It’s not like patting out my own hamburger patties is hard, but sometimes I like the convenience of the pre-made kind.   The only problem with this is the inability to add flavors inside the patties (like adding onion soup mix or bbq or other seasonings to the meat before patting them out).

Here are a few ways to add flavor to the patties: 

Sprinkle it on:

• Seasoned salt
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Chili powder
• Good old salt and pepper

Slather it on:

• BBQ sauce – I’ve been liking a combo of Country Bob’s and Sweet Baby Ray’s.  Surprisingly good mixed together.
• Italian dressing – don’t save it just for chicken breasts
• Hoisin sauce
• Worcestershire sauce

Cheese it up:

• Cheddar
• American
• Swiss
• Pepper Jack

I’d love to hear your ideas for making hamburgers more interesting.  Leave a comment and tell me how you eat them!

How’s that for a long post title?

I’ve had several readers mention to me that they would love to see a smart phone app for Eat at Home, specifically for the menus.  I looked into having an app developed and found that it would cost $5K-$30K!  Yikes!  That’s not in the budget at all.

Thankfully, there are a few ways that you can still use Eat at Home on your smart phone.

One way is to use the ZipList app.  Many of my recipes are in ZipList format and I’m working to get the rest of them transferred, as well.  If you see a recipe you’d like to add to your ZipList recipe box, let me know and I’ll switch it over as soon as I can.

Setting up Eat at Home as an app on your phone

You can also set up Eat at Home (or any website) as an app on your phone.  In the photo above, you can see that I’ve got EaH set up on my phone (2nd row, 2nd app).   Here’s how you do it on an iPhone (I’m sure it’s a similar process on other smart phones):

While you’re browsing the web on your phone, click the arrow-box at the bottom of the screen.

The arrow-box brings up a screen like this.  From here, you can choose “Add to Home Page” and the site will be set up just like any app.  You will have to have internet access or use your data plan to use it though.

You can also use that button to save the Menus + Grocery Lists to your reading list:

The grocery list is easier to read on your phone than it appears to be in this photo.  Once you’ve saved the menus you needed, you can access them at the grocery store by clicking the open book image to the right of the arrow-box.

Ta-da!  A cheap work-around to having an app developed!

There are lots of ways to use technology in the kitchen.  We’ve been talking about that in the Ebates Savvy Living Community this week.  Join in the conversation!  Tell us what techy solutions you have!

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Disclosure: I have been compensated for my role as Community Leader in the Ebates Savvy Living Community.

I find it hard to eat the RDA of fruits and veggies.  It requires a real effort for me to even come close to the amounts recommended.  And once I stop thinking about it, I fall back into bad patterns.

Getting the kids to eat fresh fruits and veggies is even harder.

Lately, I’ve been trying to do better and most days, I manage to meet the goal.  Here are a few things that have been working for me: 

The first step was figuring out how far off the RDA I was.  You can find out more about the RDA here.
Eat more salad.  This is a no-brainer.  I’ve been trying to make a big salad soon after buying groceries.  If I wait until dinner to fix it, it gets neglected.  Not that ripping lettuce is hard, but it’s easy to skip when I’m in a hurry.
Vary the salad veggies.  Add romaine, spring greens, spinach.  Put in shredded carrots, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  I change it up and try to do different things each week.  Still, I’m not going to lie – salads get tiresome after a while.  I’m working on loving them.
Double the veggies in pasta dishes.  We love our pasta around here.  Lots of my recipes have veggies, so I’ve just tried adding more.  The kids don’t notice and tend to eat the veggies too.  It’s an easy way to get more of the good stuff.
Try filling half the plate with fruit/veggies.  This one is hard for me to do, but it’s a good visual goal.
Eat fruits and veggies as snacks.  I’m a big snacker.  Lately, I’ve tried to keep my extra snacking to only fresh fruits.

Want to join me in my challenge to eat more fruits and veggies?  Tonight (Thursday 4/12) at 9pm Eastern, I’m co-hosting an Ebates Savvy Living Live Chat on Fruits and Veggies.  We’ll be talking about:

• eating more produce
• growing our own fruits and veggies
• recipes
• convincing kids to eat more fruits and vegetables
• how to save money on produce
• and more!

You can join in the live chat right here on this post or in the Ebates Savvy Living Community.  I’m co-hosting with Kelly from Kansas City Mamas and Rachel from Following in My Shoes.  I hope you can join us!

We love sandwiches at our house for lunch or dinner.  But sometimes we get in a rut, plunking the same kind of meat and cheese between the same old bread, slathered with the same drab spread.

Here are some ways to pull your sandwich from the brink of boring: 

1.  Change up the bread

Try tortillas (spinach or other flavors), pita bread, bagels, thins, rolls, buns, flatbread…

2.  Add veggies

In addition to lettuce and tomato try avocado, red and/or green peppers, shredded carrots or broccoli, spinach…

3.  Add red onion

Red onion can perk a sandwich up all by itself.  A little bit adds a lot of flavor.

4.  Add sprouts

Sprouts add flavor, crunch and a good does of health too.

5.  Add pickled things

Banana peppers, roasted red peppers, dill pickles, sweet pickles bring interesting taste and color to sandwiches.

6.  Skip the bread

Wrap the whole sandwich in a slice of cheese or in a lettuce leaf.

7.  Season it

Sprinkle on salt and pepper, Cajun seasoning, ground red pepper, garlic powder, seasoned salt…

8.  Try a different spread

Slather on the honey mustard, chipotle mayo, or other interesting spread.  Or sprinkle the sandwich with oil and vinegar.

9.  Change up the cheese

Try muenster, provolone, pepper jack, cream cheese (lots of flavors to choose from), cheddar, Swiss…

10.  Heat it

Broil the whole sandwich, toast it on a griddle, toast the bread only, zap it in the microwave…

You can also change up the way you wrap a sandwich when packing.  Baggies aren’t the only possibility.  Try wrapping in foil or waxed paper instead.

Or try a reuseable sandwich bag, like these from Etsy.  Click the photos to visit the Etsy stores.

Being in the kitchen isn’t all about cooking.

There’s the clean up too.

And the messy hands from dealing with raw chicken or onions or any number of other ingredients used in a recipe.

When Lysol asked me to try out their new No Touch Kitchen System, I was happy to do so! I liked the idea of not having to pick up the soap bottle when my hands had just been in meatloaf mix.

It works just like the no-touch systems found in some public bathrooms. Put your hands under the sensor and a squirt of soap is dispensed. The kids thought this was fantastic!

I also used the No Touch Kitchen System for washing a sink full of dishes. Grab a dirty spoon or plate and let it trigger the dispenser, then run it under hot water. It’s a lot less messy than picking up the soap bottle with wet hands.

Lysol is giving away a No Touch Kitchen System with a year supply of soap! 

For a chance to win a No Touch Kitchen System with a year supply of soap complete these two steps:

• Share theUndercover Challenge with your friends below
• Tell us that you did AND tell us your kitchen cleaning challenge below

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Lysol. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules

Sometimes, you’re just not in the mood to find a recipe and yet, dinner has to be made.  If you know it’s going to be fish and need some ideas for how to fix it, this post is for you.

Here are 10 tasty fixes plus a few cooking methods to choose from too.

Cooking method 1 – Oven  

Place your choice of fish on a rimmed baking sheet.  You can drizzle with butter if you like.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

You can also use a foil packet in the oven, which is a nice way to add veggies.  Wrap the foil loosely around the fish and veggies and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Cooking method 2 – Skillet

Use a large skillet.  You may have to cook in batches if you’re cooking quite a few pieces of fish.  Melt butter and cook the fish over medium heat for 3-5 minutes per side, depending on how thick the pieces are.

Coking method 3 – Grill

I usually use and indoor grill (George Foreman).  It’s probably my favorite way to cook fish because it doesn’t add any fat (like the skillet method) and it’s super quick.  The fish is done in about 5 minutes, depending on the thickness.

There’s only one outdoor grill method I’ve used and that’s foil packet.  I’ve done individual as well as one large packet.  Both ways work fine.  Use heavy duty foil to avoid scorching the fish.  You can add veggies to the packet too.  I’d love to try a grill basket or cedar plank sometime.

10 ways to add flavor:

1.  Greek seasoning – sprinkle on fish and cook with your chosen method

2.  Lemon pepper seasoning

3. Italian seasoning

4. Old Bay Seasoning – a classic!

5.  Cajun seasoning

6.  Italian dressing – Use in a foil packet or oven on a baking sheet

7.  BBQ sauce – Especially good on salmon.  Use in oven in foil packet or the oven with a baking sheet.

8.  Add veggies in a foil packet – Use veggies that cook quickly like zucchini, yellow squash, thin onion slices, mushrooms, tomatoes etc.

9.  Garlic butter – Cook minced garlic in butter in a skillet and then add fish.  Or melt butter and add minced garlic, then pour over fish and cook in oven on baking sheet or in foil packet.

10.  Top cooked fish with diced tomatoes, red onion and cilantro (or basil, parsley or other herbs).

If you’d like to have a fish recipe, check out the Fish Category.  There are lots of easy recipes listed there, just keep scrolling to see them all.

• Cheese sauce
• Cream soup substitute
• Cream sauce for peas or potatoes or other veggies
• Sausage gravy
• Chipped beef gravy
• Sauce for casseroles
• and more

Making white sauce is a quick thing to do.  You’ll only need a whisk and a heavy pan or skillet.  The amounts of butter, milk (or broth) and flour can be altered for different amounts and thicknesses of sauce.  For a very basic sauce of medium thickness, use 3 Tbs. butter, 3 Tbs. flour and 1 1/2 cups milk. 

The first step is to melt the butter in the pan or skillet over medium heat.

Once the butter is melted, add the flour.

Whisk the flour into the butter.  Cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, whisking constantly.

The butter and flour should turn golden in color.  After it cooks for a minute, whisk in hot milk.  I warm the milk in the microwave for a minute or two to heat it up.  Whisk the milk in slowly.  Bring the sauce to a low boil, stirring frequently.

When the sauce begins to boil, turn down the heat or remove it from heat.  At this point you can add salt and pepper and any other seasoning you want.  You can also add cheese for a cheese sauce.

Variations

• Cook diced onions, celery, garlic and/or mushrooms in the butter before adding flour.  This makes a good substitute for canned soups.
• Add 1-2 cups of cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss or other types of cheese
  
• Add 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
• Add any seasonings such as poultry seasoning, nutmeg, onion powder, seasoned salt, curry powder, parsley, chives…
• Substitute chicken broth for 1/2 the milk

Tomorrow I’ll post a recipe for Ham & Swiss Potatoes that uses white sauce.  Once you know how to make basic white sauce, the possibilities are nearly endless.  Experiment and have fun!

Have a cut of beef in your freezer that you need to fix for dinner?  Not in the mood for a recipe?  No problem!

Here are some ideas to get you started.  No recipe required.

These ideas are for roasts or other cuts.  If you’ve got a nice steak, you’ll want to choose a different cooking method.

All of these ideas can be done in the oven or slow cooker.  The cooking time will depend on the cut of beef and how large the piece is.  As a general rule, beef roast or a round steak weighing about 2-3 lbs. will take 6-7  hours on high in the slow cooker.

9 ways to fix beef roast or other cuts of beef

1. Salsa – any type.
2. Diced tomatoes and green chilis.  Shred the meat and serve in tortillas or slice and serve with cornbread and veggies.
3. Enchilada sauce, shred and serve in tortillas.
4. Jar of gravy, add potatoes, carrots and onions cut in chunks.
5. Cream of mushroom soup.  Serve with baked potatoes.
6. Spaghetti sauce -  Pour over the meat.  Add green peppers and onions.  Serve over angel hair pasta.
7. Bbq sauce – Shred or slice and serve on buns.
8. Sprinkle with Italian seasonings, add onions, garlic and a splash of red wine.
9. Bay leaf, rosemary, salt and pepper, red wine or beef broth.
10. Make French Dip Sandwiches – Pour can of beef broth and 1 Tbs. worcestershire sauce over meat. Shred and serve on sub buns.

For reasons that are probably already obvious, I will never have a blog about decorating.  But I had to show you this piece of furniture that Jim and I transformed into a charging station and place to store laptop computers.

We have as many laptops as we have people in this house.  (All low-end PC’s, some of which are nearly worn out.  Nothing worth stealing, just in case there are any bad-guys out there reading this.)  Four of these get used on a regular basis.  That means that most days find laptops scattered on end tables, kitchen tables, couches…  And when we want to put them all away, there has been no where to put them.

Combine this problem with the need to charge all kinds of devices – from my Kindle to iPods to MP3 players to phones.  Cords were taking over the house.

The week after Christmas, Jim and I started scouring Craigslist for a dresser.  We found this little desk that turned out to be perfect.  Here it is in the “before” state.

Jim had already given it a light sanding and taken off the bat-wing hardware when I remembered to take a photo.

I painted it with white paint, using the suggestions in this eBook from Altar’d.  We swapped out the old brass bat-wing hardware for something nicer.

Then Jim removed part of the backing and drilled holes behind each drawer to feed cords through.  He mounted power strips in two of the drawers and also in the top.

We don’t use all of the outlets and we turn them off when something isn’t charging.  Also, we have two wall outlets near this cabinet, so we were able to plug into both.  I’m not sure that you’d want this many power strips plugging into one wall outlet.

It’s so nice to have a place to tuck away laptops and charge things when needed.  And it feels good to have a successful DIY project done too.

I’ll be back to posting about food tomorrow.  Thanks for letting me share about something different today!

I’m showing this off at Crystal & Co. Mommy Solutions

Tidy Mom I’m Lovin’ It

Do you struggle with getting dinner on the table? Is life super busy and you find yourself scurrying to feed your family come 6:00 each night? Without my crockpot and easy recipes dinner would never be served at my house.

I am excited to share with you eight of my favorite easy recipes that are time savers, budget friendly and will keep you out of the drive thru lines. Each of these recipes can easily be adapted to meet the size of your family.

1. Apple Butter Pork Chops in the Crockpot- apple butter season is here and these pork chops literally fell apart when they were done. The flavor was amazing. I served them over steamed rice which helped to stretch the meal even more.
2. Italian Crockpot Chicken - do you have any idea how tender a chicken breast is after it has cooked for hours over a tomato sauce? You will be asking for seconds. Top with cheese and serve over your favorite noddle.
3. Crockpot Lemon Chicken- can gourmet and crockpot be used in the same sentence? If you love the way lemon and Dijon mustard combine, you’re going to lick your plate clean with this one!
4. Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Casserole- who knew you could make something like this in the crockpot? This is tasty and feeds a crowd- perfect potluck meal.
5. Baked White Spaghetti- this is a recipe I have been making for years and it comes together very quickly. Do you keep cooked chicken on hand?
6. Beef Tips and Noodles (made in the crockpot)- I grew up on this recipe, my grandmother and mother made it when I was growing up. My kids enjoy it as well.
7. Crockpot Ravioli- this is another recipe that cooks fast and looks and tastes like it was baked in the oven. Family favorite at our house.
8. Easy Pasta Casserole- ground Italian sausage, cheese, your favorite pasta shape and your favorite jarred sauce and dinner is done in no time!

Delicious, easy and simple ingredient lists- that is what makes a recipe easy! (Well, add to that anything crockpotable!) Which of these easy recipes will you be adding to your menu plan?

Crystal is the author of the site Crystal & Co., where she shares her journey of raising five boys. On her site you will find loads of easy recipes, weekly meal planning inspiration, easy craft ideas, as well as mommy solutions and resources. Join her every Wednesday where she invites you to link up and share your mommy solutions and resources!