottles

  • Mount the 3M hooks to the cabinet doors (3 total each for duster, dustpan and broom set, and towel) and the grocery bag holder.




  • Hang the gloves on the tension rod using a clip




  • Put the rest of the supplies in baskets and place them underneath the sink. I placed bleach and the oven cleaner in the far back and the dishwasher detergent, floor cleaners in the front.  I also used a sliding cabinet rack to store sponges and plastic bags box.


And the final result is:



This post has been linked to orgjunkie

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Kitchen tip: How to Clean The exterior of Your Kitchen Cabinet

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If you have white kitchen cabinets then you are probably in a love-hate relationship with your kitchen. I love my white kitchen but I hate how easy the cabinets get and look dirty. Fortunately, cleaning the exterior of the kitchen cabinets is not that hard and will take no more than 15 minutes to get them all clean and shiny again.

if you have painted, laminate, or vinyl cabinets:

You need:

Dish Soap

Warm Water

Double sided Dish sponge

Towel

Fill up the sink halfway with warm water and add about 2-3 TBSPs of dish soap. Wet your sponge with the soap-water mixture and squeeze out excess water. Using the scrubber side of the sponge, scrub lightly over your cabinets then wipe with the towel.

If you have wooden cabinets:

You need:

Commercial Wood cleaner or Vinegar and Olive Oil

A kitchen rag and Paper towels

Make a mixture of your wood cleaner with warm water according to the product instructions or put a splash of vinegar in your kitchen sink that has been filled with warm water halfway through.

To clean your wood cabinets, wipe the cabinets with a towel that has been lightly wet with the woodcleaner-water mixture or water-vinegar mixture.

If you used the vinegar-water mixture to clean your cabinets, wait until your cabinets are dry then damp a paper towel with a little bit of olive oil and wipe your cabinets in a circular motion to get them shiny again.

Monday, February 20, 2012

My world Tour Part 2: Seafood Paella

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Click Here if you missed Part 1 of my Culinary World Tour.

I was born and raised in Morocco and one of my vivid and happiest childhood memories was when we traveled to the North of Morocco for vacation.

Northern Morocco is highly influenced by the spanish given the proximity to Spain and the decades of Spanish protectorate. So one of the most memorable moments was when we passed by a city called "Laraish" to devour the succulent heavenly seafood paella. So for my part 2, I am travelling down my childhood memory lane and recreating the paella.

 



There are three types of Paella; the traditional Valencian paella, Seafood Paella, and mixed paella. Traditionally, the Paella is cooked in a Paella Pan but you can use any pan or skillet (like I did) to make it.

Just with pretty much every recipe, I can't help it but tweak it to make it my own :) . The traditional paella recipe from Spain uses Arborio rice. I decided to twist the recipe a bit and use my favorite aromatic rice " Basmati Rice". I also couldn't find safran at the local stores so I substituted the turmeric for the safran. The result was a meal to die for.









Seafood Paella


Ingredients


  • 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed

  • 1 TBSP of Vinegar or Lemon Juice + 2 TBSP of Lemon Juice

  • 1 tablespoon paprika

  • salt and black pepper to taste

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • 2 bay leaves

  • 2 Cups of Basmati or Arborio Rice

  • 4 cups of chicken stock

  • 1 Spanish or white onion, chopped

  • 1 tsp of Turmeric or 1/4 tsp of saffron threads

  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped

  • 1 tomato, chopped in small cubes

  • 1 pound of mixed seafood (scallops, mussels, medium sized peeled and deveined shrimp)

  • 1/4 pound of Jumbo shrimp

  • 1 TBSP of chopped Parsley


Instructions



  1. In a bowl, mix together the paprika, 1 TBSP of lemon juice or vinegar and salt and pepper. Add chicken pieces to coat and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

  2. In a large skillet or a paella pan, Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat then add the marinated chicken. Once chicken is cooked, add the chopped garlic, onions, and red peppers. Cook for about 3 minutes then add the rice. Mix well until the rice is coated with oil then add the seafood except for the Jumbo shrimp. Stir in salt and pepper, Saffron threads (or turmeric), bay leaf, tomatoes, chicken stock, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20 minutes.

  3. Once the rice is almost cooked (about 10 minutes), add the jumbo shrimp and parsley. Cover for about 5 more minutes or until the shrimp is cooked through (it curls up and turns pink).

  4. Serve.






 

 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

How to Organize Your spice cabinet

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A disorganized spice cabinet equals a stressful cooking time. To start enjoying cooking and experimenting with many spices, you need to keep your spices organized and easy to reach to smooth the cooking process and to make it more enjoyable. And besides, how many times did you have to run to the store to get the spice you need while it was right in your kitchen hidden behind your spices? Thankfully, the process to organizing your spice cabinet/drawer is easy enough. With all the spice organizers on the market, this might be just your easiest organizing project yet.

Step 1: Choose the right spice organizer

Note: You can purchase any of the spice organizer below from Amazon by clicking on the name in Bold.

A tiered spice organizer:

This is the one that I currently use. They are inexpensive and keep the spices together. I keep the spices that I use the most in the front with duplicates in the second tier and the third tier holds all the occasionally-used spices.



Compact Spice Organizer:

This one is by far my most favorite and may end up right in my cabinet in the near future. It has drawers that fold down making it easier to retrieve the spices you need.

Spice Organizer Rack:

This one is very convenient with easy access and a good view to the spices. It can be mounted to the cabinet door or pantry or on the wall. You can keep the cabinet door open for an easy reach while you are cooking.

Expand-a-drawer spice organizer

If you prefer to store your spices in a drawer then the expand-a-drawer organizer might be just what you need to get them organized. You can easily view the spices when you open the drawer.

Note: You need to take measurement of your drawer before you buy this product to ensure that it doesn't slide back and forth.



Other options:

You can also use a two tier lazy susan to store the pieces or the rotating spice organizer. A pull out spice rack cabinet is also great if you have space in the kitchen. Or you can make your own magnetic board and buy some small spice jars. Kristie, at addicted 2 decorating, has a great DIY magnetic spice board.



Step 2: Declutter and organize

Once you decide on the new (or old) home for your spices and get a spice organizer that would fit best, you need to clear out your current spice cabinet and start decluttering.

  • Toss anything that's too old. No need to keep a spice that will not add any flavor to your cooking.

  • Decide on how you would like to arrange them. I sort mine by how many uses, duplicates, occasionally-used. You can also sort them by baking spices and cooking spices or go the super-organizer-way and alphabetize them.

  • Store them


Personally, I like to have the spices at hand's reach when I am cooking so I keep my spices in the kitchen cabinet on the upper right of the stove. I am currently using an inexpensive three-tiered organizer but I am thinking about another alternative to storing spices in the near future as I am trying out more spices in my new world tour adventure. Whatever method you decide to organize your spices is more personal than a one way method. What matters is that your spices are easier to reach from your usual point of use and are easier to find. An organized spice cabinet might just be what you need to become a foodie and a culinary expert :)

Do you have any other way or storage method that you use to keep your spices organized? I would love if you can share it in the comment area.

 

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

My world Tour Part 1 (Well, sort of :)

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While this is definitely not the time (and I sure can not afford) to go on a world tour, I thought it might be possible to bring the world to my home. So one of my 2012 resolutions was to try to recreate a meal from a different country at least once a month to get a taste of different cultures without leaving the comfort of my own house.

I started this adventure by making a Turkish Breakfast.

If you watch the Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" then you have certainly seen the episode on Istanbul and most likely found yourself drooling over the delicious turkish food.



Turkish Breakfast consists of tea or coffee, Butter, Jam, Honey, Turkish black olives, bread, scrambled Eggs “menemen” with Turkish sausage; sujuk ( pictured below), tomatoes, and cucumbers. I am glad that I started my world tour with a turkish breakfast. It was definitely one of the best breakfasts I ever had.

Below is my own version of the recipe of turkish eggs and sausage called "Sujuklu Menemenn".



Sujuklu Menemen Recipe:









My world Tour Part 1 (Well, sort of :)


Recipe Type: Breakfast

Prep time: 2 mins

Cook time: 6 mins

Total time: 8 mins

Serves: 3 people

Ingredients


  • 4 eggs

  • 1/2 a cup of Sujuk sliced (Skin removed)

  • 1/2 green or red pepper cut in small cubes

  • 1 small tomato cubed

  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped (optional)

  • olive oil

  • 1/4 tsp cumin (optional)

  • Salt and Pepper to taste


Instructions



  1. In a skillet, heat the olive oil and add the chopped garlic cloves and the peppers. Cook for about 2 minutes on medium-high heat. Then add the sujuk, tomatoes, cumin, salt and pepper.

  2. Meanwhile, mix the eggs in a bowl and pour over the pepper/sujuk mixture. Keep stirring until the eggs are done. Serve Warm with bread and Feta Cheese






Monday, January 9, 2012

Easy Breakfast: Baby Dutch Recipe

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I love this quick and easy breakfast recipe; it became our new go-to breakfast. We add some chocolate Nutella and berries for an easy healthy breakfast.









Easy Breakfast: Baby Dutch Recipe


Prep time: 2 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 27 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients


  • 2 tablespoons butter

  • 2 large eggs

  • 3 Tbsps of sugar

  • 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 cup milk

  • 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

  • 1/2 tsp of salt


Instructions



  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

  2. Place the butter in an oven dish (I use a round glass dish) and place in the oven. Meanwhile, add eggs, flour, sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla extract in the blender then blend for about 30 seconds. Pour the batter in your oven dish with the melted butter then bake about 25 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown.







All you have to do in put all the ingredients in the blender then bake in the oven then serve.

Friday, December 2, 2011

How to Organize Your Way to a Balanced life Part 3

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In part 2 of the series, we talked about time wasters. If you have successfully identified and eliminated your time wasters, the next step is to find and set your priorities and roles, write down your goals, and chart your progress to become more productive and efficient with your time.

1) Set your priorities: Differentiating what's important from what is not (First things First).

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." 
- -Stephen Covey

The key to balance in life is finding what our priorities are and centering our lives around them. We need to streamline our lives by eliminating the unnecessary, and setting our priorities straight.

Whenever I think of priorities, I get reminded of Stephen Covey’s four Quadrants from his book “The seven habits of highly effective people”.

Mr. Covey categorizes tasks (or priorities) into four quadrants:

QI - Important and Urgent: This quadrant includes urgent activities that you just can’t ignore, like crisis, projects with deadlines, crying baby etc.

QII - Important but Not Urgent: : This quadrant includes planning and working on your goals, exercising, strengthening relationships, etc.

QIII - Not Important but Urgent : This quadrant includes distractions like phone calls

QIV - Not Important and Not Urgent : An example is time wasters.

The highly effective people are the ones that spend more time and effort on the second quadrant (Important but not urgent). Ask yourself “ What can I do today that will make a positive difference in my life tomorrow?”



"Organize one's values in the order of their worth."Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

When setting your priorities, keep the big picture in mind and review your priorities as often as you can. Life changes with time and so will your priorities so learn to stay flexible.



2) Identify your roles:



Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them. Thomas Kinkade  (setting priorities and focusing on what matters.)





We all have roles as individuals, and those roles can vary from being a family member, spouse, parent, child, to your role at work or in your community. Sometimes we put too much time and effort into one role, and we neglect the other roles. Identify your roles and make your goals aligned with these roles.

3) Write down your goals:



"People with goals succeed because they know where they're going." Earl Nightingale



After you define your priorities and roles, you need to make a plan for your goals. Goals are like a journey to a destination. If you don’t know where you are heading and don’t make a plan on how to get there, you will be lost aimlessly and forever. To become an achiever, you need to write down your goals and start measuring your progress.

"Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.'

Jim Rohn



Most of us have goals that we would like to accomplish. Some can be as small as organizing your pantry or as big as getting a PhD. But no matter what your goals are, if you don’t write them down, they will be hard to attain.

The importance of writing down your goals:

A study done at the Dominican University by Dr. Gail Matthews about goal achievement revealed that people who wrote down their goals and shared them with a loved one were 33% more likely to achieve their goals than those who did not. Writing down your goals takes your thoughts and dreams to a new and higher level. They become concrete and a commitment to yourself; I found that to be true even with daily to-do tasks. If I don’t write them down, I go about my whole day feeling a heavy weight on my shoulder and I become irritated not knowing what I need to do first. When you don’t write down your goals and tasks, you start feeling like you have many things to accomplish, yet no time to get them done. It becomes a mental overload. To break down this mental overload, you need to write down your goals. Writing down your goals frees up your mind “to think about things rather than of things”.

In the book “Getting Things Done”, David Allen; a time management guru, outlines a process for accomplishing tasks in 5 steps:

1)  Define the purpose

2)  Envision the outcome: Begin with the end in mind.

3)  Brainstorm: How can you get from here to there?

4)  Organize: Sort and prioritize

5)  Identify the next action

You need to decide what you want to do or get accomplished (your goal) then figure out what you need to do to achieve that goal.

Goals can be short term (one month or less) or long term goals (6 months or more).

Long term goals: Any goal that takes 6 months or longer to accomplish is a long-term goal. They are the most important and meaningful goals. But given that they are usually far in the future we tend to feel overwhelmed and unable to focus and get them done. That’s where you need short-term goals. You need to be able to break down your long-term goals into short-term goals. Take baby steps, don’t attempt to take one giant leap at a time.

I recently signed up to run a half marathon. I have never even ran a 5K before so it might not seem as a big deal to some of you but to me it is. A half marathon entails running/walking 13.4 miles. It would be very unrealistic of me to get up tomorrow and try to run the 13.1 miles. So I break down this goal into mini goals. Each week, one of my weekly goals is to run 1 mile longer than in the previous week.

Short-term goals:

Daily “To-Do-List”: List three important tasks everyday and a few small ones then focus on getting the first three on your list done before you move on to the small ones. Your most important daily task is a task that will move you closer to your weekly goal. If you start a new task before you get the previous one done, you will lose focus and become overwhelmed.

Procrastination:

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

― Mark Twain



I am usually a procrastinator. I keep on thinking that I just need to sit down, have a plan of attack, and get myself in the “right mood” to accomplish that unpleasant task that I am dreading. Well, that merely translates to a big to-do list with many things that keep on getting pushed back because I just can’t find “the perfect moment”. Yep, perfectionism. Didn’t I mention that it was a life leech. What helps with procrastination is focusing on those unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning; if you start by eating a frog then everything else will seem like a cakewalk. When I get my most dreaded task done first thing in the morning, the rest of my day go way smoother and calmer and I feel like I just climbed a mountain (well, sort of :)).

So to start your day and finish it feeling more productive, you need to:

  1. Write down your to-do-list every day and prioritize: I usually do that the night before, with three important tasks at the most with one task that will get you closer to your goal.

  2. Start with one task and get it done before you move on to the next task on your list. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. Do not multitask. When we try to multitask, our attention is pulled in different directions then we lose focus and become unproductive.

  3. If you are a procrastinator, start with your most dreaded or hardest task first.


“The hardest thing about being productive is not the work, but the split second it takes to decide to take control.” David Allen

 

About Me

I am a mother to two beautiful girls and a wife to an amazing man. I work as an engineer and love everything organizing, cooking, and personal finance, which is why I decided to have this blog to share what I have learned. XOXO Nisrine isavvymom1@gmail.com

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