Kevin's Kitchen: French Dip

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.

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. 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. 

Who doesn't like a good French Dip or Beef on Wick? Tonight's dinner works well for either. Trust me, this is going to be one of your all time favorite French Dip recipes! 

I have a 4 pound roast. 

Add 2.5 cups of water, 3/4 cup soy sauce, 1.5 tsp of Rosemary, 1.5 tsp thyme, 1.5 tsp garlic powder, 5 peppercorns, and a bay leaf. 

Let it cook for a good 6-8 hours. In fact, why don't you put it on, go to work, and it will be ready when you arrive home! Just finely shred the beef and put it back into the crockpot and it is ready to eat!

Kevin's Kitchen: Grilling Peanuts

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.

A reader asked "why do you drink Smirnoff and eat peanuts while grilling?" The Smirnoff if obvious. The peanuts have two purposes: I feed them to Riley the Grilling Dog to keep his interest; and I put the shells on the grill to give the meat a unique smokey flavor.

Kevin's Kitchen: The Salad Toppings

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.

When you make a salad, how much of it is lettuce versus toppings?

Salad is a staple for eating healthy. Getting more fruits and vegetables in our diet is important. But how much salad can one person eat? To avoid getting sick of salad, many people will load the salad with calorie rich dressing or bury the salad in toppings.

What is the answer?

Don't get all your vegetables from salads. Find otherways to enjoy vegetables so you aren't pounding away lettuce every day.  If you must have toppings? Keep the toppings healthy: lean chicken, low fat cheese, and whole grain croutons to name just a few toppings ideas.

Kevin's Kitchen: Taco Salad

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.

You are trying to eat healthy, which means eating salad. But how much salad can one person take?!?  You have to live it up a little. Spread those calories across the lettuce to make it worth eating! Just make sure the Taco Salad is mostly salad and not mostly taco!

Cooking has to be fast and easy. Like opening a can of ravioli and eating it cold. A better choice than can ravioli is a fast and easy Taco Salad.

 Start with the leanest hamburger you can find (I usually use 95/5). Just brown the hamburger, drain or the grease, and put taco seasoning on it (season to taste). 

Side note: How to you drain hamburger grease? DO NOT POUR IT DOWN THE DRAIN! That'll clog your pipes. There are three thing I have done: (1) Pour the grease into a cup, let it cool, and then throw it into the garbage. (2) Spread the hamburger out on paper towels, let the pan cool, then wipe out the pan. And (3) Push the hamburger to one side of the pan and allow the grease to pool into the other side. Soak up the grease with paper towels and then throw the paper towels away.

Next, throw all the ingredients into a bowl and eat it.  Is that simple? Or what? And that is another fast and easy meal from my kitchen.