Domestically Challenged – Parenting Tips from Author Alana Morales

Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

Happy Monday!

photo credit: needoptic

This week’s Menu Plan Monday deals with something that as I became healthier last year, I did inadvertently. As I worked hard to eat better and lose weight, I also did something else without even trying. I ate more whole foods.

I didn’t really try to. In fact, I very distinctly remember scoffing at someone who was gung ho into eating Paleo. But when I thought about my eating style towards the end of the year, I realized that I was eating a pretty clean diet.

According to Zen Habits, it means 

So what is clean eating?

• Food consumed in its most natural state, or close to it.
• Which means nothing processed.
• Fruits and veggies, of course.
• Nuts, legumes, natural nut butters, nut oils.
• Whole grains, preferably not ground into flour.
• Lean proteins, although I don’t eat meat or dairy.

This is my goal, at least. I don’t do it 100% of the time. I shoot for about 90%.

Eating Clean for Dummies defines it as:

Clean eating is the act of basing your diet on whole, unprocessed or organic foods. In other words, when you eat clean, you try to eat as low ont he food chain as possible.

When I asked Twitter, here’s some of the responses:

@Deborah105 - For me, clean eating is no sugar, no grains, no packaged foods.

@aspiringmama - for me it’s gluten free and free of all sugar. No processed foods. Real whole veggies, fruits, organic proteins.

For me it means this:

I eat mostly unprocessed foods – the only regular foods I eat that are processed are my Quaker oatmeal cups and my soy yogurt. Sometimes you can add in Glutino gluten free crackers or Rudi’s gluten free bread, but less than two times a month.

So, the big question is this – how do you eat clean? Or, better yet, how can you easily learn to eat clean?

Here’s 5 ways to get started:

1. Look at what you eat that is processed, then look at alternatives

After I had been working at losing weight for a few months, I got to the point where I really looked at the things I was eating. Then I asked myself the following “Is this moving me towards my goal of losing weight?”

For most of it, the answer was no.

I’m talking things like Rice a Roni (something we had several times a week), processed soup, granola bars, soda, etc.

I didn’t change everything all at once. That would have been torture! Instead, I changed one thing at a time. For example, I stopped eating the Rice a Roni and replaced it with veggies.

2. Replace one processed snack with a clean snack

This was an easy one. I was eating Life Cereal bars for my morning snack. It had good protein, but it had a bunch of ingredients that I couldn’t pronounce. I challenged myself to substitute veggies for my morning snack for a week.

That’s all it took.

Now, for my morning snack, I usually have a veggie with hummus and some fruit. If I really need a treat, I have a Lara bar. SO. DAMN. YUMMY.

So what is one item you can replace with a fresh fruit or veggie?

3. Plan ahead

Remember how important menu planning is? Here’s another area it can help with. Plan your meals and see how you can add in more fresh food. Because of my food allergies, I know 80% of my weekly food in advance. This could be because I eat the same stuff 80% of the time, but it works well for me.

Look at your meals and plan accordingly.

4. Make it easy

Eating clean doesn’t have to mean spending hours in the kitchen, chopping away. Buy bags of baby carrots, flash frozen veggies (I’m hooked on the broccoli/cauliflower mix) and salad bags if you have to. Make it easy to start, then as you get used to it, switch one thing. I now buy whole green peppers instead of buying them, but I still buy bagged carrots and frozen veggies.

Making it easy = making it happen

5. Eat more protein

photo credit: Ms.FabiHenne

Most Americans don’t get enough protein as it is, so try to eat protein at every meal. Eat an egg with breakfast, eat some chicken or turkey at lunch and then have another meat or some beans with dinner.

Do you or are you trying to limit the amount of processed foods you and your family eat? If so, how? Please leave it in the comments!!

Happy Monday everyone!

This week’s Menu Plan Monday post is about how to store your recipes. I have a tendency to print a recipe, then lose it shortly after I’m done with it. To prevent this, I scoured the web for some quick and easy ideas.

1. Storage Binder

This is by far the easiest way and while it won’t win any decorating awards, it works. I’m all about simple and easy solutions. Take your recipes, put them in sheet protectors and then they are protected for when you are using them with messy hands. Just wipe off the mess and store!

2. Recipe Box

This is an obvious choice (which is probably why I have never owned a recipe box in my life). Take recipes you find in magazines, cut them out and glue them to recipe cards, then put in the box.

I don’t like this option as much because it is so easy for the cards to get dirty, but if you were to get some recipe boxes that are cute, they could be a nice addition to your kitchen decor.

Here’s a few from Etsy:

3. Recipe Nest

This has never happened before, but I WANT THIS. Yes, it’s for the kitchen and I still want it. That’s how cool this looks.

What is it?

The Recipe Nest is a recipe storage system that looks very easy to use. You don’t have to worry about hole punching anything, it has a sheet protector and an easel to hold recipes while you work and it all folds up to look nice for storage.

Yup. Totally want.

4. Online Storage

As much of a tech nerd as I am, I don’t really like this method. Blowing flour out of your keyboard after a baking session will do that to you. Nevertheless, there are quite a few good recipe storage solutions available, including:

Allrecipes - You had to know I would have this one listed. Keep track of all your recipes from the site in your very own recipe box.

Evernote – Copy and paste your recipes in or just link to the different urls.

Springpad – I prefer this method to Evernote, because it looks better and I can organize my recipes into notebooks.

5. Expandable File Folder

One final way to organize is by using expanding file folders. These allow you to keep recipes organized into different categories, so you can just pull and cook.

What do you do to prevent dirty recipes?

If you use recipe cards or papers not in protectors, here’s my new favorite clean paper tip:

• Hole punch the cards, put a suction cup hook in a cabinate – when you are cooking, put the recipe on the hook, then replace when finished. Just put the hole punch in the middle or use two hooks to keep the paper/card straight.

This keeps the recipe clean and out of the way!

Now I want to know – how do you organize your recipes? Any tips? Any pics? As always, leave it in the comments!

* For more info about how Menu Plan Monday started click here.

Hey peeps – happy Monday!

Today I have a few ways for you to get dinner on the table when you are desperately busy. This seems to be a really busy time of year for me, though I can’t really pinpoint the reason for it. I also think I am suffering from a little burnout at work and at home, so these are the tips I have been relying on.

photo credit: banditob

1. Pick your go to meal.

As I write this, I am looking at the big bowl of spaghetti sauce that is cooling on my counter. I made this because it was easy, everyone will eat it and the leftovers will save me from thinking about my lunch for at least 2 days. That is GOLDEN to me in this time crunched state.

What meal can you fall back on? If you need help, here’s a quick list of 40 dinner ideas I posted about last week.

2. It’s ok if you have to be a slacker.

My husband has been out of town for the past two weekends. This means a few things, including 1. I didn’t go grocery shopping and 2. I was even more tired than normal.

You know what my kids ate?

Chicken tenders, leftover pizza and appetizers. You know what I ate? Cereal.

And you know what? That’s ok. We don’t eat liek that every night (only every other – LOL). It just so happened that I hurt myself last week and wasn’t too thrilled about cooking or cleaning up after big messes. I gave myself permission to be a slacker, which made it mush less stressful for me. I highly suggest the permission part – it really helps ease the mom guilt a smidge.

3. Pasta is your friend.

Keep some jarred pasta sauces on hand. I like to take some alfredo sauce, mix it with frozen chicken breasts and frozen broccoli for a super quick and easy meal.

4. Take out is a cop out…and that’s ok.

Sometimes, you just need a night (or two) with no dishes, no thought and no mess. If you can afford it, then don’t worry about it. As long as you aren’t feeding your kids Micky D’s 3 nights a week every week, things are probably ok. Our stand bys are Subway and Chipotle. We used to have McDonald’s Mondays in my house, simply because I knew that chances were high that I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before and would be extra tired. Planning for this made my life SO much easier.

It’s ok to do this. I promise.

5. Look for the bag.

Seriously, if you need a quick meal, walk down the frozen food aisle. Find the meal in a bag and there you go – dinner. Serve with a salad or some bread and you are done.

Before the nutrition police come and burn me at the stake, let me say this – i am not advocating you do this every night of every week. Sometimes we have weeks that are rougher than others and these tips will help with those times. I am very happy for you if you have time to cook everything from scratch and find organic goat’s cheese or whatever. I don’t have that kind of time. So there.

How do you get dinner on the table when life gets insane? Leave it in the comments!

Oh, man. Do I have a treat for you guys. Today’s interview is with Bree from Baked Bree and I seriously want to drool on my computer when I look at her blog.

So.

Yummy.

I mean, seriously, look at this:

And this:

I was lucky enough to stumble upon Bree’s site while looking for foodie blogs and I am SO glad I did. Her photography of the things she cooks is every bit as amazing as her cooking ability!

1. Your site is beautiful! I wish it was a scratch and sniff. LOL Where did you learn to cook like this?

I am very lucky that my mom, sister and grandmother are all amazing cooks. My mom owned a catering business for a long time and was always cooking. My sister recently graduated from culinary school and my grandmother is an amazing baker. I also worked in a lot of really good restaurants. There I learned proper cooking techniques and what good food is all about.

2. What about the recipes? It seems like a lot of them are ones you have made up – how did you learn this skill?

I like to take something that I really like and tweak it or make it better than the original. I also will try to make something in a way so that is a little healthier too. I learned this skill just by playing in the kitchen and seeing what worked and what didn’t. Believe me, there have been plenty of kitchen fails!

3. You mention that your kids have different eating styles – how do you manage picky eating?

I make one meal and one meal only. My children can either choose to eat what we are all eating or they do not eat until the next meal. It may sound harsh, but it is what my doctor recommended. I used to give them an alternative like yogurt, but then they would not even bother to try a new food because they knew that I would cave and give them something else. I also understand that they are children. I usually always put at least one thing on the plate that I know that they like and will eat.

4. What tips would you recommend to a mom who isn’t the best cook?

Keep meals simple. Learn to make 3 things really well and then make variations on them. For example, learn to roast chicken breasts and then put them on top of a salad. Change up the type of salad and you will have 3 different meals.

5. What about the time factor? What would you recommend to a mom who is crunched for time?

All moms are crunched for time. So these are a few things that I do to make my life a little easier. I like to make big things on the weekend, like a soup or a baked pasta dish, and freeze half of it or double it, and have it for another meal later in the week. I also like to meal plan. Meal planning makes my life so much easier. I know what I am making during the week and I have everything that I need to make it on hand. If you have a plan, you avoid the “it is 5pm, what is for dinner” problem.

Here is a link to a meal planning sheet and some other tips.

http://bakedbree.com/meal-planning-101

6. What is your favorite meal? Your kids?

I really love a roast chicken. It is very comforting and it reminds me of my mom. Or a really cheesy and gooey lasagna. But really, I am not picky and eat most things. My children love Mexican food. Everyone can top it how they want and I know that everyone will eat it.

~~

See what I mean? I especially love the idea of learning how to cook 3 things well, then branching out. It makes things so much more managable that way. I mean, I think even *I* could do that.

Have a food blog you love and want to share? Want me to ask a specific question of a food blogger? Have cooking envy? Wait, maybe that’s just me… As always, leave it in the comments!

Because of my total lack of skill in the kitchen, I like to try and find moms who have that skill, then find a way to share that with you. This week, as usual, I have this on lock.

This week’s interview is with Julie with Mommie Cooks. When I went to get the link, I saw taht she used Fruit Loops as wine glass markers (you know, so you can tell who’s cup belongs to who). How can you not love that?!?! Her blog is full of recipes, many of which she creates herself (!!!) and the biggest benefit – TONS OF PICTURES!

At least this way I can see what my recipe *should* look like. Check it out…

1. You are really into food! After looking at your blog a bit, I have to admit I am a little intimidated! Where do I start? When I read your blog, you make it sound so easy.

Thank Alana!  And I definitely don’t want anyone to feel intimidated!  If it were me trying to decide, I would probably pick a category of food from the sidebar that was my favorite and start there.  Loving the food you cook helps to give you the passion to learn how to make it that much better!

2. What made you become a foodie? How did you get past the fear of the meal being inedible? (or maybe I’m projecting here…lol)

I think I’ve always had a love for food in one way or another.  My mom gave me a children’s Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook when I was a child and I loved it!  I remember wearing some of the pages thin I made the recipes so much!  And let’s see, fear of the inedible?  I have definitely had a few meals like that.  I can always tell if it’s bad through my husband’s actions.  He a. won’t take seconds and b. won’t take it for lunch the next day when he goes to work.  The thing to remember about inedible and bad though, is that experimenting and taking chances with food combinations is how you learn to be a better cook!  Don’t be afraid to try different flavors to see what works and what doesn’t.  You’ll become a better cook for doing it, I promise!

3. You seem to make up a lot of recipes – where do you get your ideas?

I get them from all over the place; restaurants, cookbooks, friends, etc.  Mainly I’ll see a dish that looks yummy or taste something that I absolutely MUST have again and I’ll get into my kitchen and work to replicate it!  Some ideas are completely my own, but lots are just inspired from dishes I ate or read about at some point in time.

4. Many moms are short on time – are there easy ways to make such wonderful recipes?

Here’s what I would say with regards to the quick meal.  Find a few dishes that you love, love, love and make them regulars in your home.  After a few times of cooking them up, you’ll start to find you no longer need the recipe to make them.  I call these my “go to” meals.  They’re the ones that I know I will always have the ingredients for in my house and I know how to make them with my eyes closed.  Well maybe not technically closed, but you get the idea.

5. What are your kids’ faves? Yours?

Nicholas, my 6 year old, loves anything fish.  The baked fish sticks are probably one of his all time favorites.  Alex loves pretty much everything I make.  He loves to get in the kitchen with me and help me cook as well.  Andrew loves beans; black beans, garbanzo beans, cannellini beans.  You name it, if it’s a bean he’s all over it!  I, myself, can’t really say I have a favorite.  Half the fun of food and cooking for me is trying new combinations!  If it’s new and uses ingredients I love, it’s probably on my favorites list!

To see more of Julie’s work, check out these links:

Family Friendly Fridays: Peanuty Chicken Summer Rolls

Sausage Calzone

Skillet Gnocchi Dinner – Take Two

Have a food blog you like? Please let me know. And the interview? Love it, right?

Happy Monday! Here’s to a good week!

This week I want to offer some tips for a topic that is very near and dear to me – how to spend less time in the kitchen. Now, don’t get me wrong. I had a bunch of cooking success in the last 2 weeks. Mostly because I wasn’t terrified to try something because my husband was out of town, but whatever, it worked!

Despite the success, it didn’t leave me wanting to run out and buy a new cookbook or anything. In fact, as work gets into full swing and I try to desperately find a way to squeeze in a workout, I need to spend the least amount of time in the kitchen as possible.

Here’s 5 ways to make this happen:

1. Plan, Plan, Plan.

If you are at least participating in Menu Plan Monday, you are already finding ways to streamline and spend less time in the kitchen. Planning, as I found when my husband was out of town, really makes a big difference when you get home, and everyone is tired and hungry.

There are bazillions of resources on menu planning, but here are a few:

Menu Plan Monday – Home of MPM

Organized Home – Menu Planning

Hillbilly Housewife – Meal Planning

Cooking Light – 6 Steps to Successful Meal Planning

2. Cook Extra

This is a GREAT tip, especially if you want to spend less on lunches. If you need chicken for a meal, cook enough for two meals. For example, tonight we had Chicken Enchiladas and then on Tuesday we can have Taco Salad. If this is too overwhelming, cook just a little extra and take the leftovers for lunch. This has been a lifesaver for me and my food allergies.

3. Get Help

When I was brainstorming for this blog post, this suggestion actually came from my husband. He knows as well as I do that many guys don’t like to cook. (You see, when he went hunting last week, he ended up being the camp cook, a task he quickly tired of. He didn’t really make the connection to me and the dishes though).

Find ways to get help in the kitchen.

Before you have a panic attack at the thought of your husband, or even <gasp> your kids, in the kitchen, relax. And I mean this overall – relax. Who cares if the kitchen gets a little messier? You will be teaching the skills necessary for survival later in life and if you are teaching your son’s to cook, he’ll be more of a catch later. Trust me, it makes a difference.

Give your kids/husband a task. Let them make a salad, set the table, mix something. Whatever task you give them, let them do it however they can. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done. Repeat as often as necessary, especially when you see your kiddo picking their nose while they set the table.

4. Clean As You Go

I hate that this step makes such a big difference, but it does. Wash things as you dirty them or if that doesn’t work, make a sink of hot soapy water and toss dishes in there as you use them.

This leads to the next step:

5. The Cooker Isn’t The Cleaner

Whoever cleans, doesn’t cook. If you have kids old enough ( and 7 or 8 is old enough), they can load a dishwasher. If you have kids older than that, guess what their new chore is? Dishes. Trust me, kids need to be taught responsibility and chores are one way to do it. It also makes parent’s lives easier and I am ALL. FOR. THAT.

OK, I’ve given you 5 easy ways to get your butt out of the kitchen quicker, but I know you have tricks you use too. As always, leave them in the comments!

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend – thanks for stopping by today!

This week, I am going to be plunging headlong back into working after a long summer break. I am excited to get back to work, but this will mean I need to get back to being organized again. It’s a never ending cycle, isn’t it?

For MPM this week, I wanted to tackle something that has intrigued me for quite a while – bulk cooking. The premise is that you take a day and you cook for for a week or, if you are particularly ambitious, an entire month.

I work really hard at being organized enough, but meal planning is always where I fizzle out. After looking into this concept, I think this is something that could work for me.

Here’s where I started:

Once a Week Cooking – This is a good site to start with, but since it’s a pay for subscription site, unless you are willing to drop $10 a month, it won’t take you too far.

Frugal Mom – Learn Once a Month Cooking in 7 Easy Steps – This is a GREAT introductory article. It gives you a specific (though not too in depth) overview of how to cook once a month, including planning sheets. This is a fantastic place to begin.

Simply Saving – Once a Month Cooking Recipes – This blog give a few good ideas for easy to cook meals that you can prepare early, but don’t necessarily have to cook ahead of time.

Resources:

Organized Home – Feed the Freezer – Has very good links on how to get started

Once a Month Mom – THE authority on cooking once a month. She seriously makes it sound easy. I mean, easy enough that I might be able to do it. New menu plans posted at the beginning of each month.

What now?

For me, I hate cooking. I mean, I really loathe it. While I LOVE the idea of cooking less during the week, cooking for an entire month seems too overwhelming for me.

Cooking for one week sounds a little better, as long as it meets a few requirements:

• It doesn’t take up all of a weekend day.
• It isn’t too overwhelming.
• It can be food allergy friendly – I have a feeling this will be a sticking point.
• My kids will actually eat it – this may be an even bigger sticking point.

So, not too challenging, right?

Here’s what I came up with:

• I started at the Once a Month Mom site for three reasons – I am somewhat familiar with the layout, I like the structure of the menus and I like the printables.
• After looking at the menu, I took a long pause. I am not a cook. I admit it. The thought of making Ratatouille is intimidating as hell. Then I reminded myself that I only had to find a few recipes, since I was only trying this out for a week.
• Then I remembered it was a short week, since Monday is a holiday and Wednesday we are taking our son out to dinner for his birthday.
• If I vacuum seal the food, all I have to do is drop the bags in boiling water to heat up. This, by the way, rocks.

Challenges:

• Many of the meals were heavy on the cheese and pasta – two big no-nos for me.
• I really hate that so many recipes use cream of ____ soup. I am not a purist (hell, I use Rice A Roni), but with a dairy allergy, it’s important. And no, I don’t have time to saute mushrooms and do 9 other steps to get a cream of mushroom soup.

So, what to do?

Here’s the recipes I selected:

Tostada Goop – I am going to check Trader Joe’s for a non dairy cream of chicken soup.

Ribs – These I can cook in the crock pot, then freeze to reheat during the week. The challenge will be not eating them when they are cooked the first time!

Neat Sloppy Joes – If you know me at all, you know I LOVE Allrecipes.com. This is a recipe from their site.

And here are some tips on how to freeze foods to reheat.

Phew! Here’s the question of the day – have you ever done this? If so, what works for you and what doesn’t. If you haven’t tried bulk cooking, would you? As always, leave it in the comments.

This week’s interview is a good one. I know that couponing is BIG right now and I always have had trouble with them. I either don’t remember to bring them to the store or I bring them and forget to use them or I buy stuff I don’t need because I have a coupon.

While exploring this idea, I came across the $5 Dinner website run by Erin Chase. The basic premise of it is that no meal she makes is over $5. I cannot even imagine how awesome this would be. I was lucky enough to score a quick interview with Erin, who also has a cookbook by the same name.

1. What made you come up with the idea of $5 Dinners?

Necessity is the mother of invention, right?!  I had to start spend less at the grocery store to keep our budget in the black.  $5 Dinners was my creative way to spend less!

2. Was it difficult in the beginning to stay within the $5 limit?
It’s never been too difficult to stay within the $5 limit…as I quickly figured out what my “never pay more than” prices were and made sure to stock up on products when they hit that price.  Most of my meal planning is centered around what I have in the pantry, fridge, and freezer.

3. How good of a cook do you need to be to make these meals?

Most of the meals on $5 Dinners and in the $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook are simple and quick, as most are kid and family friendly…both of which require easy and speediness in the kitchen!  If I ever share a recipe that involves a new or specific method of cooking, I share a photo tutorial in the recipe.

4. I know you use a lot of coupons – how hard is/was it to find enough coupons to keep the meals under $5? Which comes first – the meal idea or the coupons?

Meal ideas come from what I’ve purchased with the coupons and what other sale items I’ve purchased!

5. What would be the easiest way for someone who is “challenged” in the kitchen and time crunched to try this concept of the $5 meal?

Start with only buying what’s on sale, and paying close attention to the grocery store circulars.  There is no point in buying boneless skinless chicken breast for full price when it goes on sale every 4-6 weeks.  Just grab a few extra packages when its on sale and stash them in the freezer, or batch cook/grill them and freeze the chicken once it’s cooked.

Great ideas here! I love the idea of meals that cheap. Maybe a good idea for a weekly challenge?

Here’s my question for you – do you use coupons? Do you think you could make a family dinner for only $5? Leave it in the comments.