Here at Kitchen and Kids we are ranch dressing fiends. By fiends, I mean we literally put it on EVERYTHING! I’m sure it is a southern thing, but oh well … I am southern.
With that being said, I had to come up with a solid ranch that could compete with our store-bought ranch dressing. Why you ask? Because we are doing Whole 30 and our store bought just wouldn’t work. Now let me preface this recipe and any reference to Whole 30 … I am not well versed in Whole 30 and I am still learning, so if something isn’t Whole 30 friendly please forgive me. I do research items before creating a recipe, but there are so many opinions.
Also, I do not have an affiliate link with Amazon, so any link I post is strictly for your reference.
Now, here is pretty stellar ranch dressing that my family inhales. They like it on potatoes, salad, with plantains, and on various casseroles.
Yields approximately 2 1/2 cups
1 1⁄2 c. paleo mayo (homemade or store bought) 1 (5.4 oz) can coconut cream 1 to 1 1⁄2 tsp date paste (or 1 date) 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp dill 2 Tbsp dried parsley 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper
Mix mayo, coconut cream, date paste, apple cider vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together with an immersion blender or traditional blender.
Add in the dill and parsley. Whisk to combine.
Store in the fridge.
This ranch dressing only gets better as it sits, so feel free to make it ahead of time if you think about it. I typically forget to do that.
Oh, and one other note … you can make amazing deviled eggs using a bit of this ranch dressing. AMAZING!! Those were gone in 2 minutes flat in my house. Another great thing to do is to put grated horseradish into the ranch for horseradish ranch … even my young ones love it.
Here are a few products that I used in the above recipe with Amazon links. However, you may be able to get some of the items off Thrive Market for a smaller investment.
I hope you guys had a great week, we did. We took some time off to do things with our kids. We went to the local wildlife park and got to feed a ton of animals, including the giraffe who stuck his head in our car and licked us all including the baby. However, with our week of fun I did not cook, except for the Chipotle Pork Enchiladas, which were fantastic. I cannot express how ready I am to eat some food from my own kitchen. I don’t mind eating out periodically, but every day – ugh!!!
I would love to hear what you are having this week for dinner. Please share in the comments. Now, without further ado here is our dinner this week.
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Parmesan Tilapia, Sauteed Spinach and Leeks, and Couscous
As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.
You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.
The kitchen in my house is the center of activity. It has many, many, many uses such as a wrestling arena, an art studio, a music studio, and an office. But we mainly use it for creating yummy foods and teaching our kids. My 13-year-old is a master chef for his age and my 3-year-old is my little helper, they both LOVE to cook. Just the other day my daughter told me she wanted to make an egg, so she got out a little skillet and the eggs. It was really quite cute but in no way safe, so I vetoed the idea to her dismay. However, being the cool mommy I am, I decided to do a couple of fun cooking projects with her.
You may or may not realize this, but Easter is the last Sunday of this month, so my fun projects were two food object lessons to teach children about the resurrection of Christ. I am under no delusion that you have not heard of these object lessons, but I thought what better place and what better time to share them. Originally, I was simply going to do a step-by-step tutorial on the Resurrection Cookie, but then I stumbled upon the Resurrection Rolls and thought, “Yes, I must include these as well, especially since they are more interactive for the younger kids.”
In my opinion, anything that is food related and can be a teaching moment is stellar, especially if the food is yummy, and I can attest to the fact that these rolls and cookies ARE yummy. So let’s dive right in! We are going to start with the Resurrection Cookies because the aspects of this teachable moment relate tremendously to his death on the cross, as well as his resurrection from the tomb. Then we will do the Resurrection Rolls which are a great teachable moment about how Jesus was prepared for his burial and His resurrection.
Resurrection Cookies
Go ahead and grab all of the ingredients you need. You will also need a mixer for this recipe. I would highly recommend a stand mixer if you have one, since there is about 15 minutes of continuous mixing going on.
1 tsp. + distilled white vinegar
Salt, 2 pinches
3 egg whites
1 c. sugar
1 c. pecan halves
1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2) Place the nuts in a baggy and give your child a wooden spoon and have them beat the nuts into pieces. As they are doing this let them know that the Roman soldier beat Jesus. Read John 19:1-3. After the nuts are in pieces set them aside.
3) Now put a small amount of vinegar on your little one’s finger and have them taste it. Pour 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. After they tasted the vinegar ask them what they though? Was it good? Was it bitter? Tell them that as Jesus was on the cross the soldiers gave Jesus vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.
4) Add the egg whites to your mixing bowl. Tell your children the egg whites represent life, and Jesus gave his life to give us life abundantly. Read John 10:10-11.
5) Put a pinch of salt in your child’s palm and have them taste it. Add a pinch of salt to your mixing bowl. Ask your child if they knew tears were salty? Tell them the salt represents the tears that the women shed for Jesus. Read Luke 23:27.
6) Now give your child a pinch of sugar and have them taste its sweetness. Add 1 c. of sugar to the mixing bowl. Tell your child that up until you added the sugar all of the other ingredients were bitter, which is how the death of Jesus was. However, when the sugar was added it brought a wonderful sweetness to the mixture and that is what Jesus has done for us through His life. He loved us so much; He gave His life for us. Read Psalms 34:8 and John 3:16.
7) Beat the mixture for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks form. Have your child notice how white the mixture is. This represents the purity and cleansing of our sins because of Jesus’ death. Read Isaiah 1:18.
8) Fold in the nuts
9) Drop the mixture by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. The mounds represent the tomb where Jesus was buried.
10) Now place the cookie sheet into the oven. Turn off the heat. As a fun little something extra construct a paper boulder and tape over the oven window to seal the tomb. Read Matthew 27:59
11) Leave the cookies in the oven over-night. Make sure you turned the oven off. Now your children might be upset they have to leave the cookies overnight, but this is a great time to tell them how sad Jesus’ followers were when the tomb was sealed and they had to leave Jesus. Read John 16:20-22
12) The next morning, open your oven, pull out your cookies and observe what happened. The cookies should be hollow on the inside. Tell your child that is exactly how Jesus’ tomb was found – Empty! Read Matthew 28:1-9 and enjoy your cookies.
My family loved these cookies and so did the ladies in my Bible study. I didn’t want to leave such goodness lying around, so I shared it just like we do the good news of Christ.
Resurrection Rolls
First off gather your ingredients, it would be no fun to gather your little cuties together to learn a fun lesson and be missing ingredients. I loved that the rolls had very few ingredients and I had most of them on hand.
1 pkg. crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
4 TBL butter, melted
3 TBL sugar
1 TBL cinnamon
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. While your oven is pre-heating read John 19 – 20:1-10 to your kids, as a side note make sure that is actually what you read them or you will be scratching your head and wondering how in the world does this pertain to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
2) Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl large enough to roll a marshmallow around in.
3) Hold up a marshmallow and tell them “This is Jesus,” and see what they say. Actually tell them it represents the body of Jesus.
4) Point to the butter and tell them the butter represents the oil that was rubbed on Jesus’ body during his burial preparations. Have them roll a marshmallow around in the butter, cover all areas.
5) Now explain to them how the cinnamon and sugar represent the spices that were also rubbed on his body. Have them roll the buttered marshmallow around in the cinnamon and sugar to coat.
6) The crescent roll is representative of the linens that Jesus was wrapped in. Place the oiled and spiced marshmallow in the middle of the large portion of the crescent roll and fold the edges all around the marshmallow. It will NOT look like a crescent roll, but more like a little boulder. (How apropos?)
7) Place your little marshmallow boulders on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and then slide into the tomb (oven) for about 12 minutes. Don’t let your little ones watch them bake or cool, it needs to be a surprise.
8) After cooking remove from the oven and let them cool.
9) Break a cooled roll apart and show your little one.
What do they see? If they are like most little ones they won’t see anything and they will be amazed the marshmallow isn’t there. This is when you liken it to when Jesus rose and the tomb was left empty except for his linen cloth. However, be careful they might be like my little pistol and say “Oh, the marshmallows melted and they aren’t there anymore.” There was absolutely no amazement on her part.
I hope you enjoy these teachable moments. You can do either one or both of them. I think they complement each other nicely. This article was originally posted on Destiny In Bloom. Have a blessed Easter!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day a couple of days late! I hope you guys had a great week, we did. Spring is in the air, so we have been enjoying some outside time.
Last week we had some amazing eats! But, honestly my favorite meal was what I cooked on Sunday, which you will find linked below. I made Chipotle Pork Enchiladas and they were so full of complex flavors, but so easy to make. These enchiladas are a great food for entertaining and wowing your guests. I did make some changes to the recipe which I will eventually blog about, in the meantime you can enjoy the recipe as I found it.
I can also say that the Orange Chicken was fantastic, but I caution you to NOT let the chicken brown too much or you might end up with brown chicken and not orange chicken. Another thing I made last week were stuffed mushrooms with my awesome foodie friend, Jessica. We found ourselves staring in her fridge at some plump mushrooms just begging to be stuffed, so we stuffed them with awesomeness. That also is another blog post. So … without further ado next weeks menu.
As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.
You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.
So … the last time I posted a menu was Mother’s Day, talk about slacking. To be quite honest I cannot and will not promise that my menus will be posted regularly. I would like this to be a regular happening, but with three very active children, homeschooling and my exceptionally busy outside activities you never know. However, I do have quite a few friends who like to share menu ideas and this is a much easier way to share my ideas. I wouldn’t be opposed to anyone else sharing their menu ideas in the comment section. I don’t care if it is for one night, two nights, or the entire week every little bit helps. And, what helps even more if you can link it to recipes.
I hope you will join us on our culinary adventures. Sometimes they are safe and sometimes they are adventurous.
Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.
Sunday: Cast Iron Steaks, Buttery Dill Salmon, Fried Potatoes with Onions, and Roasted Asparagus
As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.
You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.
I am completely amazed at how other mom’s can blog, keep house, feed their kids, be wives, and take care of a new baby; I, however, am not that great at multi-tasking, so I took a hiatus from my world of blogging to really focus on growing my little man to his first birthday. That birthday is a week and a half away, so hopefully I can jump back into blogging more often. I can say that I never run out of material since I am the mom of a TEENAGER, a little mama, and an adorable little munchkin but formatting it into words is another story.
Here is my little munchkin at 8 months old.
Today I am actually re-posting an article I wrote for an on-line woman’s magazine, Destiny In Bloom. I know many of you might be experiencing some cooler weather and looking for some comforting soups, so here you go. I, however, will not be partaking of any soups at the moment, as our high today is supposed to be 70 degrees. Yikes!
Sausage and Black Bean Soup print recipe yields 4 servings
takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.
7 oz. smoked sausage, turkey sausage is a healthy alternative
1 c. diced bell pepper, green, red or yellow your choice
1 (14 oz) can low-sodium chicken broth
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
¼ c. chunky picante salsa
¼ c. chopped cilantro (optional)
1) Coat a medium sauce pan with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat; add in sausage and sauté’ approximately 1 minute or until sausage begins to brown.
2) Add the diced bell pepper to your sausage and sauté’ an additional minute.
3) Add in broth; bring to a boil.
4) Reduce heat and add in the beans and picante salsa; simmer for 5 minutes.
yields 10 servings
slow cooker soup, but can be made on the stove as well with decreased cooking time
14 oz. smoked sausage, cut into slices; turkey sausage is a healthy alternative
3 c. diced Russet potatoes
2 c. diced onions
½ package of coleslaw mix, no dressing; found with pre-bagged salads
1 c. carrots
1 c. frozen green beans
1 (14 oz) can Kidney beans
4 (14 oz) cans beef broth
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ c. Italian parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
½ tsp. dried thyme
½ tsp. black pepper
1 (14.5 oz) can diced Italian tomatoes
1) Heat a skillet over medium-high heat; brown the sausage for about 8 minutes, stir frequently.
2) While the sausage is browning layer your potatoes, onions, coleslaw mix, carrots, green beans, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, dried thyme and pepper in a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker.
3) Top vegetables and spices with the sausage.
4) Add in beef broth and cover with a lid.
5) Cook on high for 1 hour; reduce to low for an additional 8 hours or until veggies are tender. (If necessary, you could forgo cooking on high for 1 hour, but that will increase the amount of time necessary on low.)
6) Discard bay leaf, and stir in tomatoes.
This soup is great served with a crusty French bread. I like to use my bread maker and set it so the soup and bread are done at the same time.
3 lbs Yukon gold potatoes – baked, you can use Russet potatoes in a pinch
1 ½ c. half and half
1 ½ c. milk
1/3 c. flour
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 c. favorite bacon, cooked (we like apple-wood smoked bacon)
2 c. cheese, shredded 3 tsp. salt
½ c. butter
Fresh cracked pepper
1.) Scrub and bake potatoes at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until tender; cool before peeling. Once potatoes are cooled, peel and slightly mash them with a potato masher.
2.) Pour milk and half and half into a Dutch oven or large pot, sprinkle flour over milk and whisk as you add it in. Heat the milk and flour over medium high heat until thick and bubbly, whisk continuously to avoid scorching.
3.) Turn the heat to low and add in the potatoes, garlic powder, salt, cracked pepper, cheese, sour cream, butter and bacon bits mix thoroughly. Continue to heat the soup until the cheese is melted and it is completely warmed up. Do not let it boil.
4.) Serve the soup topped with additional shredded cheese, chives and a few bacon bits.
I hope you enjoy these soups. If you have any good recipes to share, I’d love to hear them. Have a super week.
I actually had a lot of fun planning the menu this week thanks to Pinterest. I have been on Pinterest for awhile, but I just got addicted to it. I love to peruse recipes and then pin them to my pretty boards. If you want to see my boards I would love for you to check them out here.
Last week we didn’t do a whole lot of cooking. Some shredded beef tacos and grilled pork chops about sums it up with a few meals eaten out. I would love to recommend menu planning to anyone who wants to eat healthy and stay on a budget. If you don’t menu plan you are more likely to eat out and for my family that means unnecessary spending and unhealthy choices. Also, no matter what the food is not as good as what we can get at home, and trust me I know this. My husband is a self-proclaimed food critic; sometimes I feel like I am eating with a judge from Chopped.
Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.
As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.
You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.
So I might still be struggling a bit to get into writing again, but that is because I want to write more than just recipes and posting pictures. I want to add some depth to Kitchen and Kids. God blessed me with the ability to write and I want to honor this gift. But, I don’t want to deviate too far from the topics of the kitchen either, so it will be an experiment to say the least. This past week I did plan a menu, but I never did get it posted which is fine since I still have half of it to cook this week.
I just recovered from an amazing women’s conference at my church, which if you are ever on the look out for a good conference this is one of them. I would say if you are in the Dallas/Forth Worth area you might want to check it out next year, but since people came all the way from India, Australia, Canada, etc… to participate I don’t want to eliminate anyone because of region. You can find information for next years conference here.
Last week I cooked for the first 1/2 of the week, but the second half was leftovers and eating out. We really enjoyed the grilled chicken with Parma Rosa sauce and angel hair pasta. I LOVE the Parma Rosa sauce, it is highly addicting and I am not above simply dipping toast in it. However, if I do not get this addiction under wraps I will not lose the baby weight, and I must lose the baby weight. I hope you give the Parma Rosa sauce a try, it is worth it.
Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.
Monday:Grilled Mozzarella, Tomato and Pesto sandwiches with creamy tomato soup (I’ll try to remember to blog about this. The key to that is getting some good pictures of the food as it is being prepared. As of late just getting it on the table has been a challenge with an 8 week old and 3 year old.)
Wednesday: Santa Fe Chicken and Rice (I have tentatively put this on the menu for nostalgia sake. When I first got married I made this often. We will see if I really am going to make it after I review the recipe.)
As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.
You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.
I can’t believe that three years could go by so fast, but it was three years ago today that God blessed our family with a very precious little girl. Little did we know that our family was not complete, but God did! He gave my husband, my then 9 1/2 year old son and myself a bundle of pink joy!
These last three years have been an amazing journey and I am so grateful to have my Little Miss. She is funny, intelligent, inquisitive, mischievous, dare-devilish, athletic, kind, gentle, a little mother, and beautiful. I have found so much joy in my little girl, and I know her daddy and I are truly blessed. I know she brings laughter to her big brother and is a mother hen to her baby brother. Our lives are complete with her in them. Happy Birthday Baby Girl may you have a blessed year. I am looking forward to seeing all of the new things you will discover this year.
Little Miss at 8 months old.
Little Miss’ 1st Birthday
Little Miss’ 2nd Birthday
Little Miss just a couple of days ago.
Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl. We love you very much! Mama, Daddy, Bubber and Baby Bubber.
Happy Tax Day! Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet Little Miss! Happy 6 weeks to my Little Man!
It has been way too long since I posted last, approximately two months. I will be honest and say that since the new year I haven’t cooked often, much less planned my menu. However, I finally feel like life is back to normal, or as normal as it can be with an additional family member. It is an adjustment from being a mother of two to a mother of three but it is so worth it, and so rewarding.
This last week was the first time since I had my son that I took the time to create a wonderful dinner. Since his birth some wonderful friends have brought over some meals and my fabulous husband has been instrumental in feeding us. I am very grateful for him or we might have starved. The favored dinner this last week was a new recipe and one that I will blog about the next time I make it. I made a totally divine Chicken Piccata with a tangy sauce flavored nicely with white wine and lemon, served over a very simple side dish of angel hair pasta with a garlic butter sauce, accompanied by a Ceaser salad and some garlic bread.
Here is what we will be eating at our house this week.
Sunday: Chicken Salad (from Costco)
Monday: Pizza for Little Miss’ 3rd Birthday with and antipasto salad (However all she cares about is cake. She said she didn’t want pizza for her birthday, just cake.)
Tuesday: Grilled Italian Chicken with Parma Rosa Sauce, ravioli, Ceaser salad and garlic bread
Wednesday: Fish and Chips (This was requested for my husband for his birthday dinner. Happy Birthday, Dear.)
Thursday: Dinner out with my in-laws for my husband and his brother’s birthdays. They are not twins, but close enough.
As recipes are posted on Kitchen and Kids, I will link them up to my menu plans, so if something interests you check back and see if I’ve posted a recipe.
You can find other wonderful ideas at the links below.
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