This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 2023 NAPO Summit. This is the annual conference for professional organizers and productivity experts around the country. The event was full of educational sessions, networking, and the latest bling from our sponsor mDesign. I had the pleasure of speaking on “Foresight and Trends in the Organizing and Productivity Industry.” Needless to say, I was in my element. Since I figure you can’t get too much good information about organizing, I thought I’d share a few tidbits from the National Organizer’s Summit.
First, here are a few of the “fun facts” from my own presentation:
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In addition to leading my own session, I was lucky enough to spend time chatting with many colleagues over the course of the conference. When asked to share some wisdom with my readers, they were more than generous. Here are a few “free tips” for you!
“Have a weekly family meeting to discuss what’s coming up in the week. Do a Sunday “reset” to get everything in order for the week. Establish and use a shared calendar where everyone can see what’s going on.” ~Ellen Delap, Professional-Organizer.com
“Later is not a time. If you put a task off until later, it will never happen.” ~ Diane Quintana, DNQ Solutions
“Stop the incoming. Don’t buy and buy a lot of stuff on sale or stock up on supplies until you’ve gotten your current situation under control.” ~ Angel Cody-Rouget, Major Organizers
“If you’ve only moved once in a number of years, lean into your resources to get things in order. Professional resources have got the ‘Easy’ button.” ~ Darla DeMorrow, HeartWork Organizing
“Have a vision of what you want your space to look like. This helps you stay committed and motivated until you reach your goal.” ~ Janet Schiesl, Basic Organization
“Remember that your things should work hard for you and serve you well.” ~ Sue Duval, The Organized Hive
“Ziploc bags are you friend. Use them to contain items so they don’t get jumbled. Bags like these are affordable and can be temporary or permanent. Use them to contain items while you are organizing before buying products to ensure you get the right size containers.” ~ Gayle Goddard, The Clutter Fairy
“If you don’t know where to start, ‘treasure hunt’ what can easily go.” ~ Lynne Poulton, Wholly Organized
“Remember that being a minimalist doesn’t need to be your goal. Organize for whatever YOUR priorities are.” ~ Beth Fuchs, Organized to Perfection
“Sort the daily Mail DAILY. Don’t let mail get comfortable on a surface or in a container as “mail” and relieve yourself of the pressure to process mail, but SORT it quickly, in two minutes or less. Sort bills to pay, statements to file, magazines to read, etc. and free up your number one organizing tool: a clear work surface. Only junk mail should be discarded immediately. Otherwise divide now, conquer later.” ~ Matt Baier, Matt Baier Organizing
“Don’t forget to take a “before” picture when you are getting ready to work on a space. It is motivating to see your progress.” ~ Lisa Dodson, New Season Organizing
“For parents who are struggling with what to keep for their children in terms of memorabilia & artwork, ask yourself 2 questions: (1) What do YOU have from your own childhood? (2) How do YOU feel about it? This helps guide you to what matters most for you individually, and helps give perspective on an often overwhelming task.” ~ Emily Maioco, Next Level Organizing
“Matching hangers transform a closet the way a coat of paint transforms a room.” ~ Lauren Haas, Clutter Kicker
“Find the joy in your space. There is joy everywhere.” ~ Kristine Stables, Mermaid Home Organization
“Here is a tip for when you unpack from a type of trip you take repeatedly. To help “next year you,” as you unpack, snap a photo of the contents of your bags, including the bags used. Markup the photo with the year, location, and dates traveled. This gives you something to refer back to next year!” ~ Sue Duval, The Organized Hive
Photo credit: Sue Duval, The Organized Hive
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Attending a conference is a wonderful way to get the creative juices flowing. I know I’m coming away with a lot of great ideas to share with my clients.
What’s the best tip you’ve recently heard?
The post Tidbits from the National Organizer’s Summit first appeared on The Seana Method Organizing & Productivity.]]>As someone who spent years working in moving and storage, I know that who you choose to help you with your move can make all the difference. Unfortunately, it can be hard to know if you’re picking the right Los Angeles moving company.
So without further ado, I give you this curated list of HireAHelper’s top Los Angeles movers (as of Spring 2023). This list is based on real customer reviews. You’ll find companies of all sizes, from well-recognized names to mom-and-pop shops, each with its own strengths and personality.
Price: $113/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
Rigo’s is the #1 rated mover on this list and for a reason: they have completed more jobs on HireAHelper than any other moving company. They have a robust FAQs section, which displays their commitment to both customers and employees, and I appreciate that they transparently explain what to expect before and on moving day — this extra touch may seem small, but it speaks to their thoughtfulness and service standards.
What Real Customers Said:
Treating customer valuables like their own: “Santiago & Benito are a great team. More attention to detail than I expected. Handled my property as if it was their own. If you’re hiring Rigos ask for these two amazing men.”
Satisfaction from beginning to end: “Fantastic work! Friendly, communicative, efficient, and ready to tackle the job, which was unloading a 16-foot moving truck into a two-bedroom apartment up a flight of stairs. Appreciated the confirmation call beforehand and all their heavy lifting.”
Price: $140/hour for two movers (2 hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
Having opened its doors in 2016, BC Moving Labor is somehow “new” to the scene compared to others on this list, which goes to show how much valuable experience exists in the LA area. BC says they’re especially proud that they are fully family-owned and operated, which is reflected in their reviews: honesty, care, trustworthiness, professionalism, and hard work. (5 out of 5 stars after over 500 reviews is crazy!)
What Real Customers Said:
Expert puzzle solvers: “They were amazing! I just stood there scratching my head at how Bernard could fit things together like a perfect puzzle. They got all my stuff into one large POD!! It didn’t look possible to me. I would highly recommend.”
Pro PODS packers: “These guys are awesome! I’ve dealt with a lot of movers and they were the best yet. Really smart with their packing of my pod, super nice and hardworking. They definitely surpassed my expectations and I would recommend them to anyone. Believe all the good reviews!!”
See prices for movers by the hour – instantly.
Read real customer reviews.
Easily book your help online.
Price: $125/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
While Excellent Movers provides no-frills, standard moving services, I appreciate their call out that no job is too small, which is a relief to all you apartment-dwellers out there. Even if you just need professional assistance getting a new sofa into your office, unloading heavy boxes at a storage unit, or unpacking for an event, Excellent Movers is happy to help.
What Real Customers Said:
Challenge accepted and accomplished: “Daniel was great to work with! He communicated very well, was on time and he and his workers did an excellent job. They worked very hard to get our ABF trailer filled, even though it was a challenging load. I would definitely recommend them and I would use them again.”
Stress-relieving rockstars: “Thank you so much to Daniel and his crew! Moving is always stressful, but I have to say this is definitely the easiest move I’ve ever done. The scheduling process was super simple, Daniel contacted me the next day to confirm, and the day of the move they showed up early and jumped right in. They took great care of everything, and even went above and beyond to find a solution when an item wasn’t going to fit in the stairs or elevator. Will totally be using them in the future! These guys are rockstars, thanks again!”
Price: $129/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
With more than 13 years of experience, Patriot One Movers is the only business on this list with all 5-star reviews — a lofty accomplishment that shouldn’t be overlooked. They also hold the longest daily hours from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., which can come in handy for long moving days and urgent communications. Not to mention, they may be able to do a same-day request at normal rates!
When people review Patriot One’s customer reviews, you often find recurring themes of professionalism, efficiency, and friendliness.
What Real Customers Said:
Earning repeat customers: “First time working with these guys they were early and came prepared [and] brought tools and their own dolly etc. Worked quickly and efficiently. They were amazing! I’m using them again the following weekend for the second part of my move. 100% would recommend them to anyone.”
Words of praise from a seasoned mover: “This was my 14th move in the last 10 ten years, and Patriot One was THE best movers I’ve had. I was late arriving to my new home, and Frank was very accommodating and understanding of the situation. He was prompt and helpful when arriving the next morning, stayed with our truck because we had to park in a “no-parking zone”; he really put us at ease! The two movers he brought were the NICEST guys. They made sure everything was EXACTLY where I wanted it (even humored me by moving the rug and couch to the perfect spot). I can’t say enough good things about them. I really felt like my things were in great hands and treated with care and respect. You can feel confident with them and quickly check-off an item on your moving to-do list.”
Price: $89/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
Lucky is the only company on this list that encourages customers to “call, email or text us” after booking a job. This friendly, open communication provides reassurance — especially for customers who are new to moving!
I also enjoyed their personality in their FAQs — from sharing that they enjoy the “workout” aspect of moving, to training their crew members to “pack a (PODS) or truck like playing the Tetris game.” Lucky Movers has a standout voice and seems to have a culture that embraces fun.
What Real Customers Said:
Flexible around the holidays: “Ivan and Jose at Lucky Movers were awesome! They were patient with us as we had 2 moving date changes, and stuck with us on our Christmas Eve move. On time, careful with our belongings, polite, efficient, they were the whole package! We can definitely recommend Lucky Movers to anyone who has an upcoming move planned!”
Strong communication: “Highly recommend these guys to help you move. They were great about keeping me in the loop as to when they’d arrive at my house, and got there when they said. Were careful with my stuff, and got my POD loaded in no time. Definitely will use them again.”
Price: $75/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
We the States Moving is the most affordable company on this list and the only profile that contains a message in the “About Us” section from the owner, Jon — a thoughtful, personal touch.
Jon brings years of experience in the moving industry and supports a wide range of services, from state-to-state moves, to rearranging furniture in medical offices and spas.
What Real Customers Said:
Professionalism from start to finish: “Jon did an incredible job. He figured out a way to pack 2 U-Boxes and we can’t believe he fit everything in there! He was a professional and really knew what he was doing. I would hire him again in a heartbeat. Thank you for the amazing service!!”
Accommodating last-minute arrangements: “We the States Moving proved a lifesaver. I was tasked with an impromptu move and needed movers the same day, no scheduling. Well, through Hire A Helper, I found We the States Moving and they answered me promptly. They arrived on time, went right to work, did not slow down, packed and stacked my possessions with great care, and provided me with packing tips for future reference. I am forever grateful for We the States Moving for bailing me out at the last minute. I highly recommend them and would use them again.”
Price: $100/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
Black Eagle has been on the scene for fewer than 10 years, but that’s been plenty of time to back up its service commitment. They make it very clear in their FAQs that the customer’s needs for their move are their first priority.
Black Eagle also highlights that they have two-valued, highly trained teams of movers, emphasizing their commitment to quality and intimate approach.
What Real Customers Said:
Problem-solving on the spot: “They arrived as scheduled and managed to find my apartment in a huge maze of a complex by themselves. I showed them what I had and they made a plan of action that went efficiently. I have a large library and ran out of boxes for books the day before, but they improvised a safe and easy way to get them in the container and for the journey. They also wrapped all of my furniture for protection and used far less space in the container than the last movers I used. Friendly, experienced, and fast. Highly recommend, particularly if you are using a container for the move.”
That magic touch: “Enrique and his team have a magical power. They can take your pre-move stress levels and make them disappear! Arrived on time, packed everything beautifully, and seemed to make space in my U-Haul appear out of nowhere. I would highly recommend Black Eagle Movers!”
Price: $100/hour for two movers (2-hour minimum)
What They Offer
Why I Love Them
Thunderhorse is one of only two companies on this list that offers movers with a truck (Rigo’s is the other). They also call out their piano-packing expertise — undoubtedly a valuable service to musicians.
With long daily hours (8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week), available trucks, and middle-of-the-road pricing ($100/hr.), Thunderhorse is a well-rounded contender.
What Real Customers Said:
A happy homecoming: “I moved here from Oregon and this crew of 3 amazing gentleman got the job done quickly in the worst heat wave. They unloaded a 26 ft U-Haul and a 16 ft. truck in 3 hours!!! They brought my items and boxes to each room we specified. They were polite, communicative, and extremely hardworking. 10/10 service! I would not hesitate to use this company again. I only hope I tipped generously enough for their hard work. I will absolutely recommend them to anyone I know who needs help moving or unloading.”
Going the extra mile: “Jorge and team arrived on time and ready to go. They even brought an extra person to help make sure everything would get done as quickly as possible, which I appreciated. They were very fast and worked hard. I would recommend (them)!”
See prices for movers by the hour – instantly.
Read real customer reviews.
Easily book your help online.
From in-state relocations and long-distance moves to loading trucks and unpacking furniture, HireAHelper’s top Los Angeles movers span a range of services — as well as pricing — so you should have luck finding help with your move no matter what your budget and needs are.
The post The 8 Best Movers in Los Angeles According to Real Customers appeared first on Moving Advice from HireAHelper.
]]>Luckily, pretty much all veggies can be frozen successfully. However, if you want to get the best possible results concerning shelf life, flavor, and freshness you’ll need to follow the right steps prior to freezing.
Let’s take a look at beets. Can you freeze beets?
Yes, beets can be frozen safely and will last a long time, but they should be cooked first and then chopped into small slices or cubes for best results.
Beets are one of the tastiest vegetables around, and if you are putting in the effort to grow your own beets or you just don’t want to go without when they are out of season you’ll be glad to know that you can freeze them easily and they’ll stay delicious for a long time until you thaw them.
But, like usual, you’ll need to prepare them properly to freeze them without hurting their texture or taste. I’ll tell you what you need to know below.
Beets are sweet and versatile, and a common fixture and all sorts of cuisine around the world. Even for people that hate veggies, chances are pretty good that they will like beets if they get to try them.
That’s especially good news for parents and anyone else who needs a nutritious diet because beets are quite healthy, especially when it comes to mineral content.
Looking at the minerals that beets contain we see they contain a large amount of manganese, totaling about 16% of the recommended daily value, along with a good amount of potassium, phosphorus magnesium, and iron.
Calcium and zinc are present in smaller amounts, and it’s also worth noting that beets contain a surprising amount of sodium, around 25 mg per ounce.
Now, looking at the vitamins we’ll see that they are less impressive overall as compared with the minerals, but still entirely worthwhile.
Most notably, beets contain a lot of folate, with a 3 and 1/2 oz serving containing a little over 25% of a person’s daily recommended value.
Besides folate, beets also contain a good amount of vitamin C, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, B3, B2, and B1.
Beets contain a lot of sugar, about 2.2 grams per ounce and this has made them a vital staple for the production of table sugar. Beets also have high water content, averaging 87% water by weight.
Beets can be frozen, and they do freeze well, but this is one veggie that you’ll need to put in some time preparing and cooking prior to freezing.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends that fresh, whole beets be selected and sorted according to size prior to washing, and then trimming off the tops, leaving a half inch of the tap root and stems. This will prevent the color from running while you cook it.
Boil water, and then cook your beets in batches. Large beets will probably need to cook for about an hour, medium beets about 45 minutes, and your smaller beets anywhere from 25 to 30 minutes.
You want to cook them in batches so they don’t get over or undercooked because they’re all in a big, mixed-up jumble. Once cooking is completed, remove, strain, and cool them right away in cold water.
Then all you have to do is peel them, completely, remove the stem, and root, and then cut the beets into slices or cubes according to your preference. Whew!
The last thing to do is pack your slices or cubes in the container of your choice, making sure to leave at least a half inch of headspace to account for the expansion of moisture. Seal your container, stick them in the freezer and you’re done!
You can, but you shouldn’t. This will degrade the quality of your beets, badly affecting their taste and texture.
Yes, and you should. Beets are one of those veggies that really should be cooked and cut into like-size portions prior to freezing if you want the best results.
Doing so will ensure that the beets last as long as possible and also taste great after you thaw them.
It varies depending on the size of the slices or cubes. Smaller thinner slices and smaller cubes will freeze solid in a couple of hours, while larger slices or chunks will take between 3 and 4 hours.
According to foodsafety.gov, beets that are prepared properly and promptly frozen will keep for between 6 and 8 months. Quite a long time, and pretty respectable for a vegetable!
Yes, they can. Even when properly cooked and prepared beets can still get freezer burn and they are surprisingly vulnerable to it owing to their high water content.
This can be managed, though, and you can expect your beets to come out still tasting fresh and great after a long freeze. See the next section.
Keeping your beets from getting freezer burn is mostly a matter of proper preparation and container selection, keeping air away from them, and keeping your freezer truly cold.
Depending on your usage and a specific model of freezer, you’ll have more or less control over the factors involved.
First things first, do whatever you can to keep as much air as you can away from your beets.
This means you need to pick a container that will seal tightly and only leave enough room in the container to accommodate expansion but not excess air.
On the other hand, you must be cautious to avoid leaving too little room for expansion or you could have a busted container!
Then, keep your freezer as cold as possible; the closer to 0 °Fahrenheit (-17 °Celsius) you can get it the better. Colder temperatures always work in your favor for preventing freezer burn.
The last thing is to simply avoid letting warm air into your freezer which will allow for further condensation and ice formation.
Open your freezer as little as possible, and when you do open it, get what you need and shut it again as quickly as possible. Never, ever leave your freezer open!
Follow these simple steps and you can keep your beets from getting freezer burn the whole time they are in storage.
You’ll know that your beets are no longer good if you notice they are badly discolored or, upon thawing them, they have completely lost their shape, gone very mushy, or have an unpleasant flavor.
Do note that your beets are in all likelihood still safe to eat, and even nutritious, so long as they were safe when they were frozen but they probably won’t taste very good if you use them in a dish.
Yes, strictly speaking you can refreeze your beets safely. However, this is going to do them no favors when it comes to taste and texture.
Beets, as mentioned above, contain a lot of water, and when that water freezes necessarily it will do some damage to the flesh of the veggie.
This will change the texture, naturally, but if you follow the beets and then refreeze them it is going to do even more damage to the flesh and turn them into a mushy, nasty mess the next time around.
Once again, they’re probably safe nonetheless, but you will probably not like the end result.
You have three options for defrosting your beets, and only two of them are good. The first option, and the go-to for many people, is to defrost them in the microwave.
You can expect them to defrost unevenly and for some of them to start cooking unless you watch them and check them regularly.
The second is to simply place them in the refrigerator, or they will thaw over the course of a day or so.
If you are in a hurry, simply place your beets in a Ziploc bag and immerse them in a large bowl of cold water. This will rapidly thaw them in an hour or two.
The post So, Can You Freeze Beets? appeared first on The Homesteading Hippy.
]]>Spring flowers are in full bloom! Everywhere I turn I see a bounty of stunning colors and shapes and sizes. The scenic seasonal ambiance is abundant and beautiful. The pique of the season is stunning but fleeting. Thankfully, April Showers bring May flowers--so we still have more time to enjoy Mother Nature's eye candy.
I love to display flowers year round in my home, but spring is a particular favorite time to embrace florals. I like to pick a wild bunch and get creative with my vases. You can put them in empty milk cartons, mason jars, empty cans, or boxes! We're rounded up a few favorite upcycled arrangements that make stunning centerpieces.
Strawflowers are lovely, and you don't even need to water them. They look the same whether they're dead or alive. Get more inspiration from Country Living.
Get the kids involved in this one! I love this idea for flowers that the kids can forage. Once you've eaten the eggs, keep the carton . Put small drinking glasses filled with water into the egg carton, and then put small flowers in the glasses. Get the details from Parenting Without Tears.
Spring-inspired straw vase via AmyKrist.org. Get easy instructions on how to create this look from www.inspiredbythis.com. With such a variety of colors and designs, straws make this DIY easily customizable. All you need is a can, a glue gun and some imagination.
A simple way that you can repurpose old glass jars (using basic tools from around your house) so you can show off those flowers blooming in your yard this Spring. Also, if flowers are not your thing, these up-cycled glass jars would make great storage containers for all your craft supplies! Get the directions at thekingstonhome.com.
You'll need: the pink flowers, a square glass vase, a vintage wooden container. Get all the details from Spring and Summer.
Use Pinterest to save your favorite entertaining ideas. Be sure to follow our DIY and Crafts Pinterest board here.
This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are our own.
]]>I noted with pleasure the very creative “Dollar Store” completed by Bob Kessler. I took pictures of it several weeks ago while dinning and shopping.
Not that I would want multiple creations like this around Frisco, but my thought about this was that it was a great addition to what makes Frisco unique and fun.
My vote is to let Bob keep it as is. As you take a look at its placement, I think that everyone can work around it safely.
To Frisco government: Don’t be a curmudgeon.
]]>If you’re looking for a wonderful springtime recipe to serve family or guests, this classic carrot cake banana bread is always a huge crowd pleaser.
The recipe can be low fat, low calorie, oil free, gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and vegan. And it’s super easy to make, using ingredients you already have on hand.
You may also like Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
If only carrot cake were always in season.
I’d be so happy posting carrot themed recipes all year round.
But since possibly no one else besides me wants to eat carrot cake in December (or maybe you do too?), I try to pack as much carrot cake as I possibly can into the few weeks between St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.
Because I’ve already posted carrot cake oatmeal, waffles, and Healthy Carrot Cake, this year I decided to turn the flavor into banana bread, one of my other favorite flavors.
I knew the recipe would be good before even tasting it. After all, it’s carrot cake AND banana bread!
Above – watch the carrot cake banana bread recipe video
To make the recipe, you will need flour, cinnamon, shredded carrot, pure vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sweetener and milk of choice, and mashed banana.
While the carrot cake banana bread is completely wonderful on its own, one of my favorite things about carrot cake is the frosting.
For vegan carrot cake banana bread, choose your favorite dairy free milk of choice. The carrot banana loaf is already naturally egg free.
Types of flour that work include spelt flour, oat flour, white all purpose flour, or some all purpose gluten free flours. Feel free to experiment with others, although I do not recommend using coconut flour or almond flour.
You can frost with softened Coconut Butter or about half a cup of the homemade vegan cream cheese frosting recipe from my Vegan Cinnamon Rolls.
I sprinkled crushed walnuts and shredded carrot over the top to decorate.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease a 9×5 loaf pan or line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir well. You can add half a cup of crushed walnuts or shredded coconut if you wish.
Whisk all remaining ingredients, including the shredded carrot and banana, in a separate bowl. Or you can technically save time and whisk them straight into the dry ingredients to form a batter. Do not overmix.
Smooth the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Place on the oven’s center rack, and bake for forty five minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the carrot banana loaf comes out mostly clean.
Let the bread cool completely before going around the sides with a knife. Invert onto a large serving plate, and frost if desired.
Loosely cover with cloth or paper towels, and store on the counter or in the refrigerator overnight.
The taste and texture of this bread are better the next day, because excess moisture will evaporate, resulting in a fluffier loaf.
After one day, it is best to refrigerate leftovers for three or four days in a covered container. Or slice and freeze for up to three months.
For low carb, try this Keto Carrot Cake
The post Carrot Cake Banana Bread appeared first on Chocolate Covered Katie.
]]>If you’re looking for a simple recipe for entertaining, my Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread is the one for you!
This creamy cheese spread or dip is loaded with fresh herbs, garlic and parmesan cheese. Plus it takes to less than 15 minutes to prepare!
If you’re a fan of garlic herb cheese spreads like Boursin, then you’re going to love this economical, homemade version! I love serving this on an antipasto platter alongside my Grissini Breadsticks, Homemade Crackers, Marinated Warm Olives and Italian Fried Peppers.
This recipe for garlic cheese spread is as easy as combining together regular cream cheese with parsley, chives, garlic, milk and parmesan cheese. The end result is a deliciously savory and zingy cream cheese spread that will go with almost anything.
My Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread is delicious enjoyed as a savory snack with crackers, spread on toast or tossed through some warm, al dente pasta as a simple sauce. You could even add a dollop to soups and stews for extra seasoning. It’s so versatile!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
For complete ingredient quantities and full instructions, please scroll to the printable recipe card bottom of the page.
Whizz the cream cheese in a small food processor until smooth and creamy.
Add milk and process to combine.
Add remaining ingredients and process to combine.
Scoop into a serving bowl and chill for 20 minutes until firm
Hint: Add only enough milk to achieve the consistency you like. Less if you prefer a firmer, thick spread. More if you're looking for a soft, creamy consistency.
A food processor is best for this garlic cheese spread recipe. However, you could use an electric hand mixer to combine the ingredients together instead or a wooden spoon and a bit of muscle.
Store the garlic herb cheese spread in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
My Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread also freezes well. Store it in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1 month. When you’re ready to use it, remove from the freezer and allow it to defrost.
It’s important to have the cream cheese at room temperature so that it whips up smooth and creamy.
Be sure to finely chop the garlic and herbs so they are well distributed throughout the mix.
If you’re serving this spread straightaway, it will be much looser and smoother - perfect as a dip! However if you would like it a little firmer, I recommend making it ahead of time and storing it in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to firm up.
The flavors of this Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread will develop on standing. For a more promient flavor, prepare this spread in advance and store in the fridge until serving.
This spread is creamy and smooth. However, if you prefer a firmer consistency reduce the amount of milk added to the cream cheese. Or leave it out altogether.
Making my Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread is so easy! Simply follow my recipe below which combines cream cheese, milk, parmesan cheese, herbs and garlic in a food processor. Use an electric hand mixer or just a wooden spoon if you prefer.
Boursin is the brand of a very popular garlic and berb cheese spread that you can buy at the grocery store. If you like this cheese, then you’ll love my recipe for homemade garlic cheese spread! It’s so simple to prepare and much tastier than the store bought variety.
Yes! Philadelphia is a popular brand that sells cream cheese which is the key ingredient in this garlic cheese spread recipe. Cream cheese is often referred to as Philadelphia cheese.
I love serving my Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread alongside my sliced Semolina Bread or Pesto Bread as an antipasto. But it would also be wonderful lengthened with a little pasta water and tossed through cooked Tonnarelli Pasta as a simple pasta sauce.
Made this recipe?
Let me know if you liked it by leaving a ★★★★★ star rating and a review below. Please share a photo of your creation by tagging me on Instagram @marcellina.in.cucina!
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
The post Garlic and Herb Cheese Spread appeared first on Marcellina In Cucina.
]]>Short N’ Sweet: The Case Club Backpack’s a mobile gun locker with plenty of weatherproofing. It has a rain fly, the zippers are covered with waterproof rubber sleeves, it offers a sturdy foam shelf that securely holds up to four full-size pistols, and it includes plenty of smart little compartments to neatly tuck away your ammo, mags, ear and eye pro, targets, and other stuff for a full range day.
Generation 2 upgrades include:
We stuffed the foam shelf full with some full-size shooters: A 1911 G.I., CZ-75, Glock 23, and a S&W M&P 9. To test ear pro fitment, we stuck with an over-the-ear electronic headset, the Peltor Sport Tactical 100s. In the right-hand-side compartment we filled each spare magazine pouch to add some weight. Our eye pro fit well inside the top-front compartment. You can also spy the spent shell casing cup in the top-right compartment.
Once cinched, zipped, and buckled up, the Case Club Backpack is pretty compact. The pistol shelf’s lid is made from a rigid, semi-flexible rubberized material and it keeps the backstraps of your handguns tucked in and protected. The pack’s also fitted with rigid sides to keep it upright and stable when loaded down. The zippers have Paracord pull strings and are all very smooth. They can handle a bit of tugging if you stuff any compartment extra full, or if there’s extra weight (like loaded double-stack mags) pulling on the compartment itself.
The Case Club is quite comfortable to carry: The backside is ventilated and well padded, and the top straps provide plenty of support and disburse weight around your shoulders to reduce strain on your neck. There’s no cummerbund for the waistline, but the bag is compact enough that it’s not really necessary.
The shoulder straps are also well padded and come with the same ventilation to wick away sweat on hot range days. The adjustments are easy enough – just pull on the straps to cinch the bag up nice and high. A check strap is also provided to keep the straps close together and high on the shoulders, adding to the comfort factor.
Now let’s take a look at the innards and some of the features.
The foam gunshelf is pretty slick. The foam itself is high-density and rigid, providing support for the bag under weight. It also provides plenty of impact protection for your pistols. The shelf can hold any semiautomatic that measures up to 8-5/8″ in length, and if you’re rocking smaller or subcompact pistols, Case Club has some basic instructions for sizing up the foam inserts to accommodate your shorter pistols.
For being relatively compact, the Case Club has plenty of room for single- and double-stack magazines. We were able to comfortably fit both our 1911’s single-stack .45 ACP and our S&W’s double-stack 9mm mags in each of the pouches inside, with some room to spare for a pair of gloves or a small box of target tacks.
Directly behind the six-mag compartment is a second zippered compartment measuring the same size, sans the mag holders. It provides more space for extra boxes of ammo or gear. Take a closer look above and you’ll also see the rubber seals covering all the zippers, too. They do a nice job of keeping rain out of the zippers and compartments.
Adjacent to the pistol mag pouch are some nice little Velcro straps for carrying some rolled up paper or plastic targets. This is a nice little touch that often gets overlooked, and it’ll help prevent you from folding or crumbling up your shooting targets.
The rain cover included in the top pouch is a nice touch. It’s sturdy, completely waterproof, and it covers the entire bag when unfurled from its compartment.
The main storage compartment is pretty spacious, measuring around 7″ deep, 8-9″ long, and 7″ wide. It’s padded with a waterproof nylon material and provides plenty of room for various 50-round boxes of pistol ammo or more gear. We were able to easily squeeze around 300 rounds’ worth of boxes into the compartment, with room to spare for additional magazines, and some more eye pro. Which brings us to…
The secondary storage compartment has enough space for folding over-the-ear muffs, some ear plugs in the smaller Velcro pouches, and some shooting glasses. A zippered pouch-within-a-pouch is made for smaller bits that might otherwise get lost, like tacks, a multi-tool, or some cleaning swabs or a small rod for your bore and barrel. There’s a small clip for securing an ear plug case or a phone case, too.
The top-front compartment comes with three rows of standard MOLLE/ PALS webbing. This makes it easy to throw on a few extra magazine pouches or any other PALS gear you might normally carry with you to the range (like an extra ear pro or eye pro container). The stitching on the webbing is nice and thick, and the straps are typical heavy-duty nylon, so they can take some weight.
Case Club’s 4-Pistol Backpack is one helluva compact little range bag. We love the gun shelf because it’s not a gimmick, it’s very well-constructed and tough. The entire bag is designed for the outdoors, with water-resistant and waterproof materials, a rainfly, and weather-sealed zippers. The straps and backside are padded and comfortable, so even though it doesn’t have a cummerbund, it can handle some serious weight, like a load of ammo and plenty of extra magazines to accompany those four handguns you’re lugging around. We struggle to find any complaints or nit-picks and give it a top rating overall.
The post AllOutdoor: Case Club Tactical 4 Pistol Backpack Review appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.
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Crispy chicken wings glazed with a sweet & spicy honey sriracha sauce that is incredibly simple, not too spicy, and delicious. Whether you’re looking for a game day recipe, an easy appetizer for a tailgate party, or a holiday gathering, this recipe will have people wanting more!
When it comes to wings, a sweet and spicy profile is always my go-to. These wings definitely hit every mark! The honey helps cut out the spiciness of the sriracha so it wasn’t too hot. Through the magic of coating the wings in a baking powder-laced spice rub, the surface of the chicken becomes dry, therefore crisping up just like it would if you were to do this in a deep fryer. It’s a great hack! The best part of this recipe is that you can also make this in the air fryer.
My recipe for these delectable wings comes together within 45 minutes. It’s a perfect appetizer for game day or just any other party. (Full ingredient amounts and complete instructions are available in the recipe card down below).
Coat the wings with the baking powder spice rub. Preheat your oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with foil, then place a wire rack on top. Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze and set aside. Place the wings onto the wire rack, then bake for 20 minutes on one side. Flip, then bake for 20 minutes more. Toss the wings into the sauce and serve. Directions for the air fryer are listed in the recipe card.
Want the recipe? Click print below! Let me know how it came out for you by tagging me on Instagram (@missravenskitchen) and using #missravenskitchen! Follow my Facebook page for updates as well! Let me know if I need to tweak anything.
Storage: Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
How to keep these warm and crispy: Place them in a slow cooker and set the slow cooker to low or warm, depending on how long before you need them. They won’t be as crisp as fresh from the oven, but they’ll still be delicious.
Baking the wings on a wire rack is essential! Baking the wings on a wire rack allows the juices to run down, making the skin crisp up slightly. And for easy cleanup, line that baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
Jumbo Wings vs Regular Wings: If you buy jumbo, you will need to up the cooking time by about 10-15 minutes. Bake until a temperature inserted in the fattest part of the wing reaches 165F or higher.
Calories
251.31Fat (grams)
13.44 gSat. Fat (grams)
3.73 gCarbs (grams)
18.3 gFiber (grams)
0.58 gSugar (grams)
15.79 gProtein (grams)
15.59 gSodium (milligrams)
954.24 mgCholesterol (grams)
62.87 mgThe nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and the brands of ingredients used.
I have been baking these Monster Cookies for almost two decades, they are THE BEST! Pillowy soft, packed with peanut butter, oats, chocolate, and all your favorite mix-ins, they are are scarily good.
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Pin It!If you’ve never tried monster cookies, you’re in for a treat!
Thanks to the plethora of mix-ins and peanut butter flavor, this is my version of the ultimate monster cookie recipe.
Perfect for kids and adults alike, this cookie recipe is a keeper!
“These are the BEST monster cookies I have ever made! They are crunchy and soft at the same time and have the perfect amount of peanut butter. I will be making these for years to come!”
— Jessie —
While the true origin and inventor of monster cookies are unknown, I like to think that monster cookies are called monster cookies because they’re the most epic, monstrous mashup of every cookie you love in one tasty little package.
Also, they’re scarily delicious!
I was introduced to these best-ever monster cookies by my “work friend,” Lindsey.
They’re one of her family’s most treasured recipes, and you can tell. They’re perfect in that special way that tastes of the fine-tuning of generations.
Once you try them, I know you’ll be baking them for decades to come yourself.
These chewy monster cookies are made of classic cookie ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, vanilla), oats, peanut butter, and an array of fun mix-ins.
I made a few tweaks to put this recipe above the nutritional profile of other not-so-healthy cookies (the Pioneer Woman monster cookies, for example), such as using whole wheat flour.
If you need a monster cookie recipe without peanut butter, you could swap in a different creamy nut butter or try sun butter (heads up: sun butter will turn your cookies a little green).
You can swap the whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour if you prefer.
This recipe will yield a large batch of 36-40 small cookies. I prefer baking my cookies bite-sized (so I can justify eating more of them), but if you prefer giant monster cookies, you can certainly scoop the dough larger and extend the total time baking by a few minutes.
You can freeze monster cookie dough. Portion the dough into cookie dough balls and arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the sheet in the freezer until the dough is firm, then transfer to an airtight freezer-safe storage container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen, adding to the baking time as needed. You’ll love yourself for having these on hand.
Featuring a quick-release coating and easy cleanup, this cookie sheet is a must-have for baking cookies. This large size is perfect for a big batch.
Let me know what you thought!
Leave a rating below in the comments and let me know how you liked the recipe.
While I prefer using rolled, old fashioned oats, you could use quick oats for this recipe. The oat pieces won’t be as prominent, but the cookies will still be delicious.
If you’d like to add some additional mix-ins to your soft monster cookies (or don’t have some on hand), you could try white chocolate chips, pretzels, chopped nuts, granola (like my Granola Cookies), or shredded coconut.
While I’ve used a few healthy swaps in this recipe, they are not what I’d consider a “healthy” food. If you’re looking for a more wholesome cookie recipe, I’d suggest trying my Healthy Peanut Butter Cookie, Healthy Oatmeal Cookies, or these Peanut Butter Protein Cookies.
I want to show you today how to dehydrate Cilantro from the garden as you learn to preserve the fun items you may have grown yourself. I dehydrated some Cilantro about three years ago and I was hooked on it. Thankfully Cilantro grows like a weed! All you need is good soil and some awesome seeds and you are ready to plant. It sprouts here in my dry area of Utah in about two weeks, so don’t give up if you don’t see those little leaves start sprouting right away.
The only downside to growing your own Cilantro is once you clip it, your crop is done. In other words, you have to replant some more seeds. But, here’s the deal, you can grow so much that one crop can give you bunches of Cilantro to eat and preserve since a bunch of Cilantro tends to go a long way like many dried herbs. Drying fresh herbs can prove to be a fun activity for a family that grows and preserves their own food for storage and even long-term use.
Having some dried Cilantro can make a real difference when it comes to adding a unique flavor to many of your recipes as you add the dried Cilantro leaves or powder as directed. Another great feature of drying Cilantro is that it takes so little of your time.
I wrote this post back in 2016 and I feel an urgency to share a way for people to preserve their food from a garden, the store, or a Farmer’s Market. It’s critical to have food stored before you need it.
You don’t have to buy a fancy dehydrator unless you plan on dehydrating everything you can get your hands on like me. You can dehydrate / air-dry Cilantro in your car on the dashboard in direct sunlight on top of a clean window screen or cookie sheet. I wouldn’t dehydrate herbs or spice choices in my car since many put out a strong odor that may take weeks or months to go away. That’s my personal choice and I prefer a dehydrator. Air drying can be a cheap way to dry food, but be careful with spills since the dried food can crumble and go every which way.
Just giving you the heads-up here. Once when my daughters were really little we chopped onions to dehydrate in the house, yes you only do this once. We cut out sugar cookies for the Christmas tree to hang on the tree and didn’t realize those cute cookies would taste like onions. I called it a learning moment. The cookies looked fabulous but tasted like onions. Yikes! We dehydrated onions the next year outside on the patio.
You can also dry foods in your oven. You need an oven with a low-temperature bake setting available, around 170 degrees is best. If yours won’t go that low, use the lowest setting, put your food on a baking tray or cookie sheet, and keep the oven door ajar using a wad of foil. Be sure to check on the food often to make sure the dehydrated foods don’t get too dry.
I love using my dehydrator because I don’t want a lot of food in the freezer to go bad in case we lose power. Once you start dehydrating you will use your dehydrator all the time. Please note, I don’t dehydrate my food for long-term storage. I leave that for the commercial processing companies. If you think about it if you have a bundle of bananas that are going to go bad, dehydrate them for healthy snacks. You can do the same with any fruit or vegetable. If you dehydrate vegetables they would have to be cooked with water to soften them prior to eating or you may chip your front tooth. LOL!
Can’t you just smell the Cilantro? When I cut it outside my hands and arms smell like it for days! Oh, how I love that smell. This is how it looks after it is dehydrated below.
I set my Excalibur Dehydrator at (115°F) = (46°C) degrees before I got started to prep the Cilantro.
Check the Cilantro and remove any damaged leaves or sprigs.
Wash and drain the Cilantro. I use a salad spinner to make sure I get all the moisture off the leaves.
Cut the stems off of the Cilantro and discard them, I prefer not to dehydrate the stems.
Place the Cilantro sprigs evenly on your dehydrator trays or racks. Try to make a single layer so the air gets around them more easily. This prompts the leaves to dry more quickly.
It took two hours today to dehydrate my Cilantro. Please remember, it will always depend on the humidity in the area where you are dehydrating and the temperature setting used. Some dehydrator brands may suggest a different time and temperature setting than mine.
If you live where it’s HUMID: “To condition the fruit, take the dried fruit that has cooled and pack it loosely in plastic or a glass mason jar. Seal the containers and let them stand for 7 to 10 days. The excess moisture in some pieces will be absorbed by the drier pieces. Shake the jars daily to separate the pieces and check the moisture condensation.” https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/pack_store.html
I used to live in the DRY DESERT: I set my fruit and vegetables on my countertop for 5-7 days. Ten days are even better to make sure everything is dry before using your FoodSaver unit.
I placed the Cilantro in pint-size jars and used my FoodSaver to remove any air to prolong its storage life. Having airtight container jars makes a real difference in shelf life.
Another option for preservation is freezing Cilantro in bags. I freeze spinach and basil all the time. I wouldn’t keep it in the freezer over two months or so, but man is it good in freshly made buttermilk dressing. In Utah, we call it Ranch dressing. If you use the blender, just add a small handful of Cilantro into the mixture and it has a little kick to it. Most meal dishes you make like soups and stews, or even a garnish, are benefited by you adding a flavorful herb such as dill, oregano, or thyme, to name a few.
I hope you enjoyed my post today on how to dehydrate Cilantro. Here’s the deal, if you grow Cilantro you can dehydrate it and use it during the winter when you may not be able to garden. I put Cilantro stored in my pantry in salads, salsa on tacos, and with cooked rice. Just add it as you cook your meat, rice, or make salad dressing. Let me know how you use your Cilantro. It’s so good! May God Bless this world, Linda
The post How To Dehydrate Cilantro appeared first on Food Storage Moms.
]]>Resources (time, personnel, money, supplies, etc.) are driving factors when moving forward with initiatives within the healthcare simulation arena. This also tends to deter the medical simulation team members from moving forward in providing the needed education for their people. Task trainers are no different, and some simulationists would challenge task trainers to get more utilization than their high-fidelity simulators.
Yet, overutilization of a specific tool leads to the destruction of that tool. Proposing increased utilization of task trainers may seem a bit counterintuitive. However, the objective is to enhance self-led learning which offers the medical simulation team the ability to shift current healthcare simulations while capitalizing on future needed projects. Having a plan and understanding the current availability of resources allows for easier implementation.
Many healthcare simulationists find themselves in one of the following categories at any given time:
These criteria are the foundation when looking to maximize task trainer usage within the healthcare simulation curriculum. The focus should be on a self-led setting with limited to no supervision (Sim Kits). To set this scaled task trainer initiative up for success, the medical simulation team should identify the resources available, plan based on those resources, and utilize the tools at hand.
The process to acquire task trainers (determined based on funds and resources available):
Central Venous Catheter (CVC) care is a recognizable need within healthcare simulation, and dressing change is a procedure that can enhance patient safety by decreasing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI). Adding these concepts, while improvising and adding a few low-cost items, will provide a self-led module at scale with limited resources.
Note: Providing self-led modules for dressing changes at scale with limited resources is doable. This is especially true if Sim Kits and Sim Carts have begun to take shape in the organization’s simulation culture.
Building a CVC Dressing Change Sim Kit with Homemade Task Trainers
The medical simulation team is now ready to begin building the task trainers. Having the Sim Kits premade up to this point may be easier, and assist in identifying the number of task trainers needed for assembly. Assuming that there are four kits available, obtain the necessary equipment needed to build three task trainers:
One of the medical simulation team members is either amazing at suturing, really enjoys attempting to suture, and/or would like the opportunity to try suturing. Capitalize on this excitement and let them become in charge of suturing the CVC to the skin. Keep in mind that this is intended for staff to practice CVC dressing changes, so ensure the placement of the CVC allows for this.
If all enjoy this process, take turns, or create a friendly competition to see who can suture the fastest and the neatest. Again, have fun with the process as this is what leads to expanding the healthcare simulation team’s amazing ideas. After the CVCs are sutured and covered with the appropriate dressing per the organization’s standards, the team can now move on to the next step.
Depending on the plastic storage container available, this step might look a little different. Due to the nature of the skill, and the space needed to practice adequately, simulationists should flip the container upside down and utilize the lid as the bottom. The container is not necessary to carry out this procedure, however, the container decreases exposure to air while in storage, thereby adding to the longevity of the task trainer.
Now that the task trainer is in a protective container, the medical simulation team can place the prepared task trainer in the associated Sim Kit, and possibly onto the Sim Cart (depending on the objectives). Once packaged, the healthcare simulation team becomes ready to place them into the hands of the learners.
To add a bit of realism to the process, healthcare simulation professionals can easily utilize a task trainer when creating their Sim Kit. This allows the medical simulation team to ensure that instructions for the utilization of the task trainer within the Sim Kit are understood while showcasing the proper technique for the task at hand.
Another great piece of advice is to always have fun. Healthcare simulation is about learning through continual exploration. When the clinical simulation team provides valuable resources to staff, the staff has an opportunity to experience meaningful practice when convenient for them. Medical simulation also allows for a genuine culture of just-in-time training, at just the right time.
Raisins have a lot going for them. Raisins also make for pretty good survival food, both as carried rations and as long shelf life fare at home.
But raisins won’t last forever. Or will they? Do raisins go bad? And how long do they last?
Yes, raisins will eventually go bad, but with proper storage, they can last for quite a long time. Unopened packages of raisins generally last for 2-3 months past the “best by” date if stored in the pantry at room temp, or about two months once opened.
As one might expect, higher temperatures and humidity accelerate spoilage of raisins.
Drying fruit is a great way to extend its safe shelf life and raisins are no exception. But even though they last for a long, long time and remain delicious they will not last indefinitely.
That being said, there are ways to improve their shelf life no matter how you are storing them. Keep reading to learn more.
Raisins are grapes that have been dried in the sun, in an oven or using a dehydrator appliance.
The water is removed from the grape, leaving behind a chewy, wrinkled fruit that is high in sugar and antioxidants. All raisins start out as grapes, but not all grapes become raisins.
Grapes destined to be raisins are usually of the Thompson Seedless variety, although there are many other varieties of grapes that can be used.
The most common type of raisins are the brown ones, but there are also black, green, and red varieties.
All raisins taste sweet because of the high sugar content. The sugar, in the absence of moisture, also acts as a preservative, which is one of the reasons why raisins last so long. It is also why they are so tasty!
With the water weight of the grape gone, the sugar taste is maximized, making raisins a higher calorie food by weight compared to whole grape.
This has made raisins a fixture food for snacking and as an ingredient in all sorts of dishes.
From trail mix to cake and even chicken salad, raisins add a touch of sweetness and interest to whatever they are added to.
Raisins will usually last for 2-3 months past their listed “best by” date if sealed and stored properly.
Once opened, they should be consumed within two months for best quality but may last longer with no ill effects.
Raisins stored in the fridge or freezer can last for six months to a year beyond normal room-temperature storage.
The big factors that affect the longevity of raisins are the type of storage container, the temperature of the storage environment, and the humidity level.
For long-term storage of raisins, it is best to use an airtight container. Glass jars with screw-on lids work well, as do resealable bags and canning jars.
The key is to keep the air out and the raisins in a consistent environment. That way they don’t draw in moisture or get exposed to mold spores that may be in the air.
Those wimpy cardboard containers they come in are no good once they are opened; if you aren’t going to eat the raisins soon thereafter transfer them into a better container.
Temperature is, as always, a big concern for food storage. Raisins will last the longest when stored at cool temperatures, ideally below 68 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 20 degrees Celsius for you non-Freedom Unit people).
If you are going to store them for longer than a couple months, the freezer is your best bet.
But even if you are just storing them in the pantry, try to find a spot that is not in direct sunlight and not near any heat sources.
And last but not least, moisture control. Humidity. Raisins are a dried food, so they need to be kept in a relatively dry environment to prevent them from rehydrating and promptly going bad.
A humidity level below 50% is ideal, but 60% should be fine as long as the raisins are stored in an airtight container.
Even fruit that lasts as long as a raisin will, eventually, spoil. If you don’t want to risk a case of food poisoning you’ll need to know how to spot the signs.
To the naked eye, bad raisins may not look all that different from good ones. But there are a few things you can look out for to tell if raisins have gone bad:
If you see any of these signs, it is best to discard the raisins. While they may not look or smell that bad, raisins that have spoiled may make you sick.
There is one kitchen gadget that can pay dividends when it comes to extending the reliable shelf life of your food, even something like raisins: the vacuum sealer.
A vacuum sealer will remove all the air from a storage container and create a tight seal. This not only prevents new contaminants from getting in, but it also slows down the aging process.
If you are going to store raisins for more than a couple months, or if you want to make sure they have the best possible chance to last in a humid environment, sealing them in a special mylar bag with a vacuum sealer is your best bet.
The post Do Raisins Go Bad? How Long Do They Last? appeared first on The Homesteading Hippy.
]]>I absolutely love this cake. From the first bite, it had everything a cake should have.
The thing that made it the most memorable was that it was moist. I know some don’t enjoy that word, but for this easy Tres Leches cake, it’s necessary. It was bathed in milk, milk, and more milk.
If that doesn’t interest you, consider the toppings. OHH… those TOPPINGS! Toasted coconuts, banana slices, and a warm caramel sauce dripped over everything. Sounds like heaven, right? I can’t say anything bad about this cake.
This Banana Tres Leches cake should be on the top of your baking list. No matter what time of year it is, you need to bake this as soon as possible.
Tres Leches literally means “three milks” and this Hispanic-influenced dessert recipe indeed uses three sweet milks: regular dairy milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk. This is what adds moistness to the cake. The consistency is similar to an airy angel food cake or sponge cake.
Here is a list of the things you’ll need for the cake itself:
You’ll use the rest of the heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar for the frosting. You also need toasted coconut, banana slices, and caramel sauce to finish off the dessert.
Prepare: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously spray a 9×13 cake pan with nonstick cooking spray or use a nonstick pan.
Make the Batter: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Then, in a separate mixing bowl, combine egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until the yolks turn a pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla on low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, then add the bananas.
Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir gently until combined.
Beat egg whites in a large mixing bowl on medium speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in ¼ cup of sugar and beat until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Gently fold the egg white mixture into the batter with a rubber spatula until combined.
Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for about ten minutes, then turn it out onto a rimmed platter and allow it to cool completely.
Add “tres leches”: After cooling, poke top of the cake with a long-tined fork. Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream and mix thoroughly. Drizzle all but one cup of the milk mixture over the cake and let it absorb into the cake for at least 30 minutes (it’s even better if you refrigerate it overnight!)
Whip the remaining 1 3/4 cups heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until it is thick and spreadable. Before frosting the cake, drizzle the remaining cup of milk mixture over the cake after giving it a good stir. Spread the whipped cream over the top and sides of the cake.
Garnish with toasted coconut, caramel sauce, and banana slices.
Place this cake in the refrigerator for storage. Use a cake keeper or place slices in an airtight container. It should last for 4-5 days.
This cake is perfect for freezing! I recommend that you bake it and freeze it before adding the whipped topping and garnish. Cover it tightly with plastic wrap or place it in another airtight container. Thaw to room temperature before you finish the cake!
Banana lovers, you’re going to love this creamy, decadent Banana Tres Leches cake!
I adapted this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. Thanks, Ree!
This post was originally published 7/15/2011. It has been updated in format and with pictures on 3/17/23/
The post Banana Tres Leches Cake appeared first on 365 Days of Baking.
]]>I have been working on this recipe for a few years now. Thank God! This cake has the perfect texture. It’s soft but firm enough to not crumble and fall apart when you slice it. The flavor is phenomenal with a nice vanilla taste and hints of chocolate flavor too- the way it is supposed to be! Some other red velvet desserts you can try are: Best Red Velvet Cupcakes {With Cream Cheese Frosting}, Red Velvet Cookies {With Cake Mix}, Red Velvet Truffles, and Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies . Traditionally, this cake is paired with cream cheese frosting but I did something different. I spread ooey gooey chocolate marshmallow fluff all over this cake and covered it in mini pink marshmallows.
It’s soft and moist but also very rich. It has a predominant vanilla flavor with hints of chocolate flavor.
The classic choice is Cream Cheese Frosting of course, but you can also use Chocolate Ganache Frosting, American Buttercream Frosting Recipe, Marshmallow Frosting Recipe, Chocolate Frosting, or White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.
Different people swear by different ingredients that result in the moistest cake. Mine is full fat sour cream. Other people like to use buttermilk or Greek yogurt and some prefer cream cheese.
Vinegar is usually used to make homemade buttermilk and the main purpose of buttermilk is used to make the cake moist. However, my recipe does not use buttermilk or vinegar and uses sour cream instead. I firmly believe this gives a better result.
Make a layer cake– It’s a super soft cake but also firm enough for stacking and making layer cakes.
Decorate it– With fondant or frosting for occasions like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Wedding, Anniversary and even Halloween.
Make it in a jar– Bake the cake first and allow it to cool down. Use a circle cutter (same size as your jar) to cut out circular cake pieces. Place a piece in the jar and frost the top with cream cheese icing. Continue alternating with cake piece and icing until you reach the top of the jar.
Add ins– Add dark chocolate or white chocolate chips, pecans and other nuts, or add a cheesecake layer (this one is INCREDIBLE!).
Make cake balls/cake pops? Bake the cake first. When it cools down, crumble it and mix in some frosting to make a thick dough-like mixture. Scoop out small portions, make little balls, push a popsicle stick into each ball (if making cake pops) and chill in the fridge until the balls become firm. Dip them in melted white chocolate and enjoy.
All ingredients must be at room temperature– Because they mix together more evenly and that yields a better cake.
Don’t omit the red food coloring– Yes! You will need a lot of food coloring to get this vibrant red shade.
Don’t omit the cocoa powder– Because if you do, you are just making a vanilla cake.
Don’t replace butter with oil– Because in this recipe, the butter helps with the texture of the cake and also makes it rich.
Use full fat sour cream and whole milk– Because they have a higher fat content and yield the best results.
If you have time, I highly recommend baking your cake, letting it cool down, covering it in saran wrap and then freezing it overnight– Because this really seals in the moisture and makes the cake super soft. When you are ready to frost it, let it thaw (covered in saran wrap) on your countertop at room temperature for about an hour.
How to make this cake without food coloring? Some people like to use beet juice or you can use natural food coloring which are made from dried fruits and veggies.
Salted butter or unsalted butter? Use unsalted butter always because you can control the saltiness.
Plain flour or self-rising flour? I always use all-purpose flour since I add baking powder and baking soda separately.
Sour cream or buttermilk? I have tried both and feel that sour cream gave me the best results, hands down!
Why is my cake brown? There could be 3 factors causing this:
Refrigerate– In a sealed container for up to 3 days.
Freeze– An unfrosted cake can be covered tightly in saran wrap and frozen for up to 1 month. When you are ready to enjoy it, thaw to room temperature and assemble, as per instructions below.
The post Best Red Velvet Cake {From Scratch} appeared first on CakeWhiz.
]]>I love kaya. I have it almost every day. Besides it being one of my favourite local foods, kaya toast has seen me through many childhood breakfasts and post-mugging suppers. There’s just something about having freshly toasted bread with a thick slab of jam flavoured with pandan and coconut milk that makes it so addictive.
There are two main types of kaya: Hainanese kaya and Nyonya kaya. Hainanese kaya is made using caramelised sugar and is typically brown in colour because of that. As for Nyonya kaya AKA pandan kaya, it’s most recognisable for its green shade that comes from the pandan leaves it’s made from.
Being one of the few people in Eatbook who can spend a whole day trying 10 different kinds of kaya without getting sick of it, I’ve painstakingly curated this list of best kaya brands in Singapore. This list features kaya from traditional coffeeshops, artisanal brands, and supermarket brands.
Before deciding on the best kaya brand in Singapore, I came up with four different categories to help make this challenging decision a little less difficult.
Sweetness: Is the sweetness level of the kaya just nice? Is it too sweet, or does it need more sugar?
Texture: The kaya should be smooth and creamy, yet thin enough to spread.
Fragrance: Hainanese kaya should have well-balanced flavours of coconut and caramelised sugar, while Nyonya kaya should have the distinct aroma of pandan. When prepared with the right balance of ingredients, both types of kaya should not taste too eggy.
Value: How affordable is one jar of kaya? How does the price per gram of each kaya jar compare to the other brands?
All picks on this list are evaluated based on these categories.
Hainanese coffeeshop Chin Mee Chin was founded in 1925 and is most known for their kaya toast and kopi. They also make their own Hainanese kaya, priced at $10 for a jar of 200g. I headed to their stall at East Coast Road and queued for around 10 minutes for their kaya, which came in a simple plastic container. This is also the only kaya we bought that was already refrigerated before opening.
Even without opening the container, I could immediately tell that the kaya’s consistency was lumpy. This could be because the kaya was overcooked, or because the mixture wasn’t blitzed enough to achieve a smoother texture. However, I chose to reserve judgement in case its taste could make up for how it looked.
Chin Mee Chin’s kaya tasted decent. It wasn’t too sweet and had a subtle caramel flavour. Unfortunately, the texture was just too unpleasant for me to overlook. I felt as though I was tasting a soggy cake that was left overnight, mashed up, and then put in the fridge. The kaya also lacked the distinct coconut scent that is a trademark of Hainanese kaya.
My colleague suggested toasting some bread and spreading the kaya on it, in hopes that the heat from the bread would “melt” the kaya and make it smoother. While this method made the kaya easier to spread, there were still some lumpy bits that we couldn’t get rid of.
As much as I love supporting old-school brands, this kaya was just too lumpy for my liking.
Sweetness: 3.5/5
Texture: 1/5
Fragrance: 2/5
Cost: 1/5
Total: 37.5%
Address: 204 East Coast Road, Singapore 428903
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 8am to 4pm
Chin Mee Chin’s kaya is not halal-certified but uses no pork or lard.
This famous traditional bakery, which has been around since 1953, is probably remembered by your ah gong and ah ma for their signature diamond-shaped egg tarts. Tong Heng Traditional Cantonese Pastries also makes their own Nyonya kaya ($7.20 for 280g), which can be found at their Chinatown outlet.
I would say that Tong Heng’s kaya is the best-dressed on this list, as it’s packaged in a gorgeous turquoise jar with illustrations depicting the brand’s Chinese roots.
Unfortunately, my amusement immediately dissipated upon popping open the lid, as I was overwhelmed by a pungent smell. Worried that the kaya might have turned bad, I did a quick search online and found out that the weird smell is commonly associated with new jars.
I held my breath and dug into the kaya with a knife. The kaya had a thick consistency and a creamy texture that made it easy to spread. While it was decently fragrant, it was unfortunately too sweet. It also had an unpleasant aftertaste, which was possibly due to the coconut milk being stale.
This could have been a promising jar of kaya, but sadly its high price and off-putting aftertaste just did not do it for me.
Sweetness: 1/5
Texture: 3/5
Fragrance: 2/5
Cost: 3/5
Total: 45%
Address: 285 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058833
Opening hours: Daily 9am to 7pm
Tong Heng Traditional Cantonese Pastries’ kaya is not halal-certified but uses no pork or lard.
Singaporean celebrity chef Violet Oon is heralded as the queen of Peranakan cuisine, which is why we had to include her brand’s Nyonya kaya. Violet Oon’s artisanal kaya is notably the priciest on this list, going at $13 for 270g. As it’s often sold out online, we made a trip down to their ION Orchard flagship store just to buy a jar.
First impressions-wise, the kaya jar looked expensive and was packed in a gorgeous Peranakan-inspired box. The kaya itself sported a deep green hue, which could have easily passed off as a jar of pesto. Similar to Tong Heng, Violet Oon’s kaya jar also had a weird, musky smell.
On its own, the kaya had a pleasant fragrance. I could easily discern the pandan aroma, which was light and not too overpowering. The kaya itself was also luscious and creamy, and had a paste-like consistency. No complaints here.
However, its pandan fragrance did not translate to its taste. In the words of my colleague: “This would be a good introductory kaya for foreigners who aren’t used to pandan.” While I was a fan of the kaya’s eggy aftertaste, I would have preferred it to be sweeter with a stronger pandan flavour.
This was a decent jar of kaya, but its taste did not justify the $13 price tag.
Sweetness: 3/5
Texture: 4/5
Fragrance: 2/5
Cost: 2/5
Total: 55%
Address: 2 Orchard Turn, #03-22, ION Orchard, Singapore 238801
Opening hours: Daily 12pm to 10pm
Violet Oon’s kaya is not halal-certified but uses no pork or lard.
I was initially planning to buy the Nyonya kaya from Bengawan Solo at Bugis Junction but was informed that they no longer sell them. While looking for an alternative, I came across BreadTalk and saw that they offered both Hainanese and Nyonya kaya. The kaya was sold in small quantities of 100g, priced at $3.60 each. I opted for Breadtalk’s Nyonya kaya to replace Bengawan Solo’s on this list.
Despite being Nyonya kaya, BreadTalk’s rendition had a prominent coconut flavour. This would have been fine, if only it wasn’t so sweet. In fact, this was the sweetest kaya of the lot. Thankfully, the sweetness was much more manageable once I paired the kaya with some salted butter.
BreadTalk’s kaya also had the least custard-like taste, which in my opinion, made it less tasty.
This kaya’s saving grace was its consistent and smooth texture. Although a little chunky when you first take a scoop, it spreads well once slathered onto bread.
Sweetness: 2.5/5
Texture: 3.5/5
Fragrance: 3/5
Cost: 3/5
Total: 60%
BreadTalk website | Full list of outlets
BreadTalk’s kaya is not halal-certified but uses no pork or lard.
Kaya House has a long history in the production of kaya, and while they started out producing only Hainanese kaya, they’ve since expanded their line to include the Nyonya version as well. I decided to give their signature Hainanese kaya a try, which can be found at Cold Storage or NTUC Fairprice at $4.35 a jar (240g).
As I opened the jar, I could immediately smell the eggs and caramel. I admit being biased towards eggy kaya, as I personally believe it makes the kaya richer and more custard-like in terms of flavour and texture.
Interestingly, the reviews for this kaya were mixed. Some of my colleagues found the sweetness of the caramel to be just right, while others thought it tasted artificial. Personally, I found the kaya to be on the sweet side, though just a tad cloying. The rich egginess of the kaya also overpowered any coconut or pandan flavours that were present.
I did enjoy the kaya’s texture, which was thick and creamy, though a little clumpy. It was also stickier than I would have liked but was easy to apply onto bread.
Not too bad for a jar of budget kaya.
Sweetness: 3/5
Texture: 3/5
Fragrance: 3/5
Cost: 5/5
Total: 70%
NTUC Fairprice website | Full list of outlets
Cold Storage website | Full list of outlets
Kaya House’s kaya is halal-certified.
Killiney Kopitiam ranks pretty high on my list of best kaya toast stalls in Singapore. The kaya here is said to have a rich flavour and creamy body thanks to the eggs. A jar of their Hainanese kaya will set you back $6.20 (280g).
Do note that not all Killiney outlets sell their kaya. After being turned away at numerous stalls, I finally got a jar at their Fortune Centre outlet.
While Killiney managed to get their kaya’s sweetness just right, there was an obvious imbalance between the egg and coconut flavours. The egginess was just too overpowering, and while I personally thought this made the kaya tastier, my colleagues thought that it might be more suitable for French toast rather than your traditional white bread.
My main gripe with this kaya was its texture, as it had a watery consistency. To achieve the same level of thickness as BreadTalk, Tong Heng, or Violet Oon’s kaya, I had to spread up to three layers. But if you don’t like kaya that’s too thick, this wouldn’t be an issue for you.
Despite the overwhelming eggy flavours, this was one of my—and my colleagues’—favourite kaya. Tasty, sweet, and value-for-money, Killiney’s kaya rightfully deserves this fifth-place spot.
Sweetness: 4.5/5
Texture: 3/5
Fragrance: 3.5/5
Cost: 3.5/5
Total: 72.5%
Killiney Kopitiam’s website | Full list of outlets
Killiney Kopitiam’s kaya is not halal-certified but uses no pork or lard.
How can we have a best kaya listicle without mentioning Ya Kun Kaya Toast? The kaya toast stalwart uses a family recipe with a history dating back to 1944. It’s also touted as Singapore’s most popular kaya brand. But, is it the best in Singapore?
Ya Kun is known for their Hainanese kaya. You can get a jar in-stores for $6.30 (290g). Although I’ve had Ya Kun’s kaya toast many times before, this was my first time trying their kaya on its own. As I opened the jar, I took a whiff of the kaya’s familiar scent, which was recognisable from the subtle sweetness of the caramelised sugar.
As I usually have Ya Kun’s kaya with butter on toast, I’ve never noticed how watery their kaya was. Texture-wise, Ya Kun has the smoothest kaya of the pack. The consistency was very sheer when I applied it to the bread. It was also runny and looked more like a thick syrup than a spread.
In terms of sweetness, Ya Kun’s kaya was as sweet as Glory’s, although the former had subtler flavours of pandan and egg, which allowed the coconut fragrance to shine.
While the ingredients came together nicely in this jar of kaya, I would have liked the texture to be creamier and the pandan flavour to be stronger. Unfortunately, due to these factors, Ya Kun’s kaya came short of making it into the top three.
Sweetness: 4/5
Texture: 3.5/5
Fragrance: 3.5/5
Cost: 4/5
Total: 75%
Ya Kun Kaya Toast website | Full list of outlets
Ya Kun Kaya Toast’s kaya is halal-certified.
Glory may sound familiar to those of us who grew up with always having a jar of kaya at home. Besides being widely available in supermarkets across Singapore, this “supermarket kaya” is also one of the most affordable on this list, priced at just $3.70 for a jar of 400g. Interestingly, Glory’s Nyonya kaya has quite the fan base online, as it’s popular not just with locals but also among foreigners. You can also easily buy this household brand online.
Compared to the other kaya brands on this list, Glory’s version had a mellower smell, with an ever so slight hint of coconut milk. It also had one of the most balanced flavours of coconut extract, egg, sugar, and pandan.
This kaya had a rich and thick texture that melted effortlessly in the mouth when consumed. Since the kaya was thick, one scoop of it was enough to cover an entire surface of sliced bread.
My only complaint is that the kaya was a tad too sweet. Coupled with its richness, this could be quite a jelak kaya, especially if you add too much of it to your bread. But sweetness aside, Glory got everything else down to a T. With these considerations in mind, I’ve ranked this as the third-best kaya brand in Singapore.
Sweetness: 3.5/5
Texture: 4/5
Fragrance: 4/5
Cost: 5/5
Total: 82.5%
NTUC Fairprice website | Full list of outlets
Cold Storage website | Full list of outlets
Glory’s kaya is halal-certified.
Before you cry foul, allow me to explain why Fairprice’s Nyonya kaya deserves this runner-up spot. When we did the blind taste test with our colleagues, many named this as their favourite kaya of the lot.
Visuals-wise, there’s nothing too special about the kaya. It’s simplistically packaged without any fancy designs or illustrations. The wow factor is present in the kaya’s fragrance. This kaya was well-balanced, with discerning notes of coconut milk, pandan, eggs, and sugar coming together in a harmonious blend.
Fairprice’s kaya also tasted like a less-eggy, more pandan-y version of Killiney’s kaya. It wasn’t too sweet, and I could enjoy it on its own without any bread. The kaya was smooth and spread as easily as butter.
And then there’s the price factor. Fairprice’s kaya only costs $3.30 for a jar of 410g, which makes this the cheapest kaya on this list.
I’m always for affordable products that taste good, which is why Fairprice’s kaya is the second-best kaya brand in Singapore.
Sweetness: 4/5
Texture: 3.5/5
Fragrance: 4.5/5
Cost: 5/5
Total: 85%
NTUC Fairprice website | Full list of outlets
Fairprice’s kaya is halal-certified.
And finally, the winner of all kaya: Heavenly Wang! It was a close fight between Heavenly Wang’s Hainanese kaya and Fairprice’s kaya, but after numerous blind taste tests, I found myself steering towards #TeamHeavenlyWang.
First, this kaya is super affordable and costs only $3.93 for a jar of 270g. Second, the texture was just heavenly—it was super rich, dense, and also creamier than Fairprice’s kaya. Third, Heavenly Wang absolutely nailed their kaya’s sweetness, as the rich, caramelly notes were prominent without being overpowering, and blended seamlessly with the other ingredients.
Most importantly, the kaya tasted fresh and had a pleasant vanilla-like aroma. After crowning them as the best kaya brand in Singapore, all that was left to do was to toast some bread, slather on a thick slab of kaya, and enjoy all of its goodness.
Sweetness: 4.5/5
Texture: 4/5
Fragrance: 4.5/5
Cost: 5/5
Total: 90%
Heavenly Wang website | Full list of outlets
Heavenly Wang’s kaya is halal-certified.
Everyone has different preferences when it comes to their favourite kaya. While this list may reflect some personal biases, I’ve tried my best to consider the different criteria when deciding on the final ratings for each brand. If you’re a kaya enthusiast or someone who wants to introduce the fragrant spread to your non-Singaporean friends, this list of best kaya in Singapore will hopefully help you make the tastiest decision.
For our list of the best kaya toast places in Singapore, read our kaya toast stalls food guide. Else, read our review of Tong Ah Eating House, an 80-year-old coffeeshop with kaya french toast at Keong Saik.
12 Kaya Toast Stalls In Singapore To Get Your Traditional Breakfast Fix
Photos taken by Hui Hui Lau.
This was an independent listicle by Eatbook.sg.
The post 10 Best Kaya In Singapore Ranked, Including A 98-Year-Old Bakery Brand appeared first on EatBook.sg - Local Singapore Food Guide And Review Site.
]]>We food scholars don’t usually like to generalize when it comes to our area of study, but historically speaking, butter is ancient. The exact geographical origins are debated: Historian John Ayto has argued that butter was first “discovered” thousands of years ago by nomadic peoples of central Asia, while others like Elaine Khosrova believe it was herdsmen traveling across ancient Africa. Regardless of location, most scholars agree that whoever first made butter did so by accident. The delicious surprise was likely created when an animal-skin sack or some other temporary storage container full of milk was sloshed and jostled during a long journey—resulting in the separation of the fats from the watery buttermilk—forming little yellow bits of butter solids.
]]>There are so many you’ll probably spend time choosing the perfect one. Let’s narrow it down a little. Below you can find our favorite DIY crafts and projects we think you should try.
DIY crafts are a great way to spend the afternoon and can be used to build a side income. But how can you be sure that you aren’t going to cause damage to your home in the process? Below are a few tips to help you make DIY crafts at home.
Whether or not your craft is described as messy in the directions, you should take the time to cover all surfaces of your home that you will be working on. This can be as simple as putting paper down on your table, or you may need to pick up a tarp to cover the furniture for larger projects.
Although you may be tempted to start experimenting with DIY crafts, it’s best to follow the instructions until you are sure you know how to make a specific project. That way you will know that the product you are making works and lessen your chances of injury or damage to your home.
Making a stool? Or maybe a DIY fireplace mantle? Before you stack your important and breakable things on these DIY crafts, take a minute to test them out. Put a little weight on them (maybe some rocks or books that won’t get damaged). One the DIY craft item proves it can hold the weight you want to place on it, then start putting your valuables on your DIY craft.
There is nothing more inconvenient than starting a DIY craft project and then realizing you skipped something on the supplies list. You could also jeopardize your project when you do this. Avoid the problem and double check your supply list before you begin.
Looking to make DIY crafts so you can amass a little extra cash? It is definitely possible. You’ll want to follow a few steps to get started.
Before you can sell something, you need to master making it. Otherwise, you won’t be able to fill the orders when they begin to flood in. Therefore you should spend plenty of time perfecting your craft before moving on to step 2.
Next, you will want to find a place to sell your crafts. There are many websites that offer these services. You will want to compare a few of them to find out which is the best deal for sellers and which you would feel the most comfortable building a business relationship with.
Changing platforms later is very annoying. It is better to take your time now and ensure the platform you choose is right for you.
You may think that it is easier to make crafts as people order them, but there is a chance you could receive more orders than you can handle at once. For this reason, you should have at least some products in stock before you open your shop.
Remember, you are doing this to be profitable. While you are making this stock, write down everything you spend to make your products. Then, calculate how much it costs to make a single product. You’ll want to take shipping into account as well, ensuring that your items are priced high enough to still leave you with a profit at the end of the day.
Sound like a good idea? All you have to do now is find a craft you can master and sell. Scroll down to check out or list of 50 DIY crafts that could be made and sold for a profit.
Many people don’t think they can do DIY crafts because they don’t have the funds to get started. What you may not know, is that there is a whole host of DIY projects that can be made from paper, which costs almost nothing. Some of these DIY crafts are even nice enough to sell.
DIY Paper Crafts:
As you can see, you don’t need a lot of money to get started with DIY crafts, just some paper and your imagination will do.
The specific homemade crafts that are high in demand will change frequently depending on the market, as well as the tastes of consumers. Therefore, it can be difficult to pin point exactly what craft to make that will fly off the shelves.
Currently, these are the types of DIY crafts that are high in demand:
If you don’t see your favorite craft on this list, don’t despair, as your DIY craft could be the next big thing. Remember that you never know until you try.
For those feeling a bit bored, DIY crafts are the perfect way to fill your time. You not only will have something to do to cure your boredom, but you will also be creating a project that you can probably use around your home.
These are the best DIY crafts to do when you are bored:
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Want to add some color to your home? Flowers are always a nice idea. The real ones can be a handful and don’t really last long so if you want something long-term then craft some faux flowers. This yarn billy ball bouquet looks super cute and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out it’s really easy to make as well.
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Accent pillows are great for making a room look and feel extra warm and cozy but they’re not really of much help if they blend in too much. Luckily, there’s an easy way to fix that by decorating the pillows with fabric flower embellishments. All you need is some fabric scraps, scissors, a needle, and some thread and surely you must be able to gather these things with ease.
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This is a really cool way of using test tubes. The project is simple, unusual, and quirky, exactly the kind that stands out and sticks in your brain. You can make this test tube vase even more interesting by using a piece of driftwood or reclaimed wood for the base.
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A nice-looking soap dispenser can really brighten up the bathroom even though it may not seem like much. It’s the details that give a space charm and make it special.
With that in mind, we thought you’d enjoy the look of this Mason jar soap dispenser which is really easy to do. The only thing that takes a bit of time is waiting for the paint to dry so once that’s out of the way it’s all pretty much done.
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These floral napkin rings look absolutely adorable and they’re made with succulent clippings and flowers. They capture the fresh beauty of spring with their design and they’re perfect for any special occasion. You can potentially also use faux flowers if you want to preserve the rings for longer.
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Terrariums are great decorations and perfect for preserving little mementos such as seashells, tiny pinecones, and other things. If you have one, perhaps you’d like to make a stylish base for it so it stands out a bit more.
This geometric terrarium base is a nice and fairly simple craft project and you can have it customized however you want, even give it a different shape.
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If you’ve never used concrete in any of your DIY projects, now would be a good time to start. This concrete succulent planter is super easy to make and there are lots of different ways in which you can customize it.
Its size and shape are dictated by the container that you choose to use as a mold. To get this look you can use a baking tray.
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Air plants, as you probably know, are super low maintenance and don’t require soil which means you can display them in all sorts of cool and interesting ways. If you want something simple and small to keep on your desk or to place on a shelf, this air plant stand should work really well. Its base is just a wood block cube with a floral wire sticking out.
If you think one of the areas in your home could use a bit of accent lighting in it, this is a really nice to do that. What you see here is a paper star lantern and to make it you need a sheet of poster board, a cord light set, a low temperature light bulb, and some tools. The actual star template that you use can be something you’ve designed yourself.
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You might be thinking that making your own furniture from scratch is way too difficult and out of your comfort zone but not all projects are complex or difficult. Some are actually super simple, like this upholstered footstool for example. Anyone can make one of these and it’s a lot of fun to come up with a color scheme and a design for it.
Perhaps your next project can be something useful, something to help you organize your things better. A jewelry holder could be a nice idea.
This one is easy to make and can be customized in lots of ways. You can install it on a wall or any vertical flat surface and it will keep all your necklaces and bracelets organized and accessible plus it will look nice as a decoration.
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You know those secret bookcase entrances and contraptions we sometimes see in movies? They’re pretty cool so how about you make something like that for yourself?
It doesn’t have to be an entire room hidden behind a bookcase but you can surely make a book box hiding spot, like a little secret space where you can hide things and disguise the whole thing as a set of books.
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Another thing you could do is give some of your furniture pieces a makeover. For example, you can paint vinyl upholstery in case any of your chairs or other pieces have it and that would change the look of the whole room. You can use spray paint for that and it’s actually easiest than you might think.
Next time you come across a self-adhesive cork strip in a store you should get a roll because it’s a useful thing to have around. You can use it to make all sorts of little things around the house, like this cork notice strip for instance.
You can put this next to your desk or in your kitchen and pin various things like notes, pictures, recipes, shopping lists, and so on.
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Every entryway needs a coat rack. Finding the right one is not easy but you can make things simpler by opting for a wood coat rack that you can make yourself. It can be as tall as you want and you can make it out of any type of wood you think suits your space best.
Mason jars are awesome because there are so many interesting and practical ways in which they can be repurposed, not just as storage containers but also as something completely unexpected. On that note, check out this mason jar desk lamp and picture all the nice ways in which you can customize it and make it your own.
Some things are only meant to be decorative and don’t really serve any practical purpose. They are however what makes a space feel like home.
This yarn fringe wall hanging is a nice example of something simple that you could craft in your spare time. Match it to your existing Bohemian decor and feel free to customize it in any way you see fit.
If you have a piece of wood handy, one of the things you can make with it is a serving tray. Sand it, stain it, paint it, add handles, and anything else that you think would improve the design and the experience.
You can use this tray when you’re serving drinks and snacks out on the patio or when you’re entertaining guests in your living room.
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Pipes are a lot more versatile than you might think, especially when it comes to industrial-style furniture and accessories. You can use them to make all sorts of cool things for your home, like this copper pipe magazine rack for example.
It’s such a simple project. All you need for it is a 2-meter pipe, 12 copper 90-degree connectors, a pipe cutter, and some strong adhesive.
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In case your patio or the outdoor deck could use some sprucing up, perhaps some planters could do the trick. You could make something yourself out of reclaimed materials. A wooden pallet planter could be a fun little project.
First, you take the pallet apart, then you cut some boards to size, and finally, you assemble the new planter. The best part is adding all the little details at the end.
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Paper is one of the most underrated resources when it comes to DIY projects. It’s incredibly versatile and can be used for just about anything.
Some of the best projects involving paper are focused around decorations, like this geo wall art for example. It’s a little something that you can hang on a wall or display on a shelf and even though it’s abstract it and simple it really brightens up the space around it.
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Making your own coasters is quite fun and satisfying. There are a ton of different designs you can try and lots of different materials that you can use.
If you prefer something minimalist, these X-shaped coasters are probably just what you’re looking for. They’re made of balsa wood strips and they can be painted in any color for like. The black sure suits their minimalism well.
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How many times have you thrown away empty cans without even thinking twice about it? After seeing these lovely tin can planters you might reconsider.
They look adorable, and they’re so easy to make you don’t have any excuse not to try this project. They’re great for little succulents or kitchen herbs.
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On the subject of DIY planters, there are a lot of different things that can be repurposed in order to make something really beautiful and special. A tree trunk or a log piece, even a tiny one, can be an amazing resource.
Drill out the center to make a hole for the soil and the plant. Also, it might be nice to spray paint a section of your new tree trunk planter just to add a bit of color to it.
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You can also put a few different glass jars to good use and make a lovely Mason jar centerpiece for the dining table. You can decorate the jars with seasonal items such as flowers, twigs, twine, tree clippings, etc.
This design right here has a nice fall-inspired vibe. If you’re making a spring or a summer centerpiece, something more colorful would look great.
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There’s not a lot you can do with an old sweater but there are still a few cool and interesting ways to repurpose it. One of the things you can do on a lazy afternoon when you’re bored is to turn a sweater into a planter cover.
It’s a cute little idea if you want to add a warm and cozy touch to your decor. This would make a nice winter project.
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If you have some leftover yarn from previous projects, it might be nice to use it to make some string wall art for your home. Mix and match different colors based on the supplies that are available to you.
All you need is a wooden dowel and a bunch of yarn, and you can make something eye-catching that makes your home feel extra cozy and inviting.
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Baskets are great not just as storage containers but also for some more unusual projects. A woven waste paper bin may not seem like a very interesting item but wait until you see it turned into a basket lampshade.
You can do something similar for your entryway or perhaps for the home office or the bedroom as a way to add some texture to the decor.
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You could even make a stylish light fixture from scratch, given enough time and the necessary resources. It’s actually not that difficult, especially if you make something small and simple like this swing sconce lamp for example.
Something like this would be perfect for a cozy reading corner or the bedroom. You could also add a small lampshade if you wanted to.
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Autumn is amazing because it gives us pumpkins and there are so many beautiful crafts that you can do with them. Mini pumpkins are absolutely adorable and these pumpkin votives are super lovely.
They’re made from real pumpkins, which are carved out and painted. Of course, it’s also possible to do something similar with faux pumpkins any time of the year but there’s something special about the scent of real pumpkins that makes this project extra special during fall.
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If you haven’t already, you should really try using chalkboard paint in one of your projects. It’s a lot of fun, and you can use the paint to make things that are not just cool to look at but also useful, like this framed chalkboard.
You can hang something like this in the kitchen or the entryway to write lists and messages on it. Make sure you pick a frame that reflects your style.
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On a similar board, a memo board wouldn’t be difficult to make at all and would make a nice addition to your workspace, especially if you’re working from home. This elastic memo board can be made from a simple piece of plywood and some elastic headbands, and you can customize it in all sorts of different ways using paint, washi tape, and other resources.
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You can always add more shelves to a space if you feel the need for some extra storage or a place to display some decorations. Usually, you’d need to drill holes into the walls when installing the shelves but there are also alternative solutions. This hanging rope shelf can be attached to the ceiling or to the underside of a cabinet.
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There are many different ways to decorate an empty wall. One of the most common options is to hang a bunch of framed pictures or some paintings, posters, and other similar things.
If you want to make your own wall art, you can simply print out some letters. Framed letter art is very versatile and there are many different ways to customize your own design if you decide to make something similar.
If you are looking to spruce up your fireplace this holiday season, consider adding this dried orange garland to your living room or entryway. As well as adding a fun decoration to the room, it will also add a pleasant citrusy scent.
All you’ll need to get started is a bag of oranges and a few kitchen supplies, which you are bound to have already. This quick and easy craft is one of our favorite ways to brighten your home for the holiday season.
When it comes to Halloween, it’s understandable not to want to spend a fortune decorating your home. You also may not want to cover up your lovely home décor with spooky decorations. If you want an inexpensive and subtle decoration to add to your home this year, create this Halloween yarn spider web.
It will take you very little effort to create, and you can add the finished spider web to any room in your home. Your kids will love having a few webs on their windows to get in the spooky mood this season.
Succulents have become incredibly popular to add to homes, adding some much-needed life to kitchens and living rooms. These cute little clay pots are easy to make and look beautiful to house your plants.
Succulents are such a low-maintenance plant to add to your home and require very little care and attention.
If you are looking for a fun craft to enjoy with your whole family, try out these baked sharpie plates. You’ll create something that’s really useful and that your kids will enjoy using every day. To make these plates, you’ll just need a selection of colorful Sharpies and to preheat your oven ready to finish off the project.
Essential oil reed diffusers make the perfect Christmas or birthday gift, and what better way to show someone how much you care than by creating one yourself. These essential oil diffusers will naturally fragrance the air as the essential oil serum travels up through the wooden reeds.
Use any oil of your choice to create a gift that your family and friends will love receiving this year.
This DIY cosmic trend inspired mousepad will add a fashionable touch to your office. Even with more people opting to use laptops today, mousepads are still an essential accessory for many computer users.
This cosmic design will add some personality to any desk and will look great no matter how your home office and desk are decorated.
We love adding new decorations to our Christmas tree each year, and this DIY button covered Christmas ball will sparkle wherever it’s placed in your home. Use any color and size buttons you like to customize this project to your tree’s décor.
We love the little pins that are used in this project, as they add a little extra sparkle to the ornament.
Hangers aren’t exactly the most exciting item in the home. However, will a little effort, you can create a stylish and pretty hanger that you’ll enjoy adding to your wardrobe. If you have an open wardrobe or like hanging clothes around your room, you’ll love the sleek and trendy look of these hangers.
For anyone who is looking for a simple DIY project to gift your friends and family this year, you’ll love these DIY felt ball coasters. As with most DIY projects, you can customize the color and size of each coaster to fit the recipient’s needs.
They will add a cozy touch to any table, and you could even give a matching mug with them to make a complete holiday gift this year.
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To create these beautiful Kusudama flower balls, you’ll just need origami paper, craft glue, and paper clips. They create stunning little flowers, which were originally used for potpourri and incense in ancient Japan.
You’ll love displaying these around your room or gifting them to your loved ones to put a smile on their face.
If you are bored of your usual pillows in your living room, create your own pom pom pillow. You’ll add a fun and fluffy border of pom poms to any pillow, which is a simple and cheap project for any room in your home. Choose a bright color that perfectly complements your pillow, and enjoy this creative and easy project today.
As you can see, we love using mason jars as the base for our DIY projects. This simple project guides you through painting mason jars, which offer an easy way to decorate on a budget.
We love the metallic paint used on these mason jars, and you’ll enjoy adding a statement piece to any room. Mason jars generally last forever, so this quick project will give you years of enjoyment.
If your kids love reading or playing video games on their summer break, they’ll love lounging about on this DIY kids bean bag. You are probably wondering how this is a quick and simple project, but you’ll be impressed to learn it takes just forty-five minutes to create this bean bag from start to finish.
The only thing you’ll need to be able to do is to sew on a zipper, and you’ll be ready to start this exciting DIY craft project.
Many DIYers are put off by fabric-based projects as they usually involve sewing. However, these DIY no-sew fabric napkins don’t use any sewing whatsoever in their creation.
It’s a budget-friendly project that can use up any fabric scraps around your home. Either choose a single color or pattern or mix things up with a selection of bold and fun colors and prints.
If you are short of Halloween decorations this year, have a go at turning your dish towels into Halloween pillows. You’ll brighten up any chair with these fun pillow covers, and you’ll barely spend anything in the process. You don’t have to finish up any edges when creating these pillows, as they are already done for you.
If you are sick of finding odd socks around your house, put them to good use with these DIY argyle sock vases. This is a fun way to add more character to any vase in your home and will add a quirky decoration to any countertop or side table.
All you’ll need to get started is a vase or glass jar, socks, a needle and thread, scrap fabric, and scissors.
Chances are you have at least a few books lying around your house. If not in your bedroom or living room, maybe in your kitchen or office.
Either way, DIY bookends are an easy craft that you can make in an afternoon but can add some pizazz to your home. Check out these cute dinosaur DIY bookends and consider making them for use in your home.
Decorating your home can be pricey, mainly due to the cost of acquiring art for your walls. Instead of breaking your carefully planned budget, try this easy craft to create art for your wall using just string and nails—two things you probably already have lying around the house.
You’ll be surprised and awed at how cute this project will turn out.
In the modern day, where everything is digital, it can be difficult to find a place to store and display cherished photos of your family. So next time you have a photo that you absolutely must display, consider making a DIY photo frame.
There are many ways you can do this, and this idea for a rope photo frame is an easy craft that won’t take you long to make.
Flowers are a beautiful addition to any home. But live plants can be difficult to care for and hard to have around when you have allergies. Instead, follow these instructions to make your very own paper flower bouquet that won’t wilt, need water, or cause any sneezing.
And don’t be afraid to switch up the paper style and color to make one of these for every room in your home.
Keeping your home organized can be difficult, especially when you have many small items covering every available surface. That’s when you should take the time to make this tin can organizer to store your hair ties, barrettes, and other small accessories.
It’s an easy craft that will only require some tin cans, decorative paper, and of course, your imagination.
When it comes to coasters, you will probably need more than one set. This is because most sets only have four pieces, and at some point, you will likely have more than four guests over.
So if you have already made the other coasters on this list, but still want more coasters, consider making these wooden coasters for an additional set. They are a quick, easy craft that you can customize to suit any style of décor.
For those that are taking the time to make multiple crafts on this list, you have probably acquired quite a collection of craft supplies. If these craft supplies are cluttering your drawers and countertop, then it’s time to make this DIY drawer organizer to keep everything in its place.
Don’t be afraid to make multiple of these in different colors and place them in every drawer in your home.
Just like your hair ties and barrettes can clutter every available surface, so can your jewelry. That’s when you should spend an afternoon making this rope jewelry basket for your home.
It’s an easy craft that can help you to stay more organized. And as with every project on this list, don’t be afraid to make three or four and give the others as gifts.
When you think of furniture, large DIY projects that take days to finish probably come to your mind. But did you know upgrading your headboard is actually an easy craft?
You’ll simply need some wood, foam, fabric, and then a drill to get the job done. This way you can save money and make the exact headboard you need to match your bedroom’s décor.
Vases are another item that you will need multiple of to keep your home organized and stylish. For this easy DIY craft, you will need some paint and the vases or milk jug that you want to upgrade.
Feel free to try metallic colors or even glitters if you like. This project is easy but a little messy, so be sure you also have cardboard or paper on hand to catch any extra paint.
Currently, the most popular DIY crafts are those items that are ‘upcycled’ or that the materials to make them came from something else. This is because many people are environmentally conscious about their purchases.
The DIY crafts that sell the best are personalized items for pets, bath products (such as soap and bath bombs) and bookmarks.
The easiest DIY craft to make are those that involve very few steps, such as a clothespin wreath or DIY no-sew cloth napkins.
Mod podge is a type of glue that is commonly used for DIY craft projects. It is unique because it can be used to attach many mediums to one another, such as fabric, paper, and even wood.
The age at which a child can help with a DIY craft will depend on the age and maturity of the child. Younger children as little as 5 or 6 can help with tasks like gluing and painting, but if your craft includes woodworking, or cutting, you may need to wait until your child is 11 or 12 to allow them to help.
You are never too old for DIY crafts. Anyone at any age, including adults, can make any DIY craft they please as long as they are physically able to.
Yes, as long as you price your DIY crafts properly, and find a site that won’t charge you an arm and a leg to sell them, selling DIY crafts is a very profitable business.
Which one of these 60 easy DIY crafts is you most excited to try first? These home projects are simple yet effective and will brighten up various rooms in your home this year.
Even if you are a complete beginner crafter, you’ll find something here for you to create. From there, you’ll gain even more confidence, and you’ll soon be trying out some of the more challenging DIY crafts on our site.
The post Fun And Simple DIY Crafts To Try In Your Spare Time appeared first on Homedit.
]]>This creamy Chicken Orzo Soup is an upgraded, Greek-flavored version of classic homemade chicken noodle soup. It’s made with every crave-worthy ingredient you’d expect from good chicken soup, including aromatic vegetables, shredded chicken, a soothing broth brightened up with fresh lemon, and al dente orzo pasta.
Ready in about 35 minutes, it’s ideal for family dinners, healthy lunches, or those days when you’re feeling under the weather. Every spoonful is always hearty, wholesome, and good for the soul!
Vegetables - Everyday soup veggies, like carrots, celery, onion, and garlic, give this soup a foundation of aromatic, savory flavor. You’ll find this same blend in Italian wedding soup, potato soup, and many others.
Chicken - I used pre-cooked and shredded chicken breasts, but chicken thighs will work just as well. To save lots of time, use the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of cooking it yourself. Check out the Tips to learn how to make this recipe with raw chicken.
Chicken broth - Homemade bone broth adds a ton of restaurant-quality flavors!
Orzo - This is a type of short-grain pasta that looks just like rice. It’s prepared and cooked the same as pasta and bulks up this soup really well. I love using it in soup recipes, as well as in pasta salads! Feel free to swap the orzo with another kind of short-cut pasta or your favorite whole grains instead.
Heavy cream and cornstarch - These two are mixed to create a slurry. It not only thickens the soup but also gives it a luscious and creamy finish with a velvety mouthfeel.
Lemon juice - Freshly squeezed lemon juice brightens up every spoonful. I like squeezing lemon juice directly into the soup pot once it’s finished and serving lemon slices on the side.
Step 1: Sauté the aromatics. Melt the butter in a large pot, then add the carrots, celery, and onion. Cook until they’re soft, then add the garlic, Italian seasoning, and salt.
Step 2: Let it simmer. Stir in the cooked chicken and chicken broth next, and bring it up to a boil. Add the orzo and cook until the pasta is al dente.
Step 3: Add the slurry. Meanwhile, whisk the heavy cream and cornstarch together in a small bowl. Pour it into the pot and stir to help the soup thicken.
Step 4: Serve. Finish the soup with extra salt, pepper, or lemon juice as needed. Ladle the chicken soup into bowls, top with parsley, then enjoy!
Yes, it’s a very quick and convenient method, especially with raw chicken! Here’s what you need to do:
For sure! Here’s how to make this soup in a crockpot using raw chicken:
If you plan on saving this soup for later, I recommend keeping the soup and orzo separate. This way, the orzo won’t absorb the broth or become soggy as it sits.
Refrigerator: The leftovers are best kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.
Freezer: Store the soup in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Let the leftovers thaw in the fridge overnight.
Reheating: Reheat the soup in a saucepan on the stove while you make a fresh batch of orzo. Combine the two when the soup is hot, then enjoy.
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
The post Chicken Orzo Soup appeared first on The Almond Eater.
]]>We’re all trying new and innovative ways to try and ensure our fresh fruit and vegetables last longer.
Avocado is one such fruit that is very tricky to handle. As tasty as it is, it goes bad very quickly, so any trick that helps make it last longer is bound to go viral.
But this one TikTok hack that claims to keep avocados fresh for a longer period of time might do you more harm than good.
Specifically, it can give you poop a lot.
The trick in question asks people to submerge their avocados in cold water as it apparently slows down the oxidation process, ensuring it lasts longer.
And while this method can delay the avocado from browning, it also creates a hotspot for pathogens like listeria and salmonella to thrive, according to Scott Evans at Pink Storage Cardiff.
@funkyou6969_ ♬ original sound - Tboon Pickens
Both of these pathogens can make the consumer very ill and cause diarrhoea. Which is, I think, more than what most people are bargaining for when they bite into their avocado and toast.
Nutritionist and nutritional therapist Mays Al-Ali says that storing avocados in water gives bacteria the perfect environment to thrive.
“Storing them in water can cause bacteria to grow on the skin of the avocado — where they previously lived harmlessly pre submerging. Bacteria need water, right food and right temperature to grow, so storing avocado in water will feed the bad bacteria,” she explains.
Consuming foods with the listeria bacteria can cause listeriosis, which can pose a big threat to babies, pregnant people, over 65s and anyone with a weak immune system, according to the NHS. It can also cause sepsis and meningitis.
Nutritionist Toby King has also warned that even if you wash your avocado before doing the water submerging trick, it will not save you from infections.
“Some social media users believe that they can disinfect the skins from these harmful pathogens. But listeria can infiltrate the pulp of the avocado when in storage. Disinfecting the skin in this instance wouldn’t help,” he says.
So what would be the best way to store an avocado without making yourself poop every few minutes?
“The best way is to sprinkle some lemon or lime juice on the cut avocado and then store in an airtight glass container (chemical free) in the fridge,” says Al-Ali.
Or if you’re using it in a smoothie, you can peel and chop the chunks and then freeze it to use whenever you want.
So unless you want to give yourself diarrhoea and poop constantly, it’s best to stay away from this avocado submerging hack. If not, you can try and regret all your life choices as you sit on that toilet bowl for the tenth time in a day. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
If you’re into urban-chic style, you’ll go crazy for this $7 million residence-gallery-event space property in the fast-beating heart of downtown Los Angeles.
It’s not exactly your stereotypical, lushly landscaped, luxury L.A. home, though.
In fact, the space is mostly surround by warehouses, parking lots, and rail yards.
But it does have that gritty, cool, industrial vibe that makes most downtown dwellers feel right at home. Plus, it’s adjacent to the trendy artist community known as the Brewery, which anchors the downtown L.A. arts scene.
Built in 1922, as an Edison power substation in the Lincoln Heights area, the building was completely updated and remodeled by RoTo Architects in the 1990s. Since then, it has been used as a home, an art gallery, and even a show-dog kennel (and occasionally all at the same time), according to the Los Angeles Times.
Before its gritty-glam makeover, the cinematic setting served as a movie location—mostly for horror and action films.
The building can be spotted in the zombie flick, “The Return of the Living Dead,” as well as in “Hellbent,” and “No Place to Hide,” starring Kris Kristofferson and Drew Barrymore.
Known as the Carlson-Reges Residence—named for the couple who hired famed architect Michael Rotondi to do the re-design— the property spans nearly half an acre. It includes a main building with an art studio, a gallery, second-floor great room with a very modern kitchen, and a penthouse suite.
The 9,180-square-foot home has three bedrooms and four baths.
The main building is marked by distinct features, including 35-foot, lofted ceilings with exposed ducting and sturdy, steel beams.
Surfaces are made of industrial-quality iron, cement, and glass. And interiors are illuminated by a series of multistory, steel-framed windows.
The living spaces are sleek and modern—especially the primary suite, which features a step-down wardrobe and dressing area; an office; and a covered gym deck, all with views of the L.A. skyline and San Gabriel Mountains.
The guest rooms are located throughout the main structure, and each has unique shapes, angles, and views.
The grounds include an adjoining studio and an elevated deck, which showcases a pool constructed from a repurposed oil-storage container.
The property also has a tropical courtyard, koi pond, and desert garden.
The building has been on and off the market since 2018, at prices ranging from $6.86 million to $7.35 million.
This most recent listing has been active for about five months—unusual for an American Institute of Architects award-winning landmark.
The listing notes that the unique property comes “with potential to expand 48,000 square feet for commercial use or end-user development,” which would make it an ideal live-work space.
The post Downtown L.A. Home With Zombie-Movie Roots Is Anything but Scary for $7M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
]]>I mentioned a few years ago that I hired a professional photographer to take pictures of my emergency preparedness items. I’ve taught classes on food storage and emergency preparedness at different churches, subdivisions, businesses, and other groups. With all the challenges we’re hearing about on the news, like the train derailment in Ohio, I thought I better update this post. I wrote the post a number of years ago, but wanted it to be fresh on my mind, and yours.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to haul all my “stuff” to the different locations, so pictures are working great for presentations. Today, it’s all about first aid kits and the many ways you can put one together. First aid kits can be fairly simple, but you can also make them very large when it comes to their contents. You know best what your family may need, but this post outlines some basic ideas as we brainstorm together.
Please look around your house and gather your first aid items to see what inventory you have so you can then evaluate what you need to replace, discard, or purchase. If you have a first aid kit already, that’s awesome!
If you’re like me, sometimes you need to discard expired over-the-counter bottles or boxes. Here’s the deal, you don’t need to purchase an expensive first aid kit, just start with a little and add the things you need as your budget allows.
The first few pictures are professional photos and then some of my own non-professional ones, but I wanted to share several ways to make first aid kits. Please note that you can purchase most of these first-aid kit containers at your local store or online.
The blog I wrote a few years ago making a first aid kit out of a fishing tackle box has been one of my most popular posts. The tackle box is fairly cheap to purchase and you can easily see most of your first aid supplies at a glance. I would add a Fingertip Pulse Oximeter (test oxygen levels) to this list since I’ve learned many of us have breathing issues and need to be tested often.
You can see the box open below with the supplies I use. Now, these are just a few items I have collected to fill this fishing tackle box. Here is the link to a great list if you can use it, remember everyone stores different first aid supplies. First aid: Supplies by Linda
Below, I did another post about using this Stanley FatMax tool storage unit. The Plano fishing tackle is great, but it’s quite heavy for me to carry. It’s perfect in my house for the first aid supplies I use all the time at home. I decided to fill another larger container, thus the Stanley FatMax came to my mind as a great option when I saw it. Plus, it’s fairly inexpensive and has wheels. I looked up Home Depot and Walmart, they still sell this gem.
I wanted something I could take to a school, church, or out to my street if I needed to help people. Keep in mind I am not a doctor, nurse, or anyone in the medical field. I have done extensive research as to what needs to be in a first aid kit. We will all fill our own kits with supplies we feel comfortable using based on family size, members with special needs, finances, etc.
I can put more supplies in this Stanley FatMax unit, so it was a perfect fit for me. I highly recommend this Medical Handbook. I think this handbook and my book Prepare Your Family For Survival will really help you be prepared for the unexpected more than you would be without them.
Take some time to read both, take notes, and ensure you feel comfortable that your family is as prepared as possible. There are so many things that can come up to surprise us. Prepare now so you’re not surprised when you discover you’re missing some critical items when your family is in real need.
Now, I realize everyone may not have a lot of money to fill their first aid kits right off the bat. If you have a box, start with that. Most of us have some extra buckets in our homes, they would work great as well.
I did purchase some black vinyl lettering for these 5-gallon buckets, but a magic marker would work great too! Make the job for yourself as simple and easy as you can. Just pick up a bottle of this, a box of that, some band-aids, and some Benadryl, that’s all you need to do to get started.
I gave this to my granddaughter as a high school graduation gift. The box is a medium size box so it wouldn’t take up a lot of room in her apartment or dorm.
I didn’t want my granddaughter to go out at night to pick up some fever-reducing products, Vicks VapoRub, lip balm, cough syrup, or Imodium. Yes, I sent her some of my favorite essential oils. It’s what a grandma does, right?
I’m a grandma and a mom, and when the grandkids come to visit, sometimes we need some supplies just for the younger ones. So I try and keep supplies that are age appropriate. I rotate and discard the expired ones, as needed.
Some of the ones you may want to consider are Tylenol, Motrin, cough syrup, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, Orajel, lip balm, and allergy tablets, just to name a few. A thermometer would be awesome and add some cute band-aids and the kids always smile with a cute band-aid on their boo-boo, right?
I am so thankful that a reader, Joanne D. reminded me to put a “print” button on my website. I realize a few of you print and organize my articles. I’m so grateful you can use them. If you teach others, that will melt my heart. Let’s teach the world to be prepared because I can tell you this, the government will not be able to take care of all of us.
We will be on our own, we must be self-sufficient. I saw something on the news from Southern California where they had a huge snowstorm in the city. They received more snow than ever before. My recollection was ten feet over a period of a couple of days at most. The residents knew a big snowstorm was headed their way ahead of time. The problem was the people had no idea it would be this much snow.
Most cities aren’t equipped with the snow removal equipment or the personnel to be able to clear the streets, keep the power grid up and running, and clear the highways with a storm this big. One lady on the news was surprised the city’s street workers where she lived hadn’t been by to help clear their street or at least provide some food. Wait, did I hear that right? They were expecting some food to be delivered when the streets couldn’t even be scraped fast enough for people to drive on.
Please let me remind everyone to keep food for emergencies such as this one. Here’s an article from the New York York Times on the Southern California snowstorms. It was free for me to read, because I hadn’t hit the limit of 2 articles per day, so I hope you can read it. It has some really good pictures.
If we have a disaster or unforeseen emergency, we may be on our own for 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or possibly more. You may know I’m not a doomsday prepper, I’m a mom and grandma trying to teach the world to be prepared for the unexpected. May God help this crazy world we live in today. May God Bless the World, Linda
The post First Aid Kits-What You Need To Survive appeared first on Food Storage Moms.
]]>Asparagus Casserole is a bridge between seasons. With a rich and creamy sauce, crisp topping, and tender fresh asparagus, it’s a marriage between cold-weather comfort and the happiest harbingers of spring.
Pin this recipe on Pinterest to save for later
Pin It!Fellow asparagus lovers, in addition to Air Fryer Asparagus, creamy Asparagus Soup, and Easy Asparagus Tart, today’s recipe belongs on your springtime asparagus recipe to-do list.
A seasonal riff on my popular Healthy Green Bean Casserole, this healthy asparagus casserole is the perfect way to say farewell to winter and hello to the warmer months ahead.
Like my favorite healthy casserole recipes, this is a from-scratch casserole that ditches the cream of mushroom soup and uses simple ingredients you likely already have around.
“Since I made this, my whole family now loves asparagus. My kids even wanted seconds!”
— Lindsey —
I originally envisioned this cheesy asparagus casserole recipe as an Easter side dish or Mother’s Day brunch addition.
That said, it’s so easy to make (and so creamy and delish!) you don’t need to wait for a special occassion to make it .
Just like this Broccoli Bake, it’s a fun, yummy way to eat your veggies.
Like a summertime Zucchini Casserole, what makes this easy asparagus casserole recipe special is its use of fresh ingredients.
Skip asparagus casserole cream of mushroom soup-style.
In fact, with this recipe, you can skip canned asparagus casserole of any kind.
While I am all for a smart shortcut, here, using unprocessed, wholesome ingredients pays off in every bite.
Check out my Roasted Asparagus for tips and tricks for trimming asparagus.
Don’t be tempted to use white button mushrooms, which are totally lacking in flavor. Cremini (baby bella) mushrooms or chopped portobello mushrooms are best.
Not a fan of mushrooms? You can simply omit them.
To make this asparagus casserole gluten free, swap in a GF 1:1 flour blend and use gluten-free breadcrumbs.
Crunchy panko breadcrumbs are my go-to for casserole toppings, but they are certainly not the only option! Here are a few ideas for ways to top your asparagus casserole:
The casserole can be assembled without the topping up to 1 day in advance or frozen up to 1 month in advance; be sure you are using a freezer-safe baking dish. Cover tightly and refrigerate (or freeze).
When ready to bake, let come to room temperature (if the dish is in the freezer, place it in the refrigerator the night before to thaw). Sprinkle with the breadcrumb topping and bake as directed.
Give leftovers a hearty makeover by stirring in cooked, diced chicken, turkey, or ham. (Use one of my easy methods for cooking chicken: Crock Pot Shredded Chicken, Instant Pot Chicken, Baked Chicken Breast, or How to Cook Shredded Chicken.)
Need help putting together your Easter, Mother’s Day, or Asparagus Appreciation Day (okay, I made this one up) menu plan?
Pair this easy casserole with one or more of these delectable options.
This high-quality baking dish will be your go-to for casseroles and so much more. It’s heavy-duty and will last a lifetime.
Let me know what you thought!
Leave a rating below in the comments and let me know how you liked the recipe.
Asparagus season, we welcome you, casserole style!
I have not experimented with a substitution for Greek yogurt, so you would be rolling the dice if you decide to try it. If you’re looking for a place to start, you could try sour cream or your favorite non-dairy yogurt.
Sure. While I really enjoy the crunchy topping, if you prefer to leave it off due to dietary restrictions or personal preference, feel free. You can simply top it with Parmesan cheese or enjoy the casserole naked too. If you’re looking for an alternative to breadcrumbs, Ritz crackers may be a good option too.
Mushy asparagus was likely overcooked. Keep in mind thin asparagus stalks may cook more quickly than thick asparagus ones. For best results, choose stalks close to the same thickness and adjust the cooking time accordingly to ensure your asparagus cooks perfectly.
With a few hearty sides, this asparagus casserole can be enjoyed as a meatless main. For protein, you can add white beans like in this Broccoli Quinoa Casserole, or chicken like Cheesy Chicken Asparagus Casserole.
Ever since the pandemic, many experiences that had traditionally been conducted in person have “gone virtual.” The same has been true in the productivity and organizing professions. While most of us continue to work face-to-face with clients, many of us have also found ways to help clients virtually. What exactly is virtual organizing? To better explain how virtual organizing works, I decided to share some virtual organizing FAQs.
A simple definition of virtual organizing is “Professional guidance provided virtually to help clients achieve organizing and productivity goals.” What kinds of goals? I find the goals are very similar to those that my in-person clients set, including:
These are some of the more common needs, but professional organizers offer a variety of services, depending upon the client’s unique circumstances. How might these needs be met virtually? Here are some commonly asked questions and the answers I typically provide.
As with in-person organizing, a good candidate for virtual organizing is someone who is committed to the process. As the old saying goes, “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
In addition, virtual organizing tends to work well for individuals who desire direction and instruction but have the ability to perform some of the work themselves. For instance, it would be difficult for a wheelchair bound individual to declutter a room virtually.
It is also necessary that virtual clients are comfortable using technology.
Each organizer has his/her own unique approach, but in general, the relationship most likely begins with a consultation. The consultation often involves a phone call or video call, what I call a “meet and greet.” During this time, the potential client can explain his/her needs and goals, and ask questions. I schedule ½ hour for this initial conversation.
If the need is organizing of a specific space, it is helpful for the client to provide photographs. I prefer landscape photographs taken from three vantage points in the room. If I will be providing a floorplan or making suggestions for storage containers or furniture, I also request measurements of the space.
After this call, I type up a proposal for the client to review, which includes a summary of our conversation, specific project outline, and the terms of service. I then email this information to the client for review. If the project is a “go,” the next step is to put our first date on the calendar.
This varies by professional. I offer my consultations free of charge. Once there is a client agreement, it is common for clients to pay a deposit.
This depends on what type of project we are working on. I always ask clients to have their computer/laptop/tablet set up in a well-lit space where they can see me, talk to me, be free of distractions, and be able to comfortably work.
If we will be focusing on decluttering, clients need to set up a few things in advance, such as a clear sorting surface and bags/bins for unwanted items (e.g., to donate, to sell, to dispose). We may also need designated spots for items that will require additional review at a future time
(e.g., clothing that needs to be tried on after the virtual appointment, items about which the
client must ask another family member), and for objects that must be returned to someone else. I also like clients to have a container for items we come across that should live elsewhere in the home. Returning these objects to their proper locations is an example of “homework” to be completed after the call.
If the focus of our time will be time management or other types of coaching, the client will need to have his/her calendar (digital or paper), task list (again, digital or paper), and paper and a pen for taking notes.
Yes, especially for the first call. Before we meet, I send an agenda which lays out the tasks for the call, as well as a list of all supplies that the client should have on hand (see above). These are the results of the mutual consultation.
Typically, at the end of each call, I send an email summary of our session. This includes decisions, observations, and “homework” for the client. I also articulate when we plan to meet again next, and what we will be focusing on during the following session.
Clients need to have either a desktop, laptop, or tablet. It is possible to work on a phone as well, although the phone screen is small, and some may find it difficult to look at such a small screen for the duration of a session.
I provide a Zoom or Facetime link to the client ahead of our session, so the client needs to be comfortable clicking through the link and getting on the call. Some organizers will record the call for future reference.
In most cases, I find 1- 1½ hour calls work best. It can be hard to look at a screen for long periods of time, so these sessions are shorter than my in-person sessions. Calls can be scheduled at intervals that work for each client, such as weekly or bi-weekly. I am flexible on this and suggest the option I think will work best for the project at hand.
Whenever we decide to meet, it is important that clients be fully present for the session,
especially since these sessions are shorter in duration than in-person work. For example, it is optimal to participate when alone and focused, rather than driving the car or caring for little ones who are running around.
The primary difference is that the client has to do more of the physical work.
When I work in-person on an organizing job, I will typically spend time at the beginning of the session pre-sorting items for client review. This means I crawl under beds, reach into back cabinets, remove items from high shelves, climb the attic stairs, etc. I am also there at the end of the session to set up storage systems, put things away, box or bag unwanted items, haul trash out to the can/recycle bin, and load donations into my car for drop-off (if needed).
When working with a client virtually, it is the client’s responsibility to access belongings, bring them to the sorting surface for review, and finally get them to their final destination. That said, there are options we can explore to support clients who might have difficulty doing these tasks. For example, we might identify a family member who can gather items to a pile near the sorting surface ahead of our call, and then come back and help put things away afterwards. I may also recommend professional resources, such as a junk hauler, charity pickup service, handyman, etc.
Another difference is that I won’t be bringing supplies to the job site. Instead, we identify alternative methods for the client to acquire needed supplies. I often set up an Amazon wish list for clients with the items I am suggesting they acquire. We can talk through exactly what, when, and how to purchase whatever is needed.
In terms of process, my virtual approach mirrors my in-person approach. I provide direction, conversation, opinions (when asked), product suggestions, design services, and whatever else is required to achieve the client’s goals.
This depends on the individual organizer. In most cases, I am happy to answer a quick text as soon as I can (bearing in mind that I may be with other clients or unavailable at any given moment). If a client has a need that will require more than a rapid response, I will suggest we schedule additional time to address it.
While this varies by professional, my hourly rate is the same for virtual and in-person services. For this reason, a client on a limited budget may find virtual organizing is a great option. Again, the more a client can work independently, the less expensive the project will be.
This is negotiated between the organizer and the client. The most common choice is via a digital payment service such as Venmo or Zelle.
* * *
Have you ever considered using virtual organizing services? Did this answer any of your questions? What else do you wonder about?
The post Virtual Organizing FAQs first appeared on The Seana Method Organizing & Productivity.]]>If you’ve never had egg muffins or egg muffin cups before, prepare for your whole life to be changed. Okay, that might be a bit dramatic, but they’re pretty great! Or, we think so, at least. Simply put, egg muffins are just what they sound like – eggs baked in a muffin tin.
However, we took them one step further with a frittata-style spin. Essentially, we added all our favorite frittata and omelet mix-ins, baked them in the oven, and voila! Fluffy, delicious, gluten-free egg muffins for the win!
It’s no secret we love a good brunch recipe. After all, with options like Brunch Charcuterie Boards, Vegan Buckwheat Banana Waffles, and our Baked Vegan Donut Recipe, who can resist a good spread?! Not us! And these mini frittata egg muffins are the perfect contribution to your morning lineup. Not only are they completely delicious, but they also allow for an easy way to sneak in extra nutrients and veggies so you can start your day off on the right foot! Here’s everything you’ll need:
Dairy-Free Swap: To make these egg muffins dairy-free, swap out the cheese with your favorite dairy-free variety. Or, omit it completely.
One of the best things about this egg muffin recipe is that it’s completely customizable to fit your needs and preferences. Plus, it’s a great way to use up any leftovers you have on hand! For instance, try out some more of our favorite flavor variations:
Note: As long as you follow the instructions to create the base, you can easily mix and match whatever add-ins you like best. You really can’t go wrong with this egg muffin recipe!
This egg muffin recipe gives you all the flavor of your favorite breakfast frittata but is way quicker and much easier to make!
Egg Muffins are notorious for sticking to the pan. So, it’s crucial to follow the tips below. Otherwise, they’re likely to stick, crumble, and fall apart!
When it comes to batch cooking and gluten-free meal prep, these egg muffin cups are a staple in our recipe arsenal. Quick and easy, they store well and keep for days for quick breakfasts, lunches, and more!
Refrigerator: Once cooled, these egg muffins can be transferred to an airtight container or sealable bag and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. They’re perfect for packing in lunchboxes, and taking on the go!
Freezer: Wrap each cooled muffin in plastic wrap, and transfer them to a sealable bag where they can be frozen for up to 3 months.
To Enjoy: To reheat, let your muffins thaw in the fridge overnight. Or, warm them up straight from the freezer! If thawed, they should heat quickly in intervals of 30 seconds. From frozen, they’ll take 1-2 minutes to thaw and warm completely.
If your recipe turns out soggy, it’s most likely due to excess moisture from the veggies. The best way to prevent this from happening is to give them a quick sauté before adding them to the muffin cups.
It is natural for egg muffins to deflate a bit as they cool. However, if you find your recipe is completely falling flat, it’s most often due to overbeating the eggs. Be sure to whisk them together just until combined.
Yes, unlike regular muffins, egg muffins must be refrigerated to prevent the eggs and dairy from spoiling.
More of Our Favorite
Looking for more gluten-free egg-filled breakfast and brunch recipes? Check out some of our favorites below!
Whether you’re in need of new meal prep recipes, looking for easy ways to sneak in extra veggies, or just love egg recipes, these Mini Frittata Egg Muffins are just what you need! Dairy-Free and Vegetarian Options.
Baking Tips – To prevent the egg muffins from sticking, generously coat the muffin pan with nonstick spray or use a silicone muffin pan.
Keywords: frittata, egg muffins, egg muffin recipe, eggs, breakfast, brunch, gluten-free
Do you have questions, feedback, or tips about this recipe? Leave a comment below with any questions or feedback you’d like to share!
This website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my privacy policy.
These Lucky Charms treats are a fun twist on the classic rice krispie treat and are every bit as magically delicious as you could imagine! They are sweet, but not too sweet to keep coming back for seconds and even thirds. They are a colorful and quick treat perfect for every occasion.
I just love a good bar. Sometimes I don’t want to go through the hassle of frosting a bunch of cupcakes, or scooping up a bunch of cookie batter. Bars are a quick and easy dessert that always please a crowd. If you want some great bar recipes, you’ve got to try these amazing Cherry Pie Bars, these delicious Neiman Marcus Bars, and these Salted Caramel Butter Bars.
If you are all out of ideas for a fun new dessert, then I have just the thing for you. These Lucky Charms treats are so unique and absolutely delicious, they just might be your new go-to recipe. They are just like a rice krispie treat but with more fun and flavor! You make them in the same way, by melting down marshmallows in a pot and tossing the cereal in it until it’s a sticky sugary delicious mess. The best part about these bars is they are a no-bake recipe that is so easy to make, but everyone will be talking about them because they are unique and different!
I absolutely love scotcheroos, they are one of my all-time guilty pleasures. My kids, not so much. Which unfortunately means if I make a batch, I end up eating them all (tastes amazing but makes me feel not so amazing). If I want a quick and easy dessert, and we are all tired out on brownies, then these Lucky Charm treats are my bestie. I love taking them to my kid’s school parties and pot lucks. They are always gone in a flash!
It doesn’t get easier than this everyone. Lucky Charms treats are the heaven sent dessert because you can just pull everything out from your pantry and put them together in 10 minutes. You can even use colorful mini marshmallows to add more magic to these rice krispie treats. You can also add anything else you like that you think would be yummy in this recipe, like white chocolate chips or salted pretzels. Find the measurements below in the recipe card.
Just melt butter, add marshmallows, then lucky charms and you’ve got the best Lucky Charms treats around. You will need a baking dish to press the treats into. I like this one with a lid for easy storage afterward. I like to use a rubber spatula because the mixture will still be quite hot. You could even pick up a granola bar mold from the store and make delicious cereal bars that are perfect for snacking!
There is really nothing to this Lucky Charms treats recipe. You can’t get it wrong! Here are a few ideas to make this recipe your own.
Oh how I love you Lucky Charms treats. You make such great leftovers! They will store for almost a week without getting hard as long as you do it right. Here’s how to store leftovers.
If you’ve come looking for some quick and easy desserts, you’re in the right place! I’ve perfected the last minute dessert recipes because I always seem to be running behind. Here are some of my favorite no-bake desserts that are always a hit!
Line a 9×9 pan with parchment paper. Lightly grease the parchment paper and set aside.
In a large pot, add the butter and cook over medium heat until melted. Add all but 1 cup of the marshmallows and continue to cook until melted, stirring constantly.
Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Stir in the cereal and remaining cup of marshmallows.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and gently press down.
Let the treats cool completely before removing from the pan to cut and serve.
Serves: 9
Calories237kcal (12%)Carbohydrates45g (15%)Protein2g (4%)Fat6g (9%)Saturated Fat3g (15%)Polyunsaturated Fat1gMonounsaturated Fat2gTrans Fat0.2gCholesterol13mg (4%)Sodium221mg (9%)Potassium57mg (2%)Fiber1g (4%)Sugar27g (30%)Vitamin A833IU (17%)Vitamin C6mg (7%)Calcium107mg (11%)Iron5mg (28%)
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword lucky charms treats, no bake dessert, rice krispie treat recipes
The post Lucky Charms Treats | The Recipe Critic appeared first on Bang Burger Buck Recipes.
]]>
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Whether you are trying to stick to a diet, eat out less, or just stop stressing about what to make for dinner, these Chicken Fajita Meal Prep Bowls are your answer! This recipe makes a flavorful and filling meal that is ready to go for the perfect work lunch or quick dinner.
Mexican-inspired dishes are one of my favorites to make a lot of because I know the whole family will be happy with the flavors all week! It always reheats so well, and is something I honestly crave all the time. If you are like me, then you have to try these fun Mexican Pinwheels, this delicious Mexican Pasta Salad, and this crave-able Mexican Corn Chowder.
We’ve all been there. It’s a crazy busy week and everyone is asking what’s for dinner. You’ve been going non-stop for 15 hours straight and you SERIOUSLY need a break. Enter meal prepping. We’ve all heard of it, and maybe tried it at one point. But the thing about meal prepping, is it needs to make your life EASIER, not more complicated. That’s why I love making these chicken fajita meal prep bowls. They are super simple to make, and only take a few extra minutes to portion out to have meals ready to go for the week. Use the calculator on the top right hand of the recipe card to double or triple the recipe for larger families.
This is just a jumping off point for your meal prepping journey. This recipe is simple, but you can absolutely add more to it! What do you like with your fajitas? I know I love fresh salsa, and this blender salsa is ready in just minutes. I can’t help but crave some guacamole too. You can even switch up the flavor of the chicken by using taco seasoning instead of fajita seasoning. Get creative with the recipe, make it the way you want it!
These chicken fajita meal prep bowl is so convenient to have on hand! It’s also really simple to make. This is just the basic ingredients, other things I love to serve with it are extra vegetables, black beans, corn, and top it with sour cream. You can find tips for cooking the rice in the tip box below. You can find measurements below in the recipe card.
These chicken fajita meal prep bowls are too easy to put together. They are also amazing to be able to pull them out of the fridge all week. Perfect for work lunches or sending with the kids for a school lunch. Here is how to make this recipe.
You can switch up these chicken fajita meal prep bowls however you see fit! They are really just a basic recipe to get your wheels turning and to give you some ideas for ways to keep your fridge stocked with delicious food. Here are some tips for how to switch things up and keep them interesting.
There is nothing more satisfying than being able to pull these chicken fajita meal prep bowls out of the fridge when you need them. You are already putting them in your storage container when you make the recipe, so all you have to do is put them in the refrigerator!
There are so many reasons to love having prepped food in the fridge. If you have kids, they are perfect for school lunches. They are also super handy to be able to pull out of the fridge for a quick dinner when you are in a hurry. Here are a few of my favorite recipes that are perfect for meal prepping.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and chicken. Sprinkle half of the fajita seasoning on the chicken and cook until no longer pink. Set chicken aside on a plate.
Add the bell peppers, and onion. Sprinkle remaining fajita seasoning on top. Sauté until they are tender. Add chicken back to the skillet and stir until warmed through.
To assemble, place ½ cup cooked rice into four sealable containers. I like to use leftover rice or prepackaged cooked rice for convenience.
Place 1 cup of cooked chicken fajitas into the containers.
Seal the containers and store in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Warm in the microwave and garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with sliced avocado if you desire!
Serves: 4
Calories579kcal (29%)Carbohydrates87g (29%)Protein32g (64%)Fat11g (17%)Saturated Fat2g (10%)Polyunsaturated Fat1gMonounsaturated Fat6gTrans Fat0.01gCholesterol73mg (24%)Sodium847mg (35%)Potassium754mg (22%)Fiber5g (20%)Sugar7g (8%)Vitamin A3650IU (73%)Vitamin C122mg (148%)Calcium44mg (4%)Iron2mg (11%)
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
Course Dinner, lunch
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword chicken fajita meal prep bowls, chicken, fajitas, meal prep
The post Chicken Fajita Meal Prep Bowls appeared first on Bang Burger Buck Recipes.
]]>You are most likely familiar with AWS Lambda and Fargate — Amazon’s serverless computing engines. At its nature, serverless computing introduces quite a challenging task requiring both tight security and great performance. For exactly that matter Amazon came up with its microVM solution called Firecracker.
MicroVMs are merely a fancy name for minimal, lightweight Virtual Machines. They are spawned by lightweight Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs), stripped out of redundant & nice-to-have features. Much like good-old fashioned VMs, they provide hardware-level virtualization for isolation & security.
MicroVM in regard to this blog post is basically a virtualization technology which is tailor-made for container workloads.
Firecracker is a VMM which utilizes Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). It is created by Amazon to solve their container workloads needs. It is open source, written in (the incredibly awesome) Rust, and used in production since 2018.
Up until recently, Lambda was being run on top of regular Linux containers isolated inside separate virtual machines. Each container served a different Lambda function while each VM served a different tenant. Although highly effective in terms of security, this set-up meant limited performance and has proven to be hard to pack variable-size workloads onto fixed-size VMs.
Amazon decided to come-up with a better solution for its serverless workloads requiring:
And so, it was successfully able to do so achieving impressing boot-times of “as little as 125ms” and supporting creation rates of “up to 150 microVMs per second per host” (source: https://firecracker-microvm.github.io/).
Each Firecracker process is bound to a single MicroVM and is composed of the following threads: an API Server, a VMM, and vCPU(s) threads — one per each guest CPU core.
Firecracker currently supports x86_64
and aarch64
architectures running kernel version 4.14 or later. Support for aarch64 is not feature complete yet and is considered an alpha stage release. All architecture-specific information in this post regards to the x86_64
implementation.
The API Server is the control plane of each Firecracker process. It is, per the official docs, “never in the fast path of the virtual machine”, and can be turned-off by passing the no-api
flag given that a config-file
is provided instead.
It is started by an ApiServerAdapter
in a dedicated thread and exposes a REST API running on top of a unix socket. Endpoints exist for configuring guest kernel, boot arguments, net configuration, block device configuration, guest machine configuration and cpuid
, logging, metrics, rate limiting, and the metadata service. Operations can be sent to the API server pre-boot and post-boot.
The communication between the API server thread and the VMM thread (discussed later) which runs & controls the actual VM is done using Rust channels.
Channels are notified about API requests arriving at the API server using an epoll
event loop, which FC makes use of in various places to handle events:
// FD to notify of API events. This is a blocking eventfd by design.
// It is used in the config/pre-boot loop which is a simple blocking loop
// which only consumes API events.
let api_event_fd = EventFd::new(0).expect("Cannot create API Eventfd.");
// Channels for both directions between Vmm and Api threads.
let (to_vmm, from_api) = channel();
let (to_api, from_vmm) = channel();
thread::Builder::new()
.name("fc_api".to_owned())
.spawn(move || {
match ApiServer::new(mmds_info, to_vmm, from_vmm, to_vmm_event_fd).bind_and_run(
bind_path,
process_time_reporter,
&api_seccomp_filter,
) {
// ...
}
}).expect("API thread spawn failed.");
Source: firecracker/src/firecracker/src/api_server_adapter.rs
Once the API server is spawned, the ApiServerAdapter
would go on and call build_microvm_from_requests()
which loops using successive API calls, in order to pre-boot the VM:
pub fn build_microvm_from_requests<F, G>(
seccomp_filters: &BpfThreadMap,
event_manager: &mut EventManager,
instance_info: InstanceInfo,
recv_req: F,
respond: G,
boot_timer_enabled: bool,
) -> result::Result<(VmResources, Arc<Mutex<Vmm>>), ExitCode>
where
F: Fn() -> VmmAction,
G: Fn(ActionResult),
{
//...
// Configure and start microVM through successive API calls.
// Iterate through API calls to configure microVm.
// The loop breaks when a microVM is successfully started, and a running Vmm is built.
while preboot_controller.built_vmm.is_none() {
// Get request, process it, send back the response.
respond(preboot_controller.handle_preboot_request(recv_req()));
// If any fatal errors were encountered, break the loop.
if let Some(exit_code) = preboot_controller.fatal_error {
return Err(exit_code);
}
}
// ...
}
Source: firecracker/src/vmm/src/rpc_interface.rs
After successfully pre-booting the VM the ApiServerAdapter
would run it calling ApiServerAdapter::run_microvm()
.
FC’s API Server specification can be found here
A traditional PC boot sequence with a BIOS is consisted of the following steps:
Upon starting, the CPU — running in real mode — executes an instruction located at the hardware reset vector which jumps to a ROM location. That firmware code in turn loads the start-up program — BIOS in that case. The startup program executes a POST (power-on self test) integrity check to make sure that all hardware devices that it relies on are working properly.
Afterwards, it starts looking for a bootable device (CD drive, HDD, NIC) — failing to boot if none found. In case of an HDD, the bootable device would be the Master Boot Record (MBR) whose responsibility is to search for an active partition and execute its boot sector code. The boot sector code is basically the first-stage boot loader which is responsible for loading the kernel onto physical memory and transferring control to the OS.
Boot loader systems come in various forms. Different boot loaders implement a different number of stages, designed for dealing with various resource limitations, like the first-stage boot loader’s 512 bytes size limit. Grub, for instance, is a 3-layer boot loader.
However, the Linux Kernel does not necessarily require loading with a BIOS and a boot loader. Instead Firecracker takes advantage of the 64-bit Linux Boot Protocol, which specifies how the kernel image should be loaded and run. FC directly boots the Kernel at the protected-mode
entry point rather than starting off from the 16-bit real mode
.
As the official docs of the Linux Boot Protocol state, the entry for the protected-mode is located at 0x100000
, as seen in the following schema:
For a modern bzImage kernel with boot protocol version >= 2.02, a
memory layout like the following is suggested:
~ ~
| Protected-mode kernel |
100000 +------------------------+
| I/O memory hole |
0A0000 +------------------------+
| Reserved for BIOS | Leave as much as possible unused
~ ~
| Command line | (Can also be below the X+10000 mark)
X+10000 +------------------------+
| Stack/heap | For use by the kernel real-mode code.
X+08000 +------------------------+
| Kernel setup | The kernel real-mode code.
| Kernel boot sector | The kernel legacy boot sector.
X +------------------------+
| Boot loader | <- Boot sector entry point 0000:7C00
001000 +------------------------+
| Reserved for MBR/BIOS |
000800 +------------------------+
| Typically used by MBR |
000600 +------------------------+
| BIOS use only |
000000 +------------------------+
... where the address X is as low as the design of the boot loader
permits.
Hence, Firecracker sets HIMEM_START
to 0x0010_0000
and ultimately passes it as the start_address
when calling load_kernel()
. load_kernel()
in turn runs sanity checks against the provided image, reads in its segments, and finally returns the guest memory’s entry point.
#[cfg(any(target_arch = "x86", target_arch = "x86_64"))]
pub fn load_kernel<F>(
guest_mem: &GuestMemoryMmap,
kernel_image: &mut F,
start_address: u64,
) -> Result<GuestAddress>
where
F: Read + Seek,
{
kernel_image
.seek(SeekFrom::Start(0))
.map_err(|_| Error::SeekKernelImage)?;
let mut ehdr = elf::Elf64_Ehdr::default();
ehdr.as_bytes()
.read_from(0, kernel_image, mem::size_of::<elf::Elf64_Ehdr>())
.map_err(|_| Error::ReadKernelDataStruct("Failed to read ELF header"))?;
// Sanity checks
// ...
kernel_image
.seek(SeekFrom::Start(ehdr.e_phoff))
.map_err(|_| Error::SeekProgramHeader)?;
let phdr_sz = mem::size_of::<elf::Elf64_Phdr>();
let mut phdrs: Vec<elf::Elf64_Phdr> = vec![];
for _ in 0usize..ehdr.e_phnum as usize {
let mut phdr = elf::Elf64_Phdr::default();
phdr.as_bytes()
.read_from(0, kernel_image, phdr_sz)
.map_err(|_| Error::ReadKernelDataStruct("Failed to read ELF program header"))?;
phdrs.push(phdr);
}
// Read in each section pointed to by the program headers.
for phdr in &phdrs {
if (phdr.p_type & elf::PT_LOAD) == 0 || phdr.p_filesz == 0 {
continue;
}
kernel_image
.seek(SeekFrom::Start(phdr.p_offset))
.map_err(|_| Error::SeekKernelStart)?;
let mem_offset = GuestAddress(phdr.p_paddr);
if mem_offset.raw_value() < start_address {
return Err(Error::InvalidProgramHeaderAddress);
}
guest_mem
.read_from(mem_offset, kernel_image, phdr.p_filesz as usize)
.map_err(|_| Error::ReadKernelImage)?;
}
Ok(GuestAddress(ehdr.e_entry))
}
Source: firecracker/src/kernel/src/loader/mod.rs
Firecracker directly uses the uncompressed kernel image vmlinux
, saving additional costs of going through the traditional boot sequence in which the kernel decompresses itself at startup. All of this special FC boot sequence described above enables a major performance boost ultimately resulting in what AWS Lambda customer experience as fast cold starts.
Virtio is a device virtualization standard written by Rusty Russell (the same genius who wrote iptables
!) as part of his work on the x86 Linux para-virtualization hypervisor lguest
. As opposed to full virtualization - where the guest is agnostic to the fact that it’s being run on a different host - para-virtualization technology requires the guest to implement drivers on its own and cooperate with its host. This ultimately helps gaining better performance since the guest speaks directly to the host, instead of being mediated by traps & hardware emulation drivers. Obviously, this requires modifications in the guest OS in order for it to work. Firecracker is implemented using a para-virtualized KVM meaning better performance over a normal VM.
Think of it as the difference between talking to a foreigner directly in her/his native tongue (para-virtualization) vs talking to them with the help of a translator (full virtualization).
The purpose of Virtio is to offer an abstraction and a unified standard for the front-end drivers (on the guest), for the backend device drivers (on the host), and for the transport layer between the two ends.
The specification lays out the requirements needed for implementing virtio-compatible systems. Front-end drivers are shipped out-of-the-box with Linux >= 2.6.25, while the backend drivers (hereinafter referred to as “devices”) must be implemented as per the docs.
Interaction between the guest and the host for the purpose of accessing the data plane is based on a ring-buffer struct called virtqueue
containing guest-allocated buffers. The host reads and writes to those guest memory regions. Each device can have more than one virtqueues, whereas each buffer can be either a read-only or a write-only - but not both. Each device holds a status field, feature bits, and configuration space in addition to the actual data written & read by that specific device.
Notifications between the two ends are used in order to notify the other end of:
A good case for the better performance para-virtualization provides over full virtualization is Virtio’s ‘available buffer’ notifications mechanism which saves us a lot of costly VMExits. For instance, given NIC emulation on a full virtualization solution, there will be a VMExit for each byte being written to the emulated device. With virtio, the entire buffer will be written first and only then will a single VMExit be dispatched for the purpose of notifying the host of an available buffer.
Note that there’s an even better virtio backend implementation called vhost, which introduces in-kernel virtio devices for KVM featuring direct guest-kernel-to-host-kernel data plane, saving redundant host userspace to kernel space syscalls. Firecracker does not currently use this implementation.
Virtio specifies 3 possible transport layers offering slightly different layouts & implementations of those drivers & devices:
One difference between PCI based transport and a MMIO one is that unlike PCI, MMIO provides no generic device discovery mechanism. This means that for each device the guest OS will need to know the location of the registers and interrupts used.
Generally, notifications from the guest to the host are just writes to a special register, which trigger a signal caught by the hypervisor (ioeventfd
& VMExits), whilst notifications from the host to the guest are basic irqfd
interruptions. Both ‘used buffer’ notifications & ‘available buffer’ notifications are suppressible since they can generally be very expensive operations.
Back to Firecracker - each attached device (net, block, etc…) is being registered with its own MMIO transport instance, which is basically a struct implementing the MMIO specification + a BusDevice
trait responding to reads or writes in an arbitrary address space.
When attaching a device, FC subscribes it to the general event loop. Each device is implementing a MutEventSubscriber
trait which implements event handling for the device’s queue_evts
(that is, ‘available buffer’ notifications). Those queue events hold the index of the relevant virtqueue
buffer, so for a balloon driver for example those could be inflateq
, deflateq
, and statsq
queues.
FC registers each file descriptor in the device’s queue_evts
(which are specific to that device) to be signaled by the KVM itself whenever address 0x050
(virtio::NOTIFY_REG_OFFSET
) is written to inside the guest, using a KVM_IOEVENTFD
ioctl. The virtio::NOTIFY_REG_OFFSET
is called the Queue Notifier. As per the official MMIO spec “writing a value to this register notifies the device that there are new buffers to process in a queue”. In the event of MMIO/PMIO guest addresses which are not registered using the KVM_IOEVENTFD
ioctl, a write will trigger a regular VMexit.
KVM_IOEVENTFD This ioctl attaches or detaches an ioeventfd to a legal pio/mmio address within the guest. A guest write in the registered address will signal the provided event instead of triggering an exit. Link
Overall, the flow of registering a MMIO-based device is as follows:
pub fn register_mmio_virtio_for_boot(
&mut self,
vm: &VmFd,
device_id: String,
mmio_device: MmioTransport,
_cmdline: &mut kernel_cmdline::Cmdline,
) -> Result {
let mmio_slot = self.allocate_new_slot(1)?;
self.register_mmio_virtio(vm, device_id, mmio_device, &mmio_slot)?;
#[cfg(target_arch = “x86_64”)]
Self::add_virtio_device_to_cmdline(_cmdline, &mmio_slot)?;
Ok(mmio_slot)
}
Source: firecracker/src/vmm/src/device_manager/mmio.rs
Being a minimal VMM, FC provides a rather limited set of emulated drivers: block storage (virtio-blk), network (virtio-net), vsock (virtio-vsock), balloon driver (virtio-balloon), a serial console, and a partial I8042 keyboard controller used only to stop the VM.
In addition to the above devices, FC guests also see both Programmable Interrupt Controllers (PICs) & the I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (IOAPIC), and the KVM’s Programmable Interval Timer (PIT).
Legacy devices such as the serial console and the I8042 controller are based on Port Mapped IO. Each started vcpu
is being set with a MMIO bus for the virtio devices and a PMIO bus for the legacy devices:
pub fn start_vcpus(
&mut self,
mut vcpus: Vec<Vcpu>,
vcpu_seccomp_filter: Arc<BpfProgram>,
) -> Result<()> {
// ... redacted
for mut vcpu in vcpus.drain(..) {
vcpu.set_mmio_bus(self.mmio_device_manager.bus.clone());
#[cfg(target_arch = "x86_64")]
vcpu.kvm_vcpu
.set_pio_bus(self.pio_device_manager.io_bus.clone());
// … redacted
}
// ... redacted
Ok(())
}
Source: firecracker/src/vmm/src/lib.rs
MMIO reads and writes trigger a VMExit which are handled, among other things, in a function named run_emulation()
which runs the VCPU (will be discussed later on). Those VmExits are used for accessing the device’s control plane (i.e, its configuration space):
/// Runs the vCPU in KVM context and handles the kvm exit reason.
///
/// Returns error or enum specifying whether emulation was handled or interrupted.
pub fn run_emulation(&self) -> Result<VcpuEmulation> {
match self.emulate() {
VcpuExit::MmioRead(addr, data) => {
if let Some(mmio_bus) = &self.kvm_vcpu.mmio_bus {
mmio_bus.read(addr, data);
METRICS.vcpu.exit_mmio_read.inc();
}
Ok(VcpuEmulation::Handled)
}
VcpuExit::MmioWrite(addr, data) => {
if let Some(mmio_bus) = &self.kvm_vcpu.mmio_bus {
mmio_bus.write(addr, data);
METRICS.vcpu.exit_mmio_write.inc();
}
Ok(VcpuEmulation::Handled)
}
// ... redacted
arch_specific_reason => {
// run specific architecture emulation.
self.kvm_vcpu.run_arch_emulation(arch_specific_reason)
}
// ... redacted
}
}
Source: firecracker/src/vmm/src/vstate/vcpu/mod.rs
PMIO reads and writes are arch-specific and handled separately:
/// Runs the vCPU in KVM context and handles the kvm exit reason.
///
/// Returns error or enum specifying whether emulation was handled or interrupted.
pub fn run_arch_emulation(&self, exit: VcpuExit) -> super::Result<VcpuEmulation> {
match exit {
VcpuExit::IoIn(addr, data) => {
if let Some(pio_bus) = &self.pio_bus {
pio_bus.read(u64::from(addr), data);
METRICS.vcpu.exit_io_in.inc();
}
Ok(VcpuEmulation::Handled)
}
VcpuExit::IoOut(addr, data) => {
if let Some(pio_bus) = &self.pio_bus {
pio_bus.write(u64::from(addr), data);
METRICS.vcpu.exit_io_out.inc();
}
Ok(VcpuEmulation::Handled)
}
// ... redacted
}
Source: firecracker/src/vmm/src/vstate/vcpu/x86_64.rs
Guests’ network devices are backed by tap
devices on the host:
impl Net {
/// Create a new virtio network device with the given TAP interface.
pub fn new_with_tap(
id: String,
tap_if_name: String,
guest_mac: Option<&MacAddr>,
rx_rate_limiter: RateLimiter,
tx_rate_limiter: RateLimiter,
allow_mmds_requests: bool,
) -> Result<Self> {
let tap = Tap::open_named(&tap_if_name).map_err(Error::TapOpen)?;
// Set offload flags to match the virtio features below.
tap.set_offload(
net_gen::TUN_F_CSUM | net_gen::TUN_F_UFO | net_gen::TUN_F_TSO4 | net_gen::TUN_F_TSO6,
)
.map_err(Error::TapSetOffload)?;
let vnet_hdr_size = vnet_hdr_len() as i32;
tap.set_vnet_hdr_size(vnet_hdr_size)
.map_err(Error::TapSetVnetHdrSize)?;
let mut avail_features = 1 << VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM
| 1 << VIRTIO_NET_F_CSUM
| 1 << VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO4
| 1 << VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_UFO
| 1 << VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_TSO4
| 1 << VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_UFO
| 1 << VIRTIO_F_VERSION_1;
// … redacted
}
// … redacted
}
Source: firecracker/src/devices/src/virtio/net/device.rs
Vsock was introduced as a method for a bi-directional host/guest communication. An alternative approach would be using virtio-console which provides such host/guest interaction but is rather limited. First of all, multiplexing N:1 connections over 1:1 serial ports is hard and ought to be handled at the application level. In addition, the API is based on a character device rather than on a sockets API and the semantics is stream semantics and does not fit well with datagram protocols. On top and above that, there is a quite small, hardcoded port limit on the host machine of around 512.
On the other end, Vsock offers regular unix domain sockets API (connect(), bind(), accept(), read(), write(), etc…) and therefore supports both datagram and stream semantics. There’s a dedicated address family called AF_VSOCK
for that purpose. Source and destination addresses are made of tuples of 32-bit context ids (cid’s) and 32-bit ports in a host byte order.
Firecracker supports host-initiated vsock connections where the MicroVM must be started with a configured vsock driver. It also supports guest-initiated connections requiring the host to be listening on a destination port, sending a VIRTIO_VSOCK_OP_RST
message to the guest otherwise.
For storage Firecracker implements virtio-block devices backed by files on the host. It does not use a filesystem passthrough solution (virtio-fs) for the time being (perhaps due to security concerns?). Note that since there’s no hot-plug in FC, all of the VM’s block devices need to be attached prior to running the VM. In addition, in order to successfully mount such devices to the VM they should all be pre-formatted with a filesystem that the guest kernel supports.
All read and write operations are served using a single requestq
virtio queue. Out of the official supported operations by the virtio specification:
#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_IN 0
#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_OUT 1
#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_FLUSH 4
#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_DISCARD 11
#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_WRITE_ZEROES 13
Firecracker only supports IN, OUT, and FLUSH:
pub enum RequestType {
In,
Out,
Flush,
GetDeviceID,
Unsupported(u32),
}
A rootfs block device must be configured prior to booting the VM, like so:
rootfs_path=$(pwd)"/your-rootfs.ext4"
curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -i \
-X PUT 'http://localhost/drives/rootfs' \
-H 'Accept: application/json' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d "{
\"drive_id\": \"rootfs\",
\"path_on_host\": \"${rootfs_path}\",
\"is_root_device\": true,
\"is_read_only\": false
}"
An example for how to create a minimal rootfs image can be found at Firecracker’s official docs.
Ballooning is a concept which is meant to provide a solution for overcommitting memory. It allows for host-controlled, on-demand allocation and reclaiming of guest memory.
A virtio-balloon device works so that the balloon guest driver allocates memory until reaching its target, specified by the host, and reports those new memory addresses back. Similarly the balloon driver frees memory back to the guest itself if it has more than the host device asks for. It is an independent “memory consumer/allocator” inside the guest kernel, which competes for memory with other processes, and operates within the pre-boot RAM limitations of the VM.
The host can remove balloon memory pages at will and hand them over to other guests. This enables the host to control and fine-tune each of its guests’ memory resources based on its own available resources, therefore enabling overcommitting.
Virtio-balloon holds three virtio queues: inflateq
, deflateq
, and statsq
. Inflateq is used by the guest driver to report about addresses it has supplied to the host device (hence the “balloon” is inflated), while deflateq is used for reports of memory addresses used by the guest (hence the “balloon” is deflated). Statsq is optional and can be used by the guest to send out memory statistics.
Firecracker’s implementation operates on a best-effort basis and works so that if a given VM fails to allocate additional memory pages, it prompts an error, sleeps for 200ms, and then attempts again.
FC supports two of the three feature bits stated in the official virtio specification:
deflate_on_oom
(aka VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_DEFLATE_ON_OOM
) - deflates memory from the balloon when processes which are not needed for kernel’s activities go OOM instead of killing them by OOM killerstats_polling_interval_s
(aka VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_STATS_VQ
) - specifies how often in seconds to send out statistics; disabled if set to 0.The third (or first) feature bit, which FC doesn’t turn on, is VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_MUST_TELL_HOST
meant for telling the driver that the host must be told before pages from the balloon are used.
Please note that the host must be monitored for any memory pressure on its own end and then operate the balloon accordingly. This is not a practical thing to do manually and should be dealt with automatically yet carefully.
There a few security concerns and pitfalls requiring extra caring as documented in FC’s Firecracker Ballooning documentation.
If you’re interested in the implementation of the guest balloon driver, which is pretty straight-forward, take a look here and here.
Firecracker provides I/O rate limiting for its virtio-net and virtio-block devices, allowing for both bandwidth (bytes/sec) and operations per second throttling. The implementation is based on token buckets, one per each rate-limiter type.
It is configurable via the api server and can be (optionally) configured per drive and per network interface. The configurable values are the refill time, the bucket size, and an optional one-time burst.
See: src/api_server/swagger/firecracker.yaml#L1086
As already mentioned, Firecracker emulates a few legacy devices on top of a PIO bus. For one, Firecracker emulates serial COM ports commonly seen on x86 as I/O ports 0x3f8
/0x2f8
/0x3e8
/0x2e8
. More specifically it uses port 0x3f8
while 0x2f8
, 0x3e8
, and 0x2e8
are used as sinks connected nowhere. In addition, it also exposes an I8052 keyboard controller registered at port 0x060
and used by FC to control shutdowns and issue ctrl+alt+delete sequences used for that purpose.
pub fn register_devices(&mut self, vm_fd: &VmFd) -> Result<()> {
self.io_bus
.insert(self.stdio_serial.clone(), 0x3f8, 0x8)
.map_err(Error::BusError)?;
self.io_bus
.insert(
Arc::new(Mutex::new(devices::legacy::Serial::new_sink(
self.com_evt_2_4.try_clone().map_err(Error::EventFd)?,
))),
0x2f8,
0x8,
)
.map_err(Error::BusError)?;
self.io_bus
.insert(
Arc::new(Mutex::new(devices::legacy::Serial::new_sink(
self.com_evt_1_3.try_clone().map_err(Error::EventFd)?,
))),
0x3e8,
0x8,
)
.map_err(Error::BusError)?;
self.io_bus
.insert(
Arc::new(Mutex::new(devices::legacy::Serial::new_sink(
self.com_evt_2_4.try_clone().map_err(Error::EventFd)?,
))),
0x2e8,
0x8,
)
.map_err(Error::BusError)?;
self.io_bus
.insert(self.i8042.clone(), 0x060, 0x5)
.map_err(Error::BusError)?;
vm_fd
.register_irqfd(&self.com_evt_1_3, 4)
.map_err(e Error::EventFd(std::io::Error::from_raw_os_error(e.errno())))?;
vm_fd
.register_irqfd(&self.com_evt_2_4, 3)
.map_err(e Error::EventFd(std::io::Error::from_raw_os_error(e.errno())))?;
vm_fd
.register_irqfd(&self.kbd_evt, 1)
.map_err(e Error::EventFd(std::io::Error::from_raw_os_error(e.errno())))?;
Ok(())
}
Source: firecracker/src/vmm/src/device_manager/legacy.rs
Firecracker spawns and manages each KVM vCPU emulation in a separate POSIX thread. Each such vCPU is neither an OS thread nor a process, but rather an execution mode supported by hardware. Intel VT-x, for instance, is a technology meant for assisting with running virtualized guests natively without requiring any software emulation. Intel’s technology offers two running modes: a. VMX root mode used for the host VMM, and b. VMX non-root mode used for executing guest instructions. It is assisted by a per-guest structure named Virtual Machine Control Structure, which is responsible for saving all context information both host & guest modes need. This technology is used by KVM and thus by Firecracker to run vCPU.
Firecracker monitors each vCPU state, including VMExits and ioeventfd interrupts, and handles them accordingly in a state machine.
Have a look here: https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/blob/HEAD/src/vmm/src/vstate/vcpu/mod.rs.
Another feature provided by Firecracker is CPUID feature masking. On x86 the CPUID
instruction lets you query the processor for its capabilities, a much needed capability for some workloads. When running inside a VM this instruction won’t work well and requires emulation. KVM supports emulating CPUID
using the KVM_SET_CPUID2
ioctl which FC leverages.
The MMDS is a Firecracker mutable data store which lets the guest access host-provided JSON metadata. A possible use case of this feature is a credential rotation needed inside the guest, controlled by the host.
This feature is consisted of three components:
Each frame coming at the virtio-net device from the guest is tested for its destination. If it’s found to be designated at the Metadata Service (and it’s turned on) then it will be forwarded to Dumbo. Afterwards it’ll get checked for a response which will be sent back to the guest given that there is enough room in the device’s ring buffer. If it is not designated at MMDS, it will be sent to the tap device instead.
// Tries to detour the frame to MMDS and if MMDS doesn't accept it, sends it on the host TAP.
//
// `frame_buf` should contain the frame bytes in a slice of exact length.
// Returns whether MMDS consumed the frame.
fn write_to_mmds_or_tap(
mmds_ns: Option<&mut MmdsNetworkStack>,
rate_limiter: &mut RateLimiter,
frame_buf: &[u8],
tap: &mut Tap,
guest_mac: Option<MacAddr>,
) -> Result<bool> {
let checked_frame = frame_buf {
frame_bytes_from_buf(frame_buf).map_err(e {
error!("VNET header missing in the TX frame.");
METRICS.net.tx_malformed_frames.inc();
e
})
};
if let Some(ns) = mmds_ns {
if ns.detour_frame(checked_frame(frame_buf)?) {
METRICS.mmds.rx_accepted.inc();
// MMDS frames are not accounted by the rate limiter.
rate_limiter.manual_replenish(frame_buf.len() as u64, TokenType::Bytes);
rate_limiter.manual_replenish(1, TokenType::Ops);
// MMDS consumed the frame.
return Ok(true);
}
}
// This frame goes to the TAP.
// Check for guest MAC spoofing.
if let Some(mac) = guest_mac {
let _ = EthernetFrame::from_bytes(checked_frame(frame_buf)?).map(eth_frame {
if mac != eth_frame.src_mac() {
METRICS.net.tx_spoofed_mac_count.inc();
}
});
}
match tap.write(frame_buf) {
Ok(_) => {
METRICS.net.tx_bytes_count.add(frame_buf.len());
METRICS.net.tx_packets_count.inc();
METRICS.net.tx_count.inc();
}
Err(e) => {
error!("Failed to write to tap: {:?}", e);
METRICS.net.tap_write_fails.inc();
}
};
Ok(false)
}
Source: firecracker/src/devices/src/virtio/net/device.rs#L395
For more info about the design of MMDS and Dumbo checkout these design docs.
Additional sandboxing is added by Firecracker for even better security & performance assurances:
pivot_root()
& chroot()
, cgrouping, mknod()
ing special paths like /dev/kvm
inside the jail, and more. Afterwards it drops privileges and exec()
’s into the Firecracker image.--cgroup
flag.And Voila. That’s it for now.
It is highly recommended to read the source code of this amazing project and explore it yourselves - https://github1s.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker.
[ comments ]
]]>When it comes to easy freezer meals, sheet pans offer a perfect solution, featuring easy meal preparation with minimal cleanup for dishes that can still feature a variety of healthy ingredients. Best of all, virtually every recipe for sheet pan cooking can be customized to your personal tastes and preferences. Are spicy foods a no-go for your table? Skip the chiles! Don’t have fresh garlic on hand? Make it without it! Sheet pans offer versatile cooking by design, allowing you to mix and match your favorite ingredients across one cooking surface for a quick and easy meal.
From quick and easy meatballs to chicken and rainbow vegetables, these freezer sheet pan recipes make meal prep easier than ever.
Related: Sign up to receive delicious recipes, expert advice, and shopping tips in your inbox!
Sausage and peppers is a comforting and hearty sheet pan meal that can easily be made in large batches and frozen for future meals. Simply slice your sausage and vegetables, season with your favorite herbs and spices, and bake on a sheet pan. Once the meal has cooled, divide it into portions and freeze. Freeze leftovers in an airtight, freezer-safe storage container for up to three months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
Try the recipe from Well Plated.
This sheet pan recipe uses well-seasoned ground turkey to make delicious oven meatballs and pairs it with turmeric chickpeas and sliced red onions for a pop of color all on one cooking sheet. Meatballs of most varieties (chicken, beef, turkey, lamb) will freeze well, but for best results, add chickpeas and onions when you’re ready to cook.
Try the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
If you’re looking for a healthy and delicious sheet pan meal that can be easily frozen, try this sheet pan beef tip recipe. The meal comes together in less than 30 minutes, calling for an arrangement of steak, peppers, onions, and green beans on a sheet pan to broil. Cook extras to prepare a freezer meal. Simply let it cool, and then divide it into portions for the freezer. When you’re ready to enjoy the freezer meal, thaw and reheat in a skillet on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Try the recipe from The Whole Cook.
This colorful sheet pan dish is filled with nutrition. Featuring small bites of chicken alongside all the colors of the rainbow — think bell peppers, broccoli, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash — it’s bursting with flavor and beauty.
To adapt this into a freezer meal, omit the zucchini and squash in the frozen portion(s). As the recipe developer points out in the post, you can also just keep them in if you prefer! While the texture is best on the original cooking round, the flavor will still be just as delicious.
Leftovers can be frozen in an airtight freezer-safe storage container for up to three months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. For best results, gently rewarm chicken and vegetables on a lightly greased baking sheet in a 350-degree oven until hot.
Try the recipe from Well Plated.
While most of our freezer meals are focused on stocking up the freezer, this sheet pan recipe goes to the freezer for inspiration. Using frozen gnocchi as the star of the dish, it combines a few fresh ingredients like tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spinach with kielbasa sausage for a delicious and easy sheet pan dinner. Simply arrange the frozen gnocchi, vegetables, and sausage on a lined cooking sheet, top with olive oil and seasonings, and bake for 25 minutes in a 425-degree oven, tossing once along the way.
Try the recipe from The Real Food Dietitians.
These easy sheet pan pancakes come together in no time, and they’re made in the perfect presentation for easy freezing and portioning. Additionally, the sheet pan recipe design allows you to top different sections with different toppings, promising something for everyone’s taste, be it for breakfast, dinner, or a quick snack.
To freeze, allow to cool, portion into individual slices, and store in the freezer in an airtight container. To reheat from frozen, put pancake slices in the microwave covered with a damp paper towel for 30 seconds or until reheated through. Or, thaw and reheat in a toaster oven for 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through.
Try the recipe from The Real Food Dietitians.
Spice up your meal prep routine with this sweet and spicy chicken dish. The combination of honey and sriracha add tons of flavor to this simple one-pan chicken and broccoli dish without a lot of effort. After you’re done cooking, allow to cool and divide into freezer-safe containers and save for up to three months. To reheat, thaw overnight and gently rewarm the chicken dish in the oven on a sheet pan or in a skillet.
Try the recipe from Skinny Taste.
Read next: 17 Best Healthy Freezer Essentials To Have On Hand
The post 7 Easy Sheet Pan Recipes You Can Easily Freeze appeared first on Clean Plates.
]]>Are you curious about the types of emergency preparedness you may need to plan for? Emergency preparedness should be an essential part of life for all of us since we’re all subject to different types of disaster scenarios. Disasters and emergencies can strike at any time, and being prepared can make all the difference. There are several types of emergency preparedness approaches and related steps that individuals, families, organizations, and communities should consider to ensure they are ready for various situations.
We can experience natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes to other hazards such as chemical spills, terrorist attacks, or even manmade emergencies like a home fire. Each type of emergency requires specific preparations to ensure safety and minimize damage. In this article, we’ll explore the different types of emergency preparedness issues and what steps you can take to be ready for whatever comes your way.
Emergency preparedness refers to the steps taken to ensure that individuals, families, organizations, and communities are ready for a potential emergency or disaster. This can include creating an emergency plan, stocking up on necessary supplies, and practicing evacuation or shelter-in-place procedures. The goal of emergency preparedness is to minimize the impact of a crisis and increase the likelihood of survival and recovery.
Here are the 5 categories of emergency and response. There are many types of emergency preparedness, this is the start of the categories and how you can begin your response afterward. These tips coincide with emergency and disaster management as outlined by government agencies like FEMA, the American Red Cross, and other entities that deal with emergencies on a regular basis.
Prevention is a crucial aspect of emergency preparedness. By taking steps to prevent emergencies from occurring in the first place, we can save lives and minimize damage to property. This may involve implementing safety protocols, conducting routine maintenance on equipment and facilities, and educating and training the public about potential hazards.
The private sector needs to take on some responsibilities for prevention since the government can’t handle every situation. Whether at home or at work, we need to make sure we are in compliance with regulations, codes, and policies that are put in place for our health and safety. Although they may seem to fall into the category of “guidance,” they are much more than just common sense suggestions.
Prevention efforts can also include preparing for predictable events such as hurricanes or wildfires by taking measures to reduce their impact, such as reinforcing buildings or clearing brush around properties. Investing in prevention can help us avoid emergencies altogether, or at least mitigate their effects when they do occur.
Mitigation is an essential component of emergency preparedness. It involves taking actions to reduce or eliminate the impact of potential hazards before they occur. By identifying and addressing potential risks, such as natural disasters, infrastructure failures, or cyberattacks, mitigation helps organizations and communities minimize the harm and disruption that emergencies can cause.
Effective mitigation strategies may include strengthening infrastructure, improving communication systems, implementing safety protocols and procedures, and educating stakeholders on how to respond in emergency situations. By investing in mitigation efforts, organizations from the family level to large corporations can help ensure that they are better equipped to handle emergencies when they do arise.
These mitigation plans don’t have to apply to just major disasters. They can be planned for and efforts put forth that make sense at all levels.
Preparedness is a crucial aspect of emergency preparedness. Being prepared for any type of emergency can make all the difference in the world. Ensuring the safety and well-being of yourself and those around you. Whether it’s a natural disaster, a medical emergency, or even a power outage, having the necessary supplies and knowledge to handle the situation can help minimize the impact and potentially save lives.
Properly preparing for emergencies involves creating an emergency plan, assembling an emergency kit, staying informed about potential threats, and practicing drills with your family, employees, or the community at large to ensure everyone knows what to do in case of an emergency. All participants need to feel confident and comfortable that they understand the issues and can respond as necessary. We need to foster a feeling of inclusion so no one can say they didn’t know.
As with most important issues facing us, proper coordination, communication, and follow-through are critical.
Disaster response is a vital part of emergency preparedness. The response is an essential component of emergency preparedness. In the event of an emergency, a quick and effective response can mean the difference between life and death. Emergency first responders, including police officers, firefighters, and medical personnel, play a critical role in responding to emergencies and providing aid to those in need.
They try to take into account those with special needs, but those of us closer to the situation should be well aware of those individuals and communicate their status as needed. Privacy is always important, but unique circumstances make providing life-saving responses all the more critical. If you are one of the thousands of caregivers, it is even more critical that you understand your responsibilities and take the actions necessary to properly respond to the situation.
Think about those who run family childcare homes or full-blown childcare centers. Management and staff need to make sure that training is in place and repeated often so everyone is functioning as required to provide continued health and safety, even in unexpected emergencies.
However, it’s not just professional responders who need to be prepared for emergencies, individuals, businesses, and communities must also be ready to respond when disaster strikes. This involves knowing what actions to take in an emergency situation, having the necessary supplies on hand, and being able to communicate with others effectively. By being prepared for emergencies and having a plan in place for a response, we can help ensure that everyone stays safe during times of crisis. How To Join A Community Emergency Response Team
Recovery activities are a critical component of emergency preparedness. While many people focus on the initial response to an emergency or disaster, it’s just as important to have a plan in place with an effective checklist for the recovery period that follows. Recovery involves repairing damage, restoring services and infrastructure, and helping individuals, business entities, and communities get back on their feet.
Without proper planning for recovery, the effects of an emergency can linger long after the initial event has passed. By including recovery as part of your emergency preparedness plan, you can help ensure a smooth transition back to normalcy after an unexpected event. Recovery is usually when FEMA (federal emergency management agency) steps in to help with response plans. Buy or Die: Things to Store for Emergencies
Here are tips for emergency preparedness:
A good emergency preparedness plan should include the following:
Remember to regularly review and update your emergency preparedness plan to ensure it remains relevant and effective in the event of an emergency.
There are different types of emergency preparedness, including natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes, medical emergencies like pandemics or outbreaks, and other disasters like terrorist attacks or cyber-attacks.
Each type of emergency requires a unique set of preparations and responses in order to minimize damage and protect lives. It is important for everyone to have a basic understanding of emergency preparedness in order to stay safe during unexpected events.
Do you have your emergency response plan put together? Make sure you check out the resources available through the CDC, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), police and fire departments, and the American Red Cross. May God Bless this world, Linda
Copyright Images: Cars Covered With Snow AdobeStock_128717782 By Tainar
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