Category: Principles

Make Your Chicken Kabobs the Bomb

Cooking inspiration is everywhere! Try a simple marinade to make the best chicken kabobs.

How often I hear, “Karyn, your pictures look so good. You’re making me hungry!” Thank you, friends! My early pictures weren’t so good. I am glad to know I’m improving. BUT, have I inspired you to cook? That is my intent and I would love to know what you’ve been doing in the kitchen.

Yesterday I was asked about making kabobs. Immediately I shouted, “shawarma spices!” The question was really about cooking them, however. Simply put, I prefer to have meat and vegetables on separate skewers because they may need different cooking times, especially if you’re doing chicken kabobs. The exception is onion. I always enjoy onion alternating with chicken on a skewer…which leads me to the purpose of this post. Chicken and onion and shawarma spices with yogurt!

I’m salivating at the idea now. Do ideas about food ever keep you up at night? Recently I tried a recipe for a roasted chicken from Bon Appetit magazine. A recipe??? Yes, once in a while I do follow one…sort of. If something sounds particularly appealing, I will experiment with the general idea. Just don’t expect me to go line by line exactly.

So, you know I love a roasted chicken. It’s just about the easiest thing ever. According to this recipe, you marinate it in yogurt and shawarma spices. Cook it with onions, garlic and lemon slices. We enjoyed it, but now that I’m thinking about chicken kabobs, this could be the bomb! They say the yogurt is good for tenderizing and it was good for a little char. Mix it with shawarma spices and you have a winning combination.

With a couple tablespoons or so of shawarma spices, whisk in 4 cloves of crushed garlic, 1/4 cup of yogurt, and 2 Tablespoons of oil. Coat chicken in this mixture and season with salt. Let sit for 30 minutes before cooking or chill for up to 12 hours. Let chicken come to room temperature before cooking.

Ready to fire up the grill? What will you serve with your kabobs? Rice? Parsley salad? Hummus and flatbread? Yes, please! But honestly, this chicken and veggies are a meal on their own!

How I Survived a Bad Airbnb Rental

Whether you’re a guest or a host, here’s some basic equipment needed to survive a short-term rental. It doesn’t have to be a bad Airbnb experience.

Have you ever arrived at a short-term rental only to find that it is not equipped as described?

When a listing states that there is a kitchen for guests to cook their own meals, it implies that certain basic equipment is available for that purpose. Most hotel rooms have at least a coffee maker, so most of us would expect one at our Airbnb or Vrbo rental. Therefore, ground coffee and half and half are among the first things I purchase upon arrival. I have friends who travel with a coffee maker just in case. Having had mostly good experiences personally with short term rentals, I have relaxed a bit over the years. Sadly, I was disappointed on my last trip. The first morning at this bad Airbnb, I boiled coffee cowboy style. The results were less than stellar, so the first thing I did the next morning was take a trip to the Dollar Tree to purchase some necessary items.

Seriously, folks! If you are the host of a short-term rental with a kitchen, you need a knife and surface on which to chop, a can opener, a corkscrew, a way to make coffee and an oven safe dish. I would appreciate a big pot in which to boil pasta as well but couldn’t find one at the Dollar Tree. So, I learned to cook it in a skillet instead. A kitchen doesn’t have to be large, but it should be functional.

Coffee Without a Coffee Maker

I looked around for a basic pour over device while on my trip, but never found one. Perhaps I will travel with one going forward after this experience. Instead, I managed with this small strainer and coffee filters.

I told myself it was like camping…

Although I am practical and adaptable, I was ever so thankful to return home to my espresso machine.

What items do you think are necessary when traveling? Please share in the comments below.

Simple Meals and Fresh Produce Define Summer

What’s at your local farmers market that will inspire simple meals this season?

Part of the beauty of summer is its produce and how they combine for delicious, simple meals. Take corn for example. It’s sweet, it’s on sale and who doesn’t love it? Serve it on the cob after roasting in the oven or grilling. Cook more than you need for one meal and cut the kernels off for another meal a couple days later. Whole grains, like barley, are another thing I often cook extra of in order to toss together a quick meal another day. Work smarter, not harder as you develop confidence in the kitchen.

I hear that some cultures prepare okra whole and I’m interested to try it that way. Does anyone have a suggestion? I usually slice it into half inch pieces and sauté in olive oil until the goo inside cooks out. That’s what I know about cooking okra so that it doesn’t have a slimy texture. It’s delicious, in case you were unsure about okra until now…After that, you can add the other vegetables you desire, such as onion and celery. Maybe a tomato or a pepper? What’s in your garden? Season it up with some garlic, French thyme or oregano…or what else?

a simple meal of shrimp with barley and seasonal vegetables on a white plate

Cooking without a recipe is simple if you stock basic pantry items, proteins in the freezer and combine with fresh seasonal produce. After defrosting shrimp and tossing in olive oil and garlic powder, they cooked in the skillet with the vegetables and barley. Put them in once everything else is tender so they don’t overcook. They only need a few minutes to turn pink. Topped off with an avocado and hot sauce, this was a delightful meal requiring very little prep. More time for the ones you love, I say.

And please remember to boil the shrimp shells for zero waste cooking. You will thank yourself later for thinking ahead and simplifying future meal prep with free flavor gems.

Which simple meals define summer for you? Please leave a comment and share using buttons below if you found anything useful here.

Cooking Without a Recipe is Simple and Liberating

Practicing some basic food principles will simplify your life.

I like to think of myself as a problem solver. Not of complex mathematical equations or issues with technology, however. Leave that to someone else. I simply find great satisfaction in finding a practical solution to an everyday problem. For example, last week, after searching the internet and local repair shops, I was unable to find a suitable replacement weight or loader for the broken base of my halogen floor lamp. My husband suggested buying a new lamp until I enlightened him on the cost of such an item. The lamp is attractive and otherwise in good working order and I saw no need to purchase a new one just because he insists on rocking it around like a rock star with a microphone. Thankfully, youtube had a simple DIY suggestion: fill the base with Quikrete vinyl concrete patcher. Now it’s as good as new.

How about the time we didn’t have enough space to set up Michael’s drum set, so I had to get creative with storage solutions? Try hiding a bass drum when you’re short on closet space. Eventually I sourced a used end table with the appropriate dimensions to conceal the drum underneath. Dressed up with a few decorative elements, including painting with a stencil, I had a custom furniture piece that doubled as storage.

Why Am I Telling You This?

Because I began this food blog with the goal of helping those who weren’t used to cooking at home and needed some simple, practical advice. What are the solutions that help me simplify grocery shopping and daily meal prep while continuing to enjoy the process? You learn them all on this blog if you continue to read and subscribe. And in case you haven’t yet seen this video posted on my social media platforms, it will explain my basic approach:

Among my core principles are:

  • Shop strategically. Choose a day and time when the market is least busy and buy lots of fresh items that your family will consume within a reasonable amount of time. Always keep the freezer and pantry stocked with essentials that you can use to round out a meal and season it.
  • Free yourself from recipes. I believe in sharing inspiration and ideas for combining ingredients in new ways, not in precise measurements and detailed step by step instructions. Learn to develop your intuition in the kitchen and create something delicious with what you have on hand. It’s simpler than you might think and very liberating.
  • Work smarter, not harder in the kitchen. Set up your space in a way that makes sense for the way you use it. Prepare more than what’s needed for one meal so that you have quick, go-to elements at hand to create something new for a future meal.
  • Expand your palate/palette. Food is more enjoyable when you embrace variety. Whether that means trying new spices and cooking methods or experimenting with unfamiliar vegetables, you can learn to enjoy cooking. Anyone can learn to love vegetables. Sneak them in if you have to in order to get your family more accustomed to eating them.
  • Cherish mealtime. Make it a distraction-free event that the whole family enjoys because this is “where food brings us together”.

Healthy Daily Eating Habits Are For Life

What can you do today to improve your eating habits?

Spring is a time of renewal. Why not review your daily eating habits and see if there are any healthy, minor changes that can assist your body in this? What does that mean? It doesn’t necessarily mean adopting a drastic new diet that will be difficult to maintain.

I receive lots of questions about my daily eating habits. Often what I show you on this blog is about dinner because it is the meal that my husband and I enjoy most at the end of the day and I assume it’s when most families are able to sit down together. I believe that practice in itself is a healthy habit. What about you?

What does breakfast and lunch look like? Breakfast is usually on autopilot for us. We don’t work physically demanding jobs, so we don’t require a hearty, stick to your ribs type breakfast. About once a week we have eggs and even less frequently something like pancakes or french toast. Most mornings we start off with a fresh vegetable/fruit smoothie with raw nuts or yogurt in it for protein/healthy fat. (There’s one way to eat more vegetables even if you don’t like them.) A few times a week we eat oatmeal topped with fresh fruit and raw nuts instead.

Lunch and Dinner

Our choice of breakfast dictates what might be for lunch. If we had a vegetable/fruit smoothie, we are ready for a heartier lunch that might consist of some type of reinvented leftovers from dinner the night before or a sandwich. If we had oatmeal for breakfast, we might have a salad with beans or a soup of some kind instead.

Dinner depends on those other meals too. Did we eat relatively light all day? Then we might have a steak or roasted chicken for dinner. Did we have a big plate of pasta or a corned beef sandwich for lunch? Then we might want something quite a bit lighter, such as lean fish and some vegetables.

Orange roughy fillets topped with sliced tomato on top of spinach served with roasted potatoes and sliced lemons on a white plate. A bottle of Pinot Grigio with a filled glass and a red pepper shaker are in the background.

Learn How to Quickly Poach Fish That’s Delicious for a simple, lean meal everyone will love. And yes, we drink wine and sometimes we snack on chips or nuts too. I don’t believe in extremely restrictive diets. What about so-called superfoods? I don’t believe in touting one particular food as such. I prefer finding a healthy balance in eating a variety of foods, including lots of fresh vegetables. Listen to your body and find out what works for you.

Does your meal preparation throughout the day relate to what else you have eaten? How about the next day? If we had a lean dinner like the one pictured above, once in a blue moon I might be ready for some sausage in the morning. If we had a steak and onion rings for dinner, I am probably more inclined towards a veggie smoothie for breakfast. It’s all part of what I call intuitive cooking and the reason why I don’t follow recipes. Is my no-plan meal plan working for you or do you have your own system?

Cook Flavorful Beans for Life

Give your favorite pot of beans a flavor boost.

When I was a kid, I thought beans were boring. Then I grew up and learned that they don’t have to be. Shelf stable and budget friendly, they are the foundation for countless flavorful, simple meals. In fact, in the blue zones, areas where people live the longest, beans are a regular part of a plant based diet. Who wants to start cooking more beans?

A white plate filled with small white beans, carrots and swiss chard. A white soup tureen sits in the background along with a head of garlic and a rust colored napkin.

I buy a variety in order to keep things interesting. Soak them overnight and cook up a big batch so you have some to freeze for later. Cook once and eat multiple meals. Simple.

Here’s what went into this pot:

  • 2 pounds small white beans
  • olive oil
  • 8 ounces chopped ham
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • a cup or so of leeks, sliced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • parsley, chopped
  • 1 Tablespoon Herbs de Provence
  • 1 teaspoon dried sage
  • small piece of jalapeno pepper, chopped
  • 2 parmesan rinds
  • a cup or so of white wine
  • enough water to cover
  • salt to taste near the end of cooking

Do you need all of these ingredients? Of course not. Create as you go, adding flavor with what you have on hand. I started with half an onion because I had one already cut in my refrigerator. Before I pulled out another one, I looked around and found a bag of sliced leeks in the freezer that was starting to get a little frosty, so I decided to use them. Most of what I chose to use came from my treasure chest of freezer gems: ham, leeks, jalapeno, parmesan rinds.

Starting with pork of some kind and an onion, I progressively add various ingredients to a large pot, sautéing in olive oil until I think it looks like a pleasingly flavorful combination. Then add the beans and liquid and simmer for a couple of hours until tender. Taste for seasoning and make any adjustments if necessary.

Nothing boring about these beans! For lunch the next day I sautéed some garlic in olive oil before reheating the beans with some freshly chopped tomato and mixing with pasta.

Penne with white beans and tomatoes on a yellow and terra cotta colored painted plate. In the background are blue and white toile napkins, a red onion, tomato, parmesan, grater and a glass of red wine.

The beans that went into the freezer could become soup later or they could go into a salad. Or what else? You decide how many simple meals you can create.

Looking for more ideas on cooking flavorful beans? Read Reasons to Eat This Easy Meaty Bean next.

Keep It Simple In the Kitchen

Learn to work smarter, not harder creating simple meals.

Besides striving for safety and hygiene in the kitchen, my main objectives are to be practical and to keep it simple. Simple meals are the best.

I always keep hard squash in the refrigerator not only because it lasts longer than a lot of other more perishable vegetables; but it also gives me variety in color, texture and nutrients. Whenever you already have the oven on is a perfect time to put one in. Whole or halved or sliced, it doesn’t really matter. Roasting a chicken? I put a butternut squash and a kabocha in there at the same time. It could be part of dinner or repurposed for later.

Here’s an example of lunch the next day. After boiling the chicken carcass to make stock, I combined some with the butternut squash and pureed. Simple as that. Michael wanted to know what else was in this soup because it was so delicious. No other ingredients. You could add herbs or cream or any number of other things, but sometimes the simplest and quickest meals are the best…just like this chicken breast sandwich. He loves it with lettuce and mayonnaise. Could you put other goodies on it? Sure. But why do you need to? Simple, quality ingredients require very little embellishment.

Ruffled pasta with kabocha sauce and ground turkey on a white plate. Behind it sits an acorn squash, a cabbage salad on a white plate and a small plant in a copper pot.

After doing the same thing with the kabocha, I put some of that soup in the freezer. Later it reappeared as a sauce for pasta along with some ground turkey. At first I considered adding pumpkin pie style spices to it, but then I decided on fennel and fenugreek in addition to minced garlic. I bought some fenugreek a while back and then promptly forgot what I intended to do with it. So I have been having a fun moment experimenting with it. I like it for its sweet, warm character. Once again, only your imagination is the limit. Especially if you begin with a basic preparation for the first time you serve something, you have so much versatility to completely reinvent it in the future.

What have you been experimenting with in the kitchen? How do keep things simple? For more simple meals as you develop your intuition in the kitchen, read this next.

Find Your Inspiration to Create Something Delicious

What unexpected touch might you give to spaghetti with shrimp?

Before I had decided how to prepare the shrimp I had defrosted in the refrigerator, my husband suggested scampi with spaghetti. If there’s an opportunity for him to eat some pasta, he’s all for it. LOL. I love pasta too, but I try to limit the frequency to a couple times a week in favor of more nutrient dense foods. So if I’m going to make pasta as a main dish, I’m also thinking about how many vegetables I can add to it. Tomatoes are a no-brainer, right? How about roasted red bell pepper? I had already roasted and peeled a few the day before, so that was easy too. I don’t plan a weekly menu, but preparing some ingredients ahead of time that could be used in different ways often helps me get dinner on the table quickly while cooking without a recipe.

Spaghetti with shrimp, tomatoes, olives and roasted pepper on a white plate. Cucumber salad and a bottle of rose' sit in the background along with a red bell pepper and head of garlic.

A salad of some kind is always welcome. Chopped cucumber, tomato and red onion dressed with garlic/lemon/olive oil is a delightful combination.

While I boiled the shrimp shells in water to make stock, I looked around for some more inspiration to make this dish a little more special. I had received as a gift a jar of tomato preserves with vanilla beans. Having no idea what I would use it for, I decided to add some to this dish. After sautéing the shrimp in a skillet with butter and a few cloves of minced garlic, I plopped a few tablespoons of tomato preserves in. Half a dozen Kalamata olives would balance its sweetness with some briny saltiness. Chopped tomatoes and sliced roasted pepper finished it off.

Sauce Ingredients:

  • shrimp
  • butter
  • minced garlic
  • tomato preserves
  • roasted red pepper
  • chopped tomatoes
  • Kalamata olives
  • shrimp stock

Ready for more inspiration on cooking without a recipe using pasta and shrimp? Make Your Pasta Pretty in Pink.

The Apprentice

I do real food for real people.

After reading The Apprentice, Chef Jacques Pepin’s amazing and entertaining memoir, I feel both inspired and humbled as I continue my quest to provide you with ideas for simple meals.

I began this food blog to help those not used to stocking a pantry or cooking because a pandemic brought the dining habits of many to a screeching halt. I learned that there was a need for basic, common sense food education. There is already so much information out there. I wasn’t sure who specifically needed help or exactly with what. But I knew I had practical experience that could fill a need.

When I naively began, I didn’t even imagine posting pictures of food. I was responding to an emergency with survival instructions. That’s how I viewed it. My original blog posts contained no pictures. I quickly began to add some as I realized what a visual society we have become that expects them. Friends then told me to begin using social media and start posting videos there as well. Wow! This is not what I had in mind at all. But I heeded their suggestions and started to avail myself of other professional resources to further this cause. Am I reaching my target audience?

I have been told that my pictures can’t compete with other food bloggers. This is true. I didn’t set out to compete with anyone or to shoot beautiful pictures. Although I am continuing to educate myself on topics that might make my blog more appealing, I wonder if it matters.

My aim is to ask you, my readers, to reconsider the way you approach food. There has been a huge transformation in this field over the past 50 years or so. Americans used to view food purely as sustenance. There was no such term as “foodie”. In more recent years, the pendulum has swung so far the other way that “foodie” has gained snob appeal and no one feels equipped to cook without a recipe, list of ingredients and a step by step video tutorial. Now it seems that either you are the person who cooks or the person who eats what other people cook because preparing enjoyable meals has been glamorized by the media and overpriced by restaurants.

Jacques Pepin, a living legend who can cook anything he pleases with the finest ingredients and techniques, recently demonstrated how to create a satisfying meal for a family of 6 using a few inexpensive pantry items in response to food insecurity in America. Is it haute cuisine? Do “foodies” marvel? Is the dish worthy of a photo shoot? Probably not, but it’s relevant to our times and it makes me want to give tuna casserole a chance.

Taste Mystery Greens to Make Interesting Things

Curiously experimenting with fresh produce leads to delicious results while cooking without a recipe.

Here’s a mystery green. Can anyone tell me what it is? I’m still not sure, but it doesn’t matter if you practice intuitive cooking without a recipe.

Mystery greens standing upright in a vase

Left over from the farmers market, several bunches of these were gifted to me by a friend. Neither of us recognized it, but I thought I had seen something similar in the Chinese vegetables section before. After doing some internet research, I thought it might be water spinach, but when I cut the ends, the stems weren’t hollow as described online. Hmm…smelling them didn’t yield a clue, so I tasted a raw leaf. It suggested to me something between a radish sprout and watercress. They would have worked well in a salad, but I decided to cook them. Cooking without a recipe, what do you think they would pair well with?

I had defrosted some sea scallops along with some shrimp stock for dinner. Imagining these greens would complement them, I put a pot of water on to boil for some pasta while I chopped some tomato, onion and garlic.

Chopped leafy greens, tomato, onions and garlic on wooden board. Shrimp stock and a stick of butter on a white plate sit on the dark gray countertop

Tips On Cooking Scallops

After blotting my scallops with a paper towel, I coated them in grapeseed oil and sprinkled with salt before placing them one by one into a hot skillet. Turn them over one by one with tongs after a minute or so and cook on the other side for another minute. They should release easily from the pan if you have seared them properly. Don’t overcook or they will get tough. Put finished scallops on a preheated plate while you prepare the sauce.

A Simple Sauce

Splashing a little of the shrimp stock into the skillet to deglaze the pan, I incorporated the brown goodness left from the scallops before proceeding. Then I added some butter because such a low-fat meal deserves it, don’t you think?

Follow up with the onions and garlic. Yes, you can cook them at the same time. Why do recipes often tell you to cook the onion first? Because the pieces are bigger than minced garlic and if you want to cook the onions long enough to get some color on them, you risk scorching the garlic if you add it too early. In this case, I wasn’t looking for the onions to become golden. I just wanted to give them a head start before adding the rest of the stock to the skillet to simmer with some chopped tomatoes. Greens went in at the end to wilt. A little more fresh tomato on top to serve.

What did I do with the rest of those greens? Sautéed them with mushrooms and served with salmon and mahi mahi the next evening. The sauce is Greek yogurt and mayonnaise flavored with garlic, ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. I love leafy greens. All kinds…even if I don’t know their names. Thank you, Mystery Green.

Sautéed mushrooms with leafy greens, roasted cauliflower, salmon and mahi mahi with white sauce served on a white plate. A pink bottle of sake, Tozai Snow Maiden stands behind it.

What are your favorite greens? Which ones haven’t you tried?

Want more ideas for scallops? Read Scrumptious Sea Scallops next.

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