On the Menu...

Before I start the post I sat down to start...I just want to say that Blogger said this is my 100th post! Yeah!

Okay...I want to let you all know about two new recipes I put up on MichiganCutie Cooks today...One is a recipe I found online fora knock-off of McAlister's Chicken Tortilla Soup. I made it yesterday and Jon said our family now "loves" this recipe! It turned out very well and when he came home from work he said it smelled exactly right! It tasted so good that I wanted to share this recipe with you!

The other is a Beef or Chicken marinade that we have been using this summer when we grill. I also found this online, and it is VERY good! I really like the flavor, and it keeps the house cool b/c I fix the marinade in the morning and let it sit all day. Then Jon grills outside and...YUMMO!! :)

I also thought about giving just a few cooking/kitchen tips. I'm certainly not a professional cook or anything, but people do tend to like the things I make! :) I have recently learned that I have some friends who don't cook, don't cook well, or don't know how to make substitutions or alter recipes when needed. So here goes....maybe you can pick up something that might help you out...

**Most recipes can be doubled or tripled. This works out great for having company over hosting parties or just to make extra to put in the freezer for another time.

**It can often be very helpful to make extra and freeze it. Then, one day when you don't have time or the ingredients to make a recipe you can pull something out and thaw it in the oven or microwave. I have frozen BBQ meat, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, poppyseed chicken, chicken spaghetti...just about anything.

**If you don't want to make a whole extra recipe, you can save time by pre-preparing the meat. A lot of my casseroles call for cooked chicken. I usually boil or bake the chicken ahead of time with some seasonings (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper) then cool and tear it. If I'm gonna be cooking 4 for a recipe, I might as well cook the whole bag of 8 or 12 then separate it back out after torn. I would have enough to freeze portions for one or two more recipes! You can also do the same with ground beef...If you are going to brown 1 lb, why not brown 5? Then freeze it. Then, when you are ready to cook you don't have to thaw, then brown, then prepare. Quicker and cuts down on dishes!!!

**If you are making a soup (as I was yesterday) and it seems to be too thin (like mine was yesterday) you can thicken it up. If it's a cream or milk-based soup, put a couple tablespoons of flour in a small bowl. Then add just enough milk to make it pasty--like biscuit dough. If it's not cream based use whatver is in the soup....broth or water. Then you can stir it into the soup and it adds just a little 'thick' to the soup. DO NOT ever just sprinkle flour into the soup b/c it will get chunky and hold itself together in little balls that float on top of the soup. You need to add the liquid (milk or water) to the flour...not the flour to the liquid.

**Use leftover fried, baked or grilled chicken to make other recipes...you can cut it up in cubes or tear it and make chicken salad for sandwiches. You can cut it into strips and put it over lettuce for salad. I recently used some leftover fried tenders to make poppyseed chicken, not knowing how it would turn out. IT WAS SO GOOD! Like the breading on the chicken gave it even more flavor! Plus, I didn't have to cook my chicken that day! Be creative.

**Use leftover roast to make beef stew the next day. You can buy a packet of beef stew thickener and seasoning on the spice aisle at WallyMart and what's left in your crock pot is basically what you need. Broth, meat, vegs. Just make sure you tear or cut the beef into bite-sized pieces.

**If you are making a recipe that calls for two boiled things, try to use the same water twice...it cuts down on time waiting for the water to boil, plus it makes the flavor richer. For instance, for our Chicken Spaghetti I have to boil the chicken. Then I'm supposed to boil the noodles. I just use a slotted spoon to get the chicken pieces out of the water after they're all done, then boil the noodles in the chicken water. Or...for the McAlister's soup...boil chicken, then use that water (measured out to 5 cups) and boil the bouillion cubes.

**Something I learned when I worked in daycare...Use scissors to cut food for kids. They used to send special 'food-only' scissors down for us to cut up spaghetti, pizza, chicken, etc into bite sizes. Ever since then, I hardly ever use a knife except for fruits and vegetables. I use my scissors to trim fat off raw meat. I use them to cut chicken into whatever shape my recipe calls for--strips, cubes, diced, torn. I use them for pizza. For pancakes. For pasta. So quick. So clean. I love my scissors!

Well...that's all I can think of right now...Hopefully something will be helpful to you! If not, maybe you can at least enjoy some new recipes! :)