Home Office Organization DIY - Keep your mail in check!

I'm always looking for ways to organize and keep things in a place where they are easily found.  Lets face it, with a family of 4, a dog, a bird, a turtle and several saltwater fish, I would need to be a professional to keep everything in check all the time.  So anything that will help me to keep things as tidy as possible, is of great importance.

This simple, yet satisfying project, took all but 30 minutes to complete and cost about $5.00.  Yep you saw that right... $5 buck-a-roos!

Once of my biggest pet-peeves is having loose mail sitting around all over the house.  One of us walks in and puts it on the dining room table.  The other one puts it in the kitchen.  A few stacks go on my desk, or gets lost in my husbands pile on his.  Before I know it, I have no clue where the water or light bill is, and I can't find the coupons that were just in the mailbox yesterday!  So I've come up with a super-cool idea to get everything in one place so I know what to file, what to pay and what to throw away.

Here is the list of things you will need for this simple DIY Mail organizer project...

First, look around your garage for a piece of scrap board, an old drawer bottom, or the backing off of an old dresser or piece of furniture that you would have had to build yourself.  If you don't have anything laying around, you could go to Ikea, Target, Walmart and speak to their warehouse manager and see if they have anything laying around that they can give you.  (Believe it or not, this works really well at these locations since they would just throw this stuff away).  The piece should be big enough to hold at least 2 letter sized accordion files top to bottom.  The piece I used measured 24" tall x 12" wide.  I used the bottom of an Ikea dresser drawer that fell apart and has been sitting in my garage for months.

The next thing you will need are 2 according files.  The plastic kind from the dollar store work perfect since they are light weight (each were $1.00). You will also need some super glue AND some hot glue, as well as chalk board paint (which I already had from previous projects) and a set of frame hanging hardware that can be purchased at your local hardware store (apx. $1.90 is what it cost me). Oh and of course, a box of chalk from the dollar store as well, ($1.00).

First thing you have to do, is take your piece of wood, cardboard or door skin, and spray it down with two coats of chalk board paint.  You want to make sure that you do this in a well ventilated area, (outdoors is best) and wait about 20 minutes between coats.  Let your final coat dry at least for 1 hour before you start to glue stuff on.

Once your chalkboard is dry, you can take the accordion files and first put the super glue on the back of one, and then a thin bead of hot glue so it will adhere to the board while the super glue sets.  repeat this on the second accordion file.  Wait for about 20 minutes to make sure that the super glue is fully cured before attempting to pick it up for the next step.

Once the glue has dried, turn the project over and adhere the frame mounting brackets to each side of the back of the board, making sure it is totally even.  Fasten the wire cord to each of the mounting brackets and securely tie them.

Use some chalk to draw up some cute stuff around your board or to simply outline in what folder you want which piece of mail!  It really is that simple!  Take less than an hour to make, and you can enjoy organization for years to come.

The best part about this project is that you can have your kids help you with it, and make it a family event.  This organization unit can be used for college students to organize their papers, students to put their homework, or even to sort craft projects and fabric!  You can also customize it to a larger board to include more folders and using colorful chalk, make great designs.

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Flaky Pastry Breakfast Ring - Delish & Healthy!

The holidays are creeping up on us very quickly.  Every year I have a special breakfast that I plan for my family on Christmas morning.  I always start planning ahead as far as what I'm going to make, and I always think of things that I can prep the night before and leave in the fridge to then pop into the oven the next morning.

This little gem comes from the idea of stuffing croissant dough with all kinds of delicious things, but taking it to the next level, by using those convenient pre-cut triangles and creating a beautiful breakfast ring.  That takes care of taste AND presentation!

You can make this recipe for all kinds of occasions. And you can customize yours to include either sweet stuffing like cream cheese and guava paste or Brie with some peach marmalade or fresh fruit filling.  I've also made this with Nutella and cream cheese and it makes a fantastic sharing desert to take to any festivity!

The recipe is actually quite simple.  You need to purchase...

2 pre-packaged croissant tubes
6 eggs (or egg beaters to make it healthier)
1/2 cup of milk (lowfat 1% is what I used)
6-7 slices of turkey bacon (if you prefer regular bacon, you need to half-cook the bacon first)
2 cups of shredded Mexican blend cheese
salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder (to taste)


Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  (If you have a convection oven, use the convection fan instead, since it cooks everything more evenly.  If you don't have one, that's okay.  Just make sure that you have an oven thermometer to make sure your oven heats up to the proper temperature).

While the oven is heating, make your eggs.  I always use them soft scrambled
so they are still a little runny when you put them in the pastry and they finish cooking in the oven.
To make the scrambled eggs, crack all 6 eggs into a large mixing bowl and add a 1/2 cup of milk.  The trick to getting fluffy eggs is the milk.  This also helps to keep them hydrated while baking.
Once the egg and milk mixture is combined, pour onto your pan, already pre-heated to medium heat.  Whether you cook the eggs with butter, or olive oil, it's up to you.  I like to add the omega 3's to the meal for health reasons, so I use the olive oil instead.  Make sure that you are constantly stirring the eggs since they can stick and burn if you just leave them without constant motion in the pan.

While the eggs are cooking, you can start to prepare your croissant wheel.  Take a large cookie baking pan and start to place your triangle in a circle around the pan.  You will use 1 tube of pre-packaged croissant dough for the outer spokes.  Make sure that you overlap the corners to form a bonded seal on the dough.   Once the outer ring is made, take your 2nd package of dough, and spread the triangles in the inside of the circle with the spokes facing in. Again, make sure you over lap them so they form a nice large dough base to place your stuffing ingredients.

Now it's time to spoon in your eggs.  While they are cooking, make sure to season them at the end before spooning them into your prepared ring.  Make sure to spread the eggs evenly on the dough base you have created so the bottom is what is going to cradle the eggs and bacon.  Once the ring is full of eggs, take your bacon, slice each piece in half and form them in a crisscross pattern over the eggs.  Follow the pattern all the way around till you have covered the eggs around the ring.

The next step is easy as long as you follow the pattern.  Start folding in the internal spokes of the ring over the eggs and bacon.  Once the inner ring is folded over, then start on the outer spokes going in the opposite direction.  The croissant dough is not going to fully cover your filling.  Once it's baked it will fill itself in slightly.  The rest will be covered by the cheese during the last step of the process.

Once your spokes are completely folded in, use your hands to gently form the outer edges of your ring into a circle and form the bottom edges of the ring around the filling.  This will help to keep the eggs from spilling outside of the ring during the baking process.

Now you are ready to bake!  Place the cookie sheet into the oven for 15 minutes.  Let it cook the full amount of time.  Once the 15 minutes are up, open the oven and add the shredded cheese over the top of the ring and then put back in to the oven for another 5 minutes.  This will allow the cheese to melt and crisp over the pastry.
Once it has completely cooked, take it out of the oven very carefully and let it sit on the counter for about 5 minutes to let it cool slightly before serving.

Depending on how many people you have to feed is how you will cut the ring.  I usually cut it into 8 thick pieces and drizzle with my homemade tomatillo salsa (get the recipe here Tomatillo Salsa Recipe).  This is a hearty breakfast that can be served as the sole meal item, or if you are planning a brunch, you can cut it into 16 pieces if there will be other items to accompany this dish.

The best part of this recipe is that you can really make this your own.  You can add tomatoes, onions and green peppers to the eggs while they cook to give it some texture and add another dimensions of flavor. Or you can add some sausage or ham into the eggs, instead of using the bacon.

The healthy part of this meal is the fact that you can substitute the eggs with egg beaters (for less calories and cholesterol), we used turkey bacon instead of the full fat pig version, and you can use low fat cheese and croissants instead of the regular full fat version.  These small substitutions will not limit you on flavor, but will certainly help to make your meal much healthier!

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