We have  some amazing dinners this month.  If you didn’t make it to the Menu Launch to taste and place your order you can rest assured that you can’t go wrong with any of the items we tasted tonight.  Don’t miss placing an order in September.  Dream Dinners is a great way to make sure you have a home cooked dinner ready even on game night.

The dinners we tasted were

Normandy Pork Roast, Hearty Beef Stew, Orangy Asian Chicken, Chicken and Dumplings, Cornflake Crusted Chicken, Buffalo Ranch Chicken, Pesto Cheese Ravioli, and Meatball Marinara Stuffed French Bread

The winners were

Guest Choice

Kids Choice

Owners Choice

Employee Choice

Take a moment to organize your life.  Throw out, recycle, or donate the items you don’t need anymore.  Clean out your freezer and pantry too.  Also organize your schedule.  Precious moments to connect at the table are hard to get when you’re rushed with school, sports and meetings - unless you look ahead now.

Some of my fondest memories are from eating dinner around the table with my family growing up.  I have now carried that over to eating dinner as often as possible around my table at home.  My two year old says some of the craziest stuff while we are eating and I think she is a really adventurous eater because we all sit down and eat everything together.

Remember National Family Day on September 27th!
A day to eat dinner with your children.

 If you need help with organizing your kitchen come to our “Cooking wihout Clutter” Class taught by Laura Lawrence of Harmony within.  It is on September 30th at 7pm.  We will have some delicious samples and we will have a great time learning how to be a little less messy.

Series 1 Healthy Carbohydrates.
Have you noticed the commercials and all the talk about eating whole grains, or carbs are bad for you? So, what are carbs and why such the controversy?
Carbohydrates are energy from plants. They provide energy for your muscles and brain and too little makes us cranky and unable to think clearly. However, most American’s eat plenty, but usually from the wrong sources. This means less nutrition and more calories.  Eating carbs like dougnuts, and white crackers,  means they have less nutrition and more calories,and are not a good quality. On the other hand, whole grains such as whole wheat, brown rice, bulgar, barley, and quinoa along with fresh fruits and veggies in season provide high nutrition content.
Why should you eat these whole grains, and fruits and veggies.?  They will fill you up and keep you satisfied longer.  The fiber from the whole grain helps keep your insides healthy and happy, and certain types of fiber clean out your blood vessels. They also help control blood glucose levels in people with diabetes.

How do you know if what you’re eating is Whole Grain?  There are so many products out there that claim to be whole grain.  Here’s what to look for:  Choose foods that name one of the following whole-grain ingredients first on the label’s ingredient list:

So, go ahead, examine your carbohydrates and then upgrade to a better model, after all, aren’t you worth it?
(Current recommendations are to eat half of your grains from whole grain sources.)

I just read a great book.  It was written by Sophie Kinsella!  You should definately go read this book, I also hear there is a movie in the works for release in 2011.  Anyway this book is about a women who has never cooked or cleaned in her life and she ends up taking a job as a live in housekeeper/cook.  I can’t imagine being as bad at cooking as Samatha, the main character is, but it makes for a good read.  Anyway she learns to cook gourmet meals rather quickly and she is taught that cooking is all about your senses.  I totally agree.  I think cooking can be one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling experiences.  Plus we get to do it everyday.  Some of you may be reading this and saying “she is crazy”.  I assure you I am not crazy, I am right.  If you have never cooked you need to get off the computer and go make something right NOW.  This first time may not be very enjoyable but the more you do it the better it will get.  And if you don’t enjoy cooking you aren’t doing it right.  Don’t think to hard or try to be too precise.  Follow your senses.  Touch, Smell, Feel, and Definately taste.  In the book Samatha is intructed to taste gravy with her eyes closed and to slow down when she eats to savor it.   I want to pass on the same instrction.  Take sometime in the next couple of days to really savor your food and to take the time and relax enough to enjoy cooking.  If you are like me and you already enjoy it help someone else feel that same joy.  Good Luck!

I love summer for lots of reasons but one of my favorite is Grilling.  I love the smell, I love the easy clean up, and I love the taste.   It is really a great way to get out and enjoy the summer.  You can grill at home or on vacation.  Some people are a little scared to grill because of bad past experience whether it is over or undercooked items.  My father in-law is famous for is Burnt Chicken, but this is an easy fix, don’t put BBQ or other heavy sauces on until your meat is almost ready to come off the grill.  Don’t over cook your meat,  If you are nervous buy a meat thermometer to check your temperature.   Grilling is a very fast cooking process so if you have cuts of meat that are tough tenderize ahead of time with marinades or by pounding them.  Don’t just grill the main dish.  Grilled vegetables are so deliciuos.  Just drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  You can put down a layer of aluminum foil if you have smaller veggies that might fall through the slats.  I also love roasting potatoes on the grill in an aluminum foil pouch.  The best part is after dinner you dont have any pots or pans to clean just have to scrap down the grill!  Get out there and try something new you know I will!

Whether families are on a vacation or a “staycation”, anyone can save significant money by packing dinner with them. Dinner out is typically the most expensive meal when it comes to family travel, while trying to cook in the cabin, condo, RV or campground requires a significant amount of time and effort to shop, pack, slice, dice and prep in a small space.

Dream Dinners, the nation’s leading meal assembly chain, provides a welcome solution with its fix-and-freeze service, which enables guests to assemble a number of dinners all at once using fresh, raw ingredients. Once assembled, freeze them, pack them in a cooler, and take them on the road! The results can easily add up to hundreds of dollars of vacation savings in just a few days.

How does it work? Easy as 1-2-3:

1.       At www.dreamdinners.com, sign up for a meal assembly session at a local Dream Dinners store. As part of the sign-up process select among 15-18 meal options available in three or six-servings.

2.       Compile all the meals in roughly an hour. The process is easy because Dream Dinners has already shopped, chopped and prepped all the ingredients, so guests simply follow assembly instructions at each menu station. In addition, the Dream Dinners staff cleans up everything too!

3.       All meals are packaged in either bags or metal tins intended for the freezer. Customers walk out the door with a complete range of fully assembled dinners, in compact packaging, with simple cooking and heating instructions.

With an average price of just $4.25 per serving, a family of four can enjoy a complete dinner entrée for just $12.75. Instead of eating out at expensive tourist traps, settling on unhealthy fast food, or having to travel with loads of ingredients (who wants to pack a spice rack??), five-nights of Dream Dinners meals would cost just under $65 on average for a family of three. This can add up to hundreds of dollars in savings, while also making it easy to prepare wholesome “home cooked” meals on the road.

The Dream Dinners summer menus include a full line-up of delicious summer dishes, from All American Beef Kabobs with Garlic Rice, to Greek Island Shrimp with Pasta, Parmesan Pesto Salmon and much more. Where can Dream Dinners meals go? Almost anywhere! Place them in a compact ice chest for a car trip to the cabin. Bring them camping for gourmet dining under the stars. Pack them to a motel or time-share, and take advantage of the kitchen setting without making a mess or needing a fully stocked fridge!

For more information, and to review the summer menus, visit www.dreamdinners.com.

Here are this weeks grocery deals in Utah County:
  Sunflower Market:  blackberries .88 a cup
  Reams: raspberries 4 cups for $5 & red bell peppers 2 for $1.
  Buy Low - for TODAY only: 1# bag baby carrots 2 for $1 & roma tomatoes 2# for $1

All week: cucumbers 4 for $1, celery 2 for $1, cherries 1.99#, lettuce 2 for $1.

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what to do with leftover’s. Here are some great ideas that can add a little creativity to your lunch menu.

Herb Crusted Flank Steak
Pasta

For an easy pasta dinner, sauté mushrooms & thin pieces of leftover flank steak. Add your favorite Marinara sauce and serve over spaghetti with Parmesan cheese on top.

Cola and Lime Tender Pork Roast
Cuban Style Sandwich

Make a Cuban style sandwich by layering thinly sliced pork, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, pickle planks and onion on a French roll spread with mustard. Then weigh down & press the sandwich with a cast iron skillet (or other heavy pan) while grilling in a frying pan.

Buffalo Ranch Chicken
Salad 

Chop up leftover cold chicken and sprinkle over romaine lettuce, tomatoes, celery, and cucumbers.  Add a little more ranch dressing and gorgonzola cheese if needed.

Tuscan Steak
Burritos

Make burritos using leftover steak, layered in warm tortillas with Spanish rice, shredded lettuce, grated cheese, black beans and your favorite salsa on top.

Kung Pao Chicken
Asian Wraps

Create big overstuffed wraps using leftover chicken, warm, leftover rice w/ shredded lettuce or cabbage, sprouts, grated carrot, tomatoes and your favorite Asian salad dressing or sauce. (A little hot Chinese mustard if desired.)

Apricot Glazed Pork Chops with Corn Cakes
Breakfast Scramble

Serve leftover corn cakes with a new twist on your normal scrabled eggs made from sautéed onions, 2 eggs and salt & pepper, and left pork chops with sauce.

Not tons of great deals this week to price match  on, but still some notable ones. 

Here are the great grocery deals in Utah County I found:

Winco
strawberries  $2.98 for 4#
russet potatoes .68 for 10#
raw almonds  $1.98#
  Sunflower Market
blackberries  .88 per carton
  Rancho Markets
cucumbers 8 for .99 (great sliced with italian dressing)
  Buy Low-wednesday produce
red grapes  $1#
tangelos 3# for $1
pink grapefruit  8 for $1