Cooking with Kyle

Cooking with Kyle- Marinated Pork Chops

After a 2 month break,  Cooking with Kyle IS BACK!  Things just go to hectic the last few weeks of school and with Kara's physical therapy for him to cook meals .  Now that it is summer break,  Kyle has a lot more time to plan some recipes.   Kyle recently tried the new pork chop at the Outback, and decided that it is now one of his favorite meals.  While shopping at Kroger a few days ago, we saw there was a great sale on pork chops and he asked me to buy them.  He also asked me for a bag  of  potatoes to make homemade mashed potatoes and french fries.

Since he really likes the garlic mashed potatoes with the skin on at Outback, he decided not to peel them.  That was okay with me too, since it would be safer for him to make them this way.  He washed and cut up about 5 potatoes.

We based his recipe partially on Alton Brown's Food Network recipe, which  calls for adding salt to the potatoes before boiling.

He boiled the potatoes until they were cooked through

He looked over several recipes on the internet and chose Marinated Backed Pork Chops on Allrecipes.com.   First preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the marinade you need:
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon ketchup

Mix the ingredients in a small bowl

Spread half the marinated on the top of the pork chops, saving the other half for later.  

Bake for 30 minutes. Turn the chops over and cover with the other half of the marinade. Bake for 30 minutes more.

To finish the potatoes, he added some milk (half and half if you have some), garlic, parm cheese and some butter.

Grumpy look for someone who just cooked a delicious meal! LOL! He wanted to go back and watch the Good Luck Charlie special  and not take pictures.

A definite keeper, that he said he will want to make again.

Burritos 



Kyle is looking entirely too happy in this photo.  He was messing around in the other photos, so I went with this one.  I also want to say ahead of time I apologize for the quality of these pictures.  We have horrible lighting in the kitchen and the USB cord to my better camera is currently broken.   I did want to share Kyle's latest, greatest recipe even if that means not so good picture. 

Kyle came up with his own personal recipe. To make the process easier, he chose Chi Chis meat in the tub that was on sale.  It was must faster than frying up and seasoning his own and cheaper too.

The ingredients he used

• Chi Chis prepared taco meat 
• taco sauce
• burrito size tortilla 
• shredded cheese 
• a can of red beans 
• brown rice (for the side) 
• sour cream (optional) 
• jalapeno peppers (optional)

He warmed up the red beans using the directions on the back of the can.   While these were on the store, he warmed up the Chi Chis meat in the microwave.  

Adding the ingredients to the burrito 

He added the taco meat, a spoonful of red beans and then some of the shredded cheese 

Here he is rolling the burrito and placing them in a pyrex dish. A fun tip.. heat the tortillas in the microwave for 15-20 seconds before rolling. Warming them slightly keeps them from tearing.   

Funny story about the rice.  While he was putting the burritos together, Kara came in and asked to help. He told her that she could help with the rice.  She did not realize it was boil in a bag rice, so she started pouring it in the pot.  Halfway into pouring the rice, she was told that she was supposed to place the bag in the water.  Since there was still some rice in the bag, she threw it in.  Boil in a bag rice became boil WITH a bag rice.    

I thought he might add some salsa to the burritos, but he insisted on adding taco sauce.  He just pour a few passes across the burritos. It actually tastes really good this way. 

He also added a fair amount of cheese on top of of the burritos before placing them in the oven.  

I helped him set the oven. We cooked them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  We did not need to cook it very long because we used prepared and warmed up taco meat.  

They looked really good when they came out of the oven.  

He served the brown rice on the side.  The burritos were excellent, the rice not so much. It seems boiling with a bag, made them too soggy.   

He was goofing off during the finished pic too.   He is busy thinking up his recipe for next week. Hope you stop back and check it out.  

Grilled Turkey and Cheese 



This week Kyle chose to make a healthy grilled cheese served with tomato soup.  We also had a mini watermelon that I bought yesterday for dessert. 

I took him to the store to pick out which ingredients he wanted to use for his healthy grilled cheese. 
He chose 100% whole grain bread, light miracle whip, calcium enriched margarine, 2% milk cheddar cheese, and a sharp cheddar cheese. 

He also added a slice of sliced turkey breast to each sandwich. We just forgot to bring it out  in the first picture. By the time we realized it, he was already in the middle of cooking. 

Using a cheese slicer, he sliced each of the cheeses into very thin slices.  He cut 4 of each kind for each sandwich.   We were not sure if it would be too much or not enough, but I thought it was the perfect amount when melted. 

Before adding the cheese, he spread a little bit of light miracle whip on each of the slices of bread. 

                                                                   Adding the cheese

                                                                   Adding the turkey

He had never made soup on his own before. I had to tell him how to make it. 

He was really concentrating on stirring the soup.  He wanted to be sure to mix it very well.

He spread the margarine on the sandwiches before placing them in the skillet.  (the stain on his shirt was from  his pudding at lunch. Hopefully it will come out in the wash!)

I helped him flipped the first few, but he soon  got the hang of it on his own.  It was fun to see the excitement on his face.

He was having some trouble being serious in this picture.  His grilled cheese sandwiches  turned out perfectly. 

Yummy cheesy goodness!!

A perfect dinner on a warm spring night!








Breakfast Burritos 







Kyle made another  wonderful recipe in this week's, "Cooking with Kyle."  He decided to make a breakfast/brunch burrito, and fruit salad.  Almost all of the ingredients were on sale at Meijer this past week, so not only did it taste great, it was inexpensive to make. 

These are the ingredients he used for his breakfast burrito: eggs, mushrooms, chicken sausage, cheese, and tortillas.     In the fruit salad, he used cantaloupe, bananas, strawberries, and grapes.

He started by cutting the mushrooms into small pieces, while the chicken sausage cooked. The directions said they could be cooked in the microwave, so that is what he decided to do. 

Kara helped him break 6 eggs into a bowl.  I was not too thrilled when it became a race, and an broken egg ended up on the stove.  These two are so competitive sometimes.

He added some milk to the eggs, and then sprayed the skillet with cooking spray.

He added in the ingredients to the egg mixture while it was in the skillet 

Once all of the ingredients were added, he made sure they were evenly distributed  throughout the pan

He had hoped to make it into more of an omelet than a scramble, but it was a bit too hard for him to get the eggs to fold over. 

He rolled some of the eggs in each tortilla.   Our tortillas were too small to make an actual burrito, but it could easily be done with 10" tortillas 

Brunch is served!  He once again  made an excellent recipe that we all loved.  I personally  really liked the addition of the chicken sausage to the burrito. ( Johnsonville brand)  It gave the taste a nice kick, and made it more filling.  This recipe is great for all ages, because it is very easy to change the ingredients to your own preference.   

Hmm... what should he make next week?















CHICKEN SALAD SURPRISE 



I am so excited to share this post.   This is our first day posting  "Cooking with Kyle".  Recently Kyle has acquired at new nickname in our house.  He is taking a  health class  in school, and has turned into  the food police almost overnight.  I wrote about our grocery store adventure in  my shopping with the food police post  last week.   Since he wants everyone to eat healthier, I came up with the idea that he could share a healthy kid friendly recipe each week. Today we had a snow day, so he decided to make us lunch. This is his own recipe....   Chicken Salad Surprise. 

The ingredients

Chicken.. We used a can of 97% fat free Hormel chicken breast
Miracle Whip.. I did not have the lower fat version, and was not going out in the snow to get it
Green grapes
Carrots
Minced onion... you might be able to use real onion, we did not have any on hand
Garlic Salt

For the sandwich bread, we used a Crusty French Baguette that was on sale this week for only .99.  I followed the directions and cooked it at 400 degrees for 20 mins.  It cooled, while he made the chicken salad. 

He opened the can of chicken and drained out the liquid.  He then placed the chicken in a mixing bowl

He added 3 tablespoons of Miracle Whip.  He did not measure it, just eyeballed it to make sure he had enough to cover the meat.

He than added a 1/2 teaspoon of minced onion and a 1/4 teaspoon of garlic salt, and mixed well

He cut up about  10 grapes into small pieces. He felt the smaller the better so picky eaters might not realize what they are eating.

I then shredded a little bit of carrot for him.  He added it to the chicken mixture, and mixed well again. 

I offered to cut the bread for him, but he wanted to do it himself.  He was using a sharp knife so I was a bit nervous, but he did a great job!

He cut the baguette into sandwich size pieces.  He then placed the "secret ingredient" on each roll. Shhh, don't tell, it is a piece of spinach.  When the chicken salad is on roll, the spinach is completely hidden. 

I helped him scoop out the rest of the chicken salad onto the rolls

Doesn't it look good! We added the toothpicks only for picture purposes.

The sandwiches were served with a side salad made with all the veggies I bought on sale at the Meijer Dollar Sale. 

This chicken salad was delicious.  It had the right mixture of sweet and tangy. I knew that the spinach was in the sandwich, and I didn't even see it or taste it, so the surprise spinach idea  worked.   Kyle was  proud that he made something that tasted so good all by himself.     

He also had these words of wisdom, that he wanted me to share. "Busy moms can make chicken salad surprise quickly, and also get their children to eat some fruits and vegetables at the same time."

Because of the success of his first recipe, he is really looking forward to sharing another next week, on the next "Cooking with Kyle'.