Thursday, August 26, 2010

Cooking Games – Tips for a Perfect School Lunch


These days I’m relegated to making school lunches instead of playing real cooking games. Of course, school lunches need love, too, and I’ve come up with a few plans of attack on how to pull together a nice lunch in a pretty speedy way.

To make a school lunch, I always start with a frozen juice packet. The frozen juice acts like ice to keep the rest of the lunch cool, but it also melt over the course of the morning so that you have nice, cold juice to drink at lunch time. This works with a small water bottle as well.

I then include something easy to eat with your fingers. I’ve discovered that packing something that resembles a real meal often means I forget to include silverware, so I’m stuck. Better to throw in some cheese and crackers or a sandwich than risk having pasta without a means to eat it.

Finally, I always include a sweet snack. Even if it’s just a single cookie or a small candy bar, it’s important to have a little treat throughout the day. It’s just as important, of course, to find a treat that is small – you don’t want to ruin your supper, after all.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Cooking Games in 10 Minutes or Less


I need to start some new cooking games in my household. By the time I get two boys home from gymnastics, I’ll be looking for something to fix very quickly before it’s time for some homework and bed. Our days fly by during the school year, but I don’t want to always eat out for simplicity’s sake. I want to be able to feed my children something that is at least mostly nutritious at home, although I’m sure I’ll forsake cooking games at least once in favor of take out.

But I can at least try to make some 10 minute meals for the kids. The best bet are things that are simple foods. Pasta is a simple food and goes over well in my household, especially since the boys don’t like sauce. Basic meat dishes are easy, too, since they don’t need to roast. A baked chicken breast feeds us easily and a steak can actually be pretty quick, too. The trick will be to do the prep beforehand as much as possible so that I can just throw everything together as I walk in the door. Tricky, but it can be done.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Cooking Games and School Lunches


I recently realized that I’m overdoing my cooking games to make school lunches by actually making them. To make school lunches, you’re apparently supposed to buy everything preassembled and chunk it into the lunch box. I’ll admit I like this idea a lot. I also think it will work well for my two kids – or at least one of them. One of my boys would love a packaged lunch every day. The other one is a bit of a picky eater. He wouldn’t eat anything in those packaged lunches.

So that means that at least my morning cooking games for school lunches is simplified by one. I can grab something and chunk it into the youngest’s lunch box. And then I can take the few minutes necessary to assemble the food items my oldest requires to eat at his lunch time. Once everything is there, it will be delicious and hopefully at least marginally nutritious. But then, you just never know how these things will turn out. You can use your cooking games to make a very special lunch and the kids wind up drinking the juice and eating chips. It’s always a gamble.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Cooking Games and Chocolate Bars


There are so many ways you can use a chocolate bar. For such an innocent piece of dessert, that lovely chocolate bar has brilliant existence in some of my favorite dishes. When you’re playing cooking games and making desserts, consider if a crushed chocolate bar or other candy bar could make the dessert even tastier. Here’s an example:

You’re making a mousse. The mousse is lush and rich and you’ve topped it with a layer of whipped cream for effect. While beautiful in a triffle dish, it would be even lovelier if you were to take a Heath Bar or even a regular chocolate bar and beat the dickens out of it. Then take all of those delicious chocolate crumbs and sprinkle them over the top of the dish. The final effect is one of a complete dessert that also has the added bonus of a bit of extra delicious flavor.