Post written by Zen Family Habits contributor Mandi from Organizing Your Way.

Sherri recently shared 11 tips for making summer last through pictures. I think capturing the everyday and exciting moments on camera is an important goal and a gift to our children as they grow into adulthood and have the opportunity to share them with their kids.

But I don’t think just capturing them in a scrapbook or collage is enough.

When I was expecting our oldest daughter, I heard an experienced mother say that she does her best to soak in the everyday moments and memories — snuggling with a newborn baby, watching her children drift off to sleep, laughing hysterically together. She soaks them in by literally taking time to focus on each element of the moment. She draws and memorizes her kids faces in her mind, records the sounds of the moment in her memory and breathes deeply to remember the scents (which could be dangerous if you have a little one in diapers, but it does sound lovely). Rather than just letting her memories happen, she takes the time to really create the memories that are important to her.

What it really comes down to is being present in the moment.

Life is full of to-do lists, opportunities and challenges, and it’s so easy to get caught up in those and miss the important things. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing your passion or working hard, even if it means you have less time to just sit and play — in fact, many people would argue that it benefits our kids to see us passionate about something we’re doing — but when you are playing on the floor or reading a story or even just cooking dinner together, it’s important to be fully present.

So many times when I find myself frustrated at my girls’ childishness, it’s simply because I’m living inside my head and not focused on them. And I wonder how many moments I never fully experience because I’m living there?

Here are five strategies that I’m trying to incorporate into my own life to be fully present in the everyday moments:

1. Do a brain dump.
Sometimes we have a hard time living in the moment because we’re trying to remember a dozen different bits and pieces of information, and we’re afraid that if we stop thinking about them, we’ll forget something important. Take a few moments each day to do a brain dump, and write down everything that’s in your head. As you think of other things and tasks, write those down right away as well.Your brain dump doesn’t need to be neat or organized; it’s just a place to write down those thoughts so that you can refer back to them later to create your to-do list or schedule.

2. Get outside of your normal environment.
Although I think it’s important to learn to focus on our families even when there are other things vying for our attention, sometimes it’s best just to get away from all of the to-do lists and chores. Our family often goes outside to sit on our front porch after dinner because it’s so much easier for me to just enjoy being with them when I can’t see all of the clutter and chores that I “need” to do.

3. Look your children and spouse in the eyes when they talk.
“Mm hmm. Uh huh. Oh wait…what?” I’m embarrassed to admit that this happens to me more often than I should when I’m caught up in whatever it is I’m doing and only pretending to listen to my girls. Even as young preschoolers, they know when I’m actively listening and when I’m really focused on something else, and trying to pretend I’m available and present when I’m not isn’t fair to them. The most effective way for me to avoid this trap is to stop what I’m doing and look them in the eyes when they talk to me so that they have my full attention. It’s hard to be distracted while looking into someone’s eyes (try it!), and it lets them know that I’m really listening.

4. Burn candles and incense or use essential oils.
We’ve all experienced the rush of memories that goes along with certain aromas and how clearly we remember and feel the moment and its associated emotions just by smelling a certain scent. Just as some people recommend using aromas while children study to help them recall the information later on, we can use aromas to seal moments in our memories.

Look for several different scents that you love and burn each one at a different time. Use a vibrant, energizing scent for the crazy, fun, chaotic play times at your house (ours are usually after dinner, when my husband is running around and roughhousing with the girls). Use a peaceful scent when you’re cuddling on the couch reading together or doing a quiet activity like arts and crafts. Use lavender or other sleepy scents during your bedtime routine, and so on. Later, these scents will help bring back the memories of everyday moments long gone.

5. Schedule time together.
If you’re a task-oriented person, turning off the to-do list and get-’er-done attitude may be easier said than done. As counter-intuitive as this may sound, add focused family time to your to-do list and/or schedule because it will be easier for you to set aside that time and give it your all once it’s actually on “the list.”

We all know that kids grow up in the blink of an eye, so make sure you’re taking the time to soak up the little moments and store away memories that will last a lifetime!

What memories do you want to treasure for decades to come?

Read more about productivity, organizing and home management from Mandi at Organizing Your Way, or follow her on Twitter.

Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.

When you plan a party, plan to go camping, plan to move, or want to create a budget, do you create a checklist?

If you answered yes, then you’re a list lover just like me!

I am proud and super excited to introduce you to my newest online project. It’s been several months in the making and while it’ll be a continuous labor of love, today is the day I release it into the wild. I hope it will help you all be just a little more awesome than you already are!

Let me introduce you to Listbean!


Listbean? What the heck is that?
Listbean is a site that is completely free and packed with value adding pre-populated checklists.

Now, before you roll your eyes and say “oh great another checklist site” let me share with you how Listbean is different and how it will be *the* checklist source online.
The Benefits:

1. Checklists are great but it’s sometimes tough to know where to start. Well, we’ve done the hard part of pulling the lists together. You can use the lists as is or as inspiration to create your own personalized checklists.
2. It’s annoying to have to rewrite checklists you use frequently. With Listbean you don’t have to do that. When you create an account, you can customize any of the lists you see on the site, save them and come back time and time again. Awesome.
3. Be more efficient, effective and deliberate in everything you do. With checklists addressing a lot of what you need right at your finger tips you can just get on with what needs to get done. A little work up front can save you several minutes several times a month or year.
4. Don’t find what you’re looking for? Create your own. There are two ways to create your lists from scratch and have them appear on Listbean. 1) Submit a suggestion via the Feedback form using the Feedback tab at the top left of each page. 2) Add it yourself. Once you’ve customized a list on Listbean you are given the option to add your own list from scratch to save in your lists. Easy right?
5. Listbean has a very simple design. It was custom designed to be simple, sleek and easy to use. Give it a try and if you have any suggestions or feedback please submit it using the feedback form via the feedback tab at the top left of each page.

That’s it really, it’s pretty simple and straight forward. It includes a number of checklists on topics such as:

• Home and organizing
• Shopping and meal planning
• Budgets and finance
• Kids and family
• Vacations
• Celebrations
• House maintenance
• and many more!

I invite you all to check out Listbean and give it a try. If you like it, I’d love for you to spread the word online or even email the link to a couple of list lovers you know in ‘real life’ :)

I sincerely hope you enjoy it and that it becomes a valuable resource for you.

Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.

Advice on what you should do is plentiful.

There are as many ways to live a life as there are people on the planet.

How you live your life is up to you.

What you do today is up to you.

You can choose to do things other think you should do or you can do things you think you should do.

Don’t like eating in the lunch room? Take it outside, go for a walk or eat at your desk.

Don’t feel like entertaining 45 kids at your daughters birthday party? Invite 5 instead or take a family road trip.

Getting married but don’t want a traditional ceremony? Then don’t. Head off to Hawaii or Mexico or Australia and get married on the beach or have a small gathering in your parent’s backyard.

Did you just get married and now want to travel the world instead of “settling down”? Go for it.

Thing is there are no rules to how you live your life. You choose each and everyday to do what you do. You choose to be mean, impatient, angry, hurtful or to hold a grudge in the same way as you choose to be happy, grateful, thoughtful, patient and kind.

Be clear on what you want. This will take some time to sort though and that’s okay.

Realize that you will encounter resistance. People are typically afraid of what they don’t know, what they don’t understand or what lies outside of their comfort zone.

Go for it. Being true to yourself, your morals, your priorities and your values is really the easiest way to live. There are no games and life is just a lot less complicated.

Live according to you.

For more on how to live a life you love check out my book: Your Life | Live it. Love it.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist.

“Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Good parents are intentional parents. They understand that their parenting decisions today shape the lives of their children in the future. Whether we do it intentionally or unintentionally, strategically or haphazardly, our choices will inevitably shape the lives of our children as adults.

Most of us already know that to be true. That is why we discipline them when they disobey – so they will become responsible adults. That is why we help them with their homework – so they will value education. And that is why we enroll them in sports, dance, and summer camps – so they will become well-rounded, successful human beings.

Our choices steer our children’s lives. How then do we guide them towards a concern for others and a desire for justice in our world? How do we raise a child who stands up against unfair practices, gives to those in need, speaks for the voiceless, defends the innocent, and does not blame the victim?

The answer may not be as complicated as one might think. Raising a justice-minded child may not be that much different than raising a child who values athletics, academics, or art. The same principles apply.

The problem is that society champions athletes, academics, and artists. It gives trophies to athletes, awards to academics, and accolades to artists. Our schools offer classes for academics, after-school clubs for artists, lessons for dancers, and coaches for athletes. But rare is the community that champions justice. As a result, we as parents need to take the lead in raising justice-minded kids and take it upon ourselves to accomplish that goal.

To help us accomplish that goal in our child’s life (no matter their age), consider including these four intentional principles in our parenting:

1. Embrace the idea of a justice-minded child. Wise parents give significant thought to what type of person they are raising. They make their choices intentionally. And then they strategically steer their children down that road. In the same way, raising a justice-minded child begins with a decision to raise a justice-minded child. This first step is absolutely essential and can not be overstated. Giving up your privilege for the rights of others is a counter-cultural mindset. It will not be found until is deliberately sought.

2. Exemplify a justice-minded life for your child. Our children are watching. They are noticing our lives. And our actions speak a thousand times louder than our words. Simply put, if our children don’t see us model a concern for social justice in our own life, they are not going to care about it either – and it would be unreasonable to assume that they would. On the other side, if they see us model social justice, compassion, and service on a regular basis then they are going to realize the importance of it. So offer to make a meal for the family of an unemployed friend, buy extra Christmas gifts for the orphan, take a stand against corporations that exploit children, and speak up for those without a voice. Your son or daughter will notice… they always do.

3. Expose your child to the issues of social justice in your community and around the world. I love the idea of a son who appreciates baseball. Because of that, I take him to baseball games, we play catch in the backyard, and talk about it at the dinner table. I know exactly what I’m doing… I’m teaching him to value the sport so that we can enjoy it together as he gets older. In the same way, if we want to raise justice-minded children, we need to expose them to issues in our community and around the world that demonstrate the need for justice. Talk about it at the dinner table. Get a children’s book from the library that raises the issue. Find a movie that portrays injustice and discuss it afterwards. Organize a time to serve as an entire family – your children are never too young to be exposed to the needs of others in our world.

4. Encourage them as they get involved. The old saying is still true, “What gets rewarded gets done.” One of the greatest ways to motivate our children towards an end is by using encouraging, positive words. That is why every time they clean up their toys or dirty laundry, we praise them – so that they continue down the road they started. When you see your child display a concern for justice (which they inevitably will if you follow through on the other first three principles), be sure to praise them loudly and consistently. After all, an act of justice towards a fellow human being deserves a far greater applause than hitting a baseball.

The author, Hodding Carter, Jr. once said, “There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” Give your children firm roots in the importance of standing up for those who can’t… and watch them soar to create a better world than they found.

Joshua Becker blogs at Becoming Minimalist and is the author of Simplify. 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Sandrine of the Paris Ankara Express blog.

Put it this way: if the Buddha were to visit our home, he wouldn’t exactly be impressed by our Zen like attitude to worldly possessions. Matter of fact, he might think he accidentally teleported to the Covered Bazaar in Istanbul. That or a library. But we still think we know a thing or two about minimalism when it comes to children’s toys.

I can pretty much list what our kids have. We store most their toys in medium sized boxes. There’s a box of small cars, one for the tea set, one for Lego and one for doll house type toys. There’s a big box with the bigger cars and a couple of electronic toys. Then there’s the doll house we made for our son, a tin full of refillable bubble mixture pots, a box of wooden bricks, a couple of wheelie toys, a fold up play tent, a plastic garage, a Teletubbies house and a few musical instruments (mostly percussions). Add to that some cuddly toys on their beds, a cupboard full of board games and jigsaw puzzles and that’s it.

So it may sound like a lot, but I challenge any moderately affluent parent to list all of their children’s toys in one hundred words! Most people will have a room full of toys representing each year’s latest craze as advertised on tv. And I don’t mean extravagant people either. It just seems that for most families, it’s increasingly hard to keep a lid on how many toys the children end up with. There’s grandparents, for one thing. And birthday parties. And all the adverts on tv for new, more exciting toys. There’s the marketing that goes with every new film – you need to see the film, and you need to buy the toy that goes with it. And mostly, there’s the fact that kids tend to get bored with their toys and forget what they were good for in the first place. To be able to play, they need new ones.

How can parents deal with that? Well, for us, it’s easy to put limits to what grandparents bring: we live in another country from them and the postal service isn’t that reliable or cheap. So they have to be fairly selective in their present buying. As far as parties are concerned, we tend to celebrate our kids’ birthdays at the same time, mostly with local people who know what they’ve got, what they like and what they don’t like. So no huge plastic, vastly inappropriate toys usually find their ways to our house. (And if they do, they find their way out again very quickly!) But you can find excuses to tell parents not to buy something: say someone else has already bought it! And if you can get your kids on your side, all the better. Be a team – get them to work with you and to value quality over quantity.

We have had barbie dolls, inevitably, as friends gave them to our daughter. She was never that much into them (not even to cut their hair!) and ended up giving them out as a Christmas charity gift. That is something most kids like to do – sharing their surplus with less fortunate children. So you feel that a surplus of toys is on its way, why not start talking to your children about how they can help others? Children love to share – give them a chance.

Mostly what made a difference to how we related to toys as a family is that when we first arrived in Turkey with a 15 month old child, we had very few toys. And there weren’t many on sale at our local store. So we took great care of what we had, made sure we taught our daughter to make the most of it. We still had most of the toys we came with (except the baby toys which we gave away once our son had outgrown them). We still have the bricks, the percussions, the tea set. We have toys we were given when our children were very young, including our son’s teletubbies house set, with no piece missing. If you look after their toys, and encourage them to do the same, chances are they’ll treasure them.

Actually, we did lose Tinky-Winky a few weeks ago. We thought it would be the end of the world but it turned out a paper cut Tinky-Winky, roughly coloured with a purple pencil, and hence easily replaced, was perfectly acceptable. Which brings me to the next point. Our children love their toys, but they much prefer pencils, papers, glue and scissors. They both spend hours in imaginative and creative, and mostly silent play at our living room table, with just a few bits of papers and two pots of pencils. In fact, it’s so much part of who they are, that we never go anywhere without a small pouch containing drawing necessities. I can see it poking out of my bag now. And it’s not just our kids that like this. Very often we find ourselves sharing out the paper and pens with children we’ve never met before, at restaurants, the airport, anywhere where kids get bored and are likely to misbehave. So invest in plenty of scrap paper and coloured pencils, and have some ready at all times.

So I don’t want to give the impression that our kids are happy with a cardboard box and bit of string and that I could throw away all their toys if I wanted to, or that they spend their time in quiet, creative, imaginative play with hand crafted wooden organic toys from a Swedish village. I don’t think I’d want them to be like that. But they do seem to manage with a lot less toys than children their age they know in France or the UK.

Sometimes it doesn’t work: I often promise my son small gifts if he gets a number of sticker on his chart, something which the special educators at the autism centre encourage. A lot of the time he’ll ask for bubble mixture or pencils. One day I stupidly suggested he choose a little car in the toy section of the supermarket. So off we went to look at them. He picked a lime green one. As big as him. I think to this day he hasn’t forgiven me for saying no.

Sandrine who lives in Turkey, writes together with her sisters, who live in Paris at the Paris Ankara Express blog. Sandrine writes about her family’s life in Turkey, raising trilingual children, working, and travelling.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

Eva and I and our six kids are moving in a couple months to San Francisco, from our tiny little island of Guam, and as with any move, it’s both nerve-wracking and exciting as hell.

The key to making it more exciting than anxiety inducing is, of course, preparation.

However, unlike most people who are uber-organized (I’m one of them), I’m not attacking our move with a variety of moving checklists and a crapload of things to do before we leave.

I’m moving the minimalist’s way: packing as light as possible, and doing as little as I can. It’s lovely.

A Minimalist Strategy

When Eva and I first started planning our big move, last year, we were planning on packing up all our stuff and finding a moving company to ship over all our furniture. It was a massive project, and though we didn’t relish it, it did seem necessary.

After all, we’d spent a lot of money on our furniture and computers and clothes and toys, so why wouldn’t we take it all? But then we realized: there was no use in being attached to it all. Sure, it was nice stuff (we go for quality over quantity), but it’s nothing we can’t find elsewhere, and it’s just … stuff.

We realized we needed nothing, really. Nothing was sacred.

So here’s the strategy Eva and I came up with:

So we’ll be flying to SFO with a backpack of clothes each, and a laptop. Leaving everything else behind.

The Online Yardsale

We set up a simple site on Wordpress.com, paying less than $10 for the domain name wowayardsale.com. Then we took pictures of most of our stuff, posted them via Wordpress (which as most bloggers know is pretty easy) along with descriptions and our asking price.

Then we emailed the link to all our friends and family, and voila! A yardsale without a yard.

The response so far has been good. In just a few days, we’ve sold half the stuff that’s been posted, and we still have 70 days left. I expect everything to be sold in the next month or so. Whatever’s left will be donated or given away or perhaps we’ll have an actual yardsale if necessary.

Minimal Shipping

Our idea is to ship as little as possible. Many people moving from Guam will pay for space in a shipping container for all of their stuff — including their car(s) sometimes. We don’t want to go through all of that hassle.

So we’ll have one box each that a relative will mail over after we’ve settled in. This will mostly be personal possessions — photo albums, little things the kids just can’t part with.

Other than that, we’ll have a few days’ worth of clothes each, and a laptop. We’re not bringing a lot of clothes, not our TV or most of our computers, not our books or accumulated memorabilia.

We don’t have a lof of stuff anyway, but it’s impossible for a family of eight not to have some possessions after all these years. We’re going to purge almost all of it, and it’s quite liberating.

Necessary Documents

Other than a few days’ worth of clothes, we’re making sure we’ve prepared a few essential documents:

• Passports
• Birth Certificates & Marriage License
• Social Security cards
• Medical & dental records
• Credit report, landlord letters of recommendation, & bank statements (for lease applications)

Essential Research Tools

The beauty of moving these days is that there is SO much online, and so many cool tools for checking out far-off places. Seriously, there’s some amazing stuff out there — just 10 years ago, you couldn’t do any of this.

I’ve done a lot of research about San Francisco, just to feel more prepared and of course because I’m so excited about the move. One of the best things I did is put everything I want to live near or check out on one Google Map, so I can see clusters of things in different SF neighborhoods. It helps me to visualize where I want to live and whether a potential house/apartment is in a good location.

Some tools I’ve been using for my research — this stuff blows me away:

1. Google Maps: If you have a Google account, you can sign in and create your own Google Map. I’ve done this for past trips (to Thailand, Hawaii, and Japan) and it worked great. If I find something in an article or guidebook that looks interesting, I’ll create a marker for it on my Google Map, usually changing the icon to reflect the type of place (restaurant, coffee shop, museum, shopping outlet, etc.). For our move to SF, I created a map that has dozens of places — vegetarian restaurants, libraries, museums, shops, parks, book stores, movie theaters, places to run, coffee shops, and so on. The map is really full, but it’s a great way to visualize the city, especially because we don’t plan to own a car, and want to live within walking distance of many of these places.
2. Google streetview: This is actually just a feature of Google Maps, but it’s a wonderful tool for someone who’s moving. Basically, if there’s an apartment on Craigslist (see next item), I can find it on Google Maps, and then go into “streetview” to see the actual house/apartment, and the street it’s on. Then I use streetview to walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for the place. Not as good as being there, but way closer than ever before.
3. Craigslist: What an amazing tool for people who are moving. It has dozens of listings every day for apartments/houses for rent, many with photos and other relevant info, along with a link to the apartment’s location on Google Maps. You can even search by neighborhood and number of bedrooms/bathrooms, which I do. In fact, I save my frequent searches by bookmarking them in my browser, so each day I can open up all those bookmarked searches to see what’s new. Craigslist also has sections for used items, such as furniture and appliances, so you can buy stuff that you’ll need when you do move. I haven’t actually bought anything yet, but I’ve been checking out the used section to see what’s out there.
4. Yelp: Another amazing tool. It’s not a secret, of course, but if you’re moving, you can search for restaurants, coffee shops, bike shops, movie theaters, bookstores, and more, and read reviews. I’ll find the top vegetarian restaurants in a neighborhood (for example), and then add them to my Google Map.
5. Google Docs: I created one Google Doc for all my moving plans, and a Google spreadsheet for my budget. The doc, which I’ve shared with my wife Eva, of course, has everything we need to do (not a lot), along with info such as flight information and so forth. It’s a good way to keep all your data together, accessible from anywhere.
6. Local blogs: It’s astounding how many blogs there are out there for any city you’re interested in — in San Francisco, I’ve found local blogs on homeschooling, cycling, running, vegan, locavore, and more. I’ll usually do a Google search for “San Francisco homeschooling” or whatever the topic is, and then open up a bunch of the posts that I find, and check out those blogs. Then I’ll see what blogs those blogs link to, and check those out, and so on, until I’ve found a bunch of great blogs. I’ll dig into each blog’s archives and find a wealth of info. There are even blogs about particular neighborhoods. Wonderful resource.
7. YouTube: Again, not a secret tool, but one that has valuable info on any city. I’ve found YouTube videos showing different SF neighborhoods, along with video tours of some of the apartments I’m interested in, and of course videos of some of the best sights of the city.
8. Walkscore: Brilliant tool, not merely for getting the “walk score” of a neighborhood (basically how close a location is to things people are likely to need/use), but for finding important businesses in each neighborhood. So I’ll click on a neighborhood on the Walkscore site, and then it’ll give me a list of all the movie theaters, restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, mass transit stops, and so on. I’ll find the good ones and add them to my all-powerful Google Map.

This all sounds like a lot of work, I’m sure. But it’s not — it’s a lot of fun. I like to feel prepared, and while I could move without doing any of this research, I’m going to be much more ready to hit the ground running once I arrive in San Francisco. And I’ll make a much more informed choice about where to live.

I hope this guide has helped!

Read more from Leo at Zen Habits and mnmlist. Or check out his ebook, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.

I am very excited to be able to share with you my first e-book,Your Life | Live it. Love it. It’s inspired by the work I do at my other blog, my baby, Serene Journey and is a collection of the best articles on living and loving your life with a focus on you, your relationships and enjoying the little, simple things in life.

The book is 69 pages, and organized into three sections which are designed to logically move you through bettering yourself, the way you relate with those closest to you and finally to inspire you to enjoy the little things in life. All of us could use a little inspiration in one, if not all, of these areas, I’m sure you’d agree.

The book is 19.95 and you can get your copy here: Your Life | Live it. Love it.

This book can be used as a reference anytime you feel you are struggling, having a bad day or are simply in need of a little motivation. You can also choose to focus intently on any one of these sections using the ideas and tips within to inspire you to keep going and live your best life yet!

This book contains hundreds of tips and ideas for bettering yourself, building, strengthening or tweaking relationships good, bad or otherwise all so you can enjoy the life you live even more.

From the table of contents:

Focus on you

• Grab the Reins and Enjoy Your Life
• How to Be the Person You Want to Be
• How to Become a Catalyst for Change
• Your Past is Not Who You Are
• Do You React or Respond?
• Tips on Dealing with Anger
• How to manage your stress

Focus on your relationships

• It’s all in how you Say It
• Is Keeping Score Making You Unhappy?
• Stand Your Ground but Only on the Important Stuff
• Form Meaningful Relationships
• How to Reconcile With Family or Friends
• When Reconciliation Just Isn’t in the Cards
• 10 Ways to Add a Spark to Your Relationship Today

Enjoy the little things

• Tips to Enjoy Life
• The Grass is Always Greener Right under Your Feet
• Do Something Nice to Restore Faith in Humanity
• Gratitude Journal: 30 Days to Happiness
• 10 Ways to Feel Better in 60 Seconds or Less
• Secrets of the Perpetually Unhappy
• Create Experiences: Gifts That Last a Lifetime

I’m sure you will enjoy this book. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied please just send me an email and I will refund your money in full.

Be sure to check out the page I’ve created specifically for Your Life | Live it. Love it. Not only will you get more information about the book but you’ll get to see what other people are saying about it too.

As always I’m interested in what each of you have to say and I sincerely look forward to hearing your feedback.
________________________________________________________________________________
My fellow bloggers: If you’d like to sell Your Life | Live it. Love it. on your site, please head over to the affiliate resources page to get all the information you’ll need to become an affiliate. Thank you.

Post written by jules from stonesoup | minimalist home cooking.

As a girl who grew up in the country, a long way from the ocean, seafood is something that I still think of as a luxury. And something that I tend to order in restaurants rather than cooking at home.

Cooking fish need not be as daunting as you think. Salmon fillets are lovely pan fried just like a steak, but far more forgiving – if you overcook salmon the natural oiliness means it won’t be dried out.

And cooked shrimp or prawns just need to be peeled and served with a tasty sauce. To be honest I always let everyone peel their own. A bit messier but way more fun.
With all the nutritional benefits of fish and seafood – why not try one of these simple recipes?

pan fried salmon with tahini sauce & salad

serves 4

Tahini is ground up sesame seeds and is available from health food stores and the health food section of the supermarket. It makes a lovely fresh nutty sauce when mixed with lemon juice. If you can’t get your hands on tahini you could just serve the salmon with a wedge of lemon or even the yoghurt mayo from the shrimp recipe below.

The cooking time really depends on the thickness of your fish. I like to serve salmon still quite pink in the middle. If you prefer it cooked all the way through it will need a few more minutes.

I usually buy my fish with the skin still on because I love it when it gets all crispy. Kind of like a seafood version of pork crackling. But I know it’s not for everyone so by all means buy your fish without skin – it doesn’t really make a difference to the cooking time.

4 tablespoon tahini

8 tablespoons lemon juice

4 salmon fillets

2 small bulbs fennel, very finely sliced crosswise

1 bunch mint, leaves picked

Combine tahini and lemon. Add a little water until it is a good sauce consistency.

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Season salmon well and cook skin side down for 3 minutes or until the skin is crispy and starting to go brown. Turn and cook the other side until cooked to your liking. About 2 minutes.

Meanwhile combine mint and sliced fennel.

To serve spread a bed of tahini over the base of each plate. Top with a little of the mint & fennel and lastly the fish.

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snapper parcels with green beans & cherry tomatoes

serves 4

Any white fish fillets will work here if you can’t find snapper.

I love these little parcels. So simple. Just wrap up individual serves and pop it in the oven. 10 minutes later dinner is ready.

4 snapper fillets

2 large handfuls green beans (approx 1lb or 450g), tops trimmed

2 punnets cherry tomatoes, halved

1 bunch basil, leaves picked

lemon cheeks, to serve

Preheat oven on it’s highest setting.
Lay out 4 squares of foil or baking paper. Divide beans, tomato and basil leaves between each square. Top with fish, skin side down. Season and drizzle over a generous amount of olive oil – about 1 tablespoon per parcel. Seal each parcel and place on a baking tray.

Cook for 8 minutes, open up one of the parcels to see if the fish is cooked. It might need a few more minutes.
Serve each parcel on a plate with a lemon cheek.

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simple shrimp with yoghurt mayo

serves 4

I love this yoghurt mayo – a simple blend of virtuous natural yoghurt and sinful whole egg mayonnaise it’s a super easy and versatile sauce. Great with all fish and seafood and also delicious with roast chicken. Definitely something I keep coming back to.

If you’d prefer you could buy green shrimp and cook them yourselves. Being Australian, I love them on the barbeque of course.

4 tablespoons natural greek style yoghurt

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

1kg cooked shrimp

mixed salad leaves, to serve

Combine yoghurt and mayonnaise. Season.
Divide prawns between 4 plates and serve with a handful of leaves and a small bowl of sauce on the side. If you’re feeling fancy you can serve little finger bowls so everyone can wash their hands.

Head on over to stonesoup for more simple 5 ingredients | 10 minutes recipes.

Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.

Don’t you just love to clean? I know me too!

I haven’t always enjoyed it though. I didn’t like to clean when it took all day or an entire weekend. We weren’t living in filth (let me just clear that up) but I used to put off a lot of things until the weekend, when I had more time. Over the years though I’ve a learned a thing or two about how to make cleaning easier and to get it before it gets me.

Never leave a room empty handed. With two active and inquisitive kids there is always something that needs to be returned somewhere. Whether it’s a sock, a pair of pants, a book or a coffee cup things tend to migrate in our home. When I leave a room I pick up at least one thing that doesn’t belong, more if I can carry it all, and take to where it should be. Doing this little bit through out the day helps cut down on what I need to pick up at the end of the day.

Keep horizontal surfaces clear. There’s a huge temptation to stack, pile or dump things on the first flat surface we encounter. I mean it’s so inviting all that space just waiting to “temporarily” hold something for us. The problem with temporary is it’s rarely ever that. Put things back where they belong as soon as you’re done with them.

Store cleaning products under each sink. This removes some of the friction to cleaning your bathroom or kitchen. Sure consolidating cleaning products into one central location may generate more space and less clutter but I find having the products under each sink to be a lot more convenient. When I’m done getting ready in the bathroom I can give it a quick once over before I leave and it’s done. I know that if the products were down the hall in the kitchen I wouldn’t do it nearly as often and it’s likely to become a bit grungy through out the week.

Reset the house nightly. After dinner, baths and the kids are in bed we usually do a 5 minute run through of the house to pickup and put away anything that has managed to escape my puttering during the day. It’s a great way to tidy up, especially if you have young kids who love to follow you around and “help”. Best part is you’re not faced with a mess to clean when you wake up in the morning. Love it!

Clean as you go. You’ve cooked and enjoyed dinner with the family, now you look at the kitchen <sigh>. A mound of dishes, a bunch of spills and sauces that have baked on. To make cleaning after dinner a breeze try cleaning as you go. Use a bowl to gather scraps of garbage, fill the sink with warm soapy water and wash up as you go, if you have a dishwasher use it, add water to pans with stuck on bits so there’s less elbow grease required to get it clean, and wipe up any spills or messes as they happen. All of this takes only a little extra effort and makes returning to the kitchen after your meal a lot more bearable.

Other bits and pieces that are great for making cleaning less of a chore:

• baby wipes – great for dusting furniture or running over hardwood floors
• lint rollers - great for dusting lamp shades and removing pet hair from furniture and clothing
• mini-vac – great for minor messes, cleaning spilled sugar out of cupboards and giving the stairs a quick once over
• baking soda – removes odors from the freezer, takes stains off of counter tops and out of tea cups. It’s also great for removing crayon from walls
• vinegar – great for washing windows and floors, removing hard water scales from kettles and irons and loosening burnt on food bits at the bottom of pans.
• rags – old socks, t-shirts and kitchen towels make excellent cleaning, dusting and all purpose cloths

The trick is to start with a good foundation. Once your house is clean and tidy it’s much easier to maintain. I’m sure there are a ton of other great ideas on making cleaning or running your home more efficient. Please share whatever you have in your cleaning arsenal so I can add it to mine. :)

Post written by jules from stonesoup | minimalist home cooking. Follow her on Twitter.

There are few foods as warming and comforting as a big bowl of soup.

Before the light at the end of the Winter tunnel starts to appear I thought it would be timely to share my favourite simple, soul-satisfying family soups.
Steaming and ready in ten minutes, just the thing for a quick mid week dinner.

While each soup is a meal in itself, I know some people do struggle to see soup as a proper dinner. If you’re cooking for someone of that persuasion just be sure to have some hot toast or crusty bread and butter on hand.

All these soups can be easily doubled or tripled if you are cooking for a larger family. They are also great for making in bulk and freezing for another meal.

My Dad lives on his own and is not exactly into cooking. Whenever I visit I make up big pots of these soups and freeze them in individual serves so he always has a home cooked meal at the ready.

pea and pasta soup with bacon

serves 4

This is my take on the classic ham and pea soup.

Frozen peas are a life saver when you’re in the mood for something green and the larder is empty. Peas are one of those vegetables that start to loose their natural sweetness and flavour as soon as they are picked so unless you have access to peas straight from the plant, frozen will generally taste better.

I’ve used bacon instead and served it in chunks on top but you could skip the bacon and use vegetable stock if you wanted a vegetarian soup.

4 rashers bacon

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 packet frozen peas (250g or 1/2lb)

200g or 7oz macaroni or other small pasta

1/2 bunch chives, chopped, optional

Cook bacon under a broiler or overhead grill until brown and crispy.

Meanwhile bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan. Add peas and pasta and boil for about 8 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Stir through chives, if using. Taste and season.

Serve soup topped with bacon pieces.

gently spiced lentil soup

serves 4

If you prefer not to use canned lentils. You could substitute in 1lb small green or brown lentils. They’ll take more than 10 minutes to cook.

Lentils love spices so feel free to play around. Some fresh or dried chilli would make a lovely addition but would take us over my 5 ingredient limit.

For the photo I left the lentils whole but if you prefer a less chunky soup feel free to puree some or all of it with a stick blender.

3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

3 teaspoons ground cumin

3 cans lentils, drained (400g or 15oz each)

3 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup natural yoghurt
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan on a very high heat.

Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds or until just starting to brown. Add cumin and stir for a few seconds then add the lentils and stock.

Bring to the boil and cook for 5 – 6 minutes or until the lentils are just starting to break down. Taste and season.

Serve with yoghurt.

zucchini (courgette) soup

serves 3-4

The fastest way to grate zucchini is using a food processor. If you don’t have one you could get some exercise and grate with a hand grater. Or just cut the zucchini into small chunks – they’ll take a little longer to cook.

The herbs add a some freshness at the end but the soup will be lovely without it.

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

4 medium zucchini, grated

2 cups tomato passata

1/2 bunch basil or flat leaf parsley, leaves picked

parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan and cook garlic over a high heat for 30 seconds or until just starting to brown. Add zucchini and cook stirring for a couple of minutes. Add passata and 2 cups water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 7-8 minutes or until zucchini is tender.

Taste and season and toss through herbs. Serve with cheese grated on the top.

chicken and couscous soup

serves 4

Couscous is brilliant in soup as it cooks quickly and adds a lovely hearty texture to make your soup more of a meal-in-a-bowl.

If you have access to kale or other hearty greens they may be substituted for the baby spinach for a more rustic soup.

6 cups chicken stock or broth

2 chicken breasts, finely sliced into ribbons

1/2 cup couscous

2 bags baby spinach, washed

4-5 tablespoons lemon juice

Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan.

Add chicken and cook for 2 – 3 minutes or until just cooked through. Scoop our the chicken and divide between 4 bowls. Keep warm.

Meanwhile return the broth to the boil. Add couscous and return to the boil then stir through the spinach leaves until they are just wilted. Add lemon juice, season and taste. Add a little more lemon juice if you think it needs it.
Divide couscous and spinach broth between the bowls and serve hot.

hot prawn (shrimp) soup

serves 4

If you can’t get your hands on fish or prawn stock, you can make your own using the heads and shells of the prawns. Just pop the heads and shells in a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer for 10 – 15 minutes then strain and you have a lovely fresh simple prawn stock. Alternately substitute in vegetable broth or dilute some chicken broth instead.

I prefer to use green prawns (shrimp) as I think they generally taste fresher and have a nicer texture but pre-cooked prawns would be fine. They won’t take as long to cook, so you’ll need to time adding them to the soup later.

This is another soup that would benefit from a little chilli for the hot heads.

6 cups fish or prawn stock

4 medium tomatoes, diced

12 – 16 large green prawns, peeled

5 limes

1 bunch cilantro (coriander), leaves picked

Bring stock and tomato to the boil in a large pot. Cook for 2 minutes then taste. Season well with salt or fish sauce.

Add prawns and simmer until the prawns change colour and go opaque. Add the juice of three limes and one lime thinly sliced into rounds. Taste and add a little more lime juice if it isn’t sour enough.

Divide between bowls and serve sprinkled with cilantro.