MomCooks

This summer take your campfire meals from drab to fab! Taste of Home, America’s #1 cooking magazine, has  easy to make outdoor recipes available right on their website. Everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so start your day out right with a delicious egg breakfast bowl. Filled with savory bacon, egg and cheese, it will make you the envy of the camp ground.

A long day of hiking, biking or boating will work up a healthy appetite. The Taste of Home Camping Guide has an  easy campfire hash to recharge, a mouth- watering mix of kielbasa, corn, green chilies and potatoes. But your camping culinary experience isn’t complete until evening comes…and with it, S’Mores.

This year take them to a whole new level with Peanut Butter S’Mores, a decadent blend of peanut butter, marshmallow, chocolate and cookie sure to make this dessert the new campfire favorite. With simple ingredients and easy to follow techniques these budget friendly recipes look and taste like gourmet treats. Make this summer’s camping vacation a trip to remember with these fun, delicious and easy recipes.

For the recipes above, as well as “how-to videos” on grilling tips, camping tips, how to pack the perfect picnic and much more visit http://www.tasteofhome.com/Taste-of-Home-Summer-Camping-Guide.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Skinny Cow (lisacooking.com)
• Can You Burn Off Those S’mores? (fitsugar.com)

First, MomCooks’ doctor told her she was

TOO FAT

and suggested she use the

ALLI PLAN

to lose weight

So MomCooks bought

and…

Last night she went shopping for foods on the plan and this morning she measured her breakfast foods to make 350 calories. It looked like this:

One and one-half cups Multi-Grain Cheerios
One-half cup fresh blueberries
3/4 cup 1% milk
Coffee with 1/4 cup 1% milk and 2 tablespoons fat-free French Vanilla Coffeemate

MomCooks is stuffed.

Image via Wikipedia

Did you know that Chocolate Milk is the “official” drink of Halloween? Me neither! This Friday, streets will be lined with ghosts, goblins and ghouls in search of sweet treats. Now, moms can make Halloween a little healthier for their kids by serving chocolate milk: The Official Drink of Halloween. Experts agree that lowfat chocolate milk is an easy, nutritious trick for “mummy” that won’t haunt anyone’s health!

Find healthy Halloween tips and festive recipes such as Minty Witch’s Brew, Gobblin-Good Rice Pudding, Chocolate-Strawberry Shivering Pops or Smoothies and more on the WhyMilk Halloween recipes page. I think this recipe for Oatmeal made with chocolate milk sounds really good!

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Magical Creamy Chocolate-Banana Oatmeal
makes Four 1/2 cup servings

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups 1% lowfat chocolate milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small banana, peeled and cut into small chunks (3 ounces)

Directions
Bring 2 1/4 cups chocolate milk and the salt to a gentle boil in medium saucepan. Stir in dried oats and cinnamon. Reduce heat. Gently boil, uncovered, over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; let stand for 2 to 3 minutes to slightly absorb excess milk in mixture, stirring occasionally.

To serve, stir in vanilla, then gently stir in banana. Spoon oatmeal into bowls. Pour 2 tablespoons remaining chocolate milk over each serving.
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Yum! Now, I know you are probably going into shock every time you buy a gallon of milk, because who ever thought that a gallon of milk would cost MORE than a gallon of gas? So what I’d like to point out is this- even at $4.00 a gallon, that still makes milk cost 25 cents for an eight ounce glass. That’s 25 cents to provide calcium, protein, and Vitamin D to your family. Milk offers more nutrients per penny than almost any other beverage option in the supermarket, at least among those that actually have nutritional value.

New online tools at whymilk.com show how you can get the most for your money at the grocery store by incorporating nutrient-rich foods like milk. The site includes comparisons to other beverages to show the nutrient and cost advantage per glass (http://www.whymilk.com/value_quarter.php) and offers suggestions for maximizing household grocery budgets (http://www.whymilk.com/value_cart.php).

Drink your milk! Mom says so :)

shown without eggs because I forgot to take a photo at the end :)

Italian Scramble (4 servings, I doubled most of the ingredients)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil (I used 2)
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cubed (I used a large potato)
• 1/2 lb. sweet italian sausage links (I used 1 lb.)
• 1 small onion, chopped (I didn’t double this)
• 1 small green pepper, chopped (I used half a large pepper
• 1 small red pepper, chopped (I used half a large pepper
• 8 eggs (I used 12)
• 2 Tbsp. milk (I used 3)
• 1/8 tsp. oregano (I used 1/4 tsp.)
• 1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes, drained (I didn’t double this)
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (I used 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese (I used 1/2 cup)

DIRECTIONS:

• Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the potato cubes in a single layer and let them cook without stirring for a few minutes until they begin to firm up. Use a pancake turner to carefully flip the potatoes over and continue cooking. Remove the sausage from the casings and use your fingers to add the sausage in small pieces to the potatoes and let it start browning.
• Add the onions and the red and green peppers to the frying pan and gently stir a few times, cooking until the sausage is no longer pink and the onions and peppers begin to soften. Poke a potato cube with the tip of a knife, the potato is done when the knife goes all the way through.
• Crack the eggs into a blender and add the milk, cover, and blend for a few seconds until the yolks and whites are completely combined. Carefully pour the eggs into the frying pan. Top with the drained tomatoes and the mozzarella cheese.
• Let the eggs sit for a few minutes, then begin using a pancake turner or heatproof spatula to lift the eggs from the bottom of the pan, letting the uncooked eggs run down. As the eggs begin to set, gently chop them into smaller pieces with the spatula and stir to combine everything together. Continue lifting and stirring until everything is well heated through and the eggs are set to your liking.

This is absolutely delicious for breakfast or for dinner. Doubling the recipe will give you enough to serve a family of four or five for dinner plus leftovers for breakfast. Store in a covered container in the fridge, then pour into a frying pan and heat over medium heat until heated through. Serve with buttered toast.

edited to add: I made this recipe for a Parent Bloggers Network campaign celebrating World Egg Day. For more egg recipes, visit the American Egg Board’s Incredible Edible Egg website, and visit Parent Bloggers Network for more great reviews!

My daughter Kaitlyn is 34 months old. And she LOVES cereal. She asks for it at lunch, at dinner, for a bedtime snack, I have never had a child eat as much cereal as she does! It doesn’t seem to be doing her any harm, she sure has plenty of energy :)

The other day we had Cheerios and blueberries, it was my breakfast and her mid-morning snack. I used up the milk on her cereal and then for my own, rather than just not eat the cereal and fruit, I plopped a bunch of lowfat vanilla yogurt on top and mixed it together. It was good!

What about you? Is there a cereal addict in your family?