1. The 39 minute mark: Do you have meaningful conversation with your children for more than 38.5 minutes per week? If so, you’re doing better than the average parent. Having only two family dinners each week, filled with family conversation, would greatly increase the communication between parents and their kids.
2. Your child’s vocabulary: Having regular family meals is a larger determinant of a child’s vocabulary than any other factor. This makes sense because talking to their parents is one of the only times children participate in an adult conversation. They’re learning words, sentence structure, references.
3. Alcohol usage: Teens who eat family dinners at least five nights each week are 45% likelier never to have tried alcohol than teens who eat family dinners less than two nights each week.
4. Drug and tobacco usage: Teens who eat at least five family meals per week are 24% likelier never to have tried pot, and 32% likelier never to have tried cigarettes.
5. Making the Grade: Kids who eat regular family meals are twice are likely to get As in school.

So remember: Family meals are not so much about the food served, but about the connection and conversation between family members. Shoot for family meals five times per week, but work your way into that with baby steps. Switching from eating separately, grabbing take-out, eating in restaurants to family meals without distractions is a big change, make it slowly because it’s not something you want to fall off the bandwagon with.

If you’re struggling with making family dinners happen, and face a lot of obstacles reaching your meal goals, call me for a free initial consultation!

Here are some simple ones to get things going:

1. What’s your favorite meal of the day? What do you like to eat at that meal? If any family member mentions a meal that isn’t currently in rotation, make a mental note!
2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Wouldn’t that question at a job interview seem much less daunting if it we grew up having that be a casual dinnertime question?
3. What’s the best/funniest/weirdest thing that happened to you today? This is a great, every day question. If a family member is distraught, get them talking about it by having everyone talk about the worst thing that happened to them. Change the descriptive adjective every night so no one knows what to expect!
4. What project took up a lot of your time today? This will help get the spouses talking about their days and you can learn more about their work. Kids also work on lots of projects throughout the day and this will help you stay up to date on their classes.
5. What’s your favorite thing about ____. (The options are endless: Thanksgiving, the dog, whales, dinner time, your feet, computers, your teacher/your boss, a great restaurant, going out to eat, the weekend) You will learn a lot about your family with this question.

No. Way.

On average, my family clients save a couple hundred each month by preparing meals at home!  Here are ways to make it even cheaper:

1. Plan ahead. If you know what’s for dinner each night, you can shop for multiple meals in one trip, reducing your grocery costs and the time spent shopping. Knowing what’s for dinner prevents sup-par, last minute, emergency food choices, too!
2. Learn to love leftovers! Always prepare extra food: chop extra salad, veggies, and fruit, for example. Cook extra for lunch the next day, or for a jump start on tomorrow’s dinner. Try poaching chicken on Monday, and having chicken fettucini alfredo on Monday night, BBQ chicken pizzas on Tuesday night, and chicken enchiladas on Wednesday night. Planning to use your leftovers saves lots of money and eliminates wasted foods!
3. Use your resources. There are lots of blogs, magazines, websites, books, and cookbooks focused around creating budget family meals. Use these for ideas, recipes, and more money- or time-saving tips! Some ladies really know their stuff … learn from them rather than re-inventing the wheel.
4. Choose your meals wisely. Make a list of all the meals your family likes to eat. Reduce or eliminate the expensive dishes (nice restaurant items, expensive beef or seafood), so you’re left with relatively cheap meals to choose from. Also, decide what “cheap” means to you. I used to be proud when I fed two people a restaurant-quality meal for under $3. Some families of five need to eat for under $5 a meal. Some families of two consider meals under $15 cheap. It’s up to you. Once you have a list of meals, brainstorm ways that you can make each meal cheaper.
5. Track for fun. Figure out how much a favorite meal costs. Don’t go nuts with spreadsheets.  Just calculate it while you’re waiting for water to boil.  That way, you have an idea which meals give you the most bang for your buck.

What are some ideas?

1. Play Clue with your family, or with some neighbors! This game is a little spooky, thought-provoking and it’s a cheap and fun activity!

2. Go on a nature walk. Bring a box to collect interesting leaves, pine cones, rocks, and other things you find. Create a decorative centerpiece with the items you found with your family.

3. Paint pumpkins together. Painting pumpkins is easier and less messy than the traditional carving of pumpkins. Pumpkins will also last a lot longer if they aren’t carved. Paint pumpkins together, and make sure to have a camera ready for before and after pictures!!

What are you doing with your family today?

It’s Friday – the Friday before Halloween. Do you have the weekend off? Can you make some fun, family-friendly and super festive snacks? Here are some ideas for you, compiled from my research. I picked the most visually pleasing, the easiest to make, and the non-sickeningly-sweet recipes. Click on the picture to be directed to the recipe.

Monster Mash: A colorful salsa, crunchy chips and green guacamole!

Freaky Forked Eyeballs: Donut holes dipped in white chocolate and decorated with red frosting, with a chocolate chip for the pupil of the freaky eye! This is my personal favorite… if only for freakishness factor: stabbing an eyeball with a fork sounds delightfully deviant!

This is a non-sweet option to make: Grilled cheese on Rye with Celery broomsticks…how creative!

Cranium cupcakes: cupcakes in the flavor of your choice decorated with peachy-brown frosting

Banana Boooo!

A frozen 1/2 a banana on a popsicle stick, brushed with white chocolate (or frosting). A boo-tiful way to eat a piece of fruit!

Which of these ideas is your favorite?  Will you make any of these?

What Halloween treats are you creating in your kitchen?

First of all, kitchen sinks are awesome.  They are the cleaning station of the whole kitchen.  A gleaming kitchen sink can bring joy to the hearts of many women, while a kitchen sink full of crusty dishes can be a bad start to any day.  Be sure to take care of your kitchen sink area, and it will take care of you.

One of my favorite items to have under the kitchen sink is a roll-out trash can.  It can also be attached to the inside of the cabinet door.  A tilt-out trash bin can also work.  It’s best to be able to throw things away with one hand without having to use the other hand to touch the trash can. T he easier it is to throw things away, the better.  Plus, if you have to touch the trash can each time you throw something away, you should be washing both of your hands immediately to keep things sanitary.

If you have a trash can under your sink, you should keep trash bags there as well.  Even if you have a trash can elsewhere, under the kitchen sink is a good spot to keep trash bags.  If your trash bags come in a roll, then unroll and fold up five or so trash bags at a time, so you can grab a bag with one hand if you need one.  This will save time over using both hands to unroll the trash bag, then bending back over to put down the roll of bags.  Anything in the kitchen you can do with one motion instead of two is saving you time.

It’s also a good idea to keep a small container with current sponges and brushes for dish washing and counter cleaning under the sink.  Use a plastic food container, a metal cooking tin, or some sort of storage container to keep these in, so they won’t get contaminated by the bottom of your cabinet.

Keep new sponges and brushes in their plastic protective wrap until you use them.  That will keep you from getting confused about which sponges are used for what, and will protect them from moisture or in case of a spill (or from trash raining down on them!).

You will probably also need two types of dish-washing solutions: 1) liquid dish soap for hand-washing certain items, and 2) soap for the dishwasher.  These are perfect items to go under the sink.  Dishwashing solution will likely be used the most often out of all the things stored under the sink, so keep it handy and near the front, and closest to the dishwasher side of the cabinet.

I also recommend keeping a non-toxic cleaning spray bottle under your sink.  This will be perfect for spraying and wiping counters, cabinet doors and handles, the interior and exterior of the refrigerator, and spot cleaning the floor.  This does not need to be a heavy duty cleaner, since most things you’ll be cleaning are only dirtied with fresh food, rather than caked-on nastiness.

Finally, if the cabinet under your kitchen sink is made out of wood or corkboard, I recommend sticking down slick contact paper to protect the wood and to make wiping the bottom of the cabinet clean very easy for you.

What else do you like to have under your kitchen sink?  What do you think about my recommendations? What do you think your grandmother has under her sink?

Uh-oh.

We have a problem.  In this post, I want to talk about some reasons you may want to move them to a different location.

A recent client’s kitchen smelled strongly of chemicals.  I could smell the chemicals when I entered the home, and it only got worse inside the kitchen.  This client had all of his home’s cleaning supplies piled in a crate under his sink.  I appreciated that he containerized his cleaning supplies – and at least they were all in one spot.  However, I worried about his health and safety for a couple of reasons.

•  Chemicals can contaminate the air. If you can smell the chemicals, the fumes are getting absorbed into your fruit, your vegetables, your food, etc.  It’s best not to eat chemical-soaked garlic, bananas, apples, peppers, etc.
• The chemicals were low to the ground and easy to access.  He doesn’t have children now, but has two large pets.  Neither kids nor pets should have easy access to deadly chemicals.

Most people have no time to think about proper chemical care, so I’m going to give you a few tips on how to deal with toxic substances.

•  Treat chemicals and cleaning supplies as toxic – they are!  Unless you purchase special “green” supplies, you must take care to protect yourself, your food, and your loved ones from open bottles of chemicals, chemical spills, and chemical fumes.
•  Store only one bottle of cleaning supplies under your kitchen sink (or anywhere in your kitchen). Keep all other chemicals elsewhere.  Choose wisely with the cleaning item you choose to use for your kitchen – it is touching food surfaces. I  like Melaleuca’s supplies, since they are non-toxic and safe.  Dish soap and dishwashing soap can stay, since they were meant for touching food surfaces that ultimately end up in our mouths.
•  Keep only what you need. Lots of people like to hoard a huge variety of cleaning supplies “just in case.” You can get by with a very small number of chemicals to keep your home clean, with a lot less clutter.  Get rid of the hard stuff.  Get rid of the old stuff.  Get rid of the bottles that don’t close properly.
•  Read the instructions.  Many cleaning supplies should be diluted – from a 1/10 ratio to a 1/30 ratio.  Even if you can put together a Boeing 747 without reading the guide, please read the instructions on cleaning supplies.

Where should you keep cleaning supplies?  Ideally, a shed.  Don’t laugh!  You should keep them as far away from your living space as is convenient.  Your garage is the second best option.  A laundry room is another good choice.  You can also keep chemicals in a rarely used closet.  Just remember:  your kitchen, your refrigerator, and your pantry are no-nos!

What are some things to think about when it comes to your plates?  If you’re trying to eat healthy, reduce portion sizes, and lose weight, consider the size of your plates.  Claim Jumper serves meals on huge plates, and you’re likely to eat more than you normally would since you’re served such huge portions. Plates in the 1950s were approximately 9” in diameter, while many plates now are 14” in diameter!  A 9” plate has about 64 sq. in. for food.  Lets say that around 500 calories of average food fits in that area.  A 14” plate, in comparison, fits close to three times as much!

When I’m organizing a kitchen, here are my considerations regarding plate storage.  First, they should be stored as close as possible to the dishwasher and serving station.  When you are using a clean plate, what is it normally for?  Something you get right out of the refrigerator?  Store them near the refrigerator. Something that comes out of the microwave?  Store them near the microwave.  To serve steaming food from a pot on the stove?  Keep the plates near the stove.  In any case, plates should take up Prime Real Estate in the kitchen – that is, be one of the easiest things to access and near areas you work in.

Try to get non-plastic plates that all belong to the same set – these will look better and stack easily, causing fewer accidents.  In my opinion, two sizes of plates is enough and four is too many.  I think having some 9” plates and some smaller 3-5” plates is enough.  The fewer sizes of plates you have, the easier it will be to load and unload the dishwasher, and you’ll have more room in your cabinets.

Also, just a quick tip, but when you are purchasing plates, try to avoid plates that say “known to cause cancer.”

Most people have 1 place in their kitchen or pantry that feels unmanageable.  For many, it’s that junk drawer that barely opens or closes.  For others, it’s a pile of pots and pans that falls out in an avalanche every time they open the cabinet door.

As a kitchen organizer, I see all types of difficult kitchen areas.  Here are some common ones:

1. Tupperware and plastic storage areas
2. Pots and pans cabinet
3. Pantry shelves (Old food mixed with new food, open packages with unopened packages)
4. Junk drawers (I’ve been to many kitchens where every drawer serves as a junk drawer)
5. Spices and seasoning shelf or cabinet

These spaces feel very overwhelming when they’re in your home, but for me, they’re exciting!  The worse the area is, the more pumped up I am to set it straight!  (Yes, I’m a little crazy when it comes to organizing.)

If an area is only semi-messy, its hard to completely transform it.  However, if it looks like a disaster area, I know that in a mere 10-15 minutes, it can be totally turned around.  Most of my clients say, “Why didn’t I do this before?” when they see that it only takes a few minutes of focused effort to put an end to their most awful problem area.  Seriously.  It’s worth it.

My challenge to you:  Dedicate 15 minutes to this important project.  Pick the worst spot in your kitchen, and spend 10 minutes working on it.  Working on it means removing items and putting them in 1 of these places:

1. The trash (my personal favorite – get a bag for this)
2. Donation (to a thrift store or to a friend, I like to use a laundry basket or box)
3. Elsewhere (another location in the kitchen or home)
4. Resting area (put things that belong in your work area in a separate pile so you can see what you have while working.  Once you’ve cleaned out the entire area, you put these items back in an orderly fashion.)

Once you’ve spent 10 minutes working on the area, stop.  The last 5 minutes will consist of taking out the trash, putting the donation box in your car, putting the “elsewhere” stuff in its appropriate spot, and putting items back in the drawer or on the shelf.  Don’t skip this step.

Alright, you have the plan of attack.  Let’s go, baby!

I’m not the only person who struggles with drinking enough water: it’s a common challenge!  I’d like to talk about 3 ways that you (and I) can drink more water.

There are many reasons that drinking water is good for us.  Here are three of my favorites:

1. Drinking water helps you lose weight.  It reduces hunger, it raises your metabolism, and it flushes your body of toxins.
2. Drinking water makes your skin look sexy and blemish free!
3. Drinking water reduces your chance of getting sick (because of the flushing of toxins out of your system).

Okay, I’m motivated! Lets talk about 3 ways that you can start drinking more water:

1. Keep water visible where you spend time.  Carry a bottle in your car.  Have a pitcher on the kitchen counter.  Keep a jug at your work station.
2. Track your drinking.  Write down how much water you drink and when.  Review the results weekly. Make changes from week to week until you’re drinking enough water.
3. Keep water glasses next to your water supply.  If you keep a pitcher in the refrigerator, chill glasses in the refrigerator door.  If you keep a pitcher on the counter, place 2 glasses on a towel next to the pitcher.  If you drink tap water, make sure glasses are nearby.  As humans, we will do the most convenient thing.  Make it convenient to do the right thing!

Cheating on plain old water – the alternatives:

1. Drink herbal iced tea
2. Add an extract to your water: apricot, vanilla, mint
3. Add fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables to your water.  I suggest fruit over most vegetables (cucumbers are a popular vegetable choice).