Category: Foodie Friday

Jeanetta Darley: First Fruits From the Garden {Greens}

Celebrating First fruits from the garden: Greens

Rainbow Swiss Chard

The weather is just starting to warm up. We are free of the frosts and freezes. Well, we hope we are! Fingers crossed. But we are ready for our gardens and to start enjoying those fresh homegrown or farmers market vegetables.

Mustard Greens

The first fruits from the garden that we can get our hands on are greens. Mustards, Collards, Kale, Chard. I love a mess of greens. But truth be told I did not grow up eating them. I didn’t learn to cook greens until after I was married. I looked questionably at the dark green leaves boiling with chunks of salt pork looking very much like a swamp witch’s brew.

Collard Greens

I plant my greens early in the year under hoop houses. This helps keep them a bit warmer and protect delicate leaves from any heavy snow. When I cook my greens, I don’t boil them. And there is always bacon involved.

mixed greens jeanetta darley

Celebrating #FirstFruits of the #Garden w @jeanettadarley 4 #FoodieFriday.

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Jeanetta Darley: First Fruits From the Garden {Greens}

Ingredients

2 gallon bags of greens (mustards, collards, kale, and or chard)
1 medium onion
8 slices of bacon
Minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash and dry greens. Remove the tough vein and stem of all but the chard. The stem is very tender when cooked and adds texture and a bright accent color to the dish. Chop or tear greens into 2 inch strips or pieces.
Slice the onion.
Cut the bacon into half inch pieces.
In a large stock po,t cook the bacon and onion over medium high heat until everything starts the brown.
Add the greens. You may have to do this in stages as the greens cook down.
Add garlic, salt and pepper.
Stir and cook for 20 minutes until greens are tender

https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/jeanetta-darley-first-fruits-from-the-garden-greens/

Jeanetta is an artist, blogger, and sometimes homesteader. She’s addicted to coffee, her garden, and chickens. You can see her art and read more stories at JeanettaDarley.com. Or follow her on social media @jeanettadarley.

Whitney Binzel: Coconut-Cantaloupe Water {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate the Flavors of Spring

I love living in the south. I love being able to watch the seasons change. When I lived out west, we had two seasons and that was it. With each season comes new harvests. Although technically cantaloupe and coconut are summer produce, it’s perfectly fine, and even encouraged to eat them year-round. Or in this case, drink. While I love cantaloupe and coconut whatever time of year, I especially love enjoying these beautiful fruits during spring and summer.

They both give off a warm beach-y vibe. Down here in the south, we don’t have to wait for summer to feel the heat. We can often wear shorts and tanks in April. There’s nothing better than sitting outside on the porch with a refreshing drink to cool you off.

One of my favorite things to drink on a hot and humid day is a refreshing drink I like to call Coconut Cantaloupe Water. It’s incredibly simple, and extremely refreshing. Hydrating is important on a hot day, so why not make the best of it with a delicious fruity drink. All you need is a bit of cantaloupe, a can of coconut water, and a wee mint leaf. What you’ll end up with is a fun drink you can enjoy during spring and summer. It’s naturally sweetened thanks to the cantaloupe and coconut, so you don’t have to worry about any artificial flavors.

Incredibly simple. Extremely refreshing. #CoconutCantaloupeWater 4 #ARWB #FoodieFriday…

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Cantaloupe is loaded with vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C. The coconut water is loaded with potassium and electrolytes. Together, the Coconut Cantaloupe Water makes the perfect drink to welcome spring and get you in the mood for summer.

coconut cantaloupe water whitney binzell

The recipe will make one serving in a tall glass and is easily doubled, or tripled. For a night with the girls, it can easily be turned into a subtle cocktail by adding your favorite vodka or rum.

Whitney Binzel: Coconut-Cantaloupe Water

Ingredients

1/4 up Cantaloupe, diced, plus extra for garnish
1 Can Coconut Water with Pulp, cold
1 Mint Leaf, plus extra for garnish
Ice
Tall Glass

Instructions

Add a few ice cubes to the glass.
Add the cantaloupe, coconut water, and mint leaf.
Garnish with extra cantaloupe and mint.

https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/whitney-binzel-coconut-cantaloupe-water-foodie-friday/

Whitney Binzel

Whitney blogs at WhitBit’s Kitchen, where she focuses on international food and drink recipes. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Whitney’s recipes have been featured on BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Parade Magazine, The Frisky, and Food & Wine

Connie Ash: Celebrate Flavors of Spring in NE Arkansas

Celebrate the Flavors of Spring

In Northeast Arkansas spring is a time for being outside, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the freshness in the air.

In Blytheville, spring means it is time for the Farmer’s Market. Several years ago Blytheville started looking for ways to draw people to Main Street. A once thriving place, where most of the city’s businesses were located, it was then sparsely lined with businesses among empty buildings and sidewalks.

Sitting on the west end of Main Street is a blue building prominently displaying a vertical sign with lighted letters, identifying the building as the Greyhound Bus Station. The city and Main Street Blytheville organization has diligently worked to restore the building to its original grandeur. The building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it is believed to be only one of three of a kind still in existence. Built in 1939, the building houses the local tourist information center, Main Street Blytheville, and now the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market.

Blytheville_Greyhound_Bus_Station

Not as large as some Farmers Markets, Main Street Farmers Market in Blytheville is a taste of small town Northeast Arkansas. You can buy fresh vegetables, locally baked goods and craft items. On almost any Saturday morning, there will be coffee and homemade tamales available.

blytheville farmers market

Being a vegetarian in a family of carnivores, I often try to cook recipes that will bring my meat-eating family members over to the vegetarian side. One of my family’s favorite recipes is fried spinach artichoke balls. My boys never make fun of my vegetables served up southern fried.

Fried Spinach-Artichoke Balls

Ingredients

9 ounces fresh green spinach, sautéed with a pinch of salt and pepper
1 (6.7 ounce) jar artichoke hearts (drain and pat dry)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 loves minced garlic
1 cup plain panko
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 lemon, cut into slices
1 pinch coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 cups canola or sunflower oil

Instructions

Sautee the green spinach in a skillet lightly coated in vegetable oil add a pinch of salt and pepper cook till wilted. Drain well on a paper towel.
In a large bowl, combine the spinach, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, Parmesan, mayonnaise, garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
Place bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm.
Place the panko, eggs and flour in 3 separate,small bowls.
Roll the spinach mixture into 1-inch balls.
Lightly roll in the flour, shaking off any excess.
Dip each ball in the egg wash, then lightly roll around in the panko.
Fry in hot sunflower oil until golden brown, about 3 minutes total.

Notes

If you ever in Blytheville, Arkansas stop the Grey Hound Bus Station. We would love to have you visit our little corner of Arkansas. Connie

https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/connie-ash-celebrate-flavors-of-spring-in-ne-arkansas/

Connie is a 50-something wife, mother, Nana, doggie mom, vegetarian, living in the small community of Blytheville, AR. located in the far Northeast corner of the State. She shares a home with her husband aka The Big Man, 14 rescue dogs and 10 chickens. Collectively they have five adult near-perfect children and five perfect grandboys and 5 awesome granddogs. Connie is a family nurse practitioner and manages a free health clinic (Great River Charitable Clinic). She and the Big Man also own and operate Bed and Biscuit Boarding. Connie is an active member of the Blytheville Humane Society. Her lbog Scrapbook Wife chronicles her journey to live a balance simple life making her little corner of the world a better place to live.

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Amy Hannon: Tres Leches Cake {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate the Flavors of Spring

I cook according to the weather, do y’all? I make heavy soups on blustery days. I fix a pulled pork BBQ meal for my family on sunny Saturdays. And as soon as Spring Forward, Easter, and warmer days come around, I get the itch for coconut. All things coconut! Coconut cream pie, coconut cake, coconut cream cheese frosting – you name it! I love the sweetness, the tenderness, and milky-ness of coconut. And I confess that I eat hands full of it when I’m baking with it. Can’t help myself! So these last few weeks, I’ve gone crazy for coconut!

One of my absolute favorite coconut recipes is this Coconut Tres Leches Cake. Tres leches means “three milks” that are poured over cake and allowed to stand overnight, soaking in every little drop. I love this recipe not only because it’s creamy, sweet, milky, coconutty, luscious, and rich, BUT it’s as easy as can be! This recipe starts with a boxed white cake mix and three milks that come from cans and cartons. What’s easier than that! This recipe is one that needs to be made the day before you plan to serve it, but it’s worth EVERY second that you have to wait on it. Magic happens when those milks are being absorbed into this classic white cake. So don’t rush the magic, y’all. Just let it do its thing.

Then finally after the cake has absorbed the three sweet milks, it is topped with a layer of homemade whipped cream and fresh or toasted coconut. Don’t be afraid to try your hand at homemade whipped cream! It really makes all the difference! Besides, the other steps in this cake are so simple that this is really the only real elbow-grease required. And it’s little elbow-grease at that! Once you make your own whipped cream, you’ll never go back. God’s honest truth.

And you know what’s even better? If your time is short or you just have a need to serve this up as personal cakes rather than a big, whole cake, then you can skip the milks and just make the cake batter, scoop it into pretty paper muffin cups, and then top them with the homemade cream and coconut! Ta da! Coconut cupcakes just like that!

I’ve made this recipe for friends, my sister-in-law, my family, for my TV crew, and for shoppers at my store. And the word on the street is that it’s pretty dern fabulous! Y’all need to try it and serve it to your people on one of these pretty Springtime days. They’ll love ya for it.

Euna Mae's Coconut Tres Leches Cake - Amy Hannon

Ingredients

COCONUT TRES LECHE CAKE
1 Duncan Hines white cake mix
1 small box instant white chocolate pudding mix
3 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup water
½ cup canola oil
½ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 egg whites
½ 14.5 oz can coconut milk
½ can sweetened condensed milk
½ can evaporated milk
½ teaspoon coconut extract
1 ½ cup heavy cream
½ cup powdered sugar
1 cup shredded coconut

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Separate eggs, keep whites in a small bowl; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all ingredients except the egg whites. Mix for 1 minute on low.
Add egg whites. Increase speed to medium high and mix for 2 minutes until well combined.
Spread batter into a prepared 9x13 cake pan.
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes or so until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
While cake bakes, whisk together three milks and coconut extract; set aside.
When cake is done, remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes.
Poke holes all around the cake using a toothpick or fork.
Carefully pour the milks over the cake - it will fill the pan and drown the cake! But no worries, the cake will absorb all of that sweet, creamy milk.
Allow cake to absorb milks and cool off at room temperature for about 45 minutes or so. Cover well with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to serve, whip heavy cream and powdered sugar on high with mixer until medium peaks form. May add in ½ tsp coconut extract if desired.
Over medium low heat, toast shredded coconut in a nonstick skillet stirring very often to be sure it doesn’t burn.
Spread fresh whipped cream over cake and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Notes

EASY AND FAST OPTIONAL CUPCAKE RECIPE Prepare batter as written above. Omit the soaking milks step. Then top with whipped cream and coconut!

https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/amy-hannon-tres-leches-cake-foodie-friday/

Amy Hannon is the owner of and heart behind EunaMae’s kitchen boutique in Springdale, Arkansas. She is a preacher’s wife, a mom of three, and her love language is feeding people. Amy hosts Cooking Today, a daily show on Northwest Arkansas’ KNWA/FOX24 where she cooks easy, good food right from her own kitchen.

Euna Mae’s Location:

1503 Carley Road

Springdale, AR 72762
(479) 419-9690

CONNECT WITH EUNA MAE’S
@EunaMaes on instagram
www.ShopEunaMaes.com
Eunamae’s Blog
Eunamae’s on Facebook

CONNECT WITH AMY ON COOKING TODAY
www.facebook.com/cookingtoday1
www.nwahomepage.com/cookingtoday

Diane Roark: Tacos4Life {A review}

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions expressed are those of Diane Roark.

Celebrating Food Adventures

Every Meal You Buy Means A Meal Donated to a Hungry Child

How is Tacos 4 Life so different from every other restaurant?

When you eat at Tacos 4 Life, you have an opportunity to help end childhood hungry around the world.

By choosing to eat Taco 4 Life’s delicious tacos, burritos, quesadillas and more, Tacos 4 Life helps feed a child who needs a meal. Tacos 4 Life calls this “Eat Good Do Good”. You not only get amazing food, but you also get a good feeling when you eat a reasonably priced meal and know you are helping to feed hungry children. My son Casey had an opportunity to help pack the meals. His high school volunteered to help pack meals a couple of times. My other son Caleb and I joined them. I can tell you from experience that if you eat at Tacos 4 Life, they use a portion of the money to ship meals to hungry children with the help of the non-profit organization Feed My Children. Feed My Children sends meals to countries with high rates of poverty and hunger.

In my opinion, not only is Tacos 4 Life Mission the best, but their food is just as terrific.

I Love Taco 4 Life’s Tex-Mex Food. I could eat there several times a week and never get tired of it. Their food is that delicious. Everything we have ordered at Tacos 4 Life has been extremely tasty.

Here are some of my favorite things from their menu:

Serious Steak Burrito: Marinated and grilled skirt steak, cilantro lime rice, refried beans, Pico de gallo, jack cheese, and chipotle aioli. The Chipotle Aioli is amazing! I would love to figure out how to make this amazing sauce.

Chipotle Chicken Burrito: Tender marinated and grilled chicken, cilantro lime rice, refried black beans, chipotle aioli, jack cheese, and pico de gallo. This is one of the best burritos I have ever had. The Chipotle Aioli is extremely amazing! I would love to have this recipe.
Ono Shrimp Tacos: An amazing shrimp taco with crispy shrimp tossed in pineapple cream ono sauce; served with pineapple, green onions, and toasted coconut in a grilled flour tortilla.

Where is Tacos 4 Life located? Tacos4Life’s newest location is in Fayetteville on College Avenue. Visit the original location in Conway the original location is on Dave Ward Drive or their second location on Oak Street. Their food is amazing and their mission is incredible. The owners are changing the world by feeding the hungry, and they are doing a wonderful job. Follow Tacos 4 Life on their Facebook page. You can volunteer to help pack meals to send to hungry kids all over the world.

If you are looking for a patio to have a picnic, Tacos 4 Life has extremely nice covered patios. The Conway location on Dave Ward even has a fireplace for colder days.

Celebrating Food Adventures: @Tacos4Life #review#ARWB #FoodieFriday @dianeroark

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Recipes For Our Daily Bread and Our American Travels are personal blogs written and edited by me, Diane Roark. I am passionate about family, food, travel, and my new love of photography. Recipes for our Daily Bread is where I blog about easy recipes to help you put dinner on the table quickly. I enjoy sharing Southern Recipes for special occasions too. Our American Travels is where I write about Family Fun Travels in America. You will find restaurant reviews plus information on Disney World, Branson, Alaska, Maine, and many Southern states. Be sure to join the other 20,000 Pinterest followers who follow Diane_Roark on Pinterest , FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter.

Paula Henry: Mafe {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate Food Adventures: Mafe – An African Stew

During the years I was lucky enough to get “stuck” in France, I picked up a lot of practical, food-related lifestyle insights: meals are good, snacking is not; if you feed your kids in courses, veggies first, the veggies get eaten; it is alarmingly easy to buy a bad baguette in Paris—better to commit your neighborhood’s “good” boulangerie’s apparently arbitrary schedule to memory.

The French really know the ins and outs of food. Maybe it was the wine, but I’d swear I never ate a disappointing meal while there. If they can’t put something worthwhile on the table, they prefer not to eat.

That’s why it seems counter-intuitive that among all the delicious dishes I sampled while there, perhaps my favorite is Mafe (mah fay), a hearty Senegalese peanut stew often available in the North African cafes of larger cities.

Traditionally made with lamb or other meat, I prefer to make Mafe as a vegetarian dish, rich with meaty root vegetables. As with most stews, many variations will work (skip the turnips and up the sweet potatoes, saute some sweet peppers with the onions, throw some torn kale in towards the end), but the stars here remain the chick peas and peanut butter. Though it sounds like an exotic combination, if you grew up with peanut butter as a staple like me and still crave its comforting and childhood-memory-inducing qualities, you’ll love this dish in any of its incarnations.

Mafe: An African Stew

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 large onion
1 large potato
1 large turnip
1 carrot
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1/2 tablespoon cumin
2 fresh thyme sprigs
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (or 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups stock of your choice or water
2 Tbsp fish sauce, optional
3/4 cup creamy, natural peanut butter
parsley for garnish

Instructions

 Finely chop the garlic and dice the onions. Peel and cut the potato, turnip, carrot, and sweet potato into ½ inch cubes.

In a large, heavy pot over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering and add the onions and garlic. Cook 2-3 minutes (until onions are transparent), then add the paprika, cayenne pepper and cumin and cook one more minute. Add the root vegetables, tomato paste, thyme sprigs, chickpeas, salt and black pepper.

Mix well. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the veggies are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
Turn off the heat but leave the pot on the stove.
Stir in the peanut butter and fish sauce, mix well and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with jasmine or basmati rice.

Notes

Adapted from the Cooking Channel’s “West African’s Finest Mafe” recipe.

https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/paula-henry-mafe-foodie-friday/

After graduating Bentonville High School and Hendrix College, Paula spent many years out of the area, including time in Key West, New York City, London, New York and Paris. After the birth of their two boys, she returned to family and Bentonville, where, with her husband Frederic. She now owns and operates Crepes Paulette, a popular local food truck, with a storefront Crepes Paulette coming soon to “southern” downtown Bentonville.

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Lyndi Fultz: A Gadget Adventure {Foodie Friday}

#FoodieFriday

Let’s go on a gadget adventure.

I am a sucker for a good kitchen gadget while at the same time ruthless at eliminating redundancy. The two go hand in hand, surprisingly. One speaks to ensuring you have the right gadget for the job and one speaks to eliminating waste. Less is more and more is, well, sometimes awesome.

Let’s go on a gadget adventure, shall we?

1. Purge, purge, purge.

It is time to open up those kitchen drawers. Yes, plural. Do you have drawer after drawer after drawer overflowing with multiples and curiosities? Take an honest assessment. Dump everything out and put aside the gadgets that you use every day. Those go in the drawer with most accessibility. The rest go into two piles: keep and discard. And by discard, I mean giveaway to family, friends, or a thrift store.

2. Explore, explore, explore.

Let your fingers do the exploration via the Internet. Been to Williams-Sonoma’s site lately? How about Sur la Table? Anthropologie? J.B. Prince? Check out what is available and popular by browsing the reviews. People are honest. Love it or hate it, they will always let you know.

3 Get out and touch it.

You’ve been dreaming about that new heat resistant white rubber tong set, haven’t you? Got a store close to you that has it? Get out and check it out. Feel it. Would owning it replace something that you already have? If so, purge, purge, purge the original. Would owning it add a nice new twist to your life? There’s your answer.

4. What the heck is that?

Many different regions, nationalities, and ethnicities have unique gadgets that are special to them. That doesn’t mean that we cannot partake. The darling Scot’s spurtle dates back to the fifteen century and could also be your answer to perfectly lump-free oatmeal on Sunday morning. You’re welcome.

5. Use it or lose it.

Did you purge some and keep some? Did you explore sites that made you hit the “buy” button? Did you get out, touch, and cha-ching the register? Did you decide you really needed the Ethiopian clay pot? Okay, great! Now comes the old adage, “use it or lose it.” All the gadgets in the world won’t add a bit of spice or pizazz to our lives if we don’t start using them. Get on it already!

While these are just five tiny ways to get started on your own gadget adventure, they are really only just the beginning. It is time to start a revolution. Hold up our hands with our half-burned wooden spoons, our slightly bent salad tongs, and those super-cute-I-promise-I-will-use them poached egg holders. The time is NOW to start moving forward. Are you ready?

Go-go-gadget-go.

Lyndi Fultz, nwafoodie

Arkansas Women Blogger member Lyndi Fultz writes about living and eating well from her life in beautiful Northwest Arkansas at nwafoodie. Much of her blogging inspiration comes from this gem of a place, which she refers to as the proverbial land of milk-and-honey. Read more related to cooking, entertaining, gadget suggestions, ingredient explorations, local finds, local restaurant treasures, kitchen tour spotlights, and always with a healthy and simplistic approach.

http://nwafoodie.blogspot.com/

Brittney Lee: Celebrate Church Suppers and Hash Brown Casserole

Celebrate Cooking Together

One of the highlights of my week is Wednesday night church supper. I don’t know that it’s inherently Southern – I’m sure there are churches outside of our region that do weekly meals. However, at our church, it feels like the most classically Southern thing I do each week.

For starters, there are sweet Southern ladies, most of them grandmas, who gather during the day on Wednesday to prepare the meal. The menu rotates, and they do have the option of a healthy choice grilled chicken salad for anyone watching their waistlines. These workers spend hours diligently chopping, sautéing, and preparing the meal for our church.

After work and school, slowly a crowd gathers in our gym. By 5 p.m., the smell of the meal is overwhelming. You can always tell what’s for supper long before you ever get to the buffet line.

A crew of servers happily fills plates while those waiting in line catch up on life. We are treated to Southern fare – chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, poppy seed chicken with green beans and bacon, and the crowd favorite – breakfast for dinner. On that night, we are treated to biscuits, gravy, and everyone’s beloved hash brown casserole.

Once we fill our plates, we gather around big tables to talk, laugh, and share life while breaking bread. We make trips to the dessert table and choose from a plethora of goodness including homemade pies, cakes, bread pudding, cookies, and my favorite, a Butterfinger ice box pie. We drink lemonade and sweet tea. We help feed each other’s babies. We watch kids as they play around the periphery of the gym. We hug the senior adults like they’re our grandparents. We hear about work, about life, about cars breaking down, and kids having fits. It’s around these tables and these meals that we share life together. It’s the best gathering each week.

I managed to wrangle the top secret hash brown casserole from our head chef, Monica. She makes enough to feed 100+ people each week, but she gave me recipe to make enough for our family. It’s great for breakfast or as a side dish. We love it with a roast or ham. I love it leftover for breakfast. I just love it. It’s easy. It tastes great. And it reminds me of sharing so many meals with my church family whom I love.

Celebrate favs from church suppers w @brittneydeane #ARWB #FoodieFriday

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Church Supper Hash Brown Casserole

2016-02-23 10:05:52

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Ingredients

2 lbs frozen hash browns thawed (either microwave them or let them thaw in the fridge)
16 oz. sour cream
1 10.5-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 10.5 -ounce can cream of chicken soup
2 Tablespoons dried onion flakes
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cube chicken bouillon (liquid bouillon may be substituted)
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 cups crushed corn flakes
1/2 cup unsalted butter

Instructions

Mix hash browns, sour cream, soup, onion flakes, cheese, bouillon, and black pepper.
Spread in a greased 9 x 13-inch pan.
Bake at 350 for 1-1.5 hours until bubbly and potatoes are soft.
Melt butter and mix in corn flakes.
Sprinkle casserole with crumb topping and bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes until browned.

Note from Debbie

CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP SUBSTITUTE

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup any broth (beef/chicken/vegetable
1/2 cup milk
mushrooms, chopped and sauteed (how ever much you desire)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
Stir in flour a little at a time until smooth, then remove from heat.
Add broth and milk a little at a time, whisking to keep mixture smooth. Stir in mushrooms.
Return to heat and bring sauce to a gentle boil; stir constantly until sauce thickens.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP SUBSTITUTE

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes (or 3 Tablespoons fresh)
1⁄2 teaspoon minced garlic
1⁄4 cup milk
1⁄4 cup heavy cream
1 cup chicken broth
1⁄3 cup flour
1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Over medium heat combine butter, onion, garlic, milk, heavy cream, and chicken broth in medium sauce pan until combined.
Add flour, salt and pepper and stir until it thickens. (About 3 minutes).
Just add more flour if you want it thicker.
Use in any recipe you need it for.

By Brittney Lee: Razorback Britt

Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

Brittney is a native Arkansan with a love for bright lights and big city. She often escapes her 20-acre home in a small town to shop, eat and catch a concert in the big city nearby. She blogs about her life, her faith, her adventures, her dogs and her country home at Razorback Britt.

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Julie Kohl – Celebrate Working Better Together In The Kitchen

Celebrate Cooking Together

I can be a bit of a control freak. (Okay, a LOT!)

Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes it backfires on me.

When it comes to the kitchen, I am a MAJOR control freak.

Early on in my marriage that backfired on me.

I come from a family that spent a lot of time together in the kitchen. We cooked and cleaned together. We hung out in the kitchen. Most family gatherings revolved around food and meals. Making food and eating food together was an important part of our lives.

My husband’s family was not into cooking and gathering around food like my family.

When we spent the first night in our home just after getting married, I planned an elaborate special breakfast. Holidays are always big affairs with menu planning for weeks in advance even if it’s just the two of us. I’ve been known to go all out for special dinners in the middle of the week.

Richie, who would have been happy with fried chicken every night when we first married, always thought this was a bit strange, but smiled and went along with it.

He enjoyed the chaos (and the food) from the comfort of his living room chair.

I expected Richie to step into the kitchen with me. To help cook. To help clean. Or at the least, offer to do the dishes if I did all the cooking.

Richie had never cooked more than a piece of toast, and his lack of understanding how things worked in the kitchen wasn’t entirely his fault. So, I invited Richie into the kitchen to help. We were still in “honeymoon” phase, trying to please each other, attempting to figure out how things worked.

But things didn’t go as expected.

I expected more. I expected knowledge. Basic understanding of how to slice an onion. How to load a dishwasher.

I got angry when that didn’t happen. There was frustration. There were words. Ugly words. There were tears.

It did not go well, to say the least.

Sixteen years later, the kitchen is still a place where we don’t quite jive yet. Recently, we’ve tried to rectify that.

Here are five tips to work better together in the kitchen.

Start Simple
If you’re working with someone who is new to a kitchen don’t throw Beouf Bourguignon, at them the first time out of the gate. Start simple with things like sandwiches or breakfast.
Learn Together
Take a cooking class together. Watch some kitchen technique videos on YouTube. Watch a show on the Food Network and then recreate the recipe together.
Swap Jobs
If you cooked, your spouse/significant other should do the dishes. But this should also be reciprocated.
Meal Plan Together
My husband seems more excited about helping in the kitchen if it is a meal he is excited about.
Release Control
There really is more than one way to slice an onion and more than one way to load a dishwasher. The dishes will still get clean and the food will still taste great even if the pieces of onion are sliced into 37 different degrees of thickness.

#ARWB MEMBER @eggsandherbs shares guidelines for cooking together as a family. #FoodieFriday

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Jacqueline Presley: Healthier Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream

Celebrate Cooking Together

Whether you are an ice cream lover, but can’t handle the lactose or you just want to cut fat and calories of your favorite sweet treat, I’ve got you. You can celebrate carving about 150 calories off your midnight snack if you make it my way.

Here’s what you need:

Chop up your banana.

Add it and a tablespoon of peanut butter (I used chunky.) to your food processor.

You will process it for a bit. Keep going until you get this texture:

Top with your favorites. I used chia seeds, but could also use sprinkles, peanuts, or chocolate chips.

It’s pretty delicious and it makes a great healthy after-school snack too!

Celebrate with this healthier peanut butter banana ice cream. #ARWB

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I am a work-at-home-mom of two little crazies: Katie (almost 7) and Jackson (almost 5) and wife to Spencer for 12 years. I blog at CreativeOutpour and I am a Social Media Manager for Rockwell Global.

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