If your family is anything like mine, they love bacon, and everyone knows, bacon makes everything better! When you’re making dinner on the grill, try this simple, inexpensive, and delicious perfect summer side dish: bacon wrapped asparagus on the grill!
Now that the warmer weather is upon us, the kids are begging for beach balls and popsicles every time we hit the grocery store. I have romantic visions of old-fashioned ice-cream socials, but they are a bit more interested in tree climbing and cowboy games. Being the mother of two boys sometimes necessitates getting a tad creative (read: wiley). This is where the concept for ‘Daddy’s Ice Cream Bar’ came about. We dressed in costumes (any excuse to wear the Little-House-on-the-Prairie outfit of course). After setting up tables with flowing cloths in the garden, I started the creation of the bar. Three flavours of ice cream set in crushed ice and antique vessels to hold toppings. Long spoons. Dainty napkins. (I can’t believe I actually just used that word). And edible flowers to add the final touches. Despite my creativity, the kids and Daddy decided that the toppings pretty much made the whole event.
I love shocking people. It happens every time I order a bourbon. The drink just seems incongruous with my classic look and soft spoken voice. So while at the Ritz Carlton Lake Tahoe, it was a thrill to see the waiter’s face when I ordered the BNB. (My colleagues were pretty surprised too, as photos of the drink flew around Facebook and Twitter). Still evaluating the exact moment to eat the bacon, I must practice this one at home a few times before I perfect the methodology.. Or just head back to the Ritz.
Courtesy of @ashley rodriguez
Granola is, in our popular consciousness, the ultimate health food–and it’s hard to deny that this compact, easy-to-eat food is chock-full of good stuff. Sure you can buy it in the stores, but if you have a little time, you can make it at home, without all the preservatives and additives found in the commercial offerings. Here is our basic homemade granola bars recipe, feel free to elaborate!
Yes, we’ve all heard it: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” It’s true, though, that kids and adults need a good breakfast to start out, giving the body and brain the fuel it needs to take on the challenges the day brings. Kids who eat breakfast are less likely to develop diabetes or become obese. The list goes on. But if you’re like me (the anti-“Morning Person”) or just don’t have the time to cook a big breakfast, these easy recipes for on-the-go breakfasts will revolutionize your AM. Say goodbye to cereal!
1. Dressed-up Yogurt. All it takes is some yogurt and toppings: cereal, granola, fruit, jam, toasted nuts, honey, whatever. Yogurt (try to make sure it’s not the fatty and ultra-sugary kind, stick to Greek-style yogurt, or unflavored) is great for you, providing calcium and lots of other things. Jazz it up by mixing in other things, especially granola, which lends a satisfying crunch as well as fiber.
2. Breakfast Quesadilla. Who doesn’t love apples and cheese? If you have five minutes, you can make this super-easy, super-tasty dish. All you need are some apple slices, shredded Cheddar cheese, and flour tortillas. Fill the tortillas with the cheese and apples and toast lightly on each side, allowing the cheese to melt and apples to warm up. This recipe is nutritious (tons of calcium, protein, vitamins, and minerals), the cheese provides a satisfying dose of healthy fats, and it’s tasty!
3. Pizza Muffins. All you need are English muffins, some shredded cheese, and tomato sauce (plus any other ingredients you have lying around). Let the kids assemble their own, per their preferences, and pop them into the toaster oven or broiler. Your kids will love them, and they’ll give them plenty of nutrition and energy for the day ahead.
4. Smoothies. If you own a blender, it’s your ticket to great simple breakfasts and snacks. Make sure to keep milk, yogurt, fruit, and other ingredients on hand. It’s amazing how many combinations you can make. Our favorite? The orange dreamsicle smoothie: orange juice, vanilla yogurt, honey, and granola.
5. Pita Pockets. Pita bread is versatile, tasty, and good for you. If you’re crunched on time, grab a couple of pitas and stuff them with whatever you have on hand. My favorite is ham or sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, and dijon mustard. Or, if you have time, pile in some scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese, ham, veggies…the possibilities are endless. Pitas fit the hand easily and make a great breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
6. Homemade Toaster Pastries. Yes, we all guiltily love those toaster pastries sold in the stores, but they’re loaded with preservatives, fats, and sugar. Did you know, you can make your own at home? Just take two slices of bread, cut off the crusts, and sandwich your preferred fillings between them. Then, using a fork, press the edges of the slices of bread together, like crimping a pie crust, and pop it into the toaster. Peanut butter and jelly, jam and butter, brown sugar and raisins, the sky’s the limit. Helpful hint: use a toaster with the extra-wide slots, which are usually designated as for bagels.
7. Quiche Muffins. Quiche is basically scrambled eggs and other stuff, in a pie-like form. You can make your own mini-quiches by combining beaten eggs and your choice of ingredients (ham, veggies, spices, cheeses, etc.) in a greased muffin tin until the tops are golden and the centers set.
8. Breakfast Crostini Sandwiches. If you have access to fresh-baked, crusty French bread, then make use of it. A loaf of bread, split lengthwise, becomes a blank palette for culinary experimentation. Butter, jam, cream cheese, shredded cheeses, sliced meats, fruit, honey, whatever you like–it can be layered or smeared, popped into the oven, and become a fantastic, filling, and tasty breakfast.
9. Hot Cereal. Whether you prefer oatmeal, grits, Cream of Wheat, or something else, hot cereal is filling and satisfying. Take your favorite hot cereal and get creative: oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar, and cinnamon is fantastic. Grits with shredded cheese and butter is amazing. Cream of wheat with strawberry jam and granola is awesome. All of these cereals are available in “instant” (meaning, boil water or microwave first) varieties, so add some nutrition and flavor by being inventive.
We love this quick and easy pizza dough recipe. It’s delicious and versatile bread that can be frozen and makes dinner or a snack quick and easy.
Makes 6 (10 inch) pizzas
1 package of dry active yeast
2 cups of lukewarm water
4 teaspoons of salt
4 ½ cups of all-purpose flour (you can use whole wheat too)
2 tablespoons olive oil
In an electric mixer with the dough hook attached, stir yeast and lukewarm water until combined. Add salt and then add flour until dough begins to form and is not sticky, about 10-12 minutes.Remove dough from bowl and place on a smooth working surface. Divide dough into 6 balls, about 6 ounces each. Place each dough ball on a lightly floured surface and cover with a towel. Let rise for about 45 minutes.
One at a time, roll each dough ball on a floured surface until a thin 10 inch round pizza shape is formed. Store by simply freezing unused dough in plastic wrap.
Is there anything possibly more satisfying than a great butter chicken spread over basmati rice? (Besides a good chardonnay to go with it). My kids adore Indian butter chicken, and you can vary the degree of spice based on your taste (and their tolerance!). The list of ingredients may be long, but check out the 2-step directions. Complex flavours and easy assembly. We heart you, slow cooker butter chicken. Sorry, but we can’t help with the pakoras.
I made this slow cooker lasagna recipe with the kids and claimed back tons of time for play as it bubbled away for 6 hours. The hard noodles softened and I actually found the end result to be more firm and flavourful than my Mom’s more labour-intensive version! Plus, the hidden quinoa and fresh herbs make it much healthier. You may find some Walmart slow cookers at a good price.
Ingredients:
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground sausage, pork or chicken (you could also do a vegetarian/tofu meat substitute)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
3 cans (15 ounces each) Italian-style tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)
1 container (15 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
15 uncooked lasagna noodles
3/4 cup dry quinoa
chopped parsley
1. Cook the meat and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium heat 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally; drain. Stir in tomato sauce, herbs and salt.
2. Mix 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses. (Refrigerate remaining mozzarella cheese while lasagna cooks.)
3. Spoon one-fourth of the meat mixture into 6-quart slow cooker; top with 5 noodles, broken into pieces to fit. Spread with half of the cheese mixture and one-fourth of the meat mixture. Top with 5 noodles, remaining cheese mixture, a layer of quinoa and one-fourth of the sausage mixture. Top with remaining 5 noodles and remaining sausage mixture.
4. Cover and cook on Low heat setting 4 to 6 hours or until noodles are tender.
5. Sprinkle top of lasagna with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Broil on low in the oven (optional) for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top. Cut into pieces.
Looking for an easy, tasty recipe for a romantic dinner? This super simple meal has a fancy feel without the “fancy” work. Enjoy bacon-wrapped pork with bok choi at home on a blustery night when the kids are at the grandparents. You can find some great ingredients using Meijer coupon codes.
Ingredients:
1 lb pork tenderloin
1 tbsp vegetable oil
8-10 slices of bacon
8 cups of baby bok choy, sliced in half length wise and washed
1 bottle of VH Sweet and Sour Sauce
Heat oven to 400F (200C), slice tenderloin into 2 pieces. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high, brown the pork about 7 minutes. Layer 4-5 bacon slices by side on a cutting board, allow edges to only slightly overlap. Place one piece of pork across the bottom ends of the bacon strips, roll the bacon around the tenderloin and place the wrapped pork seam side down in a baking dish. Repeat with second piece and remaining bacon. Place baking dish in oven and cook until bacon is browned and pork is cooked through, about 30 minutes (pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160F (70C)). Pour out leftover oil from sauté pan, add baby bok choy and 2 tbsp (30 mL) water, cover and cook on medium heat for 8 minutes, add bottle of VH Sweet and Sour Sauce and heat through, lower heat to simmer and keep warm. When pork is ready, slice and serve with bok choy and VH Sweet and Sour Sauce.
Picture this. London, 2011. A big boardroom full of Cargill Employees, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), McDonald’s employees, and 4 absolutely stiff, petrified Moms. And a baby (Mo is so devoted her 3 week-old joined us). We knew how these things worked by now and how this tour would go…. coffee, an intense 3-hour crash course about the industry and how the facility is run, with farming fodder thrown-in and tweets being answered at the same time. Then a lunch. And then. Gasp. A plant tour. (You thought the gasp was for the crazy helmets, lab coats, safety goggles and hairnets, didn’t you?) Unlike our beef and potato plant tours, however, for this tour we were slated to see the… I have trouble saying it. The point at which an alive chicken becomes a not-alive chicken. We were terrified. Why don’t I start at the beginning, though. The chicken. No. The egg. Snicker. (See – I use humour when I’m not quite comfortable).
From Egg to Chicken:
The eggs are collected daily from the farms and transported to a hatchery where they are incubated for 19 days. A ‘setter’ constantly turns the eggs to keep them warm and provides a simulation similar to a mother hen sitting on top of them. That revelation kind of validated my role as a mother. Kind of. In a George Orwell kind of way. At the 19-day mark, the eggs are vaccinated and transferred to hatch baskets where they will hatch within 2 days. Once hatched, the chicks are separated from the eggshells and transferred to chicken farms until market age (40-45 days old).
From Chicken to Egg:
I’m completely convinced after meeting the farming experts, regulators, and Cargill employees, that care for the animals really is paramount. Cargill deals with 140 chicken farms and all must meet very rigorous standards as specified by McDonald’s. In Canada, the family farm model is the norm. Having farmers own and care for their chickens until the point at which they are transported from the farm for processing helps ensure the quality and integrity of the farm.
The barns are kept at 28 – 32 degrees celsius and the chickens roam around on shavings. They always have access to feed and water and are free to roam within the barn. Federal regulations in Canada recommend that no more chickens can be in a barn than 31 kilos per meter square. Farm managers and their staff visit the barn throughout the day.
For all of you who are going to ask about ‘free range’ in the barns, the chickens in these barns are just meat birds (broiler chickens). These are very different than egg layers. The broiler chickens are kept in barns to ensure food safety. If these meat birds were outside they would be more susceptible to disease.
Advances in feed for the birds mean that currently, 2 pounds of grain fed to a chicken will produce 1 pound of chicken. The feed is 88 percent grain, 10 percent protein, and 1-2 percent vitamin supplements.
All catchers and drivers are trained in animal welfare practices and as of July 1, 2011, a person must be specially licensed to transport chickens. The live birds are put into crates and the birds must be able to move comfortably. They are on the trucks only 4-8 hours, as most farms are within an hour or 2 of the London Cargill plant. During the warm summer months, the birds are misted to keep them more comfortable in the heat.
From Alive Chicken to Not-Alive Chicken:
In the Cargill plant, 3,200 different food safety and quality checks occur on a daily basis. There are even 2 X-ray machines that detects residual bones or foreign material – and the chicken meat passes through 2-3 times!
I was shocked to hear that 80-90,000 chickens are processed daily. 900 people work at the plant, and only 3 per cent leave the facility each year. Cargill boasts one of the lowest turnover rates for the meat industry in the world.
The facility is separated into the raw chicken processing part and the food manufacturing part. For food safety reasons, employees wash their hands and go through a boot sanitizer and, in addition to regular cleaning, the entire plant is completely cleaned and disinfected nightly by 60 people – like the inside of a dishwasher. I wish my house had that capability.
When the live chickens come into the plant, they are removed from the truck by a human being on a scissor lift to ensure that the employee is at the same level as the crates. This is better for people, to help avoid back problems, as well as the chickens.
In the slaughter area, everyone was so calm and peaceful I didn’t know where I was until it was pointed out to me. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It was very dark, with a blue light shining. As per Temple Grandin’s recommendations on animal welfare (link to beef post), the facility has been audited and Temple Grandin has approved of the process itself. In addition, blue lights are used because birds can’t see the colour blue so it appears dark. They are hung by the ankles, a plate or bar rubs the breast of the bird and they hang touching each other, shoulder to shoulder. I witnessed first-hand how calm this makes the birds. They are not flapping or making noise. They travel on a rounded track and are dipped quickly in water where an electrical stun renders the chicken insensible to pain, which means they are unconscious and alive but do not feel any pain. Their necks are cut and the bleed-out occurs while the chicken is unconscious so they are dead before they wake.
To remove the feathers, the birds go through a hot water bath and pickers – rubber fingers – massage the bird and take out feathers. The head and feet are removed and a machine removes the organs, transferring the viscera to a separate line. The organs and bird are kept together for inspection so that if the inspector and vet condemn a bird, the whole bird will be disposed of – again for food safety. Fifteen federal inspectors, including four CFIA vets work at the London facility. Once the chicken and organs have been inspected and approved, the meat moves on to food processing. Every part of the chicken has a use. The organs are used for pet food and animal feed, while the blood, feathers and offals are sold to a rendering company that makes ingredients for animal feeds, fertilizers and markets such as cosmetics, rubber and explosives.
The bird is placed in a chilling tank for 1 hour and must cool to less than 4 degrees Celsius in order to debone, which means to remove the bones from the meat. Chlorine is present in the chiller for sanitation purposes, much like a swimming pool. Levels are monitored every hour. At this point, an antimicrobial treatment is applied. It is cetylpyridinium chloride – the same substance contained in mouthwash. This is an opportunity to reduce salmonella. The bird is then rinsed. For the record, this is when I relaxed significantly. I was now looking at chickens like I’d buy in a supermarket.
75 per cent of the original bird goes into debone process, and I was shocked at the number of people working together to debone the chickens. By hand. Seriously. Wow. There is no mechanically separated meat in McDonald’s products. The frames of the chicken that are left at the end of the process get sent to another facility for people who use mechanically separated meat for hotdogs and other products.
The Making of McNuggets:
The white breast meat, along with chicken stock and a natural proportion of skin from the breast is placed into a huge blender. I didn’t realize that there is skin in the nugget mixture but this helps to hold the shape. The meat is then mixed and chilled using CO2. McNuggets are formed, not ground. There are 4 shapes that are pressed out with a rolling cookie cutter: boot, bow-tie, ball and bell. The reason they are all standard in shape and size is to ensure consistency in all McDonald’s restaurants. This guarantees both food safety (standard cooking times in restaurants) and portion control.
Once the fun shapes pop out, they are coated in batter, dusted with flour and then given a final coat of tempura batter. Who knew? From here they are par-fried and placed directly into the freezer. A thin mist of water is sprayed onto them, as tempura is susceptible to dehydration. They are then inspected and packaged to be sent off to the restaurants.
Grilled Chicken:
We also witnessed the grilled chicken being made. It’s pretty simple – it’s just one huge hunk of breast meat but a laser-guided water jet cutter trims it to an exact size. Very James Bond.
In all, I will still eat chicken. I will still eat McNuggets. I’m satisfied with the animal treatment and food safety. I think I’ll stick with the grilled chicken in snack wraps and sandwiches, as there are fewer ingredients, but the nuggets sure are yummy! For the other All-Access blogs please click here, or to see the UrbanMommies Q and A, click here.