Favorites This Week

Below are a few things I found this week I like. Each picture was borrowed from, and has a link to the original post so hopefully I am not breaking online etiquette. Merely trying to bring attention to some cool ideas and a few new things.[click pics for link back to articles]

Tomato Soup w/Poblano Chiles - Chef Steve, although he would probably call himself  'Camp Cook' over at 'Round the Chuckbox (one of the blogs I read, its on my sidebar) always comes up with, and/or has some great recipes on his site. This one looks like a sure add-in for this Fall.

Yes, even I want to save some money and use coupons. This site starts the first page with -
Top Forty Stores with Awesome Coupons - then on the right in the sidebar it breaks down the coupons by popular categories. Very helpful and quick (smart phone app available too). On The Frugals page it lists helpful sites that can save you more money.

5 Tips for Freezing Pasta - Probably good general knowledge for those of you who want to do that dish ahead of time (like lasagna) and freeze it for later, or freezing leftover pasta dishes.

"Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap over the past few decades, but are they really as dangerous as we have been led to believe?" - Great article on Benefits of Saturated Fats! Detoxinista says "...I have a hard time believing that eating a fresh coconut can possibly lead to heart disease or cancer, even if it is brimming with saturated fat!"

Dish Soap / Hand Soap

This cool set of 'bar type' dispenser bottles by Tablecraft are originally used for oil and balsamic vinegar. Bed Bath & Beyond have them for about $12 but we paid about $7+ at Target, or was it Walmart? Anyway...

My wife came up with a cool idea: We put antibacterial hand soap on the left, and Dawn dish detergent on the right. The bottles are on the window sill right above our kitchen sink (at our house, not at my work...in case there was confusion).

The only problem you may have is some hand soaps are real thick and may not flow from the bottle with this type of dispenser on top. You can thin down the hand soap if possible, but sometimes if you don't do it right you will end up with a lot of suds and frustration.

It looks cool, and its functional! And at our house with the colors involved and location of the bottles you will not be confused and try to use it on your food! LOL! 

Health Department Score

Our first inspection does not get a score since it is the first time to be permitted. An inspection is done and you get a food permit and a paper like this one with no score on it. Then within 30 days they come back to give you a 'scored' inspection. During this time they will look at everything they asked you to do, or suggested that you improve, change, or fix.

We lost 2 points on a ceiling in our pantry/stores that was textured. It has to be smooth and non absorbent. We were given 4 months to fix it but you still get counted off until its done. What happens if it never gets done? I don't know, and won't be finding out! We had it scheduled to be done last Monday which was unfortunately 3 days AFTER she came back. So we probably would have gotten a 100!

But, no matter...we did a great job and she was complimentary of our attentiveness for getting things done and keeping them clean.

Just like an awards ceremony I would like to thank a couple of people: Pastor Will (P-Dub) and Sous Chef Roberto (Robert B.)! Job well done!

P-Dub did most of the maintenance that was involved, or arranged for it to be done. Sous Chef Roberto is...well, he's my sous chef. SO you know I give him the grunt work! LOL!

Thanks everybody!

Favorites This Week

 Below are a few things I found this week I like. Each picture was borrowed from, and has a link to the original post so hopefully I am not breaking online etiquette. Merely trying to bring attention to some cool ideas and a few new things.[click pics for link back to articles]

Use tubing to seal cracks and spaces between appliances and counters to keep food crumbs from falling in between!

How many of you really know what to do with the Humidity Controls in your refrigerator to keep your food fresh? (...don't forget to read the comments after the article too, they are helpful)

New Spatula idea...seems cool, may be worth having one. Great start-up concept using kick-starter to get things rolling.

 

Lodge Cast Iron has a new pan that touts stainless steel handles that stay cool so you don't burn yourself. The pan itself looks like a great modern version of the old cast iron pan...But I don't think at this price point (around $60) it will ever romance you away from mama's or grandma's old set of well taken care of pans. Not to mention buying new pans in the old style is much less than the above mentioned cool design iron pan. - Good luck with that, cast iron pan makers!

Cost your meals!

Second week almost done and things have been great!

Something that you should always know and do, is the cost of each meal down to the mayonnaise pack for a sandwich and the napkin used to wipe their [kids] mouth. I have created a spreadsheet for each menu day (basically a copy of the same spreadsheet with new title and cost information) and have been tracking my costs. This is beneficial to sit down and see where you may be able to add more value and decrease the amount of cost. (among other things...)

Here are two examples:

• Herb Chicken w/Focaccia Bread and chips - buying bread (versus making it) is convenient and saves time and money on labor but the cost is higher and takes up a lot of freezer space. This particular type of bread is also higher in cost than the others available. On a 'personal note' the bread is 'too much' (probably meaning too chewy or not soft enough) and not really appreciated any different from basic white bread on grades k2-3rd or maybe even thru 6th. Possible solutions:
• Do not use the word 'Focaccia' on menu and use a softer bread/bun that costs less for grades k2 thru 6th and only use Focaccia for 7th thru 12th and Staff lunches. Or just go with a 'wheat-berry' or other nice low cost bread for all the sandwiches.
• Purchase dough balls and make your own 'Focaccia' style bread which greatly reduces cost of the bread, keeps the labor cost down, and lets you control the softness of the bread. Added bonus: the smell of the bread baking will probably increase lunch sales that day!

• Baked Ziti and Broccoli - This day was a big hit and cost wise it is probably one of the better menu items. It has Bread/Grain (pasta), Vegetable (tomato sauce, broccoli, onion...), Meat (beef), and Dairy (cheese, and lots of it!). [capital letters added just for emphasis on part of meal] You would probably say "whats wrong with that?". Nothing. We don't need to decrease the cost, and actually it would be hard to do BUT If we spend just a few more pennies we can add value to the meal which may increase the orders.
• Several of us agreed that adding a piece of garlic bread would complete this meal. It seemed like it was lacking that 'sopping it up and licking the plate clean' effect.
• Another thing that we already implemented was adding a layer of Mozzarella in the middle of the pasta as well as on top. Kids always want the cheesiest parts and the way its made at  restaurants and other places there's only a layer of cheese at the top, so when that's gone, they complain.

You can't do this without long term financial effects and that's why you have to know your cost down to the pennies. Its really not that hard once you set up spreadsheets that you can just plug in the numbers.

I have been using Google Drive and Google Documents to make all my spreadsheets, documents, pictures...to be able to sync over all computers, online, and my smart phone so I will always have access to updates and update as needed. I can then download and/or convert to excel or pdf, batch files, or 'as is'.

Later in the school year I want to add another page to my site and be able to share the forms, spreadsheets, or other information that I have created that has helped me with this whole process.

Any good ideas? Drop me a comment or email.