French Onion Soup (Semi-Homemade)

One of the quick meals that my boyfriend really enjoys especially now that it is so cold out is French Onion Soup. The reason this is a quick meal is because I use Progresso canned soup, but what makes this dish so special is the toppings!
Ingredients:

1 can Progresso French Onion soup
1 slice of sourdough bread (you can use other hearty breads too)
Big handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
3 slices of Swiss cheese

Instructions:

1. Pour the can of soup into a microwavable bowl (the bowl you will serve in).


2. Break the bread into a few pieces and add to the soup.


3. Layer the handful of mozzarella cheese on top of the bread inside the soup.


4. Place the 3 slices of Swiss cheese on top of the soup.


5. Microwave the soup for 2 minutes or until piping hot. The cheese should be melting into the soup.


6. Enjoy!

Hope you enjoy this quick semi-homemade recipe. It is an easy way to present a dish that looks like you put work into it and tastes like it too. And it only takes a few minutes to put together!

Look for next week's posts about my favorite formulas to use in Microsoft Excel.

Cream Cheese Cucumber Dill Sandwiches

This is a sandwich that I love to make. It is actually originally meant to be a tea sandwich, but I like to eat them for lunch. I used to have this sandwich every day with cut up cantaloupe on the side. Once a week I make the filling for a bunch of sandwiches so that I can throw them together as I want them. This is a healthy, low-fat lunch with no flavor sacrificed!

Ingredients:

1 8 oz tub of 1/3 less fat cream cheese (I like to use Philadelphia)
1 .75 oz package of baby dill
1 English cucumber
1 loaf of sourdough bread (or oat or other white bread)

Instructions:

1. Transfer the cream cheese from its tub to a tupperware container a little larger than the tub.


2. Remove the feathery part of the dill from the stalks and throw away the stalks. Fine chop the dill.


3. Combine the chopped dill with the cream cheese and set aside.


4. Cut the cucumber into pieces as thin as you can possibly get them. You should be able to almost read through them.


5. Now it is time to build the sandwiches. Take two slices of bread and spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on one side of each piece. Layer a couple layers of cucumbers on top of one of the pieces of bread over the cream cheese. Close the sandwich so that the filling is layered cream cheese, cucumber, cream cheese. Repeat these steps to assemble as many sandwiches as you like.


6. Cut off the crusts of the sandwiches. I like to treat myself by eating the crusts so that I do not devour all of the premade sandwiches before the lunch I am prepping them for!


7. Cut the sandwich that is left into four little pieces. Store these premade sandwiches in a tupperware container in the fridge or serve them immediately.



8. Store left over cucumber pieces in a tupperware container in the fridge and close the cream cheese tupperware container and store that in the fridge as well.

Hope you enjoy this sandwich as much as I do. Stick around for next week's posts about the dreaded task of organizing your closet!

Reminders: Using the Location Feature in a To-Do List

This is a continuation of my posts about the program Reminders, which is the new to-do list program released with iOS5 for iPhones, iPads and iTouches. Today, I will be going over how to use the GPS locations feature and why this can be so useful. There are a couple kinks to using the location feature, but I have found my own ways around them! If you are using the iPhone 3GS or other third generation iPhone this location option is still unavailable. Please note that for my own protection and privacy I have erased the actual addresses that would be shown on the screen shots.


Only your personal addresses and those saved to your contacts can be used in this program. Therefore, for the times that I might want to use other addresses in my reminders, I added addresses for stores, restaurants, and offices I regularly visit to my contacts. Most of companies I already had saved so that I could have their store numbers, but if you search in the company in the Google Maps app you can save the company to your contacts easily that way. That will usually get you the company’s name, phone number, website, and address.

Also, if you have not added your own addresses (i.e. home, work, school, etc) I would add those to your contact information along with your friend’s addresses. Not only does it make throwing those addresses into Google Maps quicker, but then you can use those addresses in the Reminders program. It is unfortunate, but you cannot just add an address to the reminder; the address has to be saved to a contact. Maybe they will update the app with this feature in the future though.


If you allow Reminders to use your current location, it will use your current location, your personal addresses, and has a link to your contacts to choose addresses from. You can choose to be either reminded when you arrive at an address or when you leave.

An example of why I would want to have all of these addresses is if one day I want to visit CVS to pick something up, but after CVS I want to make sure that I stop off at the library to drop off a book that is due soon, I will tell the Reminders program to remind me to return my library book after I leave the CVS. So in the program the Library book reminder entry will look like this:


Just in case the GPS locator fails, or I do not end up going to CVS, I like to also make sure to put in a time that it will remind me regardless of my location.

I hope you enjoyed this week's topic. If you have any requests for certain topics you would like me to cover, please let me know in the comment box. Of course if you have any questions about to-do list programs (whether it is Reminders or not), I have used most of them in looking for the one that I stuck with, so please do not hesitate to ask those questions in the comment box as well. Look for next week's posts about organizing your closet!

Reminders: To-Do List Notifications

Here are examples of the ways this program reminds you about a task. One is in the lock screen when you are not using your phone and the other is how it shows up when you are using your phone.

In the lock screen you can choose to have the reminder show up and make a sound. To set up these notifications, click on the settings icon in your menu. Tap the third selection from the top: Notifications. In that screen, scroll through the apps in the list to find the Reminders app. When you select Reminders you will see a screen that looks like this:


If you select the "View in Lock Screen" option like I have, your lock screen will look like this when you have a reminder:


As you can see from the settings, I also have the Reminders program set up to show a banner on the top of the screen if I an currently using my phone. When the banner shows up it will show up just along the top of your screen no matter what program you have open.


It is definitely best to have reminders set up for both when you are using your phone and for when your phone is idle.

To set up a sound to play when those notifications pop up, in the settings screen click Sounds and then adjust the Reminders program to have a sound. There are many alert sounds to choose from. Make sure to pick one that will alert you while as the same time not be so obnoxious that you will get annoyed by it every time a task reminder comes up.

Hope this helps you set up notifications in your phone for your to-do list items. My next post will explain how and why to use GPS location in your reminders. Stick around!

Reminders: Setting up Tasks

I will be honest. If there is anything I want to do or have to do in a day it is on my to-do list. I do this so that I do not forget to accomplish the important things, but at the same time I do not forget to enjoy myself. Last post I discussed how I like to view the items on my list, and today I will be going over how I add an item to my list.


To add an item, tap the plus sign in the top right corner of the initital list view or date view screen. In the screen that comes up (shown above) you will be able to give the task a title, set reminders and repeats, choose the list you want the task to be added to, and add priorities and notes. I use all of these fields except for priority. For reminders, I like to be alerted when I need to do the task. You can come up with a great comprehensive list of things you want or need to do, but if you do not add reminders to them, they will sit on the list forever. Even if you actively check your list, it is difficult to remember every time you want to do something.

Know what your schedule is for the day, then look at the tasks you want to do in between the events on your schedule. Make sure to allow traveling time between tasks. For example, if you cannot start your laundry until you get home, estimate the time you will be home based on when you will leave school/work and then set your reminder for that time you expect to be back. I also make sure to leave myself a little time to settle in when I get home before I let my phone start bossing me around :) This might take a little bit of practice, but every time you set another one up you will learn what works best for you. And of course, things always come up, so do not feel bad about changing your reminders after the fact. You cannot anticipate everything that will happen in your day.

In the next two posts I will go over what the notifications look like for the reminders you do set up for your tasks and how to use the GPS locator in your reminders. Hope you are having fun setting up your task list!

Reminders: Using Your iPhone for To-Do Lists

For this week’s posts I had originally planned on talking about the to-do list program (Toodledo) that I have been using on my phone for about a year, but with the release of iOS5 and the preinstalled Reminders program, I have switched to using it and I am very pleased! I will be walking through how I use this program and some of the great notification features. Like all of the to-do list programs I have used, however, this program has definite room for improvement.

The great thing about this program is that the interface is well organized and it is easy to view your tasks, but even better, it is very easy to set reminders for those tasks. I find that if I do not have a reminder set for the time I will need to see the task, I always forget to check the to-do list before it is too late. This means I end up having to postpone the task to another date. And who wants to do tomorrow what you can do today? I would rather knock off most of my to-do list items than have the tasks hanging ominously over my head until the next available time I have to take care of them. That will just mean less time for me to do things I want to do; instead I am stuck doing what I have to do.


When you open the program it automatically opens to List view which just shows you all the tasks you have saved to your lists in the order you added them. You can have multiples lists, and at this point I have a list called Reminders and another one called Homework that I only use to remind myself of items that are class related but not due so that I would not be using my calendar to remind myself of them already.


I do not like to view my tasks in “list view” though, so I immediately select the Date view tab at the top so that the program shows me today’s tasks. From there I can scroll through by day to see what I have to do. Unfortunately, the day is not organized by the times you set to complete the tasks, but at least in a day view it is easier to tell when you planned on doing what.


If you have this program hopefully you will give it a try. I will be posting throughout this week about setting up reminders, setting up your notification settings, and how to use the location feature of the program. Stay tuned!

Spinach Calzones

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 box (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach thawed
15 oz part-skim Ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 oz shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 lb pizza dough

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


2. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic to the butter and cook until soft. Crush oregano between your hands into the pan. Remove the pan from the burner and set aside.


3. Squeeze as much liquid as you can from the spinach and chop it into smaller pieces.


4. In a bowl combine the onion mixture, spinach, ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese.


5. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces on lightly floured surface. Stretch each piece into a 5 inch with your hands.


6. For each calzone, scoop up a ball of the mixture and place it on one side of the dough. Lightly brush the edges of the unfilled side with water, fold over the filling and press lightly to seal. Gently roll up the edges and pinch them together. Make several prick marks with a fork on the top of each calzone.


7. Place the calzones on an ungreased baking sheet (I lined mine with foil for easy clean-up). Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375 until the calzones are light brown. Remove them from the oven and let them stand for 5 minutes before serving. (If you are planning to freeze the calzones, let them come to room temperature before freezing.)

These calzones are great for those who like to cook ahead to have a freezer full of easy meals. These calzones lasted very well in the freezer and reheat well too. I like to make a lot of them and save them in individual baggies so that I can grab them for an easy, quick lunch. They are also really fun to make with friends because you get flour all over the place when you put the filling in the pieces of dough.

Setting Up Your Calendar

Today, I will explain how I have set up my calendar in my iPhone 4, but it is also an explanation of how my regular calendar is set up. If you are using a BlackBerry it is very similar to the iPhone, and these suggestions transfer easily. I used to have a BlackBerry, so if you have any specific issues feel free to post a comment below, and I will try to get back to you will a solution.

It is simple to sync your calendars from your computer to your phone. Calendars saved on Outlook or iCal can be set up to sync whenever you connect your phone to your computer. You can also set up your Google Calendar to sync with your phone, and you do not need to attach your phone to your computer to keep that calendar up to date. If you have the latest software update (iOS5), you can also sync your Outlook or iCal calendars without a wire.

The calendar on the iPhone 4 now has a list view (top left) with a list of your calendar items by date, a day view (top right) that shows events on one day, a month view (bottom) that shows the month with the days selectable from there, and now there is a week view if you rotate the phone to landscape view.



The calendar displays each of your calendars together in one, so if you have separate calendars like I do they will appear together. For example, I keep a calendar in Outlook and another on Google. One of them is my regular schedule (classes, homework, appointments, work, etc) and the other is online because it has my charity group's events. As you can see from the week view (shown below), my regular schedule is in green (the colors are customizable) and the volunteer schedule is in purple. Also, you can see how I record when I have assignments due.



As I mentioned in my last post, I do use an assignment program (inClass) to stay on top of assignments, but I also use my regular calendar as well so that on any given day I can see the classes and other appointments I have with any homework or assignments right next to the day and time they are due or should be done by if they are not handed in assignments. I specifically put "DUE" as the first word if it is something to be handed in. I also capitalize tests so that they stand out (shown below). As you can see, the week view is not an appropriate way to view individual calendar items, but I do use it to see the available or "free" time in my schedule.



For more tricks to organizing your time, stick around for next week's posts on setting up to-do lists on your smartphone! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them as a comment below.

Amazing Apps for Increased Productivity, Organization and Fun

Hello again! I apologize for the long hiatus, but I had other priorities (graduate school and job searching) that caused me to put my blog on the back burner. Luckily, I now have a full-time position lined up and can spend more time doing what I love: organizing!

I promised a while back to go through the apps in my (then) new iPhone 4. This is a list of my favorites and why. These apps are probably not all available on BlackBerry or Android. Also, note that the apps are divided into categories, and those are the folders I keep them in on my phone screen. Some of these programs are standard and cannot be removed even if you do not want them. All of these are free downloads unless I have mentioned otherwise. Oh, and yes, the background picture is the newest addition to our family, Bailey, our little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy!


Outside of folders:

Phone - The calling function of the phone has speed dials, recent calls, contacts, keypad and voicemail.
ToodleDo - The best to-do list program I have found so far. Apple just came out with the Reminders app, but it does not have enough organizing options for me to switch to it. ToodleDo is extremely customizable and I can get exactly what I need from it in terms of view, reminders, dates, notes, etc. This program cost $1.99 when my wonderful boyfriend gifted it to me :)
Mail - The email program where you can connect personal and enterprise email accounts to receive and send messages.
Messages - The texting program to send SMS and MMS messages to other cell phone users.
Calendar - The calendar uses your Outlook, iCal, and Google Calendars to show you any and all schedules you have saved on your computer or online. This program is great because you can see all of your appointments in a list or for the day or month, and now if you change the orientation of the phone you can see week view! This addition has made scheduling much easier.
Safari - The internet browser. My mom really appreciates that I have this when she needs a research question answered on the go!

School:

inClass - This is a great app to organize your coursework. I have all of my assignments entered into it because it sends you reminders about upcoming assignments and it also uses a calendar to show you all of your coursework for the semester. You can also save notes to particular classes containing text, voice, photos or other file types. It is also a great way to store syllabus information in an organized fashion because you can add class details for all the classes you add and also add teachers and their details.
Grades 2 - This is a grade calculator that uses your previous GPA data to calculate overall GPA while allowing you to track current grades for your classes in a more detailed format. Add each class and the different syllabus items with their weights along with their due dates. Once you receive a grade for an assignment, add the grade to the program and it tells you how you are doing in the class!

Notes:

Dragon Dictation - This records your voice and converts it to text. I really like to use this when brainstorming so that I can say my thoughts instead of trying to keep up with them by typing. It is not perfect, but it learns as you go.
CamScanner - This allows you to take a picture of a document and reshape it to look as if you scanned it flat (it removes the angle you took the picture). This is handy when you need to copy someone's notes but do not want to make them wait. This way you can just snap a picture, reshape, and hand them back their notebook.
Voice Memos - An audio recorder that can record long segments of audio. Great for lecture classes that do not have many notes written on the board. Also great for recording long meetings that you might need to reference comments from later. Never use recordings of others without their permission though! I only use these for my own reference when I know that I will need to go back over someone's explanation afterwards.

Social:

Facebook - If you use Facebook this is a decent app to stay up to date. Personally I am not crazy about Facebook, but I have some notifications set up to alert me about personal messages and posts to my wall so that I do not miss anyone trying to contact me on Facebook rather than emailing.
Viber - This application allows you to call others who have the program no matter where they are in the world with no international calling charges. This is great for those with friends or family overseas. This program also has text message capabilities.
Skype - This app allows you to use the video chat program through your phone. This means that you can use your phone to video chat with anyone using Skype no matter if they are on their phone or their computer.
HeyTell - This app allows you to send voice messages easily to others who use the program.
WhatsApp - This program is another useful tool for travelers because it allows you to send text, photo and video messages free anywhere in the world using an internet connection. When I bought this program to use with my boyfriend when he was overseas in Hong Kong it cost me $1.99. Definitely worth the price.

Location:

Google Maps - This app allows you to use your current GPS location to search your area map or get directions. I cannot tell you how many times I use this program in a week, but it has definitely saved me on numerous occasions. Cannot recommend this enough! If you are using it for directions, you have the option of getting directions by car, public transportation, or for walking. It also uses the addresses you have saved to your contacts so you do not have to type them out every time.
Tip Calculator - This tip calculator allowed you to adjust the tip percentage and number of people splitting the bill easily. If you eat out in groups often like we do, I would recommend this app.
Light - This app uses the flash in the iPhone 4 camera as a flashlight. This has been very useful on the occasions where I have found myself in the dark! It also will signal SOS if you are having an emergency.

Entertainment:

Netflix - If you have Netflix, you can watch the online streaming movies on your phone! This is a great program when you are stuck somewhere waiting.
Kindle - Kindle allows you to read books on your phone. There are many free books and they download straight to your phone.
YouTube - Just like Netflix, YouTube videos are a great way to pass the time when you are stuck waiting around.
Pandora - Pandora is a music service that uses songs or artists you like to play channels of music related to those songs or artists. I use this more than the iPod function of my phone.
SoundHound - This amazing app allows you to find song information by either allowing the program to listen to the actual track or you can even sing the song to find it!

Games:

Monopoly - If you like Monopoly, this is a very cute, interactive version. I believe it cost me $0.99.
Tiny Tower - This game is surprisingly addictive. I currently have 45 floors and 80 bitizens. Check out the Bitbook if you download this app: it is adorable.
Temple Run - This running game has fun goals, achievements and skills to unlock.
Sudoku - A great game to keep your mind sharp :)
Angry Birds - This was also gifted to me from my boyfriend. Very addictive. You throw birds towards fortresses built by pigs that stole eggs from the birds. Costs around $0.99.
RacePenguin - Very silly game where you guide a penguin over slopes to avoid getting eaten by a polar bear.
Family Feud - Play the famous TV game show on your phone! Unfortunately, it is very difficult to play without connecting it to your Facebook account.
Scrabble Free - Play Scrabble against a friend or random opponent.

Tracking:

Closet - I have my entire wardrobe saved in this app. It allows you to save each item into a category and add them to outfits also separated into categories. Very customizable and comes with a calendar function that allows you to save outfits to specific dates. Also has a packing list function.
YOGA Free - This app has a prepared yoga program with a picture of each move as you go with calming music playing along. You can also design your own program using the catalog of poses.
Passwords - This app saves your passwords in one place so that you do not need to have them lying around on a piece of paper. Allows you to save everything organized alphabetically so you will never forget them. Saves so much time when trying to remember your different logins. It also will generate random passwords for you.

Well that is the list! I know it is rather extensive, but they are the ones I recommend to my friends. Hope you enjoy them too.