In Sock Monkey Slippers is a family food blog celebrating fresh whole foods and bringing the family together around the dinner table. You'll find step-by-step recipes for everyone in the family, product reviews, and a peek into the sometimes comical life of Meredith Steele in her sock monkey slippers.
Be on the look out! ISMS is getting a face-lift in May.
Pasta Salad. Two of my favorite words in the dictionary. I’m a fool for it, really. In my broke college days I would make a huge cold pasta salad with a vinegar oil dressing – loaded with veggies – and eat off of it for a week! So of course, when Dreamfields Pasta asked if I wanted to join in on their 3rd Annual Pastapalooza Pasta Salad Celebration, I said yes and jumped on that like a duck on a junebug!
Dreamfields is the creator of Dreamfields Pasta, a delicious all-natural pasta with 5g of fiber, only 5g of digestible carbohydrates per serving and a very low glycemic index. This year for their 3rd Annual Pastapalooza Pasta Salad Celebration they’re having an international flavor inspired virtual picnic. Yours truly is bringing this delectable Spanish Charcuterie Pasta Salad loaded with layers of fresh flavors including some of my favorite Spanish cured meats.
In the Steele house we love to have appetizers out before a weekend dinner and our favorite is a charcuterie tray, a selection of cured and dry meats, paired with olives, and fresh vegetables. I took that inspiration and used the flavors of Spain: paprika, sherry vinegar, chorizo, serrano ham, oregano and came up with this bright and deliciously flavorful pasta salad — perfect for a summer picnic or side dish at your next BBQ.
Teach a child to cook and you will have fed them for a lifetime.
Happy Food Revolution Day! Today, do me a favor and teach a child ONE RECIPE. It can be anything, even as simple as making a sandwich. The art of teaching our children to cook for themselves has disappeared in the past few generations and we need to bring it back! That saying, “Teach a child to cook and you will have fed them for a lifetime” has a lot of truth to it don’t you think?
I recently heard someone say Real Moms Don’t Cook, taking pride in the fact that busy moms have more important things to do than be in the kitchen. Hey, I work and take care of a family and completely understand how easy it can be to run through the fast food line or order pizza for dinner. You’re ultra busy raising and supporting a family and who has time to cook?
But wait, isn’t it that statement that got us here — here in the land of frozen and processed meals loaded with dyes, preservatives, and additives that are the exact same additives to make the foam in running shoes? All just to save us from 30 minutes of making a honest and healthy meal for ourselves and the ones we love.
Trust me, I understand being tired and overworked and I understand when the fridge is empty. I’m not here to tell you that if you don’t cook every single day you should be banished from society. We’re not all Martha Stewart, who I bet orders pizza every now and then. But when ordering food becomes a lifestyle instead of an occasional treat are we really doing any justice to our children by not teaching how to feed themselves?
Today, be an inspiration. Avoid the machine made foods and cook like our great-grandmothers did. Get excited about a fresh meal and most importantly teach one — just one — recipe to a child. Not only is it nourishing to their bellies but to their brains. Plus, they think it’s pretty awesome to be with you.
Cheers and Happy Food Revolution Day! Lets take our food back!
Lately I’ve been crazy busy, like running around like a mad woman with my shirt inside out and hair that rivals any hair-sprayed beauty queen after a night out at the bar. I am so fortunate to have a job I love but my kitchen dance card is FULL this week developing recipes and writing for 5 companies all with multiple deadlines on Friday. Yea me! A glass of wine — or two — will be needed Friday night.
So, while my family just steps back and watches the insanity that is me (seriously I poured orange juice in my coffee), I’m trying to keep it together with simple dinners. Like this one that took a whopping 8 minutes to prep.
Pesto Pizza with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese is one of my favorites. I can’t take the credit though because this pizza was served weekly at a pizza joint I lived off of in college. The combination of pesto with tangy goat cheese and fresh tomatoes is pizza poetry.
Throw this pizza together in minutes using pre-made pesto and frozen and thawed pizza dough. When I don’t use my own dough I find that Whole Foods, Central Market, or Jimmy’s (if you live in Dallas) have the best doughs with all natural ingredients. Cheers!
Pesto Pizza with Tomatoes and Goat Cheeseserves 4
pizza dough
1/4 cup flour for dusting
3/4 cup pesto
1 tomato, thinly sliced
4 ounces goat cheese
1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Dust a work surface with flour, reserving a tablespoon to dust the pizza stone or baking sheet. Place the dough on the flour and flip it to coat. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle. The thinner you roll the thinner and crispier the pizza. Thick or thin, you decide. sprinkle the remaining flour onto a pizza stone or baking sheet to prevent sticking. Carefully transfer the dough onto the stone or sheet.
3. With a brush or spoon, place the pesto evenly on the dough. Evenly top with tomatoes and crumble the goat cheese over the entire pizza.
4. Place the pizza in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the crust is golden. Slice and serve.
How many times have we made pulled pork in a slow cooker? If there was a country called Slow Cooker, pulled pork would be it’s national dish. It’s the ultimate slow cooker recipe and with such a big title to carry, sometimes it slips and falls right into the boring category reminiscent of my Developmental Economics class in college. A class that was so dreadfully boring I don’t even remember if I passed it.
Fortunately, there’s hope for our beloved slow cooker pulled pork and it comes in the form of this sinfully angelic recipe. This delicious sweet and spicy pulled pork is fall-apart tender. The combination of sweet cherries and dark brown sugar blended with earthy and spicy chipotle peppers brings this recipe to a new mouthwatering level. Top it off with a bright crunchy slaw and you have yourself a sandwich worthy of a standing ovation.
Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day and I’m perpetually puzzled by people who ignore it. The last time I skipped breakfast I left my phone on top of my car and drove off, forgot to put shoes on my child then dropped her off at school, didn’t wash the conditioner out of my hair, sounded like I just had a lobotomy on a conference call with a client, and almost set the house on fire cooking dinner. Trust me people, eat your breakfast.
Some of my favorite breakfast recipes are savory and one of the easiest savory breakfast recipes is strata – a cheesy savory bread pudding if you will. This Spinach and Ham Strata is one I make often for brunch. Cheesy, savory, and come back for seconds delicious — there are never any leftovers!
A slow-cooker meal is a relief to come home to and realize dinner is one step away from being on the table, especially when you realize your child has just created a wonderful attempt at a Picasso on your couch. But what bothers me about slow cooker recipes is that they are almost always made with a “a can of this” and a “can of that.” Have you ever read the ingredient list in a can of mushroom soup? It should be mushrooms, broth, flour, cream, salt and pepper. Instead it’s a long list of chemicals and preservatives that I’m sure is the same ingredient list used to make my husband’s running shoes.
Roasted chicken is one of my favorite rustic home-style dinners of all time. It’s super simple and completely satisfying, especially after a long day of work and the insanity that is raising kids and a huge dog. Gotta love them but let’s be honest, locking yourself in the bathroom with a glass of wine sounds good sometimes! Mental note – I need to install a secret bar when I remodel the bathroom.
Who doesn’t love Chicken Parmesan? Crispy chicken slathered with tangy marinara sauce and covered with a gooey blanket of cheese. This retro dish has always been one of my favorites and a “go to” meal when it comes to needing a meal I know everyone young and old will eat. Simple, delicious, and certainly cheesy, this recipe will be on your family’s favorite list for a long time.
It’s quiet. A little too quite around here. My mind desperately races and my senses sharpen listening to the silence — listening for the tail tail sign of trouble. Sharpie? Nail polish? Dish washing soap? Maybe the dreaded trifecta of all three perhaps? It’s happened before and it will most likely happen again, for in a house with children and a dog, quiet is never a good thing.
I’m not going to give you a story that normally accompanies a post today because I want to get to this recipe as fast as possible. We’ll talk about the fact later that my daughter just walked in covered head-to-toe with rhinestones and asked where the hot glue gun is.
