Sweet Pennies from Heaven

Kitchen Upgrade + Bubble Upgrade™ Sweepstakes

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Disclosure: This post was sponsored by CLEAR CARE® PLUS as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising.  I received financial compensation for my participation and endorsement.

 

farmhouse kitchen upgrade

Has there ever been a time in your life, when you needed an upgrade? An upgrade in your home, routine, lifestyle, health even? I’ve made a few upgrades in the last few years.

Living in an old farmhouse can be challenging. We live in the old house that I grew up in. My mom and dad had their own style, and while I adopted that style in my own life, we found that we just needed an upgrade. A re-do. A remodel, if you will.

My mom’s sense of style was perfection – in the 80’s! Our home seriously looked like it came off the cover of a Country decor magazine back then. After the home became our own, my husband and I decided that room by room, an upgrade was seriously needed. Same farmhouse style, but much brighter and more updated.

We decided to start with our kitchen. It IS the room we spend the most time in, so we figured we’d begin there. The cabinets received a new facelift, the walls, the countertops, we did it all — and we LOVE it!

What have you upgraded recently?

 

 

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Bubble Upgrade™ Sweepstakes

CLEAR CARE® PLUS has a really fun Bubble Upgrade™ Sweepstakes going on right now.  You can find a few details below and you can also find all of the Sweepstakes rules here. You could win an upgrade experience worth over $10,000.

  • From 8/10/16 to 9/6/16, a winner will be selected every Wednesday to win an upgrade experience (each valued at over $10,000), spanning categories from sports, travel, and self-improvement.
  • Enter the Bubble Upgrade™ Sweepstakes and you could win an upgrade experience valued at over $10,000.
  • The biggest upgrade in lens care is giving you a chance to win the biggest upgrade of your life.
  • CLEAR CARE® PLUS is taking upgrades to the next level with the Bubble Upgrade™ Sweepstakes.

 

More about CLEAR CARE® PLUS:

  • Triple Action Cleaning
  • You can see the bubbles working!
  • The #1 doctor recommended hydrogen peroxide solution
  • Preservative free
  • Loosens dirt, deep cleans, removes protein
  • Uses the bubbling, cleaning and disinfecting power of hydrogen peroxide
  • Features HydraGlyde® for long-lasting moisture

We’d love to hear about your upgrades! Leave us a comment and let us know what you’ve upgraded recently…or what you PLAN to upgrade. Make sure to enter the sweepstakes – and GOOD LUCK!

 

Meal Prep Supplies List (Works for Batch Cooking Too!)

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meal prep supplies list and batch cooking supplies list

 

Hey there!

Are you ready to stop dinnertime insanity?

Meal prepping is one of the most important things you can do to STOP the dinnertime rush! Especially when you prep your whole week’s menu in ONE day, instead of every evening!

BUT the biggest issue that most of us face when we begin meal prepping is that we start off on the wrong foot.

Let me show you HOW to get started on the RIGHT foot, RIGHT now, so you can be successful at this meal prepping thing!!!!

Meal prepping and batch cooking can be SUPER easy to do, but you first need to make sure that you have everything you need to keep up the momentum! Below, you’ll find our complete meal prep supplies list. I use and recommend EVERYTHING on this list!

 

Meal Prep Supplies List: Everything we recommend!

 

Menu Planning and Meal Prep Supplies list

  • A Weekly Menu Plan (either one you’ve written yourself, or you can use a menu plan service. We highly recommend eMeals. You can try them FREE for 14 days!)

 

TOOLS:

 

chef's knife

 

paring knife Rada

 

plastic 3-pack cutting boards

  • Cutting Boards (preferably more than 1)
    I’ve got plastic and wooden ones. I love them all. Any of these cutting boards will work perfectly. I do suggest getting dishwasher safe ones though. That’s just my personal preference. I also love having a few because when I’m prepping, I like to use one for produce and another one or two for meat.

 

stainless steel measuring cups and stainless steel measuring spoons

 

 

Mixing Bowls

  • Extra Set of Mixing Bowls
    Same as with the measuring cups above…extras are essential. I love this set of 4 nesting mixing bowls because of the handle and the spouts! Makes for easy pouring!!

STORAGE:

  • Ziploc Bags (various sizes, including snack size, sandwich, gallon).
    I prefer the original style of ziploc bags, not the ones with the sliders. Just my personal preference.
  • Aluminum Foil
    Any brand works, but I really like the heavy duty kind. It’s just more durable and holds up better in the freezer with stacking of pans, etc.

 

disposable pans

  • Disposable Aluminum Pans (various sizes)
    You can wash and reuse these a few times before throwing out. I use the 9×13 size more than anything else, but I do also love the pie pans for smaller dishes that I’m freezing.

 

rubbermaid plastic containers

  • Plastic Containers w/ Interlocking Lids (various sizes!)
    I love, love, love this Rubbermaid Food Storage Set with the interlocking lids because they don’t get lost in my cabinet!

MACHINES:

While these are not required things to meal prep and batch cook, they DO make life in the kitchen a little easier.

classic white kitchenaid mixer

  • Stand Mixer
    I use and LOVE this Classic KitchenAid Stand Mixer! However, any KitchenAid mixer that you use, you’ll love! I use mine all the time when prepping foods for the week — mixing up meatballs or meatloaf, mashed potatoes, dips, doughs, cookies, cakes, and even shredding chicken!!!

 

oval stainless steel crockpot

 

Ninja Mega Kitchen System

  • High Quality Blender/Food Processor (choose an all-in-one machine!)
    Save money and counter space with a food processor and blender, in one! This Ninja Mega Kitchen System is what we’ve been using and we love it! Everything swaps out seamlessly!

 

OXO Salad Spinner Green

  • Salad Spinner (life saver when cleaning and cutting up salad for the week!)
    I recently bought this OXO Salad Spinner and I use it each and every week! I got sick and tired of washing my salad greens and having soaking wet and wilted salads each night for dinner. Bleck! I did buy the large version, so I can spin a whole week’s worth of salads at once!

 

Ozeri Digital Food Scale

  • Food Scale
    You never think you need a food scale, till you NEED one!!! I got this Ozeri Digital Scale because it has excellent reviews. It comes in handy – especially if you’re counting calories!

 

Food Saver vacuum sealing system

  • Food Saver (vacuum sealer, great for freezing bulk meat)
    We have this Food Saver system that comes with a bonus starter kit. If you buy meat in bulk or family size packages very often, a vacuum sealing system is pretty necessary! It sucks all the air out, and you don’t have to deal with freezer burnt meat anymore!

 

At a Glance Supply List:

Here’s an At a Glance list in case you need to skip all of the details of each item.

  • weekly meal plan
  • high quality chef’s knife
  • paring knife
  • cutting board(s)
  • extra set of measuring cups and spoons
  • extra set of mixing bowls
  • ziploc bags (various sizes)
  • aluminum foil
  • disposable aluminum baking pans
  • plastic food storage containers, with interlocking lids

Machines: (not required, but very useful)

  • stand mixer
  • crockpot
  • blender/food processor
  • salad spinner
  • food scale
  • food vacuum sealing system

 

What am I missing? If you see something I’ve forgotten, please leave us a comment and let us know!!

7 Easy Ways to Organize Super Messy SNACK Cabinets and Pantries

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organize snack cabinets

7 easy ways to organize snack cabinets and pantries!

Do you have to close your eyes and brace yourself when you open up your snack cabinets or pantry door? Does stuff come flyin’ outta there and poke you in the eye? Shew! Glad I’m not the only one. Living in an old farmhouse, you’d think I had plenty of cabinet space, but I don’t. I don’t even have a flippin’ pantry. If I had a pantry, I’d live in it. You wouldn’t be able to drag me out of it!

Sooo, upon perusing Pinterest and Amazon I found some really cool ideas. Some that I think are life-altering genius. The other night, I literally pulled everything out of my cabinets and started a “pitch” fit. I think I filled 2 whole trash bags of stuff to dump and/or donate. It was like 9:15ish or so at night. The husband comes into the kitchen as I’m wollering this stuff all over the kitchen floor – and he just turns and walks out the door. I would have turned and walked out if I were him too!! I always start these projects late at night. Why?! I don’t know.

 

organize snack cabinet

1. Toss the boxes and the bags. I Heart Organizing shows us how she created more space in her cabinets with this method. There are several other awesome reasons to do this, including portion control!

 

 

organize snack cabinets

2. Use shoe organizers. I loved this idea from Money Saving Queen! Perfect for pantries and cabinet doors. In the comments on her post, I saw a reader mentioned that if you can find a shoe organizer with space in the rows between the pockets, you can easily cut them and attach on the inside of cabinet doors so that when the door is shut, the pockets with stuff inside doesn’t bump up against the shelves, for a perfect fit.

 

 

organize snack cabinets

3. Use open front stackable bins. Find out how A Proverb’s Wife got hers from the Dollar Store. This is such a space saving idea and I love how clean it keeps the cabinets. It also forces you to do tip #1 (toss boxes and bags!). Woot.

 

 

organize snack cabinets

4. Use all the space in your cabinets wisely! Do you have a lot of empty air space at the top of your cabinets? Use metal or plastic cabinet shelves to create more space to store things above and under. When I realized this, I almost felt stupid for not thinking about it before.

 

 

organize snack cabinets

5. Canisters. These are a great alternative to bins for many reasons. They’re pretty to look at and it’s easy to see what’s inside. You can consolidate lots of similar things in canisters for instance oatmeal packets, granola bars, fruit snacks. Individual bags of chips, crackers, cookies, etc. I found these clear glass canisters on Amazon but you can also find some at your local dollar stores or Walmart.

6. Label, label, label. These chalkboard labels are realllly cute! They’re great to label bins and canisters which is super helpful when you’re ready to organize snack cabinets and pantries. I love being able to see things quickly and clearly!

 

 

organize snack cabinets

7.  Hanging chip clips! These are GENIUS! Keeps chips fresh yes, but the genius part is that you can hang these in your pantry, leaving space on shelves for other things. The only hanging ones I’ve seen are these Rubbermaid chip clips from Amazon.

 

Don’t miss these other helpful household tips:

 

Do you have tips on how to organize snack cabinets or pantries?
Please drop us a comment….we’d really love to hear!

 

the chick behind this blog! I'm your ordinary, everyday wife and mom to an incredible pair of stinky guys! I am a self diagnosed coffee addict with a ginormous sweet tooth, preferably baked goods!! My hope is to help you, teach you, and entertain you on your way to a more thrifty and frugal lifestyle! Along the way, you'll find awesome recipes, great tips, and tons of randomness! We have loads of fun, so ya'll come back now, ya hear?!

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