Cooking39

Purchase a frozen pizza dough of your choice (one for everyone attending the party).  Get creative on toppings!  These are so simple that children of all ages can participate.

Old Fashion pizza:  pizza sauce, pepperoni, shredded  mozzerella cheese

Greek:  Parmesan vigarette dressing, red onions, grilled chicken, feta cheese

Supreme:  Coarsely chop: red onions, tomatoes, and red and green bell pepper.  Cook Italian sausage.  Spread pizza sauce over crust and toss Italian sausage evenly across pizza.  Top with chopped veggies and shredded cheese.

Hamburger: (yes, hamburger pizza) Spread mayo, mustard and ketchup over pizza crust.  Top with shredded lettuce, cooked hamburger (ground beef or turkey), sliced tomatoes and shredded cheddar and shredded mozzerella cheese.

BBQ Chicken:  Spread favorite BBQ sauce over pizza crust.  Top with grilled chicken strips, chopped onions and bell peppers and shredded cheese. (add jalepenos if you’d like)

Pre-cut and arrange all toppings in a buffet like set-up.  Let each person create their own!   

When planning your next backyard BBQ bash, consider these creative ideas for the grill.

Mushrooms:  Brush button mushrooms with extra virgin olive oil and grill on both sides.  There’s no need for any other seasonings, tastes great just like that!

Portabella mushrooms:  These mushrooms have a very meaty flavor and can be a great substitute for hamburger meat.  Again, these mushrooms brushed with extra virgin olive oil tastes great right off the grill.

Garden Vegetables:  Slice a squash or zucchini right down the center, season with a dash of grill seasoning and extra virgin olive oil and grill face down.  Marinade sliced tomatoes, sliced onions, or sliced eggplant (or a combination of all three) in Italian dressing for at least 2 hours before grilling.

With these wonderful and healthy garden vegetables on the grill, you can have creative and limitless additions to your burgers and steaks. 

After you have served you meal, what do you do with the small amount of chicken that is leftover?  You make a side dish for your next meal!  Cook rice.  While the rice is cooking, saute onions, bell pepper and garlic in a skillet.  Add onion mixture to cooked rice, along with a can of tomato sauce and the leftover cooked chicken.  Let cook on low temp for about 10 minutes to allow flavors to blend together.  That’s it!

Variations:  Instead of tomato sauce, you can add 1 cup of salsa and a can of green chilies to the rice to create a Tex-Mex flavor.

Adding Velveeta cheese to the rice will be pleasing to children and adults alike.

In keeping with the original tomato sauce recipe, add some coarsely chopped mushrooms and grated parmesan cheese for an Italian spin.

If you choose to leave out the tomato sauce, you can add in 1/2 cup of Ranch dressing and top the Ranch rice with grated cheddar cheese.  Wow!

Stoneware is not only for pizzas and cookies, you can bake meat on the stones just as well.  Here’s how:

Pork chops.  Marinate pork chops over night in your favorite marinade.  If you do not have a favorite, try Caribbean Jerk marinade or simply salt, pepper, and olive oil.  Remove meat from marinade and discard marinating liquid.  Place meat on stone and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until meat is completely cooked.

Steaks.  Marinade steaks overnight in Chipotle marinade or simply olive oil, salt and pepper.  Place on stoneware and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until meat is tender and cooked thoroughly.

Chicken. This can be done using tenders, breasts, legs or thighs.  No need to marinate the chicken, unless use just want to do so.  Put chicken in a deep dish and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Place chicken on to stone and cook at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until completely done.

After seasoned, the stoneware should be very easy to clean.  Hand wash any and all stoneware.  Do not place in the dishwasher or microwave.

How many times have you received your total at the grocery store check out only to find yourself fighting off a brief moment of insanity?  Here are a few things to help you out while shopping in the grocery store.

First, the old saying “Don’t shop for groceries on an empty stomach” has been sound advise past down from generation to generation.  If you are going into the store to buy things to prepare a meal, eat a snack while in the car, either snack on a candy bar or a bag of peanuts.

Carry a calculator with you at all times.  You can make use of a calculator on any shopping trip.  When using your calculator while shopping for clothes, you can easily figure out the percent off during the sale, and when shopping for groceries, use the calculator to keep track of your expenses.  When placing items into your cart, round the price up to the next dollar to allow for a flexibility in your budget for tax.

When items are on sale, buy in bulk to really create a savings in your grocery bill.  How does buying more create a savings?  For example, if the whole chickens are on sale for 2.99 per pound and the regular price is usually 4.99  a pound, it would be a good idea to buy two or three whole chickens, granted you have adequate storage space.  With all of those chickens, you can bake a whole one with veggies, cut up another to fry (or have the butcher do it while you are at the store) and the third, you can save for a day when you plan on having company over for dinner.   By buying the meat in bulk, you have three meals for less than $25.  Not to bad.

Create as many meals as you can from scratch and do not be afraid, they are easy to do.  For instance, instead of buying a box macaroni and cheese, which you will have to buy two or three to feed several people, buy a bag of elbow macaroni and a box of Velveeta cheese.  All you need to do is boil the elbow macaroni until tender, drain water, replace on hot burner and chop up Velveeta to melt over noodles.  You are in control of the cheese, so add as little or as much as you’d like, add a little milk, butter and a dash of salt…and ta-da!  You have creamy, cheesy macaroni and cheese! (for much less than the cost of the box stuff, too!)

Use coupons and compare store sales also, you will save several dollars that way!

NEVER buy health and beauty products at the grocery store.  If you are concerned about saving a dollar, go to the dollar stores, Walmart or Target for your health and beauty supplies.  Grocery stores always price these items higher.

Finally, if you tend to be an impulsive shopper, bring someone with you that will help you to stay in control.  If your spouse or your children tend to be impulsive shoppers, do not take them with you to buy groceries.  And ALWAYS, ALWAYS make a list!

When you are planning a road trip with your family, save time and money by fixing snacks and sandwiches to keep in the vehicle.

Before leaving on your excursion, take a trip to the grocery store.  Purchase fruit, chips bottle water,  juice boxes, snack bars, sandwhich fixings and ziplock bags.  Yes, that’s all you need!

Put the juice boxes and a few water bottles into the freezer.  These will make great “ice packs” to keep things cool, not to mention, that they will be nice and icy when you drink them!

Prepare sandwhiches, is you will traveling with an ice chest or large cooler, it is safe to make lunch meat sandwiches, but if you do not have a way to keep food super cold, make peanut butter sandwhiches.  Tuna and egg salad sandwiches are also great to travel with if you are able to keep them cold.

When packing the vehicle, make sure that your food is in a convenient location, this will be greatly appreciated by your hungry children if traveling in the dark! 

If your family happens upon a great picnic area, it would be a great opportunity to have a picnic and be able to stretch and play a bit.  Just remind your children to stay close to you, because some of those road side rest areas also attract cooky people!   

When you come home from the grocery store and are in the process of putting away your groceries, set aside food that can be consumed for snacks.

Next, get out your storage baggies and start pre-packing your snack food.  If you buy a block of cheese, cut slices of cheese and place a handful into each baggie.

If you bought pretzels, take a look at the serving size suggested on the box.  Count out a serving of pretzels, and place in storage baggie as well.

If you have purchased berries, grapes, carrot sticks or nuts, divide them into portioned sizes and store in a convenient location in the refrigerator.

By pre-packaging your snack foods, and placing them into convenient locations, not only are they quick to grab on the go, but the already having them served into portions, controls the urge to eat until the box is empty. 

Since the price of groceries is soaring as much as everything else in the economy today, it really benefits your pocketbook to read grocery sales and clip coupons.  You should always make a menu and be sure than you are able to reuse your ingredients (for example, a package of fresh mushrooms) .  This is one area were you can drastically reduce your grocery bill.  

Next, buy in bulk as many items that you can.  Even though you may be paying $15 for that family pack of pork chops, think of how many meals you will able to make with those chops, especially if you have a small family.

If you have small children at home or if you babysit frequently, chances are that you hear “I’m bored” quite often.  It is easy to find something to do outside when the weather is appropriate, but what do you do when it is not?  You go on a picnic…in the kitchen of course!

Let the children help you in the picnic preparation.  Make sandwiches and wrap them in baggies or plastic wrap.  Package chips or carrot sticks in individual packages and either place all food items in a basket or individual paper lunch sacks.  The picnic lunch is not complete without a juice box for each person.

Set the table with a picnic table cloth and disposable plates, cups, napkins and silverware and picnic away!  Have the meal completely disposable and everything needed for the meal should be right there in the picnic basket or in the lunch sacks.  The idea is not to get up and conveniently get things out of the refrigerator.

If your kitchen table or chairs are big enough, throw sheets on top of them to create a tent for “camping”.  The “rainy day blues” will soon be forgotten! 

Is your kitchen a little boring?  Tired of cooking the same meal over and over?  Introduce a little multi-culture in your kitchen.  Decide on a country (Mexico, Italy, China) and do an on line search for a recipe or two from your choice country.  Also, do a little research for local facts and fun information about the country.  And discuss your findings at the table while eating dinner.

Perhaps if you have little ones, they may be interested to hear about the lives of multicultural children through storybooks from the library.  Also, ask the library, ask if they have a travel video of your choice country.

Fun, nutritional and educational all at the same time!!