I’m about to show you something I’ll probably regret, but here goes…let’s call it: A Roadmap To Dinner Hour. Or maybe it’s just my reality. I’m not sure.

Behold, my glorified kitchen. And let me tell you, there was no Photoshop action/tutorial in the world able to make this picture something it isn’t (read: big and clean).
fe.com: Roadmap to Dinner

We love our little house. It’s amazing-slash-scary how quickly it has come to feel like home even though I was anxious when we first moved in about the smallness. But I’m not going to lie: I wouldn’t shed buckets of tears if I had, say, another 50 square feet in my kitchen and maybe 2 more cupboards.

Let’s break it down a bit, shall we? This is a pretty typical late afternoon/evening in my world.
fe.com: Roadmap to Dinner

1. A sweet 8-month old baby who is not happy, not happy at all, when mom is working her guts out to make dinner. Sometimes there’s screaming. Sometimes there’s thrown toys and measuring cups. It gets ugly. Thankfully one of her brothers usually comes to the rescue and makes her giggle before the whining starts up again. I’ll tell you this, I am a master at hefting a 22-pound baby in one hand/arm and cooking or baking single handedly with the other. I’m putting that on my resume.

2. My favorite trash can in all the world. Our great friends gave it to us years ago for Christmas. (They are the type of friends, a.k.a. soulmates, who can give a trash can for Christmas and everyone feels warm and fuzzy because of it.) I don’t know the exact brand but basically, the trash bag stays in place no matter what is thrown in it, and I can lever the lid up and down with the foot pedal which is great for a germaphobe like me.

3. Those industrial-sized tupperware containers house my flour, sugar (found them at Sam’s Club a few years ago) and stuck behind them is a 50 pound bucket of wheat. I go through a lot of carbohydrates. And just as a sidenote, that little black cupboard to the right is home to all my spices. Can a girl ever really have too many spices? I think not.

4. Although my beloved Bosch mixer and wheat grinder seem tucked away into a corner – never fear! There is no corner too far in my kitchen and they still get used daily. To the right of them, if you care, is my novel windowsill filing system (i.e. an extra deep window sill that is a stopping place for bills and other filing necessities). You should get one. It’s awesome.

5. My mom is cringing right now because she h.a.t.e.s clutter. But when you are severely limited on cupboard space, the cookbooks and recipe binders go on top of the refrigerator. It isn’t pretty but it works. Up there also is my pizza stone and pizza paddle. The silver bowl is our “treat bucket” which largely consists of my dark chocolate fix. The good news is that this area of my kitchen is perhaps the only place in my house that you can’t see from the front door so who cares what’s on top of the refrigerator, right?

6. Bottles that need to be washed. It seems like there are always bottles that need to be washed. But I’ll take it because I hate that my baby is growing up and as long as I’m washing bottles, she’s still a baby, right? (Can a Kindergartener go to school with a bottle in her backpack?)

7. Lunch boxes that have been washed (shocker!) but haven’t been put away because after dinner, lunches will be packed and stored in the refrigerator for the chaotic morning ahead.

8. Cookies laying in wait for little hands to snitch them. Today’s cookie were these delicious whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Is it sad/bad/rad that there usually is a “cookie of the day” around here?

9. Clutter. Plain and simple. This recent clutter was from a big box of stuff a marketing company sent me and I had yet to put away. It consisted of some dark chocolate so it may never get “put away” unless it’s down my gullet.

10. Ingredients for dinner that was partly in progress: Cashew Chicken, to be exact (terrible recipe that will need to be perfected before I post it). And you’ll spy our iPad which I use almost exclusively to view recipes as I cook/bake. It’s usually hanging on my fridge because I have one of these cool Kicmount thingies (love, love, love) that keeps it magnetically in place and off the counter. I’m pretty sure today a 5-year old boy who shall remain nameless was playing Smule while I was trying to eyeball the recipe and thus it found a home on the already crowded countertop.

And there you have it. My overfilled but loveable kitchen. I’m pretty sure I’d be embarrassed to death if any of you stopped by between the hours of 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. So please call before you come.

Later, skaters!

If you’d like to check out past Snapshot Saturdays, click HERE.