Let’s just say that serving Cook’s spiral cut, smoked country ham to my family created a feeding frenzy the likes of which I have not witnessed in the past year! “Stand down,” I felt like calling out as my teens and husband DEVOURED it. It was huge, and then it was gone!
So what did I do to create this culinary “siren-on-the-rocks?” It did come with its own sauce pack, but I decided that I had to add at least my own personal touch in the re-warming process. With spatula in hand, I put on top a whole jar of raspberry jam as well as some mustard, and let it heat slowly in the oven for a couple hours. That went well, until the aroma left the kitchen and drifted into the far reaches of the house. Who needs a dinner bell when you can use Cook’s ham instead. My kids who systematically ignore hollers of “COME TO DINNER!!” and“DINNER’S READY NOW, AS IN NOW!” came bounding from different parts of the house. More shocking yet, to speed things up, they actually offered to help set the table. What?!
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With football season rapidly approaching, my grocery shopping list now features all of the Sunday favorites of the men in my house. My husband Ron and my son Brooks prepare the living room, and their stomachs, days in advance. Even though they might find the time to spend hours sitting in front of the television screaming at quarterbacks, I certainly never do! Between catching up on email, gardening, spending time with my daughter, working out, and doing all those household chores I put off during the week, I can’t cook meals all day for the boys. Yet, left to their own devices, they would take down an entire plate of nachos with extra cheese as an appetizer to their appetizer and continue from there! So how do I make sure they eat a healthy, yummy, filling meal that also proves quick and easy to prepare?
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Anonymous
When most people think of kiwi, they think of the classic, juicy green kiwi that has a tangy-sweet, refreshing taste. Most, however, don't know about the hidden gem: gold kiwi, which has a mellow, tropical, sweet taste and a silky texture.The product of two crossed exotic fruit, the golden kiwifruit is a relatively new scientific "invention" that was created in New Zealand in the 1970's. The cross-pollination gave the fruit a tropically sweet and calming flavor similar to a melon! Zespri Kiwifruit, a grower, producer and seller of kiwi, carriesboth green and gold kiwifruit, two nutritious kiwi types grown in NewZealand.
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Anonymous
The new Campbell's SpongeBob soup, from www.campbellsoup.com, is one of thirteen Campbell's Condensed Kids Soups. These kids soup varieties are nourishing and healthy, and each soup contains 25% less sodium than the regular Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup (480 mg of sodium compared to the usual 890 mg!). Campbell's has lowered the sodium content in over 90 of its soups. All of the kids soups meet the government criteria for healthy foods, with controlled fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. They have been inspected and approved for wholesomeness by the U.S. Deptartment of Agriculture! The thirteen flavors contain 110 calories or less, 3g of fat or less, 0g trans fat, and 480 mg of Sodium.
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TechDad Central appreciates new technology in any form, so a break today from gadgets to write about my other favorite topic … food!
Two years ago I was on Buenos Aires, Argentina and ended up at a neighborhood steakhouse. I tasted grass-fed beef for the first time and have raved about its unique flavor ever since.
To my pleasant surprise, the Mom Central office received a pack of four filets from Williams-Sonoma this past week in connection with a Pepsi Natural recipe contest. I’ve always been skeptical about technology used to vacuum-seal steaks but when I opened the box I learned that these were grass-fed beef from an 80,000 acre ranch in California.
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Many parents have experience dealing with picky eaters. When my kids were young, every night we seemed to eat another form of chicken, the only meat they’d eat. Chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, chicken sandwiches…the list goes on. Which is probably where the “other white meat” campaign came from. Designed to remind us that, despite our preference for chicken, pork is available, healthy, and just as tasty, the tongue-in-cheek campaign likely inspires plenty of chicken-lovers to make something else for dinner once in awhile. I ran into their team at BlogHer this year and have to say that they had a fantastic booth filled with recipe books, grill tips for women, and even taste testing. When I arrived home, I cooked Jamaican Rubbed Chops for my famished family (they’d been surviving off leftovers while I was away!). It was definitely a 4 ½ star recipe, deliciously melding Caribbean spices with the juicy grilled meat. My husband and two teens all loved it, and it has been put into the hopper for future meal planning.
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Preparing lunches, whether for my kids or myself, tends to take time in the morning that I simply can’t spare. With two teens, missing backpacks, carpools, and last minute emails, it becomes difficult to eat a good breakfast, let alone plan for lunch. Like many of my fellow mom coworkers, I have too often had to settle for a microwavable noodle dish or frozen meal, opting for convenience over nutrition. But, recently, Oscar Mayer provided a welcome alternative and treated Mom Central to a lunch of Deli Fresh products.
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Heather Collins, Director of Sara Lee Fresh Bakery, opened our Sara Lee Mom Blogger Summit in Chicago by talking about her deep passion for nutrition and debunking the myths surrounding whole grain, wheat, and white breads. Heather noted that kids often dramatically change our bread-buying habits. What you might want to eat, such as artisan breads, usually goes by the wayside when you’re focused on your kids’ likes, which usually only includes white bread without specks or texture.
Knowing this, Sara Lee introduced their Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Made with Whole Grain White bread in 2005, offering the taste and soft texture kids love, but with whole grain nutrition baked in. It boasts 10 grams of whole grain (unprocessed grain, which directly translates into fiber) in a slice out of the 48 grams recommended for our daily diets.
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In my house, summer brings with it one barbecue after another. Yet, eventually, my family grows tired of the standard fare: hamburgers, sausages, grilled chicken, and vegetables, and we face the challenge of coming up with unique barbecue dishes.
Recently, I had a chance to try out Pepsi’s new soda, Pepsi Natural, an innovative new soft drink. Made with all natural ingredients, including caramel, natural sugars, natural apple extract for color, and kola nut extract, the new drink provides a throwback to the old days of natural ingredients in soda. With two teens, it proves difficult to keep soda out of the house entirely (and I have certainly been known to rely on the drink for an afternoon caffeine jolt), so it's nice to know that this is a soda Moms can feel good about giving to their families. Knowing that soft drinks can make a great addition to barbecue, I put together a recipe with Pepsi Natural that makes a great marinade for meats.
Southern Cola Barbecue Sauce
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