MomCooks

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? We had a slight mishap with our turkey – it sort of cooked way too long and dried out – but I discovered that turkey breast meat steamed in a covered container with a little water in the microwave tastes just fine covered with turkey gravy :)   Even after having leftovers for lunch on Friday and turkey sandwiches for lunch yesterday, we STILL have a container full of mostly breast meat in the fridge, so dinner tonight is definitely being made with turkey!

Monday – Turkey Divan Casserole, tossed salad, crescent rolls

Tuesday – Sloppy Joes, corn, sliced apples

Wednesday – Slow Cooker Pork Loin Roast with Gravy (pork loin’s on sale at Meijer, and I have most of these ingredients already!), carrots, potatoes

Thursday – Spaghetti, Garlic bread, corn

Friday – Pizza Night

Saturday – Leftovers

Sunday – not planned yet

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COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY!

After the New Orleans neighborhoods David Guas grew up in were nearly erased by Hurricane Katrina, he knew he needed to record and preserve not only the desserts of his family and region, but his memories as well especially for his two young sons. DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style is part dessert cookbook, part travelogue and really shines with amazing food photography, wonderful stories of New Orleans and great recipes like Buttermilk Beignets and handmade Chocolate Pralines.

David wants to celebrate his book with bloggers and foodies that have supported him the most, and so he has created “Sweet Swap”, an ON-LINE LIVE CHAT for bakers, bloggers and all types of folk to discuss recipes they love, questions or troubles they have in the kitchen or even just to say hello. “Sweet Swap” will be held every Sunday morning from 9:30am until 10:30am EST beginning on November 1st until the end of December on damgoodsweet.com. Just click on the red velvet cake and chat away.

WIN IT: David is generously offering three MomCooks readers a copy of DamGoodSweet in this giveaway! To enter, leave a comment on this post by 12:00 PM EST on Tuesday, December 8th. Open to U.S. addresses only.

BONUS ENTRIES: Earn additional entries after you leave your main entry by doing any of the following-

• Follow MomCooks on Twitter and Tweet the giveaway. Leave the link to your tweet in a comment. You can do this once per day, leave a separate comment for each.
• Subscribe to MomCooks’ feed, in a reader or by email. Tell me in your comment which way you subscribed.
• Grab my badge and post it on your site or add MomCooks to your blogroll. Leave a comment with your URL.
• Stumble the post, vote for it on digg or Kirtsy, or add it to any other social bookmarking site, and leave the URL.
• Blog about the giveaway including a link to the post and leave the URL.

Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

disclosure: David Guas sent me a copy of his cookbook DamGoodSweet. No other compensation was received.

This giveaway is closed. Congratulations to the winner, comment #24 from Xenia!

Meal planning just got a million percent easier. And cheaper.

Until we can all afford our own personal chefs, the next best thing is easily Relish!, a truly cool meal-planning service for busy parents. www.relishrelish.com.

This easy to use (really), mom-run website helps you prepare healthy, creative meals every week! You pick from a ton of excellent tested recipes, a very cleverly organized grocery list is automatically created, then all you do is hit the store for five days worth of home-cooked meals–not one of which takes more than 30 minutes to prepare.

You’ll find a whole lot to choose from including freezer meals, vegetarian menus, super-quick and slow cooker recipes. And you’ll find tons of kid’s faves that don’t include the word “nugget.”

For the $7 a month subscription cost, you get an email each week with a link to that week’s menu choices. Choose the Express Menu with the five dinners already planned for you, or use the Custom Menu to pick your own week of dinners.  Once you’ve made your choices, print out the shopping list and recipes and you are done planning dinner for the next five days!  Between the money savings and the anxiety savings, you’re coming out way ahead.

And, as if that wasn’t cool enough, not only does the site do your meal planning for you, it also has Dinner and a Movie menus which are so clever. For example, watching “The Incredibles”? Serve the Mr. Incredible Meatball Hero, with Elasti-Grilled Vegetables and a Frozone Fruit Smoothie.  The shopping list and recipes are ready to print!

WIN IT: Relish! is offering one lucky MomCooks reader a free year’s subscription, a $58.80 value!   To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite meal is to cook that takes 30 minutes or less.  Enter by November 25th at 11:59 PM EST.  I’ll choose one winner at random from the eligible entries and email them a code that will give them a one-year subscription to Relish!

BONUS ENTRIES: Earn additional entries after you leave your main entry by doing any of the following-

• Follow MomCooks on Twitter and Tweet the giveaway. Leave the link to your tweet in a comment. You can do this once per day, leave a separate comment for each.
• Subscribe to MomCooks’ feed, in a reader or by email. Tell me in your comment which way you subscribed.
• Grab my badge and post it on your site or add MomCooks to your blogroll. Leave a comment with your URL.
• Stumble the post, vote for it on digg or Kirtsy, or add it to any other social bookmarking site, and leave the URL.
• Blog about the giveaway including a link to the post and leave the URL.

Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

This giveaway is closed.

Now that the school year is well underway, there’s one change in our routine that I’m glad Chris and I made. See, our oldest son is so independent, he had spent 5th and 6th grade getting himself up in the morning and leaving for school before Chris and I even woke up. Chris would leave for work, then I would get up to get Nathan off to school. This year, with Nathan taking the bus for the first time and leaving at the same time as Ryan, Chris and I started taking turns getting up at 6:00 to make sure Nathan eats breakfast before he leaves. If we didn’t, he would sit and stare at the TV until it was time to leave without eating anything!

To help parents find healthy recipes and easy meal solutions for any time of the day, Nestle, a company I am proud to have a relationship with, has a fantastic website at Meals.com.  You’ll find recipes for seasonal foods, healthy living, recipes that take 30 minutes or less, recipes that are kid-friendly.  The site also shares tips, articles, and expert advice on cooking and baking.  Create a free account, and you can save recipes to your own recipe box, and get a monthly newsletter with recipes delivered right to your inbox.

GIVEAWAY:

To help spread the word about recipes on Meals.com for nutritious smoothies that make a terrific breakfast or after-school snack, Nestle sent me a pack of coupons and recipes, and they will send one to the MomCooks reader who wins this giveaway!

The winner of the giveaway will get an envelope of  recipes for Nestle Juicy Juice Pops, Apple Mash-up, Strawberry Blues Smoothie, Yummy Fruit Smoothie, and Calcium-Boosting Smoothie. To help with the ingredients, the winner will also get three coupons for a FREE bottle of Juicy Juice, two coupons for FREE Carnation Evaporated Milk, and three coupons for two FREE 6 ounce (snack size) cups of Dreyer’s Ice cream! Wow!

Want to make the smoothies today? Here are the links to the recipes:

http://www.meals.com/Recipes/Calcium-Boosting-Smoothie.aspx?recipeid=137415

http://www.meals.com/Recipes/Bone-Building-Smoothie.aspx?recipeid=135961

http://www.meals.com/Recipes/Yummy-Fruit-Smoothie.aspx?recipeid=134162

WIN IT: To enter this giveaway, leave the answer to this question in a comment- Did you resolve to do anything differently this school year? Did your kids? How’s it working out so far? Enter by November 9th, 2009 at 12:00 PM EST. Open to U.S. addresses only. Winner will be chosen using random.org, emailed for their full name, mailing address and daytime phone number (for package tracking only, this information is not saved or shared), and the coupons will be shipped by the sponsor.

BONUS ENTRIES: Once you’ve earned your main entry, you may earn additional entries if you choose.

• Subscribe to the MomCooks feed in a reader or by email. Leave a comment telling me which feed you chose.
• Grab the MomCooks button to post on your site, or add the link to your blogroll. Leave the URL for the page where I can find the link.
• Stumble this post, vote for it on Digg or Kirtsy, or use any other social bookmarking to help promote the giveaway. Leave the URL where I can find the submission.
• Tweet the giveaway using this tweet:  Win coupons for free juice, evaporated milk & ice cream plus smoothie recipes from @mom_cooks Ends 11/09 http://bit.ly/46OlH You can tweet this once per day, leave a separate comment for each.
• New! Follow MomCooks on Twitter!!  http://twitter.com/mom_cooks   Leave me your Twitter ID so I can follow back!
• Blog about this giveaway including the post URL. Leave the URL for your post in your comment.

I really appreciate Nestle giving me this opportunity to give away coupons for their products, and for sending me coupons as well. Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

Chef and legendary party host Alex Hitz recently debuted The Beverly Hills Kitchen’s Beef Bourguignon, the first entrée from his new line of prepared gourmet food on QVC.  Mr. Hitz’ s life-long passion for cooking and hosting elaborate parties for his famous friends, inspired him to start a chef-prepared food line that combines restaurant-quality cuisine with the ease and intimacy of at-home dining. For busy professionals and families who love fine dining, but lack the time or skills to cook delicious, classic dinners such as beef bourguignon, The Beverly Hills Kitchen’s entrees are designed for convenience— frozen and ready in ten minutes.

The Beverly Hills Kitchen’s Beef Bourguignon includes five 8oz. portions of prime tender meat, simmered for four hours in a full-bodied red wine sauce with carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, shallots, basil and Dijon mustard. Paired with rice, pasta, potatoes, a simple salad, or just on its own, this classic French comfort dish is a restaurant meal on-scale with the finest Parisian dining in the comfort of your own home.

BUY IT: Watch QVC on November 5th to purchase a box of five 8-oz. pouches of The Beverly Hills Kitchen’s Beef Bourguignon.

WIN IT: The Beverly Hills Kitchen has a terrific giveaway for MomCooks readers! Two lucky winners will each win a box of Beef Bourguignon Entrees, valued at $45.00.  To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me how you will serve this entree if you win. Enter by November 7th at 12:00 PM EST.  See the information below for shipping restrictions:

* Includes five 8-oz pouches of beef bourguignon
* Net weight 2.5 lbs
* Arrives within two days of shipment; packaged with dry ice, but may arrive with little to none remaining
* Cannot ship to PR, VI, Guam
* Made in USA

BONUS ENTRIES: Earn additional entries after you leave your main entry by doing any of the following-

• Tweet the giveaway and leave the link to your tweet in a comment. You can do this once per day, leave a separate comment for each.
• Subscribe to MomCooks’ feed, in a reader or by email. Tell me in your comment which way you subscribed.
• Grab my badge and post it on your site or add MomCooks to your blogroll. Leave a comment with your URL.
• Stumble the post, vote for it on digg or Kirtsy, or add it to any other social bookmarking site, and leave the URL.
• Blog about the giveaway including a link to the post and leave the URL.

Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

Thank you everyone who entered the giveaway for Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks! For those of you who didn’t win, you can buy Funky Monkey Freeze-Dried Fruit Snacks on Amazon.com.

The randomly chosen winner is comment #32 from Country Cookin’ Mama, who wants to try the Jivealime. Congratulations and check your email!