YEAH! it’s Summer! For me that means cook out’s! All around my neighborhood you can smell the delicious smoke of BBQ’s and smokers grilling their way to dinner perfection.

I grew up grilling and whether you consider yourself a griller or BBQ’r (yes there is a difference)  I think we can all agree if it’s cooked outside it’s better!

ok confession time…….. I am a pretty good baker, a decent cook, a seasoned canner, and a horrible griller! I am not sure if it is my impatient nature or my constant need to multi task which you cannot do while tending meat on a grill. What ever it is I have burnt everything from fish to the side of my house trying to master this backyard fair.

So I decided to bow out gracefully and just provide you with some links for your summer outdoor cooking!

Enjoy!

www.Heinz57.com

allrecipes.com/Recipes/BBQ–Grilling/Main.aspx ·

www.bbqrecipesecrets.com

We are a busy family & one of my most trusted kitchen gadgets it my crock pot. So when I need a hearty family favorite with little effort I turn to my old friend crocky & whip up some french dips paired Fries, or salad, or whatever is in the fridge & my family thinks I am the coolest!

Jenna French Dip

One roast any kind

One can beef broth

One package pot roast seasoning (I likeMckormic )

One can water

Throw all in the crock pot  minus the rolls & cheese & cook on low for 8 hours

When done shred meat & return to liquid. Fill each hoagie roll with meat & cheese. broil for a few seconds, you can also serve with onions or your mushrooms for some added kick.

 Use liquid from crock for dipping!

I serve this dish with fries & it’s always a hit You can serve french dips with just about anything, and since the bread fills the plate you will most likely have left over meat you can reinvent for a new meal like beef pot pie, or beef quesadillas.

I love a home cooked meal & for me that sometimes means from a dutch oven in a pit covered in coals. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten were made in a cast iron pots miles from civilization.  So when I found this cool site on all things dutch I had to share it. http://www.dutchovencookware.com/dutch-oven-recipes.html

Dutch oven cooking can be done at home or in the back woods & has been around for hundreds of years. It is not as hard as it looks & trust me you have not lived until you have had peach cobbler ala dutch!

-Keep Cooking

Found this recipe in a card mailed to me by Body & Soul Whole Living Magazine.

In an electric blender, combine frozen organic blueberries and strawberries, 1/2 cup chilled green tea (unsweetened), 3/4 cup plain low-fat organic yogurt, 2 tbs ground flaxseed and a little trubinado or raw organic sugar to taste.

Blend till smooth—yum…and don’t you look young!

Contains about 250 calories, 13g protein, 9 grams fat, 35 g carbs and 8 g fibers–the perfect calorie combo. Thanks, Martha Stewart!

Want food that tastes better and is better for you and the environment? Then wave goodbye to your microwave.

First of all, most of what we “nuke” is frozen, processed, prepackaged, and far from its original state. It’s loaded with sodium, preservatives and lots of not-so-good-for-you ingredients–many that we don’t even know about because the FDA doesn’t require food companies to place all of them on their labels.

Secondly, there’s the questionable effects that microwaves have on us, and our food. Like everything else, our food has an energy or “life force” that gets destroyed when we nuke it. And it just doesn’t look or taste good without it!

I’ve also noticed that sometimes it’s even faster to cook on the stove than to use the microwave. That doesn’t seem to make sense.

But anyway, there’s a slow food movement out there, and I think I’m going to join. At least part-time. Life is so fast-paced, it could probably benefit us all mentally, physically–even fiscally!–if we went back to the basics and started to eat and prepare more of our food closer to the way nature intended it.

Keep your tastebuds tuned. I’m taking my time, but I’ll be back with tips and real-food recipes sometime soon!