Category: culinary fun

Last week I told you a little about my work with Chef Boyardee on their Little Chefs eCookbook. This week my kiddos and I tried out a recipe together! We cooked a Chef Boyardee recipe using Beefaroni, called Cheeseburger-roni. We had a great time cooking together, and the recipe was fast and easy!

We cooked together in preparation for a fantastic event on theMotherhood.com tomorrow afternoon that I hope you’ll join me for! It’s a “Cook-Along” chat on the “Fun with Flavors” chapter that I contributed to in the Little Chefs eCookbook. It’s a 30-minute text chat and we’ll have lots of great flavorful ideas for you! Check out all the details below!

When: Thursday, November 8, at 2 p.m. ET.  It will last 30 minutes.

Where: The Motherhood – here is the link to the page where the class will be held: http://bit.ly/TcCMzR

About the class: Have picky eaters? Try creating a new, quick and easy recipe WITH them!  Introduce them to fun new flavors, like dips and spices, and encourage them to help you pick ingredients and create meals. Little Chefs are more likely to eat food they helped you cook! For more tips and tricks, join us in this fun and informative Cook-Along.

To participate, just click the link above, log into The Motherhood using your member ID (if you don’t have one, it’s easy and free to sign up), and chat away in the text-based comments. We’ll also have a video feed running during the half-hour Cook-Along, so you’re welcome to show up simply to watch if you’d like!

The Cook-Along is sponsored by Chef Boyardee, and it is hosted by The Motherhood.  You can visit Chef Boyardee online at http://www.chefboyardee.com/ or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/chefboyardee.

I’ll be there with several other bloggers to co-host the class, and I hope you’ll join us!  The fabulous people who will be co-hosting with me are:

Jennifer, The Suburban Mom http://www.thesuburbanmom.com
Kerri, The Maven of Social Media http://themavenofsocialmedia.com
Sarah, In the Trenches of Mommyhood http://www.sarahviz.com
Shannon, The Mommy-Files http://www.themommy-files.com

I hope you’ll join us for this fun, creative 30-minute chat! We’ll give you some great ideas to get your picky eater into cooking and EATING the meals you make for your family!

______________

I am being compensated for my work on the Chef Boyardee Little Chefs project.

One of my family favorites as a kid was Chef Boyardee Pizza.  (I still luuurve it.) We made them at home with my parents, which was fun, but my favorite way to make them was when Emily, her sister Anna and I made them with our Grandma Burns. (I love a Chef Boyardee pizza any which way you slice it, but no one makes one taste  better than my Grandma Burns!) Last year, my kids made one with my mom for the first time and they loved it.

(Side note: I also loooves me some Chef Boyardee Ravioli. Mmmm!)

So naturally, when Chef Boyardee and the Motherhood asked me to take part in a project focusing on cooking with kids, I said yes! I was privileged to be a part of the Little Chefs eCookbook, now available for download here! I know, I’m not exactly a culinary genius, but I did have a few things to say about getting my picky eaters to enjoy foods more when they take part in the cooking process by adding their own fun flavors.

Here we are having fun with flavors! Joshua added lime juice (and BBQ sauce!?!) to a salad (he loves all things sour!) and Sophie added tortilla chips to top hers (she loves all things chips!) We had a lot of fun cooking together!

To celebrate the Little Chefs eCookbook, Chef Boyardee has given me a fab prize package to give away so you can do some fun cooking at home with your Little Chefs!

One lucky winner will receive:

Kids’ kitchen measure and prep kit
Kids’ recipe box
Scrapbook album
2 Chef Boyardee chef hats
Chef Boyardee adult apron
Chef Boyardee child apron
Chef Boyardee pizza kit
Time capsule
2 coupons for free Chef Boyardee Beefaroni
5 Chef Boyardee recipe cards

To enter, just click over to the new the Little Chefs eCookbook and then come back here and leave me a comment telling me which chapter you think sounds most interesting!

For a bonus entry, tell me your favorite dish to make with your kids.

One winner will be drawn at random on Friday, November 2 at 6 pm EST. Good luck!

______________

I am being compensated for my work on the Little Chefs eCookbook by Chef Boyardee and the Motherhood.com.

Last week on Pin for the Wednesday I mentioned I was working with RO*TEL tomatoes on their “Spring into Summer” campaign, and I showed you my winning pin for their Guacamole that Rocks!  Well, this weekend I put even more yummy RO*TEL recipes to the test when I helped my BFF Luanne throw and 18th birthday/graduation party for her daughter, and my kids’ favorite babysitter, Krisha!

 

To help Krisha’s party guests spring into summer, I made five delicious party foods with RO*TEL and RO*TEL recipes! They are, from left to right: Guacamole that Rocks, Spicy Black Bean Salsa, Zesty Franks Ole‘, Ultimate Chicken Quesadillas, and Fiesta Seven-Layer Dip. Don’t they look tasty!?

I had a lot of fun making the recipes, and most were really easy.  The Spicy Black Bean Salsa was probably the easiest, and the Ultimate Chicken Quesadillas required the most effort (but were WELL worth it!) A fun thing I did was use different kinds of RO*TEL – I used mild RO*TEL in some of the recipes to make them more kid-friendly and less spicy, and I used Original RO*TEL in some recipes and RO*TEL with lime & cilantro in others! So they all had that RO*TEL kick but at different levels. Everything was SUPER tasty! I think my favorite was still the Guacamole that Rocks followed closely by the Fiesta Seven-Layer Dip, or maybe the Spicy Black Bean Salsa, I don’t know – it was all amazing! Krisha’s party guests thought so too:

The RO*TEL recipes really made Krisha’s party great!  Are you in a party mood?  To help you spring into summer, RO*TEL has given me a great party prize pack to give away to one lucky reader!  The winner will receive these items to throw their own party with great goodies from RO*TEL:

• Two cans of RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chiles
• Recipe cards
• Chip-and-dip serving bowl
• Green chili string lights
• Outdoor game set

Here’s how to enter to win!  You can enter up to four times!

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me which of these RO*TEL recipes looked yummiest to you

2) Like RO*TEL on Facebook, then leave a comment on this post telling me you did so

3) Follow RO*TEL on Twitter, then leave a comment on this post telling me you did so

4) Follow RO*TEL on Pinterest, then leave a comment on this post telling me you did so

One winner will be chosen at random on Monday, June 4, 2012 at 6pm EST.  Good luck!  And don’t forget to think RO*TEL recipes when you’re planning your next get-together!

____________________

I am being compensated by RO*TEL for this post and received RO*TEL product and party supplies to faciliate my review.  All opinion about the product and the recipes are my own.