The Official Announcement: It's Open Season

Just when I think we have had our last freeze, another late front passes through and kills something else in my backyard. It's looking bad out there. Even so, I'm backing myself up this time and making it official. As a non meteorologist I would like to say that the freezes are probably over (in Houston) and it's time to get back to grilling. Perhaps you missed my original ode to the grill post. The gist is that winners like to grill, and women are winners, so women should learn how to use a grill. Give me an ingredient and I will figure out how to make it on the grill. That is how much I hate washing pots and pans. 

Women who grill. Not the same as women who grillz.

 Kid Bonus: Although the grill is hot territory for kids, there is always prep that kids can help with. L is great at snapping asparagus stalks, mixing marinades & basting sauces, and adding salt and pepper. 

This week we grilled steak, chicken and shrimp. We had tons of veggies from our Farmhouse Delivery and we launched right into them. Our bundle is pictured below. A great mix of things to roast, saute, and eat raw. Want to know what we do with a bin full of fresh, local fruits and veggies? Here we go!

We got lots of greens, so not the best veggies for the grill, but great for serving alongside grilled items. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the bag of mixed greens: Grilled Shrimp. I skewered the shrimp and brushed it with butter and lemon and that was it. To the grill and back again. I washed the greens and then tossed them in 1/3C Olive Oil, 1/4C Aged Balsamic Vinegar, salt & pepper. I am a light dressing person, so feel free to increase quantities to taste. Here is the end result:

We made an extra skewer for Landon and she ate hers with some tomatoes and avocado. She will eat salad, but prefers specific kinds of greens.

We felt a little steak hungry this week as well. Probably because it's Grilling Season (did I mention that already?) When I got home from work on Tuesday I took 5 minutes to wash, peel, and cut the carrots & beets from our delivery. Then I cut a large onion into a few chunks. I threw them all into a bowl and tossed them with just a touch of extra virgin olive oil, some salt flakes & fresh pepper. Then on to my overused baking dish and into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. At the 30 minute mark I usually toss the veggies around to spread some of the caramelization. After the full 40 minutes they came out looking delish.

These were done when bath time ended and everything else got put on hold while the kids got put in bed. After they were down I pulled out the mystery "braising greens" that came in our bundle, washed them and braised them. If they are called braising greens, you should braise them, right? S got home and took over the grill on this night. In no time at all, dinner was served.

I've had more artistic photos, but in the interest of showing you what we do with our bin... you get this.

Tonight we streamlined further. We grilled chicken breasts and did a big side of dinosaur kale sauteed with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and garlic. And that was it. I won't pretend that my trusty box of Amy's Organic 100% whole wheat mac n cheese wasn't mildly calling my name from the pantry, but the thought of cleaning out a pot of cheesy macaroni was enough to keep our dinner very half veg half protein. 

As far as the rest of our bundle, the grapefruits get sliced and eaten up for my breakfast or for a snack. The sugar snap peas are amazing raw and dipped in hummus. L loves avocados and she ate the one from our delivery with her lunch today. We have been using the red stem malabar spinach for lunchtime sandwiches. 

Landy's turkey, cheese, & spinach on Ezekiel Bread with hummus.

That just leaves the purple cabbage. The great thing about cabbage is it will hang tight for a while in my fridge until I decide just what I want to do with it. Love it when the bins are gone so quickly. It means we are eating really well.

Here is where we are on our Veg Out challenge:

Day 8: Mushrooms, raw w/ pita & hummus
Day 9: Cherry Tomatoes, sliced in half
Day 10: Carrots, both roasted & raw
Day 11: White Onion, roasted
Day 12: Sugar Snap Peas, raw w/ hummus
Day 13: Red Pepper, cooked in pasta sauce

Even though March is almost halfway done, you can still join us as we VegOut this month. Have a vegetable lasagna and you'll probably cover 7 vegetables at one meal! To register click here. 

We are on Instagram! For daily posts with quick recipes, kid food, or other random tidbits, follow @RaisingTexas. 

Coming up soon: one of my favorite fruit and veggie packed smoothies that you can make in your blender. And later, more of the same old inappropriate things you have come to know and love. I had a pull up thrown at my face 5 times last night. Evenings are really interesting in my house. 

Grilling Season is GO! 

- RT

Recipe Review: Martha Stewart's Winter Vegetable Soup

I'm a big fan of Martha Stewart, in a very nerdy way. I love to watch her cook and see how effortless she makes everything. Here's a bit of a confession: My husband doesn't really enjoy chicken soup. This is heartbreaking news not only because I LOVE chicken soup, but also because he just told me a month or so ago. We've been together 12 years. That's a lot of chicken soup. With the never ending cold snaps, I was soup hungry, but wanted something different from traditional chicken soup. I went over to MarthaStewart.com for some inspiration and found a Winter Vegetable Soup that used Kale. Lucky for me I had a decent amount of Kale already in the fridge. This is where we started.

When I find a recipe online I love to read through the comments. It helps me get a feel for the recipe and people also put great tips in there. Someone added ginger to the soup and I added that to my list. Another added Bay Leaves so I added them as well. The recipe called for grated Parmesan on top of the finished soup, meaning it was the perfect time to pull out a treasured parm rind from my fridge. This is an amazing tip and I can't remember where I first heard it, but I'm sharing it with you. When you buy a wedge of parmesan, you eventually get all the way down to the rind. It's tough and I used to just toss them. I was then told that they make the perfect addition to soup broths. Perfect doesn't even begin to describe it. It adds some real complexity to the broth of almost any soup. Highly recommended. 

When I got home from the store I realized we were out of garlic. This NEVER happens in my house. Big disappointment, but with a two year old and an 8 month old.... I was not going back to the store. I substituted two teaspoons of garlic powder. I also knew I had more kale than the recipe called for, and I wanted to use it all, so I got an extra can of beans and additional broth to make sure it would be covered. 

This soup was really fantastic and really quick. I am still eating it and the flavors continue to evolve. The great thing about putting kale in a soup is that it holds up really well and doesn't disintegrate like other soup ingredients.  5 days later and my kale is still robust and flavorful. Another bonus on this soup: ONE POT. These are the best when you have a family and you don't feel like doing a ton of dishes. It could also work well for a meatless Monday! My one complaint about this soup is acorn squash. Acorn squash tastes great, but I am highly convinced that in the depths of hell there is a special room where all you do is peel acorn squash for eternity. Those little knobs annoy me to no end. Maybe you are a person who doesn't get annoyed by squash. Good for you.

This is a great option for the VegOut Challenge. You can knock out kale, acorn squash & onions. We used two varieties of kale to clean out the fridge. Here is the original recipe. My changes and substitutions are noted in red.

Martha Stewart's Winter Vegetable Soup

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (we used 2 tsp garlic powder instead)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound acorn squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks (the worst part)
• 1 bunch kale ( 3/4 pound), ribs cut away and discarded, leaves torn (I doubled this)
• 5 1/2 cups (43.5 ounces) low-sodium chicken broth (We had extra on hand to cover the extra kale)
• 1 can (14 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed (we used two cans)
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, more if you like stronger flavor
• 2 small bay leaves
• parmesan rind 
• Grated Parmesan, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Step 1 (the only step)

   In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, melt butter over medium. Cook onion and garlic until fragrant, 3 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Add squash and kale and cook until kale is wilted, about 3 minutes (I covered the dutch oven to help cook the kale down); season with salt and pepper. Add broth, beans, Parmesan rind, ginger, bay leaves and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash and kale are tender, about 12 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper and serve with Parmesan, if desired.
   
   
   
   
   
   This is what Landon's portion looked like. She loved it too! This recipe is a keeper for us. Here is where we are on our VegOut Challenge:
   
   
   Day 5: Acorn Squash, in a soup
   Day 6: Spinach, fresh in an omlette
   Day 7: Sweet Potato, roasted
   
   
   Knocking out all of our regular veggies... things are about to get interesting. 
   
   
   Have a great weekend! 
   
   
   -RT
   
   
   
   

Smashing Potatoes and Taking Names

Hey guys. I got my iphone pictures to upload again. Word. The weather in Houston is wet and misty with a side of Flash Flood Warnings. Tonight I made Chicken and Vegetable soup with brown & white rice. This is appropriate food for when it is wet and cold outside. Just in case you were wondering. 

Perhaps you once read my very first blog post. It was, at the time, some big statement about what this blog was going to be about and who I was and other super important things. Then I ended up just kind of letting the blog lead me instead of me leading the blog and things changed. It's nice to have a reminder of where all of this craziness started over six months ago. Let's get back to food for a sec.

I did actually cook in December, despite my lack of posts. One day I found myself staring down a bag of red potatoes and I remembered my epic failure at smashed potatoes because I cooked them how I thought they should be cooked and looked at a recipe after they came out wrong. This time I followed The Pioneer Woman's recipe for Crash Hot Potatoes that I referenced in that very first post. I killed it.

Potatoes boiled in advance. Probably over boiled by me but it didn't matter in the end.

Drizzle a baking sheet with EV Olive Oil liberally. You don't want to peel this stuff off. Then spread your potatoes out as above. 

 

I used a potato masher to start smashing. It worked much better than a fork. It was messy at first, and presentation was lack luster, but I kept at it. 

After smashing, brush olive oil over the top of the potatoes. YUM. 

 

You can use whatever herbs you like, chop them up and sprinkle them on top. I used rosemary and added in a sprinkle of sea salt and some black pepper.

Up close and personal.

Then you stick them in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 450.

 

The crispy delicious end result.

 

The perfect potato close up.

 

The imperfect (but still delicious) potato.

 

We had the potatoes with meatloaf and sauteed kale. And I have DREAMS about how amazing they were. The perfect mix of potato (great start), rosemary, salt, pepper, and the best part, the crispy, crunchy top and edges that the oven gave us. COOK THIS NOW. It's easy and delicious. 

So there you are. I'm still cooking and still learing lessons and becoming more convinced than ever that recipe following is where it's at. 

Sometimes.

-RT

Rosemary Stuffed Lobster Tails

Happy Friday! Once again this week I couldn't resist the sale on lobster tails. Last time I made a sauce with butter, lemon and garlic. You can find that post here. I was planning to do the same, but once we got home I realized we didn't have any butter. How did that happen? This might be the first time I have ever been out of butter. But I digress...

I went into experimentation mode. I had lemon... I used the kitchen shears this time to remove the legs and cut the lobster open down the middle. It was really SO much easier than last time. All of the nitty gritty details of lobster prep were on the previous post I linked to above, so to make this a quick little Friday, I won't go deeply into them again. I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Once the tail was split I sprinkled some coarse sea salt inside of it and squeezed lemon juice inside and all over. Then I took a sprig of rosemary from our bush, split it in half and stuffed it into the tail. 

I did the prep on a cooking sheet and then put them directly in the oven for ten minutes. Easy Breezy. While they were cooking I sauteed some kale with about 3 cloves of sliced garlic in a tablespoon of EV Olive Oil.

Then we tossed a small side salad of Central Market Organic Power Greens and cherry tomatoes.

The lobster smelled great while cooking. It gave off the wonderful smell of the rosemary while it roasted to a nice crunchy consistency on top. The flavor was much more subtle in the actual lobster meat, which was what I wanted. The best part... we didn't even miss the butter. I know, that might be sacrilegious to the butter Gods, but it's true. We cut calories, even cut the butter dipping sauce and the meat was still sweet and delicious with a hint of lemon and rosemary. Perfect!

Finished product

Enjoy your weekend! We are getting a cool front and I couldn't be more excited. At this point, lows in the mid 60s will feel like a winter revolution. After the storms come through tomorrow we plan to spend lots of time outside. Hope you can do the same.

-RT

Eating Organic, Supporting Local Farmers & Kitten Eggs

This almost makes me want to be a farmer. ALMOST.

I don't recall thinking very much about organic vs non organic until I was put in charge of a tiny little person and her diet. All of a sudden it became important to me to know where my food was coming from and when I brought it into my home, what that food was bringing with it. First let's get something straight, I TRY to do my best when it comes to the food we eat. As much as I wish I could do my weekly grocery shopping at Whole Paycheck Foods and buy all organic, that is just not realistic to our family budget. So living in our real life, we do the best we can, and if I have to buy some things non organic that I would rather not, I don't sweat about it. The one thing I often find with organic products (like baby food in a jar or pouch, applesauce, etc) is that the ingredient list is pretty basic. Instead of having a baby food jar of bananas that has 4 - 5 ingredients, you get the following ingredients: bananas, water. That is what is most important to me. Trying to stick to real food when I can, but having my cheating moments (usually with wine, cookies, or ice cream).

A friend recently sent me an article from The New York Times headlined "Stanford Scientists Cast Doubt on Advantages of Organic Meat and Produce" and I was like hmmmm. The article discussed how a Stanford study found there to be little to no difference in nutritional value of organic vs non organic food. The problem is, I never knew that people actually thought that. The items I eat organic I choose because of pesticides, not because I think it will be better for me nutritionally. Other good news from this study: Organic milk not only lasts for two months, it also has more omega-3 fatty acids than non organic milk. Double bonus.

Happy cows don't lie. Also a great way to teach your toddler to say "moo!"

I don't really care if my meat or poultry is organic, but I have always worried about meat being hormone free. I know at least 10 girls who have had early puberty... like getting their period in the fourth grade early. To be fair, experts say that there are a number of reasons why girls are experiencing early puberty. To achieve puberty, girls must have a certain BMI, and one of the better theories says that because women are now exposed to better nutrition at an earlier age, they experience puberty earlier. The more popular train of thought is that kids are fatter and as the obesity rate increases, so does the rate of girls maturing sooner than normal. Even knowing this, along with the fact that food hormones, once consumed, are digested in the stomach, killing their ability to have any biological activity. I still don't want hormones in my food. So there.

Added growth hormones are about to enter your body.... Arm yourself.

In a perfect world everyone would be able to afford fresh, pesticide free produce. Unfortunately, pesticides have a purpose, and when it is used farmers yield more crops. Organic farming yields less crops, comes from fewer farmers, and so it is more expensive. I try to do the best than I can within my means.

Step one is supporting local farmers and growers. When possible, head to your local farmer's market. They are in EVERY CITY now. We have one in Houston almost every day of the week except Sunday, but there is probably one on Sunday somewhere. I really like the Urban Harvest Market on Saturday Mornings. If you are going to pay to buy organic, AND you can support local farmers while doing it, it's a win win.

Step two is about knowing your budget and having realistic expectations of what you can afford. Eating what is in season is a great way to stick to your budget, but there are also some organic foods that are a complete waste of your money. The pesticide count on certain non-organics is so low, that buying the organic version has almost no benefit. You can save that money to buy organic when it comes to the produce with the highest pesticide counts. That is where the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen come in. The Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated with pesticides. By simply buying these 12 organic, you can substantially lower your pesticide intake. The Dirty Dozen includes (in order of most contaminated to least): Apples, Celery, Sweet Bell Peppers, Peaches, Strawberries, Imported Nectarines, Grapes, Spinach, Lettuce, Cucumber, Domestic Blueberries, and Potatoes (not sweet potatoes though). Leafy greens and green beans are also high on the pesticide count, but "The Dirty Fourteen" just doesn't sound as cool. I buy organic Kale always, it is almost the same price at HEB.

On the flip side, the Clean Fifteen are fifteen fruits and veggies with the lowest pesticide count, meaning you don't need to buy them organic. Especially handy for household budgets. They include: Onions, Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Avocado, Cabbage, Sweet Peas, Asparagus, Mango, Eggplant, Kiwi, Domestic Cantaloupe, Sweet Potatoes, Grapefruit, Watermelon, and Mushrooms. A really good variety and lots of kid friendly foods the whole family can eat.

My last food hang up is eggs. I pay too much for eggs because I want to buy the package that says "humanely raised in fields of loving soft grasses from Hens who have pet kittens to snuggle with at night." Those dozen eggs cost about $4.50. Worth it.

Best friends = Best Eggs

The Rooster was busy elsewhere...

 Seriously... you don't have to be a cat person to love kittens. Get over yourself. Kittens are for lovers. Kitten eggs are expensive, but completely worth it.

The point of this post, while taking some twists and turns, is that you don't have to be all or none when it comes to making decisions about the food you eat. What are you willing to compromise on and what do you support strongly? I suggest that everyone look into the food they are eating and find a good balance. While you are finding a good balance, also look for a local farmer's market. Supporting you local farmers is good for you community and good for your health. Eating what's in season (what the farmer's are growing) is cost effective and produce picked fresh and sold within days has so much more flavor!

- RT

"People Who Love to Eat are Always the Best People" - JC

Today would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday, so we are going to celebrate by talking affordable luxuries with added butter and garlic. Julia Child did a lot for women and a lot that changed the way women and men cook in the home. She made cooking that was once seemingly difficult or only available in restaurants accessible to everyone in their own kitchen. She is one of the 5 people (alive or dead) who I would want to have dinner with. She would be cooking, obviously. 

Who doesn't love her? Keep your mouth shut, or I will pound you with my mallet.

I finally went to the grocery store yesterday and after spending about 20 minutes making a list (while distracting a toddler) I headed out. The list, of course, stayed home. I got to the store with a general idea of what I needed and fared pretty well. When I headed to the fish monger to get some salmon I noticed that lobster tails were on sale and I could get two for around $9. What's up H-E-B? I heart you. I switched salmon for lobster in full knowledge that I had never cooked my own lobster or even had any since a fateful college limo ride to Beau Rivage about ten years ago. More on that never again. 

If you want me to level with you, I really didn't follow a French recipe with the lobster. I decided, after checking in with Google, that I wanted to bake the tails. First I had to pull the little legs off and cut them down the middle. After the fact I learned that kitchen scissors are really handy for leg removal. I let them sit out about 20 minutes to bring them to room temp. Also, I preheated the oven to 400. 

Before mutilation:

After mutilation:

I took a strong knife (I would use a thick, sharp one that is easy to control) and slowly cut down the center being careful to not slice through the meat. You can also use kitchen scissors for this if you have a good pair that let you get underneath the shell. I found the knife a bit easier. For first timers, watch out for sharp shells. All shelled friends (maybe not shrimp) can give you a nice slice to the hand. 

Here is a close up where you can see that the white shell is pulled up on the sides.

Next I took some butter and melted it. Don't get overwhelmed by this step. You can do it.

A photo, just in case you were wondering what melted butter looks like. 

 I brushed the melted butter all over the lobster tails, squeezed some fresh lemon juice on them, and finally sprinkled the insides with some kosher sea salt. I did all of this on the same baking sheet I was going to use in the oven. These are two 4 oz tails and I put them in the oven for ten minutes. 

Ready for the oven. Remove the lemon first.

 I know you all want to see how I cook kale AGAIN, so here you go. After I put the lobster in the oven, I got to work. This time I took about 4 cloves of garlic and sliced them, tossing them in a large saute pan with EV Olive Oil.

I washed and dried the kale

Then tore it off and put it in the pan with the sliced garlic, tossing it to get the garlic off of the bottom of the pan. 

Meanwhile, in another part of the house, S was grilling corn. We prefer our corn done on the grill with no foil. It adds so much to the flavor, you can baste it while it is grilling, and you can tell immediately when it is ready.

Almost ready to come off.

 Then my ten minutes were up and the lobster was ready to come out. This was possibly one of the easiest things I have ever cooked. Prep was simple, put it in the oven and then... BOOM. Perfectly cooked lobster tails. Notice how the meat has swelled up and the shell has turned a bright orange color. 

Yes and Yum

The color of lobster success.

 As the lobster cooled off, the corn came in ready to go.

I melted a little butter with crushed garlic and lemon as extra dipping sauce for the lobster, but we really didn't need it. The meat was so sweet and the basting prior to baking it really held some great flavors in there.

The grand finale.

We took the third ear of corn and cut the kernels off of the cob so that it could go with a few of Landon's meals. 

Landon Corn

In honor of JC's bday, pick up her fabulous first book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and try something new that you never even thought of. French cooking isn't always the most budget friendly or the most healthy, but it is tastes and flavors that have been around for centuries and would make a great Friday or Saturday night date night at home. 

The Simple Truth

Child ended her last book, My Life in France, with "... thinking back on it now reminds me that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite - toujours bon appetit!"  

What a fantastic woman who lived a fantastic life. Let her inspire you to really see what you can do in your kitchen.

-RT

The Key to Cooking Every Night is KISS

Just blast some Gene Simmons and get to it! Well, if that's what you're into (crazy) but we're really talking about super amazing business acronyms. Also, at the end I am giving you my killer salad dressing ingredients. Stick around.

Mini KISS will help cook up some major distractions.

So KISS. This stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. That's right, you're stupid. So am I. We are all stupid, according to this acronym. Some more sensitive individuals have changed it to Keep It Simple Sir, but I'm no sir, and Keep It Simple, Girlfriend, while fun to say (HAAY), is confusing to pronounce. KISG. Maybe we'll start a movement. Either way, we all have tough skin and we'll be fine, stupid. 

I find that the easiest way for me to be successful at cooking and eating at home is to plan ahead and keep things simple. S gets the credit for the planning ahead. I used to hate the grocery store and put it off as long as possible. A couple of weeks ago my friend R was sitting on my couch and looked at my coffee table and then at me with curious excitement asking "what's that a list for?" Then she realized how lame I was when I told her it was a shopping list. She is single with no babies and lives in New Orleans. That = a life without shopping lists. 

Bought this at Anthropologie. It's a pad and a magnet and helps plan your meals.

 Every weekend (usually on Sunday) we make a list of the nights we need dinner and plan on what we might eat. The cooking at home killer is that you likely have just spent all day at the office, or chasing and cleaning up after kids, and when the house gets quiet the last thing you want to do is spend an hour in the kitchen cooking dinner. I get it. So you have to plan ahead and keep it simple, idiot. I mean, stupid. That is really the only way to succeed if you are trying to cook more everyday meals at home. Here's what we do.

If we are going to cook anything complicated, we try to make sure it can go for more than one meal and we usually make it on Sunday evening, when we are rested and have the time. If it's something we can prep on a Sunday and just put it in the oven later in the week, that is awesome, too. 

Next, we keep some standard items that don't spoil quickly. Items we use in lots of things. To give you an idea, we buy 2-4 heads of garlic at a time, buy sacks of onions and potatoes, and pick up a couple of sweet potatoes almost every week. We always have butter, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and a whole shelf of spices. Create a stock pile of fresh staples that will stay good for 2 or 3 weeks and a stock pile of spices you love. This will help you with the simple cooking that's coming up next. 

When you think of dinner, think of your childhood.

When you are planning your dinner, think of it in sections. Think of the things your body needs. Proteins, vegetables, whole complex grains and carbs, calcium, fruit, iron, etc. Build your meal the way you would fill your tray. An example would be 8oz chicken breast, sauteed kale, and grilled sweet potato. Not every meal has to have everything you need as long as you get enough throughout your day. A simple meal is easy to prepare and easy to shop for. Using the same meal above, these are the steps that it would take in my life on a work day. 

Get home from work (5:30) - Landon is usually just finished with her dinner. I clean up, take the chicken breasts out of the fridge. Depending on the thickness I might pound them down to a thinner consistency. I season them with salt and pepper or Uncle Chris' Gourmet Steak Seasoning and toss them in some olive oil. Then I let them come to room temp, meaning I leave them alone. That all took about 3 minutes. 

L and I play some and a few minutes before her bath I wash a sweet potato and slice it about 3/4 Inch in thickness. Sprinkle with sea salt and EV Olive Oil and then I let them sit with the chicken breasts. This took about 2 minutes and I'm on my feet anyway because I'm hanging out with L. 

After bath and bed (around 6:45) I go outside and turn the grill on high and let it heat up. Coming back into the kitchen I wash and dry the kale, tear it into pieces and put a large saute pan on the stove to warm up.  I take the chicken and sweet potatoes outside and put them on the grill. The sweet potatoes go in the grill wok. I close the top and come back in. I put a little EV Olive Oil in the pan and coat it. Then I take crushed or sliced garlic and throw it on the bottom. I keep the heat over medium and put in the kale, turning it to coat. I cover it and go out to check on the chicken and sweet potatoes. 

Chicken is turned to the other side and I shake up or turn the sweet potatoes, then lower the heat a little and come back inside to clean off the tongs and get fresh plates for the cooked items. I toss the kale once more and cover while I wash the items up and get the plates. I keep the cover on the kale and turn the heat off, heading back outside to get the grilled items. Take them off, come back in and take the cover off of the kale and dinner is ready. 

You get 5 minutes of prep time when you would have been doing something anyway, then 15 minutes of active cooking time. SIMPLE. If you count the 5 minutes or so that you leave the chicken sitting to cool down, dinner is ready between 7 and 7:30. This also keeps your shopping simple and you can do this with every meal. Pick a protein, do two veggies or a veggie and a carb or whatever your magic combo is. It helps you spend your time on the borders of the grocery store where you should be and it helps you and your family eat healthy, whole foods.

Just because you cook at home doesn't mean you need to be a gourmet. Tonight we had boneless, skinless chicken thighs again. These are becoming a staple because Landon loves them. We had a box of fresh greens in the fridge from last week so we made a salad with the greens and some cherry tomatoes. I really think what makes salad at home so delish is making your own dressing. Hidden Valley Ranch has it's time and place, but the reason salad at great restaurants tastes so good is because they make the dressing from scratch. It's something you can play around with using oils and vinegars in your own kitchen. Tonight I did a dressing with 1/3C grapeseed oil, 1/4C balsamic vinegar, 2 teaspoons of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of sriracha, and a clove of crushed garlic. 

tonight's dressing

We tossed the greens and grape tomatoes in the dressing and put the chicken on top. An easy, simple dinner that is healthy and homemade. Prep your kitchen, play around with your ingredients and figure out what works best for you and what will keep you in there cooking, stupid.

I bought this shirt for all of us. Just so we can remember where we stand.

Don't forget.... KISS. And then since you'll be done with dinner early, you have time afterward to KISS. See what I did there?

-RT