Clear out your pantry

What a great idea!

Susan Sabo of Productivity Cafe shares a great method for eating what you have and clearing out (or at least whittling down) all the stuff in your pantry.

From Susan's blog entry:

Here are the guidelines:

1. You start a menu with something that you have on hand. Let's say it's a can of chick peas, potatoes, rice, onions, frozen green beans, chutney, bananas that are starting to turn brown and frozen chicken breast.
   
2. You decide to make a dish or menu using those items. Let's say chicken curry with the items above.
   
3. Put the extra ingredients you need to make the dish on your shopping list. Let's say you need diced tomatoes to finish the ingredient list.
   
4. You purchase that item when you grocery shop for perishables like milk and fresh fruit.
   
5. You make the curry and use all those things out of your stores. And, let's say you savor every bite!
   

Go to the top and start at 1. Again with another pantry item.

Use a great recipe site like RecipeZaar.com to help you search for recipes based on ingredients.

While my pantry could use a fair amount of whittling, I try to reduce what I buy to the absolute necessities by planning meals out in advance.  I actually created a Meals calendar as one of my Google Calendars, and I share it with my husband and son.  We plan menus together, Eric and I shop for the ingredients and all three of us take turns on preparing the meals, such as this lovely cheese omelet, made by Ben.

Save the bees!

Wildflowers - Maine
Originally uploaded by adamantine

The Bargainist reports today that Burt's Bees is offering a free packet of wildflower seeds.

I didn't know that every third bite of food we eat depends upon bees for pollination. You may have heard that bees are disappearing. This unexplained disappearance is called Colony Collapse Disorder. Read more about it at Burt's Bees here.

Visit this page on the Burt's Bees web site, provide your name and address, and Burt's Bees will send you a free packet of wildflower seeds -- no strings attached.

6 Summertime Tips for Work at Home Parents with Teens

As a virtual assistant, I work from a home office. It's great -- and, it's the hardest job I've ever held. My boys are 24 and nearly 14 years old. The 24 year old lives on his own, but my busy teenager is of course still around the house.

Balancing work and family is a challenge. Summer is especially difficult with my son out of school and not quite yet at driving age. Fulfilling a busy work schedule and keeping my youngest happy and busy simultaneously is challenging. Here are a few tips I use to keep all of us in good humor:

1. Stash money.

You've met a client for coffee. You'll be out for a few hours. Your child calls or texts and asks if he can go play mini golf, to the zoo, to the amusement park -- insert the name of your child's favorite amusement that requires money here. Your child, God bless them, has already orchestrated his transportation with a friend's mom. He's put on sun screen and promises to lock the door when he leaves. He just needs $20.

At the beginning of the summer, I stash 4 or 5 $20 bills in unlikely (but easily locatable with your provided instructions) locations. Don't tell your child where these are in advance, but you may want to share with your spouse if he/she occasionally fields these calls. When this scenario comes up, I tell my son to go to one of my previously defined locations and grab the $20 he finds there.

2. Use a marker.

This is such a simple tip, but it works very well. Does your teen not seem to know where to look for the totally obvious note you've written for them with instructions?

Try this: Use a dry erase marker to write a note on their bathroom mirror. It's easily wiped off with tissue. Bring out your inner artist with this Expo Low Odor Chisel 8 Pack -- I guarantee they'll see your note.

3. Have your child plan lunches.

During summer break, my oldest son would sometimes come stumbling into my office around noon after he'd just awakened. Ah, to have sleep in days again..... "What's for lunch?" he'd inquire.

I made up my mind that I was going to equip my youngest with strong cooking/kitchen prep survival skills. Every few weeks, I ask my son what he'd like to have for lunch. We negotiate -- I give in just a little on junk and convenience items during the summer. We mostly settle on items that he can make without cooking, like sandwiches and salads, and items he can microwave, pan fry on the stove or grill on ourGeorge Foreman Removable-Plate Grill. (See my Lifehack Your Burger entry on our business blog.)

My son loves to grill, and clean up is a snap since the plates are dishwasher safe. I bought ground turkey in bulk at Costco, flattened, scored and packed in 1 gallon zip top bags per the Lifehack Your Burger entry. Quick, tasty lunches are minutes away. Sometimes Ben even makes lunch for me too!

4. Buy the unlimited text message plan for your child's phone.

I can't believe how much kids text message. It's the new "IM." Save your wallet -- buy the unlimited text plan for your child. It's usually not too costly and it will save you money in the long run. I also find that my children are much more likely to communicate with me via text message, and it comes in handy if I am on a conference call and I can't talk to my child face to face at the moment.

5. Trade favors with other parents.

More and more parents are working at home, or are working flexible schedules. Work out deals with the parents of the kids your child hangs out with to make your life/work day easier. For example, my youngest is taking summer gym classes. The school the classes are held at is 20+ minutes away. With gas being so outrageous and the travel time to make the round trip at nearly 40 minutes, we car pool with another family. I drive the 6:40 am pick up shift, because it's easier for me. She drives the lunch time pick up shift, because it's easier for her.

If you have a group of kids that all go to the same swim club or other activities together, take a few extra minutes and try to plan how you can tag team with other moms or dads of the group to get everyone transported.

6. Pay for play.

See item #1. Money doesn't grow on trees, but it sure seems like kids think it works out that way. Sometimes, The First National Bank of Mom and Dad has to be closed. My child gets to do a lot of fun activities in the summer, and I fund most of them -- but not all.

Give your child some structure and let him know that his contributions are a necessary part of being a member of the family. My son helps with the trash cans, feeding and caring for our pets and cuts our grass. In exchange for that, I pay him a nice allowance, and sometimes I tell him that he'll have to use his allowance money if he needs money for an activity.

Summertime is awesome, but requires some creative thinking, particularly when you are a work at home parent. With your child's participation in the planning and preparation, everyone can enjoy the best that the season has to offer.

No backup in sight

Today I went to my optometrist.  So what does that have to do with backups?  I went to pick up my new glasses, the second attempt by them to get it right.  No luck.  So I asked them to just look up what kind of lens they made for me the last time two years ago.  Well, there's the problem.  There was some kind of "computer glitch" and some customer data from back then was lost.  No problem I said, just restore the backup and give me a call when you look up my records.  After all, a major optician chain such of theirs should be professional enough to backup critical customer data - wrong again.

Customer data lost because they wouldn't spend less than the cost of a pair of glasses on a backup drive.  Unbelievable.  Fantom drives are just one of the great options available that I recommend.

Recommend Fantom G-Force 500GB External Hard Drive

Use advance search techniques in Gmail

Gmail is well-known as a productivity tool for e-mail. Using labels, which you can now color code and filters along with archiving helps keep your inbox in order.  

When you do need to look for something you've archived, searches in Gmail are lightning fast.  There are a few tricks, however, that you can use to help fine tune your searches even more.

To search messages from a specific date range, use this syntax:

after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 

(In this date example, you're telling Gmail to search after April 16, 2004 but before April 18, 2004)

To search for a message from a specific individual that had an attachment, use this syntax:

from:"John Smith" has:attachment

To read the full list of advanced search techniques usable with Gmail, click here.

One of our favorite Gmail reads for extreme Gmail hacks, tips and tricks, is Hacking Gmail (Extreme Tech) by Ben Hammersley