Pantry for One, Anyone?

I recently wrote a guest post for lonelygourmet.com. However, it was so great I decided to post it here also. AND GUESS WHAT? The post was so great I was invited to their radio show Foodie Fridays on Friday May 14th at 7 pm EST. So join in :)

For while now I have been talking to Laurie (aka @lonelygourmet) on Twitter. We have something in common. Most of the time we are both cooking for one. Laurie gives great advice via Twitter and her web site for singles cooking for themselves.

Like Laurie, I have gotten TIRED and SICK of going out to eat and microwaving frozen meals. I have started to cook more often and testing out recipes. However, I feel like I am never prepared; I don’t know what basics I should have in my pantry. The other day, I finally asked Laurie what she would recommend that I stock my pantry with!

Here is what she gave me (that I slightly changed it to fit my needs):
 
Laurie’s List:   

•    Flour               
•    Sugar
•    Oatmeal
•    Rice
•    Cereal
•    Spaghetti/noodles
•    Chips
•    Cat/dog food
•    Coffee/tea
•    Miscellaneous pre-mixed seasoning packets (taco seasoning, gravy packet, etc)

Spices:
•    Minced onions
•    Garlic
•    Salt
•    Pepper
•    Italian Seasoning
•    Poultry Seasoning
•    Pumpkin Pie Spice 

I then decided to give Laurie some advice about how one would go about organizing all these supplies in their pantry! The first step is to put those supplies that come in awkward bags in canisters – Modular Canisters that take up less room in your pantry. Also, LABEL!!! Baking soda and baking powder look very similar so pull out a Sharpie or label maker and label (with expiration date).

 Next is group like items together on your shelves. I have all my baking supplies on one shelf (high up because I do not bake as often as I cook), all my tea and coffee together (lower shelf because I use these everyday and it’s easy to reach), all my chips/snacks together, etc.

 

If you have wire shelves in your pantry like me, here is a suggestion. Your spices and packets probably fall over and tumble between the wires. I put the packets into an extra Modular Canister I had with the lid off and the spices into a TakeAlongs container I had (lid off on this one too). That way they do not topple over. Plus with my spices, I can grab them all at once and use what I need without multiple trips to the pantry. 

        

        
Now with my pantry stocked and organized I am ready to cook more often! What tips do you have for pantry necessities and organization?                                                  

Modular Canisters Make Me Happy

I recently re-did my "baking cabinet" because we had new and improved modular canisters launch! 

The current situation was okay but not optimal:
Pros #1: Decent space
Con #1:  I couldn't see what was in the back.  For instance, I had to take down the front small canisters to reach the big flour and sugar ones in the back (which just so happen to be commonly used). 
Con #2:  The jumbling on the bottom wasn't well organized.  I have glass front cabinets so I like it to be a little neater than this.  Also, the Crystal Light containers kept tumbling out.

Since the new modular canisters launched, I'd been wanting to try them out.  My process was:

Step #1:  I took everything in the middle out.  
Step #2:  I put the ingredients in new modular canisters
Step #3:  I took the Crystal Light out of its package, and put it in the little pull out drawer.  For more on the drawer, see my previous post on how much I love these too.

And...ta-da!  Big improvement!  The new canisters are short but deep, so I can see ALL my ingredients now.  I started putting little food storage containers on top of them as well for the  ingredients I have only small quantities of. :

 

I also labeled them with my Dymo label maker.  That step was helpful so that I could tell things apart.  For instance, the Troyer's pancake mix looks the same as the wheat flour.  The cornstarch looks similar to the powdered sugar. This helps me quickly grab what I need to bake.

Overall, I am impressed with the design of the new canisters and how they helped me organize baking supplies.

Sam's Favorite Organization Tip

With all this recent influx of organization knowledge and expertise-exposure, I know you're wondering to yourself just WHAT ARE my favorite organization tips. (surely you are, right?) So I thought I'd share a couple of them that have already had an immediate impact on my life:

 Move stuff that is task-specific closer to the action.

Jon and I have two adorable dogs. Whenever we feed them, its always a pain because we store the huge container of dog food in the kitchen pantry, yet we feed them in the living room. Every pet meal time, its a "who's turn is it this time?" to feed the dogs. After hearing that particular tip, I got a Rubbermaid commercial food storage bin and commandeered it for dog food. It its neatly into a storage area near the where we feed the dogs. 


 
Simple enough idea, move the food where the bowls are, yet, it has REALLY made a difference. Small organization changes that take into account HOW you live your life are the way to go. It made a chore into something easy and (almost) fun.

Pantry Sorrows - Part One

I really like where I live. The only thing that consistently drives me crazy is - THE PANTRY!

My roommates and I have a small kitchen but the pantry is actually a pretty good size. There's just some things that need to change.

1. The shelving is ridiculous! Things keep falling through the wires and falling over. Oh why contractors do you put wire shelving in a pantry?

This is a picture of bottles falling through the wires!

2. There's a pipe that sticks out in the pantry. The means in the middle of one shelf (my shelf to be exact) the shelving is cut out and you can't use a good portion of the shelf.

3. There's no rhyme or reason for what goes where (okay there is a small bit but not enough).

Random food stacked together

All the shelves - I have to confess the bottom (and the worst shelf) is mine :(

We are planning a full gutting out of the pantry and a fresh start. However, I do not know where to go after we rip out the shelves. All I know is we need a place for the dog food and recyclables bag. Any suggestions or words of advice?

Being Organized to be a Grocery Deal Hunter

I recently found out that September is National Coupon Month.   What a reason to celebrate!  Those who know me realize I LOVE coupons and deals. So, in honor of this holiday, I dedicate today's post.

My love for grocery coupons started about 5 years ago when I started working on advertising for Rubbermaid and was learning how to plan and drop coupons in the Sunday newspaper for our food storage [Fun Fact - Officially, those are called FSIs - Free Standing Inserts].   So, I started to get the paper and look at it on Sunday to learn more about it, and soon became addicted to looking for myself!  It is now something I look forward to on Sundays - a good cup of coffee and my newspaper!

Just last night, I went to my local Harris Teeter and saved $27 on a $47 purchase.  So, I only paid $20 for my groceries.

I know there are a lot of experts out there (check out Jill Cataldo, she is my new favorite), but wanted to share my personal tips and tricks for how I stay organized to be a grocery deal hunter. 

1) ORGANIZE WHEN YOU CLIP

I have found this helps me to refrain from buying items I don't need.  For instance, I recently had to throw out 3 cartons of broth I had bought with coupons.  However, in the summer, not making soups, they expired and I ended up losing money by being overly coupon zealous.

Above is a photo of my organizer which is sorted:

a) By store. 

The front is for grocery. 

The back is for Target items like toiletries and cleaning supplies that are most efficiently bought at Target.   Even with tripling, Harris Teeter can be more expensive than the every day Target price on these items.  Every time I am going to Target, I take a look to see if I need anything that is in that section soon.

b) By Type of Purchase

Triple Coupons - Within grocery, there is a section for items to only buy when there are triple coupons at Harris Teeter.  For instance, I do not use mayonaise daily. But I sometimes use it for recipes. If there is a $.75 coupon (worth $2.25 on triple coupon times) and mayonaise costs $1.89, I will save it to get it for free in case I need it.

Everyday Shopping - There is also a section by area of the store - so when I plan my shopping list, I can quickly see if I have coupons

2) UTILIZE ONLINE SITES

A few of my favorites are SmartSource and Coupons.com for which you can sign up for weekly emails.  I like it being delivered to me because then I don't have to plan to take time to look for the savings.

3) ALIGN YOUR MEALS WITH STORE SPECIALS

I am so impressed with Harris Teeter.  They have an eVic program that you can sign up for weekly.  Every Wednesday, I receive an email with the items I frequently buy that are on sale and also what is on sale in the entire store.  It also alerts you if it is Triple Coupon Week.  I spend 5 minutes to plan my shopping and meals for the week.  I look for:

a) Things I already buy and have no preference on switching.  For instance, I eat fruit daily and yogurt for breakfast every morning.  When shopping, I switch between blueberries / strawberries / grapes as well as yogurt brands depending on the deal that week.

b) BOGOs.  For instance, this week, London Broil and Turkey Burgers are Buy One Get One Free.  So, I plan to incorporate those into my meals this weekend.

I hope you find my tips beneficial.  Please leave comments with any additional tips you may have for Organizing Coupons and Savings.

Solving Space issues with Slide Out Baskets

 

About two weeks ago, I did a blog post about Slide & Stack baskets and how many versatile ways they could be used to help organize throughout the house.  Similarly, I thought I would share how the Under Shelf Basket works in many areas in my house.

 

 

The Under Shelf Basket clamps down to wooden or solid surface shelves and allows you to take advantage of “dead space”.

Here are four ways I have used them:

 

 

 

 

Please post any creative ideas you can think of beyond what I have listed by Tuesday, May 26th at 1pm EST for the Under Shelf Baskets.  Shannon who works on the Kitchen Products team will judge the best creative idea and we'll send the winner a case of Slide Out Baskets to get organized! 

Spring Cleaning with Slide & Stack

We have an item in our kitchen product portfolio called Slide & Stack.  Every time we switch our color offering, they do a giveaway of the outdated colors in our office.  Over the years, I have collected a ton of these, and I was joking with our product manager, Alissa, that I had one in every room in the house!  

I would say the most unusual use would be in the freezer.  To save money, I buy chicken in bulk and put them in individual freezer baggies so I can save them for later use. I was frustrated with them always tumbling out of the freezer, so the Slide & Stack has helped keep them in order!

Just wanted to share the ways I have used it in my house case it can help with your Spring Cleaning challenges. 

I'd love to help one of you out - leave a post below about why you need a few of these Slide & Stacks.  Alissa, our product manager, will guest judge these on Monday 4/27 @ 1pm and we'll select a winner to win a case for their Spring Cleaning!

Pantry Organization - Label It & Stay Organized

A while back I decided to organize my pantry. One of the things I didn't do when I originally completed the project was to label my containers. Just last weekend I finished labeling all of the containers in my pantry.

It only took five minutes but it will save me a ton of grief. Look at the photo above. If those canisters weren't labeled how would I know what was in them? White flour doesn't really look different from bread flour.

Anyway, label, label, label. You'll be glad you did.

Small Kitchen, Big Storage

My kitchen is very small. I'd say about 2 people at a time can be in there. Space is very limited and I have to make every square inch work for me. Fortunately, my cabinets reach all the way up to the ceiling, giving me lots of room to play with.

The storage space (that is too high for me to reach without a step stool) ends up getting filled with large serving bowls, small coolers, light bulbs & utility items, vases, etc. This works out very well for me since the rest of the house has virtually NO storage space. So, I guess the smallest room in the house ends up being the most space efficient!

Since I don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen (I'm getting better though), my food and cooking utensils don't take up that much space. Since my roommate moved out, I really only take up two shelves with dry food. Don't be alarmed - it takes time to build back your pantry after a huge "clean out".

If I'm going to only allow for 2 shelves of food I must keep this valuable real estate organized. Armed with Dymo label maker and a plethora of food storage containers, I went to work. First step was to take everything out and put it under "review". Can I throw it away? If it's a keeper, does it need to be in a better looking or better sealed container?

I decided the flour needed to be transfered. But it ended up on the floor. Did you know that when you have a flour accident, everything within 5 feet gets blanketed?

After I dug myself out of that small detour, I managed to get everything transfered and labeled correctly. I filled things such as flour and pasta in Double Airtight Sealed Canisters. I put other items such as packets of tea and hot chocolate inside Premier containers.

I know the labeling will help me out a TON with remembering how old my food is. I'm the queen of letting things sit until they go bad! Plus, I really like how it looks in my pantry. There's something about a well organized pantry that makes me want to use my kitchen more! I know exactly what I have, I know that's fresh and I know where it is!

Now that makes me want to cook! I'll let you know how my next dish turns out. Grilled cheese anyone?

Labels are your best friend when organizing

A few weekends ago I completed my pantry organization project. If you read the post you'll see I was very satisfied with the results. My pantry was 300% better than it was before.

However I made a mistake. I forgot to label some of my canisters. Specifically the large canister where I store flour. You ask, how could that be a mistake. Well... I know the canister has flour but I don't know what type. Is it white flour, wheat flour, bread flour...  I just don't know (Actually I know it's not white flour but I'm not sure if it's wheat or bread flour).  Nor do I know how old it is.  I also don't know what type of beans are in the other canisters although I bet my wife knows.

Many of the canister I used I kept the original label inside of the canister. This way I know exactly what is in it.  I should have done this with the flour.

So, learn from my mistake. Be sure to either label your canisters or tear off the original label and store it inside the canister.