Storing Plastic Food Containers

How you doing? You ready for Christmas? I am seriously trying to get in the spirit this year. For whatever reason I haven't been feeling it but I'm trying to do more things that are Christmas themed in preparation for Christmas to spiritually arrive. We have a lot of family celebrations during the month of December and this year especially I've felt a sense of overwhelming stress at times. I still haven't done my Christmas cards. I addressed envelopes in June and July and already purchased stamps but just haven't gotten it together with the cards. Hopefully they will arrive today or tomorrow so I can get them out!

 

Anyway, I think I'll be there in the next couple of days. So with the stress I've been feeling this poor blog has practically been abandoned for the entire month of December. I've had other projects that have also been put on the back burner. I hope you bear with me even through my lulls!

 

One simple little thing I've finally gotten to a great point of organization is all the food storage containers in the kitchen. For years I have been so bad just throwing them in a low cabinet and fumbling around when it comes time to put food in one. Well I finally, FINALLY made  a place to put them and I'm happy with that. It is one of those silly things that probably drove my spouse nuts but now I can say we feel relief! My system is in an upper cabinet on a shelf above our plastic cups. I use IKEA containers and they stack pretty well, lids on bottom. I was able to fit all of them on one shelf and simply placed some behind these if there wasn't quite enough room.

 

My new storage stacking system has seriously simplified things! How's that for simple, silly, organization?!?! Hope you have a wonderful Monday and if you are traveling this week, may you have safe and happy travels! Peace out!  

 

Organizing Food

Can you believe it is Thursday? This week has flown by. Really the whole summer is scooting on pretty fast. I would love it if summer would just slow down some though, it's my favorite time of year!

 

So here is a little organizational tip from our pantry to yours. You might think I was a little nutty by numbering cereal boxes but one of my pet peeves is people in our house opening two of the same thing before one thing is completely gone. It just bugs me.  

 

For example, someone opens a box of cereal of Rice Krispies. They eat one bowl and next thing you know, a second box is open too. I used to store alternate boxes of items up high so we would know not to do that. With the numbering system, it's just unnecessary! We do this with Milk in the fridge too. I usually buy 3-4 gallons at a time. I buy in bulk but we don't want all of them open at once so numbering has nixed that problem all together. The family has been on board for quite some time with this. 

 

So I number them 1 to 2 or 3 or 4 and we know what order to use something until it's gone, then go to the next. Try it! You might like it!  

 

Am I Going Bananas?

I think I might be! he he. So I did my bi-weekly trip for groceries this morning after church and I'm stocked up again on food. We love bananas and go through them in this house but sometimes not fast enough because a couple will go bad from time to time. This afternoon I came up with an idea to help them keep longer and give me a little more room on the kitchen counters. I will say that I am not much of a gadget keeper so I didn't want to buy a banana hanging thingy. I have read that it's best to hang "nanners" up to lengthen their shelf life and I had a 3M hook in a drawer just waiting to be used. Yeah boyeeeeee!

I wouldn't dare poke a hole in our tile back splash so hanging this sticky 3M hook is pretty safe. Plus if the hubs notices it and thinks I have gone totally bananas, I can still take it down!

Do you have a special way to keep bananas or any other food for that matter?

Did Somebody Say Dessert??? Quick and Easy Dessert!

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream For ICE CREAM SANDWICHES, and just in time for Labor Day cookouts! How's everybody hanging on this holiday weekend? I've been working on some home projects that I'll share soon but thought this dessert recipe might be appropriate for a weekend dessert! Sometimes you just have to take time away from decorating to eat dessert! 

This dessert is a quickie and I made it last night for a cookout. If you like whip cream and ice cream sandwiches, your sweet tooth will enjoy this!

Ingredients

24-ice cream sandwiches

1-large container of whipped topping

chocolate syrup

caramel syrup

nuts - optional

Using a large rectangular pan put down one layer of ice cream sandwiches. 

You may have to break one or two to fit them all.

Spread half the whipped cream over the layer. You'll cover more than I did. I accidentally used a small container of whipped cream and had to go back to the store for another one. 

After you spread the whipped topping, you can put a little chocolate and caramel.

Layer the rest of the ice cream sandwiches.

Cover with whipped cream and put some chocolate syrup and caramel.

You could do cute designs with it too but I wanted to make this quick and easy! Yum! If you make it, let me know how it turns out! I'd love to hear or hear how you might modify yours!