Toddler Tunes in the Kitchen!

Last night's meal:  Fresh peach and cherry salsa with homemade cinnamon chips, pasta with chicken and tomatoes, and grilled muenster cheese sandwiches.  The pasta and salsa recipes are my originals and a grilled cheese is a grilled cheese, so let's just say thanks to moms everywhere for that nugget of goodness!!!  We had so much fun dancing and singing and cooking.  The bath water had a little bit of a purple tinge last night from the cherry juices, and I always say the mess you leave behind is indicative of the party you had.  It was a good one last night...I love celebrating life with my babies!

What you'll need: 

One cup of chopped cherries (fresh)

2 peaches peeled and diced

Cinnamon and sugar mixture

half a stick of REAL butter melted

6-8 flour tortillas or wheat tortillas

1 Tbsp. Honey

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Pimentos

2 diced roma tomatoes (mixed with 1 Tbsp olive oil and oregano)

One pkg. dry italian dressing mix

One Package of cooked corkscrew pasta (I like veggie pasta)

1 block of muenster cheese

whole wheat bread or Sourdough (sourdough tastes better, but not as good for you)

Garlic Salt, Fresh Pepper

Salsa and chips:  Combine chopped cherries, peaches, honey and a dash of cinnamon mixture in a bowl and chill.  Brush each side of tortillas with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture.  Cut into triangles and bake at 350 until golden and crisp (about 4 minutes).  Let cool and put in a basket.

Pasta Salad:  Boil pasta, drain, and cool.  Add 2 tsp pimento.  Season chicken breasts with garlic salt and fresh pepper.  Heat two Tbsp olive oil in a skillet.  Cook chicken thouroughly. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, add to pasta mixture.  Add tomato mixture listed earlier in "What You'll Need". Add a quarter of a cup of water and half of the dressing packet.  All done.

Grilled cheese:  use the remainder of your melted butter and baste your bread.  Place muenster cheese, a little salt and pepper on the cheese, between two slices and grill on a griddle.

Enjoy another easy summer meal!  What music accompanied our cooking last night?  Toddler Tunes!

Tonight I'll be making grilled red snapper with lobster picata, watermelon salad, broiled asparagus, and biscuits.  A perfect date night meal and SO easy!  It is a Harry Connick, Jr. type of meal...I better get my playlist ready!

Here are some photos of our kitchen fun last night:

Fresh Cherry and Peach Salsa with homemade cinnamon chips

Organic Pasta with chicken and tomatoes

Jack and Victoria de-stemming cherries

Be careful with peach and cherry juice!

Jack basting tortillas with butter.

The bounty of summer...

I LOVE cooking in the summer.  The vegetables are fresh, the fish is just off the boat, and cold food is the order of the day.  So, tonight I am making fresh peach and cherry salsa with homemade cinnamon chips, italian chicken pasta salad, and Muenster Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwiches.  It isn't fancy, but it is oh so good!  Turn on the summer hits of yesteryear, turn down the A.C. and pull your kids into the kitchen for a fun, easy-to-make meal.  Jack and Victoria will be in charge of pitting the cherries and peaches once I've cut them, Mixing the pasta salad ingredients once they've been cooked and Sprinkling the cinnamon on the tortillas before they're baked.  They love helping and it makes them so much more willing to try new things.  I'll post pictures as we make progress and let you know how it goes in the morning!
As a side note:  Tomorrow some of our favorite people are coming to town before we all head to the beach. I truly love cooking for large groups and ministering to tummies.  It is one of my love languages!  I've got something special and yummy up my sleeve!

"Work With It"--Steak Diane

The name of this dish always makes me think of my friend Leslie from High School.  We called her "Diane"...that was her middle name and I don't know why we got so tickled over that.  But, a lot of what went down in High School doesn't make sense.  Pretty much any meat, poultry or seafood can be "Dianed".  This is a comfort food that is easy and pleasing to kids and adults.  Yesterday morning I checked out my pantry and fridge to see what I had to work with.

The ingredients are as follows:
2 new york strip steaks, sliced thinly
1 red bell pepper (organic)--chopped
1 carrot (organic)--chopped
3 green onions--chopped
1 small white onion--chopped
1 clove of garlic--minced
1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms (what ever you've got)
One box of Uncle Ben's Rice--Original Recipe (You'll see this staple time and again)
Olive Oil
Half a stick of butter
Seasoned Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
1 Roma Tomato--diced and set aside
2 Tbsp Chives--chopped and set aside

Cook the Uncle Ben's according to package. 
Butter---Who doesn't love it.  I believe in cooking with REAL natural butter, not margarine.  Although margarine has fewer calories it isn't made with food ingredients...chemicals!  So, melt your BUTTER in a skillet (I do almost everything in seasoned cast iron) and saute your garlic in the butter, add all other vegetables, except tomato and mushrooms and cook until tender.  Remove vegetables from skillet and set aside.  Salt and pepper steak strips. Put a Tbsp of olive oil in same skillet, heat to medium and cook until tender.  Remove meat from skillet with a slotted spoon.  Add slightly salted mushrooms to the meat juices and and let cook for 5 minutes.  Add all cooked vegetables and meat to the skillet and let flavors combine for a few minutes.  Place a serving of cooked rice in a bowl, put skillet mixture over rice.  Top with uncooked, fresh diced tomatoes and chives and one turn of fresh pepper.  Serve with crusty french bread and a salad.
In this dish you and your family are getting a full 2 servings of vegetables, a lean meat, and whole grains.  My children prefer the meat mixture on the side of the rice insead of on top. 

So, there's last night's meal.  No cookbook necessary and no trip to the grocery store.

A new day...

I have decided to start blogging.  Yep...me!  I have never really followed any blogs, but I thought this would be a good way to organize my thoughts as I attempt to simplify recipes for other "Mamas" who would like to have meals which are sure to please children as well as adults.  I love a "pretty" meal, and my children appreciate it, as well; however, let's get real.  Most of us are living on what I call a "nugget budget" financially, emotionally, and with our time.  Americans are over-stretched, over-stressed, and over-starched...and we're "over It".  So, I'm setting out to provide healthy, tasty, beautiful meals for my family and friends while not adding to our "overs".  Cooking should be joyful...a time to create, relax, and enjoy.  Through this blog it is my goal to provide you with simplified recipes (after I've cooked them myself) and furthermore I want to start discussions on getting children involved in healthy nutirition decisions, turning grocery shopping into child development opportunities, and teaching children kitchen safety and cooking techniques.  We're going to have lots of fun...and will sing a song or two along the way I'm sure.  If you know my personally, you know music MUST accompany cooking in my kitchen!
Matthew 20:28--"The Son of Man did not come to be served.  He came to serve others..."