Weekly Tip: Keep Cut Fruit From Browning

To keep cut fruit from browning, dip the cut side in some pineapple juice! Works like a charm on bananas, apples, pears and more!

For more tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer!

Link-a-dink-a-doo 4/29/08

Here are the fabulous links I've found for you this week!



The Make It from Scratch Carnival is home this week at Stop The Ride!



At the rate of inflation in food prices and the low interest rates at the bank, it may be wiser to stock your pantry rather than your savings account. See if you agree after reading this article I found at Yahoo!



In another article from Yahoo!, find out 6 Ways to Eat Better for Less.



And if you haven't checked it out before, visit the new and re-vamped Hillbilly Housewife. She always has great information and recipes. From the site:



"The focus here is on low-cost, home-cooking from scratch. The recipes are all tested in a real kitchen with hungry children, stalking cats, begging puppies and a playful husband underfoot. The ingredients are affordable and readily available in most areas."



You can't beat that with a wooden spoon!

Classic French Toast

One of my family's favorite breakfast foods is your classic French Toast. Topped with butter and syrup and you've got a warm and delicious comfort food that is appreciated morning, noon or night.

I usually list my tips for recipes after the actual recipe, but I want to emphasize this one: French Toast is actually better when it is made with day-old or almost stale bread. Day-old or almost stale bread will give you a better texture and a sturdier end product. New, fluffy bread can result in soggy or mushy french toast.

Classic French Toast
8 Slices of Bread
3 Eggs
2 T milk

Oil (or butter) and heat a griddle or frying pan. Whisk eggs and milk in a shallow dish wide enough for bread slices. One at a time, dip bread slices in egg mixture, turning to coat completely. Place coated bread on hot griddle, turning as needed to cook all sides evenly. Serve with syrup and butter. Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers.

Tips:
~Place cooked french toast pieces on a platter covered with paper towels and set platter in your microwave (no need to start it) to keep them warm until the entire batch is done.

~After topping with butter and syrup, sprinkle sugar over the top to add a bit of extra sweetness!

Weekly Tip: Fried Eggs

I love fried eggs! "Dippy eggs" (or sunny-side up) in particular. The hard part for some is keeping the yolks from breaking when the egg hits the pan.

To solve this dilemma, crack your eggs into a bowl first. Then, simply slide them out of the bowl and into the pan! If a yolk breaks, you can pour that egg into another container and use it for other cooking or for scrambled eggs.

Don't forget to visit this post at my personal site, It's All For The Best, to enter my GIVEAWAY!

For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer!

Link-a-dink-a-doo: Earth Day

Ever thought about Eco-friendly food preservation? Click here for a great article.

FoodProcessing.com has a great article on Eco-friendly food packaging here.

I thought this site was very interesting, too. They sell bio-degradable food packaging, utensils and more at pretty reasonable prices.

Check out the Make It From Scratch Carnival this week. The Lighten your footprint edition is at Midwest Neurotica and the full edition is at Stop The Ride!

Visit me at It's All For The Best tomorrow for a fruity and fun giveaway!!!

Weekly Tip: Microwave Covers

Here's a quick tip that will save you from a big mess in your microwave:

Cover your dishes with paper plates or coffee filters. They are much cheaper than wax paper or paper towels!

For more tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer!

Link-a-dink-a-doo 4/15/08

Only a couple of links today. The weather is beautiful and we're in the midst of baseball season. Well, practice for it anyway. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Make It From Scratch is up at This Wasn't in the Plan. Lots of amazing things to try out there!!!

Not everything loses valuable nutrients from heating. Did you know that some veggies actually benefit from the canning process? Check out this post!

Italian Meatballs

I love to make my own Italian meatballs to have handy for subs or spaghetti. I make a large batch, freeze them and store them in zip-top bags. (BTW- sorry for the fuzzy picture.)

I don't really have a "recipe" for these, so you may have to adjust some of the amounts to suit your tastes.

Italian Meatballs

1 Lb. Ground Beef

1 C. Bread Crumbs

1 Egg

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Pepper

1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 Tbsp. Dried Parsley

1 tsp. Dried Basil

1/2 tsp. Dried Oregano

1/2 tsp. Onion Powder

1/2 C Ricotta Cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl and, using your hands to 'mush', mix well. Measure out equal amounts of mixture to make inch and a half meatballs using one of the following methods:

1. Pat mixture out to 1 & 1/2 inch thick flat square on a cutting board. Cut vertically and horizontally to create equal cubes. Roll each cube into a ball.

2. Use a small kitchen scoop.

3. Use a tablespoon to scoop out mixture and roll into balls.

Place each meatball onto a baking sheet. They do not need to be spread out like cookies, but they should not be touching. Bake 25 minutes or until internal temp is 175 degrees. Remove from oven. Add to your favorite marinara sauce and serve on hoagie buns or hot dog buns topped with mozzarella or provolone cheese.

TIPS:

~Place finished sandwiches under the broiler to melt the cheese and toast the buns.

~To freeze, cool meatballs completely. Place cooled meatballs on a tray and freeze at least 1 hour. Place frozen meatballs in zip-top bag.

~You can also fill a zip-top bag with meatballs and sauce, cool and then freeze.

~These are GREAT in spaghetti, too!

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken Fajitas make a super fast supper and the leftovers make a wonderful lunch. Just ask my Hubby and kids! :o)

Fajitas are fabulous for picky eaters because you can serve them buffet style and let each person chose their own toppings. If your family likes spicy, go for it. If you have little ones, you can hold back on the spice and let those who want more heat add it with taco sauce.

This would be a great recipe to double and freeze half for a future date.

Chicken Fajitas

3 lbs. Chicken (use your favorite- I prefer thighs)

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Pepper

2 tsp. Taco Seasoning or Southwestern Seasoning

2 tsp. Chicken Flavored Soup Base

1/2 C. Water

2 Tbsp. Flour

1 each Red, Yellow and Green Bell Pepper

1 Medium Onion

Taco or Burrito Shells

Season Chicken with salt, pepper and taco seasoning. Place seasoned chicken in lightly oiled slow-cooker. Mix water and soup base and pour in with chicken. Cook on medium-high for 45 minutes turning every 10 minutes to cook evenly.

Cut Bell Peppers and Onion into strips and cook in a small amount of oil until onion is translucent and tender. Set aside to serve as a topping.

Cut cooked chicken into strips and return to sauce before serving.

Heat shells according to package directions. Fill shells or place in warmer and let guests create their own fajita.

Suggested toppings:

Cooked onions and bell peppers (above)

Grated Cheese

Sour Cream

Shredded Lettuce

Avocado slices or Guacamole

Tomatoes (chopped or sliced)

Taco or Hot Sauce

Surprising Salads

Who says a salad has to be lettuce and tomatoes? Who says a salad has to be anything in particular? You can make a salad out of whatever you have on hand at the moment. Here are some ideas for getting out of the tossed salad rut.


Did you know that iceberg lettuce actually has very little nutritional value? Why not switch to baby spinach? It has a flavor similar to lettuce (without the bitterness) and is an excellent source of vitamin A, beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C and Folate. If you aren't a fan of spinach, give endive, chickory, lamb's lettuce, cabbage or bok choy a try.



A great alternative for kids is to serve veggies and dip or dressing in place of a side salad. Kids also love anything wrapped in tortillas, so why not make a veggie wrap with ranch dressing as a side dish for them? YUM!



Rachael Ray once made a salad to go along with a meatball sub that combined all of the veggies that would be on your average sub from a deli. Shred or thinly slice lettuce, onion, tomato, banana pepper, green bell pepper, pickles, cucumbers, black olives or whatever you usually like on your sub. Toss it all together with a simple dressing of red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.





My other salad recipes to date:

Cucumber Tomato Salad

Cucumber Side Salad

Pasta Salad

Weekly Tip: Holiday Candy

I know that there is usually no such thing as leftover holiday candy in most households, but ours isn't one of them. I have never made candy taboo for my kids, so they don't really see it as a big deal. They enjoy candy as much as any other kids, but they don't over-indulge and they seem to get tired of it quickly. We end up having extra Halloween candy still sitting around in December and we often have to throw out Easter candy before all of the summer parades begin.



Sometimes I send their candy to work with Mike. He has a large jar that he keeps it in, but it gets so hot in his shop sometimes that keeping chocolate in there is not an option.



What to do with all of that leftover chocolate!!! Such a dilemma!



Then, it came to me! Ah ha!



Now, I chop up any leftover chocolate- bunnies, eggs, mini candy bars, etc. It all gets diced up and put in a zip-top bag in the freezer. We use it as a topping for ice cream sundaes or homemade "blizzard" treats! YUMMY!!

You can find more tips at Rocks In My Dryer!

Link-a-dink-a-doo

Make It From Scratch #58 is up at at the so called me. Stop by for some great ideas!

Try out Menu Plan Monday ~ April 7th posted at Org Junkie!

The Food Network is featuring a series called Chefography this week. Last night's episode was about Julia Child. Here is the web page and you can watch clips!

If you haven't heard of this show, wait until well after eating to click to the web page for Bizarre Foods. It's a show in the Travel Channel and it is NOT for the weak of stomach! I don't want to give away the farm, but one episode featured Guinea Pigs...

Weekly Tip

Do you have a favorite grocery store? Do you have several stores that you frequent to try and get the best deal? Do you subscribe to or go out and buy a newspaper to get the latest circulars and sale fliers for those stores and then go bananas flipping through all of those ads, comparing, finding where you put them or where a family member moved them to?

Help yourself out a little by going electronic!

Visit the website for whichever stores you frequent and do a little searching. Most stores offer an email newsletter. You can often sign up for a weekly email that will include a current sales ad or information for your location. Many also include recipes and tips or interactive shopping lists (click on the item in the ad and it is added to your list). If that option isn't available, you can copy and paste your items into a Word document and keep a running list by store as you go.

Your sales ads will now be delivered to your inbox and as a bonus, you'll be saving paper clutter and your sanity! You can toss those paper ads in the recycle bin and never look back!

Find more tips at Rocks in My Dryer!

Link-a-dink-a-doo

In an attempt to create a more structured posting schedule here at The Fat Bottomed Girl, I am proud to bring you the first edition of "Link-a-dink-a-doo". Join me each Tuesday for some great food, nutrition and kitchen related links that I find and deem worthy of passing on to you.



The Latest Edition of the Make It From Scratch Carnival is up over at Life Lessons of a Military Wife. Check out all of the Aprill Fool's Day fun!!!



Check out this great article on HGTV.com about organizing your kitchen. It is aptly titled Quick Tips for Organizing Kitchens. The tips are quick to read through and they are broken down into manageable tasks.



Stephanie has written a wonderful post on Meal Planning Without a Menu.





And since it seems like a great time for coffee cake... is there ever NOT a great time for coffee cake??? I thought you might enjoy this lucious li'l Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe courtesy of Scribbit.