Tag: kitchen

Crockpot Cooking for the Costco Pork Recipe Challenge

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Despite being MIA lately due to a variety of reasons, the kid and I have found ourselves in the kitchen more often than not.  When we’re not enjoying the last few days of outdoor weather, I love that the kid is so adamant about being helpful in the kitchen. (Well, sometimes, anyway.)  I really do feel that it creates an ongoing dialogue about not only how to cook and what we eat, but also, it keeps him engaged in food in general.  Perhaps, one day, he’ll marry a lucky lady and he’ll be the cook of the house…
IMG_2844

Nevertheless, our latest adventure in the kitchen involves one of my favorite stores–Costco–, delicious meat and creating recipes.  In case you weren’t aware, October is National Pork Month, and of course, we’ll be cooking in honor of that. I’ll be taking part in the Costco Blogger Recipe Challenge this week.  Aside from the shopping for the challenge, I’m having a fun time dreaming up recipes for this challenge.

My group was assigned the Pork Sirloin Tip as our cut, and Crockpot cooking as our method.  I’ve never cooked with a pork sirloin tip, but I suspect it’ll be similar to a pork loin. (Here’s a helpful overview of types of cuts of meat.) As one of my mom’s frugal grocery shopping techniques, I’ve been known to buy the big pork loin when it goes on sale.  I cut it and stash in the freezer, and it makes for delicious lean chops or easy roasts and more.
IMG_2824

Read More

Tips for Greening the Kitchen

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Even though Earth Day/Month is over, I’m in the camp that hopes that the green momentum keeps going year-round.

On our transition from apartment to house, one room that I’ve emphasized greening has been the kitchen.  It’s the area that is responsible for feeding the people I love, and so, naturally, it’s also a place where we always convene together as a family.

I’ve read so many great resources on greening the kitchen, but I thought I’d reference Whole Living Body + Soul once again.  So, here are some helpful tips on how to green your kitchen.

1.  Use Glass Containers


Like many other homes, we used to use what was convenient and inexpensive…then concerns about BPA sparked several years ago, and the plastic binge began.  Why risk high levels of the hormone disrupting chemical, BPA?  For kitchen storage containers, glass is a safer alternative.  My rec:  check out the Glass Lock Storage Containers from Snapware.  They’re stackable, durable, BPA-free and are seriously air-tight.  I found the best deal on Snapware’s Glass Lock Storage Containers at Costco and loved them so much I had to buy more at Home Goods.  Even Lifehacker agrees that they rock.

2.  Compost

There’s so many good reasons why you should compost. but reducing trash and creating nutrient-rich feed for your plants and garden are pretty high up on the list.  My parents have composted since I was a little girl, so once we had better resources to do so at our house, it was second nature.  Most convenient way to integrate composting in the kitchen: have some sort of pail, whether it’s re-sealable, old coffee tin or a compost bucket by the kitchen sink.  Every time you clear your plates after a meal, scrape waste into the pail.  Veggies, fruit, egg shells and coffee grinds are just a few of the items that can be included in your compost pail.  My rec: check out TJ Maxx or Home Goods for inexpensive compost pails.  They’re unobtrusive and often have carbon filters that help with the smell.

3. Do Smarter Dishes
Whole Living Body + Soul recommends to run the dishwasher at night to avoid peak energy rates.  In the summer, too, this will keep less humidity in the air, which will keep things cooler, thus put less strain on the AC.  Also, switch to plant-based detergents.  I’ll have to do a separate post on this one day, but through trials and tribulation on finding the best natural dishwasher detergent, we had the best luck with BioKleen Automatic Dish Powder.  In my opinion, it cleans MUCH better than most conventional detergents that are found on the shelves.  The grapefruit smell is pretty awesome as well.

4. Minimize paper waste

Paper waste is one of my many downfalls in the kitchen.  I’ve added  dishtowels throughout the kitchen, as well as many reusable towels.  My next step is to use cloth napkins every day.  But there are times when reusable napkins don’t make the most sense, so it’s helpful to use paper products that use recycled fibers.  Scott Naturals napkins uses 80% recycled fibers, which fits the bill for us, especially with all the outdoor picnicking we’ve been doing.

And since it’s the last and final week of the Scott Natural 4-Week Test Drive, we couldn’t end it without another great giveaway.

Read More

Cooking Connections: Placating Picky Eaters

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

“Mama, is broccoli a treat? Because I love it.”

“Sure, honey. Broccoli can be considered a treat if you like it.”

“How about carrots?”

“Yup. Carrots can be treats, too.”

Last week, one of our dinnertime chats went a little something like that.  At three years old, the kid questions whether or not veggies are, indeed, treats. And for as long as it lasts, I’ll to continue to advocate that veggies are treats, while simultaneously singing “There’s a Party in My Tummy,” the Yo Gabba Gabba eating anthem for preschoolers and parents alike.

IMG_1385

Having grown up with the crowned prince of picky eaters, I’m well versed in the picky eating realm.  Public breakdowns and refusals to eat unless we had what he wanted, my older brother’s precarious eating habits never made life easy for myIMG_1383 parents. I was known to eat not only my dinners, but also my brother’s—perhaps to pacify his pickyness and to (ahem) feed my own love for food at an early age.

Whatever the case was, once I became a mom, I made it my personal crusade to try and avert the picky eating habits while refining my own eating habits.  It makes me smile when my guy reaches for broccoli in the app tray at parties before he heads to the dessert table. Now, if only every day was a broccoli-loving day…

Kids are relentless when it comes to eating, but I don’t think it should always be a battle. Tactics like involving kids in the kitchen, helping with grocery shopping, and something as simple, yet significant, as eating the same meal together as a family can help with picky eaters. My motto is, I’m not an app cook, so we all eat the same thing for every meal.  Special meals should be reserved for special days, preferably the days where someone is serving me too!

I know, I know…it’s easier said than done.

Let’s Connect with Cooking Connections

I’ve devoted a a lot of coverage lately to kid-centric food and healthier habits, but by no means does that make me an expert in this parenting arena.  I am, however, quite excited to be a co-host in tomorrow’s installment of Cooking Connections, where picky eaters will be the topic at hand. Our fabulous hosts will lead a discussion on TheMotherhood.com, and I’d love it if you could join us!  The deets are below:

When: Wednesday, March 2, at 1 p.m. ET

Where: TheMotherhood – here is the link to the page where the class will be held: http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show/id/62135

And here is the registration page for all Cooking Connections classes: http://www.themotherhood.com/cookingconnections

What: The class I am co-hosting is called “Expanding Your Family’s Palate by Placating Picky Eaters,” and it is hosted by Jennifer Leal (Savor the Thyme), Kimberly Coleman (Mom in the City) and Kelsey Banfield (The Naptime Chef).  We will be talking about how to make meals work for all members of the family, healthy and interesting foods that kids AND adults love, and strategies for getting picky eaters to try new things.  Join us, and feel free to ask questions, share recipes or chime in with your own suggestions!

The class is sponsored by ConAgra and hosted by TheMotherhood.

My other fabulous co-hosts are:

Marla Meridith, Family Fresh Cooking
Kristy Bernardo, The Wicked Noodle
Jo-Lynne Shane, Musings of a Housewife
Dara Michalski, Cookin’ Canuck
Brooke McLay, Cheeky Kitchen
Shaina Olmanson, Food for My Family
Carol Cain, NY City Mama
Shari Simpson-Cabelin, Earth Mother just means I’m dusty
Amy Johnson, She Wears Many Hats
Stacie Billis, One Hungry Mama

I personally can wait to hear everyone’s ideas and recipes aimed to placate picky eaters.  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! See you then!

Freezer Fruit Pops Make for Healthy Summertime Snacks

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram


Summertime snacks for our family are often synonymous with fresh, ripe fruit and chilled frozen yogurt or ice cream.  Actually, with all this heat we’ve been enduring this summer, anything cold sounds good right about now!

This post and activity was inspired, in part, by Healthy Child Healthy World’s weekly twitter party, and by a recipe I stumbled accross on one of my favorite kiddie cuisine sites, Weelicious.

Since we’ve been staying with family for the past few weeks, with three kids in the house and a Costco down the street, we’ve been stocking up on all the delicious fresh fruit.  And fruit from Costco…you know what that means.  We had a ton of it!

 

We had a surplus of strawberries and mangos; meaning, we had more ripened fruit than we knew what to do with!  Cue in Weelicious’ yummy recipes!

With all the extra fruit that was on the cusp of getting too ripe, I enlisted the two bigger kids to help me make some fun homemade popsicles!

I used:

1 set of Tovolo Groovy Pop molds, which yield 6 bigger fruit pops
2 ripe mangos, sliced into thirds and then cubed and pureed
1 cup of ripe strawberries, pureed
1/2 cup of blueberries, pureed
1/2 cup of Mott’s Medley’s juice

I mixed and pureed fruit for each pop, personalizing each flavor for each kid.  Since these fruits had so much of their own fruit juice, I only had to add a few splashes of the juice to help solidify the mixture once frozen.


It was fun to get creative with the kids and let them mix, then help pour each pop.  The making of the pops was a fun outdoor activity, and I’m sure it’d make a great (albeit messy) indoor or rainy day activity too.

 

The beauty of the Tovolo freezer pop molds is that each container is a good size and actually stays put.  I’ve used other molds in the past that used questionable plastic and the sticks never stayed in place.  Plus, Tovolo has a bunch of great shapes to choose from.

Looking for more healthy summer snacks?  Check out Healthy Child Healthy World’s Twitter Party (tonight at 9-10) and their site for more great ideas!