Only in Nebraska do we have a day off elementary school and the closure of state offices in observance of Arbor Day.

So I’m home with Rabbit, who is now, at 3:45 p.m., reaching that stage of paralyzing boredom that can only come during the period between a fun shopping trip and a sleepover at her friend’s house more than three hours from now.

It’s a grey and spectacularly windy day outside and this morning as we got out of bed, we could hear the wind roaring through the trees.  Rabbit slept in until after 9:00 a.m. and after she was up and had eaten breakfast, we got in the car and drove across town to Trader Joe’s.

Salsa Autentica, Salsa Verde, frosted flakes cereal, ground beef, frozen breaded fish, fire roasted diced tomatoes, enchilada sauce, French green beans, coffee, frozen organic corn, brussels sprouts, roasted green chilis, peppercorns, black olives, teeny tiny potatoes, eggs, apples, cherry tomatoes, melatonin, cheese sticks, sharp white cheddar cheese, cream cheese, butter, yogurt, soy coffee creamer, naan bread, corn tortillas, dried banana chips, tortilla chips, frozen lemonade, orechiette pasta.  Not pictured: the pretzel baguette and package of sliced salami/provolone that Rabbit and I ate in the car after we finished shopping.

Lesson:  don’t go shopping on an empty stomach with a nine-year-old girl.

Of course, these supplies along with what we already have should feed us for about ten days.  I mentioned a few posts back that I had learned to roast a chicken in my crock pot.  Well, I refined the recipe and it is to DIE FOR.  Of course, I don’t have photos of that.  I do have a picture of the clouds from last week’s drive to a nearby town to meet with a client:

Don’t worry, I wasn’t driving when I took the picture. Which is why the car behind me started honking.

Anyway. The chicken.

OH.  Yes, in the crock pot.

So I took a whole roasting chicken (about 6 pounds) that I got at HyVee for just 99 cents a pound.  I took out the packet of giblets from inside and threw them away.  I tried to pull out the neck from the cavity, but discovered it hadn’t been taken off, that it was still attached to the chicken’s body, which was oddly disturbing.  Oh well.

I dried off the chicken and put it on some waxed paper on the counter.  In a ziploc bag, I mixed together a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt, about a teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper, and about half a teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder.  I added some dried minced parsley that I pulverized, about half a teaspoon of sugar, and about half a teaspoon of chili powder.  I shook it all up in the bag and then used this mixture to dry rub the entire outside of the chicken.

Then I stuffed a couple of lemon rinds inside the chicken.  I have a gallon ziploc bag full of lemon rinds in my freezer.  My friend Elizabeth in California sent me a box of lemons from her back yard a while back, and after juicing the ones we didn’t eat whole (for real), I froze the rinds.  Make note of that – I can’t believe how many lemon rinds I’ve thrown away when I could have used them later.

ANYWAY, the lemon rinds went inside the chicken and then I put a bed of coarsely chopped onion and several whole garlic cloves in the bottom of my big crock pot.  I sprayed the sides of the crock pot with Pam, then put the chicken inside, breast side up.  Turned the crock pot on low, went to work, and when I came home, that sucker was done.   After I took it out of the crock pot and stripped the meat off the bones, I put the carcass back in the pot, added celery and a bay leaf and 2 quarts of water and cooked it on high for a couple of hours for some VERY rich chicken stock.

From that chicken, I made the following meals:

1) Roast chicken (hot off the bird, which tasted AMAZING) with oven roasted yukon gold potatoes, roasted carrots and steamed broccoli;

and with the remaining chicken meat pulled off the carcass, shredded and portioned out in four different bags and frozen til used:

2) Chicken with onions and French green beans and garlic with naan bread (our quick go-to meal when I don’t want to cook much);
3) White chicken chili (with homemade stock, white beans cooked from dry, green chilis, etc)
4) Chicken taco cups (put chicken, cream cheese, salsa, black beans and corn in the crock pot and cook til it’s melty like dip.  Spoon into taco cups you make from corn tortillas baked in muffin tins).
5)  Chicken pot pie, made with more of the stock, some frozen veggies, and homemade biscuit topping.

Plus, we had leftovers from meals 3, 4 and 5 that we used for lunches.  All told, if you count each of the three of us as a meal, we got fifteen main dish servings from that chicken, as well as six leftover servings for a total of 21 servings from ONE DAMN CHICKEN.  Granted, my daughter doesn’t eat a whole lot, but I’m still pretty blown away by it.

Needless to say, though, we got a little tired of chicken.  Next time, I’ll space it out a little better.

This next two week’s menu will rely on the groceries I got, as well as some soups I froze, and lots of lunches.  Rabbit’s lunch box is still in heavy rotation: 90% of her school lunches are from home.  I have been sneaking gummy worms into her lunch container, which cracks her up, especially the one that looked like it was crawling out of her PB&J sandwich.  One day all I had to give her was leftover homemade pizza, apple slices, carrots and a cheese stick.  She was thrilled.  Weirdo.

PC and I have also put notes in her lunch box, which she saves in a little keepsake box in her room.

Enough about groceries and food.  Let’s talk about something else.

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Yeah, well. That’s what’s going on here.  Actually, I’ve been extraordinarily swamped with work, picking up several new clients on referral from past clients and friends.  I have SEVEN houses listed, three of which are just finishing up getting prepared to go on the market.   I have two buyers under contract (one closes next month, another in June) and a couple of clients kinda sorta looking but in no hurry.  I literally have not been this busy with work in almost six years.

We got our taxes filed, I’ve been reading Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity) and watching the first and second seasons of Modern Family, which is a scream.  I want Cam and Mitch to be my next door neighbors.

Oh, and speaking of neighbors, the house across the street from us has new owners (the old owners didn’t list with me, not that I’m bitter) and the house behind us has new owners (it was a government foreclosure).  Both young couples, and the ones behind us have three kids including one in Rabbit’s grade.  A girl.  They’re putting up a fence, and asked if we minded if they put a gate in the back for the kids to go back and forth.  Are you kidding me?  That’s the greatest thing ever!

But now, of course, that means three sides of our yard have fencing, other than a little connecting fencing from either side to the house and the garage.  Which means that pretty soon, my husband is going to start asking for a dog.

Oy.  I’m going to go break out the chips and salsa.

Silly, right?  Remember how I said if you keep your dishes washed you’ll save money on food?  That’s because you won’t feel as reluctant to cook if your kitchen is clean.  Add to that if your kitchen is clean and ORGANIZED.

Now let’s establish something here.  If you have ever been to my house you will know I’m not a clean freak.  The sorry state of my windows, the leaves gathered in the car port, the piles of paper everywhere in my office, and the fine layer of dust on most of the furniture (until recently) show that I’m human, and slightly grubby.

But recently, I decided to keep my kitchen clean and organized, and to keep the dishes washed.  I also did a little relocating of kitchen items to make things simpler.

The first thing I did was clean out my refrigerator.  How frugal is it to have such a messy and disorganized fridge that you keep buying Ranch dressing because you can’t find the last bottle you bought?  And now you have four bottles of it.   Or jam.  Or Miracle Whip.

How frugal is it to buy a bunch of one thing because it is on sale and then it goes bad before you can use it because you bought too much (cheese, fresh produce, bread).

If you keep things simple in the kitchen (fridge and pantry) you will be more likely to know before you go to the store what you need, what you already have, and what you can make for dinner.

So anyway, back to the kitchen reorganization and the fridge.  I cleaned that sucker out and threw away SO MUCH FOOD.  I read somewhere that American’s throw out, on average, 40% of the food they buy.  I was sick just reading that.  But I see how it can happen.

In the fridge (and I do not have before photos because it was so gross) I found, way in the back, in a Tupperware container, leftover rice with pink mold growing on it.  I found a container of sad, sad cottage cheese that looked like a science experiment.  I found leftover soup, leftover meat, leftover mashed potatoes.

Sick and wrong.  While throwing these things away, I realized what they had in common:  they were all in Tupperware containers.  I couldn’t see inside the containers and out of sight = out of mind.

So my wish list for now is a set of clear glass pyrex containers with airtight plastic lids that I can use to store leftovers and other foods in the fridge where I can see at a glance what is inside them, reducing waste.   I love Tupperware in a sentimental way, but using them for leftovers is causing a lot of food waste.

When I finished cleaning out and organizing the fridge, it looked like this (and don’t worry – I’m going for groceries tomorrow):

At the top, we have our Fage yogurt (Greek yogurt that I LOVE), applesauce, tub margarine (it’s stick margarine that I whip with the mixer and add a little olive oil to for spreading), Rabbit’s cottage cheese (she loves it) and margarine for baking.

Below that on the left is the “snack” drawer, which is actually full of cheese.  We love cheese and it’s a great meal stretcher, snack, and generally fabulous in all ways.  That top shelf used to be lower and we lost a whole set of storage which is now open below the cheese drawer.  Instead of putting the milk on the top shelf when it was lower, we now have it in the middle, along with the omnipresent pitcher of tap water staying cold, and a carton of orange juice, and a couple of cans of PC’s soda.

The bottom shelf is reserved for eggs, some leftovers (in containers with plastic wrap on top or clear plastic lids!) and my new helpful thing:  a plastic bin where I can put defrosting meat so if something drips, it stays in the container and not all over the shelf (which is what happened last week).

The veg drawer is clean and lined at the bottom with a paper towel  and always has carrots and celery in it.  Contrary to popular belief, regardless of what some people on Pinterest do, you are not supposed to store onions or potatoes in the refrigerator.  Or bread.  Did you know that?  Bread goes stale faster in the refrigerator.  Look it up.  It’s true.

By the way, you are also not supposed to store your milk or eggs in the door of the fridge, because they don’t stay as cold there.  You’re welcome.

Moving on:  Here is the fridge door.  (You can skip this if it’s boring, which it very well might be):

We are the king and queen of condiments: this is our pared down collection.  At the bottom are all those bottles of salad dressing and two jars of Miracle Whip.  Also, my jar of yeast for bread.

Above that, more crap.  Capers, mustard, olives, jam, pickles, salsa, horseradish, more mustard, tahini, relish.  And a bottle of white wine used exclusively for cooking and I know it’s supposed to be on its side but I don’t drink it so lay off me.

The butter section has butter in it.  Also?  Papers from butter and margarine wrappings that I save to use for greasing my bread pans. I told you I was a tightwad.

Next to that is ketchup, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, etc.

The excitement must be killing you.  So let’s move on to the pantry.

I was pretty excited to clean and reorganize the pantry, because there wasn’t going to be any food waste.  I keep that stuff pretty regimented.  What I was struggling with was fitting everything in the way I wanted it to, especially spices.

I got the spice section figured out by moving some non-spice items to a different part of the cupboard and moving the coffee stuff out of there completely.

I know, every day I think how lucky I am to have this built into the door of this cabinet.  Below is the inside of the cabinet on that side:

What I did differently is put the oils and vinegars inside a bin, and the same with the other basket, which holds syrups and honey.  I kept finding drips and spills in the cupboard and it was driving me batty.  I like this method better.  Random stuff in the middle (including a Tupperware container of homemade cookies) and spices above that.  On the top shelf, I have a basket where I collected all our tea bags and packets of cocoa mix, as well as some jars of bulk spices like bay leaves and black pepper, and a couple of cute Tupperware shakers for flour dusting, cinnamon and sugar mixture, and the nutritional yeast I sprinkle on popcorn.  Don’t ask.

The side to the right of that is most changed:  I put the onions and garlic in one basket, and on the top shelf, the potatoes are in another. All of our envelopes of seasonings and a couple of sides, as well as envelopes of kool-aid, are in a little plastic bin.  I have pint jars of couscous and falafel mix, boxes of pasta, and a cannister of small pastas in bags.  Just a few canned goods: I find that if I buy too many, I end up in chaos and not using them up, or buying more because I can’t find that can of soup I was looking for.

The lower part of the pantry cupboard is not much changed, so let’s skip that.

Here’s the fun part:  I rearranged the kitchen counters/cupboards so that on the right side of the kitchen is now a “toast and coffee station.”  PC had his giant coffee maker on the right side of the kitchen, and the bread box was right next to it.  My coffee maker was on the opposite side.  Counter space was  cluttered.

We have two appliance “garages” with tambor doors and on the right side of the kitchen, I had been storing my cookbooks in it.  The door wouldn’t close, so the cookbooks were always visible and sometimes a mess.

Now look at the counter on the right side:

I moved the bread box into the appliance nook, and store the electric knife way at the back on top of it, and the butter dish is in front of the electric knife.  There’s enough room for the bread box door to open (it has a cutting board in the door) and leave room for the toaster, my little coffee pot and PC’s giant grind and brew machine.  Morning coffee and toast, all in one place.  Also, the cupboard below this section has cereal, and the bowls, saucers and coffee cups are right above the coffee makers, with silverware in the drawer right below.

Here’s a closeup of the bread box, just because I love it. It’s probably from the 1950s or 60s and is a lot like the one my Grandpa had in his house.

Above that is the corner cabinet where we had stuffed PC’s coffee stuff, a bunch of medicines (since you’re not supposed to store them in the bathroom where it’s damp and can ruin meds) and miscellaneous junk.

Here it is now:

At the top is a basket of empty jars, as well as PC’s jar of flaxseed (he eats them like candy, by the recommendation of his gastroenterologist).  The middle shelf has a lazy Susan for common meds like Tylenol, cough syrup, etc.  The red tin box holds other medications out of sight, like Midol, foil packs of Dairy-Ease, boxes of cold capsules, and so on.

The bottom shelf has PC’s extra coffee grinder, a second set of parts for his coffee machine, and his container of coffee beans.  At the left, my jar of tiny coffee filters, an antique blue mason jar of coffee, and behind that my jar of sweetener.

The opposite counter on the left side of the kitchen now holds my crock of kitchen utensils, the salt cellar, our food processor and the KitchenAid mixer.  I had more kitchen utensils but put them in a box to see if I use them in the next several months.  If I don’t, they’re going to Goodwill.  The drawer below this counter has some smaller utensils, like peelers, etc. And the door to the appliance garage hides the cookbooks.

Oh, and a couple of jars of treats:  cookies and crackers.

Now that things are more organized and make better sense, it’s easier for me to keep the kitchen clean and feel more motivated to cook.

If you’re not asleep by now from reading this post, what have you done to make your kitchen more organized?  Do you cook a lot, a little, not at all?  What makes it easier for you?