Yesterday’s weather was crazy. I didn’t have our television on all day. I was in the kitchen and heard a crash. This is what I walked out to.

It had been pouring and the wind had kicked up, apparently very strongly. I found out later, when Donny got home, that there had been tornado warnings.

I, however, had decided that I was going to clean out and reorganize the kitchen. I cook, roughly, 95% of our meals. I hate spending money eating out when I know that I can make the same meal at home. This means that I have A LOT of kitchen stuff. One of the drawers that gives me the biggest headache is the “gadget” drawer. I like to be able to just know where everything is and be able to grab it quickly. This is how it looked before.

And the after:

My “baking” cabinet was like playing Jenga every time I opened it. There are certain things that I use several times a week which is my blender, funnels, sifters and cheese grater. I don’t know why I never thought to put the panini press in the back and pull every thing else forward, but it makes so much more sense.

I cleaned out the bakers rack. The top shelf is where I keep most of the ingredients I use when I bake. The middle shelf is bread items and the bottom shelf is chips and stuff.

My main reason for doing this reorganizing was to find a place for the new cast iron. Because the giant pot wouldn’t fit in any cabinet I just put it on top of the fridge.

The double griddle was able to be slid in the side of the pots and pans cabinet. It’s still easy to get out, but out of the way also.

I did get rid of several water bottles and just stuff I don’t use. We don’t have a lot of cabinet space so we have to get creative. Unfortunately we have to use a whole set of upper cabinets for a pantry.

The top left is back stock and the top right is baking ingredients.

So that was my kitchen.

I’ve decided to post my dinners on here so that I can have a visual of what exactly I’ve made. I sometimes actually forget and if the family likes it or doesn’t I’ll have a record of it.

Last night I did tacos. I love the little griddle for my tortillas.

Super easy meal. Everyone was happy.

I’m trying to actually meal plan more. I normally have a vague idea, but I’d rather it be more concrete that scrambling at the last minute to try and figure something out. My mantra for this upcoming year is going to be “no matter if I’m tired and don’t feel like doing something, I just need to do it anyway because I’ll feel better about doing it in the long run”.