time saver Archives - The Zen Maker

Holiday finds at Restaurant Supply

Posted on December 29, 2010December 29, 2010 by The Zen Maker

When you need something for your kitchen or for entertaining in your home, where do you go? Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel? If you would like an affordable alternative place to shop, I recommend your local restaurant supply company. Most of these stores are open to the public and they have a lot of great items that can make your life easier during the holidays or when you are entertaining.

If you need extra wine glasses, silverware or serving pieces, the restaurant supply store has a variety to choose from at reasonable prices. Also, if you are feeding a large number of people, they have big restaurant sized pans, cookie sheets and platters. In addition to having these items on hand for the holidays, in the case of the wine glasses, they usually come in boxes that can be used to store the glasses when you don’t need them. Two things that I have purchased there that help me during the holidays are stainless steel tongs which are about $2.75 and are the best tongs that I own. I also have a large stainess steel sheet pan that I use to pour my homemade caramels in to cool. I think that sheet pan ran me about $9.00, but to me it is priceless.

In addition to having regular kitchen items, these stores carry items that you don’t find in regular kitchen stores but you may find helpful. One of these items is a sign holder. You find these at buffet dinners and they have a small sign telling you what food it is you are about to enjoy. Using sign holders to identify which food has nuts or which punch has alcohol can really make your party go smoothly when entertaining a lot of people. They also have professional grade stainless steel tables, storage racks and bag sealers. Some of the items could be used in your kitchen or in other parts of your home such as your garage or craft room.

The next time that you need an item for your kitchen, think about venturing into your local restaurant supply company. Spend some time looking around at what they have available, you never know what you might find that will make your next holiday party a lot easier on you!

Improve your drive to work and de-stress

Posted on October 4, 2010 by The Zen Maker

What do you listen to during your daily commute? Is it your local radio station with your favorite music or the local news? Would you like to read more and just cannot find the time? I have a solution to maximizing the time you spend in your car going back and forth to work.

My solution is listening to books on CD. Now, if you are a person that is easily distracted or has trouble listening and concentrating on driving, I don’t recommend this. However, if listening to a book while you are driving is easy for you, you might consider it. I find that it helps me de-stress and moves me into relaxation mode.

While books and CD can be expensive if you buy them, your local library has hundreds of books on CD of all varieties. No matter what type of books you enjoy reading, the library probably has several that will meet your needs. Also, with most libraries, you can reserve what books you want online and then pick them up at your convenience when they are ready.

My current favorite books are Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, Infinite Possibilities by Mike Dooley and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Have you started listening to books in your car? Have you found that it helps you de-stress? If so, let me know!

The joy of a clean car and not doing it yourself!

Posted on September 22, 2010 by The Zen Maker

I recently treated myself to having my car professionally detailed. I have spent many hot summer days vacuuming, washing and wiping down my car. I always love how it feels the next time I get in and it is spotless. This time, I decided to let someone else use their elbow grease to make my car sparkle and I was not disappointed.

The detail shop did the standard wash, vacuum and clean. However, in addition, they cleaned the nooks and crannies that collect dirt and are tedious to clean. They also waxed my car which I never do, even though I probably should. Another plus was that I dropped it off and went to work and picked it up at the end of the day. No waiting around for me so it saved a lot of time.

Sometimes it is good to treat yourself. I highly recommend taking cleaning and washing the car off of your to-do list once a year and indulge in having it professionally detailed. The detail people really know their stuff and have great tools. Another side benefit is that after you pay to have someone detail your car, you are much more diligent in keeping your car clean on a daily basis.

Getting online recipes in line – finally

Posted on August 20, 2010 by The Zen Maker

Most people who cook today in the technological world we live in, get recipes online. It is convenient and people post how they liked the dish, whether it is too spicy or bland and how easy it was to make. People also list additions, subtractions or problems that they had with the recipe which can save you a lot of time and energy when making it for the first time.

I usually print the recipe to put into my recipe holder and at the same time, I copy and paste the recipe into an e-mail that I send to myself. It is important that you don’t just e-mail the link to the recipe. A lot of websites that provide recipes give you an option to do this but a lot of them do not allow permanent access to their recipes. Instead, they are just available for a period of time. I keep a folder in my e-mail marked recipes and I always put the recipe title on the subject line. I have found this to be very useful for many reasons.

If something happens to the printed recipe, you always have a copy to refer to and reprint. Also, if anyone wants a copy of your recipe, you can just e-mail it or print it for them on the spot. If you put all your recipes in a folder in your e-mail, you can use the search function on your e-mail to find a recipe quickly.

I hope that you will incorporate my technique of e-mailing your online recipes to yourself and keeping an e-mail folder for them. I think you will find it to save a lot of time, energy and unneeded searching when you need to get down to the business of cooking.

Pantry and refrigerator lists

Posted on July 5, 2010 by The Zen Maker

One of the ways that I stay organized is by creating lists of the regular items I keep in my pantry and refrigerator. The lists are alphabetized to make items easy to find and placed on the fridge door or on a hook in the pantry. Putting the lists in plastic covers and putting a sticky note on top makes it easy to write down items as you run out. If you create the lists on the computer, it is easy to update them when you need to add a new item that you are consistently purchasing.

The time and energy it takes to create the lists pays for itself with less trips to the grocery store mid-week to pick up an ingredient that you forgot for that night’s dinner. It also saves a lot of time when making out you grocery list and when planning your meals for the week. Another advantage of keeping a well-stocked pantry, is if you end up having one or two unexpected guests during the week and need to pull something together at the last minute.

I hope that you will consider taking the time to create pantry and refrigerator lists for yourself and see how easy it will make keeping your home stocked and ready for anything that comes your way.

Double it up Double it up

Posted on June 4, 2010 by The Zen Maker

A great time saving tip that I recommend for busy people is to double up recipes. Why, you ask? Well, for one thing it really doesn’t take much extra effort to just make more of something. You already have the ingredients out, the measuring cups or pans are already dirty and you are already in the kitchen cooking. The reason it will make your life easier is that when you don’t have the time to cook, pulling a homemade ready made meal out of the freezer is easy. Instead of stopping to get pizza, you can have a healthy meal that you prepared in advance.

The other great thing about making extra is having left overs. You can take them to work so you don’t have to buy lunch or you have them for dinner in a couple of nights. It saves time and money when you cook in larger quantities.

It is also nice if you are having company over that may be unexpected or last minute. You can pull out one of your delicious dishes from the freezer and still have time to tidy up before they get there. They will be amazed and you will be less stressed if you have a back-up plan. With a busy family comes uncertainty and a back-up plan is always a good thing to have.

One of my favorite recipes to double up on is cookies. I never make one batch of cookies. I always double it and freeze most of the dough. I separate it into smaller containers and whenever my family wants fresh cookies, I just pull the dough out of the freezer and in 20 minutes we have freshly baked homemade cookies. It does not take long when you pull the dough out of the freezer for it to soften enough to drop it onto a cookie sheet. Make sure that you lable and date anything you put in your freezer so you can rotate and use the oldest first.

I hope that the next time you go to make chili or chocolate chip cookies that you will double the recipe and then pack some away in your freezer for the next rainy day or cooking craving!

Dust off your slow cooker and save time

Posted on June 1, 2010 by The Zen Maker

When you are looking for ways to make your life easier, sometimes you need to look towards the tools in your home that you already have that you are under utilized. I love my slow cooker. I use it on a regular basis to cook delicious and hearty meals. With a little planning, it can help make meal time easier after a long day at work.

You can make one dish that you can stretch to make two or three dinners in a week saving you time and energy. For example, you could roast a chicken in the slow cooker and enjoy that on the first night. The next night, you could take the left over chicken, shred it and add some taco seasoning to have chicken tacos. If you have more chicken left over, you could stretch it a third night and add it to salad with egg, bacon, avocado, tomatoes and some cheese for Cobb salads.

The other nice thing to do with your slow cooker is to make a large batch of your favorite dish of chili, stew or soup and have it for dinner one night and freeze the rest to have in the future. That way when you are at a loss for what to have for dinner, you can just pull out a serving of your homemade slow cooker masterpiece and just add a salad or some rolls for a complete meal.

Another great use for the slow cooker is for parties. I often cook pulled pork in my slow cooker when having people over for a party. I serve it with buns and coleslaw and people love it. It cuts down on the amount I have to prepare before the party as I just put it all in the slow cooker and forget it.

A great website for slow cooker recipes is The Taste of Home Slow Cooker Recipes: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Cooking-Style/Slow-Cooker-Recipes. I like these recipes because they have reviews and include nutritional information for each recipe.

I hope that you will take a moment to plan a meal to cook in your slow cooker. You will be glad you did when you come home from work and smell the delicious dinner that is hot and ready to eat.

Being organized = less stress

Posted on February 16, 2010 by The Zen Maker

Do you find yourself stressed and rushed as you leave for work? A little evening planning can alleviate the stress and get you to work early instead of late. The more that you do the night before to prepare for your day, the easier the morning can be for you. For example if you go to the gym after work, pack your gym bag the night before. That way, you won’t be running around trying to find your favorite gym shoes before you have had your morning cup of coffee. Another great tip is to make your lunch and your snacks for the day and have them ready to grab on your way out the door in the morning. You can save money by not eating out and it will probably be healthier too.

If deciding what to wear is always a challenge or takes up too much time, you can decide on your outfit and lay out your clothes the night before. This is also a great tip for children that struggle with getting out of the door on time. Another tip for kids is making sure that their backpacks with their home work, permission slips and gym clothes are packed and ready to go. Leaving those things to gather in the morning can lead to forgotten items or documents. Being organized helps make responsibility easy for children and hopefully their day will go better too.

OHIO and I don't mean the state

Posted on January 12, 2010 by The Zen Maker

This little acronym is helpful when sorting through anything but can be most impactful to change our lives when we apply it to paperwork. We have all done it, looked through a stack of mail or papers on our desk and dealt with the easy things and set the rest aside to be looked at later. Sometimes it may seem that the pile of paperwork did not get any smaller even after it was sorted. An acronym that I find helpful to solve this problem is OHIO. OHIO stands for Only Handle It Once. When you decide to sit down with a pile of paperwork it is best to do it next to the shredder and the filing cabinet so they are easily accessible. The key to only handle it once is to deal with each item individually and immediately. Once you are done with it, it should be put it in its proper place. If you need to make a phone call or fill something out, if at all possible, do it before moving onto the next piece of paper. This may seem easier said than done and I admit that it will take some practice. However, if you keep repeating the phrase in your mind while sorting through your stack of papers, you might find that it does get easier and quickly becomes a habit. Hopefully, a habit that will leave your world free of unnecessary paperwork and will cut down on the time you spend searching for that receipt you need because it is in your file where it belongs. Go OHIO!

Limiting your to-do list to get it done

Posted on January 11, 2010 by The Zen Maker

I recently took a look at my to-do list and found that it was always too long. My solution was to break my list down into smaller portions and do a little bit each day. I limit my to-do list for each day to five things. This was a workable solution to the never ending list and found that I had a sense of accomplishment each day when the list was done. The beauty of a personal assistant is being able to finish your to-do list by having your personal assistant do the things that you would otherwise spend a lot of your free time getting done. There are some things that you will have to ultimately do yourself like renew your driver’s license. However, wouldn’t it be nice to have your personal assistant tell you what day of the week and when the Department of Motor Vehicles lines are the shortest so you can get it done fast. In addition, a personal assistant can help you prioritize and manage your to-do list so you don’t have to.