JELL-O is a great dessert when you’re craving something sweet. Compared to other desserts; cake, cookies, ice cream…it’s surprisingly low in calories and fat. When you’re at the store it might be tempting to buy the prepackaged JELL-O cups, but when you look at the prices it doesn’t make sense. A box of JELL-O is as little as $0.89. Not to mention all you’re paying extra for is the little plastic cups that will end up in a landfill and a larger cardboard carrier for them.

To make your own JELL-O cups just prepare your mix in a measuring cup. Then pour single servings into small cups. One way to decide on a “serving” is to check the box – it will tell you the approximate number of servings, grab that many cups and split it evenly. Put the cups in the fridge and then throughout the week you’ll have a (relatively) guilt-free dessert to grab whenever you’re feeling like you need a sweet treat.

My sister inspired this tip. Her and I have a weekly dinner and last week she brought this spice kit from McCormicks that she found at Safeway. It gives you the exact amounts of spices that you need to make whatever recipe is printed on the back – all you have to buy is actual food (meat, potatoes, etc.)

It seems like a really convenient idea, and no doubt, if you’re strapped for time and out of inspiration it’s a great save. But when we actually looked at it, it turned out I already HAD all those spices, so all she needed to bring was the actual food and the recipe anyways. I started thinking, what if you made your own pre-measured spice mixes? You could refer to your favorite go-to recipes and use little containers (even the larger “daily pill box” containers would work) to store the pre-mixed spices. Label them accordingly and then you can achieve this same easy idea for less money.

In kitchens with little to no drawer space, creative use of hanging space is critical. You can use standard shower hooks (or cute ones! check Target or Bed Bath and Beyond for the most options) to optimize hanging space for dishtowels and potholders on your oven door or cabinet doors.

This week has been particularly hectic for me (thus the two whole days of silence!) and I have to admit it’s been tempting to slip into an all too familiar routine: grabbing some takeout on the way home and parking myself in front of the TV with my laptop and attempting to play catch-up all night. But I’ve been resisting and I’d like to share my secret weapon, NoTakeOut.com.

This site provides daily menus and detailed instructions (you know how I love detailed instructions) for cooking a homemade meal. The instructions are the best part in my opinion. They provide a “game plan” that tells you what to do starting from when you walk in the door:

It’s a perfect resource for the week when you simply forgot to make a weekly menu. Just look up today’s meal as you’re headed out of the office. Print off the grocery list and instructions and stop by the grocery store on the way home instead of the drive through. You can subscribe to get the daily meal in your inbox and the site is fairly easy to read on a smartphone if you want to go green and avoid printing.

And as an added bonus, they provide a wine pairing suggestion just in case it’s been that kind of day.

Organic vs. Conventional? Local? Seasonal? Picking out produce has gotten much more complicated over the past couple of years. It has also gotten a lot more expensive. So what do you do? Go for the cheapest and risk ingesting nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that farmer’s have added to their soil? Or better yet some pesticide residue along with a variety of different chemicals used to kill the plant’s natural bacteria, which actually enhances the plant’s ability to synthesize and absorb nutrients? What if you want to make the greener choice and buy local, but it’s not organic?

Meet the dirty dozen… (It has actually been adapted to 15 instead of the original 12)

These are ranked by their “score,” 100 being the highest with the largest amount of pesticides present. So lessen the stress of your decision and stick to buying strictly organic when it comes to these 15, and the rest, opt for the closest in region, the most in season for your region, or whatever just looks too darn tasty to pass up!

Ice isn’t just for water anymore. Freezing liquids into ice trays is a great way to store it, preserve it, and keep it handy:

• Freeze milk, soy milk, or various juices to make smoothies with. Shake a few cubes into a blender and blend with whatever else you want. It’s quick and cold.
  • Bonus: If you put ice made from juice in a mixed drink or cocktail, it won’t water your drink down as it melts – it will actually add flavor.
• Left over wine goes bad in the fridge. Freeze it to use in sauces and other recipes.
• Cans of chicken broth always seem to be just a little too big, freeze the leftovers to reuse later.

You can use any old ice tray, or mix it up with something fun like this battleship ice tray from BevMo.

As motivated as you may be at the beginning of the year to eat healthier and stay (or get) in shape you quickly lose momentum as real life sets in and you just can’t seem to find the time or $$. Grabbing a prepackaged lunch or getting take-out is much faster and less stressful than say, preparing a salad to take to work, but it doesn’t have to be! To go along with Katie’s weekly menu tip from last week, take some time out on Sunday to not only write down meals and shop for the ingredients but to partially prepare most of them too!

Once home from the grocery store I immediately rinse and pat dry my greens. Buying loose greens is significantly cheaper than buying the prewashed, precut, and bagged greens and only takes a couple extra minutes to get ready. I cut them up (or rip by hand) and store in glass containers like the ones pictured (available at Target, Walmart, HomeGoods, etc.). I cut up celery, carrots, and bell peppers into dipping size sticks for a separate container. I then dice up onions, carrots, celery, bell pepper and store together in a smaller container. Bite-sized strawberries, oranges, grapes go into yet another container. Now, in the morning when I want to make that awesome heaping salad of fresh goodness I just grab some greens, throw on some vegetable medley along with a toss of the fruit combo and voila, ready to go in 30 seconds or less! I also have the handy sticks ready to grab and go as a snack by themselves or to pair with a container of hummus. Soups, dipping sauces, even smoothies can be prepared over the weekend and will last up to 5 days stored in the fridge in an airtight container or jar.

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If you have a small (or even single person) household like mine, you know how leftover ingredients from various recipes can build up in your fridge and never get eaten. You’ve probably stood in your kitchen, surveying all the food you had, and thought there’s got to be a way to use it and save a trip to the grocery store for at least another day. Well now there is. Thanks to an article on Unplggd (and a commenter there), I’ve found two cool websites that will find a recipe to match what you already have in the kitchen:

Super Cook

Cooking By Numbers

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My mom was always a big proponent of the weekly menu. Every Sunday she sat down to make one list of meals for the week and a second list of grocery items. I learned that habit from her and I have to say that the weeks when I take the time to do it are far less stressful. If you’re not currently in the habit of making a weekly menu and shopping list here are some great resources to help you:

Menu-Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie:

Kate’s DIY Grocery Planner Project at Design*Sponge:

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This Christmas I got a few new (awesome) electronic gadgets. When I got home it was pretty apparent that I’d need to do something to make charging all my devices a little easier, and a little less of an eyesore. I looked at some typical charging stations for sale, but they didn’t really fit my needs. Most were sized to accommodate about three gadgets and all of them pocket size – no good for my netbook or Kindle. A quick Google search brought back some great DIY projects, but all of them seemed to require tools I didn’t have or building skills I definitely don’t have.

I finally came up with a solution that I could do myself in under 20 minutes. If you got some new electronics this holiday season it may work for you as well.

Supplies: I went to the store and picked up two baskets of slightly different shape. One larger (base) basket and one smaller (accessory) basket that would sit on top without falling in. I also made sure these baskets had ‘handles’ or holes that the wires could be fed though.

Setup: When I got home I cleared out an area under my desk and set up the baskets one on top of the other. Then I threaded the wires from a powerstrip on the wall, through the handles, and into the devices. I adjusted things just a little bit and I was done.

Bonus: One added benefit of this setup versus other charging stations is that it’s fairly easy to unplug the wires and remove them entirely. That way if I need to take the wires with me somewhere it’s not too much of a hassle.

Finished look:

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