The Posh Space

Eco-Friendly Organizing, Kitchen – Part 2

{From readymade.com}

In honor of Earth Day (April 22nd) this month I am bringing you some eco-friendly ways to organize different areas of your home. We'll look at some ways to organize using recycled containers and how you can make them more stylish.  The picture above from Ready Made is the triple threat of upcycling: it uses recycled material, it is functional, and it is stylish.  Oh and it's unique!  In the picture above Ready Made used 3 1/2" x 36" mailing tubes to create a unique and green wine rack. This is an amazing idea!

{From Frugal Decor Mom.}

Spice jars come in all shapes and sizes.  One way to trick the eye into making things look more organized is to use the same containers in the same colors.  Most people get that look by purchasing a new set of matching spice jars, but you can get that same look by using baby food jars with matching lids.  Lois at Frugal Decor Mom painted the lids with chalk board paint so you can easily label the lids and they look nice and tidy!  What a great idea!

{From Pennies and Blessings.}

Repurpose something you don't use or don't use often like an ice bucket, urn, crock, or champagne bucket into a beautiful place to store cooking utensils.  Love this idea from Pennies and Blessings.

{From Tater Tots and Jello.}

If you are tired of seeing all those plastic bags piled up in a corner of the pantry then try using an old Clorox wipe canisters to keep them tamed.  In the picture above from Tater Tots and Jello they used fabric to cover the canisters but you could also use an adhesive paper or adhesive vinyl.  Hmmm...I wonder what other things we could come up with for those old Chlorox wipe canisters?

{From Non-Obvious Solutions.}

Did you know that uncooked pasta fits perfectly into a Pringles can?  How cool is that!  Just like you saw with the Cholrox container above you can use a little DIY magic to turn an ordinary Pringles can into something with style.  You could even use the adhesive chalk board paper to label your container!

What fun!  This post has me looking at Pringles cans in a new light.  So, what are you inspired to do this Spring?  Leave me a comment, I would love to know!

Happy eco-organizing!

Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes

I love Thanksgiving.  I love everything about it; I love the purpose of Thanksgiving, the food, spending time with family, and the leftovers!  You may love Thanksgiving too, but if you are starting to get the turkey leftover blues don’t fear, I found several recipes that you can use your Thanksgiving leftovers with.  Remember, half your work is already done, you’ve already cooked lots of great food, now let’s see what you can do with it to save time and make something tasty!

Of course the Butterball web-site has several from including one for Cajun Style Red Beans and Rice with Turkey to Turkey Vegetable Soup with Angel Hair Pasta.  On the Food Network site I found 5 Ways to Use Leftover Canned Pumpkin .

Then I struck the leftover goldmine! Serious Eats had tons of recipes for just about every leftover!  Brussels Sprouts, Potato and Turkey Hash with a Poached egg, Cranberry Salsa Salad, AND much more!   The one I will definitely be tying is the Turkey Tortilla Soup from Serious Eats (pictured above)!  We are actually having our second Thanksgiving tonight, just me, my girls and my husband.  So I’m ready to enjoy it all over again, and I can’t wait to make my favorite leftover recipe…Turkey Tacos!

Enjoy!

Forget the Label Maker – Create Stylish Labels

I was at my favorite store, The Container Store the other day and I saw these beautiful felt flower gift tags. Since they were in my favorite color, turquoise blue, I was quickly going through my head trying to figure out what I could do with these. Then like a bolt of lightning it hit me! I was so excited and it was a solution I had been searching for, for months!  So I quickly scooped up four of them and headed straight for my laboratory…I mean home.

Admittedly, I am a bit of a barging shopper. So I have some overflow storage at the top of my pantry for items that are for future use. I have been searching for the right way to label these bins for a while and not having them labeled has lead to some confusion.

The first thing I did was flip the white tag over. You may be able to see in the picture below from the store that the white tag had lines on one side and the back was solid white. Then I added the names/categories to each tag. It looked a little boring so I added the dots around the edge and voila my tag was done! Finally, I attached the tags to the baskets and lined them all up.

The gift tags like the ones I purchased are available for $3.99 or the wine bottle gift tags are $8.99 and come with a thicker “leather” like tag to write on. The fun and fabulous tags are called Flower Tiedings from Twinkle Brands.  They also make a cute butterfly which would be perfect for a kid’s room. Oooh, I’m getting more ideas!  See the before and after pictures below.

Here’s the inspiration!  The flower tag I saw in Container Store.

Here is the before pictures of the basket.

This is a close up of the after!

Here’s the line of my four baskets!  Love to add this bit of fun to our pantry!

Okay, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and let me know what you think.

This Mom’s Tip for Working with Kids in the Kitchen

Funny how these tips are always inspired when my husband is not around. Ha, ha. I am very fortunate that my husband is around most of the time to help with the night-time routine. But there are times when he is not and I have to do it all, like many parents out there who have to do it all on their own every day. So, in these situations I seem to really look for ways to streamline the dinner process without having to resort to take-out.

Here’s my story.
Last night it was me and my girls and it was time to get dinner ready. On the menu was Ravioli Caprese. First time saving tip: We bought a rotisserie chicken the day before and had chicken, sweet potatoes and salad, then used just ½ a cup of the chicken for today’s recipe. It’s a nice way to use one chicken for two dinners. Second time saving tip: we cheat a little with the recipe and use won-ton wrappers instead of making the dough. I found them in the produce section (in the refrigerated section) in my grocery store.

My girls were restless and hungry and they love to help in the kitchen. So I started giving them little things to do (third time saving tip). My youngest was helping to mix the filling for the ravioli; I would add the ingredients and she would dump them into the bowl and mix. My older daughter was gathering ingredients and measuring cups, etc. for the sauce. Then the girls took turns laying out the dough/won-ton wrappers and sealing the ravioli. The girls LOVED it and we were done much quicker than if I would have done it all myself!

Finally, the ravioli’s were almost ready and I really wanted to make a salad but thought that it would take too long to get all our salads together, so ***Bright Idea*** I asked them if they wanted to build their own salad. Of course they screamed “YES!.” So, (fourth time saving tip) I had them get everything out while I finished getting the last raviolis out of the pot. It was so helpful!  You can see their salads on the left and our salad bar in the photo at the top of the page.

My final time saving tip is that when we were all finished eating I asked the girls to put the salad bar away and they did!

So that’s my story…what’s yours? I would love to hear how you are getting your kids involved in your kitchen to help save you a little time. Write a comment below or post to the POSH Space Facebook page.

Happy Cooking!

This Mom’s Kitchen Cleanup Tip

 I must admit, my least favorite chore of them all is washing dishes. I love to cook and I do most nights, but the task of physically washing the dishes (you know the ones that aren’t supposed to go in the dishwasher) and THEN cleaning up the kitchen…it pains me just to think about it.

I’ve tried different things in the past like splitting up the responsibilities of: I would cook and my husband was supposed to clean, but that never worked. Most recently I would wash dishes and clean up the kitchen while the rest of the family got to play outside or the kids were taking a bath. To be honest with you I was getting a little tired of being left out.

So one night it was just me and my girls and of course they wanted to go outside and play so I told them “I can go and play outside but first can you help me do a few things in the kitchen?”. Notice how I did not say “cleaning up the kitchen”. So I would give each of girl different tasks to do while I, sigh, washed the dishes. But I was so happy to be getting help that washing dishes really didn’t seem as bad as it normally does. My seven year old was able to get out some food storage containers to put the leftover chicken and pasta in. So first I just asked her to look at how much pasta was left and to find a container to fit the pasta. Task number two: put the pasta in the container. Task three: bring me the pot so I could wash it. I didn’t really need to repeat the steps for her for the chicken, having been walked through it once she was pretty self sufficient the second go around.

For my four year old, she did things like taking clean cans or bottles to the recycle bin, putting the crouton container back in the pantry, putting dressing in the fridge, bringing dishes to the sink, etc. She was happy as a lark!

What I found to be the keys to being successful at this was keeping each child busy. So don’t list off everything they need to do all at once. The smaller kids will not be able to remember everything and the older children will speed through the tasks and not do a really good job. Keep it simple, one thing at a time. This can be a little tricky when you have multiple children, because you constantly have a child saying “what next mom?”. I would just do a quick scan across the kitchen and see what was out of place or did not belong in the kitchen.

In the end we were all able to go outside and enjoy a nice relaxing swing before bedtime. When we walked back into the house I was amazed at how great the kitchen looked. Look at that, we all got what we wanted!
Do you have a tip to help get your kids involved with kitchen clean up? We would love for you to share it with us! Post a comment below.

Cool Product: Bag Stand

The Bag Stand is an ingeniously simple kitchen organizing product that helps organize your pantry by allowing your plastic bags to stand upright on the shelves.  Not only does this allow you to save space on your shelf, but it prevents spills and makes emptying and refilling these often awkward containers a breeze.

The Bag Stand is easy to use, stays on the bag until it’s empty, and can be re-used on up to 50 bags. How convenient!