Category: Recipes

Get some great 30 minute recipes and organic food recipes to feed your family on a budget and in a jiff. Karie shares some of her classics and easy recipes for your family.

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How to Cook a Turkey

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and soon we will all be rushing to the store to get our turkeys to stuff and stuff our faces. But the honest truth is that some women and men alike have no idea how to create that perfect golden bird we carve into and tear to pieces and then eat for weeks on end.

The best way to cook any good turkey is follow the simple instructions about how to defrost the turkey. Sounds assinine, however if you do not have a fully thawed bird you might as well kiss your cooking time goodbye.

What else is key to cooking a perfect bird is DO NOT CHECK on the bird. Amateur turkey bakers, roasters, and friers think that they must continually check on their fowl in order to determine it’s doneness, if it needs something, or they just can’t help their compulsion to look at the basting beauty. So hold your compulsion, only check on the bird when it needs some basting, just to golden up the skin and keep it juicy.

But to keep your bird juicy, keep it covered. Also try stuffing the skin with some butter, this helps keep it juicy and browns up your skin. With that butter and the natural juices of your turkey you can use this to baste, but as I said keep it covered this keeps your turkey from drying out and when you uncover it will allow just that little bit to brown up the skin, little by little.

Your best bet is to follow your cooking guidelines on the outside of your turkey, it will dictate the time to cook per pound and the right temperature. Always use a cooking thermometer to ensure you have the adequate temperature to serve to your family on Thanksgiving Day.

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Delicious Halloween Drink Recipes

Halloween drinks, Halloween drink recipe

Are you looking for a wickedly good Halloween drink recipe for your upcoming Halloween party? Check out this tasty drink, called The Blood Shot sure to be a party favorite!

Halloween drinks, Halloween drink recipeThe Blood Shot
1 part Iceberg Vodka
1 part Peach Schnapps
1 part Jagermeister
1 part cranberry juice

Mix, pour over ice, let cool then strain into shot glasses and serve!

Add some pizzazz and real fright to this drink by adding your favorite vampire teeth, some plastic eye balls, or even gummie worms to add the “spooky,” fun, and festive twist to this adult beverage. Remember to drink responsibly and always have a designated driver.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween.

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Trick or Treat with Shamrock Farms

Shamrock Farms is gearing up to celebrate Halloween in a hauntingly healthy fashion with a family-friendly event down on the Farm. Aside from meeting 10,000 cows, guests are invited to wear their costumes, trick or treat and enjoy chocolate milk, all while meeting Roxie, Shamrock Farms lovable spokescow, and famous Peanuts characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Sally! Especially since chocolate milk is the official drink of Halloween. Treat your bones with Chocolate Milk, the Official Drink of Halloween, a nutritious beverage in disguise that Mom can feel good about during this candy-filled holiday! As with any sweet indulgence, in moderation and mom’s can feel better about a cold glass of calcium filled chocolate milk as opposed to tooth rotting sweets that can wreak havoc on our kids.

This Halloween event falls on Saturday October 29th, and at Shamrock Farms in the southeast valley heading towards Tucson we will be honoring our “kids ride FREE” deal (with adult admission) so this is an awesome added value event for families to enjoy with kids being FREE. Attendees will also receive a FREE milk and will be able to trick or treat along the tour.

Roxie Costume Party at the Farm: Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011 (3 tours offered)

Visit the Cold Room – Not counting school milk, Shamrock Farms stores 930,000 bottles of chocolate milk in its Cold Room on a WEEKLY basis where 1,330 pallets are loaded and over 1.8 million chocolate school milk containers (stored weekly) are handled at the farm.

Production – Shamrock Farms produces more than 200,000 gallons of chocolate milk every week which equals to about 3.2 millions cups of milk each week.

In addition to celebrating the Halloween special, come celebrate Arizona’s 100th birthday, we’ll be having special Centennial activities at the Farm! There’ll be an enhanced tour featuring Arizona’s history and every guest during our 2011 season will receive a commemorative band with admission celebrating Arizona’s Centennial and Arizona’s hometown dairy.

More than 10,000 cows are standing by, ready to make our farm tour a real hands-on experience for kids of all ages. With interactive displays, games and a tram ride, it’s a cornucopia of family-focused and educational activities for the whole herd.

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Easy Kids Snack Ideas & Recipes

broccoli, twins, boy, thefivefish.com

Feeding my children can be the easiest and most daunting task. So I try to find healthy and substantial snack ideas that do not leave them craving for more food later or feeling unsatisfied.

A great snack idea that costs very little and is great for on the go or to tie the kids over until dinner is graham crackers and cream cheese. Simple and effective without the sugary, sweet effects or salty, bloating of other foods. Spread a little softened cream cheese on a graham cracker snack and you have a cheesecake tasting snack without all the filling calories, fat, and sugar like more snacks.

Do you want your kids to get more protein without all the bulk of eating meats and or processed foods? Lentils are a great snack and are fabulous for toddlers learning to grasp and eat by themselves. Boil a cup of lentils, rinse and toss with your favorite seasoning for a light snack or even bake them tossed in a light coating for a bit of a crunch and zip. Great for salad toppers or alone, the kids love the crunch.

Ants on a log: my personal childhood favorite of raisins atop a stalk of celery smothered with peanut butter. Crunchy, salty, sweet, and good for you. Low in calories and high in fiber and protein this fun filled snack is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Cracker Sanwiches: using slices of apples or pears and cheese or spread some peanut butter in between these crackers to create a fun and tasty sandwich to help your kids feeling full without overfeeding them.

Ask your kids what they want to eat and make it fun, take them into the kitchen and let them explore with you and share their ideas of a fun and great snack idea.

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Organic Baked Kale Chips Recipe

baked kale chips, kale chips, kaleWhile partaking in my weekly offering with Bountiful Baskets I have recently been receiving a lot of kale in my baskets. I will fully admit I am a novice as to what kale is, was, and how it would have any addition to our dinner table and or menu for meals. But I did find that kale is very high in essential nutrients such as iron, calcium, beta kerotene, and the list goes on. I found some wonderful recipes to add this green leafy gem to stir fry, but I am not a fan of wilty greens. Although spinach is wonderful if steamed properly, I could not quite wrap my noggin around biting down this cabbage cousin. However, no recipes really jumped out at me. So while perusing the dry goods aisle at Whole Foods today I was hit with a stroke of genius, call it an epiphany, of how to serve up kale where everyone in my household would eat it and love this leafy green. Here is an easy kale recipe that is sure to be a hit and great addition to your diet.

The prep for this snack is more than easy and takes very little time, all you need is patience to pat dry your kale after a good rinsing. I had to rinse mine thoroughly, since it was USDA Certified Organic, so I was greeted with a caterpillar who had made a home in the fold of the leafy green vegetable. So be sure to rinse thoroughly and dry thoroughly or your kale will not turn out the way it should intend.

  • 2T extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Herbes de Provence (optional, for a bit of flair)

Basting brush, cookie sheet, preheated oven to 375 degrees

Take your leaves of kale and slice the leaves from the stalk and then cut into chip size pieces. I sliced all mine jaggedly off the stem/stalk of the leaves so I had silver dollar size pieces. Do this only after you have rinsed well and patted your leaves dry and they must be completely dry or you will have steamed kale instead.

Using your basting brush, baste on the salt and EVOO mixture and place on cookie sheet, dash lightly with salt. Do this until all the pieces are lightly coated and then place the entire cookie sheet in the oven. Cook for 10-15 minutes and checking at the 8 minute mark as to not burn your kale. Remove from oven and serve. Great with dinner, as an anytime snack, or to add that extra something to your meal and table.

 

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Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

Kids and parents want more flair with their pumpkins and why not? Halloween is but one day, once a year, and who doesn’t like to play dress up. Dress up your pumpkin, our pumpkins should be much the same as dress  up. Fall is upon us, well if you live anywhere but Phoenix Arizona where we still crest into the high 90s and we are all begging for cool weather to wear some fashionable boots. Oh I digress. With Halloween not that far off, the kids are all anxious to start cutting into pumpkins and today’s pumpkin is not the pumpkin of yesteryear with the traditional triangle cut eyes and triangle cut scary mouth.

halloween, pumpkin decorating, pumpkinsWhat I like to do is find out what the kids want for their pumpkin picture, whether the picture is of a witch on a broom, swirls, or any other picture of choice, print that picture and tape it to your pumpkin.

From there you can carve out the picture simply by stabbing the lines with a sharp paring knife or you can use a push pin and tap all along the lines so it dots out the picture on the outside of your pumpkin. After you have traced out the picture on the pumpkin the carving can begin. Cut off the top to create a lid like a standard pumpkin carving, scrape out the innards, saving the seeds if you so desire for a great fall snack and then begin cutting out your creation.

Place a small tea light candle inside and you are ready to showcase your creation and your pumpkin for all your trick or treater’s or as a party display. Don’t be afraid to dress up your pumpkin, choose something creative or out of the ordinary. Pumpkin decorating ideas can be found all over the internet and Pinterest.

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Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe

Fall is most definitely one of my favorite seasons of the year. The weather is fantastic. The mornings are rich with a cool bite of the season, the smell is unmistakable from summer into fall. You can almost compare the scent of fall to that first bite into an apple; crisp, juicy from the dew of the morning, bitter and then sweet with a smoothing you can feel all over your body. Continue reading “Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe”

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Breakfast Pizza Recipe

Sunday mornings are my time to give the man of the house a break and I whip up some of my culinary favorites in the morning for the family. Albeit egg nog french toast or pumpkin pancakes for the coming of fall, but lately we have tickled our taste buds for a bit more of the boring meets eccentric type of cuisine.

A little cafe by my office serves up a WICKED breakfast pizza, it is all sorts of unhealthy with garlic, olive oil, bacon, you name it and this breakfast pizza is topped with the heart stopping additives. While I wanted to copy this recipe of sorts I did not want to steal their thunder nor the replica of the food, I wanted to put a Herring organic spin. Of which I did!

Half dozen organic flour tortillas (super easy to make with organic flour too!)

Morning Star Vegan Sausage

Diced/cubed ham

(yes this is available in organic, you have to hunt for it)

Six Eggs, scrambled

(I add a touch of water while scrambling to make these babies extra fluffy)

Shredded Cheese (to taste)

On a large baking sheet or baking stone, place tortillas flat, topping with the above and add cheese to taste. You can mix up the ingredients and add bacon and or pork sausage, we went for a lower calorie and I love Morning Star sausage due to the vegan component for my kids. Place in oven at 350 degrees until the cheese melts to be sure not to overcook the eggs and meat and serve. My kids loved this new spin on pizza and breakfast.

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Broken Crayons Recycled

What to do with broken crayons? Our family is a waste not, want not type. More so the waste not because why throw out something that can be repaired or recycled. In our case we have about a gazillion broken crayons due to toddlers and children’s hands and who knows the reason why crayons break, but it happens. Unfortunately though these broken crayons became intertwined with those that are whole creating a crayon nightmare for my OCD. My project became how to reuse or what to do with broken crayons.

So one day I decided to embark on the great crayon rescue and clean up project. My kids have the Crayola crayon maker and to be honest I think it sucks, we used it and I was not impressed. I am glad I did not spend a great deal on it for Christmas one year, so that will be a yard sale item, and I suggest you do the same by not investing in this purchase. I digress. Any how, we sifted and sorted through the thousands of colors and crayons we have, removed the paper wrapping, and tossed into a bowl to break into smaller chunks.

When I saw that the Crayola contraption was lacking in effectiveness I resorted to creativity and ease. Here is how you can make your own cool shaped crayons at home here is all your need:

Non-stick or silicone muffin tin

I have these great silicone muffin tins from Wilton’s that I used for this project and created some really rad looking crayons for my three and a half year old twins and eight year old son that are great for them to grab onto with their little paws, are sturdy, and they are funky shaped and fun.

So I tossed in similar color family colors of crayons into each deposit spot and placed in the oven at about 250 degrees for roughly 20 minutes and watched them melt into the molds. I checked on them to ensure the wax did not bubble or boil as not to break down the way and mix the colors into an oblivion or brown and pure ugliness. Here is the end result and the kids love their new crayons and they are some fun, funky, sturdy crayons that are wonders for their imaginative coloring creations.broken crayons, recycled crayons, make new crayons

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Chicken Herbs de Provence Recipe

How do you make wicked good chicken without over salting, over seasoning, and or losing flavor? Our favorite seasoning for chicken is an Herbs de Provence recipe that is sure to be a favorite, on or off the grill. Some times the best seasoning is the least amount of seasoning. Let me tell you that the barbecue grill is not only the key to fabulous chicken, but it is an energy saver where you are not slaving over a hot stove. Continue reading “Chicken Herbs de Provence Recipe”