Edited Interiors: Ottawa Organizing Services

Meal Plan with a Sunny Slant

Edited Interiors — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:11:46 +0000

Here in Ottawa we are waiting for another snow storm, so I figured I would have a meal plan this week that features a bit of taste from sunnier places.

Grilled pineapples and fresh basil on our chicken burgers should do the trick tonight and later on in the week a lower fat black bean and chicken enchilada will spice things up a bit. The baked eggs may not sound particularly tropical, but hey – a yolk kind of looks like sunshine, doesn’t it?!

How about you — are you craving some summer fare?

Heather Cameron is a home organizer in Ottawa with Edited Interiors. Contact her at info@editedinteriors.ca to learn more about how you can benefit from her real-life organizing solutions for your home.

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Meal Plan for March 11th to 15th

Edited Interiors — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:22:45 +0000

Monday

Beef and Noodle Casserole

Salad

(45 minutes prep/cook time – family cookbook)

Tuesday

Warm Gorgonzola Dressing on Baby Greens Salad

Bakery bread

(30 minutes prep/cook time – family cookbook)

Wednesday

Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

Leftover Gorgonzola Dressing Salad

(1.5 hours cook/prep time – family cookbook)

Thursday

Tuna Casserole

Veggies and Dip

(1 hour cook/prep time – family cookbook)

Friday

Dinner out!

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This Week’s Meal Plan and Timely Dinners

Edited Interiors — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:43:27 +0000

This week is looking like it could get a little crazy, so I’ve made sure to do a bit of scheduling for this week’s menu plan meals. Monday and Wednesday’s dishes require more prep and cooking time than some of my typical recipes, but they are super delicious and will pay off with the leftovers they produce for Tuesday and Thursday’s dinners.

Planning to save time

The key to this Monday and Tuesday’s meal is Sunday’s preparations. Because I know I won’t have time for all the prepping and cooking right before dinner on Monday, tonight I chopped and simmered the lasagna filling so it is all ready for assembling and popping in the oven after work tomorrow.

Wednesday and Thursday’s dinner is also a bit time consuming to prepare, thanks to lots of veggie chopping and cheese shredding, but my plan is to do all my prep work Wednesday morning (since I’m free in the a.m.) and just assemble and bake it later on in the day.

And Friday? Well, my brother comes for dinner most Friday nights and keeps saying he’d like to buy us takeout as a thank you for all the homemade dinners he has had here, so I am taking him up on it this week. Cook’s night off!

So you tend to do much chopping and cooking in advance or do you stick to less time-consuming fare?

Oh, and here is this week’s meal plan (and yes, leftovers figure prominently this week too!):

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Meal Plan for February 18 to 22: It’s Me and Martha This Week

Edited Interiors — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:44:57 +0000

Here is our meal plan for the week:

I thought I would try out some new recipes this week, so I picked up Everyday Food Light from Martha Stewart’s Kitchen at my local library.

I don’t tend to buy cookbooks very often. Between family recipes, online recipes, friends and the library, I can usually test out new meals without committing to a book purchase. And that way, there aren’t any extra books being purchased that may not be used!

I tend to gravitate towards cookbooks that feature a colour photo of each recipe — it gives me some inspiration.

How about you? Where do you tend to pick up your best recipes?

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Easy Labels for Wire Closet Shelves

Edited Interiors — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:31:23 +0000

Earlier this week, I revealed some closet re-organization work I did on my teen’s closet. I followed my own advice from this post about organizing for kids and made sure to keep things flexible — even down to the labels.

Did you spot what I used?

Yep, mailing labels and badges holders!

I printed off the labels and affixed them onto dollar store bins for the socks, underwear, and top shelf items. For the wire shelves, I stuck the labels onto heavier paper and slipped them into badge holders. (Because this is a teenage boy’s closet, the labels are completely basic looking. I think if I had gone too pretty or elaborate, I would have had a mutiny on my hands!)

The badge holders orginally had metal clips for attaching. These are great, but because my shelves are spaced close together, the metal clips caused the labels to hang down a bit too much – I worried about them getting in the way of the clothes coming on and off the shelves. So I snipped off the clips (the before and after comparison is in the photo below) and have just used the snaps to attach the labels to the shelves.

The snaps are super easy to undo, so I can move the labels around when the urge hits.

Easy, cheap and, yes — flexible!

Here’s a reminder of the overall closet, post re-organization:

After

(For more details on this closet, check it out here.)

Do you have a favourite way to label your closet shelves?

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This Week’s Meal Plan and an Easy Tangy Beef & Noodle Casserole Recipe

Edited Interiors — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:10:02 +0000

So this week’s meal plan is already underway. While Wednesday’s recipes mean I will spend a bit of time cookin’ in the kitchen, the results are well worth it. We get to enjoy this family favourite meal of Curried Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Cardamom-spiced Couscous Salad on Wednesday – and then I have next-to-no work to do for Thursday’s meal. Hmmm, I’m just realizing as I look at the menu that “sandwiches” seem to be the focus this week….

This is the meal plan for the week:

And a friend of mine over at Kids in the Capital asked for the recipe for the Tangy Beef & Egg Noodle Casserole, so here it is:

Tangy Beef & Egg Noodle Casserole

250 grams (or so) egg noodles

1 tbsp oil

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 small white onion, diced

1 clove garlic, finely diced

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, drained well

2 5.5-oz cans tomato sauce

1 cup ketchup

1 8-oz can sliced mushrooms, drained

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Cook the noodles in boiling water according package directions. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, sauté the meat, onion and garlic in oil until the meat loses its pink colour and the onions are tender. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and Italian seasoning. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer gently for about five minutes. Mix in the cooked pasta and simmer for five more minutes.

Yield: 8 servings.

So what do you have on tap for meals this week?

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Closet Organizing for a Teen: The Flexibility Continues

Edited Interiors — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:12:35 +0000

Ever since my blog post last month about organizing kids’ closets, I’ve been a teensy bit closet obsessed. All of the closets in my home function pretty well, but like any organization system, they can always use a little tweaking.

I decided to take a look at my teenager’s closet first. I installed a Rubbermaid Configurations system in his room quite a few years back. I love these closet organizing systems because it is so easy to install and so flexible to change up. His closet was a bit messy, but wasn’t too terrible.

Before

But it was what wasn’t in his closet that really prompted me to make a few improvements. He had a laundry sorter in his room and while he still needs to practice his laundry sorting skills, the real shame was that this lovely space in front of the bay window was not really being used to its full potential.

My goal was to rearrange the closet so I could stash the laundry sorter in it and free up some floor space in front of the window.

Remember in my last closet post I talked about keeping it within reach and easy to use? Here’s how I put that into practice in this closet update:

Within reach

I had originally set up the closet so that the clothing was stored quite low. My son was younger (and thus shorter) then, so the rod ran the width of the closet and the clothing shelves were positioned well within his reach. Now that he is taller then me, I was able to reposition the rods into two shorter, but higher, rows.

Easy to use

I added a couple of short shelves beside the rods and spaced them closer than they were before. This allows small piles — not big heaping ones — of folded clothing. Tip: by limiting clothing piles to 3 or 4 pieces each, it makes it super easy to keep them neat and tidy.

I took down his baby and grade-school memory boxes and stored them safely in the basement in a large, air-tight plastic container. I then added some larger shelf labels and updated the ones on the bins and — voila!

After

Here are a couple of other after photos:

And best of all? That floor space in the bay window is now a great spot for kicking back in the beanbag chair!

How about you — is your closet doing what you need it to do?

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This Week’s Meal Plan: Including a Fast and Easy Recipe

Edited Interiors — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:36:08 +0000

This week’s meal plan is already on the go, but I thought I would share it to make sure I keep on track and maybe encourage others to do so as well. Included in the menu is an old standy-by recipe, Mexican Chicken with Rice. It’s a super simple dish to prepare and makes for a great leftover dinner, so I figured I would share it as well.

First, here’s this week’s meal plan:

And a fast and easy recipe:

Mexican Chicken with Rice

1 tbsp oil	1 cup chicken broth
1 lb boneless, skinless, cubed chicken breast	1 cup mild salsa
1 small onion, chopped	1 1/2 cup minute rice
1 small green pepper, chopped	1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 10-oz pkg frozen sweet corn, thawed

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add chicken, onion, and green pepper. Stir until chicken is cooked through. Add corn, broth and salsa and bring to a boil. Stir in rice and cover. Remove from heat and let stand five minutes. Fluff with fork and sprinkle with cheese. Cover and let stand until cheese melts. The instant rice helps to simplify the prep, but you can substitute it with any other rice. Just make it up separately and added to the chicken and salsa mix at the end.

(I will be doubling this recipe when I prepare it on Wednesday so Thursday’s dinner can be quickly heated up before we head out the door.)

To read up on tips for meal planning, you might take a look at one of my past posts.

Do you have an old standby recipe to share?

Heather Cameron owns Edited Interiors and is a home organizer in Ottawa, Ontario. Contact her to find out how you can benefit from her real-life organizing solutions for your home or follow her through the Edited Interiors blog, Facebook page, Pinterest or Twitter for more organizing ideas.

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Under Sink Storage: “Tray” Helpful Organization

Edited Interiors — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:28:47 +0000

Looking for organizing solutions for under your sink? It can be challenging, thanks to the sink itself and all the plumbing that gets in the way. But I’ve come across a great organizing solution from Rev-A-Shelf. I’ve used products from this company before — see my post about Small Kitchen Organizing — and have been quite happy with them.

These trays took me just a few minutes to install. Before the trays, my under-the-sink storage wasn’t too messy (yep, forgot to take a before photo!) but the plastic bin holding the dishwashing and cleaning supplies sat on the floor of the cabinet, crammed in beside the compost bin, and access to the back of the cabinet was a little inconvenient.

I simply measured and screwed in the clips for the trays with the provided screws. I just had to install the clips on the thickest part of the door (not on the thinner inside panel, for example).

The clips are easy to install.

There are extenders included in the packaging in case the door frame is slightly wider than what the clips require — but mine was fine.

The tray just slips on and attaches to the clips. The nice thing about this is that the trays can easily unclip later for quick clean up.

The trays clip on easily.

A few minutes later, here is my new under-the-sink storage solution!

Cleaning supply storage — with room to spare.

And here is a view of the space underneath the sink. Look — easy access to the compost bin and garbage bags! Sometimes it’s the small but everyday organizing solutions that can make a big difference!

Lots of space under the sink!

I used this storage product under my kitchen sink, but I can see it working in a bathroom for small items like nail polish, too.

(BTW, my opinions on this product are my own and I have not been reimbursed in any way.)

How about you — do you need an under-the-sink makeover?

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This Week’s Meal Plan: The Beauty of Leftovers!

Edited Interiors — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:35:40 +0000

In the interest of being a good organizer — and as a follow up to my recent blog post about meal planning — I thought I would post my meal plan for this week so you know I am practising what I preach! I find I tend to stay on track with any type of planning if I actually write it down — and better yet, share it with people. It’s just another way for me to be accountable.

If you take a look at the plan, you’ll see that two of the five meals are leftovers. Yes, I am getting off easy this week! I know that I will be out Tuesday and Thursday night, so Monday is a large lasagna that should last two nights. The recipe is from my family cookbook — well, really, a binder of recipes from my mom and sisters that I keep adding to (thanks to page protectors) – so I know it will fit the bill. On Wednesday, I will be spending more time than usual in the kitchen as I double a great curried chicken salad recipe and making an old standby, couscous salad with dates, grapes and cardamom. The payoff is that these dinners will only take a minute or two to prep their second time around.

And Friday? Well, I am letting people put together their favourite fixings on their pizza and I’m looking forward to trying out a recipe I’ve come across that some have called “the best pizza sauce ever.” I’ll let you know!

So here’s my meal plan for the week:

I find writing down my meal plan helps me to commit!

Okay, so the PVR is set for Downton Abbey and I am off to shop for my ingredients! Have a great night!

How about you — do you have a meal plan this week? What’s your worth-doubling recipe?

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