Kevin's Kitchen: Cowboy Stew

Your slow cooker is a quick road to dinner heaven!

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

It is October, the weather is changing, and we naturally start thinking about comfort food. What is more comforting than thinking about a cowboy come off the dusty trail and arriving at the chuck wagon for some chow? Working the range all day calls for a big hearty beefy meal for dinner. 

Today I am doing Cowboy Stew in the Crockpot. That means cans of tomatoes, tomato soup, beans, and potatoes. 

One chopped onion (I like Spanish Onions). 

Brown and drain a couple of pounds of lean hamburger (I usually use 95/5). Mix it all together in the crockpot and cook on low 8 hours. This'll put some getty-up in your saddle! 

Kevin's Kitchen: Grilled Cheese

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

The phrase "Honey, can you make me a sandwich?" Does not exist in Kevin's Kitchen. So go clean the grease out of your finger nails and brush the lawn clippings off your pants because we are going to construct a manly grilled cheese sandwich.

First thing you have to do is toss an ample helping of butter in the bottom of a pan. Don't use margarin or Pam or Olive oil or anything sissy like that. I don't care if you have one of those cancer causing non stick pans - lob some real good butter in there and warm the pan on a stove.

Next, get some bread. Not some fuccia whole wheat Texas croissant style crap. Just your every day sandwich bread will do. Butter both sides of that bread - and I mean butter it!

Toss that into the pan and grab a slice of cheese. Not a skin goat Milk crumbly gotta slice with a hacksaw cheese. Just a normal slice of American. In fact? Why not toss two slices on it?

Here is the secret - squirt some mustard on the cheese. Not that brown grey poopa fonie bologna crap. Just some every day yellow mustard.

Get one side of the sandwich Golden brown, flip it, get the second side golden brown. Find a beverage and dig in.

Kevin's Kitchen: Instant Potatoes

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

Creating great meals means cooking at home. Eating out has been shown to be expensive and often unhealthy as portions are huge, ingredients are unknown to you,  restaurants focus on calorie rich flavors, and diners tend to over eat. It is better to take those traditional classics and make them at home where you can control the ingredients and the portion sizes. Even if the meal isn't at the top of the "healthy list", just making the meal at home instead of eating out can greatly improve your health habits.

God invented instant potatoes for people like me who can't cook. Especially the bacon and cheddar potatoes! These are so easy!

Just boil some water, dump in the potatoes, and stir with a fork. 

And if you aren't very familiar with the complex workings of a stove? They even provide microwave instructions.

Kevin's Kitchen: South of the Border Soup

Your slow cooker is a quick road to dinner heaven!

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

It is September, the warm weather is leaving. Sounds like it is time to make some South Of The Border Soup!

 Start with five pounds of diced potatoes.

 Dice up one spanish onion and add it to the potatoes

Next, add two cans of beans, chicken broth, and sharp cheddar cheese.

Mix in Salsa, black pepper, and chili powder. Let this cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4). 

This South of the Border Soup is going to cure whatever ails you.

Kevin's Kitchen: Pot Pie

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

Creating great meals means cooking at home. Eating out has been shown to be expensive and often unhealthy as portions are huge, ingredients are unknown to you,  restaurants focus on calorie rich flavors, and diners tend to over eat. It is better to take those traditional classics and make them at home where you can control the ingredients and the portion sizes. Even if the meal isn't at the top of the "healthy list", just making the meal at home instead of eating out can greatly improve your health habits. 

When I think of easy cooking, I don't think casseroles. Casseroles require planning, measuring, and thinking - and who wants to do that? However, I received a recipe from my cousin for Chicken Pot Pie and had to give it a try. Thinking about a chicken pot pie stuffed with vegetables and lean chicken. I changed the recipe a little to make it easier.

 1. Mix half a bag (2 cups) of Mexican cheese with two cans each of chicken, mixed vegetables, and cream of Chicken soup into a greased backing dish.

2. Put 2 tablespoons of butter over 8 Pillsbury biscuits that you cut into quarters

3. Put the biscuits ontop the mixture

4. Bake at 375 for around 20 minutes (until the biscuits are golden brown, but before they turn black).

Kevin's Kitchen: Spaghetti

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

I was sitting in a business meeting one day. Waiting for the meeting to start, everyone was telling their favorite meals to make. One guy said "I make spaghetti". I said "You mean... you open a jar?" And he said "Yep".

We know we need to eat differently... healthier. But we don't all have time to make a home made sauce. Sometimes a jar of Prego is just as good as anything else. And what could be easier to make than spaghetti?

Get water boiling in a pot and dump in your favorite pasta. A pro tip? Put a small amount of cooking oil in the water before adding the pasta to help avoid the pasta from sticking together. For a healthy alternative, use whole wheat pasta. Stir the pasta often. When it turns white, fish one out and try it to make sure it has the consistency you want. Then drain off the water. To make draining the water easy? I use a pot that has a strainer built into the cover!

Next, warm up a jar of sauce in a second pot. Just be careful: hot sauce can be hotter than lava. Don't get burned by a splatter.

I kicked it up a notch with some frozen meatballs cooked in the oven. Make sure you read the instructions - some frozen meatball brands will tell you the meatballs need to be cooked to a certain temperature. If the instructions say that? You need to poke them with a meat thermometer to make sure they are done.

Add grated cheese, shredded mozzarella, and I used Penne instead of Spaghetti and you have a quick and easy Italian meal. 

Kevin's Kitchen: Boiling Water

A thyroidectomy requires a life change. That includes changing eating habits. The purpose of Kevin's Kitchen is to help those with no (or little) cooking skills to create great meals.

It can take forever for water to boil on a stove. And boiling water in a microwave can be dangerous because the water can explode if it can't form bubbles. So here is an easy way to speed up the process: run the water through your Keurig (with no k-cup).