Organizing the Spice Drawer

Anyone who regularly spends time cooking knows how helpful it can be to have all your spices close at hand and readily accessible while you are preparing food, and how frustrating it can be to not find exactly what you need at a moment's notice!

For a while, I kept all my spices in a small basket in a cupboard near the stove. Over time, the basket was filled to overflowing, and it became increasingly difficult to find what I needed. Money was wasted as I purchased doubles of spices, not knowing I already had them in the basket!

I decided to tame the spices and make them easily accessible and fun to use while cooking.

The first step came when we purchased a narrow cabinet that fit perfectly next to the stove. Because we found an unfinished one at a "seconds" store, we were able to get it very inexpensive, and paint it to match the rest of the kitchen cabinets.

The top drawer was the perfect depth for small baby food jars. Baby food jars also happen to be just the right size to hold the contents of a small, store-bought spice jar. I found a friend who goes through many baby food jars a week, and asked for all her extras. After washing them and removing the labels, I spray painted all the lids with black chalkboard spray paint and let them dry.

One idea I have previously seen was to write the names of the spices on the lids with chalk, so that they could be erased and re-purposed as necessary. This was my original project, but found that the chalk rubbed off too easily after only a short amount of time, so I decided to use a silver sharpie instead.

I chose all my most commonly used spices and arranged them in their new jars in alphabetical order right next to my stove. Often while I am cooking, I pull the drawer open and leave it that way. Everything I need to season my food is right at my fingertips!

Of course, there are some spices in my basket that I use only on an occasional basis, for canning or fall baking. So my basket is still necessary, but I was able to consolidate quite a bit, and make it much more user friendly! I also wrote the names of each spice on the lid, so that I could easily see what I had on hand.

In the cabinet space below my pull-out spice drawer, I was able to set up all my candy making supplies, as well as make space for my newly organized spice basket. Now all my little cooking helps are neatly organized in one spot in the kitchen!

Having small jars to hold the spices has allowed me to buy more spices in bulk containers and just refill my small containers as needed. This has already saved much money! Thanks to all this organization, there is also space to store the larger bulk spice containers as well.

Copyright 2012-2015 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com  All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.

GF/DF Old Fashioned Roast Beef Dinner

This week while sorting through and organizing old recipes for my 34 Weeks of Clean Challenge, I came across a recipe for a roast that I set aside to try 'someday'. That someday came! I just happened to have a lovely chuck roast ready to meet this recipe and engage in some wonderful camaraderie.

Since I was looking to make only one dish for dinner this day (instead of the usual 2 or 3 to accommodate our various allergies ) I modified the recipe to make it safe for all.

First, let me recommend our favorite butter that was used in both the mashed potatoes and the glazed carrots - it is a tasty dairy-free alternative. We use the soy-based one because it is safe for us, but there is a soy-free/dairy free option available as well, that is made of pea protein.

Now...the recipes:

Old Fashioned Beef Roast
A 3-4 lb beef chuck roast with fat trimmed
2 TBS Canola oil
1/2 c. safe barbecue sauce
1/2 c. peach chutney
1 TBS white or apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. water
2 TBS cornstarch

Rub meat with oil, then sprinkle with salt & pepper. Pour any remaining oil in the bottom of a dutch oven, and begin to warm it on the stove top over medium heat. Place the roast in the dutch oven, and brown the meat evenly on all sides.

In a separate bowl, combine the barbecue sauce, chutney, water, and vinegar, then pour over the meat in the dutch oven. Cover the dutch oven and leave on stove top, simmering about 2 hours or until meat is tender and has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

Remove meat to a serving platter and loosely cover with a foil tent to keep it warm. Pour the meat juices into a pan and allow the fat to separate, skimming it off the top of juices. Return the leftover juices to the dutch oven. Mix corn starch with 1/4 c cold water until completely smooth with no lumps. Stir this corn starch paste into the meat juices and heat over medium temperature until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly.

Slice the roast into 1/2" thick slices, and pour sauce over each piece before serving.

*If you do not have peach chutney, my recipe lists several suggestions that can be tried as substitutes. These are orange marmalade, grape jelly, or apple jelly. I do not know the outcome of those flavors, since I happened to have peach chutney in my fridge and was able to make the recipe in its original form.

*I had a 3.75 lb roast, and it made enough for 3 meals for my family!

Glazed Carrots
8 medium carrots
2 TBS safe butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 TBS fresh chopped parsley

Scrub carrots and peel if you wish. Slice them into 2" quarters.  Steam or simmer them in boiling salt water until they are crisp-tender. Drain completely.

In a skillet, melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar until it is completely dissolved and starts to thicken. When the sauce starts to get bubbly, add the carrots and turn the temperature down to a low simmer. Gently stir the carrots into the glaze until they are completely coated and slightly softened. Sprinkle the parsley on just before serving.

Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes

A trick I learned a long time ago to make rich, creamy mashed potatoes without using any dairy was to mash the potatoes in the water that they were cooked in. After washing, peeling, and chopping my potatoes, I boil them in a pot full of water until they are very soft. Instead of draining the water out of the potatoes before mashing, I use a large cooking spoon and scoop potatoes and potato water out of the pot into a separate bowl. It is usually a bit of trial and error to get the right balance of potatoes and water, so I tend to add less water at first, and slowly add it in spoonful by spoonful as I am mashing, until the right consistency is reached.

I also stir in several tablespoonfuls of the Earth Balance 'butter' (pictured above) as well as salt and pepper to taste. The end product is a creamy bowl of mashed potatoes that is completely dairy free and safe for all my family!


Thanks Michelle at 34 Weeks of Clean for challenging us to find new meal ideas out of our current stash of recipes! 


I am also linking up with "Try A New Recipe Tuesday"

Copyright 2012-2015 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com  All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.

Taking Back My Home Weeks Four & Five

Due to an incredibly busy week, I am combining two challenges into one this week....in case you noticed that I missed posting my progress last week! I have been sticking with the challenges though, and seeing lots of progress in my kitchen! In fact, it is nearing the completion of being completely decluttered and reorganized.

This week's big project is chronicled in pictures:

When I tackled clearing the clutter under my kitchen sink, I discovered that one of my pipes was leaking! Such a good thing that this project was on my declutter calendar! After removing all the 'stuff' under there, I found that the leak had pooled water underneath and that I had some mold to eradicate from the bottom of the cabinet. There had been a piece of vinyl flooring covering the bottom of the cabinet, but it needed to go.

I removed the vinyl, treated the entire cabinet with vinegar to get rid of the mold, and then located some leftover self-sticking vinyl tiles that were stored in my basement. Thankfully I had not decluttered them yet! My hubby cut some new plywood to fit on the bottom of the cabinet so we were working from a fresh new base. I cut the vinyl tiles to fit, then installed them. It gave the cabinet a whole fresh new appearance!

I then set about combining half bottles of cleaner, getting rid of anything that was unnecessary, and figuring out some new storage spots for things that really didn't belong under the sink in the first place.

When that was complete, I was able to fit what was left into two storage baskets, which slid nicely into my newly redecorated space under the sink!

Everyone in my family is loving the new look.

Other projects accomplished this week:

• Complete de-clutter of the utensil drawer, silverware drawer, and gadget drawer. I found a bunch of stuff that, though it's a great idea, it's just not something I use. Those items went into the donation box. Other things were old and worn out, rendering them useless. There are a few things that I need to hold onto, because they are needed a few times a year. Those went into a nice see-through storage box and into the basement with other seldom used kitchen items. Overall...a huge success.
• I also kept up with the refrigerator/freezer de-clutter and cleaning. Thankfully, I had done this not too long ago and try to keep up with it, so there wasn't a whole lot to throw out. I searched and found two packages of food in the freezer that were outdated and not wrapped well enough to try using anyways, so I ditched them. Thanks to my freezer cooking system, foods rotate through my freezer on a pretty regular basis, and I have different items assigned to different shelves, so there is not a whole lot of lost things in there.
• The fridge got a nice deep cleaning. I found one stray hot pepper that had somehow slid out of the veggie drawer and made it's way to the back of the fridge. Yuck. Other than that it was pretty routine stuff, and I was very happy with the results. My fridge has glass shelves so when they are sparkly, it looks great! 
• I picked through several cabinets and picked out some items that are not needed. Off they went to the donation box. I found several others that could be kept in a better location. I am loving all the new found space in my little kitchen.
• We made another trip to the donation center, and gifted them with some great re-usable items.
• My kids laughed and enjoyed looking at all their 'baby spoons' that I found in the back of the silverware drawer. We all decided that they could leave the house now, as they are no longer needed and have served us well.

Michelle's Challenge this week is to organize recipes. I have several binders that I keep printed recipes in, and a family recipe book that I write all our special recipes in that we have created. Other than that, I have taken to storing most of my recipes online, either on my Pinterest Board, or in a folder I have created on my desktop. I really like digitally organizing my recipes, and then pulling them up on the iPad when I am cooking. Since I have already organized about 90% of my recipes in this way, I am going to take this week to finish my kitchen cabinets and sort through my old cookbooks, deciding which ones I really want to keep, and either selling the rest on ebay or half.com or donating them.

Copyright 2012-2015 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com  All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.