Quarantine Cooking: Tips for Managing Meals

One of the biggest challenges with this whole stay at home situation is all the cooking! And as we try to avoid going out in public where we can, planning ahead to avoid frequent grocery store trips has become a necessity. This is also the perfect time to get the whole family more involved in the kitchen since everyone is at home! Here are my tips for planning out meals and minimizing shopping trips, and getting children- no matter their age- more involved in cooking.

1. Meal Planning

If you weren't a meal planner before I'm betting you are now! I've been meal planning for years now and it truly does not have to be complicated. The key is to have some reliable recipes on hand, know how to be realistic when you are choosing your meals, and getting organized before you go to the store (or order your groceries). Here are some specific tips for simplifying the meal planning process so you don't have to stress so much over what to cook or what to buy.

2. Family Cooking

There is no reason for one person to be shouldering all the cooking responsibility for the whole family when everyone is home, and this time while they're not at school is perfect for introducing some kitchen skills to kids! My daughters have been helping with cooking in some form or fashion since they were very young, and now they are each in charge of one dinner per week, from planning to cooking. Here are my tips for getting kids involved in the kitchen:

I also highly recommend getting everyone involved in the planning process for other meals, even if they aren't cooking. I don't have my daughters cook more than one meal a week, but I do have them pick out one breakfast each week as well. Half the battle for me is just coming up with ideas for what to eat- meal planning systems help a lot with that but having others share in the decision making is so helpful.

3. Use What You Have

One of the biggest epiphanies for me during this time at home has been the realization of how much food I have laying around. It's a little like looking at a full closet and lamenting having "nothing to wear"- I have all these staples that I keep on hand that I don't really count when I'm looking at what I have available for next week's meals. I've been trying to start limiting my grocery store trips to every 2 weeks instead of weekly, and it has been a lot easier than I thought! Here's what has worked for us to make this happen:

• I still only plan 1 week's meals at a time. My brain can't handle that much decision-making at once right now to plan out 2 weeks of meals. So before my grocery store trip, I plan out the week's meals with my daughters and make a list of what I need for those meals like I normally would. 
• When I go to the store, I pick up a couple of extra fruits and vegetables that will last longer, like sugar snap peas, potatoes, melons, etc. If we're getting close, I might grab an extra milk or carton of eggs. But otherwise I just buy for the 1 week we've planned.
• For the 2nd week my daughters and I come up with meals using what we have left. It has been amazing to me to see how much we can make with the random stuff we have left in the pantry and fridge! The first time we did this I truly thought we would be eating scrambled eggs and mac and cheese all week, but actually we ate different meals every day and it wasn't that difficult to come up with ideas. 
• I normally save leftovers from dinner to take as lunches to work. Now I freeze the leftovers instead. That gives me another dinner I can pull out in a couple weeks! 

I'm compiling all of my posts related to school closures/ stay at home social distancing for school and home in one place to make it easier to find. Be sure to head over there for more:

I hope these ideas make quarantine cooking a little less stressful! Stay safe and happy cooking :)

Read more "Quarantine Cooking: Tips for Managing Meals"

Meal Planning 101: organizers

Over the last few weeks we've been talking about meal planning, and hopefully convincing anyone who feels like they just aren't organized enough to be a meal planner that is attainable and adaptable (and definitely worthwhile)! Today I want to revisit my favorite meal planning topic: organizers. I think there's something here for everyone, no matter what your lifestyle and intensity level of meal planning might be- which one would you use?

However you decide to go about meal planning, you're going to need some place to keep track of, well, your meal plan! Depending on how structured you want to get, there are a lot of ways to do so that will help keep you organized and make choosing meals each week easier.

1. Clipboard

OK, so it's not what we normally think of as a "clipboard" but it's a board with clips! The basic idea is to have your meal ideas written on cards, and you pick out the ones you want to use for each day and put them on that day's clip. Each clip has a day of the week on it, attached to a picture frame. The beauty of this system is that it's easy to use, cheap to make, and having the cards pre-made makes it easy to keep track of which meals you've made recently (by putting them into a separate box) and go through your list of meal ideas quickly to pick out new ones for the week. Click here to read my post on how I made and use this organizer.

2. Dry Erase

Dry erase boards are another easy way to keep track of your meals for the week. My favorite way to make dry erase organizers, of course, is with a picture frame. In the picture above I used scrapbook paper and letter stickers to make the template to go under the glass. You can set the board up however you want- keep your shopping list over on the side instead of to-do's/ prayer lists, write down breakfast/ lunch/ snack ideas in another section, etc this way. Click here to read more about how I make these. If you're not really the DIY type, you can also pick out one of the meal planner templates from my home organization binder, laminate it, and use it as a dry erase board as well!

3. Planner

Of course if you have a planner for home and/or school, you can also just write your meal plan down in your planner along with everything else! I've done this a few different ways: for a long time I reserved the box at the bottom of each day in my planner to write down my dinner menu. When my after-school schedule gets busy with meetings and extracurriculars, I've also just made a list in my notes section of all the meals for the week.

However you decide to go about it, I hope you'll give meal planning a shot! It has made my life so much easier not to have to stress about dinner during the week. What are your favorite meal planning tips? If you want to read my previous posts on the topic, click below:

Sign up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter for exclusive updates, timely ideas and resources, and lesson ideas!

Read more "Meal Planning 101: organizers"

Meal Planning 101: weekly shopping trips

Meal planning can be a game-changer if you set up a system to make it streamlined and effective! One of my favorite things about meal planning is being able to go to the grocery store just once a week and never having to making an extra stop in the middle of the week. Here are my tips for making sure you never run out of groceries mid-week again!

There are two categories of foods that I need to shop for at the grocery store: staples and meal ingredients. My tip for making sure you have all of your meal ingredients is simple: 

Copy your ingredients from the recipes as you plan your meals.

Last week I talked about how to plan out your meals so that you are more likely to stick to your plan (read that post here). In that post I talked about a few different ways to save your favorite recipes, whether digital or hard copy. However you're saving them, whenever you're choosing your recipes and looking at them to make your plan for the week, go through the ingredients list and write down the ones you don't have. Save yourself the step of having to go find those recipes again later when you're ready to go to the store!

Staples are things that I don't have to buy as often but I need to make sure I have on-hand, like condiments, spices, bread, snacks, and drinks. Some of them I'll be able to check when I'm looking at each recipe's ingredients, but others are things we eat outside of mealtime and won't come up while I'm meal planning. That's why I suggest one other tip for making sure you have everything you need on your grocery list:

Keep a running list in the kitchen and add to it throughout the week.

I have a dry erase board stuck to the side of my fridge where I make my grocery lists. Throughout the week, if I notice we're running low on a staple, I'll write it down immediately. That way when it comes time to add my meal ingredients, I won't forget the staples! I love using a dry erase board for this because it's easy to make accessible in the kitchen where you can write it down as soon as you notice something. Remember if you don't have a regular white board, you can use a picture frame for the same purpose! 

Bonus tip: keep a magnetic list pad on your fridge for your shopping lists as well.

As you can see in the picture, I keep a magnetic list pad right next to my dry erase board. Once I've written everything down on the whiteboard, when I'm ready to head to the store I transfer the list to the notepad, splitting everything up into categories so it's easier to find at the store. Very handy!

I hope this helps you see how easy it can be to make a meal plan and stick to it- I absolutely cannot imagine not meal planning at this stage of my life! If you have any questions about meal planning or tips of your own for making one trip to the grocery store each week, leave them in the comments below :)

Get more timely ideas and content sent straight to your inbox each month by signing up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter.

Read more "Meal Planning 101: weekly shopping trips"

Meal Planning 101: choosing your menu

After over 5 years of meal planning, I am definitely a big fan. After numerous conversations with people who say they want to try meal planning but just "can't get organized enough", I thought I would share my tips for people who want to give meal planning a shot but don't know how to get started. Today we're talking about how to pick out your meals for the week so that you're more likely to actually follow through with your plan!

One of the most common excuses I hear for why people don't meal plan is that they just can't anticipate more than a day or two ahead what they will want to cook. The key to avoiding this pitfall is making sure you're considering the rest of your schedule when you're making your meal plan!

The key is to plan your meals LAST!

There is no way to be a meal planner without being a planner in general, at least to a certain extent. You need to know which days you're going to be rushing around in the evening, when you might have company coming over, etc in order to make a meal plan that you can actually follow. When I sit down to plan out the week ahead each weekend, I always plan out everything else first- my children's activities, my work schedule, appointments, etc- then figure out my meals based on those factors.

The other important factor for creating a workable meal plan is to have plenty of realistic recipes at your fingertips. If you love spending time in the kitchen and have the time and desire to do so, save those recipes you get excited about making. If your evening schedule makes it impossible for you to spend more than 15 minutes in the kitchen, make a list of recipes that are super-quick to make. You're more likely to be successful in meal planning if you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you sit down to plan out your menu!

Set up (and maintain) a solid list of recipes that fit your lifestyle!

For me, Pinterest has been my best friend for keeping track of recipes I love. If you're like me and don't have much time to spend in the kitchen but still like to have variety and healthy meals, you're welcome to check out my boards for crockpot dinners and easy dinner recipes! There's also nothing wrong with going with good old index cards in a recipe box. Start a list somewhere that you can easily access, and add to it whenever you come across new recipes.

Once you've got a solid list of meals started and you get in the habit of planning out the rest of your week before choosing your menu, you're well on your way to successful meal planning! I'll be back to talk about more meal planning tips in future posts, so stay tuned- summer is a great time to pick up meal planning if you're hoping to get in the habit for the new school year!

Stay in touch and get timely ideas and resources sent to your inbox by signing up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter!

Read more "Meal Planning 101: choosing your menu"

Easy Asian Recipes for Warm Days

Now that the weather is warming up, I'm excited to pull out some of my favorite warm weather recipes- the ones that require minimal cooking and are cool and refreshing to eat! If you're looking for some new weeknight meals to try this spring and summer, here are a few of my favorites :)

1. Hiyashi Chuka

Many of you know I grew up in Japan. This is one of my favorite Japanese meals and it's so easy to make! Basically it is cold ramen noodles with a soy-sesame sauce and whatever toppings you'd like- I usually go for cucumbers, carrots, ham, egg, and bean sprouts, but you can truly use whatever you have in your fridge. This is a great way to use up that produce at the end of the week! The recipe below will show you how to make the sauce from scratch, but if you have an Asian grocery nearby see if you can find packs of Hiyashi Chuka, which will come with the noodles and sauce packs- I can throw dinner together in 10 minutes with these!

Recipe from Just One Cookbook:

2. Fresh Spring Rolls

This is another great way to use up produce and add in whatever you have on hand. All you need are rice paper wrappers like these. Soak them in warm water for 5 seconds, put in whatever ingredients you want, and wrap it up like a burrito. Add some dipping sauce and you've got a fun, easy, and delicious lunch or dinner in just a few minutes. My favorite tip: get the fresh mint and cilantro leaves. It takes them right over the top!

Recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch:

I keep some Hiyashi Chuka packs and rice paper wrappers in my pantry year-round so I can quickly whip these up whenever I feel like it. So easy, healthy, and yummy! I hope you'll give them a try this season (and let me know what you think)!

Stay in touch and get timely ideas and inspiration in your inbox- click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos Newsletter!

Read more "Easy Asian Recipes for Warm Days"

Top 5 Easy School Snack Ideas

There's a lot of chatter about school lunches. I've even written about lunchbox ideas quite a few times myself (click here to see those posts). But you know what threw me for a loop this year as my daughters started Kindergarten? Snacks. Nobody warned me that in addition to packing lunches every day I was going to need to pack snacks as well! After getting over my initial bewilderment I've come up with some standard go-to's that work for me- here are my favorite snack ideas to send to school.

There are a few reasons why snacks took me by surprise at the beginning of the school year: 1) I quickly learned that snacks have to be eaten quickly and independently- no time for fussy wrappers or foods that take a long time to eat, 2) after working out a nicely-balanced healthy lunch, adding in the snack factor just throws everything off, 3) of course the snacks still have to be peanut-free for my daughters' school (and, it seems, most other schools in the US), and 4) kids get HUNGRY at school- I'm amazed at how filling the snacks need to be for my kids to not come home ravenous!

Of course I don't have time to pack a second lunch every morning for every child. It needs to be quick and easy for me to throw together. So with all of those factors in mind, here are some of my go-to snacks to pack for my Kindergartners.

1. Fruit

Apple slices, tangerines (pre-peeled), bananas, and raisins are easy to pack, quick to eat, and give my daughters the energy they need to make it through the afternoon.

2. Bagels

I'm always surprised at how much my daughters like this one: half a slice of bagel with some cream cheese sandwiched in the middle is a quick and filling snack they both love!

3. Crackers/ Chips/ Salty Snacks

I often save those salty carbs- chips, goldfish crackers, popcorn, pretzels- for their snack. They're easy to throw in a bag and my daughters are always excited to eat those.

4. Juice

I will often throw in a small juice box, especially if their other snack is one of the salty snacks mentioned above. They get in a lot more fluids during the day this way, and there are quite a few healthier juice options out there these days!

5. Nuts/ Seeds

I am lucky enough to have the option of sending nuts to school- my daughters' school doesn't allow peanuts but does allow other nuts. Besides walnuts, pecans, and almonds, coconut flakes are another great option (which would also work for nut-free schools), and pumpkin and sunflower seeds (pre-shelled) have been great options as well!

Those are some of my favorite snack ideas. What are yours? I'd love to get some more ideas from all of you veteran moms out there, because it has been surprisingly difficult for me to come up with snack ideas to send to school! Leave a comment below if you have some favorites :)

Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Top 5 Easy School Snack Ideas"

Spiced Milk Steamers

After an unusually warm October, the weather here has gotten chilly the last few weeks- and that has me craving a hot mug of something cozy all day every day! My 5-year-olds like to get in on the coziness too, but most of the kid-friendly warm drinks, like hot chocolate or hot apple cider, are so sugary. Today I've got another option for a kid-friendly, non-caffeinated warm drink that has a lot less sugar: milk steamers!

I hope I'm not the last person on earth to discover these things.... I have gotten steamed milk for my daughters a couple of times at Starbucks when we went together, but I didn't know it was an actual thing until recently. I started making them for myself on cold winter evenings last year and this year I've loved trying some new flavor combinations!

The basic idea is simple: add some spices and/or sweeteners to some milk and heat it up. Done. I have this latte maker which can froth and heat milk, so I use that, but you can easily make it in a saucepan- just heat everything together on medium low heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk.

Obviously the sky's the limit in terms of flavor combinations- if you aren't worried about the sugar you can do it like Starbucks and just add a little flavored syrup- but here are some of my favorite things to add to my milk steamers:

Sweeteners: honey, molasses
Spices: cinnamon, cardamom, ginger
Extracts: vanilla, peppermint

My absolute favorite combination right now is a little cardamom and molasses. So cozy!

Have you ever tried milk steamers before? What are some of your favorite ways to flavor them? If you've never had one before, give it a shot- it's a really great way to mix up your tea/ coffee/ hot chocolate routine and unwind on a cold evening :)

If you want more hot drink ideas, don't miss my chai tea recipe and my ideas for spicing up your coffee at home:

Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Spiced Milk Steamers"

Q&A Home Edition

A couple of weeks ago I asked you all to send me your questions, and I got lots of great responses! Today I'm going to be answering the questions related to life at home, and I'll be answering the questions related to teaching and planning in future posts as well. For each question, I've put together a video answer to go along with the written one (to accommodate multiple learning styles, of course!). If you have more questions for me, I'd love for you to leave a comment- I enjoyed hearing from so many of you and would love to do more posts like these in the future!

1. I'd like to know how you organize/plan meals. Do you have a master list of supper ideas to choose from?

Meal planning has absolutely changed my life- I have no plans to go back to the weekly/daily "what are we going to eat?" moment of panic. My meal planner for dinners is set up so that I have a master list that I can quickly choose from each week, and it has worked great for me for the last 4 years! Here's my post that explains each of my meal planning systems (yes, there are multiple), including instructions for how to make the same meal planner I use for dinners (it's super easy!):

As far as the exact recipes I use, those have evolved over the years. Back when I started meal planning when I first went back to work with twin 18-month-olds, I had a pretty strict rule of no more than 15 minutes prep total! Nowadays I can handle up to about 30 minutes of cooking, which means I have a lot more non-crockpot options ;) If you want to see some of my favorite dinner recipes, here are two of my Pinterest boards to check out:

2. What do you pack for your own lunch for school?

Until this year, my lunch was almost always an afterthought (and, honestly, it was a neverthought pretty regularly- I had to scramble to find food to eat after realizing I had forgotten to bring lunch again so many times!). Usually I had leftovers, and I also tried to keep some grab-and-go things in the freezer, like these wraps, and these patties, in case I didn't have anything on hand.

This year, though, I finally caved and bought myself a lunchbox. It's just like my daughters' but slightly bigger, with bigger and fewer compartments. I don't know why it took me so long to do this but I am so glad I did! I now remember to pack my lunch, because I pack it with my daughters', my lunches are healthier because I pack mostly the same foods as I do for them, and because of the way my lunchbox is designed, I can still pack leftovers along with some of the same fruits and veggies as my daughters if I have something from my fridge to take. It's seriously the best of all the worlds.

I share my daughters' lunchboxes usually once a week on my Instagram account, and I occasionally show my own lunch in there too (although 3 lunchboxes can be a little hard to photograph well sometimes!). Here's one of those pictures so you can see what I'm talking about:

If you want to read more about what and how I pack healthy lunches for my daughters (and now for myself too!), here are some posts on the topic (and you may want to follow me on Instagram to see weekly lunchbox ideas!):

3. I would love to have my preschooler and kindergartner help out in the kitchen, but I'm terrified that little fingers will get cut! What utensils do you allow your twins to use? 

OK, so this is something that has been a work in progress for the last 3 years or so! ;) The main thing to remember is that they'll never learn until they get to practice. As scary as it is, at some point you have to- with lots of supervision and baby steps- let them try.

So about those baby steps.

1. When the girls first started "cooking" when they were about 3, I did all of the cutting/ chopping. I encouraged them to choose meals that didn't require too much chopping, like sandwiches, burgers, and fruit that can be pulled apart with your hands (bananas, oranges...).
2. When they got a little older and had more experience in the kitchen, I started letting them use a butter knife to cut very soft things like bread, melon (with the rind removed), hard boiled eggs, and bananas. They LOVED the responsibility and it was a great way to practice without worrying about little fingers.
3. Once they got the hang of the butter knife, I started letting them use a sharper, but still small, paring knife to cut things like hot dogs, cucumbers, and even apples (this is when they were around 4.5-5 years old). When they first started we did it hand-over-hand, then gradually I moved back a little, still with my hands basically hovering just out of their line of sight ;) One of the keys at this stage, I found, was to get them to understand that they had to pierce through the initial skin before trying to cut straight through.

My biggest tip for teaching knife skills: make sure whatever they're cutting has a flat surface so that the item is stable. I will cut the apple in half first, for example, and lay the flat side down for them to cut into slices. Cucumbers they can manage now, but when they first started I would cut those lengthwise too and lay the flat side down for them to slice. It makes the hand that's holding the food less important so they can keep it out of the way.

My plan for a next step, now that they're getting pretty handy with the little knife, is to get them a knife like this to use:

True story: my daughters' preschool teacher had a brother-in-law who was a chef, and he taught his preschooler son to chop with this exact knife. 

If you want to read more about how and why I have been getting my daughters in the kitchen since they were preschoolers, here are some posts on the topic:

Want to stay in touch? I share timely news, ideas, and resources once a month in my newsletter! Click here to sign up!

I hope you enjoyed reading and watching this Q&A session- I know I had a lot of fun putting it together and reading your questions! :)

Read more "Q&A Home Edition"

Travel Tips with Kids: Rainbow Snacks!

As we gear up for summer travel, I wanted to share a fun tip to help pass the time on long trips with kids (whether you're on the road or in the air). It helped make my road trip with two 4-year-olds much more enjoyable last year and I plan to use it again when we fly across the country in a few weeks!

*this post contains affiliate links*

I came up with this idea because 1) I love focusing on the color of foods- it has made my daughters much better eaters and it makes everything more fun (and usually healthier too), 2) I know that on long trips it helps to have things to look forward to throughout the trip, and 3) when it comes to travel you can never have too many snacks.

The basic idea of Rainbow Snacks is to pick 1 food item to go with each color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink (you could add white as the "clouds" if you need another one) and pull them out one at a time in rainbow order for everyone to eat, spaced out over your trip.

Step One: Set Your Schedule
The first thing to do is figure out how many colors you'll need (depending on the length of your trip). If you have a 3-hour trip, you could do 6 items (one every 30 minutes) by ending with purple, for example. For preschool age, the 30-minute time worked really well. For older kids you could space them out more, even one each hour, for longer trips. The main thing is to try to have a predetermined time for each one so that everyone can anticipate when the next one is coming!

Step Two: Choose Your Foods
The second step is to choose one food for each color. I tried to have a mix of fruits and vegetables, protein and/or savory, and 1 or 2 sweet treats, but making sure I only included things that everyone would *actually* be excited about (my kids are great eaters and they'll usually eat asparagus for dinner without complaint, but I don't think they would get that excited if I pulled it out as a "special surprise" on a road trip!). Here's a list I came up with, but obviously there are any number of options! Remember to think about package colors and not just the color of the food itself.

Step Three: Prepare Your Foods
You'll need to have each food packaged in its own container so you can pull each color out separately. I put everyone's food for each color in one container for everyone to share, but you could obviously package every person's food individually if it's hard to share on the trip. I have a collection of reusable snack bags (like these) that I used for this because a) I can package each food in a bag of the same color so I know which is which and b) nobody can see the food inside. As long as you can keep track of which is which though, the packaging is obviously not too important.

Step Four: Have Fun!
One thing that made the snacks even more fun was having everyone guess what each item was going to be before we opened it! It just built up even more anticipation. If you have packaging that isn't see-through, you can pass the package around for people to shake and feel too ;)

Of course there are a few extra considerations you'll need to be aware of if you're flying- basically you'll want to make sure everything is contained and that you don't have any liquids. Here's a little more detail on that if you're flying in the United States. All of the foods I've mentioned here should be safe to bring through airport security.

How do you make long trips with young children more bearable? Leave your tips in the comments below! I can always use more ideas and I'm sure other readers would appreciate your tips too! If you want packing tips for traveling with children, here's my post on that. Happy trails everyone!

Want more? Sign up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter and get more ideas and resources sent straight to your inbox!

Read more "Travel Tips with Kids: Rainbow Snacks!"

Favorite Crockpot Recipes for the Busy Spring Season

Crockpots tend to get a lot of attention in the fall and winter, because it's a great way to simmer up warm and cozy stews, soups, curries, and more. But honestly my favorite time of year to pull out the crockpot is in the spring when, you know, everything in life seems to happen at once and my brain is in a constant state of overload. Here are some of my favorite recipes to simplify meal prep during this crazy time of year!

The nice thing about crockpot cooking is that you can throw stuff together in the morning and not have to slave over the stove when you come home exhausted in the evening. If it's a warm day, you won't be heating up your kitchen with the stove or oven either! 

Click on the pictures to go see the original recipes:

1. Salsa Chicken

This recipe is absolutely as simple as it sounds, and it's so versatile. You literally put some chicken in the crockpot, cover it with salsa, and cook it on low for 6-8 hours. That's it. When it's ready, I like to use it for a simple taco night (pull out some tortillas, shredded cheese, and canned corn and beans, chop up some cilantro and whatever other veggies you have in the fridge and let everyone make their own soft tacos) or add it on top of a simple salad for a quick lunch to take to work, but you could also use it as filling in a casserole, add it to some one-pot pasta, or use it as enchilada filling.... you get the idea. 

2. Honey Garlic Chicken

This another recipe where you throw in some chicken and a few ingredients to marinade and you're done. I do it with chicken thighs because I prefer it but it would work with breasts as well. When I come home, I throw some rice in the rice cooker and steam some broccoli, asparagus, green beans, or some other veggie and dinner is served! Everyone that tastes this chicken LOVES it- it's super yummy.

3. Baked Potatoes

This is the perfect example of something you don't want to make on a busy warm evening because it takes a long time to cook and it heats up the kitchen, but you can eliminate those two problems with the crockpot! Wrap the potatoes in foil, throw the in the crockpot, and let them slowly cook while you're at work without heating up your house. When it's time to eat, I pull out whatever toppings I have on hand: maybe some leftover cooked broccoli, bacon bits, shredded cheese, butter, canned beans, etc, and add some chopped cold vegetables like bell peppers or carrots or pull out a bagged salad. Done! And I always make a couple of extras to take to work for lunches.

Those are my top favorite recipes to make in the spring: all of them are easy to throw together in the morning, but aren't going to feel too warm and stuffy for a sunny spring day. For more crockpot recipes (I'm a huge fan), here's my crockpot Pinterest board :)

What are your favorite ways to save time in the kitchen this time of year? Share your tips in the comments below! Want more? Sign up here for the Organized Chaos newsletter and get ideas and resources sent straight to your inbox.

Read more "Favorite Crockpot Recipes for the Busy Spring Season"