Many parents don't realize that, in these modern technological times, they are forgetting to teach their children valuable life skills that will allow them to be self-sufficient in the future. One of these skills that seems to have gone by the wayside is learning how to cook. If we, as parents, only provide meals for our kids but never invite them into the kitchen we are not helping them to be independent and prepare their own meals as adults. The mission of the Fourth Annual Ben's Beginners™ Cooking Contest is quite simply to encourage parents and kids to cook together. The contest provides a platform for parents with kids in grades K-8 to connect with their children one meal at a time by going to unclebens.com and submitting a three-minute home video of their family preparing a rice-based dish while discussing their experience cooking together. Five winners will win $15,000 each for their family and a $30,000 cafeteria makeover for their … [Read more...]
Make Pasta Alfredo In 20 Minutes!
I am a huge pasta fan and you will find it on the dinner menu many nights at our home. Unfortunately, as I'm getting older, I have noticed that I have less of a tolerance for pasta that contains red sauce. It must be due to its acidity from the tomatoes but, although I greatly enjoy eating it, it comes back to haunt me later on. Due to this, I have begun to replace tomato sauce with Alfredo sauce in many of my favorite pastas. The following Alfredo recipe is delicious with the addition of vegetables such as chopped asparagus or broccoli. The sauce also functions deliciously as a foundation for white pizza. 20 MINUTE PASTA ALFREDO RECIPE: Makes: 8 servings prepared in 20 minutes Ingredients: 1 (16 oz) package of your favorite pasta 1 cup heavy cream 1⁄2 cup butter 1⁄2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped 1 teaspoon salt 1⁄4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder Directions: Boil water in … [Read more...]
Eat Healthier Without Giving Up Taste Or Convenience! @PhilipsPR #Ad
I'm going to be completely honest, I don't have a lot of time to cook. During the week, I teach middle school full-time, I blog full-time, and I'm a full-time mother and wife. There just isn't a lot of space in my already crammed schedule to plan and execute elaborate, gourmet meals. It's not that I don't want my family to enjoy tasty meals and snacks, I just have to be very careful how I manage my time. Due to these time constraints, I am on an infinite quest to find products that allow me to prepare meals for my family in half the time. The Philips Airfryer has been the answer to my prayers! It is one of the most innovative new kitchen appliances that I have ever used and it allows me to fry, bake roast and grill with ½ tablespoon of oil or less. The best part is that not only are these meals less fat, but they can also be prepared in a fraction of the time. The digital touchscreen interface lets you easily customize the settings to cook your food to your … [Read more...]
Veggies Can Be Fun Too! #PlayWithVeggies @BirdsEye @JennetteMcCurdy #Ad
*This post was written by me on behalf of Birds Eye. All opinions are 100% mine. As a Working Mom, planning healthy meals and getting my boys to eat more vegetables can sometimes be a challenge because we are always on-the-go. I was very excited when Birds Eye introduced their 4 House Rules this summer to demonstrate to all kids that eating vegetables can not only be good for them, but it can be fun too! This week, my boys and I had the opportunity to attend our first event for Birds Eye vegetables. I was very hopeful that attending this event would arm me with a few tricks to get my sons more excited about eating their veggies on a daily basis. When we arrived, I immediately noticed the different stations outlining all of the ways that eating vegetables can be fun. The first station that we visited consisted of allowing the kids to blindfold the parents and feed them various foods containing vegetables. The parents then had to guess which veggies were … [Read more...]
Learn How To Cook And Serve Meat And Poultry! #HormelFamily #Ad
*This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hormel Foods. All opinions are 100% mine. Today's meat has a variety of exciting choices. You can probably find more than 100 different cuts of meat in your grocer's meat case during any of your shopping trips and more than 1,000 names for those cuts if you travel across the United States. The problem is that there are specific ways to prepare different kinds of meats and many people don't know what to do with them once they take them home. Personally, I always have problems preparing meat because I never know how long I should cook it or how to get the best flavors out of it during the cooking process. Luckily, Hormel Foods Test Kitchen director, Joan Hanson has come up with a tip sheet of information that you can use to prepare different types of meats. In order to ensure accuracy, use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the meat that you are preparing in order to … [Read more...]
The Perfect Spatula? @ProductofGir
Those of you who have been following Tough Cookie Mommy for awhile know that I love trying out family-friendly products that not only make my life easier, but also fit in to our busy and hectic schedules. This is especially true in our kitchen and when it comes to preparing meals. We prepare meals on-the-go and need foods and cooking utensils that don't require a lot of time and energy. In our home, the spatula is probably the most commonly used cooking utensil. We use it for everything from frying eggs in the pan to doling out butter from the tub. It is constantly being used and gets a lot of cooking action so we have damaged our share of spatulas during the years due to normal wear and tear. The opportunity to review the GIR Spatula came at the perfect time because my husband had just recently left our old spatula on the stove and its wooden handle was burnt to a crisp. Besides the fact that we desperately needed a new spatula, I welcomed a … [Read more...]
