Quick Tip Tuesday: Washer Wipe Down

I don't know how, but in my weekly cleaning I always seem to miss getting the washer and dryer wiped off. I have figured out a way to remember to do it now though. I keep my dust rags on a rack above the washer and dryer along with the laundry soap, gallon of vinegar, stain remover, etc. So now whenever I have a load of towels that needs washing, I pull out a dust rag and get it wet in the water flowing into the washer and use it to wipe down my washer and dryer. Then all I have to do it toss it into the wash along with all the other dirty towels. Quick and simple and I know that the washer is getting wiped down about once a week!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Chicken for salad

When ever I grill or pan cook whole chicken breasts, I always try to make at least one extra while I am at it. Then I cut it up into chunks or strips and freeze it in snack sized zip top baggies (usually half a chicken breast per baggie.) Then when I want chicken on a salad for lunch or a quick dinner, all I need do is pull out the chicken, rewarm it and I have a yummy topping for my salad. Super easy with out much extra effort!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Now, where are my keys?

How many times have you had everything ready to go, kids loaded in the car, grocery list in hand only to realize that you have no idea where your keys or cell phone are?

My quick tip for today is to find a place for them! Some where you know to put them as soon as you get home and stick to it! I have a certain pocket in my purse just for my keys. When ever I get home, even if my arms are full of groceries and a baby, I know to at least throw my keys on my purse and then tuck them in that pocket later when I have time, or put them there in the first place. My husband hangs his on a hook when he comes in, then they are handy for when he walks out the door each day.

My cell phone can usually be found in the living room as we don't have a house phone. Where in the living room changes through out the day. Some times it is on top of the entertainment center, sometimes on the arm of the couch, sometimes on the end table, some times in the couch and sometimes on the floor (this happens when a certain baby gets a hold of it and it is usually then covered in slobber.) :o)

Maybe your place could be in your purse, on a table in the entry way of your home, on a hook in side the door, on your night stand even. Wherever is easiest for you to remember to put it as soon as you walk in the door!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Greasy Laundry Booster

My husband's work clothes are always quite nasty. He is a screen printer and his clothes are usually covered with ink, tack, glue, sweat and grease. Eww. There isn't much I can do about the ink. It is permanent and that is fine, they are just work clothes. The tack and glue just take some good, hot water. The sweat and grease, well, that is where the "booster" comes in.

My booster... liquid dish soap.

When you do a load of greasy clothes (work clothes, rags, kitchen towels/rags, sheets-for those of us with oily hair, etc.), wash in warm water, use your normal amount of laundry soap, and then add a good squirt of liquid dish soap. Not too much! About 1 to 2 tablespoons should do it. If you add too much, you risk creating too many bubbles for your washer to handle. No one wants a big mess of bubbles to clean up, although it would be quite fun for a while!

The grease fighters in the dish soap cut the grease in your clothes just as well! It is inexpensive as well. Can't beat that!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Easier bread slicing

It is hard to get fresh baked bread sliced thin enough for our liking. If we are planning to eat it warm, slathered in butter or jelly, it's not a big deal. But when it comes to sandwiches, we like it to be as thin or thinner than store bought. So I have discovered how to do just that.

Allow the fresh loaf of bread to cool completely on a wire rack. When it is totally cooled, place into a zip top baggie and the put it into the fridge over night. This "firms" up the bread. Then slice it into your thin slices. The bread is firm enough to slice yet still soft and yummy!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Double batch cookie dough

Next time you whip up a batch of cookies, make double! Roll the extra cookie dough into cookie sized balls, place on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper, and freeze for 24 hours. Place in a zip top bag labeled with the type of cookie they are and the bake time and temperature. Cookies that work great for this are...

• Peanut butter (roll in the sugar before freezing)
• Chocolate chip
• Short breads
• Sugar
• Snicker doodles (roll in cinnamon/sugar before freezing)
• Chocolate white chocolate chip (pictured above)

When it comes time to bake the cookie: Take out how ever many you want, place on a lightly greased cookie sheet (unless the recipe calls for it not to be greased,) allow to thaw for about 20 minutes and bake like normal! *You may have to increase the bake time by a minute or two. Bake for normal time and then check for doneness.*

This also allows couples or families with just a few children not to have to bake an entire batch of cookies. Instead, you can make up the whole batch and only bake what you need right then. We usually bake 4 to 6 cookies at a time. This also makes for a great last minute dessert when unexpected company arrives for dinner!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Hand Soap Plus

Do you ever have greasy hands from cooking that your regular hand soap just doesn't have enough umph to get clean but you don't want to loose the softness and nice smell that it gives you in exchange for using your dish soap to get them clean? Well, there is a solution!

In my regular hand soap pump, I keep a mix of 1/2 hand soap and 1/2 dish soap for scrubbing my dirty kitchen hands. You get the power and grease fighting of the dish soap and the smell and softness of the hand soap all in one! Just pour about equal parts of each into the soap bottle, replace the pump and shake for a minute or so.

This mix also works great on my husband's hands after he has been working on the cars!

Quick Tip Tuesday: What's in the fridge?

How many times have you dug into the fridge to find something to snack on or to hunt for the tub of butter or just to clean it out and found a bowl of mystery food growing in a long forgotten corner? Or wanted some leftover that you thought was in there but now you can't find it?

No one wants to find fur developing in their fridge because they forgot they had put some leftover casserole in there! So, one way to solve this problem is to keep a running leftover list on your fridge. Below is a picture of ours. We use a very small dry erase board (we got ours free from the Realtor when we moved into our current rental but I have also gotten them from a baby expo, a competition my husband was in during high school, and I've seen them at Goodwill and Wal*Mart.) You can also just use a piece of paper stuck to the fridge!

Any time you put a new leftover in there, add it to the list. When you use something up, mark it off or erase it. Mine is fairly simple (unless I have been doing a lot of cooking and have lots of leftovers.) You can also do like my Mom does and write the date of when the item was put into the fridge so you know when it needs to be used up. You could also put how many (approximately) portions are left.

There has been more than once that I have used a leftover side dish for dinner the next day, saving me from making a whole other side dish. It is quick, easy and saves you from digging for that little container of beef stew that you think is in there when really it was eaten by your hubby at 2 in the morning the night before. :o)

Quick Tip Tuesday: A (less) sticky situation

Next time you have a recipe that calls for honey use this quick tip to save you some frustration.

Spray the inside of the measuring cup or spoon that you are going to be using with a good layer of cooking spray. Or just rub it down good with some oil on your finger. Instead of sticking to the spoon like the last bits of honey usually does, it will run right on out! Saving you the trouble of having to scrape and scrape to get those last good drops out.

Quick Tip Tuesday: I lost my car! Again!

Do you ever wish you could GPS your cars location in a parking lot? Maybe they just need to have grocery store valets?

Well, until the day this happens (not guessing it never will but hey, we can hope) here is a tip to help you locate your car in the vast sea of cars that look just like yours.

When you park, get out your grocery list and write on the top of it where you parked. The isle number, about how far back, if you were next to a cart corral, what side of the store you entered (if there is more than one entrance) ect. That way, when you are done shopping, just refer to the top of you list to know where you need to go.

Also, try to park next to a cart corral. This will majorly narrow down your hunt and makes things so much easier when you have a little one. You can place them, your purse, the diaper bag and still have a free hand to lock up the car and go.

Quick Tip Tuesday: Kerchief Tie

Mother/daughter hankerchiefs. Ok, so her's is actually a cloth napkin. :o)

I wear hankerchiefs a lot! At least a few days a week. They keep my hair out of my face and keep certian little hands from pulling the little hairs at the back of my neck quite so bad. :o)

So my tip for today is on tying the kerchief. Whenever I knot one on, the knot at the back of my neck often gives me a head ache. (I get frequent tension headaches.) And if at any point in the day I need to tighten the knot, it is a real pain.

So my solution is to instead tie it with a rubber hair tie or small rubber band. Pull the kerchief tight on your head and then twist it around the two tails till tight. Slip on your head and then if at any point during the day it needs tightened, simply pull gently on the two tails (much like you would to tighten a pony tail.)

This keeps it tight without having the big bump/knot at the base of the neck.

Quick Tip Tuesday: Veggie Soup from leftovers

Have you ever had just a few spoon fulls of left over vegetables and just didn't know what to do with them? Not enough for a leftover portion but you'd really hate to just throw it away. I really don't like throwing any food away! My husband works hard to earn the money to pay for that food.

So, instead of feeding it to the garbage disposal or landfill, how about making another yummy meal from it?

I keep a medium sized bowl with a tight fitting lid in the freezer. Anytime I have left over veggies that are just not enough to keep, I dump them in the bowl. That last scoop of green beans, corn, peas, carrots, potatoes (even mashed), broccoli, and so many more.

You can also put in cut up left over meat like chicken, pork, or beef. Even ground meat works. Those few bites of hamburger that your kiddo couldn't finish, brake them up and add it in. Bits of meat left on the whole chicken you cooked. That last chunk of steak that didn't get eaten. Cut them up and add them in.

When the bowl is full, thaw it out in the fridge, add it to some tomato juice with any seasonings you like and you have a yummy meal! Serve with fresh, warm bread for dipping and you are set!

This also doubles as a Frugal Tip as you are saving yourself money by not throwing away all those little bits of leftovers. Can you beat that? Frugal and tasty!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Organizing your purse

How often do you find yourself digging though your purse trying to find that one thing that you need. Maybe it is a nail file, a bottle of head ache pills, or your planner.

When I switched my purse over to the one that matches my little one's diaper bag, I majorly downsized. I have always been a big purse kinda person. I like having everything I need on hand. But I knew I needed to get more organized if I wanted to still have all those things in a smaller bag.

So, I did just that and it has saved me many a minute searching for something lost in the bottom of my bag. This is how I do it...

Zip top bags are a wonderful way to keep your things grouped together in a certain category. In my purse I have three quart size zip top baggies.

Baggie #1: Medical

• pill bottle with various types of meds (make sure you know what they all are!)
• a little thing of band aids
• baby powder
• a little container of antacids
• travel sized tube of tooth paste
• hand sanitizer
• tissues

Baggie #2: Non-medical/cosmetic

• lotion
• lip gloss/ chap stick
• mirror
• mini stapler ( yes, I carry a stapler and yes, I have used it before!) :o)
• nail clippers and file

Baggie #3: Personals (sorry guys)

• feminine hygiene products
• nursing pads

I also carry a sandwich sized bag containing a disposable diaper, a few wet wipes and a trial packet of diaper rash cream so I know that if I happen to accidentally leave the diaper bag at home or in the car, I can still do a diaper change if I need to. Each of the above bags also contains wet wipes as you never know when you may need one.

Try to use the freezer type baggies as they are sturdier and won't fall apart at the seams like the regular ones can do sometimes in your purse. Please understand that my purse is never perfect! What you see in the picture is not always what you get! I try to go through my purse on a fairly regular basis to pull out things like crumpled receipts, use tissues, old grocery lists and just random things that I throw in there throughout the day. The other day I cleaned it out while waiting at the dealership for our vehicle to get fixed. I have done it in the doctors waiting room, while on the 2 hour ride home from visiting family and while the baby was taking a nap.

You can also apply this method to your diaper bag. Things like a change of clothes, blanket, and an extra hat can go in a gallon sized bag together. That way they are dry, clean and folded nicely the next time someone has a blow-out. :o) Yeah, I've had to use this bag before!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Making french toast

I have been making french toast for years. We love the stuff around here! For years now, I have had one major problem with it though. When ever I mix together the egg, milk, vanilla and cinnamon, the cinnamon "runs" to the outside of the bowl and then doesn't get onto the bread. The other day I stumbled onto a solution for this.
Crack your egg into the bowl then mix in the cinnamon before adding anything else. After that is well whisked together, then add in the vanilla and milk.
The gooeyness (it's a word! in my dictionary at least) of the egg coats the cinnamon and allows to to not clump up so bad. Thus helping it to evenly spread though out the mixture. This gives each slice of bread a good coating of egg and cinnamon. Yum!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Hard brown sugar

I don't tend to use a lot of brown sugar. Infact, it probably takes me 6 months to go though one bag of it. Unfortunatly that means that a lot of times, my brown sugar "dries" out and gets hard. I never knew what to do about this till I saw my Mom open her brown sugar container one day. I saw something in with the sugar. When I asked her what it was, I was supprise to find out it was a piece of bread.
Her sugar had gotten hard and so she put a piece of fresh bread in with it. But when she took the bread out a couple days later, the sugar was once again soft and the bread was hard and stale. The moisture goes out of the bread and into the sugar. So instead of throwing out a whole bag of hard brown sugar, you just throw out one piece of bread. This works with home made bread, white, wheat, or any other type you can come up with.
It also works for hard cookies. Place one to two slices of fresh bread in a sealed container or plastic bag with cookies that have gotten a little over baked or have sat out and gotten hard. Makes for soft, chewy cookies! Yum!

Quick Tip Tuesday: Grocery List

How many times have you gotten home from the grocery store only to realize that you have forgotten something like peanut butter, ketchup or honey?

Or while at the grocery store you just knew there was something else you were out of at home but for the life of you, you can't remember what it was.

This is why I keep a running grocery list on my refrigerator. It is a simple, time saving list that will save you many a head ache!

Keep a scrap piece of paper on the fridge with one of those lovely magnets you have and a pen handy. When you use the last of the peanut butter, or when you see that the ketchup is almost gone, write it on the list!

This works for other things as well. Deodorant, shampoo, cat food, toilet paper. I keep one list for the grocery store and one for my favoite super store.

Another tip to go along with the list. If you need deodorant, put a "-" and then your name, or even just the first letter in your name. For example...

deodorant-v
shampoo-z + v
cereal-z

This way you know who needs it if you and your spouse/child use a different brand.

And if your good, you can even get your hubby to use the list! :o)

Quick Tip Tuesday: A clean shower every time

This is an easy tip that can save you a good bit of time. Keep a sponge and your shower cleaner in the bathroom. When it comes time to take a shower, pull out the cleaning supplies and take them in with you. While your shampoo or conditioner is "setting" give the shower a good scrub! Do this about once a week and you will always have a nice, clean shower!

Quick Tip Tuesday: 15 minute Power Clean

Ever have a big pile of clutter in one room that belongs in another room?

Or maybe you are like me and your coffee table is a jumbled of odds and ins.

This is where the 15 minute power clean comes in handy.

Get out your trusty laundry basket, go into the living room and pick up all the items that don't belong there. Next, go into the kitchen, take out all the items that are in the basket that belong in the kitchen and put those up. Then pick up any items that are in the kitchen that don't belong there. Continue this patter through the house, till everything has been put in it's proper room. I swear, this only takes me maybe 15 mintues! And it is actually a little fun! Hurrying through the house, spotting items, digging through the basket to make sure you found everything. Kinda like a Mommy scavenger hunt. :o) Ok, so maybe all the cleaning supply fumes and vinegar is getting to me, but hey, I'll take fun where I can get it!