Silverware Drawer

One small space at a time, I plan to get my house organized and free of unnecessary clutter! I think I often forget to clean and organize the areas that are hidden, such as the silverware drawer! When I was putting clean dishes away I realized we have WAY to many of those little medicine measuring cups! When I checked our medicine I saw we only had 3 that needed the measuring cups! I had over TEN! I started with that, and threw out all but four, then I lifted the entire silverware container from the drawer. You see that ugly contact paper in the "Before" photo?? I have no idea how long it had been in the drawer...but it was ugly and looked gross! Out it came! I cleaned it down and started putting things back! I put the things we do not use often at the top of the organizer in the "empty" space and sorted the measuring items and things we use often into the free space in the organizer! It might not look like much of a change, but to me it feels like it is one step in the right direction! What drawer will you organize today?

Fruit and Veggie Bath

Do you give your fruits and veggies a bath?? I did not always used to do this...in fact this is the first time I really have! I know bad me! I usually just run everything under the water and call it good...Well now that we are trying to cut back on all the boxed food and add more fruits and veggies in I figured I better get on track with getting them as clean as I can! A few weeks back I saw THIS post over at the Casa de Familia Garcia blog and knew I had everything on hand to wash my fruits and veggies! 

So I filled up my sink with some warm water and added

1 Cup White Vinegar 

       4 drops of ***  Lemon DoTerra essential oils

That's it!

Let it sit for 10 minutes, and then you are finished! When I finished with my fruit and veggie bath I was kind of shocked at how dirty the water was! Never again will I just rinse them off and call it good! Hopefully you wont either! 

Bread Machine Pizza Crust

Do you and your family love Pizza, but hate the cost of it at the store or for the greasy delivery pizza? If you said yes to either of those questions then you have come to the right place! My family loves Pizza, but when we eat the delivery pizza it makes us all feel really sick. After searching high and low for a yummy dough recipe for the crust I found one about a year ago! I am sorry to say I have no idea what site I found it on...if you happen to find this exact recipe please contact me so I can link back to where it came from! 

Things You need:

1 1/4 cups warm water

3 TBSP Olive Oil 

1 TSP Salt

4 Cups Unbleached Flour

2 TSP Active Dry Yeast (bread machine) 

Now I have tested this recipe a few different ways...using different yeast and flours and I think it has come out best with the above types! I use a bread machine on dough cycle to mix everything! You put everything in your machine in the above order...and when you put your flour in make a little bowl at the top of it for the yeast as you do not want it to mix with the wet ingredients! Once I put it in my machine I hit the dough cycle, and for me I let it mix and I check on it to make sure it is forming a nice some what moist dough ball....Once it looks mixed (20 minutes or so later) I stop the machine I and I wrap my dough ball in plastic wrap! 

 

Then toss it in the fridge for 24 hours! You can use this bread right away if you just let the dough cycle complete, however I have found placing it in the fridge for 24 hours to rise give the best crust! 

Then the next day when you are ready to make pizza, your dough ball will be  a lot bigger! Before you begin to roll the dough make it as best as you can into a "ball" shape! You will now need a rolling pin, and some extra flour....Clean your table and toss a little flour on it, slap your dough ball down and put flour on top of it! Now start rolling it out! 

After you roll it out you will want to pick it up and just hold it up a few times to let it stretch out.

 

Once you have it to the size of your pan you will want to get some olive oil and rub it all over!

 

 Now put the Olive oil side down onto the pizza pan! This helps so much once its done baking...if you skip this part it will be a pain to get it up from the pan and then when you have to clean the pan you have a bunch of dough spots to scrub! 

 

 Now make your pizza! I make my own sauce...but you can easily buy some pre-made sauce! Then any topping you and your family like! We buy our cheese and peperoni from Sam's Club and we freeze it for later! It is so much cheaper and you get way more! Once you have all your topping bake it on 350 for 30 Minutes! Cut and enjoy! 

 

TIP: IF YOU LIKE THICK CRUST USE THE FULL DOUGH BALL

IF YOU LIKE THIN CRUST CUT DOUGH BALL IN HALF AND YOU CAN MAKE TWO THIN CRUST PIZZAS

 

It SOLD for how much???

I wanted to share something with all of you...My mom bought this baby monitor for me when I was pregnant with my son in 2005. I used it for a very short amount of time for both my kids, and have realized I really do not  need to save this for the next baby (if there is any more **I HOPE) We really did not use it with my daughter, and I think if I have any more babies I will not request or purchase a baby monitor again. I am never far from my kids...especially when they are newborns! I could not find this exact monitor on any of the regular sites like Walmart or Target...and it was only selling for $20 on eBay. I finally found it selling on overstock.com and it is still selling for $118.99 NEW! I listed it on a Facebook for-sale page and three days later it sold for $50! Do you know how happy I was?? Very happy! Hubby did not think I would get more then $20 and more then once told me to donate or give it away! Well here soon our Tahoe will need new tires...which are not cheap! So I knew I needed to sell a few things and start saving so that the $800 tire purchase would not hurt so much in a few months! I say $50 for a baby monitor I got in 2005 is a great deal! The mom that bought it was expecting baby number 4 and had been looking for a monitor that had a camera and was so happy to have found such a great deal on a "like new" set! The next time you are not sure if you can make a few $ on something, just give it a try! Never know how much someone will pay until you try to sell it!

Organized Travel

Last week I had quite a few post ideas that I wanted to get up on the blog, but was unable to! Last Sunday we were outside working on our yard and we received a phone call from my hubby's dad, and it put us into overdrive mode! My hubby's grandma had passed away that morning :( We had to finish up what we were doing outside and go shopping for funeral clothing. Mean while I was left at home on Monday to pack for 4 people, so we could leave at 5:00 A.M Tuesday Morning! Talk about a lot to deal with in a short amount of time! I had a kitchen full of dirty dishes, tons of laundry on top of trying to pack! All day Monday was spent getting the house as "picked" up as I could while packing for the four of us to leave! I managed to get the kitchen super clean, all our bedding cleaned and the bathroom cleaned! Guess what...it all needs cleaned again! 



 
We were going to be staying at hubby's parents house for the week, and they have one bathroom, and I did not want to have to borrow towels and leave them with extra laundry when we left...So I got an empty container and put 4 towels...and all our bathroom supplies in it! This made it super easy and quick when we got there because we knew where the box needed to go, and we did not have to dig around in a suit case for it! Now this might not work for everyone...but it worked for us! If you have a bigger family you just use a bigger container! We have a Chevy Tahoe, so we had enough room to pack like this, and still have room for us all to sit! This also might not work if you are traveling by plane, bus or train, but if you are driving then it works great! Once we used a towel I took a hanger and hung it up in the closet of the room we were sleeping it so it would dry! The last time we were at their house I did not do this....instead we ended up tossing our towels in the suit case for the next day and they never got dry! 



 

My two year old did great the last time we drove to Texas, she stayed dry the whole way there and back! I knew she would do fine again this time, but just in case I packed her a "Potty box" 
I put all her underwear in with three pairs of clothes and her home made wipes(soon to be on blog). I also went to WalMart and bought her a cheap portable potty, in case we had to pull over for her to go. She ended up not using the potty so I returned it once we got home! I am so glad I packed this box, because on the ride home she got sick in the car, and had we not had this box under her feet we would have had to unload the suitcase to get her clean clothes on the side of the high way! 

You might be wondering how I packed our clothing! Hubby and I shared a big suit case, and the kid shared a small suit case! I put every pair of short/pants with the shirt it went to...that way all we had to do was pull it out and grab a clean pair of undies and socks! Since we did not have much clean clothing on the last day I put all the extra clean clothing into the small suit case, and all the dirty laundry went into the large suit case! This made it so easy when we got home to just take the big suit case to the laundry area and sort it and wash! It was so nice to see everyone, I just hate that it was under such sad circumstances! I had only met my hubby's grandma the one time in November when we went to Texas and even though I had no idea what she was saying to us (she speaks Spanish) She was so nice and welcomed me into her home and life as if she had known me forever! She loved my kids and gave them tons of hugs and kisses and I am so happy that we had the chance to meet her before she passed! I am happy she lived a long 96 years and was able to enjoy being independent and live on her own up until a few weeks prior to her passing! I can only hope to have such a great life and hope other do too!