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Cucumber Salsa
Our June recipe of the month is Cucumber Salsa. Jody shared this recipe with me after she tried something similar at a party. This recipe is perfect for June because cucumbers are in season and plentiful. To make this recipe you combine chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and peppers with a homemade dressing made from sour cream, lemon juice, lime juice, and some seasonings. This salsa is best when eaten right away.
Frozen Yogurt Bark
April showers bring May flowers… and May brings warmer weather for spending time outside. This May I am running my first half marathon! With this extra activity, I need extra meals and snacks to make it through my day. One snack I have been making recently is Frozen Yogurt Bark – our May recipe of the month. It is the perfect snack after a long hot run.
Extra Rice?
Last week Anna shared about our recipe of the month – Vegetable Fried Rice. I enjoy making that recipe for my family, but I always end up with extra cooked rice. Thankfully, there are many ways to use leftover cooked rice. Before we get started on those, I would like to thank our friends at AnswerLine for providing the tips below for safe storage of cooked rice:
What to cook when all I have is a microwave??
Even though we would like to roast, broil, and bake; sometimes we just do not have the time nor energy to set aside for it. This is when a microwave comes in handy. A microwave has great potential and can be used to do so much more than just heat up leftovers.
Fueling for the College Life
As a college student at Iowa State University, life can get busy. Whether it’s back-to-back classes, hoping from job to job, nights studying at the library, or just time spent with friends, each day is filled. Quick easy meals become a priority to having fuel to make it through these days. I have come up with my top four tips for quick and easy meals in the college lifestyle.
Fuel for the Future
March is National Nutrition month! The theme this year is Fuel for the Future. At every phase of life, making healthful food and drink choices will provide your body with energy now and fuel for the future. Choosing recipes that appeal to kids and that they can help make is one way to get them excited about different foods. My 9 and 13-year-old children can be selective with what they want to eat but I have found that these Spend Smart. Eat Smart. recipes are a hit!
Tuna Melt Sandwich
We recently updated our Tuna Melt Sandwich recipe and I am sharing it with you today for our March recipe of the month. This is a good recipe when time is tight because the tuna salad mixes together quickly and the cook time is only about 10 minutes total.
Homemade Salad Dressing
I go back and forth with making homemade salad dressing. Sometimes I really enjoy it and other times I prefer to buy a bottle from the store. I have most of the ingredients on hand in my kitchen – oil, vinegar or fruit juice, and seasonings. This makes it easy to mix together a salad dressing when we need it.
Homemade Taco Seasoning
A go-to meal at my house is tacos. I often have the ingredients on hand to make them, they are easy to make, and everybody in my family loves them. Something I keep on hand to make the tacos with is our Taco Seasoning Mix. The recipe makes the equivalent of 6 (1.25 ounce) envelopes from the grocery store.
My Top 3 Reasons to Roast a Chicken
Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite meal to cook. I love the smell of a roasting turkey and making multiple meals with the leftovers is the best. One downside to roasting a turkey is that it takes several hours, and whole turkeys are harder to find at the store after the holidays. Having two young kids, I need quick meals that don’t require many ingredients yet provide me with leftovers to use throughout the week. Cue roasted chicken! Roasting a whole chicken is easy and helps me create several meals from one dish. The aroma while it cooks is a bonus 😊.
Chicken with Mushrooms
Are you a mushroom lover? In my home, we are divided. Three people love mushrooms and two people hate mushrooms. Our February recipe of the month is Chicken with Mushrooms. This recipe is a pan fried chicken topped with mushroom gravy. Since the chicken and gravy are prepared separately, the mushroom haters can breathe a sigh of relief. They can have their chicken plain. And, for us mushroom lovers, we get extra mushroom gravy.
Late Night Meal Planning
Have you heard the saying “New Year, New Me”? Once the calendar shifted to January, my personal email was flooded with ways to create new fitness and eating habits, new wardrobe suggestions, tips on how to become a better parent, and the list went on and on. The start of a new year tends to get people thinking about New Year’s resolutions and setting goals for themselves. I have never been one to set a New Year’s resolution but having a 5-month-old and a 4-year-old at home, I have decided this is a great year to set some intentionality for my late-night habit!