Chalk Dinner Up to an Organized Pantry

There’s one space in my house that I just love going, the pantry. Behind the old farm doors is just about everything I need to make a perfect meal. And since I love to cook, I find myself collecting lots of pantry staples.

One thing I learned is that buying grains from loose bins is much more fun than buying them pre-packaged. That way, you can get exactly what you need for a recipe and can keep a reasonable amount of extras on hand. To store my grains I save old jars from pickles, salad dressings and glass beverages.

I can recognize these ingredients easily, but the challenge is when I ask my husband to start cooking the quinoa before I get home from work. Let’s just say he’s not as well versed in grain identification as I am. I‘ve seen the idea of using a can of spray paint chalk to label jars, but I didn’t want to paint my jars.  So when I came across our chalkboard wall decals, I realized that this was a perfect temporary solution for making labels!

All you need is a set of chalkboard wall decals, a ruler, chalk and a crafting blade or scissors.        I decided that I would make all of my labels the same size for consistency purposes. I eyeballed it and figured  they should be 3 ½ x 2”h. Once I measured my label I used a crafting blade to cut the rectangle.

I didn’t cut all the way through, making it easy to remove my label from the backing.

Then all you need to do is stick the label to the jar and write in the name with the chalk!

There, that’s much better! And next time I call home to ask hubbie to start cooking the barley, I won’t be surprised with a pot full of risotto.

By Becky Phillips

Becky works in Nod’s HR Dept. doing everything from booking the hot dog cart for our kickball parties to training our store staff on all the details of our latest products. In addition to cooking, she learned how to knit last year, but has yet to finish her first project…a scarf. So, if you come across any good, quick, knitting patterns, send them her way!