Channeling My Inner Martha Stewart

I am so proud to tell you that I successfully channeled my inner Martha Stewart and updated my pantry organization! Inspiration came to me while browsing the Houzz app. If you don't have it, download now. It's like Pinterest for your house - I know Pinterest already exists for homes but Houzz is way better. You can search for all sorts of specific or general topics and view pictures. Houzz has a larger selection and more breathtaking amazing renos. After scrolling through a bunch of awesome pantry renovations with neat ways of organization, I figured I could do something small to improve mine. 

                                  

Like most people, I don't automatically think to save my jars. I tend to rinse and recycle, aka losing some pretty useful storage options. Slowly, I've been saving my jars. Using one for coffee beans, whole flaxseed, and oats. I'm lazy and keep the old labels on. You could always buy new jars and what I've seen done is fill them with granola or jam and give as gifts. Now, I've being selfish and keeping my old jars and using them for my stuff! 

Before using jars, I saved everything in big ziploc bags. Yes they are a life saver and are hard to beat. For marinating, yeah, I'm going to aim for ziploc bags. For keeping things fresh and neat in the pantry, ziploc bags really don't cut it. I have two big plastic bowls holding ziploc bags of granola ingredients: almonds, walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips, coconut. Now in my moment of inspiration I whirlwinded through my pantry, replaced all of the ugly ziploc bags and carefully loaded up my jars. Here is where your type A or non type A personality can come out. I wanted to make sure all of the jars were filled to the max level and didn't waste any space, added labels, and organized the pantry by function rather than alphabetical, or like others by sheer chaos. Below is a picture of part of my pantry masterpiece. Voila! 

Next after this great success I feasted my eyes on my spices in ugly plastic containers. Since I cook so much, I have a ton of random spices. Indian, Italian, American,  you name it. From my accumulation I've messily stuck some big bags of spices like turmeric and cardamom in hilshire farms containers. Yeah not too sophisticated. Well, now I have jars and it was easy, cathartic really! Now in my functional space I have a section for my exotic spices (turmeric, curry powder, chili pepper), most frequently used spices (pepper, paprika, garlic powder), Italian/European blend (tarragon, basil, parsley, rosemary), and the infrequently used (celery salt, cream tartar, poultry seasoning)...I told you I had a lot. Here's an example of what the spices look like in my cool jars. I even retrofitted an old thai curry paste one to hold some dried peppers! 

At this point I've rolled through the majority of my pantry. I'm feeling good and everything is getting a facelift. While staring at a couple small empty white jars, I felt the need to fill them. My mantra is not "a place for everything and everything in its place," instead it's organized chaos. There's a method to my madness of organization and it fits my functionality. When I'm cooking a pasta dish, I'm looking for the italian seasoning, parsley, basil; I want to grab them all at the same time and not tornado through my pantry looking for these spices. It would be silly to put the thai curry paste next to the paprika or the curry powder next to the tarragon. Maybe alphabetical works best for the grocery store but definitely not for my pantry. Anyways, back to those remaining containers. They're so small, what could fit in there? In a moment of genius, I emptied a bag of pine nuts and they fit perfectly in mini container 1! With one left, what to put in there. My eyes landed on a random baggie of carraway seed. Before I knew it, I was putting labels on the containers and bam, all my jars were full. It was too easy! I can't wait to finish my jam jar to plan what I'll be storing in there! 

 

Hopefully this inspires you to give your pantry a facelift. Really it's easier than you think and you most likely have the majority of what you think! Share your pictures or let me know if you need help. Organizing = de-stressing :) 

Cook Plenty, Cook Often

Yes, I know it has been a while. What have I been doing with my time? I have been cooking, cooking, and...cooking. I love it! Before I started college I could barely boil and cook pasta. My sister can attest to this. Now, I'm giving out recommendations and talking sauces, stir fries, curries, ratatouille, you name it. I will give credit to my college roommates among others who have helped me find one of my passions!

For starters, you need some inspiration for cooking right? Well, here is mine. I think snacking while I cook prevents me from making stupid decisions because I'm hungry.

Being a Type A person you would think I would be pretty regimented in how I cook, but I'm not. My goto for recipes is Allrecipes.com and like most cooks, I don't have all the ingredients. I supplement :) Or as I say, I make it my own. Don't have a tomato, used canned tomatoes or throw in some red bell pepper! Oh, and adding garlic powder and paprika will make everything taste better, I promise. 

A typical question, what do you like to cook? I love cooking everything, except I don't like taking apart a big roasted chicken. Not a fan. My favorite things to cook are chili, ratatouille, lamb, Indian curries, desserts and anything that I can add wine to! Believe it or not there's a lot that you can add wine to, think of any sauce and even veggies like cabbage. Something super awesome that I've made is this dish called mansaf, a traditional Jordanian dish. There's a great Mediterranean shop nearby that had jameed, found it finally!, so lo and behold this amazing dish with some expensive pine nuts on top! Jameed is like liquid delicious thick yogurt. Wow I'm almost embarrassed to say that I could eat this on its own, but no not really embarrassed. There's some leftover in the freezer, yum. 

No you don't cook desserts but they're included in this post. They're made in the kitchen so they should are included. Dates are amazing to bake with - think of the best granola bar and then add some nuts on top and a sweet date layer aka date squares! And you can eat them by themselves. Dates stuffed with blue cheese, almond, pistachio...oh wait there's a company that already does most of that. It's called Bateel and they're like Godiva for dates. Unfortunately, there aren't any locations in the US but I'm hoping I can change that one day! Here's a pic so you can understand the scrumptiousness that I'm talking about. 

Yes, now I hope you understand. I'm keeping this short and sweet but there will be more to come!