Sunday – Spicy Grilled Chicken Salads
Monday – Enchiladas with fresh guacamole, Refried beans, and Corn
Tuesday – Coconut shrimp over brown fried rice with fresh broccoli
Wednesday – Cheesesteak sandwiches, french fries, and corn on the cob
Thursday – Beer chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies, and ranch beans
Friday – Homemade Pizza
Saturday – Lamb, pitas and hummus with Greek Salads

I have found that my boys really like having the menu done as well, they like to know what’s for dinner. Remember that dinner doesn’t have to be complex, all of my recipes are rather simple.

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What’s for Dinner?

This week I will go through recipes and tips that are great for children and parents. It’s also about healthy (okay, maybe healthier) eating too. I really want people to realize that food prepared at home with fresh ingredients is not only healthier for your family but cheaper too. Yes, cheaper, much cheaper. So stayed tuned to the blog this week, each and every day and learn how to make foods at home that much easier.

Tip #1:
We send our boys to school with their lunches four out of the five days, they are allowed to buy once a week. Everyday their lunch consists of: Sandwich, some type of chip/pretzel, fruit, drink and sometimes small treat. This tip is for the chips!

Spend 10 minutes one night pre-packaging chips and pretzels for your kids lunches. I find this is great to do when the chip bags are almost gone and helps clean out the pantry of half empty bags. Either use fold sandwich bags, or what I find the best to be is the Ziploc (or generic form of) snack bags. Do up a mixture of bags, zip up and then put them all in a plastic grocery bag. Then when you are making lunches you can just go grab the chip bag and no fuss. It sounds like something so small but you would really be amazed and how much it helps.

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Welcome to Kid Week!

You do not place the bowl where it normally goes, it will have to bet set on your counter underneath the grinder exit to ensure that it catches all the ground up meat. Slowly turn on the mixer (where the beater normally goes will still rotate even though it has no use with the grinder) and place the meat you wish to grind up in the top of the grinder. Use the provided utensil to push the meat through.

It’s great, in this picture is ground up bacon.

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Many Uses of the Kitchen Aid Mixer: Meat Grinder

My postings during this time will be few and far between as I’ll be enjoying the kid-free time with my husband (and I don’t really like cooking when it’s so hot!)

Enjoy the summer!

~Kristin

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Off to New York!

Eh, not really but it’d be fun to say five times fast when intoxicated. Misto’s might be one of the funnest kitchen tools to use. You can entertain your kids pumping it up getting ready to spray.

The Misto I have is yet another item my Mom (Liz) got me and I didn’t really like it at first. I was making it too complex and then just got frustrated that it wouldn’t spray out correctly, I later learned I wasn’t pumping it enough.

So I’ve always had it filled up with light olive oil and have for those “just in case” moments. I went to Sam’s Club one day and they have some great deals on kitchen stuff. Sam’s is the best place to buy spices at … and olive oil. I get the rather large gallon+ olive oil from there and pay $25. I bought two over a year ago and haven’t tapped into the second one yet.

I had run out of non-stick spray one night and remembered I had this ridiculous amount of olive oil and that I could just use my Misto. I filled it up and I pumped it really well this time. I could feel the difference in pressure when I was close to being done, something I had not noticed before. I sprayed the pan and it came out beautifully, just like a store bought bottle. I loved it! I haven’t used store bought spray since that day and now only use my Misto.

Store bought is rather expensive too, you figure about $3-4/bottle, generic maybe a dollar cheaper. For $25 for the amount of oil you get you figure it’s about $2-3 to fill up your Misto and it lasts longer I think.

Misto’s range from $8-17 dollars depending if the shell is aluminum or stainless steel. Think about how much better it is for the environment too … less disposal of those nasty cans!

Enjoy Misto Month and Happy Spraying! : )

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March is Misto Month!

I remember when and why I got my first steamer. It’s a very nice one from Williams Sonoma that I purchased in Las Vegas one night when I wanted to make crab legs. I’m pretty sure I was pregnant at the time too, not that’s it relevant. Anyways, I went home and unpackaged the steamer got it all ready, put in my 2 inches of water and got it boiling. Put the crab legs on and this horrible, overwhelming smell of perm solution came about. It was disgusting, the crab legs I had bought earlier that day were in fact bad. However, that being my first time steaming crab it kinda deterred me from doing it for quite awhile afterwards.

We had moved from Vegas and then a few more times and each time we had to bring this large steamer with us. It was nice, we just never used it. One day I decided to try it for corn on the cob I believe it was, some veggie at least. Worked great, so then I started using it more because I like the idea of steam over microwaves. It’s easier than a microwave to be honest.

You fill up the large pot only with about 1-2 inches of water. Turn the stove on to high and let that bad boy boil. There are two strainers/holders in the pot, one large and one small. (Small one pictured below)

So let’s try broccoli, first you cut up the desired amount, put the pan on the stove and once boiled put the broccoli in the small holder and let steam for six minutes. That’s it, just six minutes. Then take it out (no draining needed) add some salt, pepper, garlic and butter and you have some happy eaters. It keeps the color of the broccoli so nicely too.

The steamer is very versatile. You can cook crab legs and all sorts of seafood in there. Crab legs go in the large holder and you steam them for six minutes as well. These are frozen crab legs done in SIX MINUTES. It’s great.

So go ahead and get yourself a steamer, you’ll appreciate your purchase, I promise.

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Be a Successful Steamer

On the menu tonight:

Shrimp cocktail with spicy cocktail sauce
NY Strip Steak with bearnaise sauce
Fresh asparagus
Mashed Potatoes
French bread

Shrimp Cocktail w/ Cocktail Sauce

So this post is a little edited as I add the pictures from dinner. We had a late lunch and so we changed to have no lobster, just too much food. I also planned on grilling but it was too cold, so we pan fried the steak and sauted the asparagus. We thought a nice sauce would be good, so we tried making bearnaise sauce for the first time. It was really good.

Steaks in Marinade

Steak w/ Bernaise Sauce

Even the Boys Love It.

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Nothing Says Love Like Surf n’ Turf

This is all done to taste and the amount depends on how many shrimp you plan on serving.

Ketchup
Horseradish
Lemon Juice
Salt & Pepper
Worshchester Sauce

Mix ingredients together in bowl, adjust to taste.

That’s it! I like it spicy … careful on the horseradish.

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Shrimp Cocktail Sauce

I love it, I absolutely love it. My mom always bought me random kitchen items since I was a junior in high school. It started out with an espresso machine then it was a Belgium Waffle Maker and then it was the Braun Hand Blender. All of which I have and still use today … over ten years later. It’s key when you want to cook for enjoyment that you surround yourself in good tools. Over the course of the years there have been two that stand out in my mind as superior kitchen items I would not live without. My KitchenAid Mixer and my Breadman Bread Maker. But this post will focus on the love of the bread machine. : )

Generic, store, square bread, which should only be good to transform you back to old school for grilled cheese day or bologna with Miracle Whip, costs anywhere from $1.50-$2.00 depending on sale prices. Regular, good bread is about $3.00 and my favorite bread is $3.50-$3.99. That’s ridiculous.

To make a loaf of bread it costs less than a buck. You can make so many different kinds of bread too … and I shouldn’t limit myself to only saying bread. Bagels, rolls, pizza doughs, pretzels. Anything carb can be done in there, even cakes!

My one son is allergic to dairy, not lactose intolerant, allergic to dairy. I had this same issue growing up, fortunately for me there is many more soy options. Not so fortunate for my pocket book. (I solved this by buying soy milk powder at the organic store.) Anyways, most breads contain milk and with the bread machine there are so many different recipes that don’t require milk.

Both of my kids love the cinnamon raisin bread and guess what … There’s NO sugar in it! It’s great.

Anyways, spend the $90 for the best kitchen help one could ask for. Do it!

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About my Bread Machine …