As you may have read in an earlier blog post, I receive a weekly delivery box of organic food from a local farm company each week. It’s always a joy to receive it and I lovingly put everything into a green bag or green container to keep it fresh for the week, sometimes longer. Then I go do my regular shopping for extra items to fill my pantry. The problem is— I never really remember what was in my refrigerator, unless I shuffled through it all. My pantry is well stocked with lots of interesting foods, but I wasn’t using many of the items.
My husband John is always telling me to make a meal plan for the week, only purchase what is needed for the menus, but I seem to fail at that. Could it be that I like the spontaneity of making a meal by seeing the ingredients available? I love cooking, more as the years go by than I did when I was younger. Now, since having cancer twice, eating and cooking from scratch is priority. But the biggest downside is it takes a lot of time to cook this way.
I decided I needed to get a better game plan going because I was not using up what I had in the refrigerator or pantry. My life got extremely busy when my father took ill, and so my time became a precious commodity. At first, I started marking the bags with what was inside, but it still didn’t alleviate the problem much. I tried making a weekly menu, but due to a busy life, and family emergencies, I couldn’t stick with the meal plan. I hate throwing food away and I found myself doing so.
One day as I was looking at my pantry barn door, I visualized a blackboard next to it. YES! That would be the answer and it would be fun too! The space needed something, and this would be perfect. So, I went onto the internet to find a board large enough to balance out the door and the cost was close to $1,000.00 I just couldn’t see spending that for a chalkboard. So, I researched and found out how to make one on YouTube. Thank God for people who share their knowledge and know how. It’s a blessing.
I went to my local big box store and purchased wood, base paint and chalkboard paint and got to work. I started with a small chalkboard and did all the steps on that to make sure I was doing it right. It took several weeks doing a little bit here and there, but I finally got both boards done. The hardest part was waiting the 3 days for the paint to cure and then to cover it up with chalk and wipe it down before hanging on the wall.
I love the chalkboards! It’s not only my way of knowing what’s in the refrigerator, but it’s a creative outlet. It’s so much fun to use chalk and draw on the boards. How many of you can remember all classrooms had huge chalkboards at the front of the class room behind the teacher’s desk?
There is something so creative and fun about having chalk in your hand and an open black canvas for your thoughts. Try it out. It has made my cooking, shopping and planning so much easier. My smaller test chalkboard is my Quotes Board that I keep in my office.
To your creative spirit!
Alis