Today’s post is sponsored by the new Windows Phone 7.
It comes as a surprise to many of my friends that I cook as often as I do. Even more than before I had my second baby. Anyone with little folks at home can tell you that you’re not allowed more than about 20 minutes to prepare anything in the kitchen…and that’s with continuous distribution of Cheerios and puffs. Out of necessity, I have learned how to get a lot more done with a lot less time.
In conjunction with the launch of the Windows Phone 7, the folks at Microsoft are coordinating with me and 57 other food and lifestyle bloggers (see the official rules for a list of all the participating bloggers) to give away their new smartphones to our readers and challenged us to write a post on the theme of “doing more with less”. Before I get to how I used this classic Cornbread recipe to “do more with less”, let me give you the details on how to enter the giveaway.
To enter the Windows Phone 7 giveaway:
- Leave a comment on this post, sharing one way you make your life easier in the kitchen (e.g., chopping up vegetables ahead of time, organizing your pantry, enlisting your spouse or kids to help out)
- You can enter once per day until the contest ends on Monday, November 29, 2010. (For even more chances to win, I’m giving away another phone on Panini Happy)
- One entry on this blog will be selected at random to win a brand-new Windows Phone 7. Please note that the phone will ship within 8-10 weeks.
- The official rules can be found here.
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Multitasking and synergizing – I don’t even consciously do it anymore, it’s just how I operate. I’ve always been pretty efficient with my time but these days I’ve become a bit of a maximizing machine out of necessity. Sometimes you’ll see this manifest itself on my blogs, when I prepare one recipe here on Cooking On the Side and then parlay the leftovers into a tasty sandwich over on Panini Happy. You may recall these examples:
- Classic Meat Loaf became Meat Loaf Patty Melt Panini
- Braised Short Ribs became Braised Short Rib Panini
- White Whole Wheat Walnut Bread became Brie & Dried Apricot Panini
If you go to Panini Happy today you’ll see how I turned leftovers from cornbread I made for Cooking On the Side into Pulled Pork Cornbread Panini with Caramelized Onions and Pepper Jack.
I actually make cornbread quite often, and I always use the recipe from the back of a box of corn meal (the recipe has been on the box for years). It’s the quickest bread I know how to make, start to finish in under 30 minutes. Plus, I always have all the ingredients on hand. This one is moist and mildly sweet with a crumbly corn texture. I was inspired by a recent post on Healthy Food for Living to try grilling some panini with the leftovers. Read on for the Cornbread recipe for the cornbread and then hop over to Panini Happy for my panini (and a chance to win another Windows Phone 7!).
Corn Bread
From the back of the Albers Yellow Corn Meal package
Makes 12 servings
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.
Combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine milk, oil and egg in small bowl; mix well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until blended. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm.
NOTE: Recipe may be doubled. Use greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan; bake as above.
FOR MUFFINS: Spoon batter into 10 to 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups filling 2/3 full. Bake in preheated 400°F oven for 15 minutes.
This giveaway is brought to you by the new Windows Phone 7. Less tech tired. More tech trendy: Learn about Windows Phone online and see it in person at local T-Mobile stores today.
Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for people who pour their hearts and souls into blogging! I am especially thankful for the phone giveaway as I am in desperate need of a new one!
during the holidays i give coupons for watch your kids for 1 hour or clean your house. its cheap and easy and everyone is happy
Happy Thanksgiving! During the holidays, when I’m camped out on so many deal sites, I make sure to keep an eye out for kid’s books and toys. This helps stretch my giving-to-charity budget so I can donate more to Toys for Tots, school libraries, etc. Amazon has a Flat Stanley boxed set for $7.50 now!
When I’m the kitchen with my mom, we always chop up vegetables for future use so it’s easy to take them out and pop them into whatever we are making. It makes cooking faster and easier!
I’ve rearranged my counters using gadgets and holders that elevate tools above the surface. Now I have more workspace and less clutter!
Life is easier in the kitchen when all of the coffee things are organized together, and all of the kids things are grouped together, etc.
I like making more than I need to so I can have lunch to take the next day.
I do batch cooking! Have my chicken and beef precooked makes dinnertime so much easier.
I do more with less redundancy by syncing my files using Windows Live Mesh.
My kids are a lifesaver in the kitchen! My 3 oldest, ages 8-11 help me almost every day in the kitchen, in addition to being able to handle most breakfast and lunches on their own. In the beginning my job became harder with them trying to help, but I’m so glad I stuck it out. They can sear meat, cook eggs a number of ways, bake cookies, and follow almost any simple recipe. They mess up their measurements sometime doubling recipes for our family of 8, but I couldn’t do it without them some days. Their accomplishments are a super confidence booster too. My kids rock!
you mentioned this already but letting kids do more is a big help – just relax and let them do things their way a little bit!
doing more with less could mean budgeting and adhering to it. It allows us to save properly and spend wisely
My kitchen now features fewer appliances and slightly more space, thanks to Craigslist. Goodbye, rice cooker!
I like planning in advance for the meals I am fixing. Then if I’m really ambitious I cook a little of it the night before.
using something premade like soup and just adding my own touch to make it taste a little more homemade
For thanksgiving we had everyone rinse their dish off once they were done and put it into the dishwasher. Much easier then having to rinse off 20 extra plates along with the other dishes.
Despite reservations, I’ve started purchasing items with a long shelf life from the local Dollar store. As a result, my kitchen now contains more food (e.g. feta cheese) for less money.
Making one pot meals is one way I do more with less.
In a nutshell: Recycle and reuse, throw nothing away so long as there is any use for it left.
When I have leftovers in the fridge, I reuse them for the day’s meal! That’s doing more with less! 😀
One way I make my life easier in the kitchen is keeping a grocery list and looking for coupons to save money. This way I’m organized into what I really want to buy and svae money for things I need to prepare for. Then I knwo exactly what I bought and what I need to buy more of.
I try to make enough so that I can have meals for a few days
I make my life easier in the kitchen by having all my quick meals on one shelf in my pantry 🙂
I am trying to do more with less by entering to win wonderful freebies!
Doing more with less sometimes means reusing grocery bags, or buying the recyclable types and using those. Saves the environment and saves the grocery stores money, which in turn saves you money.
I like to sort everything in little containers and label them, so I know what and where everything is!
I recently chopped off 8 inches of hair, all the way up to my jawline. It’s SO much quicker and easier to do my hair now, which leaves more time and patience for all the other million things every morning. Plus, it means I can’t just toss my hair up in a ponytail every single day.
make life easier in the kitchen by reading a recipe all the way through and considering if it’s worth the effort involved first!
I think that makes life easier in the kitchen are blogs like this! You guys always have new recipes we can try out when we get tired of all the old stuff and want to eat something different. It beats scouring the internet for recipes that might not be so good!
This phone would help keep me organized so that I can do more with less!
Menu planning! Of course I don’t do it as often as I should.
we do more with less in the kitchen by dividing up the duties of making a meal
I really like spices and herbs. If you buy them in the ethnic food section, especially the hispanic themed aisle they can be only 99 cents a bag! They add flavor to everything including cheap cuts of meat and inexpensive dishes
Doing more for less means delegating more responsibilities to the kids so my time can be used more productively.
Every morning I chop many vegetables and put them in my Tupperware containers inside the fridge so later on the day when I need them; they’re ready to go!
My kitchen… isn’t entirely mine any more. But I hope that I can still make bread without messing things up.
We’ll soon see.
Today I organized all my pots and pans since I got some new ones from my mom. Making dinner was so much easier than trying to dig for the right pan!
Doing more with less: I’m on a pantry clean-out kick. No grocery store for me until all those aging boxes of couscous and off-brand pinto beans are cooked and eaten! More pantry space and more room in the grocery budget.
I try to keep my pantry organized and the kids love to help in the kitchen.
Lucky for me my husband is amazing. We have an ongoing deal where if I cook, then he’ll clean. It makes things so much easier. That lifesaver and the microwave are my two secrets…
I’ll take generic stuff and make it my own. A few examples- buy a frozen pizza for $2.99 and toss on extra cheese, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, bacon, leftover chicken, anything! I also make those frozen burritos (when I’m feeling really lazy or in a rush) and toss on some monterey jack with sour cream and then oregano and other seasonings and it is GOOD.
Cheap food + making it your own = delish!
I simplify things in the kitchen by hanging my oft used pots and pans on the wall. It works for me.
Another way I make my life easier in the kitchen is plainly buying up whole nuts rather than buying the grinded nuts. Whenever I want it put nuts in meals and desserts like brownies and cookies, I can choose if I want small pieces or large pieces. It really helps out when I want a different variety! The phone looks great on the commercials!
What makes my life easier in the kitchen is when I have all my utensils and ingredients out ready before hand. That way when I start baking, I know exactly what I need and it’s all right there.
In order to have access to more recipes in less kitchen space, I bring my laptop in the kitchen while cooking instead of storing recipe books there. A big smartphone would be even better!
We got rid off all of our old cookbooks. You really only need the recipes that you use often. Plus everything’s online these days. I’ll bring my laptop into the kitchen if i need a new recipe.
I need organization in my life! I need to do more with less! I really need this phone!
i use baking soda to clean and green and it saves alot of money.
purple_lover_04 at msn dot com
Mom has a weekly schedule so everyone knows who’s in charge of cleaning up the kitchen for that day.
More for less mean having an emergency kit in my car when I travel, and also carrying our own snacks and drinks so that we don’t have to make expensive stops.