FAN FRIDAYS!!

We are very pleased to announce that we want YOU our friends to be more involved! We can not grow without your support and we know some of you have even better skills than us!  We see some of you post your yummy food on a daily basis and WE want to learn about what YOU think is yummy!

                                                                       Photo Courtesy of  Chrystal Armbruster.

Send us your recipes along with pictures and a bit of a story to the recipe, how did you come about making it? Has it been in your family? Is it great with your children? How much do you and others enjoy it? Is it quick and easy? time consuming but worth it? AND you don't have to stop there it can be about cooking AND it could be a craft, holiday tip, a semi home made tip (as in fun things you can make with pre-made items).

Every Friday it will be YOU who is posting, we will pick 2 submissions per week to do a compiled post  (if you don't get yours posted that Friday you will) We are trying to balance it so we will have  something to post by you every Friday if the demand is great then we will up the amount of entries . 

Every month you will receive 1 entry per post (you can post multiples) and we will be giving a prize! 
If someone posts a picture on our Facebook page facebook.com/3moms  that they tried your recipe or tip we will enter you on a second drawing for an even bigger prize that will be happening quarterly  think gift card!  So get your friends and family involved and suggest our facebook page  to increase a chance that they will post a picture of your recipe or tip!

Submit to cookinmamas@yahoo.com
 Post must include pictures and clear instructions.
Instruction Post must be sent preferably as an attachment but we can still take it directly as an email if you do not knwo how.
What are you waiting for GET COOKING!! <3

Happy Thanksgiving!
Tanya, Christy and Jess

A Gift For My Children and Their Future Families

A little over 2 and a half yrs ago I started writing down all the things I could cook.  Not to make myself feel good or to see how  many there were (at the time there were very few!) but to make meal planning and grocery shopping easier.  I didn't write down the recipe I just wrote down the name of the dish and what I needed to make it.  I was tired of walking up and down the aisles blanklessly starring at things while my brain tirelessly tried to think of things to cook.  When put on the spot like that I go blank and found myself buying a lot of convenience/boxed meals and always going over budget with very little food to show for it-you pay for convenience.  I figured if I had a "guide" to look at I could make a decent grocery list and hopefully save some money.

A few months after I started this I had a great idea.  I decided I would start a master "Family Cookbook" and put the full recipes to all of the dishes I made inside.  Even though I didn't need to look at the recipes for like 99% of them.  This is partly what started me on my journey towards becoming a better cook, I wanted to fill the book up. As I experimented and found dishes our family liked I wrote them down in "the book" so that I wouldn't forget how to make them.

My intentions for the book are to give each of my kids (girls AND boys) a copy when they move out.  I know it seems far off now but the day will be here far too soon.  I want them to have a guide to the kitchen, a starting point, something more than I had when I moved out.  Hopefully I will have taught them some basic kitchen skills before then but just in case they didn't pay attention they will have this book.  I want it to be full of their favorite dishes so when they are home sick they can make something that tastes of home and it will hopefully help them feel better.

I thought I would share this idea with you all in case you would like to make books of your own for your kids.  If you have older teens who will be going off to college soon this would make a great Christmas gift this year.

With my book I include ALL recipes, even the easy no brainers like Spaghetti, which in our family is just pasta-meat-jar sauce (although I would like to learn to make my own sauce).  Seems simple enough but I make sure to write down the brands, types of noodles and flavors that we use.  That way they can buy the same if they want it to taste like homw or venture out on their own if they choose.

For now the book is just a spiral bound notebook full of my chicken scratch hand writing.  I plan to buy some 3 ring binders and some of the plastic protective covers and print the recipes out on nice paper. I want to bue some tabs so I can divide the book up into categories such as breakfast, dinner, snacks, desserts, etc.  I will have 4 of the same books and add to them as we try out new things and add new books as new babies arrive-if they do that is our options are still open on that.
If you have really nice handwriting then writing the recipes down by hand would be an excellent personal touch.  My handwriting looks like a 5th grader wrote it so I like to print things out instead.

I plan to take a picture of each child like the one above of my oldest and place these on the covers under their name and title the books "Teddy's Family Cookbook" (or whatever the child's name is).

I think (hope) my kids will appreciate having these to go off of when they move out, get married and have families of their own to cook for.  This blog is a large continuation of my book and will provide easily printable recipes with pictures to help guide them alomg.

My book has already evolved a lot going from a simple grocery guide to a more complex gift for my children and their future families.  I have a feeling it may evolve even more as time goes on.  I have already started to include tips and tricks to use in cooking and to make household cleaning easier.  Things like using a potato masher to cook sausage with (Thanks Rachael Ray for that!) and how to fold a fitted sheet which I plan to include pictured step by step instructions with.




Another helpful tip you can do with this:

I have also started to keep the name of all our favorite dishes on 3x5 cards with the ingredients listed on the other side.  About once a week I look at these, scan what they need, see what we have in the kitchen and make my meal plans/grocery list accordingly.  Really helps out budget wise as you can make a list of everything you need and you don't have to worry about buying things you don't.


Love,
Christy

Shepard's Pie by Christy

Shepard's Pie is one of those ultimate comfort foods, at least for me it is.  The hamburger, the potatoes, the cheese, YUM!
Its not really a pie in the traditional sense as it does not have a crust but who knows, maybe somewhere down the line it did and people tried it w/o and liked that better.

My hubby and I jokingly call it "poor people food" sometimes, not because we think we are better than anyone who struggles but because we ARE part of the struggling class.  We call it this because its a real budget friendly dish.  It costs pennies when you break it down to individual servings.  The entire meal is around $4-5 total to make.  Divide by 5 mouths (in our house) eating it and its less than $1 a person.  You can't get much better than that!  When money flow is low we have this a lot, thus its nickname in our home.

What You Will Need:
1 lb Hamburger
3-4 medium potatoes (for mashed potatoes, you can use instant if you like)
1 can French Style Green Beans
2 (8 oz) cans Tomato Sauce
1/2-1 cup Shredded Cheese (any variety you like)

Step 1: Make the Mashed Potatoes-
Ok, so mashed potatoes are simple and who really needs to be told how to make them right.  I am including this for anyone who may be a cooking novice and has never attempted home made mashed potatoes before but would like to try.  You can use instant, I jusr prefer making them myself.
Peel 3-4 medium potatoes, cut up into small pieces.  The smaller the pieces the faster they will cook.
Boil in pot of water about 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft and easily mush apart when squeezed.

Drain water from potatoes.  Reserve a tiny bit of the starchy potato water, maybe 1/8-1/4 of a cup, to combine with the potatoes
With a potato masher or electric hand mixer combine potatoes, some of the starchy water, a tiny splash of milk, some butter and pepper.  I eyeball all of this.  Maybe 2-4 Tblps milk, 2-4 Tblsp butter and 1/8-1/4 teasp pepper.
I like to use an electric hand mixer, growing up that's what my grandma always used.
Set potatoes aside until ready to assemble the "pie".

Step 2: Brown Meat and Mix Bottom Layer of "Pie"-
Brown the hamburger, season as desired-I use some garlic powder and onion powder and just sprinkle a little on, no measurements.
Once it is done strain excess grease and put into a large mixing bowl-to save time and dishes I rinse the pan out and use it to mix everything in.

Open up the cans of sauce and green beans, add them to the bowl(pan) with the hamburger and mix well. 

Step 3: Assemble "Pie" and Bake-
Preheat oven to 350
Spread the hamburger mixture into the bottom of a 9x9 dish or casserole pan
Spread mashed potatoes on top of the hamburger mixture
Sprinkle cheese on top of this.  I use Colby/Jack and just shred directly on top.  I like a lot of cheese and probably use close to a cup.  You can use whatever type and amount of cheese that you like.
Bake at 350 for 15ish minutes or until cheese is all melty and gooey.

Serve and enjoy.


This will kind of look like a big helping of "slop" on your plate but trust me it is SOOOO YUMMY!  Honestly, all of the best comfort foods look like big piles of "slop" when dished up hehe.

Love,
Christy

P.S. Jess will be posting her version of Shepard's Pie soon so be on the look out for that.

Calling all Bloggers, Reviewers Wanted

Are you a blogging mama (or dad)?
Do you enjoy trying new recipes and reviewing them?
Have you tried any of our recipes or have any peaked your interest?

If you said yes to any of the above we are looking for YOU!



3 Moms is looking for any and all blogging followers to try out our recipes and write your own review as a post on your blog.  Make sure you link our blog somewhere in the review.  Once you have done this go to our Facebook Page  and post a link to your blog.  We will then take a look at your review and link it to the corresponding recipe on the blog.  Ideally we would like to get at least 1 review for each recipe.  You can choose to do 1 or all of the recipes, the more the merrier.  If you actually take the time to do ALL of the recipes you might receive a little thank you gift.

The reviews will be posted and linked at the bottom of the recipe it goes with. 
For example, it would look something like this:

Say the blog was for mashed potatoes-

The mashed potatoes recipe would be the main body of the post here.

Then, at the bottom of the post we would have a section that looked like this:

REVIEWS:
Link to your review here
link to another review here


Don't be afraid to experiment with the recipes.  I am all about making cooking your own.  Learning to cook is a journey full of trials and errors.  When you make a new dish for the first time it may not turn out the way you wanted it to, you just have to keep trying.  If you think something might be tastier with onions, add them and put in the review why you did this and how it turned out.  We discovered last night that Tanya, Jess and I (and our families) all hate onions so you will not find them in our recipes.  Yet I use onion powder a lot, go figure.
Cooking is about taking something yummy and making it your own.  Its so much better than prepackaged stuff because its tailored to you and your families tastes and not to mass appeal.

We look forward to reading your reviews.  Now start cooking!

P.S. Don't forget to take and post pictures of the dish you make in the review so everyone can see the finished product.


Love,
Christy

Gravy, its not as scary as you think



I originally posted this on my own personal blog, Adventures In Mommyhood but always meant the post to go here.  So some of you may have seen this but for most of you this is a new post.

I love gravy!  Honestly, who doesn't ?  If you say you don't you are living in denial.  Growing up my grandma made some of the best gravy I have ever had.  Its one of  MANY things I wish I had been smart enough to ask her to show me how to make before she passed away, but I didn't  When I moved out on my own I quickly realized I had ZERO cooking skills and no clue how to make gravy myself.  I didn't even know where to begin.  Gravy can be intimidating like that.  I would occasionally buy the prepackaged mixes in the store but they were never the same.  They often turned out lumpy and had some pretty questionable ingredients in them.

If the above sounds like you, I dedicate this blog to you.  It can be done, gravy does not have to be scary or intimidating.  It can be fun to make. 
WARNING: Once you learn you may find yourself making gravy with EVERYTHING.  This is a typical side effect of gravy makin skills and may fade over time as you realize you will have this power forever.  Use your powers for good only please.

After a few years of trying I just gave up on gravy, it was a dreary future of dry bland mashed potatoes for us.  Finally a good friend gave me a very simple recipe to follow.  This gave me the base line to learn from.  I am not going to type out an actual recipe here as gravy is more of a science experiment.  You have to play with it, mess with it a bit, change things around.  Depending on your tastes and preferences you may need way more fat, flour, or liquid to make the gravy the way you like it.  I will give you a basic idea to run with.

The basics you will need to get started are:

1. Some sort of fat: I personally save my bacon grease for such things as this.  I have an airtight container I keep in the fridge with bacon grease in it.  Bacon grease is great for flavor, I often add a little to oil for frying and such.  Think this is weird, people used to do this all the time, that's why home cooking tastes so good.  Fat is flavor people!  My grandma used to keep her grease out on the counter, not even in the fridge.  She had matching containers purchased from a store that were labeled "Flour" "Sugar" "Coffee" AND "Grease". 
Other alternatives you can use in place of bacon grease: butter, shortening or even vegetable oil.
You will want about 1/4 of a cup to start.  This may seem like a lot, you can use less at first if you like, but this seems to be the magic number for our families needs.

2. Flour:  Start out with 1/4 of a cup or so, this is a good starting amount.  You may have to add more later so have some extra on the counter within easy reach. 

3. Liquid: I use milk for a basic gravy, start with 1 cup.  You can also use water (I would do at least 1/2 water 1/2 milk though) and drippings from meat to make a meat based gravy.

4. Cooking Tools:  You will need a deep pan and wire whisk.  I have found the wire whisk is the best utensil in the kitchen for gravy makin.  It keeps things moving and keeps the gravy nice and smooth, lump free.  If you are one of the few who like lumps-I know there are some- use a fork.


You will want to have all of these ingredients and tools on the counter nearby, within arms reach as you NEVER want to walk away from the gravy once you start.  Gravy should always be the last thing you make, after everything else is done and ready to go.  The trick is to just keep it moving, keep that whisk dancing.

Place the pan on the stove top, medium-high heat.  Place the fat of your choice into the pan and let it melt.  You want it to get good and hot.  A nice way to check if its ready is to sprinkle a pinch of flour in, if the flour bubbles and sizzles its ready to add the rest.

When the fat is ready, add the flour.  At this point you, the pan and the whisk are one, you cannot walk away unless one of your kids is killing another, then you can let the gravy go, you can always make more.  Once the flour is in the pan WHISK WHISK WHISK.  Keep it moving.  The flour within seconds will absorb the fat and turn into a white pasty looking substance.

Once the flour has absorbed the fat (this will take about 30 seconds) add the liquid.  Start with 1 cup, you can add more later if needed.  Again WHISK WHISK WHISK.  Keep it moving.  The liquid will combine with the fat/flour mixture.  At this point you can add some seasonings if you like.  The only thing I ever add is pepper and that's only to the basic or breakfast gravy.  You can add salt, pepper, whatever you like though.

Keep on whisking, you will see it start to thicken up.  This is where the science experimentation and personal tastes come in.  As it thickens you will have to decide many things.
 Does this look like enough gravy for my family?
 If not you will want to add more flour followed by more liquid. 
Is it getting too thick?
If its too thick for your tastes add more liquid
Is it too thin?
If its too thin add more flour, this is what thickens the gravy.
As you make these changes don't forget to WHISK WHISK WHISK.  Keep it moving.
Once it is the amount and consistency that you like it is ready to eat and enjoy.





Gravy, YUM!

The biggest rule of gravy-other than WHISK WHISK WHISK  Keep it moving-is Don't set your heart on it.  At least not the first few times you make it.  Like any other experiment it will take time.  It will not be perfect the first time you make it, or maybe it will, who  knows.  Just keep trying, you will get it I promise.




We now enjoy gravy with an average of 2 meals a week.  OK, so maybe that's not real healthy but it just tastes SO DARN GOOD.  Once I got the basic gravy down, using fat flour and milk, I began to experiment with making meat gravies.  These are very simple too, you just replace the milk with the drippings of the meat..  They make great accompaniments to the meal.  If you made a pot roast, use the drippings for a gravy and pour it over the meat.  Make some potatoes or rolls to go with the gravy.  The possibilities are endless.  With meat gravies I often use butter in the place of bacon grease, not always though.  Your family, and their tummies, will thank you for  your new skills.

 Now go make some gravy!

Apples and Pork Chops, the perfect Fall Dinner

Normally I would never post a blog without taste testing the food first but I ma 100% convinced this is going to be yummy.  Maybe its just my apple obsession talking here.  The recipe was given to me and I was told it is good and several wanted me to post it soon so I am taking a leap here.

The original recipe called for only 4 pork chops, we are having company tonight so I used 6.  It also only called for 1 apple and some nutmeg, I expanded upon this based on the reviews Heather gave me when she gave me the recipe.  I am using Honey Crisp Apples with this recipe, of course, you can use whatever kind of apples you like. 

What You Will Need:
4-6 Pork Chops, whatever cut you would like
4-5 good size Apples
2 Tblsp Brown Sugar
1 Tblsp Granulated (white) Sugar
1 Teasp Cinnamon
1/2 Teasp Nutmeg
3-4 Tblsp Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pork Chops-fresh from the pig

Step 1: Prep The Pork-
In a medium frying pan coat bottom with oil.  Allow oil to become nice and hot over medium/high heat.  Lightly Salt and Pepper the pork on each side.  Once oil is hot brown chops on each side.  You are not trying to cook the meat here, just brown and bit and seal in the juices.  You want to cook about 1 minute per side.

Step 2: The Apples-
Peel and core apples.  When I am planning on cooking apples I like to peel them with a potato peeler.  It takes pretty much just the peel and saves all the yummy goodness inside for you to use, no apple is wasted. 
Once apples are peeled and cored chop them into slices as if you were making an apple pie.  Each apple will make about 10-12 slices.

apple slices nicely coated

In a large bowl combine Brown and Granulated Sugar, Cinnamon and Nutmeg.  Add in apple slices and toss with your hand until they are evenly coated.

Step 3: Add Everything To The Crockpot-
Layer 3 pork chops on the bottom of the crockpot, top with half of the apples.  Dot with butter.  I did not measure this part but I imagine I used 1-2 Tblsp of butter per layer.
Layer remaining chops, the rest of the apples and dot with butter again.
In order to get all of the seasoning out I added about 2 Tblsp of warm water to the bowl and splashed it around a bit so that it got almost all the seasoning left in the bowl and then poured this into the crockpot too.  Thats totally optional though, I am a cheapskate like that and want to make sure everything gets used.

Step 4: Cook and Enjoy-

in the crockpot and all ready too cook

Cook on low setting for 6-8 hrs and enjoy.  I will come add more once we have actually eaten this and will post a picture of the finished product.





















Just realized I never came back to post the final results.  Sorry, there is no picture, we were all starving and just starting eating it.
I checked everything at the 6 hr mark and decided it needed more sugar.  I am going to leave the amounts above as a starting point and you can decide for yourself if you want more.  I added another Tblsp of granulated sugar and I am not sure how much more brown sugar.  When I make this again I will most likely use 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar and 2 Tblsp of granulated sugar.

I do plan to make this again, it was very yummy although I wouldn't recommend using more than 4 pork chops.  I used 6 because we had company coming and it just seemed to be too much for the recipe.  I think it would've tasted much better with just 4.  I also plan to layer all of the apples in the middle next time as the apples on top did not cook as well as the ones in the middle did.

So there you have it, the final verdict: Good but needed much more sugar and less meat so as not to overwhelm the overall taste of the dish. 

This is a keeper though and I will be making it again.

Love,
Christy

Chinese Easy Breezy Style

This is one of the first recipes my friend Sheena shared with me.  One of the things that really inspired the journey I have been on the last 2 yrs with my love/hate relationship with cooking.  I say Love AND Hate because most of the time I really do love to cook, but everyone once in a while its nothing more than another chore to check off the to do list for the day. 

I went through a very long "hate" episode while pregnant with Sariah, the entire pregnancy to be exact.  Being pregnant and keeping up with 3 kiddos was too much for me most days and the last thing I wanted was to cook something, especially when most foods grossed me out. We lapsed back into our old ways of take out, easy cook, processed and prepackaged foods.  That was also the bleak few months when Ted was not working and we were barely scraping by so there really wasn't much take out, maybe once a month, and the prepackaged processed stuff was often cheaper and easier to buy.

Since Sariah was born I have started to really enjoy cooking again.  This was the first time I had made this dish in over a year and as soon as I tasted it I realized how much I had missed it. 

This is an easy and fun dish to make.  One our whole family loves to eat, although I do have to make egg rolls with just sausage in them for Teddy, he is totally anti-veggies lately.  I am thinking about trying some of those recipes where they hide the veggies in other things.  I will be sure to post and review them if I do.

Do not be intimidated by the ingredients or length of this recipe, it is really so simple I promise.  It looks like a lot written out but its not. After you make it once or twice you won't even need the directions anymore.

What you will need:
1 roll Jimmy Dean All Natural Sausage (or any mild breakfast sausage)
1 pkg Broccoli Cole Slaw(or regular Cole slaw mix if you prefer)
1 pkg egg roll wraps
1 cup uncooked Jasmine rice. (or any rice you prefer)
1 egg
Soy Sauce to taste


Step One: Cooking the plain Rice-

Prepare rice according to package directions.  I have read for fried rice it is ideal to cook the rice 1-2 hours ahead of time and allow it to sit so that dries out some and it's not real moist. However I almost always forget this and the fried rice still tastes yummy and cooks perfectly fine.
I think Jasmine rice is the best for dishes like this but I am stuck with plain long grain white rice until I have used up the huge bag I bought at Costco haha.


Step 2: The Basic Sausage and Cole Slaw Mixture (will be used in rice and egg rolls)-

In a large and deep pan brown sausage.  I learned a great tip for this while watching Rachael Ray, use a potato masher while cooking.  It easily separates the sausage so you don't have to fight with it.
I like to use the All Natural sausage because I try to steer clear of any unnecessary chemicals or preservatives in the food I serve my family.
Pork sausage is surprisingly low when it comes to grease so there is no need to drain the meat.  Trust me, you want the flavor that the little grease that's there will give.
Once sausage is done add 1/2 the package of broccoli Cole slaw- you can add the entire package if you like. We, as in Ted and Teddy, like less veggies. Plus I am a cheapskate and this allows for the package to make 2 meals instead of 1 because the egg roll wraps have enough for 2 meals as well.  This helps stretch the food dollars which is always a plus in my book.  Buy 2 packages of sausage plus 1 package of cole slaw and wraps and you have 2 meals.
Put a couple of shakes of Soy Sauce in the pan and mix around. I don't measure this. Maybe 1-2 tblsp?
Cook sausage and cole slaw until veggies start to become tender (about 5 minutes)
Once veggies are tender dump the mixture into a large bowl and place the now empty pan back on the stove.


Step 3: Fried Rice-Add some oil to the pan, maybe 1/4 of a cup-again I don't measure this part. Allow the oil to become nice and hot.  Medium-High heat is best for this.
While oil is heating up crack egg into a small bowl and scramble.  You can use more than one egg if you like.  The first time I made this dish I used 2 or 3 eggs, Ted requested less eggs next time so now I just use 1.
Once oil is hot add egg to center of pan. Allow to cook a few seconds and then dump the rice in.
Mix rice and egg around until well combine.
Add a few more shakes of Soy Sauce and half of the sausage/cole slaw mixture. Combine all of these together, allow to cook a few minutes and then move to a back burner and keep on low heat so rice stays warm.  Stir occasionally while cooking egg rolls


Step 4: Egg Rolls-In a new pan add 1/2 cup or so of oil and place over medium high heat.
While you are waiting for the oil to get hot assemble the egg rolls. Place a large spoonful of the mixture in the center of the egg roll wraps and roll up.  I have posted picture to help show you how to roll them.  You can use some water on the edge to help seal rolls shut if you like, I am far too lazy for this and I just make sure I put the rolls folded side down in the pan so they get sealed shut by cooking.
Usually by the time I get 4 rolled up the oil is hot so I place those in the pan and make another 3-4. Watch them though, they need to be flipped about every minute or so. So make 1 or 2 egg rolls, flip the ones cooking, then make the rest.
Cook until egg rolls are nice and crispy and brown on all sides, flipping about every 30-60 seconds so they do not burn.

Step 5: Dish up Meal and enjoy:
Serve egg rolls and rice together, make sure to report back if you like them.



This is not the original recipe that was given to me.  That is one of my favorite things about cooking, making a recipe your own.  So feel free to experiment, change things up a bit if you like.  Cooking is meant to suit the tastes of you and your family.  Our family does not like onions so you will never find onions in my recipes, I omit them when a recipe calls for some.  If there is something you don't like leave it out, or replace it.  The original recipe called for regular cole sale mix, I choose the broccoli because at the time Teddy loved broccoli and would eat that, he wouldn't touch the regular cole slaw mix.  I have also tried chicken and shrimp in place of the sausage.  They were good but the sausage just gives it so much more flavor.





EGG ROLL CONSTRUCTION:

Step 1: add a spoonful of the filling in the center of the wrap

Step 2: Fold bottom corner of wrap up towards top corner



Step 3: Fold 1 side corner in towards the center




Step 4: Fold other side corner of wrap in towards the center

Step 5: Roll up and you are finished

Love,
Christy

Inspiration

Who was your cooking inspiration, the 1 (or maybe more) person who really inspired your love for cooking?  For me there were 2 such people.

Growing up it was my Grandma.  In my childhood eyes she made it all seem so effortless, magical even.  I cannot ever recall seeing her use or follow a recipe.  It was all in her head.  She could whip up the yummiest meals with ease.  I knew when I grew up I wanted to cook those same meals for my own family.  I envisioned myself cooking beside my grandma for big family events like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  In my naive childish mind I thought she would always be there for me to call to ask questions on how to make this or that.  I still have her phone number memorized to this day.

My Grandma passed away when I was 17.  I never did ask her how to make most of the awesome things she made.  They are all lost to me now.  I wish I had a time machine so I could go back, pick her brain and write it all down.  I know its in my mind somewhere and slowly some things have come back to me.  Just simple things though, like her meatloaf-a recipe I promise I will post soon.

Poor poor Ted, because I lost my grandma so early I never was much of a cook.  My idea of "cooking" involved a lot of frozen and pre-packaged meals.  Our first few years together we had a lot of Hamburger Helper,  frozen dinners, frozen pizzas,  and mysterious looking things that came out of cans.  A splurge for us, what we considered a really "good" meal was something like a Stouffers Lasagna or Banquet Homestyle meal.  Needless to say, we ate out a lot.

After Teddy was born I really wanted to change this.  I was no longer working and wanted to be the traditional stay at home mom who was an amazing cook.  I wanted to have fresh baked cookies on hand all the time.  Isn't that what SAHMs are supposed to do?  Ok, so maybe that really only happens in black and white sitcoms but still, it was the vision I had.  I tried to teach myself but I had zero skill and no idea what I was doing.  The simplest of recipes were so intimidating and if it had more than 5 or 6 ingredients I wouldn't attempt it at all.  It was beginning to look a little hopeless for me, and my family.

The second person who inspired my inner chef is my real life BFF, Sheena.  I met her a little over 2 yrs ago.  I can remember the first time I went to her house for a lunch playdate.  To me lunch was frozen burritos or maybe a box of mac & cheese.  She made a better meal for us to have for lunch than I had ever made in my life.  I remember watching her and having flashbacks of my grandma.  She had the same ease in the kitchen, the same knack for how to put things together and make them taste amazing.  I was embarrassed to ask her at first but over time I started asking her to teach me how to make this or to give me the recipe for that.

Slowly but surely I began to become acquainted with my kitchen, to use the tools I had to make real meals for my family.  Two years later and if you were to come and look in my kitchen you would not be able to find a single box dinner, no frozen meal, no can mystery concoctions.  All that is there now are single ingredients that when put together make healthy delicious meals for my family.

I often tell Sheena I owe it all to her, and really I do.  I hope she will want to do some guest blogs for us because she is an amazing cook!  She said something to me last night that really stuck out in my mind.  She said I always had it in me, I just needed a little push.  That stuck out to me because I think we all have a little inner Rachael Ray/Paula Dean/who ever your favorite chef is in us.  We just need the confidence to let them out.  Did I become this miracle chef over night? NO!  It took a lot of practice, trial and errors.  Are all of the meals I make melt in your mouth make you moan delish?  Not even close!  I still make many mistakes in the kitchen.  The thing is, the bad meals occur less and less between the awesome ones.  Its to the point now that when I do make something bad Ted teases me and asks me what happened that day.

I hope our blog will help inspire many of you to just try.  What the worst that can happen, you mess up and end up with pizza for dinner instead?  Cooking is the same as everything else in life, you will never learn how if you don't try.


Love,
Christy

Welcome Welcome Everyone.

Welcome to our new blog, we hope you all will enjoy it here and participate in the many activities we have planned. This blog started out of friendship and we want that to be a big part of your experience here. We hope it will feel warm and inviting to you as if we are all together in one big kitchen cooking, laughing and having a good time.

The founders of 3 Moms and a Kitchen have been good friends for almost 5 yrs now. We met while pregnant or shortly after giving birth in March 2006. We all were part of a small, closely knit group of mommies who had babies in March of that year. From that 1 common bond our friendships grew and flourished. As we became closer and closer we began sharing other experience in our daily lives beyond what our then babies/toddlers, and now preschoolers were up to, or into depending on the day. We started a reoccurring "Whats For Dinner Thread" that naturally turned into a recipe swap thread as we read the scrumptious meal ideas from the other mommy's.

Life continued, many of us went on to have second-sometimes 3rd and 4th-babies. Our cooking skills improved and grew from our little recipe swaps and VOILA the blog was born. Tanya had the idea first, Jess and I just jumped on the band wagon, so I guess you could say she is the "brains" of the operation. There are many more March Mommies we will be featuring and highlighting to guest blog and share great recipes and cooking ideas. From there we will branch out with others, maybe you can guest blog for us too. If you have a great idea please feel free to share it.

While our main focus and purpose is food, as with most mommy friendships we will be expanding and writing topics that span the entire journey of mommyhood. We will share great tips we have learned from each other on many other topics such as cleaning, discipline, education, health, safety and over all well being-oh and I am sure a "few" on how to remain SANE as a mommy. Again we will welcome any and all guest bloggers in these areas. We even hope to uncover some of the forgotten mysteries of cooking and cleaning that many of our mothers and grandmothers knew but never shared with us, most likely because we never asked. If its about being a mom, we will cover it at some point I can promise.

We encourage you all to come back and visit often. Life often gets in the way but we are going to try to keep this a fun and active blog. We have so many great ideas planned in the up coming weeks and months. We are going to do some challenges where we will pick one fun recipe and challenge you all to make it that week and review your results. We plan to share these results in blog carnivals(is that right Jess, is that what they are called? haha). We will have some fun contests coming up soon with REAL prizes that you can win. Many of these prizes will be made by our very talented Tanya, she makes great Punk Rock Baby Gear.

Make sure to not only follow us here but on Facebook as well. Most of our contests will be posted on Facebook as well as fun daily topics not posted in the blog. If the link to our FB page is not up on the blog right now, it will be up soon. If its not there and you just can't wait to follow us on FB you can search for the page, its under the same name "3 Moms and a Kitchen"

We hope you are all as excited as we are to start this journey together. Let the cooking and chit chatting begin.


Love,
Christy, Jessica, and Tanya