Kitchen Steps - I would rather be here....

Isn't this an awesome house? It is on Lake Huron. I bet that you would have the most amazing views out, even when doing the housework!

Today's Little Step is about making another awful kitchen job much easier. I reckon that cleaning the oven is just about the worst job in the world. Most of all because I usually put it off for a year or 2! Now don't worry, we are not going to clean the whole oven today. BUT we can make the racks and trays positively shine, with hardly any effort at all.

The secret is laundry bleach. Yep, good old Napisan. Tonight, before bed, take out the racks and trays from your oven, put them in the laundry sink and add a good shake of laundry stain removal powder - Napisan is just fine. Fill the tub with warm water, so the racks are completely covered. Then just leave it overnight, and wait for the cleaning fairies to come!

In the morning, you should be able to just wipe down most of the gunge off the racks and trays, and have them shining like new. How hard is that?

Now, if only I could work out a way to soak the entire oven in Napisan overnight.....

Kitchen Steps - Kick up a stink!

If there is one job that I don't like in the kitchen it is cleaning out the bin. I don't mind taking the rubbish bag out, but for some reason I just don't like wiping out the bin ... and yet I HATE when the lid of the bin (ours is a swing-top lid) gets gunk and dirt all over it.

So I have come up with a method that makes me feel a bit better. When I use disposable Chux-style cloths, I wait until the cloth is on its last legs, then the last thing before it goes in the bin is to wipe down the lid and exterior of the kitchen bin. Then chuck it straight away and not have to think about it again!

I also use old face washers for my kitchen cleaning cloths, and wash them every 2second day. So when I am just about to put the cloth in the laundry, again, last thing I do is swish it across the top of the bin.

Alternatively, you could use paper towel and dispose of it immediately. Whichever method you use, you get 1 point for wiping down the lid and exterior of your kitchen bin today!

Kitchen Steps - Kettle overload

As I stood staring vacantly at the calendar that hangs in our kitchen this morning, while waiting for the kettle to boil for my wake-up cup of tea, I happened to glance down into the depths of the kettle, after filling it with water.

Eeek! Bad mistake.... it's not quite scary enough to stop me from drinking my tea. Frankly, there would have to be something swimming in it for that to happen. BUT it is enough to make me think that I cannot remember ever cleaning out our kettle. The poor thing gets used many times a day, and taken for granted.

So today the Little Step challenge is to clean out your kettle. Tip out the water, use a clean cloth and wipe out all the general gunge that is accumulating on the sides, and even the element. Then give it a good clean and polish for the outside - if you are enthusiastic, you can even wipe down the electric base part.

This is worth 1 point for the cleaning, and an extra point if you then sit down and have a celebratory cup of tea or coffee, from your shining clean kettle!

PS - isn't the duck stove-top kettle just the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen? I think it would make a great Mother's Day gift - hint hint!!

Little Step - Shopping List!

OK, this is the last part of the Monthly Menu Planning challenge...

Now that you have your calender chart with a meal for each day of May pencilled in, just look across the row for the first week, and jot down ingredients for each meal in that week. Remember to include side dishes, vegetables etc.

Then, go to your kitchen cupboards and cross off anything on your list that you already have... just be sure to check the quantities on hand, before crossing it off.

Add your "other items" (garbage bags, toiletries, paper towel, drinks, lunch items etc) and there you have it - a comprehensive shopping list, ready to take on your next grocery trip.

If you are feeling totally inspired, you could rough out your shopping list for the next fortnight, or even the whole month.... but only if you are on a roll.

Otherwise, let's Little Step our way to an easy shopping trip this coming week. Don't forget to keep a note of how much you spend, and how that compares to your usual weekly amount... did you make a saving? I'd love to hear how your shopping trip goes!

Have a great weekend - Monday is a public holiday here in Queensland, and we are off camping, so I will see you all for May, next Tuesday. I have lots of ideas for Little Steps - and if you have any ideas, or areas of the house that you want to work on, let me know so that we can all do them together.

And finally, you can email me your 'points' balance for April, if you want to... email to sashasews (@) y7mail.com

Little Step - Monthly Menu Planning (Part 2)

It is a rainy day here, and the kids are at their Daycare mum's house... bliss!

So, taking up from where we left off yesterday, we have a sheet of paper, ruled into a grid that has 7 columns across and 5 rows down. Each column has a 'category' of cooking across the top.

As next month is May, and starts on Saturday, number the last box in your top row with a 1. Then number each box consecutively along, up to 31. So now you have a menu calendar for May.

Today's REAL challenge is to fill in a meal idea for each day, following the category of the relevant column.

So I need to come up with 4 roasts, 4 soups, 4 slow cooker meals, 4 oven meals, 4 cook book recipes, etc...

Don't stress about this - remember it's not a menu plan that is set in stone. It is just something that you can use as a guide - a fall back, so that we know that each day, we have the ingredients to cook SOMETHING for dinner that night. If you change plans, skip a day or whatever, this is no drama.

Have fun with this - make a cuppa and sit down with your favourite cookbooks (I have a crush on Nigella). Just pencil things we - you can move them around, change ideas and even change column categories if you want.

Tomorrow we are going to draft a shopping plan for each week.

Little Step - Menu Plan (Part 1)

It is getting towards the end of the month, and there is a larger challenge that I want to try, but I am going to break it down into bite-sized pieces (ha ha - pun intended!). I want to try a system I have developed for monthly menu planning.

I think we all realise that if you go shopping with a plan, and a list, you are far more likely to stay on budget, and save those impulse buys for truly important things... like chocolate.

One of the things that I struggle with the most is having healthy, easy to prepare meals ready for my family at least 6 nights a week. And yet, when it is all going well, it is one of the best Little Steps you can take, towards bringing some peace into your life.

So here is my monthly menu plan challenge. Today we are going to take a piece of paper, and rule it into 7 columns, and 5 rows - 35 boxes, in all. Then I want you to think about 7 different 'categories' of food that you cook - as an idea, I am thinking of

Sunday - Roast
Monday - Soup / leftovers
Tuesday - Slow Cooker
Wednesday - Cook book
Thursday - Homemade Takeaway
Friday - Oven baked
Saturday - Homemade Pizza

Write each category across a column in your grid.... and voi'la - you have a menu plan template!

And that's it for today!

Friday Little Step - Changing Seasons

No matter which hemisphere you live in, the seasons are changing. (Turn turn turn..). So we are pulling out the winter woollies, and those of you in the North are putting them away.

Do you have a system for switching over your kids clothes to suit their size and the season (or the adults' for that matter!)? I have a very simple system. I keep a spare laundry basket in the area that I fold clean clothes. As clothes come through the wash system, clean and dry, if they are really getting too small, or no longer seasonally appropriate, I just quietly drop them in the 'other' basket. When it has a few things in it, I sort them and either store for next year, or bag them up to go to a local charity.

As Naomi has a bit of a thing about her clothes, I do keep the basket tucked up the back of the laundry room, out of her line of sight - thus avoiding tantrums about clothes she wants to wear, but doesn't fit anymore!

Then about once a month I do a quick trawl through the drawers & cupboards, for clothes that I might have missed, or that haven't come through the wash cycle.

Your challenge for today is to either - think about a system that will work for your family, for sorting out seasonal clothes, OR to just grab a container, put it where you fold clothes and see if my system will work for you.

Caveat - my system works for 2 little kids & 2 adults. If you have older kids, they could join in with the general cupboard clean-out!

This doesn't have to be a perfect system - but having some sort of a plan in place will be better than being totally haphazard... don't you think?

Have a great long weekend!