Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The most popular person at the potluck.
Still, summer is the time to get together with your friends and family and that always means bringing food to share. If you want to be the most popular person at the potluck, I suggest you bring the vegetable tray. This whopping huge amount of vegetables was less than 11.00$ at my local mega mart. I buy the cauliflower and broccoli in their head for because I don't mind the cutting and I really mind the price. I like to throw in something that is season and unexpected that gets people's attention in the spring asparagus is fun, and in the summer radishes and green beans, the autumn is perfect for sliced sweet potatoes or jicama. If you add a fun dip people just can't tear themselves away. You'll be the hit of party and the only one taking home and empty dish every single time.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Farm Stand Fun!
We even found a little spider crawling around on one of these cucumbers. How's that for fresh from the garden?!
The corn was hauled in right while we were standing there, you could still smell the stalks and the silk was still dewy.
One last link to share, I found this reference to local growing dates and Davis county farmers. The list is Very comprehensive. and lastly, here is a link to the Utah.gov site of local produced products. How about THAT!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Green Beans
Last night, I got a bag of frozen ones from the freezer and put it on top of the boxed rice mix that I was making for dinner. The beans steamed a long with the rice and they were delicious and mild flavored when the rice was done cooking. The Chicken with ginger rice and green beans sounded like a fancier dinner that it actually was, but it was gobbled right up by all the diners here at our house.
Friday, July 26, 2013
The chosen one - watermelon that is.
I followed the instructions as best as I could and IT Worked! We are enjoying the best watermelon of the season right now. I had thought that I would serve it with Feta and Basil, but it was just too perfect to add to anything so we chilled it and ate it plain. Delicious!!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Secret Raspberries
Saturday, July 20, 2013
9 Menu Planning Tips
1. Pick a time and day of the week to plan. Make a special time when you have some time to sit down and make your schedule. Do it when works for you, after your store local ads come out, or before your local farmer's market.
2. Get input from your family. Ask your kids to each suggest a meal for the week, or ask your husband what he would like to eat. If everyone comes up with a meal that means less that you have to think of. And with some input from the family they are more likely to eat what you are making.
3. Only plan 5-6 dinners each week. Leave a night open for delicious leftovers or just call it ToBeDetermined (TBD) and see what you are in the mood for that night. Breakfast for dinner anyone?
4. Try one new recipe a week. Some times when I menu plan I get all excited and plan all sorts of crazy new meals and some weeks it ends up being the old stand-bys all week long. Setting a goal to try just one new recipe a week can expand not just your cooking horizons, but everyone's taste buds without being overwhelming or too ambitious.
5. Take stock of your fridge, pantry and freezer. Look at what you already have and try and use it first. Do you have supplies for a meal that you didn't use last week? What are some of the things in the back of freezer that it is time to get using?
6. Plan with your weekly schedule. If you have a busy day, plan a slow cooker meal or a meal from cook one - eat twice so your dinner preparation is easy. On days when you don't have any afternoon plans make that an evening where you spend some time in the kitchen cooking.
7. Have a theme night. There is nothing wrong with narrowing the focus of your menu planning and having a soup night, taco night or chicken and rice night. It can give you enough room to try variations of family favorites, but also make the decision making process not feel so enormous.
8. Keep your shopping list next to your meal planning list. As you are menu planning write down what you will need to make the recipe. Scan the whole recipe and then if you aren't sure if you have enough of a certain spice or frozen chicken breasts then now is the time to check.
9. Post your menu plan somewhere that you can see it. Having gone to all this work won't do you bit of good if you can't remember what you planned or you don't utilize all your hard work. Post your weekly menu on the fridge, write it on the calender or use something specific to display your weekly menu is a decorative way like a chalkboard or a restaurant menu board.
Menu planning is something that can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. For those of us new to this, now is not the time to organize all our recipes by nutritional value, neither is it the time to begin creating colorful templates and color coded by aisle shopping list. If we want those things, they can come later once we have established good habits and find what is working (and not working) for us. Start simple, get a piece of paper, write the days of the week on it, and then next to each day write your dinner plans.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Fight BAC for Summer and Kids
FightBAC.org has put out some really fun games and information for kids this summer in both English and Spanish. They even have a fun iphone game that is available in the app store.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
A New Twist on Refrigerator Pickles
I can't wait to pick a new recipe and try it. I am considering perhaps something with beets or maybe a rhubarb or peach crumble. I will need to call the neighbor and see if he still has rhubarb.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Running with.... Dynamite
My baby isn't sleeping. With the temporary living situation that we are in, we are sharing a room and so that I means I am not sleeping either. A grumpy not sleeping baby and a sleep deprived mom pretty much equates to running around with a stick of dynamite in one hand and a lit flare in the other.
I have been trying to keep the boys extra busy so they still have a fun summer, even with the xbox packed in storage. And I have oodles of amazing family to help, but gosh darn it, I need some sleep.
Instead, I am blogging and listening to the baby to vocal exercises and practice her peanut butter chomping noises. Someday this will hopefully be a sweet memory, but for now, it is going to be the reason I am asleep on the couch while the boys are at the pool.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Caprese Salad
I was browsing through the brand new farmer's market recipes yesterday, and as recipe browsing usually goes, I ended up looking through the previous ones as well. Oh there have been some good ones. In fact, recipes I make all the time now. Probably the most popular is Caprese salad.
It is so simple and the taste is so fresh and sophisticated. It always feels fancy when I make it and people just adore it. I usually use the pearl mozzarella and grape or cherry tomatoes. Once again, it is just a matter of being easier for me.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Brussels Sprouts Roasted and Delicious
My husband was helping in the kitchen and he snipped the bottoms off and cut them in half, neither of which I usually bother with. We tossed them in olive oil and then spread them out on a large cookie sheet and then popped them into a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes or so. You can top them with balsamic vinegar, rosemary or Parmesan cheese, but we just ate them plain.
And they were Delicious!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Experiments in Cherry Pitting
Monday, July 8, 2013
Mid July means Apricots
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
4th of July ideas
One of my favorite things to take to family get-togethers are Whoopie Pies. My kids adore them and since I make them quite a now almost expected to bring them. I recently was browsing the web for some fun 4th of July recipes and I ran across a recipe for Whoopie Pies that has been altered to make it better for you. Let me just say, They are amazing! No, they don't taste the same as the ones I made before, but for a health substitute they are really quite good. The website the recipe is available on has 15th Healthier 4th of July Desserts, perhaps your favorite thing to make is there too.
Here is a link to a website that has some non-traditional recipes, perhaps you will find something new to try like Red, White and Blue Berry Semiffreddo, or The Red, White, and Blue: Coconut and Blueberry Coconut Pudding Trifles with Fresh Cherries and Buckwheat Topping - now you KNOW those sound delicious.
And since we are going to be making that potato salad and macaroni salad and bbq, Here is a website that lightens up the traditional recipes that we all love so much.
Source: eatingwell.com via Snappily Ever After on Pinterest