Excuses, Excuses

I've been taking a lot of flack here for my lack of posts. "You haven't posted since December 12th!" I'm glad to know you miss me!

To be honest, I never planned to blog much during the holidays. The priority was to spend time and make memories with family. The unfortunate part is at the beginning of January my computer started to smell like fire and kicked the bucket. With all of my pictures on it.

Don't worry your pretty little head, now, I had the hard drive backed up. I just can't get to it. So I am waiting, patiently.

I think I'll have some new posts coming up within the week.

Award!

I got my first two awards in the same day. About a month ago. I really was (am!) excited about it, it just caught me in one of those blogging droughts. You know the kind where real life gets busy, and all of the recipes you make lately (or the pictures of them) don't turn out. Thanks to Laura from Real Mom Kitchen and Clouse Cousins Cookin'. I didn't know you were reading my blog, but I'm so glad for the award because it pointed me to your sites and I like them so much I'm going to visit you often!

So now comes the part where I get to pass on the award. Isn't this just a chance to say to the blog author "I like your blog" and tell everyone about some other great blogs? Here goes.

Here are the rules for this award. If you choose to participate, please find at least 10 more blogs, of any kind that you love to read. Write a post about the blogs you picked, linking back to me and to them. Once you’ve posted, return here to let me know your post is done and be sure to let them know too! (If you don't come up with 10, that's fine too.)

I tried to stay away from personal family blogs, because I couldn't single any one out over another. So while some of these may be personal blogs, they have a certain theme or specialty going on.

Food Related Blogs:

1. Lydia at Put a Lyd on it. I think the name of her blog is so clever, and she makes real food.

2. Andy at Dinner's On Me. I like her style: writing style, food pictures, blog appearance. Also her intro about herself: "I'm no food snob. We're a real family that eats real food and then I blog about it." Perfect.

3. Laura at What's For Dinner? Because everything she makes is so delicious and half of her recipes are on my blog anyway. Maybe in another ten years we'll be like the Clouse Cousins. (Sorry to most of you because this is a private blog, which I tried to avoid, but this was the special exception.)

4. Amy from Super Healthy Kids. I learn all sorts of stuff from her about how to get a little bit of nutrition into my kids. She has lots of practical advice on fruits, veggies, and more.

5. Katie and Molly over at Sister Skinny, who keep me motivated to work off all the calories after eating. They're on a hiatus right now (with good reason!), but I think they will be back when the time is right. Their archives are great too. Love this site.

Other specialty blogs I love:

6. Rachel at Testosterhome. Her specialty is boys. Part of me relates to her real life stories, and part of me appreciates the insight of what to expect as my boys get older. A must read for any mom of boys.

7. Angie at Poppy Joy. Angie and I share the uncommon experience of losing a child to Trisomy 18. The thoughts she records on her blog are full of hope, and I have been impressed and encouraged by her faith through difficult circumstances. Thanks for sharing your story, Angie.

8. Stephanie at a Daily Scoop. While we differ in the details, I appreciate her thoughts on losing a child from a gospel perspective. We are members of the same church, and I find myself drawn to her writing. She is accomplishing a lot of good by sharing her experience and testimony.

There you go. That's much more information about myself than I usually share, in the context of just a few of many from the bloggersphere who inspire me.

Thanks

Today marks 3 months since I added sitemeter to my site to keep track of how many visitors I'm getting here.

Even as infrequently as I post, I'm getting a good amount of traffic.

So, thanks to everyone out there in cyberspace for the support. My family (okay, mostly my dad) can't believe I have that much site traffic.

("I mean, I know you have friends, but who are all these people?!")

Love you Dad. :)

Ego Boost, Kitchen Edition

My enthusiastic 3 year old watched me make dinner last night.

"Wow, Mom! You're the best cooker ever!"

I think this child might have been born to our family for the sole reason of giving me compliments.

Bacon

I was feeling generous a few days ago. I thought it would be nice for my family to wake up to the smell of bacon. Because this never happens at my house.

They woke up alright, but instead informed me that it smelled like smoke and that the smoke hurt their eyes. You're welcome.

But Kevin said it smelled really good so I'm going with his opinion. Which means a lot because the first time I made bacon after we got married I insisted that the bacon be crispy, instead of slimy.

And we ended up with grey bacon ash.

So really, if it did smell like bacon smoke and bacon ash, Kevin of all people would know. And he said the bacon was good.

Sounds tasty

One of my 5 year olds informed me yesterday he wanted to make cookies and proceeded to dictate the recipe to me.

"I want to make chocolate cookies. We put in chocolate chips, then all the stuff for peanut butter chews, and then 1 tomato, 2 pieces of ice, 3 pieces of butter, and 1 piece of peanut butter on a bread. We mix that up and then there's more.

"We have to put 1 cup...I mean one piece of M&Ms and 3 pieces of cheezits, and 3 cans of beans. One more thing: we have to put one oreo in the cookies. That's all the stuff.

"We can make it whenever we want...even right now!"

Do you ever wish you could just freeze your kids in time and just keep them at that age forever?

Sigh. I do.

(Don't worry, I also have the kind of days I am afraid they will never outgrow a certain age and/or stage.)

But today, I wish I could just always keep them little.

Involving your Kids in the Kitchen

There was an interesting article today in the Deseret News about cooking with children. The article highlighted a new business that teaches cooking classes to young children, “although parents can always pull out some kid-friendly recipes and hold their own class at home.”

Of course we can.

That’s right. With summer nearing and many a mother wondering how in the world she is going to entertain her kids this summer, let your children help you in the kitchen. Cheap entertainment, and after your grocery shopping is done (which you have to do anyway), no gas money or registration fees required.

I don’t believe you have to enroll your kids in all sorts of classes and activities and lessons to give them exposure and experience. I think a simple trip to the grocery store can teach them a lot if you take advantage of the opportunity. Same thing goes for your kitchen. There are so many things you could teach them, and they are so useful! And fun! And cool! And scientific! The next generation will thank you. Your daughters will feel competent in the kitchen cooking for their families, and honestly, your future daughters-in-law will love that their husbands know how to cook. (If you want to learn more about the science of cooking, check out Alton Brown and his show Good Eats on The Food Network. That is a cool show. One of the few shows I miss from the days of cable TV.)

The cooking class referenced in the article says that “interestingly enough, class registration for boys outnumbers the girls 5-1.” We could go off here about your sons not living off of Hot Pockets when they leave home for college, or being able to cook for themselves when they go on missions.

I’m going to quote from the article to tout some of the benefits of cooking with your children, and also to give you some ideas of where to start.

“During the summer months, parents can harness some of their kids' free time by helping them improve their cooking skills. It's entertaining, and the results are usually a tasty bonus. There's also a future pay-off when kids can begin fixing dinner or whipping up a family treat on their own.

"The fun thing is the parents who are calling and saying their kids made Sunday dinner, or that Joey's eating lettuce for the first time," Beutler said. "If they make the sauces themselves, they're more interested in eating it."

[Note: Who doesn’t want more help in the kitchen, and who is having a hard time getting their kids to eat certain food? Maybe this could help you out.]

"I saw a Young Chefs Academy in Oregon and fell in love with it," Dismuke said. "I adore kids and I love cooking. You're teaching this lifelong skill. I think it's so important to know the basics."

“Parents who want to spend quality time with their kids this summer should head to the kitchen, said Lacey Lee, who is teaching a four-week series of children's classes at Ace Hardware in North Salt Lake. Cooking helps stimulate creativity and is a confidence-booster, she said.

"I come from a very athletic, competitive family, and I found that cooking is the one thing you don't have to compete in," Lee said. "You can create something on your own and feel that you've accomplished something. You don't have to worry about winning or losing or being chosen last on the team. And I believe that everyone has the ability to learn something in the kitchen."

"She added that growing up, she was allowed one hour of TV-watching per day. "My mom felt it was very important to foster our imagination and creativity," she said. "So instead of watching TV, we learned a lot of things like cooking and sewing and how to change a tire."

"Cooking is also a bonding experience, she said. "I have 19 nieces and nephews, and I was a nanny for two years, and I've never had a kid who doesn't want to help me in the kitchen."

"The first class in Lee's four-week series discusses kitchen equipment and safety, with recipes for simple snacks.

Later, “the budding cooks practiced skills, such as measuring flour and cracking an egg without getting bits of shell into the bowl.

"I want to start out introducing them to the kitchen, because I know some kids who have never touched a spatula or know what it's used for," she said. Through the weeks the kids progress to breads, cakes and entrees such as lasagna.

"As the weeks go on, they will certainly learn enough to be able to help Mom with dinner. A 7- or 8-year-old would just need to have their parents take it out of the oven."

Get Out of the Kitchen

Amy asked if I ever do freezer meals, and which ones freeze the best. She wants to get out of the kitchen in the heat of the summer.

I usually don't do freezer meals. My mom has left me with a freezer full of dinners when I have had a baby, and they are a huge help. I love taking a meal out of the freezer, letting it defrost on the counter or in the fridge, and popping it into the oven at dinner time. Easy dinner when you don't have time or don't feel like cooking.

Normally I only cook dinner 3 or 4 times during the week because I can make one dinner go for two meals. I've found that when I am planning menus before I go to the grocery store, if I can come up with 3, sometimes 4, dinners that is good for my family.

So here are the meals my mom has frozen for me in the past that froze well:

Sausage and Rice
Chicken Enchiladas
Lasagna

These are some of the meals that come to my mind first when I am thinking "easy dinner:"

Taco soup
Tomato macaroni soup
Chicken enchiladas (if you have your chicken ready or use canned or precooked frozen chicken they are a breeze to assemble) These would also freeze well.
Burritos
Chicken Salad sandwiches
Tacos
Sloppy Joes
Salmon, seasoned with seasoning salt and lemon pepper, cooked with a little butter in my oven (inside foil) since our grill died
Spike chicken
Chicken divan (again, if your chicken is ready it assembles quickly)
Broccoli chicken
Chicken and rice
Italian crockpot chicken

I have other meals that are pretty easy too, but the list above are my go to dinners that I think of first because my family eats them and they are healthy. As I look over the list, I guess these are meals that don't require much food prep, i.e. meat or vegetable chopping. When I am looking for easy, I throw one of these together and steam some fresh or frozen vegetables (usually green beans, brocolli, or corn) as a side dish.

In the summer I don't cook as many soups, as much as I love soup. I go crazy on the soup as soon as it gets cold outside. But when it's hot outside and I don't want to heat up the kitchen with the oven, I usually cook on my stovetop or electric frypan on the countertop. Or, if I remember to start dinner early enough in the day, use the crockpot. And someday when we have one, a grill.

Here are other recipes that are easy and will keep you out of a hot kitchen in the summer. Some of them are soups because they don't heat up the house with the oven, even though you may not feel like eating hot soup at the end of a hot day.

Italian Crockpot chicken
French dip sandwiches
Ham and swiss sandwiches
Spaghetti
Burritos
Chicken Salad sandwiches
Tacos or Taco Salad
Sloppy Joes
Esau's pottage
Pinto bean soup
Beef Stroganoff
Fajitas
Fajita Quesadillas
Tuna noodle casserole
Hamburgers
Broccoli beef
Stuffed peppers
Turkey tenders
Salmon marinade
Salmon sprinkled with lemon pepper and seasoning salt
Pork chops
more soups? I guess these are all on the stovetop
Broccoli chicken
sausage and rice (this one can even cook in the microwave)

Explanation

I started this blog awhile ago for my own convenience. When I started I didn't have any pictures, just a bunch of recipe ingredients to make it easier when someone asked for a copy of a recipe (no more writing it out by hand, or missing an ingredient, or writing down the wrong measurement). It was also great for cooking when I was out of town. I could access my recipes from anywhere - my mom's house, the family reunion, or sometimes even pull it up quicker on the computer at home than I could find it digging through my recipe box.

I didn't tell anyone about my blog for a long time because I didn't want them to get on, see 5 whole recipes on here and say, "Wow, Whitney, that's great. Whoop-de-doo. So what. You typed up a few recipes." My goal was to eventually get my whole recipe box on here. Then I discovered how much I like to have the pictures of my recipes too.

I have a lot of recipes I've already posted without pictures. I am in the process of going back and trying to add pictures for every recipe. Somehow it makes them new all over again. I figure you are more likely to try a new recipe when you can see a picture of it instead of just reading through the list of ingredients. At least that's how I am.

I have actually been going back and adding pictures to a lot of my past posts for awhile now. But nobody knows it unless you are searching through my archives. So I have started re-posting recipes as I have a new picture to go with it. Enjoy.

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