Great Cooking Tips!

Hey everyone,

I ran across this awesome article from Cooking Light and wanted to share it with all of you. I laughed a little bit at the captions and pictures and found myself shaking my head at all the mistakes the article called me out on. So enjoy! It's worth reading. I picked up a few good tricks and I'm sure you will too!

The Most Common Cooking Mistakes

Shattered Makeup

Something that I really hate is when I drop an eye shadow or a pressed powder and it shatters. There's nothing more frustrating then trying to still use a shattered makeup or having to throw it away. Since one of my favorite eye shadows is broken I decided to search online and see if there was a way to fix it and there is! And it is super easy to do. 

You only need one thing. Rubbing alcohol. The higher the alcohol level the faster it dries too. 

There is a couple ways you can go about doing this. You can either crush up all of the shadow pieces into a fine powder and then put a few drops of rubbing alcohol into it to form a paste and then let it dry. I just decided it crush up the few broken pieces and put a few drops of rubbing alcohol and then just smoothed it around with my finger. The finished product doesn't look that pretty, but hey, it works! 

Funny note, my rubbing alcohol smells minty, so my eyeshadow now smells a little minty. But from everything I've read, the alcohol just dries up, all smells go away, and it doesn't hurt your skin at all!

Hopefully this helps you all out!

Haley

Chicken Parmesan Strips

Since my husband is a pasta-man, I am frequently finding new ways to do classic pasta dishes. This rendition of the traditional Chicken Parmesan is fairly easy and kid friendly! I know my kids scarfed it down, the only thing I heard during dinner was the constant request of "more kicken please". (Yes, that is how chicken is pronounced by my munchkins). I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

boneless skinless chicken breast

flour

crackers (ritz, saltines, any other fav.)

egg

parmesan cheese (for coating and garnish)

salt and pepper

olive oil, enough to coat pan

spaghetti or angel hair noodles (cooked according to package)

your favorite marinara sauce

As you can see there arent quantities, as I go step by step I'll let you know about how much of each I did, but adjust amounts according to your need. I fed a family of four, two adults and two children.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees then cut up the chicken breasts into thin strips and salt and pepper them. In one shallow dish, whisk the egg (you may need more than one depending on how much chicken you are coating; I always do one at a time because it's easy to wisk up another when needed). In a second shallow dish mix flour, smooshed (great word, I know) crackers, and Parmesan cheese. I used about 2 T flour, 6 crackers (mine were a mulitgrain cracker about the texture of ritz but larger, so you may need more if you are using a smaller cracker), and cheese to taste. I like to make sure that I can easily see the cheese, it cant be hiding in the other ingredients.

Heat olive oil in a pan large enough that all the chicken will fit in one layer (or you can do two batches). Dip the chicken in the egg and then in the flour mixture. Make sure it is completely coated and then place in the pan. (Make sure the oil is hot, be patient, and don't put it in a warm pan or the crust wont develop as well!)

This next step can be a little tricky, once the chicken has browned well, flip it over and brown the other side. You only want to flip it once, so dont flip too early; you want a nice brown crust, if it looks tan still, it is too early. Don't worry about the chicken being cooked through, you will throw it in the oven later.

Once you have the other side browned place the chicken in an oven-safe pan (if you have a frying pan that can go in the oven as well, you are lucky! and can skip the transfer step). Then put the chicken in the oven until cooked through. If you have really thin slices of chicken you may need as little as 10 minutes in the oven, if they are thicker maybe more like 20-30. I know that when I do a whole breast coated then I will usually keep it in the oven ~30 mins, but with these strips I only needed 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime cook the noodles and warm up the sauce you will be using. Once the chicken is cooked place the chicken on top of the cooked noodles.

Then take your marinara (I make a homemade sauce which I end up canning from garden tomatoes so I always have it on hand. The recipe is here, minus the meatballs.) and spoon over the chicken and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

And there you go, a little dressed up spaghetti for any occasion! I hope you have fun with this, I sure did. And like I said it was a hit on our dinner table!

Sydney

Lentil Bacon Potato Soup

Ok, so I realize that the picture is not the most appetizing but I felt like I should still add it either way.
So the other day I tried a lentil soup at my sister-in-laws, and although it was good, I had this idea in my head of what I wanted it to taste like, so I went home the next day, looked up many recipes of lentil soup and came up with this concoction, (which if I say so myself turned out great!). Even Abel liked it (Haley's hubby) and what I hear is unless its meat and rice he is hard to please...haha.
Anyway, this is a very simple crock-pot recipe for you busy moms (or other busy people) and its hearty and warm for the cold weather.

Ingredients:
5 slices of bacon, diced
1/2 an onion, diced
4-5 carrots, chopped
1 lb. of dry lentils, rinsed and picked over
3-4 medium potatoes, washed or peeled and cubed
8 c of water
5 bouillon cubes (enough for 5 c of water)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Turn on your crock-pot to high heat and put in the bacon, onion, and carrot. (I cut them up as I went so they had a little time to start cooking while I was cutting up everything else) Add the lentils and 5 cups of water. Let them cook for 1 1/2-2 hours. Come back and add the last 3 cups of water, the bouillon and the potatoes. Cook for another 2-3 hours. This not exact so keep an eye on it. As soon as the lentils and potatoes are soft it is finished. You may need to add more water depending on the consistency you want (I really liked mine thick). Also taste it and if you need to add more bouillon, salt or pepper, go for it (even a bay leaf at the beginning would be a great idea!)
We ate this with a slice of crusty bread...yum!

Side notes: Keep in mind that this recipe is variable. If you want more onion or carrots or any other vegetables give it a try. Lentils have a great creamy texture so they really work well with many other ingredients. Let me know if you try something different, I'd love to hear of the variations you come up with!

Thanks for reading,
Sydney

Crock Pot Cinnamon Rolls

I am ALWAYS craving treats and I give into my cravings EVERY TIME. The craving I have the most is for homemade cinnamon rolls, my homemade cinnamon rolls. (It's actually a recipe I got from Sydney. Haha.) Either way, they are delicious, but it's hard to make them all the time because they just take so long from start to finish. I mean the dough has to rise, you have to roll them out, an then they have to rise again! Come on now. 

Anyway, I've been looking for a quicker and much easier way to satisfy my sweet tooth and I think I finally found a good way to do just that! I found this easy recipe to make called "cinnamon rolls"that you cook in the crock pot. I would actually consider this more of a cinnamon pull apart bread or maybe cinnamon buns. And they don't actually take less time, but they are a lot less hassle and they're pretty tasty. You just put them in the crock pot and forget about them.

This is the finished product with extra frosting! Just the way I like it!

I found this recipe from "Get Crocked".

1 can of biscuits (found in the refrigerated section of your grocery)

1/4 c. melted butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

pecan pieces (optional)

Glaze:

1 1/3 c. powdered sugar

2 T. milk

First, coat your crock pot lightly with cooking spray. Mix the melted butter and vanilla in one bowl. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. Open your can of biscuits and dip them into the melted butter mixture, roll them into the sugar mixture, and then place them in the crock pot. Now would be the time to put in the pecan pieces if you want. I didn't have them, so I didn't use them.

 Turn your crock pot on low and place a paper towel between the rim and the lid. This will make it so no condensation drips down on the rolls and makes them gross. Cook for 2-3 hours. 

This is what mine looked like after cooking for about 40ish minutes. I couldn't help but keep peeking! I was skeptical that it would actually work.. But they do! And they taste GREAT!

When they are finished, pour a glaze or frosting over them and enjoy!! 

**Note: Depending on how hot your "low" setting is, I think they probably could be done in less time than 2 hours. I checked mine at 2 hours and they were done, so just make sure you check them. Also, if you have multiple layers of buns, the time may need to be adjusted.