This recipe got fourteen ENTHUSIASTIC thumbs up. I don’t know that you can get a rating much better than that.

It is also very, very easy.
Read the rest of this entry

Nataly emailed me last week asking if I had any no cook recipes in my repertoire and could I pretty please share them.

My first thought was, “Well, I can pour a mean bowl of cereal!” Because who among us doesn’t try to convince our children that it was THEIR idea to have a bowl of cereal for dinner every now and then.

But I got thinking about summer schedules and the heat and how most of us want to be out enjoying the weather, not tied to our hot stoves once we get home from work. So I thought I would offer up some tips to making summer cooking easier.
Read the rest of this entry

I love fajitas.  I have a friend that I go shopping with every year for Christmas presents and we always go out for fajitas.

This recipe is quite possibly THE best chicken marinade, EVER. In the history of marinades. I have to force myself to only make it occasionally, so that I don’t get sick of it. That is how good it is. It is also a versatile marinade. I use it for making chicken fajitas. For grilling chicken and putting it on a salad. Or for grilling and making it into a sandwich on some nice crusty bread.

Tonight when I was putting away the leftover food I asked my son to wrap up the rest of the chicken and he said, “Can’t I just eat it?” So you know it must be good, because Lord knows teenage boys just don’t eat anything. Oh wait, nevermind. It is delicious though. I promise.

These are the cast of characters, minus the soy sauce which I inexplicably forgot to put in the photo.

I usually double this recipe and use it for a huge family pack of chicken breasts. You can do that and then freeze half of the chicken with the marinade in a ziploc bag. Or you can use the recipe as is and make a “normal” sized package.

I fillet my chicken breasts in half to make them less thick so that they will cook evenly on the grill.  Really you should do this too so that your chicken doesn’t get all burnt on the outside.

You need:

2/3 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 T Worstershire sauce
1 cup honey
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder

crushed red pepper, optional and to taste

Mix in a bowl or ziploc bag.  Add the chicken.  Let marinate overnight.

The next day slice up an onion and a couple of peppers.  Saute them until they are tender.

There is my chicken marinating in my IKEA bowl that I love.

My son took over doing the peppers and onions.  Maybe because he was tired if me taking photos already and wanted to just eat dinner.

After the chicken is cooked, I slice it into strips.  Served with sour cream, salsa, grated mexican cheese, and whatever other fixin’s strike your fancy.  Don’t you love my paper plates?  We are so  class-ay.   Honestly, without a working kitchen I can’t tolerate all the dishes for every single meal.  Al Gore would forgive me, I know he would.

Heat your tortillas and wrap ‘em up.

Insert a photo of wild children eating their fajitas.  This recipe received 18 enthusiastic thumbs up.

Here I am cooking on my grill, roughing it like a regular frontier woman. My life is soooo HARD.

No really, it is so HARD.

My children love this. LOVE. There really isn’t much not to love about it as long as you like peanut butter. I have several different versions of this recipe, but this one is my children’s favorite and it is the simplest to prepare. A win-win situation of you ask me.
Read the rest of this entry

Happy Valentine’s Day.

My children have eaten sweethearts, chocolate, and cupcakes for breakfast. Apparently Valentine’s Day is the national holiday for putting yourself into a sugar coma.

I am not going to write about making cupcakes today. Instead I am going to share our family’s beloved chili recipe. Because let’s face it, nothing says I love you like a meal that requires beano. Flatulence: the gift that keeps on giving.

Read the rest of this entry

In the cold winter months there is nothing I like better than a warm hearty stew. Aside from a tropical vacation where cabana boys bring me fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them, that is.

Read the rest of this entry

Who doesn’t love beef stew? Especially on the cold gray winter days that make you cold just looking out your window. Those of you who live in warm sunny climates will just have to turn your air conditioners up and pretend. Poor you.
Read the rest of this entry

Hello, my name is Chris and I love roasted vegetables. Specifically I love roasted potatoes. I don’t think my family shares my undying potato love, however. Unless saying that you are going to wish for a potato famine is a compliment.

I have a problem with getting stuck on a certain food and making it over and over again until I am sick of it and/or my family stages a revolt. Summer 2007 will always be known as the Summer of Hummus. Just ask Susan, she told me on the phone the other day that she hasn’t eaten hummus since July when we spent a week together and I forced her to eat it every day.

And this is the Winter of the Potato. Amen.
Read the rest of this entry

Did I say I was going to clean out and organize my cabinets this weekend? Oooooops. I, uh, didn’t feel like it. Probably because I had huge piles of laundry stacked on my counter and I would not have been able to take everything out of the cabinets unless I first folded and put away all the laundry. And, um, I didn’t feel like doing that.

My husband loves to cook. On the weekends when he is home is always fixing fun foods for the kids, and most of the time they are somewhat healthy, because he also hates junk food. Yes, he is like a robot. A robot who cooks, does dishes, and irons. No, you can’t have him. Though I will consider selling him for the right price.  Oh, I am just joking, honey.

When my kids are hungry between meals I am apt to tell them go forage through the cabinets. I think fending for yourself is a good skill to learn. My kids will be able to survive in any frat house.

My husband plans out snacks. And I got to thinking that with a little extra effort on my part I could have something that would be more nutritious to offer during the witching hour when dinner was being made.

This weekend he made deviled eggs, or as the kids like to call them Devil Eggs followed by a cackle.

I don’t make eggs since I am allergic to them. In fact, I don’t even like to look at eggs.

I always thought that Deviled eggs were difficult to make. I don’t know why I thought this. Maybe I was thrown by the use of a pastry bag to squirt the yolks back into the white part? Maybe because it was a multi-step process? Maybe because I never really got close enough to look at them?

Whatever it was, I have seen the light. These are so easy. The kids helped do them. We didn’t use a pastry bag, obviously, and instead just scooped the filling back in with a spoon.
Read the rest of this entry

I have been over run with recipe requests! I have to say that I am not a chef. My method of cooking is generally to throw whatever I find in my house into a pan and cook it all up. I don’t even know all the right terminology so I can’t even passably play a chef on the internet.

But I am more than happy to share some of the recipes I have in my arsenal.

This recipe is a chicken and white bean chili that you can make in your crockpot. It is also really good leftover for lunch, for those of us working at home.

Read the rest of this entry