In the kitchen

With the start of the school year, I’ve been struggling to keep up in the kitchen. Meal planning has gone out the window. Frozen waffles are my new best friends.

I’m considering buying into one of those meal-planning services, where they send you a list of meals you’re supposed to make that week and a shopping list that goes with it. Check out my blog post about this on Penny Carnival if you’re interested in links to some of those services.

Despite my woes, I managed to make some real food last night for my parents, who are visiting from Bellingham. We had ratatouille pizza and carmelized onion and spinach dip (see photo above), both from my friend Sarah’s food blog, In Praise of Leftovers . I’d planned to also make this salted caramel chocolate cake , but—surprise, surprise—ran out of time. Maybe next time I’ll start with the cake and work backwards to the vegetables.

Even just that burst of time cooking last night is inspiring me to dedicate more energy to being in the kitchen. Maybe I can bring my cookbooks with me to soccer practice and squeeze in a little meal planning!

And if I’m going to spend even a wee bit more time in the kitchen, I might as well daydream about ways to improve the look of it, right? Here’s a roundup of kitchen- and cooking-related projects and products worth pining away for:

20 kitchen storage solutions using repurposed objects (from re-nest)

Convert a wooden pallet into a plate rack (from re-nest)

Upcycle thrift store dishes with paint (from re-nest)

Turn an old ladder into a pot rack (from re-nest).

A recipe for a fig, mozzarella and prosciutto sandwich . Seriously. Could anything be better than that? (from serious eats)

A new cookbook out called Time for Dinner from the former editors of Cookie magazine (R.I.P., Cookie magazine).

This kitchen cabinet color , which I’m seeing everywhere these days (from design*sponge) and instructions on how to paint your kitchen cabinets , in case you’re up for the challenge (from Young House Love).

A kitchen makeover (and not the kind that costs $75,000) that incorporates curtains made from Amy Butler fabric and the first thing I add to our kitchens and bathrooms whenever we move: white subway tile (from Making It Lovely).

Chalkboard kitchen cabinets (from Vintage Indie)

A $4,000 kitchen remodel (from Vintage Indie)

How would you change your kitchen if you could? (My answer: have someone clean the dishes still sitting in the sink from last night’s dinner.)