Family Food for Moms Podcast I Inspiration for Family Cooking and Dining I How to Enjoy Special Meals Together

#56 Our New Recipe Book! Elegant Easy Appetizers: 5-Ingredient Recipes

 Hurray! Our new recipe book is here - the first one to come out: Elegant Easy Appetizers!. Each recipe has only five ingredients, they're very easy to make, they look elegant, and they lift your meal to the next level. 
I'll be taking a break from the podcast this week to celebrate Easter with family and friends. I'll be back on Monday 28th April! See you then.
Picture your dining room table beautifully set with charger plates, which are also called under plates, some elegant dinner plates, side plates, beautiful glasses, and your best cutlery or silverware, with your lovely cloth napkins folded into an elegant shape on the side or on the dinner plate. Maybe it’s a celebration meal, or just a fun, fancy dinner with your family. In the center of the table, you could have some candles or little twinkle lights, maybe beautiful colored electronic candles, some flowers, or any of your favorite centerpieces.
If you're celebrating something, perhaps Good Friday and Easter, you can make your meal more meaningful by having an appetizer, and by having multiple courses. You could do an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert, or just an appetizer and main course. It gives you more time at the table, and it helps you to connect as a family and have some really good conversation. Because you're having three courses, you have more time to talk to people, relax more fully, and start to really take part in the conversation. This is because you can focus on each other, rather than just having a quick meal and then leaping up to do the clearing and all going your separate ways. 
The appetizer course starts the meal in the right way. It helps everyone to see that it's not just going to be a rushed meal, so they have the right expectation coming to the table. They know there's going to be a few courses that they’ll get to enjoy, so even if one is not their favorite, perhaps another will be. They know they can take their time, relax, and enjoy good food. The goal of this meal is not just to eat, but to connect as a family, and to have good fellowship at the table. 
Go to familyfoodformoms.com/shop/ to buy our Elegant Easy Appetizers Book.
It's on sale with $3 off making it only $15 plus shipping!

#55 What to Make with Chicken Breasts – Tons of Yummy Ideas!

Do you ever feel overwhelmed or discouraged as a mom trying to feed your family healthy meals that are not going to take up too much time? I want to inspire you in the kitchen with ideas that are easy, and that can make mealtimes meaningful and special together. That's my goal here on the podcast. 
Today, I want to talk about tons of ideas for what you can cook using chicken breasts. There are skinless, boneless breasts that you can buy in a pack of usually four to six. 
Chicken is so versatile! I'm sure there are many more ways you can use it. I hope this sparks some ideas for you, and that you'll make a good chicken meal in the near future.

#54 Let's Talk About Balsamic Vinegar

 We're doing a series on amazing ingredients that we love to use in cooking, ones that are so healthy, so good, and have such a rich culinary history. Today we're gonna talk about balsamic vinegar and its roots in Italy, how it's made, why it's good for you, and then what you can use it for.
Balsamic vinegar is fascinating. It dates back to the Middle Ages, and some records suggest it was produced in the 11th century, first only in the region of Modena in northern Italy. Many of the balsamic vinegars that I've seen say Modena on them, so they're authentic. 
The word “balsamic” comes from the Latin word “balsamum”, which means “balm” or “restorative”. That's to reflect its qualities as a medicinal and a culinary product. It's always been used in a medicinal way for healing, and also to enhance flavor and nutrition in food. Back then, balsamic vinegar was a luxury item that was used by the very wealthy, and sometimes used as a form of medicine. 
The use of vinegar in ancient civilizations is well known, but it wasn't until balsamic vinegar was developed that the sweet and tangy variety of vinegar was born. Most vinegar is very sour, but balsamic vinegar has that sweetness along with the sourness. In the early days, families in the area of Modena would make small batches of balsamic vinegar to use themselves, or to give as gifts, but then it gradually became known outside of Italy, and sold as a gourmet product. 

#53 Part 2 of Packed Lunches for Kids and Adults - Wholesome and Nutritious!

Today, we’re going to talk more about packed lunches, whether they're for your kids at school, your hubby or yourself at work, or even for pre-made meals at home.
Last time I talked about taking the lunchbox that you’re going to be using, drawing the shape with however many compartments it has, and then choosing categories for each compartment. I mentioned the main method of carrying the food, whether it’s a sandwich or a wrap or something, and then all the other categories we talked about, such as deli meats and cheeses for the protein. We talked about some raw vegetables or salad ingredients.
We talked about fruit, and then dairy, whether it's cheese or yogurt, and a little dessert or treat, and whatever other categories you feel like or think of - maybe something like olives. This episode is simply going to be practical examples; anything that I've done, or things I’ve seen others do and I like the sound of...

#52 Packed Lunches for Kids and Adults - Wholesome and Nutritious!

 Today I wanna talk about packed lunches - how to plan them, how to make them healthy using whole foods, and I’ll mention a few different ideas for them. This could be for your kids' lunches at school. It could be for your husband's packed lunch if you do that for him when he goes off to work. It could be for your own packed lunch if you go out to work or to anywhere else during the day, maybe for when you’re sitting in the car waiting for your kids from ballet or whatever it might be.
It can even be for at home - sometimes it helps to have meals prepared in advance, although those would more likely be something you're going to heat up at home, and that you've prepared beforehand. A packed lunch, however, would be something that can be eaten cold, and would generally be very hearty, nutritious, and delicious. 
We recently got a heatable lunch box for my husband and son who go to the office once a week. It’s very useful, because it gives you so many more options for things to do, and it's just like a steamer. You add your food to little stainless steel dishes, and then you put a little water in the bottom of the box, and you let it steam for half an hour to an hour to heat up the food. That way, there's no need to use a microwave or whatever else might be there. You can just warm it at your desk. This is useful because then you can pack any cooked ingredient that just needs heating. For today, though, I want to talk about items that you can put in a lunchbox that will be eaten cold. 

#51 More Fun Food Day to Celebrate - July to December

Today I’m going to be doing the second half of the year of fun food days to celebrate.
I'm working from a website called timeanddate.com. I’m going to mention some ideas for ways to celebrate days involving food from July to December.
I hope you have fun with some of these days! Choose which ones you want to celebrate.

#50 Lets talk about a Fabulous Ingredient - Parmigiano Reggiano!

 I'm going to be starting a new series, although it won't be consecutive. I'll just do an episode now and then on an ingredient that I think is very significant and is worth learning more about. Today we're going to talk about Parmigiano Reggiano, which is a wonderful cheese, and so valuable to our health. I want to talk more about its history, what it is, exactly how it's made, and what you can use it for, as using it in your food makes it truly delicious. 
So, let's get started. I love this cheese because it's a raw milk cheese - it’s made from raw milk. It's well aged, so it's got all the good stuff in it, and it's very delicious. I used to buy finely grated Parmesan cheese instead. It was just easier to have a jar of that in the fridge, and grab it whenever I needed to for pasta or other cooking. But then I realized that all you need is a tiny little grater and a block of Parmigiano Reggiano, and then you can get that good stuff very easily. You just use one of those small, fine graters to grate it over whatever you’re working with...

#49 Fun and Helpful Food Hacks to Use in Your Kitchen

Today, I thought it would be fun to talk about some kitchen hacks. These are all just quick, simple hacks that you may know about and some you may not, but it's always good to be reminded!
I'll do another few hacks in a different episode, but I hope there are some things that you can apply.
Send me your ideas if you have some. You can do that at karyn@familyfoodformoms.com. I hope you have a great cooking week!

#48 What to Make with Ground Beef - Tons of Yummy Ideas

Just to let you know I'll not be on next week, but I'll be back the following week!
 Today we're going to talk about all kinds of different meals that you can make from ground beef, (or beef mince as some people call it). Bolognese on pizza is one of my favorite - with pineapple and feta (shocking, I know!)
I'm sure many of these are familiar to you, but others you may not have heard of or tried before. I'm going to get creative myself, and try one of these that I haven't tried before, because ground beef is a good cheap meat to be able to buy. Let's get into it!
 
 
 

#47 What Do Chefs Cook on Trains?

 I've always been fascinated by dining cars on trains. When I was a little girl, we used to travel on a train quite often overnight. And the best part was getting to go to the dining car. And it was always so beautiful with this wood paneling and like velvet and the tables would be set with a big white tablecloth and a flower in a vase.
And then you could order just like you in a restaurant. And I always found this so amazing. Like you look out the window and there's a beautiful view going by while you eat your dinner. So I think it's the best place to have a meal, in my opinion, is on a train, in the dining car, especially when it's fancy.
So today for fun, I thought it would be great to look at what kinds of food you can get on a train. It's not particularly for us to learn from, although. There's definitely principles that we can draw from it, but it's more just for fun to get some ideas of what chefs cook on trains.