Kate — Cooking During Stolen Moments

Good Luck In The Kitchen

March 16, 2012 By Kate Leave a Comment

Good luck comes in many forms. There have definitely been times in my life when “being lucky” was a loud and clear experience. However, I look at those little times – the little moments when something just goes your way for no real reason – as the true meaning of luck, and being blessed, in my life.

This is never more true than it is when I’m in the kitchen. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve said “well that was lucky” while working in the kitchen or sent up a whispered “thank you” praise when a disaster is averted. How many of these incidents can you relate to?

When turning from the stove to the sink to drain a boiling pot of pasta, I stumbled over Jill who had been all the way on the other side of the room just moments before. My feet tripped, but luckily my hands held firm to the handle of the pot and not even a single drop splashed out of the pan.
I was baking cookies and realized just before I got ready to put them in the oven that I had completely forgotten to add the brown sugar that was called for. Luckily I was able to salvage them with a little tweaking and delicious cookies were enjoyed by all!
Every year I make Eric a corned beef and cabbage dinner for his birthday. And every year, he uses enough mustard during that dinner to cover the entire state of Michigan. One year, we ran out of mustard, which was definitely sad news to him. This year, as I was getting ready to take the Birthday Dinner dishes down to the table, I grabbed the mustard and realized it was dangerously low. I rushed to the pantry to find the extra bottle that I knew was there. Except when I opened the door, I couldn’t find any mustard. Then Alex and Olivia said they knew where it was and saved the day. The mustard had somehow (who knows how) ended up with their toys. Luckily, it had never been opened and was completely full. Whew…birthday dinner saved!

Those are just a few recent experiences with good luck in the kitchen that I’ve encountered. How about you? What’s your kitchen-luck like? International Delight also wants to hear about your good luck with their Luck of the Irish contest.

Now, tell me about the last time good luck was on your side?

For your chance to win a Keurig coffee maker and a one year’s supply of International Delight creamer, complete these two steps:

1.Share the International Delight’s Luck of the Irish Facebook Contest with your friends below

2.Tell us that you’ve invited your friends to enter the Luck of the Irish Facebook Contest AND tell about a time when good luck was on your side

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions expressed by me do not necessarily reflect the view of the International Delight Brand. Official Contest Rules. Official International Delight Facebook Contest Rules.

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Balsamic Spinach & Water Chestnuts

February 29, 2012 By Kate 2 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit that our kids are a little strange. When you consider the fact that they love spinach, I think you’ll agree with me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we introduced them to Popeye and the power of spinach early on. Or maybe it’s because it’s been a regular part of their diets since they started eating solid foods.

Whatever the reason, I choose to not examine it too much and just enjoy it while it lasts. Spinach gets added to a ton of our meals but when it comes to serving it as a side dish, I usually rely on my Creamed Spinach recipe and that’s it. While that’s delicious and fine for an occasional side, I’ve been trying to lighten our meals up a bit (more on that below). So I decided a new go-to spinach side dish was in order and that’s how this dish was born.

The balsamic flavor, with just a touch of dijon mustard, it a great compliment to the spinach and the water chestnuts add a great crunch. It’s not creamed spinach, that’s for sure, but it’s still delicious!

Balsamic Spinach & Water Chestnuts

1 T. olive oil
1/2 Vidalia onion, diced
1 16 oz. bag frozen spinach (or about 1 1/2-2 pounds fresh spinach)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
2 t. sugar
2 t. dijon mustard
1/2 t. each salt, pepper, garlic powder

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spinach and water chestnuts; season to taste with salt and pepper, and cook an additional 5 minutes.

2. While the spinach cooks, whisk together the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into the skillet and cook for 1 minute. Enjoy!

Now, as I mentioned above, I have been working to lighten things up a bit because 2012 is the year when I finally lose some weight and get fit! Since I started in early January, I’ve lost 15 pounds and have about 20-25 more to go. This will only minimally affect the content here because there are 6 other people in this house that have to eat and none of them are trying to lose 40 pounds. (Plus honestly, they’ve all come to expect eating a certain way and I’m all for that!)

But, if you’d like to follow along on my weight loss journey, I’m blogging all about it for HealthyWage. You can check out my first post here if you’d like. Anyone else working on losing weight this year?

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Crock Pot Italian Chicken

February 20, 2012 By Kate 3 Comments

We recently made a pretty big switch to our dinnertime routine that has been awesome in the execution but a little difficult in the transition, at least for me. We bumped our dinnertime up an hour. Eric and I realized that if we did this, he could eat dinner with the family 5 nights a week instead of 3. It means he leaves a little later in the evenings to head out to work, but since his schedule is so flexible, it works perfectly. There are still two nights a week where this isn’t possible, but we all love eating dinner as a family, so we’ll take what we can get!

This change has meant I’ve had to adapt my usual cooking habits a bit so that I can make sure dinner is ready to go and on the table at 5:30 each night, instead of 6:30. Fortunately, the “stolen moments” method that I so love makes this a little easier than it would otherwise. But I’m still struggling a little bit because I’m a lover of routines and I like being set in my ways! Changes in the schedule like this are always a little difficult for me to cope with. So, I’ve been relying on my crock pot more than usual, just because it somehow makes the whole new process feel easier.

Anyhow…on with the food! This Crock Pot Italian Chicken was so tasty and it smelled amazing as it simmered all day. I served it over pasta to make a nice complete, filling dinner. You could also add some chicken stock to turn it into a soup if you’d like, which was what I did with my leftovers for lunch the next day. It’s delicious either way!

Crockpot Italian Chicken

1 T. olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced
2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. chicken stock
1 can sliced black olives, drained
2 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried basil
1 t. salt
1 t. black pepper
Cooked pasta, optional

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions, red pepper, garlic, mushrooms and zucchini. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until onions are translucent and mushrooms are browned. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Pour cooked veggies into a large crock pot. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.