Saturday Spotlight - Organizing Food

This is a reprint from our Organizing Hope blog:

Keeping up with food can be a big challenge. How often do you find food that has rotted before you used it up? Have you spent big bucks at the grocery store when you could have made several meals out of items you already have on hand? Here are some tips to help you get more organized with your food items.

Take inventory. On a regular basis (maybe once a week) take a quick inventory of what you have in the fridge, pantry, and freezer. If you have an additional freezer, keep a dry erase board on it to list items you have frozen. Take the inventory before you make your next grocery list.

Create at least one meal a week out of what you already have on hand. If you plan a menu each week (which is a great idea) try to think of at least one, preferably two, meals you could create with items you already have. Do you have spaghetti and sauce on hand? Has a casserole been sitting in the freezer for awhile? You may be surprised at how many meals you could come up with without shopping! A friend of mine uses the month of February to challenge herself to only buy the basics in groceries that month and use up whatever she can from her stock.

Use up items with short shelf life. Fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, only last a few days in the fridge. Watch how it is going and if they aren't being used up, incorporate them into an upcoming meal, prepare smoothies for the freezer, fold them into pancake mix and make pancakes one night, add a salad as a side dish, stir fry them into scrambled eggs.

Freeze what you can. Bananas can be frozen (unpeeled) for later use in smoothies. I've even heard you can freeze whole tomatoes! Do some research and freeze items that you tend to have to throw away. Freeze in small packets so you only use what you need.

Cull your grocery list. Instead of buying three types of berries for a week, buy the one the family will most use and mix it up other weeks. It's better to eat up the fruit you have than to throw it away simply because you overplanned for variety.

Use adequate storage. Experiement with bags and containers to see what works best for your family. Try to keep certain types of foods on certain shelves (i.e. left overs are always on the secon shelf.)

Communicate. Use a white board to jot down ideas for what family members can eat if they are hungry (i.e. to suggest using up leftovers.)

With a little thought, you can save some money by making sure you use what you have and stop buying what you don't need.

Question: How do you organize food at home?

Friday Funny - Replacement Windows

I received this from a friend recently and got a kick out of it. Apologies in advance to those of us with blonde hairs anywhere on our heads!  (Source Unknown)

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive double-pane energy-efficient kind, and today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the work had been completed a whole year ago and I still hadn't paid for them.  Hellloooo,............just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid. So, I told him just what his fast-talking sales guy had told me last year, that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves!   Helllooooo? It's been a year!  I told him.  There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up. He never called back.  I bet he felt like an idiot.

A Different Kind of Prayer Request

The next time someone asks you if you have a prayer request, consider making a request about God's Kingdom. For example, rather than stating a specific need of your own, say something like: "I am trying to witness to my neighbor. I would love to see her come to know the Lord. Would you pray I'll have an opportunity to speak to her this week?"

While it is not wrong to share your own concerns, it becomes easy to focus on our own "needs" rather than thinking about advancing the kingdom.

(Taken from a sermon at southsidefellowship.org.)

A Classic Business Book: Good to Great

Good to Great was a popular book in the early 2000's (can you believe we are even referring to time in that way!?) and remains a classic business book. In it, author Jim Collins explores why some companies "make the leap and others don't." A few reasons he lists:

First Who, than What: Great companies get the right people on board even before figuring out the "what."

Hedgehog Concept: focus on the things the company does well and stick to it, like a hedgehog does. Don't over diversify.

Technology Accelerators: don't jump on the technology bandwagon just because it's the next best thing. Evaluate what tools are best for your company.

You can get a copy of this book below while helping HOPE!

Fasting

Fasting can be a good practice (when done wisely) for your body, but also for your mind and soul. You don't have to consider fasting as only related to food. Here are some things it might be good to fast from:

·       bitterness

·       technology (I dare you—and me--to take a 24 hour period each week in which we avoid checking email and Facebook, and look away from our screens.)

·       cheap entertainment (such as celebrity gossip)

·       spending/shopping

Question: what other things can you think of to fast from?

Happy Labor Day!

It's Labor Day! Here's to all the hardworking Americans (and citizens of other lands) who read our blogs. And a prayer too, for those unemployed or underemployed. May you all enjoy your day and take some time for YOU.

Sabbath Sunday

Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; 

all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

Psalm 42:7