Disney's in the Desert

Mom Hack Monday: 3 Kitchen Hacks

If you’ve been following along on IG for a while or even spent a little time on my blog, you know cooking and baking are some of my favorite things to share about! Today I’m sharing three tools I’ve discovered that cut down time in the kitchen.

Veggie Chopper

So this handy gadget can actually chop more than just veggies (fruits, eggs, etc!) but we love it for making quick salsa and Taco Tuesdays at home. I honestly reach for it more than anything else because it’s so convenient and cuts down time. Also, I completely avoid the whole onion crying thing thanks to this, too! 😉 Hun loves helping me with this and it’s something little hands can definitely assist with!

Electric Carrot/Potato Peeler

This one requires batteries, but it doesn’t suck a bunch of energy out of them and you can really use it for a long time I’ve also peeled apples with it so much quicker, too! It comes with 3 blades and so simple to use. It gets the veggie/fruit so clean so quickly. II’ve found that I make less of a mess around me with it too because they’re all being peeled in the same direction at the same speed, not flying all over the place when I do it with the regular one.

Corn Stripper

I’ll admit I’m not the best at cutting corn off of the cob, until I got my hands on one of these! Whenever I’d cut them with a knife on the cutting board I end up cutting them half off or sometimes taking too much of the cob off with it. This tool literally helps you cut them off just like you’re slicing butter!! SO EASY! The handle allows you to get a better grip on the corn so that you’re removing them properly.

Have a fave tool that saves time while cooking/baking? I’d love to hear it in the comments!! I’m all about things that will give me a short cut without it looking like a short cut, ya know what I mean?

signature

French Toast Bake

….From left over homemade crustless sandwiches! If you missed that post a few weeks ago, go check it out! We save all of of the left over crusts so that nothing goes to waste, and one of our fave ways to use them is on the weekends with this french toast bake!!

The recipe will vary a little depending on how many crusts/loaves of bread you use. We like to use the artisan/potato type bread and can usually get about 14-15 sandwiches from two of those.

Ingredients

(Dependent on how much bread you use)

Left over bread

6-12 eggs

1/2-1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4-1/2 c heavy cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Add your crust pieces (I usually break them up a little bit more so they’re bite size) to a greased casserole dish. Disperse them evenly throughout the dish, then in a mixing bowl add all ingredients above. Whisk til combined. Take this mix and pour it evenly over the bread in the casserole dish. Optional: sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top before it goes in the oven. We like doing this to add a little sugar-y crunch!

Bake for 40-50 minutes until top is golden – you may need a few minutes more or less depending, but make sure the middle part is baked and not wet still.

Top with powdered sugar if desired and serve with maple syrup and fruit on the side! The perfect weekend breakfast that the whole fam can enjoy!!

signature

Two Simple Room Art Ideas

Picking out room for our bedroom has taken me the longest time to decide on and pick out. The kids’ rooms all came pretty effortlessly, as I was able to go off of their interests and certain themes throughout.

I’m sharing two framed pieces that we have in our primary bedroom that were inexpensive and simple yet meaningful and pretty. I’ll definitely share more of our room when I do a full tour later this year or early next (you know it always takes me more time to share than I anticipate!).

before

I’ll start with the smaller one. For the longest time we had this silly (ok, I thought it was really cute. C wasn’t a fan) canvas of a llama right here. I’ve since moved it to Colly’s room which fits in nicely there. I added this piece of art that I bought on Etsy and printed at Walgreens. I framed it in my fave poster frame (I’ve used these throughout my house – they’re light weight, clean looking, and more affordable than the ones I’ve seen elsewhere) in 16×20.

The next framed art I purchased on Etsy as well, but several years ago. I just simply changed out the frame to make it uniform to the one it hangs next to. This one I went slightly larger in size, at 18×24. The art itself is really special to me, I entered the date of when C and I first started dating (1/9/2006) and it shows a (personalized) constellation map of that day in time.

So there you have it! Easy, attainable, and pretty affordable! I think the most I spent was getting the digital downloads printed at Walgreens, but for the size, it’s actually pretty reasonable too. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

signature

FOLLOW

@disneysinthedesert