Category: Flavor Blending

Mealtimes can be one of the most exciting times of day in many households, but they can also be one of the most boring. The time you put into each of the meals you make will usually be reflected in the end result, and this is a problem for busy people who don’t have time to spend all day in the kitchen. To help you out with this, this post will explore a range of different ideas that will enable you to add some spice to mealtimes, making it easier to find the time to eat and eat well.

Add Some Spice to Mealtimes with Homemade Sauces

Making sauces has long been a popular way to improve mealtimes in busy households. There are loads of different types of sauces out there, and this can be a good way to leave your own mark on a meal that would otherwise be quite boring. Finding options like a tartar sauce recipe when you’re having fish or a pepper sauce recipe when you’re cooking steak can be a great way to make meals taste better, all without forcing you to slave over the stove each day.

Some Saucey Ideas:

• Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce
• Creative — and Quick! — Pink Sauce
• Pistachio Cranberry Sauce

Creating Stock and Broths

If you do a lot of cooking with meat, you will probably be aware of the juices and fats that come out of it when it is cooked. Most people waste this part of their meals, though it can be turned into stock or broth for future meals with ease. Mixing your meat juices with some chopped vegetables, herbs, and water before leaving it all to sit can be a good way to get started with this, giving you the base for your next stew.

Home Blended Seasonings Add Some Spice to Mealtimes

Seasonings can also be a great option when you’re trying to make your meals more interesting. Fries, for example, are very boring, and most people will use seasonings like salt and pepper to make them nicer. Creating your own seasoning with salt, spices, and herbs will be easier than you might think, and you can start on this with the items you already have in your cupboard. You will need to be creative and willing to experiment a little to make this work.

Cooking in Bulk

Finally, as the last idea to consider, it’s time to think about a different method entirely. Bulk cooking has long been a popular way to fill freezers with food that can be eaten for weeks to come. Making a meal larger doesn’t usually take much more effort when you are already cooking, making it worth spending a little bit more time on your meals to ensure that you can make them last for more than one mealtime.

Making meals more interesting can be important for families. While children don’t tend to care much about food, enjoying a variety of flavors can be quite good for their mental health. Of course, though, this sort of work will also benefit you, and you will get to enjoy nicer food as a result of it.

You’re going to love this delicious stew with its unique blend of pork, sweet potato, and a medley of spices. Unlike tougher cuts of pork, tenderloin can be cooked relatively quickly. That means you don’t have to let it simmer for hours to get melt-in-your-mouth results.

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One Pot Savory Pork and Sweet Potato Stew

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword pork, sweet potato

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium red onion diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves minced
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 1¼ lb. pork tenderloin cut into 1” cubes
• 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1” cubes
• 1 15-oz. can black beans drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 14-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
• ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped, divided

Instructions

• In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
• Add red onion, celery, and garlic. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste, and stir to combine.
• Cook, stirring frequently until the veggies soften and develop a bit of color, approximately 3-4 minutes.
• Add pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat begins to brown, around 2-3 minutes.
• Add black beans and spices and stir to combine. Cook for another 30 seconds, or just until the spices become fragrant. Taste and season with additional salt and black pepper, if desired.
• Add crushed tomatoes and chicken stock and increase heat to high. Bring to boil, and then reduce heat to medium.
• Simmer, stirring occasionally, until pork is cooked through and the sweet potatoes are fork-tender, approximately 13-15 minutes.
• Remove from heat and discard bay leaves.
• Stir in 3 Tablespoons of fresh parsley. Taste and adjust seasonings, as desired.
• Top with remaining fresh parsley for garnish and serve immediately. Enjoy!

What is the difference between a yam and a sweet potato?

Sweet potatoes are sweet, orange-colored root vegetables that taste great in both sweet and savory dishes. They are long and have red skin. Many people believe they are yams, but they are wrong. In fact, that can of yams you love for Thanksgiving? They’re sweet potatoes.

Yams look like russet potatoes with a skin condition. Their skin is rough and fibrous and their flesh is off-white like a regular potato but much firmer.

It is an easy mistake to make. The flesh of a sweet potato can vary from white to orange and even purple. But regardless of color, the flesh is moist and much closer to a regular potato in texture.

A Quick Guide to Cuts of Pork

The main or primal cuts of pork are the four to six large parts created when the pig is first cut. These cuts include the shoulder, loin, belly, and leg. Pork tenderloin is the most tender cut of pork and comes from the loin area and is great for marinading and rubbing.

Want to tailor this stew to your taste? Try these ideas:

• Use chicken or beef instead of pork. It will give it a different flavor and texture, depending on the meat you use.
• Use some other type of beans instead of black beans. Red kidney beans or even garbanzo beans could work very well.
• Use a different kind of broth. Vegetable or beef broth are easy switches.

Want More Ideas for Serving Sweet Potato?

Try these other recipes!

• Slow Cooker Baked Sweet Potatoes
• Sweet Potato and Peanut Butter Soup
• Sweet Potato and Avocado Breakfast “Toast”
• Turkey Sausage and Sweet Potato Skillet

Want something different than your traditional turkey dish? Here’s a fun one: Turkey Sausage and Sweet Potato Skillet. It takes only 15 minutes of prep time, then less than a half-hour to cook. And you only need 5 ingredients!

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Turkey Sausage and Sweet Potato Skillet

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword sweet potato, turkey, yams

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lb. bulk turkey sausage
• 2 large sweet potatoes (yams), peeled and diced into small cubes
• 1 12 oz. bag frozen broccoli florets
• ¾ cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Sea salt and black pepper , to taste (optional)

Instructions

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
• Add the turkey sausage and season with salt and black pepper, if desired.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until the turkey is slightly browned and no longer pink, around 6-8 minutes. While cooking, break up the sausage into small chunks with a wooden spoon.
• Add the sweet potatoes to the skillet and continue cooking until they become soft and slightly crisp around the edges, approximately 10-12 minutes.
• Add the broccoli and season with additional salt and black pepper, if desired. Stir to combine.
• Cover and allow the broccoli to steam for 2-3 minutes.
• Remove the lid and sprinkle the shredded Mozzarella on top.
• Cover for another 1-2 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted.
• Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Because of this Turkey Sausage and Sweet Potato Skillet recipe’s simplicity, it is fairly easy to get creative and customize this dish to suit your tastes. Here are some ideas.

Use a different meat
Instead of turkey sausage, use another kind of sausage. You can also substitute in any kind of ground meat, including beef, pork, or lamb. And you don’t need to limit yourself to ground meats. Shredded meats will work, too. Have leftover chicken or turkey. Use that!

Play with the starch
This dish is pictured with yams, but you don’t need to stick with that starch. You can experiment with sweet potatoes or even regular potatoes. Red potatoes or even purple potatoes might work really well, depending on your meat.

Get creative with the veggies
Don’t like broccoli? Try another vegetable. Cauliflower, green beans, mixed veggies all could work well.

Change up the cheese
Try out other hard cheeses such as Monterey Jack, pepper Jack, cheddar, gouda, or Havarti. Any cheese you can shred can work.

Sprinkle in some seasonning
Depending on your other substitutions, you could create a very flavorful dish by adding herbs and spices.

• Using cauliflower? Try some spicy Indian curry or Mexican spices.
• You can give it an Italian flair with some oregano, basil, and marjoram.
• Add in some chopped garlic and onions!

Being creative in the kitchen is simply playing around with ingredients to see what works. The more you experiment, the more you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t, as well as what you like and what you don’t. Simple dishes like this one are perfect for experimentation.

In my post about how to create your best virtual Thanksgiving, I suggested you bring your video celebration into the real world by creating a gift you either sent before or after. In this post, I’m going to give you specific ideas for creating your Virtual Thanksgiving gift basket!

Gift baskets in general make excellent gifts. But this one will be extra-special because it will be used to bring your family together over the annual Thanksgiving feast. It is not hard to do, but it will mean so much. So let’s get started unleashing our Kitchen Creativity!

Step 1: Choose Your Virtual Thanksgiving Gift Basket Theme

Yes, the overarching theme is Thanksgiving, but you need to drill down a little further. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is the intent of the gift basket?
  Do you want it to be used to help the receiver prepare for the virtual Thanksgiving?
  Or will it be something to help preserve the memories?

What you’ll include in a prepare-for-the-event gift will be quite different than one that helps them remember the event for years to come.

Step 2: Select a Container

How will you package this gift? You have several options:

• A basket. To make it easier to ship, I recommend a rectangular or square one that can fit into a box.
• A box. You can get cool-looking boxes at places like Micheal’s or hobby stores. The box could be decorated with an autumnal theme, or simply be brown or orange.
• A cooking container. If there is a particular type of pan your receiver will need, why not send it along? Are you sending a turkey recipe? Use a roasting pan (it can be an inexpensive one-use pan). What about a pie tin for that pumpkin pie recipe.

Sometimes, a better container than a traditional basket is one that doubles as a bonus gift for your virtual Thanksgiving gift basket. You can use anything from a basket to a bucket to a bag and even more types of items.

Generally, when choosing the container, you want to think about the types of items included in the gift basket, what the theme is, and what other gifts the recipient might like.

Step 3: Decide what will go int your Virtual Thanksgiving Gift Basket

This where you can really unleash your Kitchen Creativity. To get you started, here are some ideas:

Treasured Recipe Gift Basket

In this gift, you’ll include all the non-perishable items they’ll need to make a treasured Thanksgiving recipe. For example, let’s say you’re sending the recipe for Johnny Appleseed Pie. You could include any or all of these items:

• A small jar with the sugar and cinnamon already mixed together
• A bag of semisweet chocolate morsels
• Another jar with the Bisquick and sugar mixed together
• A recipe card with the regular recipe on one side, and instruction on how to make it with the pre-mixed items on the other
• An apple-peeler/corer
• A pie tin

I would package all of these things with cute labels and perhaps some ribbon.

Thanksgiving Table Decor Gift Basket

This gift helps your recipients all set their Thanksgiving table in a similar way. This can help everyone feel more like they are together around the table as in previous years. You could include any or all of these items:

• Napkins
• Placemats
• Cups
• Centerpiece
• Plastic cuttlery
• Paper dinner plates
• Paper dessert plates
• Fake autumn leaves

All of these would have the same decoration or color theme. You can find all this stuff at a dollar store, party store, or perhaps a hobby shop. The key is that you and your recipients all have the same items. So if you get plates decorated with a turkey, then make sure everyone has the same decorated plates.

Family Recipes Gift Box

Gather all the family recipes used for Thanksgiving and create a cook booklet. It can be several pages of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper stapled in the corner or something with a little more design. You can even use colored paper to give it pizzazz. Then add some or all of these items to make it extra special:

• Wooden spoons
• A pie tin
• Measuring spoons
• A printed out collage of pictures from Thanksgivings past
• A thumbdrive or link to an unlisted YouTube video of you introducing them to the box or sharing special memories

Thanksgiving for the Memories Gift Box

This virtual Thanksgiving gift basket is sent after the event has taken place and can make a great Christmas present.

1. Buy enough thumbdrives for each household participating in the virtual Thanksgiving
2. Then, record the event and, periodically, take screen shots during your virtual Thanksgiving.
3. Pull the pictures together into a folder and download the video
4. Save the folder and the video onto the thumbdrives
5. Package the thumbdrives up nicely with a note and mail them out to the participants

You can make this gift extra special by throwing in a few add-ons like:

• Things related to the conversation. Was a recipe mentioned? Include it. Did you stroll down movie memory lane? Include the DVD.
• Frames, either empty or with pictures from the virtual Thanksgiving already in them
• Earbud for everyone in the household
• An engraved ornament or paperweight saying, “Our First Virtual Thanksgiving 2020”

Step 4: Purchase Everything You’ll Need

Now that you have your ideas. Create your shopping list and start collecting what you need to pull this all together. In addition to the items you listed in Step 3, you’ll also need some filling material and perhaps some ribbon. Places you can find your items at a reasonable cost include:

• Dollar stores
• Wal-Mart or Target
• Your grocery store
• Party stores
• Hobby and crafts stores
• Amazon.com

Step 5: Arrange the Virtual Thanksgiving Gift Baskets

This can be one of the intimidating parts of the gift basket making process, but remember there is no right or wrong way to do it. If you are using a bag or anything that closes, then you really don’t need to do anything but put the items inside. Try to put the larger items on the bottom so that when opening it, the recipient sees all of the products easily.

When you are using a basket or an open container like a cooking pot or plastic bucket, these tips will help:

• Start with the tallest items first.
  With a basket, you want to be able to see everything that is included, which means you don’t want to simply throw everything in and then wrap it up. Put the taller and bigger items in the back, so that when you add the rest of the items, those taller items can still be seen.
• Do your best to make sure every item can be seen.
  Arranging a gift basket or box sometimes means trying a few times until you get it right. You can move things around as needed until everything can be seen when someone receives the gift.
• Line the bottom of the basket with towels and other similar items.
  When you are giving something like a towel or small blanket as part of the gift, use that to line the bottom of the basket. This keeps it out of the way, but it can still be seen.

Step 6: Add Filler to the Basket

This is the easy part because all you are doing is choosing some type of material to act as filler in your basket. The filler is sometimes added to the bottom of the basket, but this is optional. What you are doing with the filler material is filing in any empty spaces so the basket looks full and the items remain in their intended position. Most people will use some type of shred, whether you get packaged shredded tissue paper or shred it yourself. You can even cut up shred with wrapping paper that matches the gift basket. Just fill the little holes around items with the filler.

Step 7: Decorate and Wrap the Virtual Thanksgiving Gift Basket

If you are going to wrap the basket, box, or whatever container you used in gift cellophane or wrapping paper, so so now. Then place your carefully crafted gift into a box big enough to hold it for shipping. Add packing material to protect it during shipping, tape it up, put the address on, and ship it out!

There, you’ve created something that will help bring your family together this Thanksgiving season.

Here’s a simple and tasty baked chicken meal for a cold Autumn evening. It has only 5 ingredients and only about 10 minutes of prep time. If you aren’t a fan of chicken breasts, feel free to use any parts of the chicken you do like. The recipe will work just fine.

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Baked Chicken and Rice Casserole

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword bake, chicken, rice

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons extravirgin olive oil, divided
• 4 4-oz boneless,skinless chicken breasts
• ½ mediumred onion, diced
• 1 cup long-grainbrown rice, rinsedand drained
• 3 cup chickenbroth, preferablyorganic
• Seasalt and black pepper, to taste (optional)

Instructions

• Preheatoven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch bakingdish with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Set aside.
• Heatthe remaining olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.
• Add chicken breasts and season with salt and black pepper, if desired. Cook until golden brown, approximately 3-4 minutes per side.
• Add onion and rice to the prepared baking dish. Season with salt and black pepper, if desired, and stir to combine.
• Pour the chicken broth over the rice and arrange the seared breasts on top of the rice mixture.
• Tightly cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
• Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the rice is cooked through.
• Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before fluffing the rice with a fork. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Notes

Tip: For maximum flavor, sauté the red onion and toast the brown rice in the skillet first. When you are finished browning the chicken, deglaze the pan with some of the chicken broth to scrape up any brown bits left on the bottom of the skillet. When finished, transfer the liquid from the skillet to the casserole dish with the rest of the chicken broth.

Make this Baked Chicken Recipe Your Own!

There are lots of ways you can unleash your Kitchen Creativity and give this recipe your own special twist. Here are some ideas.

Replace the Chicken with Something Else

• Instead of chicken breasts, cut a whole Cornish game hen into quarters or simply in half.
• Have some leftover turkey? Bake the rest of the casserole for the first 40 minutes, then add in your turkey leftover when you remove the foil.
• Mix up the chicken and instead of four chicken breasts, use a mix of parts, such as two breasts and 2-4 thighs. That way both your dark and light meat eaters will be happy.

Change Up the Flavor Profile

• Add some chopped, fresh garlic and saute with the onion before adding them to the rice.
• Season with some sage, rosemary and/or Italian Seasoning.
• Instead of 3 cups chicken broth, use 2 cups chicken broth and one cup dry, white wine.

Play Around with the Grains

• Use white rice, or a mixture of white, brown and wild rice.
• Try using either bulgar wheat or a mixture of bulgar and rice.
• For many, quinoa is a good, high-protein grain option
• Up for something more exotic? Try barley, freekeh or even triticale.

Experiment with one twist at a time, so you can know how it is affecting the overall dish. Then you can start mixing and matching. Soon the recipe will be completely yours!

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Take Charge of Your Health!

Changing your eating habits can be tough. But it doesn’t have to be if you take a little time to think it out and create a plan.

This Healthy Eating Worksheet will walk you through the process of creating a healthy eating plan. All you need to do is print it out, set aside some time to complete it, and then fill it out. Then you can create your plan, knowing that you have addressed potential obstacles and came up with some creative ways to handle them.

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