Welcome to another episode of A to B Podcast! We are chatting about our new summer challenge and an innocent question leads us into a quick meals brainstorming session.
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A to B Podcast (minus B) Out and About
I had the chance to be interviewed on Laurie Palau’s podcast, This Organized Life Episode 76. Unfortunately, Bethany wasn’t able to join because she was busy teaching her kinders. We had the chance to interview Laurie on A to B Podcast in episode 39 so it was fun to be on the other side of the microphone.
You can listen to Episode 76 of This Organized Life on iTunes or on your favorite podcasting app (mine is Pocket Casts) or stream it directly from Laurie’s site, Simply B Organized.
Monthly Challenge: Photo Organizing Here We Come!
We had the pleasure of interviewing Molly Bullard a professional photo organizer based in Seattle in Episode 41 Organizing your Photos. She gave us so many practical steps to organize our photos but sadly those tasks have moved to the bottom of the to-do list or for some of us haven’t made it on our list at all!
Well, we are determined to change that. For this month’s challenge, maybe even for the whole summer, we are focusing on getting our photos organized based on Molly’s advice.
One of her suggestions is to decide what “done looks like for you” before you start organizing your photos. This is such a great advice because photos can be such a huge task and can easily become a never ending project with always more to-do!
So Bethany and I are choosing what done looks like for our photos and focusing on one small task every other week to move us closer to our done. For me, I am finishing the layout for my 2016 family photo book (Yes, I said 2016!). Bethany is sharing her 2017-2018 classroom photos with her kinder families via dropbox (in episode 41 Molly goes into detail about sharing photos).
For this challenge, start with 10 focused minutes on your photos and see how far you get. Set your timer and dive in. For larger project like this, we often drag our feet, but once you get stated the project usually doesn’t feel as daunting.
We’d love to hear what your done looks like. You can share your progress with us below in the comments or on social media. Use the hashtags #AtoBpodcast. What are you going to conquer today?
What do You Do With All Those Spices?
Our conversation today goes into an unintended area but hey, we roll with it, and as it seems I have a lot of opinions about easy meals.
This all started when Bethany asked what would we ask Martha Stewart? Hmm, I can honestly say I have never thought about that, especially since you can search for whatever you need on Google.
However, Bethany is curious about Miss Martha’s take on spices? I think Bethany might be overthinking it just a bit and it is just as simple as use what you like to taste.
An article from Real Simple explains my point of view, you really only need a few spices, especially if you are just learning your way around the kitchen. (However, I would swap out the cayenne pepper and the red pepper flakes in this list, since I’m not a huge fan of spicy, for smoked paprika. Mmm.)
And if you are curious, Martha Stewart’s site also has a list of 9 spices every cook needs. They do include paprika, thank goodness, but they also recommend using whole spices and grinding them yourself. I am sure it tastes better but who has the time to do that! Is the increased favor really worth the time it takes to grind your own spices? Not in my book.
Also on Martha’s list is allspice and cloves which I don’t remember ever using those spices on any dish besides pumpkin bread. So skip those Bethany. Maybe I’m missing out but I like to keep it simple.
Simple Meals
As Bethany and I were talking about minimizing your spices, it lead into other ways I keep it simple in the kitchen. If you haven’t figure it out already, I am not a home chef. When it comes to cooking I will usually choose easier over tasiter. However, I don’t compromise on nutrition so my results are super, simple meals that are easy to get on the table for my family of 5.
If you love to cook, you could probably skip this part…or keep reading if you would like to see how the other half lives. You are not going to find any fancy meals below. Just simple, 30 minute or less meals. Okay, you have been warned.
While our menu does vary between seasons, I love to have a few quick and nutritious meals I can always count. I usually have most of the ingredients already stocked in my kitchen and can make substitutions as needed. Just add steamed broccoli or a salad and you have a complete meal.
My trusty favorites are:
- Eggs – an omelet, leftover scramble or frittata, any way you make them they are a healthy fast meal.
- Bean burritos – I do like making refried bean from scratch but I always have canned beans lying around for quick meals. You can add cheese, avocado and/or salsa but my kids keep the burritos plain.
- Chicken thighs– We make a large batch of chicken thighs to shred and throw into other meals. We usually season them with garlic salt and cook on high in the crockpot for a few hours.
- Salsa Verde Pork – I modified this recipe for weekday meals by just throwing the pork in the crockpot with the whole jar of salsa verde. (I save the delicious yet time consuming braising step in the recipe for special occasions.) We use the pork in multiple dishes like tacos, eggs, burritos, salad, and even BBQ sandwiches.
- Curried Lentil Stew– a quick soup that tastes like you spent way longer on it than you did.
- Stovetop Mac n Cheese– I love this recipe. It calls for evaporated milk but I usually use half n half since I always have that in the fridge. However, don’t skip the mustard, it makes the dish! Sometimes we dress up this pasta dish with broccoli, bacon, or garlic depending on what we have in the fridge.
As I told you, nothing fancy. We usually add a veggie side dish depending on what is in season and that is it. In the next episode, we spend some more time on meal planning. Check out Ep 44 Simplifying Meal Planning here.
So how about you? Do you plan your meals out ahead of time? What are you favorite pantry meals? I’m always looking for more go-to dishes. Do you keep it simple in the kitchen or do you love trying a new recipe? Let us know!
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