Operation Organization: Art Station

Posted by Nat on Feb 10, 2012 | Comments Off on Operation Organization: Art Station

I realize that this is not rocket science.  It’s a simple plastic bin with labels.  But I LOVE to see how other people organize their crap, so I thought I’d share what I did in this situation.

I was going absolutely bonkers.  For reals.

As I mentioned in my recent post about Anna’s mail slot, she is a very creative little girl.  She comes up with crazy Tinker-Toy creations, she builds amazing things with blocks (engineer, architect perhaps?), and loves, loves, loves to draw.  She loves art so much that I have to throw things away on the sly, lest our house become a fire hazard of paper.   I’m still working on a system to determine what stays and what goes, but what was more pressing was how to contain her supplies and her completed work.

I mention in my “About Nat” page that I am a practical crafter.  While I LOVE looking at DIY art stations with cute, color coordinated tubs, repurposed antique holders and such, that is not me.  If I put a lot of energy into something that is likely to get used, abused and tired, it will make me mad/frustrated/annoyed if it doesn’t hold up, stay perfect and pristine.  So with something like this, I like to go with easy, plastic bins from Wal-Mart.

I think this thing cost about $17.  I may get another when Jack gets more into art, but right now I’m lucky if I can keep up with the sticker trail he leaves all over our house.  He has one coloring book right now.  That’s all he needs.

What I like about this thing is it can only hold so much, so every once in a while I go through and downsize to prevent further insanity.

I started with simple labels on the drawers.  From top to bottom they read:

• All done!
• Not done & Blank Paper
• Coloring Books & Stickers
• Art Supplies
• Activity Books

The labels however, did not stick to the plastic bins- they kept curling up.  So I sliced up a scrap of paper and stuck them to the paper.  Then I used some adhesive squares to stick them to the drawers, and now they stay nice and flat.

The art supply drawer is great:

The kids can pull out a tub (Target $1 section- they always have these) of crayons or markers, take them to the table, and then put them away easily (in theory).  Or, in reality, when it’s time for dinner, it doesn’t take me forever to get their crap out of the way. 😉

I’m sure there are cuter ways to do this- if you have one, please do show me.  If I see something too cute to resist I may do something different, but for now, plastic bins rule this particular roost.

Happiness Project

Posted by Nat on Feb 9, 2012 | 1 comment

I’ve decided to join up with a great new blog, Chronically Distracted.  These ladies say in their elevator pitch:

“We’re two moms trying to strike a balance between family, fun, and friendship. We believe we represent, truly represent, a lot of parents out there who want to do and be everything but some days we just don’t have the attention span or patience to balance it all. Are you with us? I’m guessing you are.”

Every Thursday is about The Happiness Project.  Now, in keeping with my theme for 2012, “Keep it Happy,” I simply must participate.  I also love to write, and would like to improve my writing skills.  I think this is a great way to do both.   I’m jumping in a bit late, and have not read the book they are talking about, but I hope to get it soon and catch up.

On Mondays, participants are sent a prompt to write about.  {I could say, “about which to write” but that feels so snooty.}  Then, we post on Thursday and link up.  I can’t wait to see what others write, too!

This week’s prompt:

• Are your day-to-day actions supporting your choices of change (resolutions)?
• Is your MIND propelling you in the direction you want your actions and resolutions to take you?
• If the answer is No, how can you make it happen?

Anna’s Mail Slot

Posted by Nat on Feb 8, 2012 | Comments Off on Anna’s Mail Slot

My daughter, Anna, loves two things:  art and mail.  She’s a very creative little soul, and she likes nothing more than the thought of sending one of her creations to someone far away, whether it’s a friend in town or her cousin, Paul, in Kansas.

We were getting to the point where I needed to have a system for her because she would give me a piece of paper and tell me it needed to be mailed to (insert name here).  I’d set it down, and then days later she’d ask if I sent the paper, and I’d have no idea which one she meant.  So I whipped up this little mail slot and stuck it on the side of her art station, which I’ll talk about more later.  I love it because it works AND it doesn’t take up a lot of space.  Would a little mailbox be cuter?  Yes.  Would it get lost, in the way, trampled and tripped on, too?  Yes.

Now, when she has something to send, she gets to stick it in her mail slot, and I can ask her who it’s supposed to go to when I get mail ready to send.  You’ll see in the photo on the right she’s stuck in a special drawing for someone. 🙂

I’d like to say this is a tutorial, but I came up with it so fast that I didn’t take totally detailed pictures.  The light is very wonky, too- it was too hot to have the kitchen shades up (in January!) so the light is very yellow.  Better to have weird lighting than no lighting at all…

You will need:

• three sheets of 12×12 scrapbook paper (ignore my four sheets there- I had one extra).  I went with traditional red, white, and blue to mimic our postal service, but you could make them whatever color you like.  (I really wanted to find some air mail paper but had no luck.)
• You could easily do this with glue or a glue stick, but I found zips adhesive strips to be super fast and less messy in this case.
• I also used adhesive squares.
• Some decorative letters are also nice, but not necessary.

Take the paper that you are going to use as the front of the slot and cut it in half diagonally as shown below.  I used a ruler to eyeball it because it won’t fit in my paper cutter.  Do NOT paste them together yet.

With your trim color, cut yourself five (not four as shown below- see?  Horrible tutorial!) 1-inch strips, and fold them in half.  Crease them so that they are folded very precisely.

If you’re using a glue stick you’ll take the diagonal edge of one of your triangles- the edge that will go where the mail will enter the slot.  This will be the covered-up edge, so you don’t need to cover the whole edge.  I would probably apply the glue to the white strip (nice and thick) and then press down. Let dry, flip it over, and glue the other side of the white strip down.

For the zips, you can see I cut a length just a bit shorter than the white and then pressed it down.  Turn over, repeat.

Either way, trim the extra off after it’s set.

This is what you end up with:

Now you can adhere the blue/front pieces together at the bottom.

Put your red/back piece behind the blue/front pieces that are now glued together.  Use your remaining white strips to trim the bottom and sides.  You will have to trim here and there to make it all flush at the corners.  This is where the zips came in super handy, but if you don’t have them, I’m sure glue will work fine.  Just be sure to use a heavy-duty glue in case your kid wants to send lots of mail. 🙂

Stick some letters on if you want/have them,  and you’re done!  Anna loves having this, and it has taken one more thing off the counter.

Do you want some fun mail?  I have about a bazillion pieces of art I could send you….

Today I’m sharing on:

Our Lemon Tree

Posted by Nat on Feb 7, 2012 | 2 comments

Living in SoCal has so many perks… it’s a bit ridiculous.  I’ve lived here for 10 years now (wowzers) and there are still days when I say to myself, “Holy Cow.  I live in California.  Southern California, no less.”

When we moved into our house, which is also the house my husband grew up in, I was sort of non-plussed about having a lemon tree right outside our kitchen.  It’s cute and everything, but I didn’t really let it register.  Can I tell you something?

 It’s awesome.

 Need one lemon for a recipe?  Done.

Have a four-year-old who loves lemonade?  And a two-year-old?  Done.

Want to add some zest to something?  Done.

Our lemon tree is a Meyer lemon tree.  Apparently they are milder in flavor and are more closely related to the orange.  Hmmm.  The lemonade we make with them is definitely not too tart- it’s very smooth, but still lemon-y if that makes sense.

All I know is they are delish, and I love them.

They also make great last-minute gifts.

Do you have any simple pleasures where you live?  It’s the little things.  Or in this case, the rather big things that produce the little things…

Church Family Rules and Mod Podge Lessons

Posted by Nat on Feb 6, 2012 | Comments Off on Church Family Rules and Mod Podge Lessons

My church had an event with an auction.  I decided to make a set of Family Rules for them to auction off.  Here’s a little peek.

I didn’t have much time to take pictures because I wanted to cross this off my list in a very bad way.  These are also not my most favorite rules.  I LOVE the hearts at the bottom- definitely going to do that again.  But I learned a lesson or two about paper and Mod Podge with these rules.  They were more like reminders for me, but because I rushed this project, I need to write them down so I don’t forget.  Hopefully they’ll help you, too.

Lesson One:

Quality counts for something if you’re using Mod Podge and paper.  Do not use cheap-y, flimsy scrapbooking paper if you are adhering it to a canvas.  It will bubble on you and it will possibly stay bubbled.  Sometimes, with other projects, the paper will bubble and then flatten out as it dries, but with this project, or with canvas & paper projects, you have to be uber careful.  In my case, I don’t mind the bubbling- I think it adds some visual appeal.  But if you want/need an uber-flat surface, be careful with cheap/thin paper.

Lesson Two:

Less is More.  I LOVE the Mod Podge part of this project- it’s my favorite part because everything starts coming together.  However, with this set of rules I learned that as much as I like to dump the Mod Podge all over the canvas and spread it around, that’s really a bit cocky of me. Mod Podge does not like to be abused.  So spread it nicely and not too thick.  It dries really fast- you’ll get that second coat on before you know it.

Do you have any Mod Podge questions?  Tips?  I love Mod Podge.  It’s my crafting hero.

If you’d like to see other Family Rules I’ve made, click here and here.

I’m linking up to

Garage Door Update

Posted by Nat on Feb 3, 2012 | 1 comment

My friend, Janis, watched my little one yesterday and she reminded me that I hadn’t updated on the new garage door.  It’s amazing what a little pop of white will do, no?

Here’s a side-by-side comparison.

We have to decide what to do about the trim- they had to add some pieces to even things out, so we have a combo of white, wood and brown.  I’m voting white, but Michael isn’t so sure.  Thoughts?  We agonized about the color and the window shape, but I’m happy with what we ended up getting.  I have never really paid attention to garages before- now I do.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever show you the inside of our garage, but let me tell you- it’s like a whole new world in there.  Animals cannot get in (unless we leave the breezeway door open…oops), there’s light coming in from the windows, so it’s not uber-scary.  Dreamy, really.  We have a lot of organizing to do before I can park my momvan in there, but it’s coming along.  Progress!

Make Your Own Chicken Nuggets {in bulk}

Posted by Nat on Feb 2, 2012 | 1 comment

One of my goals recently has been to find good, tasty recipes that my whole family will eat.  No more short order chef!  Paired with that is that I want to cut out a lot of processed foods, especially meats.  My kids LOVE chicken nuggets.  I, however, found myself cringing every time I put them in the toaster oven because I know too much about chicken nuggets now.  They gross me out.

I recently bought this cookbook and I love it.  I’m still working my way through it, but I have tried several recipes.  So far, this one is our ultimate for a chicken nugget replacement.  It tastes AMAZING.  And here’s the thing- I do not like coconut.  But I LOVE this chicken recipe.

I decided to take it one step further and make it in bulk so that I could freeze a bunch and have them ready for an easy dinner. I am so happy I did this- it was a bit of a process, but now we have a ton of these in the freezer.  I learned a lot the first time around, so hopefully I can pass on some tips to you so you can do this with the same recipe or one that is similar.

Here’s what I recommend if you think you want to try this.

1)  Try the recipe for dinner sometime soon.  Just make one batch. (recipe below)

2)  Love it?  Move on.  Make it in bulk.

3)  Hate it?  Something is wrong with you.  Try again. (Just kidding!)

So here is the recipe in it’s original state.  See below the recipe for a few notes from me.

Coconut Chicken Fingers

by the Meal Makeover Moms

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons canola or peanut oil, divided

1. Place the chicken on a cutting board and slice each breast into 1/2-inch thick by 4-inch long strips (to yield about 7 strips per breast).
2. Place the coconut, bread crumbs, salt, ginger and garlic powder in a medium bowl and stir to combine.  Use a fork or your fingers to break up any clumps of coconut.
3. Place the egg in another bowl and the flour on a plate.  To bread the chicken, coat both sides with the flour and shake off excess.  Dip in the egg and then coat evenly with the coconut mixture.
4. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and cook until the bottoms are golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat if the coconut browns too quickly.  Flip the chicken strips, add the remaining oil, and cook until the meat is no longer pink and the bottoms are golden brown, about 4 minutes.

My notes on just the single-meal recipe:  I used more egg and flour.  I think in the end I used 3 eggs and about a 1/4 cup of flour.  The key to this recipe is in the breading, though, which I also doubled.  I must have macho chicken pieces or something. Also, you’ll see in some of my photos below that the coconut browns very easily.  Unless it’s totally black and singed, this does not affect the taste at all, so don’t feel like you’ll ruin them if there’s some dark brown coconut- it’s still delish!

Another Note:  you can watch these ladies make a version of this recipe in a video here.  In the video online they add flaxseed meal to the breading- I will do that next time and will update the bulk recipe after I do so.  Totally wish I had watched this video first!  It does bother me how neat they are, though- I made a complete mess when making them.

 Now make them in bulk!

Okay, so, now if you’ve tried the original recipe and you love it as much as I did, then you’ve come back and are ready to make it in a big batch.

Some things to think about as you plan when and how you’re going to do this.

• Don’t plan much the day you do this.  It is straight forward, but it’s time consuming.  If you have really small kids like me, then I would recommend doing this when your partner is home to keep things less stressful.  You’re going to be dealing with a lot of raw chicken and you don’t want to mess it (or your family) up.
• Give yourself plenty of time.
• Wear some good shoes.  I know-weird, but you’ll be standing a lot, so you should be comfy.
• Make space in your fridge just in case you need to throw the chicken in while you take a break or if you feel like it’s getting too warm.   You don’t want to have to rearrange things mid-process, believe me.

Here are some basic things you’ll want to pull before you get started

• at least 4 cookie/baking sheets- 2 for raw chicken and 2 for cooked
• parchment paper
• foil
• disposable gloves (if desired, for working with raw chicken)
• meat mallet/pounder (if you like to have flat chicken- not totally necessary)
• large freezer bags
• paper towels
• lots of clean bowls
• a good pair of tongs for turning over the meat
• a good sturdy cooking pan- bigger is better
• cutting board
• patience and a desire to eat this totally awesome recipe again

Here is the adjusted recipe, followed by the process I followed.  I’m sure one could do this faster, but I didn’t want to mess it up.  After you do it once you’ll have your own process down in your head and you can make your own changes.

Recipe Adjusted for Large Quantities*:

You’ll see below that I bought two bags of all-natural, whole chicken breasts, rather than using chicken breast halves.  These two bags combined had seven whole breasts in them.  I got mine at Trader Joe’s, but this is cooking, not baking, so you don’t have to be too precise with most of this- the breading is the only thing.

• boneless chicken breasts; about 7 or 8
• 4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 4 cups panko bread crumbs
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• a bottle of canola oil (or peanut if that floats your boat)

*In general, make sure you have extra of all of these ingredients.  If you run out of something, you don’t want to be scrambling for it right when you need it- no fun.  If you run out of the breading, you can refer to the original recipe to make a smaller amount, but the ratio of panko crumbs, ginger, garlic and salt is sooo important, so be sure to stick to it!  Also, as you work, pay very close attention to your chicken.  You don’t want it getting too warm or you run the risk of making yourself or your family very sick.  When in doubt, stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Rinse and pat dry your chicken.  This takes away the slime (blech) and makes it easier to cut into pieces.  You can also remove any bits of fat or other things you don’t want.

I used parchment paper.  This is for later, but best to do it while the chicken is still cold.  It just felt better than putting them directly on the sheet.

You can see above how I handled the really big breasts (tee hee).  I butterflied them, and then each half was cut into about 8 pieces.  I did end up cutting some of those really long pieces again, so sometimes I had as much as 20 pieces per breast.  If you want, while you prep the chicken you can pound it so that it’s all the same thickness.  I started with that in mind and then sort of threw that idea out the window after the second or third chicken breast.  To each his own.

This is a good stopping point if you need to take a rest. I did.  If you’re going to take a long break, be sure to cover your chicken with some saran wrap or it will dry out.

Step 4:  Dredge the chicken pieces in flour.  I didn’t take any pics of this process because it was very hands-on and I didn’t want to get my camera all covered with flour and chicken.

This was a great space saver.  When I filled up the first parchment-lined cookie sheet, I placed a big cooling rack on top of it so that when I filled up the 2nd sheet, I could just slide the first sheet on top of the second.  This way I could keep the chicken cool while I put together the breading and got the eggs ready.   If you’re going to take another long break, be sure to cover them up.

You could also do this ahead of time, but your chicken will likely need to cool down a bit if it took you a while to dredge it in the flour piece-by-piece.  This breading is the magic of this recipe.  Do not mess with it- it’s awesome!

Step 7:  Beat your eggs.  Don’t have a pic.  You can beat your eggs without referring to a picture, right? 🙂

 This is what worked for me:  I like working from left to right, so I set up the tray of chicken, the eggs, the breading, and then got my cook top ready to go.  I made sure I had extra ingredients at the ready- especially the canola oil because you need to replenish it often while cooking.  Here’s another view:

Start your process.  I worked really hard this time to figure out a way to prevent both hands from becoming nasty, flour/egg/breading messes.  Here’s what worked for me:

Left   hand:

• Use a fork to place flour-coated chicken pieces in the egg.
• Transfer egg-coated pieces to the breading bowl.

Right   hand:

• Use a different fork to coat the chicken in breading.
• Transfer the chicken to the pan to be cooked.

You’ll see in the picture above that there are little bits of coconut everywhere.  You need to turn your chicken carefully or your tongs will essentially peel off the breading, so be very gentle when flipping them over.  Regardless, you will need a coconut depository or you’ll have lots of overcooked coconut.  Mine was reallly fancy-  I used a paper towel, and I put it right above my cooktop so I could just grab them during the process:

As you begin, you need to find your magic number.

 I worked with no more than six pieces of chicken at a time.  I threw six pieces in the egg, transfered them to the breading.  They are easy to lose in the breading, and you don’t want to pull out a piece of chicken and wonder,”How long has this been buried in here?” or “Did I get them all?”  So I decided that six was my magic number.  Once I plopped one batch into the pan to start, I could prep another while they cooked on their first side.  Soon I had a rhythm to it.

The paper towels will absorb a lot of the excess oil.

You just made a boat load of chicken.

Once the chicken has cooled a bit, bag it up for the freezer.  I filled four gallon-sized freezer bags full of this yumminess.  I didn’t want to jam them too full so that the breading would stay nice.  I labeled them with the date and how many pieces were in each bag.  For our family, 25-30 pieces serves all four eating humans (7-month-old baby isn’t quite there yet). I’m sure that will change, but for now it works.

To reheat, I would recommend doing them at 375 for about 15 minutes, give or take.  They reheat very nicely, but you want to get them very hot so that the breading will crisp up again.  Do not even think about reheating these in the microwave- they will not crisp up again.  And if I hear about it I will hurt you.  Okay, maybe not, but still- use your oven or your toaster-oven.

Did you get to the bottom of this post?  If so, I’d love it if you left me a comment!  I’d really love to know if you do this- I’m so excited about it because it’s so much better for my family and ME.  I know what I’m eating, I know it’s fresh, I know it’s yummy because I MADE IT.  If you got this far, I’d also love it if you “liked” me on Facebook.  If you scroll back up to the top you’ll see a “like me on Facebook” in my sidebar.  I’m trying very hard to “grow” my blog and my audience, so I’d love to hear from you here or on Facebook!  Thanks for stopping by!

*please note, I am not getting paid for this post; I dig the Meal Makeover Moms and their book, but am not making any cash-ola in singing their praises or elaborating/extending this recipe.