Cooking
Smart Mama recipes, food items and more!
What’s for Dinner? Mediterranean Soy Marinade
Soy para Soy! Translation, I am for soy! Are you? Tonight’s dinner is a family favorite. Chicken and rice. But, tonight I’m kicking it up a notch in flavor and health! I have marinaded the thinly cut chicken breast in an oil-based marinade, using Soybean Oil! Mediterranean Soy Marinaded Chicken Recipe Type: Marinade Cuisine: […]
A Fun ECard and a Party! Who’s In?
Silly E-Card Find a few minutes this week to make the Chef Boyardee E-Card! We laughed so hard, you will too! You will need to upload up to three photos of family members that will be imposed onto dancing cartoons in the kitchen of the famous Chef Boyardee! To make the card, head over the […]
3 Great Recipes Using Jarred Herdez Salsa
With a jar of Herdez salsa and pretty much any protein, a mom can have delicious dinner ready. I find salsa to be a great ingredient in cooking. There are many recipes that use salsa. I have some favorites. Do you? 1. Santa Fe Pot Roast – This recipe comes right from the kitchen of Herdez Salsa. […]
FREE EBook on Cooking with Kids!
Kids In The Kitchen! Do you do it? Do you let your kids in the kitchen? I do and I love it. I love to cook. You probably knew that already. I’m a recipe kind of girl. You? The Kitchen is a Classroom Cooking is not only fun and tasty but very educational. There are […]
Chef Boyardee Cook-Along on Teachable Moments!
Chef Boyardee Cook-Along on Teachable Moments! I love to cook. My daughter loves to cook. We love to cook together. It makes a GREAT fun activity. We recently rolled up our sleeves and made a homemade pizza with the Chef Boyardee Pizza Kit. (Have you used this yet? It’s simple and delicious!) On Thursday, October […]
Produce for Kids Teams with Publix
Produce for Kids at Publix Walking into Publix you are first greeted with their abundant produce section. Colorful and fresh fruits and veggies are displayed and ready for purchase. Produce for Kids, an organization that has raised more than 3.2 million dollars to support healthy food initiatives, recognizes that the direct effect nutrition has on school […]
Win $50 Walmart Gift Card and a FlatOut Prize Pack!
We love pizza, especially homemade pizza, in this house. I’ve shared how our pizza toppings bar was a huge success – we’ve done it 3 more times since my original post! Or remember the American Flag pizza I learned to make during a special blogger event in NYC. I’ve even shared a simple homemade pizza […]
Make a Pizza Toppings Fixin’s Bar
We all have our own favorite pizza toppings. I now know that they can be quite entertaining on a “boring day!” Rainy day, snowy day, honestly, any day – it’s always fun making meal preparation time exciting and interactive for the kids. Last weekend was a long rainy weekend in Miami. I don’t think the […]
Whiten Teeth with Gum
The Minty Ahhh! Ahhh. You know that refreshing sensation and taste in your mouth after brushing your teeth? How does it make you feel? Along with a shower, a minty fresh mouth is very much an eye opener for this smart mama. I even keep a pack of peppermint Trident gum in my bag to […]
A Breakfast Sandwich is a Mom’s Weekday Treat
Kids in school means mom has more time. Not always. It may just be 5 extra minutes before the tasks of the days, (laundry, beds, dinner) take over. One of my favorite parts of my day is breakfast. There are great breakfast spots in Miami, as I’ve shared in the past. But, a busy mom […]
Planning Weekly Family Dinner Menu
Plan a weekly family dinner menu. It’s a smart mama move! Menu planning is a great way to maximize time and keep nutrition inline. I can be very type-A. I love organization. I love to have a plan, for everything! Back to school time gives me an opportunity to reorganize many aspects of my family’s […]
Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe
Stuffed mushrooms makes for a great appetizer! Mushrooms are a well liked veggie in this home. We use them in pot roast and pasta, and we even reuse the mushroom trays! My husband introduced me to stuffed mushrooms many years ago. It’s an Italian thing, I guess. It’s a yummy thing, for sure. These vegetarian stuffed mushrooms […]
Family Fun with Games and Snacks
August is Family Fun Month! Have you been celebrating? I honestly feel like every month is Family Fun Month! Yes, we like to have fun with great games, snacks and company! Do you? For the last year or so, we have regularly had a fun Family Game Night, filled with board games and yummy snacks. […]
Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog! It’s National Hot Dog Month!
This month more dogs will be grilled and consumed than any other month of the year. I’m sure the increase of summertime BBQs has an impact on summer hot dog eating! We cook hot dogs in four different ways – depends how much time we have! Microwave, boiling, frying or grilling. Our favorite is grilling. […]
Cuban Frita Recipe That’s Packed with Flavor
A Cuban hamburger is called a frita. It’s a small burger – think like a slider – that is full of flavor. They are fried up on a sauté pan and placed on a small bun. 1-2 fritas are consumed for a meal. A Cuban Frita A frita recipe includes similar ingredients as a traditional […]
California Grapes with Chef Michelle Bernstein
98% of grapes consumed in the United States are grown in California. I guess it’s fair to stay that California grapes have the market share of grapes! From May – January California farmers harvest grapes for table consumption – over 100 million boxes of grapes! Red, green and black grapes ship to your local grocers ready […]
The Sargento Ultimate Cheeseburger in Miami
I’m a cheese girl. I love cheese, all types of cheeses. Slap a piece of cheese on a warm hamburger and it’s perfect. Sargento, makers of the all-natural, never processed cheese is looking for the ultimate cheeseburger and they found it in Miami! Miami’s Filling Station has the BEST Cheeseburger! A local restaurant might just […]
Put a stick in it California Fruit Flag
A recent staycation theme has been California. Due to budget constraints and a big move in July, we’re staying local, very local (HOME) for our vacation time. To make it a bit more interesting and exciting, especially for the 5 year old, we decided to head to California, from the comfort of our living room […]
Soy Milk Smoothie Traveling Soy-ree with Giveaway
Opting for soy milk rather than traditional cow’s milk when making healthy fruit smoothies this summer is a Smart Mama move! Lower in carbohydrates, soy milk provides greater nutritional benefits than the milk we grew up enjoying. Studies on soy has shown that a breakfast high in protein, including soy protein, helps increase fullness and […]
Sautéed Onions or Juicy Pear? She Picked…
My 5 year old will eat sautéed onions but won’t go near a juicy pear. Yes, my daughter is an interesting eater. Do you have one like that at home? Onions have been cultivated for more than 5000 years and long ago in Egypt they were even considered an object of worship. Oh my! (Thanks […]
Oh Crap, She Needs Dinner NOW!
Busy day, but you’re organized. Then suddenly something springs up. You need to have your child ready in 15 minutes and she still hasn’t eaten dinner. The great meal you’re serving the family won’t be ready in time. What do you do? I recently served a Hormel Compleats when that last minute dinner was needed! […]
Crawdads an Unlikely Seafood Treat
At the Deering Seafood Festival earlier this year, I ordered Crawdads from The Golden Rule Seafood stand. I had no idea what it was. It sounded neat and I was in the adventurous mood. Then the plate arrived and this is what I had in front of me: I wasn’t even sure where to start. […]
I Need More Fries for My Gourmet Ketchup
Ketchup. It’s pureed tomatoes and some spices. Yes, you can tell the difference between top brands and generic, but all in all they are about the same. Boy, was I wrong with that notion when I encountered gourmet ketchup. Last month on my adventure in New York with the Country Crock group, we dined at […]
13 Days to Celebrate the Earth
Although Earth Day is the most celebrated, it is most certainly not the only holiday intended to honor Mother Nature. A quick search online brought me to United Nation’s list of the 13 different “environmental” holidays. February 2: Wetlands Day March 21: World Forestry Day March 22: World Water Day March 23: World Meteorological Day April 18: World […]
Crock Country Correspondents Hit NYC
The Crock Country Chronicles (say that 3xs fast) is getting “smarter” with its newest correspondent, Smarty Pants Mama! Yes, Crock Country Chronicles, Country Crock’s online newspaper will get a dose of my ideas each month! The newspaper is full of creativity, recipes and more to make meal time – especially veggie eating time – a […]
Unexpected Dinner Surprise of Pork Roast with Sweet Potatoes
It was one of those days last week. Tired. Not much in the fridge. An un-seasoned pork roast was in the meat drawer. I had bought at a great price a few days before not once considering how I would cook it. What I did know, is that it was the only defrosted protein available […]
