The Naptime Chef

Sloppy Joe’s are a favorite meal from my childhood. I remember my mother making them every once in a long while and my brother and I jumping with excitement when they hit the table. I still make them from time to time and recently I decided to give them a new twist. Instead of serving a good ole’ Manwich sloppy joe on a roll, I used a biscuit. Then I added cubes of spicy cheddar cheese and a slice of bacon! The whole sandwich was inspired by some of my favorite southern cuisine and a desperate need to turn our everyday Monday meal into something special.

I am excited to be working with Manwich on their campaign to turn a case of the Monday meal-blahs into A Case of the Mandays. As I’ve said before, I am not stranger to a good shortcut now and then. Manwich sauce is a tried and true favorite and my family always loves it. It always comes through a pinch and there are SO many great dishes you can make with it. I’ll admit, this biscuit is on the decadent side but I am not worried. It made for an fun, delicious meal for the whole family on a Monday evening and that is the best way to start off the week!

To help you turn Monday into A Case of the Manday’s I am excited to be giving away one Manday Manwich Survival Kit. It includes:

• 1 Calphalon skillet ($80 value)
• 1 wooden spoon
• 4 Manwich bibs
• 1 canister of handwipes
• $50 grocery gift card
• Manwich product

To Enter to Win:

1) Leave a comment sharing what you might make with your Manwich!

2) Subscribe to Kelsey Banfield on Facebook.

3) Subscribe to The Naptime Chef newsletter in the upper right hand corner.

4) Contest runs from Monday April 8th at 7:00am through Monday April 15th at 7:00am. The contest winner will be announced in the Friday April 19th newsletter.

(Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Manwich but the opinions expressed are entirely my own. Thank you for supporting the posts that make The Naptime Chef possible.)

There is nothing like the first hint of spring to inspire a light chicken dish full of fresh tomatoes and herbs for dinner. This true powernap recipe (under 10 minutes to assemble!) came together in a jiffy over the weekend. I had some fresh chicken thighs on hand and decided to roast them in one large pan with cherry tomatoes, shallots, thyme, and basil. The naptime preparation was a cinch, I simply assembled the one dish meal and stuck it in the fridge for the afternoon!

For dinner I popped the pan in the oven and sauted some fresh spinach with olive oil and pine nuts while the chicken baked. It was hard to not prepare a carb – but the baby weight loss goal is in my mind and I am doing my best to stay as healthy as possible! (However, if you are not as gung-ho as me a few noodles or a bed of polenta would be excellent side dishes with this meal.) Once it had finished cooking the chicken was tender and juicy with crisp skin, and the tomatoes and shallots were softened and richly flavored. We served everything over the bed of spinach and enjoyed an easy, healthy meal!

Today my friend Jen from Savoring the Thyme is sharing her awesome recipe for spring pizza. I love her inspiring blog because it focuses on health and wellness and her recipes are awesome. She is a busy mother of two yet manages to make fitness, cooking, and general well-being look so simple when we all know that it is not! hope you enjoy her tips for making awesome Thai pizza. It is healthy, easy to make, and over the top delicious.

Pizza is an American staple: We all love it, crave it, and we over-indulge in it.  But considering the average mozzarella pizza is loaded with high sugar sauce, too much cheese and extra grease, is it possible to ever consider pizza a healthy-ish option? Follow some of these tips and you might be proud to serve it once a week.

* Start off with or incorporate a salad while you are waiting for the pizza to bake. In our home, the kids must eat a salad before or after their first piece of pizza.

* Use whole wheat or whole grain pizza crust/dough. You can usually find premade shells or uncooked dough at your local grocery store and bake it yourself or even consider making one yourself thus ensuring no preservatives.

*Make your own marinara sauce or use a high-quality brand.

*Load up the veggies: Tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, cauliflower, peppers, onions (try ëem caramelized), eggplant, corn, sweet potato, and carrots are some great options that add vital nutrients.  Also, consider roasting the vegetables for a whole new taste profile. One of our favorites is a Roasted Butternut Squash & Pesto Flatbread Pizza.

*Protein options: Top with some chicken, turkey, shrimp, low-sodium ham, and ground bison are great choices. One of my favorites is Grilled Turkey Thai Pizza.

*Use your greens: Donít be afraid to toss some arugula, spinach, or your favorite herbs on to the pie just before you chow down.

*Low-fat cheeses: Experiment with reduced fat versions of different cheeses such as asiago or feta and only use a small amount. You can also use the standard mozzarella but simply scatter on a light layer as it will distribute as it melts.

*Size DOES matter: Try using small tortillas or pitas for a satisfying but smaller-sized pizza.

*Don’t forget the fruit: Think Hawaiian pizza (pineapple), peaches, and plums.  Oh yum!

One of the most frequent recipe requests I get from parents is for something new to please their picky eaters. The parents are usually tired of serving chicken fingers and oven pizzas and want to feed their children something wholesome, delicious, and above and beyond everyday children’s fare. My answer is usually to combine vegetables, a lean protein, and pasta and coat it all in a light palate-pleasing sauce. I created something just like this last weekend when I was experimenting with the new Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter from Land O’Lakes.

Today, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be participating in the Weeknight Wins Blogger Challenge by Land O’Lakes Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter. During April, four other lovely food bloggers and I will be sharing our weeknight go-to recipes with you. On busy weeknights, many families have just 30 minutes or less to get a wholesome dinner on the table. This challenge should give us all some great, delicious meal ideas to whip up in a hurry. Together, we can score little wins in the kitchen! (Follow along on the Weeknight Wins Pinterest Board.)

Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter is this cool new first-of-its-kind seasoned butter and olive oil sauté starter that comes in convenient squares and can be used to cook and season any protein, such as chicken, fish, or pork in one easy step.

 They are perfect for cooking and flavoring meats and poultry that can then be used as the base for a light pasta sauce. I usually am happy to toss together my own seasonings from scratch but it is so nice to have these on hand in a pinch. They take the guesswork out of measuring ingredients and save a ton of time!

Back to the challenge! The first week’s challenge is “Please Your Picky Eater,” something that many moms and dads will identify with! For this picky eater–pleasing dish I simply sautéed some lean chicken breasts in the melted Savory Butter & Olive Oil square.

When the chicken was cooked I scraped all of it, including the melted butter, into a bowl with spiral pasta (my daughter’s favorite), wilted spinach, and a pinch of Parmesan and tossed the ingredients together. It was perfection!

Our favorite part about this meal is that it is sophisticated enough for the adults but simple enough for the kids. My daughter, not exactly a spinach enthusiast, eagerly devoured her plateful.

Now, it’s your turn to participate in Weeknight Wins. Each week I’ll be sharing a new recipe featuring Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter and hosting an awesome sweepstakes for you!

This week’s prize pack includes:

• Four coupons for Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter
• Le Creuset Cast Iron Skillet
• Three hand towels
• Set of six divided dinner plates

Now, share your idea for Pleasing Picky Eaters for a chance to win the Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter Picky Eater Prize Pack. Bonus: Tell me what you would make using Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter to Please Your Picky Eater. Each week, Land O’Lakes will also pick a few of favorites, which will be featured on Land O’Lakes Weeknight Meals Pinterest Board. *When you enter, Land O’Lakes may select your comment to feature for promotion, social media and/or other related marketing materials.

Here’s how to enter–> Simply leave a comment below answering one of the following questions:

What is your weeknight win to please a picky eater?

OR

What would you make with Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter?

Enter The Weeknight Wins by Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter Sweepstakes

Details
Open to legal U.S. residents 18 years and older. No purchase necessary to enter or win. One entry per person (that includes email address & IP address) per day. Required information is first & last name and valid email address. Entries obtained by mechanical or spamming mechanisms will be disqualified. One winner will be chosen at random from all of the qualified entries submitted. Sweepstakes ends on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be contacted via email supplied in the entry & will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Approximate retail value of prize: $150 Sweepstakes is sponsored by Land O’Lakes. The Naptime Chef and the sponsor reserve the right to cancel the sweepstakes at any time. Contact The Naptime Chef for winner list or with any questions. By participating in this Sweepstakes, you agree to be bound by these rules and the decisions of the Sponsors, which shall be final. All federal, state, and local laws apply; void where prohibited.

Disclosure: I’ve partnered with Land O’Lakes for an exclusive endorsement of Sauté Express^® Sauté Starter. This blog post is sponsored by Land O’Lakes. All opinions are my own.

Over the weekend I am pretty sure everyone in Connecticut turned off the heat, threw open the windows, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. The thermometer eeked north of 50 degrees F for the first time in five months! Naturally, the minute I felt the rush of spring I indulged in some long overdue spring cleaning. Nothing too wild, just the usual rummaging through closets, cleaning out cupboards, etc. It felt so good to get rid of the dead weight and haul a few bags over to Goodwill! Since I know a lot of you are probably in the same boat – spring cleaning like mad people, relishing the chance to start the season anew – today I am sharing my top ten tips for preparing your kitchen for spring and summer. If you see anything I am missing, please let me know!

1) Deep Clean Cupboards: The first place I start are my kitchen cupboards. I go through each one and wipe it down with a kitchen towel. I also pick through the odd glasses and whatnot we’ve collected over the winter. Little things like token kids cups from birthday parties and to-go mugs with missing lids take up a lot of space and are immediately discarded. I am ruthless as I clean, tossing anything that doesn’t suit our needs.

2) Check Expiration Dates: In the pantry the first thing I check are the expiration dates on canned goods. I am not a hoarder, but I am a sucker for gorgeous looking packaged food that I may or may not end up eating. Some items end up sitting on our shelves for years! Anything that is expired, or just appears kind of limp or dead, I chuck. I also check all the expiration dates on the sauces and jams in the fridge. Once the outdated food has been disposed of I wash the jam jars in the dishwasher and save them for arts and crafts projects.

3) Make list of herbs for summer garden: Planting my back deck container garden is something I look forward to every spring. I love selecting the herbs and plants to grow and recipes to make with them. All winter I was dreaming about lemon verbena, for example, and am dying to try it in a new scone recipe I’ve been testing! In April I make a list of the herbs and plants I want and keep an eye out for them at our local nursery. We will plant them in May.

4) Stock up on canning supplies: Woot! I love canning season. I can’t wait to relish the flavors of summer and preserve as much as it as possible for next winter. This is the perfect time of year to reunite jars with errant lids and assess how many full sets of jars/lids/rims you have on hand. If, like me, you gave away a lot of jam last year there is a good chance you’ll need to restock your canning pantry. Put that on your list for April so you can get any shape or size jar you want before they run out. (I am coveting these awesome Blue Ball Jars this spring – I need a case or two! Can you imagine how pretty they’d look with apricot jam inside and packaged up as a gift??!)

5) Check spring hours for your Farmer’s Market/CSA/U-Pick: We source most of our summer produce outside the supermarket. April is a great month to start looking up the times and locations of farmer’s market. Summer hours and locations can differ greatly depending on where you live! This is also time to research local CSA’s and U-Pick farms. Crops will be in bloom before you know it and you’ll want to be prepared!

6) Fresh containers for food: I am a big fan of glass pitchers and food containers. During the winter food containers can get dirty with tomato sauce and other food stains. I always stash my iced tea pitcher in a closet and it gets sooo dusty! Now is a great time to pull everything out and give it a once over. If it is terribly stained then toss it! Stick your glass products in a heavy duty dish washer cycle to spiff them up. There is nothing better than a glistening clear glass pitcher for the first batch of Roasted Peach Iced Tea.

7) Tally the fun equipment: In the summer I like to have our popsicle sticks, summer cookie cutters, and ice cream maker at the ready. I consider this our fun equipment since we use it all summer long for our foodie craft projects. Every winter it seems a little elf swipes a few cookie cutters and popsicle sticks so I have to buy some new ones. Most of these items begin appearing in stores this month making it the best time to stock-up.

8) Wipe out coolers and beach bags: We do a lot of picnics in the summer which means I am constantly carrying food to and fro. I usually use a freezer bag or heavy canvas tote bag to haul stuff around and they can get dirty. Each spring I wipe everything down with a heavy soap and water solution and let it air dry on the deck.

9) Kitchen linens: During the winter we tend to eat heavier foods which always seem to stain our linens. This month I will ruthlessly edit our linen collection and toss anything with a stain I can’t get out on my own. Each year I usually lose about five dish towels, a half dozen cloth napkins, and a table cloth or two. Nothing that can’t be replaced. In fact, I kind of look forward to this because it gives me the excuse to pick up a few new pretty things for the summer kitchen!

10) Sharpen Knives: Sharpening your knives seasonally is a good idea. I take our knives to a local kitchen store and they sharpen my whole set for $16. Such a bargain! I also sharpen them at home from time to time, but nothing beats the professional touch. I love having my knives especially sharp in the summer because the produce requires a lot of skinning and chopping. Using a sharp blade on things like tomatoes or eggplant definitely reduces the risk of knife slippage and subsequent stitches!

Two weeks ago I shared my trip to our neighborhood crepe truck as part of my year of exploring street food as a flavor correspondent for Sargento. (If there is a truck you think I should see please let me know!) This program features myself and a few other food bloggers as we spend the year exploring the top 10 food trends of 2013 as identified by Rick Bayless. I was bummed I couldn’t go to the program kick-off at the headquarters in Wisconsin in early February, but I had just had a baby so that was impossible! Instead, I joined the conference via Google + hangout and enjoyed Rick’s talk about food trends remotely.

At that talk each blogger was assigned two specific food trends to explore this year. I was assigned food trucks/street food, as you know, and mushrooms. Two of my favorite things! I felt very lucky. The remaining food trends were also cool and I can’t wait to see what my fellow correspondents write. They include: middle eastern foods, Peruvian foods, habanero peppers, tacos, fermented foods, braising meats, greens, and herbs in desserts.

I kicked off my flavor correspondence with food trucks last week, so today I want to talk about my other assignment: mushrooms. I usually buy basic crimini mushrooms for my everyday mushroom-based dishes. But this year I want to explore lesser known varieties and show everyone how we can use them to add more flavor and flair to our everyday dishes. Since we had just recently visited the food truck, where I enjoyed a savory crepe, I thought it would be fun to make my own savory mushroom crepes at home.

Since I was making our crepes for dinner I wanted to make sure they were substantial enough to hold us for the evening.  I decided to use blue cheese, mushrooms, and walnuts. In keeping with my pledge to stay away from the common cremini, we elected to use shitake mushrooms for their strong smokey flavor and firm texture.

As with any good powernap recipe, the batter for the crepes came together in a snap and they were easy to cook up on the stove top. To fill them I added in the stewed shitake mushrooms, crumbled blue cheese, and chopped toasted walnuts. Then I folded up the crepe like an envelope and dinner was served! The crepe was certainly rich to boot, but we loved the contrast of the earthy mushrooms with the sharp cheese. The walnuts added a nice amount of crunch without overpowering the palate. It was a deliciously fun dinner for an early spring evening. We also all agreed that this easy recipe would be great for lunch, or even for taking to school for lunch wrapped in foil. Looks like there will be many more crepes in our future this spring!

For more flavor correspondents check out:

• Bree from Baked Bree
• Bren Herrara from Flanbouyant Eats
• Cara Eisenpress from Big Girls Small Kitchen
• Cathy Pollack from Noble Pig
• Ann Fulton from The Fountain Avenue Kitche

(This post is sponsored by Sargento. Thank you so much for supporting the sponsors that make The Naptime Chef possible.)

With Easter just around the corner I am wrapping up my Friday fish meals for Lent with Sea Cuisine. I’ll admit, I will not stop eating all the awesome things I’ve been writing about just because Easter has arrived. The Sea Cuisine fish is so good and is such a wonderful way to get a healthy seafood meal on the table any night of the week! For this week’s meal I went back to our favorite Herbed Cod and served it over some fresh Parmesan Polenta topped with roasted tomatoes. It was a simple weeknight meal that was a huge hit with everyone.

While adding roasted tomatoes to our meal may seem a tad labor intensive for a weeknight here is what I did: I roasted them in the same pan as the baking fish. So easy! I simply used a large baker for the Sea Cuisine Cod and scattered the tomatoes tossed with olive oil all around it. As the fish baked the tomatoes roasted and wilted to perfection. While everything was in the oven I stirred together the polenta and had it ready by the time the fish and tomatoes were complete. In the end I only dirtied two pans and dinner was on the table in the snap. Is there any better way to prepare seafood on a weeknight? I can’t think of it! Happy Easter weekend!