New Year, New Kitchen

January is the month of new beginnings! It’s a new year, a new you and we’re here to encourage you to get a NEW KITCHEN.  Now, we’re not saying it’s time for a full on kitchen remodel, no, no, no. We think it’s time for some major kitchen organization, with the intention of keeping things neat and tidy, but most importantly, with the resolution to healthily (yep, we just made up a word) your kitchen.  We laid out five simple steps to give your kitchen a new year make over and we promise that a few hours of out with the old, in with the healthy, you’ll feel like you’re in a new kitchen.

1) Make a mess.  We’re big believers that it’s important to make a bigger mess before everything actually gets clean.  Make sure you have LOTS of free table and counter space and COMPLTELEY empty your refrigerator, pantry and cupboard.  Divide everything into four categories:

1. The expiration date has passed and it's time to compost it.
2.  Too many ingredients you can’t pronounce and not something you feel good about eating.
3.   Even though it’s open, it hasn’t expired and still looks good.
4.  Yummy, I’d eat this tonight!

2) Compost, recycle and throw away everything from category one and two.  Wipe off, organize and repackage everything from category three and four. (Here at Peas of Mind we love storing our grains, beans and baked goods in mason jars…it looks so cute and makes the ingredients last longer). 

3) This is where the spring “cleaning” really comes into play.  Now that everything is empty, wipe off every surface, wash each vegetable drawer and really get into all the nooks and crannies of every corner, crevice and crack.  If your freezer is like ours and it needs a good makeover too; a quick way to defrost and wipe everything down without unplugging the whole fridge is to place a pot of boiling water in the freezer and let sit for 20 minutes.  After this time, you should be able to chip away the ice and wipe your freezer until it sparkles. 

4) Put everything from categories three and four into the appropriate storage space, admiring your new adorable jars, dust-free surfaces and all the free shelf space. 

5) Fill the free space with items from our Pantry Staples that will give you Peas of Mind blog post. Also stock your squeaky clean vegetable drawers with winter produce like kale and other wintergreens.  Put out a fruit bowl with winter fruit like oranges, tangerines, grapefruits and apples. You want this bowl to be easily accessible to everyone so that your whole family can easily enjoy winter’s natural candy!