Tasty tip: Stinky hands

I've heard about this tip before, but Ms. Denene Millner, over at MyBrownBaby, reminded me.

If you've been cutting onions, garlic, shallots, fish or really anything that can make your hands smell not-so-fresh, rub your hands on stainless steel - cookware, utensils, whatever. It magically makes you odor go away and you can go back to running after the kids.

Tasty tip: Switch your rice

To easily make meals a teensy bit healthier, switch out white rice for brown rice. You get additional fiber and nutrients effortlessly.

Worth the hype? Welch's AquaJuice

I was shopping for groceries a few weeks ago, when I stopped in the juice aisle to get something for my daughter to drink. This little girl can guzzle liquid like nobody's business, so I try not to give her drinks that are loaded with sugar (she's not big on water, unfortunately).

Then these caught my eye:

"AquaJuice?" I thought to myself. "Have my prayers been answered?"

I read the label and saw all the facts: No high fructose corn syrup. Less sugar than other brands. No added sugar. One full serving of fruit.

I was sold. I bought all three flavors. Strawberry Kiwi, Fruit Punch and Apple.

Worth the hype? In a word, no.

The drinks are basically just a 50/50 mix of water and juice, something you can easily achieve by doing it yourself. Save the money (one of those jugs alone is about $3.50) and get a $4 gallon of juice and dilute it yourself.

Have you tried AquaJuice? Did you like it? Did your kids? Let me know in the comments!

Pretty Plates

Once you have mastered a few dishes in the kitchen, it might be time to upgrade from the plastic dishes you've had since college.

Got a few extra dollars in the wallet? Try this pattern from Target. At $63, it's bold but not overwhelming. it adds some flair to your dishes without you having to break a sweat.

Quick and easy califlower

I kept reading about this recipe in a ton of different magazines and websites and I finally decided to give it a try. It comes out deliciously golden brown with a slightly nutty flavor. It's easy as can be with only three steps, so you can make this any night of the week.

Quick Roasted Califlower

Ingredients:

1 head of fresh califlower

2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut califlower into 2 inch pieces and spread out on baking sheet. Drizzle oil over the top and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

3. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until califlower is golden brown. You can add some Parmesan cheese on top during the last four minutes if you want.

7 Weeknight Dinners in 6 Easy Steps

The only way to avoid the whole "What's for dinner" question every night is to have a plan.

Know what's in the freezer, what you have a taste for, and how long it's going to take you to make it. This is called menu planning.

You can search for templates all over the internet, but here's one I think is particularly handy. If you want to make your own, just follow these simple rules:

1. Decide what you would like to eat each day this week. Include sides, salads and breads.
2. Make one meal morph into the next if you can. For instance, make a baked chicken dish on Monday, then use the leftover chicken in an enchilada dish on Tuesday. This way you maximize your effort in the beginning of the week and the rest of the week is smooth sailing.
3. Make a list of everything you'll need to make the dish, no matter how small. Include the salt, pepper and other spices.
4. Go through your fridge and pantry to see what items you have and what items you don't.
5. Make a grocery list based on the items you don't have and then go out and buy only those items along with the staples.
6. Once you get home, take a look at the next couple meals. Does every meal have chopped onions, peppers or garlic? (You'd be surprised at how many do.) Chop them now, before you put everything away. You might feel very '50s housewife, but it'll be one less thing you have to do the day of. Plus, you'll have a head start on dinner so you'll be more likely to cook instead of order a pizza.

And there you have it! A menu for the week. Not so hard, right?

Some people like to do menu planning for the month, but I think the week-by-week approach because it's hard to tell what you and the family will be in the mood for three weeks from now or how packed your schedule will be. If you know during the upcoming week, it will be next to impossible to get dinner finished before 7:30, you'll be able to improvise and prepare for that.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you!

Best dishes!

How to...Open Stubborn Jars

If there's one thing men (or really good biceps) are useful for, it's opening jars. I hate buying some new ingredient that's essential to a recipe and then banging on it for thirty minutes because the stupid top won't come off. Here's a few tips the next time the top refuses to let you win:

• Use the heel of your hand to smack the bottom of the jar a couple times to redistribute the air pressue on the top. An oldie but goodie.
• If you have a pointed end on your countertop, bang the top of the jar against the underside of the countertop a few times. Be careful with this one if you don't plan on using all the contents. You don't want to pop a hole in it.
• If you have a tennis ball laying around, you can cut it in half and use the rubber lining to help you. It also works well if you have some rubber gloves.

If all else fails, get a man or head to the gym!

Best dishes,

Young Mommy Chef

Tasty Tip: Veg out

To easily add some veggies to your next pasta dish, add some fresh or frozen veggies to the pasta water during the last three minutes of cooking. If you've already salted your water, the veggies should come out ready to eat. Plus, since you used the same pot to cook both the pasta and the veggies, it means one less dish to clean!

Plates for picky eaters

These plates have seriously been a godsend to this family. Previously, I could not get my daughter to sit down and eat food. Like, ever. Prior to these plates, she was pretty much surviving off applesauce and Cheerios.

No longer do I feel like World's Worst Mom. Now she will sit down and actually eat FOOD. Like, spaghetti and baked chicken breast! She may not always eat everything I put on there, but now it's no longer a struggle just to get her to sit in her chair.

If you haven't already tried these plates, plunk down the $4 and give it a try.

Better way to make grilled cheese

If you're like me, sometimes the easiest things to make never come out right. I can bake cakes from scratch, make a fabulous pot roast, and whip up a mouth-watering pot of chili.

But my grilled cheese sandwiches are always missing something.

I know, you're probably thinking, "Take some cheese, put it on the bread, put it in a pan and flip. What's so hard about that?"

I don't know what's wrong with me. But it's either too light or two dark, the cheese isn't melted right, I use too much butter, etc.

But I think I have stumbled upon the best grilled cheese technique yet. Try it and see what you think:

The Lazy Woman's Grilled Cheese

2 slices whole-grain bread
2 slices cheese of your preference (you can do 3 slices if they are thin or you like it really cheesy)
1 tablespoon butter

1. Turn the heat on under the pan to medium high. Let the pan preheat for about 3 minutes.
2. Butter the first slice of bread and put it in the pan. Put the cheese slices on top. Let cook for 3 minutes.
3. Butter the second slice of bread and put it on top. Flip the sandwich over and cook for 3 minutes.

The 6 p.m. rush

I love to cook.

If I made enough money to hire a chef, I probably wouldn’t. I like cooking and it relaxes me. I love the chop, chop, chopping of onions and even though I may cry, it makes me feel like I accomplished something when dinner is cooked and smells so good.

One complaint I hear from my fellow mommy friends that they only know how to make one or two dishes. I like to call these my “spaghetti and fried chicken” friends. They don’t stray too far from what they know and if a recipe has more than five steps, they won’t make it.

I used to be like that. Longer recipes used to scare me and I used to avoid baking altogether.

But it’s all about confidence. If you believe you are a good cook, the rest will follow. You have to learn to trust your tongue.

So when you’re trying to get dinner on the table every night, try some of these tips:

• Any meat you plan on cooking take out of the freezer the night before. Put it on the lowest level of the fridge, preferably on a plate or platter so the juices don’t leak onto anything else.
  
• Assemble your ingredients the night before. This will help you know if you’re missing any particular ingredient that has the possibility to ruin your dish. (Don’tcha hate that?)
  
• If you have time the night before, prep some food. Chop that onion or bell pepper, make the rice. It saves you time and energy the next day.
  
• Merge dishes whenever possible. Say you make a pot roast on Sunday night. If you have some left over, use it in a chili or in an omelet. No need in wasting food or cooking from stratch when you already have seasoned, cooked meat at your fingertips.
  

What about you, readers? What tips do you have for getting dinner on the table fast?

How to...Chop An Onion

You might just hack at it any old way, but there is a method to chopping onions.

Kitchen Tip: New Use for Alcohol

"Spritz grimy dishrags and bathroom mats with vodka. The alcohol kills bacteria that can cause odors, but doesn't leave a scent - so it won't smell like you've been hitting the bottle."

~ from Everyday with Rachael Ray, February 2009

How to...Remember What's in the Freezer

Why is high fructose corn syrup in everything?

By now, everyone has seen the commercials. The ones where someone offers someone a bite of their delicious sweet treat and the other person recoils back in horror like they just asked them to try some meth. "Dude, that has high fructose corn syrup! Don't you know what that stuff does to you?"

The other person just stares blankly. "What does it do?"

"You know, well, um, it causes...I dunno."
Cue the music. "It doesn't do anything. Eaten in moderation it's fine!"

Commercial, you FAIL!

So what IS the deal with high fructose corn syrup? What is so wrong with it that they had to launch a whole campaign to convince people that it's okay to eat?

If all of a sudden, the water company in your area started running ads saying, "Don't worry - the water's fine," wouldn't you get suspicious like, "Hasn't it always been fine? What's going on?"

I've been trying to make everything healthier for my family's sake, cutting out fats, limiting sodium intake and anything with HFCS. But this stuff is in EVERYTHING - ketchup, barbecue sauce, bread, juice, etc.

What's the deal? According to the Mayo Clinic:

So far, research has yielded conflicting results about the effects of high-fructose corn syrup. For example, various early studies showed an association between increased consumption of sweetened beverages (many of which contained high-fructose corn syrup) and obesity. But recent research — some of which is supported by the beverage industry — suggests that high-fructose corn syrup isn't intrinsically less healthy than other sweeteners, nor is it the root cause of obesity.

So basically what they're saying is, the research is shady. I'm doing my best to get rid of the high-fructose corn syrup. You can too, Mama! Here are some tips:

• Start looking at the labels of foods you regularly buy. If it's processed, it might just have it, so watch out.


• If you find that your favorite food does in fact have HFCS, see where it falls in the ingredients list. Is it the first item? That's bad. Closer to the end? That's better, but not great.


• Make your own. I've discovered that almost all the pre-made BBQ sauces (that make life so much easier!) have HFCS in it. Looks like I'll be hitting up the Food Network site for the Neely's BBQ sauce recipe.


• Swap stuff out. If you have to change brands of your favorite juice to get the kind without HFCS, then make a substitution somewhere else. Do you really need brand-name frozen veggies if the store brand tastes the same? Learn the prices and you'll find that you really can afford to feed your fam more nutritious food.

Have you all been thinking about cutting out the HFCS? Let me know in the comments!

Kitchen Tips: Morning Meals (AKA Breakfast!)

I love getting up early to make breakfast for my family on Saturdays. Nothing else really makes me feel like "Mom."


Of course, my kids are too young right now to enjoy this, so for now it's mostly for me and my husband. I usually make omelets, hash browns and sausage and sometimes some fruit. (Trying to add more fruit so I can preserve my sexy!)


Here are my tips to getting breakfast done fast!

• Make an "omelet kit." Sounds corny as hell, but it works. If you have a little bit of meat leftover from a meal earlier in the week (pot roast, turkey, steaks, chicken breast, etc.) put it in a bag and freeze it for the weekend. Throw in some onions and peppers, and you'll be able to saute and add eggs. Omelet in minutes!


• Wash dishes the night before and set up the pots and pans you'll need. I know, you're supposed to do this regardless, but waking up to a clean kitchen helps you get ready to cook. Also, put your pots and pans in the dishwasher (if you have one) as soon as you are finished making breakfast.


• Do brunch so you only have to cook twice that day. Prepare a hearty brunch around 10:30 a.m. and your family will be good to go until about 3 or so. At which time you can toss them some snacks until you're ready to cook dinner.

Any other time-saving breakfast tips you have? Let me know in the comments!