By Renee Martinez, Founder of Raising Boys World
I have to admit; the thought of cooking for four grown boys someday scares me. I love to cook, but given the amount of food consumed by my little guys, what am I going to do when they’re big? The cost, the quantity, and the selection. Yikes!
One thing I will say is that I’m lucky that my guys actually like to eat healthy foods. I’ll describe the strategy I used to encourage healthy eating next week. For now, I’ll be discussing how to get your kids excited about foods beyond chicken fingers and pizza. With so many male chefs and such hype on TV, more and more boys are becoming interested in cooking and experimenting with food. My suggestion is to ask your son to help you in the kitchen, regardless of age. From chopping up ingredients, to reading a recipe or better yet, ask him to be a taste tester! The guys love to help out in the kitchen. It gives me a chance to bond with them, to make them feel like helpers and to teach them something new. Giving them a few kitchen tasks, in my opinion, also boosts their self-esteem and confidence and my trust in their ability to develop some important life skills.
If you have a recipe your children LOVE, please email or post it.
Here’s a recipe that most people are shocked that my kids love (this is sort-of a concoction so you can play with the amounts). This is an all-in-one meal. It tastes great served with basmati rice. If you have a crock-pot or stoneware or clay pot – it comes out great in those – just throw the ingredients in and cook away!
Chicken with Potatoes, Peas & Coconut-Curry Sauce
1-2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (cut in strips or cubes)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
vegetable oil; as needed
1/2 medium onion, finely diced (to yield about 1/2 cup)
1 Tbs. mild curry powder (not Madras or hot)
1 cup chicken broth
2-4 medium (6-oz.) red or yellow potato, peeled and diced into cubes (to yield about 2 cups)
5-1/2 oz. can coconut milk, well shaken
1 cup frozen peas
½ tsp cumin
1 tsp.fish oil
¼ mild curry paste
½ tsp garlic
½ tsp curry powder
Trim the chicken, removing the tenders and slice into either strips or cubes. Season generously with salt and pepper.
In a 10-inch straight-sided sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it’s hot enough to simmer. Add the chicken, onion and garlic and cook, flipping once, until lightly browned and just barely cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to 9 x 13 baking pan.
Heat oven to 350. Pour in the chicken broth and scrape the pan with a spoon to loosen any browned bits. Add the potato and peas. Mix everything up. Add the remaining herbs and the curry paste.
If you have fish oil, you can add a touch of that here, it adds a great flavor. Cook covered, until the potato is tender, 30 minutes. Add the coconut milk; re-cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until the potato is fully tender, and the sauce has thickened. Taste the sauce; add salt and pepper as needed.
Serve over rice – the sauce is amazing so don’t be stingy with the sauce.
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK, on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in the internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
