Article by kim g. lain

Okay, I know it’s hard to believe, but there is actually a website called Cookbooks that provides recipes for every occasion and even the worst cook in the world can come up with ideas from this site! It’s true!

It’s 6pm and baseball practice is not over yet, homework isn’t done and who even remembers what a bath is! Not enough hours in the day? Understood! So, here’s the age old question: What’s for dinner?

My pantry had all kinds of miscellaneous things neatly piled in sections. My freezer had a few frozen tidbits, but what could I make for dinner? Cookbooks.com to the rescue! After having a very successful cookbook fundraiser with Fundcraft Publishing last year for our church mission trip, I learned about Cookbooks.com. Let me tell you – this site is truly amazing. Once you use it, you will always use it.

So, I had almost no time to cook and bedtime was approaching and homework wasn’t even done yet. Don’t you just love those kinds of evenings? I think we have all experienced them. And I refused to pick up fast-food for the third time in a week. Voila! I inspected the pantry, found a few ingredients, spices and a little meat in the freezer – had no idea what to do with them or if they would even make a meal – but I knew Cookbooks could help me with the largest recipe database on the market today!

I went to Cookbooks and entered “ingredients” in the section provided. Then a plethora of recipes appeared, all of which would make a fantastic meal with the miscellaneous ingredients I had on hand. Fantastic! Moreover, I even had choices!

Here’s what worked for me: I had rice, some seasonings, hamburger meat, bacon and a few other little add-ons. I simply entered the ingredients into the ingredient section and an entire list of recipes came up! I was astonished! (and relieved).

This recipe popped up that I chose: “Spanish Rice” Fry bacon and hamburger. Cook rice with 1 teaspoon salt and some butter. Mix together and bake 45-minutes. Wow! It was easy and tasted great! My kids gobbled it up and there was nothing left over. It sure did beat the drive-thru burger at a price that no mother loves. We had a home cooked meal, albeit, not fancy – but great tasting, filling and it was prepared, cooked and served in less than an hour, start to finish.

Thank you Cookbooks! The magic doesn’t stop there. You can get recipes on your cell phone which makes for a much easier grocery shopping trip. You can even enter such entr

The post What’s for Dinner for a hungry family! appeared first on Catering on the Move.

Article by Chris Grimbilas

Other than on Thanksgiving Day, there is not one household I have found where someone wants to spend all day cooking in the kitchen. In fact, most families I know would want to spend the least amount of time in the kitchen possible on a day to day basis. This means there is a desire to focus on quick and easy dinner recipes.Well every dinner is made up of the ingredients that go into it. When it comes to easy dinner recipes for the family, we must stick with fast cooking, easy ingredients. We use a rule of thumb in choosing ingredients. When cooking with kids, is it something they can cook by following directions and with minimum supervision. We want to be able to assign them a cooking task and have it be simple enough for them to see it through to completion. In order to achieve that, we have to follow the K.I.S.S. principle right from choosing our ingredients.So what do we use to prepare these easy dinner recipes for the family?1) Chopped meat. Ground beef is so flexible it can be used in a multitude of recipes to offer a solid meat product that can be used in burgers to Italian food to Mexican food to casseroles. If you are fat content conscious, you can substitute ground turkey for the ground beef.2) Chicken tenders. This is the easiest for of chicken to use. Generally speaking, they can be used in almost any meal that calls for chicken. The difference is that the smaller pieces cook more quickly3) Steak. Chuck steak is affordable and can be broiled in just a few minutes of each side. If you slice it before you cook it, it will fry up quickly as well.4) Spaghetti. How can you go wrong with something that boils up in under 10 minutes. Kids love it, too!5) Tuna fish. One of the quick standby meals in our house tuna noodle casserole. We have this perfected with a 20 minute start to serve process.6) Canned ham. This is easy to throw into the oven as is, or you can slice it into ham steaks, which will cook up really fast. You can also dice it for use in casseroles.7) Par-boiled rice. This cooks faster than regular rice and is less sticky. You can mix in almost anything to make it a meal.8) Frozen vegetables. Using frozen veggie come out fresher tasting when cook, hold more nutrition than is in canned veggies, and cook into one pan meals easierWe work pretty hard to come up with recipes that can be cooked in one dish if possible. Whether it

The post WHAT INGREDIENTS MAKE THE BEST EASY DINNER RECIPES FOR THE FAMILY? appeared first on Catering on the Move.

Article by David H. Urmann

Dinner can be enjoyed with an easy dinner recipe. A delectable dinner does not always need long preparations.

For most families, dinner is one of the most important meals. It is where most family members have time to eat together and talk about the day’s event.Dinner will not be complete without a healthy and heart warming food. Instead of bringing home ready to eat food, it is still best if you could prepare home cooked food for dinner to the delight of the whole family.

Since we are mostly tired due to a whole day’s work, it is often tiring to prepare food for dinner. But this is no problem at all since there are a lot of easy dinner recipes which you can easily prepare a delicious food for dinner.

Here are some of the great easy dinner ideas which you can choose from:Liver Dinner RecipeSince liver can be cooked easily, this is a good choice for dinner food. In addition, liver is a good source of vitamin B and iron.

Prepare the following ingredients: 1

The post Easy Dinner Recipe for the Family appeared first on Catering on the Move.

Catering for Friends and Family

Enjoying time with family and friends is an Australian tradition.  Here are a few tips to help you planning food and drinks for your next dinner party.

Preparation is the key to any good party.  It is essential to have a basic understanding of the jobs that need to be done in relation to the time you have available to you.  There are three steps that will guarantee that you are not in the kitchen when you should be enjoying the company of your guests.  Preparation, cooking and cleaning up are your biggest time consumers.  Create a menu that allows preparation the night before and can be quickly & easily cooked.     

A checklist can be done in advance to cover your basic setup; drink station, tables and chairs for guests, food service area, tea/coffee setup and rubbish bins.  Create a list of the items you will need for each area.  On the day of your party it can be quite easy to forget the basics or find yourself distracted  with early guest arrivals.  It always helps to have food and drinks ready in advance, this way you won’t be caught short for time!  If you are having a buffet, ensure you have enough serving utensils.  Don’t forget to have bins scattered around, as this will make cleaning up much easier.  Be practical when planning a party and don’t forget to add your own style and personality!

The type of cups, plates and cutlery you provide will be dependent on your budget, guest numbers and reason of function.  A BBQ in the park would be perfect for disposable items.  If you are having a cocktail party, glasses can be hired and are generally quite cost effective.  Providing finger foods is a great option to reduce the cleaning up required later.  Finger foods are also perfect if you are limited with space for table and chairs.

Once you have prepared for your party, it is time to relax and enjoy time with your friends and family with good food and drinks.

The post Catering for Friends and Family appeared first on Catering on the Move.