Amy's Secrets of the Day - A list of tips and tricks from The Cooking Mom

Fruit Dip

Plain Greek yogurt, mixed with a little honey, and some pureed strawberries or raspberries makes a super quick, easy, healthy, and delicious dip for fruit! For the lunch box, little containers with two compartments make it easy to pack fruit and dip to go. It’s a lunch box treat that … [ read more ]

Strawberry Fields Salad

First, skip iceberg lettuce, instead go for Romaine lettuce. A one cup serving of romaine lettuce has more than ten times the vitamin A and more than 8 times the vitamin C. Besides fresh veggies like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, why not add some fruit to your salad. Fruits like … [ read more ]

Breakfast Sundae

Why not jazz up an ordinary morning with a sundae for breakfast! I start with some granola, then add your favorite yogurt, and next some fresh berries. A healthy way to start the day!

Green Fruit Kabobs

Want to get your kids to eat more fruit? Instead of just throwing an apple or an orange in your kiddos lunch bag, why not WOW them and put the fruit on a stick! Just thread fruit like fresh strawberries, grapes, pineapple chunks on to a skewer and all of … [ read more ]

For a juicier apple pie I use Johnnygold and golden delicious apples and I thicken 1 small can of apple juice with sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch.

Use produce bags from the grocery store to pound chicken breasts. They hold up well and enclose the chicken so as not to splatter juices on the kitchen counter. No worries about salmonella poisoning!

Avoid crowding food that is deep-fried. If you add too much food to a small amount of oil, the temperature will fall, and the food will wind up greasy and soggy.

Sugar unopened will last 2 years. Sugar does not spoil but eventually may change flavor.

When taking foods off the grill, put them on a clean plate, not the same platter that held raw meat.

When using foods with different cooking times such as shrimp and beef don’t combine them on the same skewer. Instead, make skewers of just shrimp or just beef.