We were doing so well this year with our garden. I even bragged about it in The Secret to a Beautiful Summer Garden.
I should know better.
Our two zucchini plants were growing beautifully and were producing a large zucchini once a week or so. The leaves though, had gotten so big they were growing out over the other plants. Our cucumbers weren’t turning green because of all the shade and the zucchini leaves were starting to droop into the driveway.
So I cut them back.
Now they look like this:
Happy Father’s Day! I hope everyone has an incredible day and all you dad’s out there get a chance to relax and eat some great food.
Speaking of food, I had the opportunity to email interview the Food Network’s Melissa d’Arabian about her Father’s Day tips. I was so excited about this opportunity because I love The Next Food Network Star and was thrilled when Melissa won last year. I love her show Ten Dollar Dinners and have picked up a number of budget saving cooking tips from her. Read More→
Since I’ve been Spring (and now Summer) cleaning me, I’ve been looking for healthy, tasty, and filling recipes.
I’ve tried a number of different salads in the past month or two and have discovered my favorite to be a variation of a typical salad – one with no lettuce! It sounds a little odd, but one day I was out of lettuce so I decided to do without and see how it tasted. To my surprise I loved it and found it much easier to eat and more filling.
While there is a lot of chopping involved in any salad, particularly this one, I’ve found that if I take a day to chop everything ahead of time and store it all in ziploc bags, I can simple dump the needed amount of each ingredient into a bowl and be eating in minutes. You can find the recipe for my favorite salad below.
Summer Salad (recipe for 1 person)
2 celery stalks chopped
8 baby carrots chopped
10 cucumber slices cut in small wedges
1 slice of lunchmeat or 3 pieces of turkey pepperoni chopped
10 – 12 black olives sliced
1/2 of a small to medium tomato chopped
1 small handful of crumbled cheese or chop 2 slices of block cheese
dash of pepper
Mix all of the above ingredients together and enjoy!
I don’t use salad dressing on this salad because it’s flavorful enough for me, but feel free to add a few drops of your favorite dressing if you feel it needs it.
I’ve also made a vegetarian version of this and have replaced the meat and tomatoes with chopped oranges and strawberries. Delicious!
Fortunately, I have stumbled upon one of the best products around to help alleviate this problem and keep all involved. Banquet Homestyle Bakes. They are tasty all-in-the-box simple meals that cost a mere $4.
The Creamy Chicken and Biscuits box comes with flour for the biscuits and two cans of stew. All you have to do is get out a bowl, let the kids dump in the biscuit mix. Mom measures the water, the kids get to dump it and they both stir.
After the biscuits are well mixed you get out an 8 X 8 pan and set it before the kids. Open both cans of stew and give one to each child. They both dump the stew in the pan. Then show them how to drop spoonfuls of the biscuits onto the stew and let them have at it for a couple of minutes. Oversee just a bit to make sure they don’t dip the spoon into the stew and then into the biscuit bowl, but otherwise they are on their own.
Next, pop it in the oven and you’re done. The kids are happy because they helped with dinner, you’re happy because all you have to do is wash one mixing bowl and two spoons.
After 30 minutes, dinner is served.
Betty Crocker also has a version of this meal as well – Complete Meals Chicken and Buttermilk Biscuits. We haven’t tried it yet, but I am happy to know there is another quick semi-healthy dinner out there for the kids to help “cook.”
What’s your favorite easy meal that you’re kids enjoy cooking too?
Nothing was received for this post. My family enjoys these meals and Kora & Logan enjoy helping make them so much I wanted to share them with readers of 2 Wired 2 Tired.
Since I’ve been spring cleaning me, I’ve been on the look out for healthy recipes. Especially for snacks. I found a recipe for Banana Muffins and played with it a bit and was able to make a really good muffin with almost no sugar.
Kora & Logan were happy to help me make and eat them!
Almost No Sugar Banana Applesauce Muffins
Mashing the bananas:
Mixes from the Heartland offers gluten free mixes using only the highest quality natural, free-dried ingredients. The factory that makes the mixes is completely designed to manufacture gluten free products which means there are no cross-contamination issues in their products.
Mixes from the Heartland sent me a number of mixes to try. The first one I made was the Sweet Potato Brownie Mix. I was amazed at the ease of baking the brownies and also at the incredible flavor. It was a wonderful dessert and a great alternative to traditional brownies.
I then made the Apple Cinnamon Muffins. Again the mix was very easy to use and they came out looking cute and yummy. However, in comparison to the Sweet Potato Brownie Mix, these muffins were just a bit too bland for me.
Next, we made the Mexican Casserole Meal. It called for 1 lb of beef and was once again simple to prepare. I didn’t think there was any way the little pouch of freeze dried ingredients would make enough for both Tired Dad Dave and I.
I was wrong. It made plenty. In fact, we had leftovers for two days! This mix was pretty good on it’s own, but we livened it up just a bit by adding our own spices.
Finally, we made the Sausage Casserole Meal. It was a very hearty breakfast casserole with lots of potatoes. The taste was okay, just a bit bland, but we added a few shakes of this and that and it turned out pretty good.
Mixes from the Heartland also sent over a pouch of Potato Soup and a pouch of Country Dumplings. I was very excited to try both but then suddenly the weather turned warm and I don’t enjoy eating soup as much when it’s 80 degrees as I do in 20. We are supposed to have a bit of a cold snap again here in Cleveland though, and I am looking forward to making the soup and dumplings then.
Even though we found a few of the mixes bland, most were pretty good. I imagine it has to be incredibly difficult to create flavorful gluten free meals and didn’t mind adding a few extra spices here and there. I would recommend Mixes from the Heartland to anyone who needs or wants to eat a gluten free diet. They have a wide selection of mixes, that are very easy to make, and the prices seem very reasonable to me as well.
Thanks to Mixes from the Heartland for providing the products for review. No compensation was received.
I don’t get many magazine subscriptions, but one I won’t let lapse is Disney Family Fun
This month’s issue of the magazine has a couple of simple ideas to make celebrating St. Patrick’s Day easy and fun. Here’s just a few:
St. Patty’s Day Platter: Use a colorful variety of fruits for a rainbow platter. Marshmallows can act as the cloud at the end of the rainbow, and bananas for the pot of gold!
Taste a Rainbow Cupcakes: Here’s what little leprechauns look forward to on St. Patrick’s Day: a magical snack that can add color to the grayest March afternoon. Pot of gold not included. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/taste-a-rainbow-cupcakes-842128/
St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt: Follow fun all the way to a faux pot of gold. http://familyfun.go.com/playtime/st-patricks-day-scavenger-hunt-708446/
A subscription to Disney Family Fun
Thanks to Disney Family Fun for providing information for the post. No compensation was provided for this post I just thought they were cute St. Patrick’s Days ideas that I wanted to pass along.
The other day I wanted to make some fun food for the kids. They have a hard time eating tacos because they are so messy, so I made this variation:
FISH STICKS IN A BLANKET
Ingredients:
8 Van de Kamp’s® or Mrs. Paul’s® Fish Sticks, baked
4 Taco-sized Flour Tortillas
4 pieces, Cheddar Cheese (or use your favorite)
4 tablespoons ketchup
Directions: Bake the fish sticks according to package. Heat up the tortillas so they’re nice and toasty. Add 1 cheese slice in the center of each tortilla. Spread the ketchup around tortilla, add 2 fish sticks on top of the cheese, fold and roll the tortilla around the fish stick.
Kora loved it. Logan still had a hard time keeping the tortilla together, so he took it all apart and ate everything seperately. We had a nice, easy and fun family dinner using this recipe and will be making it again in the future.
For more Wordless/Wordful Wednesday fun visit: 5 Minutes for Mom, Seven Clown Circus, and Go Graham Go.
Thanks to Mrs. Paul’s and Van de Kamp’s for providing a coupon for the product used in this review. No compensation was provided for this review.
Hi! My name is Tésa (pronounced Taysa). I'm a work-at-home mom who enjoys freelancing and blogging while raising 2 preschoolers in Northeast Ohio. My daughter, Kora, is 4 and my son, Logan, is 3. They are 14 months apart and keep Tired Dad Dave & I on our toes. We love reading email, so feel free to write us at tesa at 2Wired2Tired dot com.  |
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