TGIF

Do you ever feel like your pantry or hall closet is being overrun by left over plastic bags from the grocery store? If you are like me, you use your extra bags for doggie waste and dirty diapers, but not everyone knows this trick. Check it out and see what you think.

When you are in the kitchen at night preparing dinner, place one or two empty Safeway or Harris Teeter plastic bags on your counter and use them for waste as you are cooking.

I usually reserve one bag for the packaging and waste (trimmed fat etc.) from the meat that I am preparing for dinner. This way you are not dripping chicken juice (with bacteria, E-coli etc.) all over your counter, floor and garbage can; you are containing everything in one plastic bag that you can tie up and place directly into your trash pail. This also protects little hands and doggie tongues from licking up or touching these harmful bacteria if they get into the kitchen trash can, which they sometimes do!

I use the second bag for vegetable refuse as I am peeling, coring, seeding etc. I find that having the open bag right in front of me on the counter helps cut down on the number of trips I make to the garbage can and it is so convenient it helps me maintain a "clean as I cook" mentality in my kitchen which makes cleaning up after dinner a lot quicker too.

If you have never tried this trick, please give it a whirl the next time you are cooking, I think you will find it is a great time saver and that it helps keep things really clean.

TGIF

So sorry for the delay in posting, again, but traveling over Labor Day weekend is always a challenge, especially when you have little ones in the mix.

My TGIF posting is about the kitchen and cooking-one of my favorite pastimes. I know that this good information tip requires a little forethought, but I promise that the minimal planning pays off big time in the long run.

If you are like me and you enjoy cooking, you probably keep a freezer full of dinner supplies-chicken, beef, seafood etc.-so that you can pull something out in the morning and it will defrost in time for dinner....right?

Try marinating your meats and seafood BEFORE you freeze them. It really locks in the flavor and while the meat defrosts it also marinates so that by dinner time all you have to do is cook the meat, instead of trimming it and deciding how you are going to prepare it. Plus, the extra time the meat marinates only enhances the flavor.

Although it requires a little more prep time when you initially buy the meats and freeze them, it saves you a good fifteen minutes or more when you are trying to throw dinner together on the week nights.

I personally like to buy meats in bulk (to save money) at Costco maybe once per month. I plan my shopping trip for a day when I know I will have some free time and while my son naps, I break up the chicken and meat and seafood into small portions. I put each dinner sized portions in their own Ziploc bags with a different marinade (Buffalo sauce, terriyaki, citrus, etc.) and I label it on the outside of the bag so that I can differentiate between what each item is when it comes time to defrost. As I said before, I love to cook, so I choose to make my own marinades which takes longer, but you can cut down on the prep time by buying pre-made marinades or herb rubs when they are on sale at the supermarket (there is always at least one brand of marinade or salad dressing on sale at the supermarket each week) or you can purchase them in bulk to save money. A little Italian dressing on plain chicken breasts can make some really good moist grilled chicken in the summer months.

It takes me about an hour, once every few weeks, to trim the fat, divide up these meats and seafoods and marinate them, but it stocks my freezer full of pre-marinated entrees that I can quickly defrost during the week when I am pressed for time.

As an extra bonus, I am going to share one of my favorite (and really easy) marinades with you. This marinade is excellent on chicken, but is so mild it can be used on almost any kind of meat or seafood.

-Place 1 pound of boneless, trimmed chicken into a Ziploc bag and mix with:
-1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
-fresh cracked pepper from a mill to taste (almost a full tablespoon)
-salt to taste (almost a full tablespoon)
-Oregano, fresh or dried (1 tablespoon)
-juice from 2 squeezed lemons

This is a nice light marinade that works well for chicken kebabs or grilled fish or shrimp.

Enjoy!