How To Eat Well When You're Busy

Being busy, athletic, social high school students, we're busy. Here are some quick tips on how to eat well....

Breakfast
Never. Ever. Skip. Breakfast.
We know- you've heard this a bazillion times. But how much better does everyone feel when they have breakfast? A lot. So, if you have time for a snack in between breakfast and lunch, grab a piece of fruit for breakfast and have a more substantial snack when you can. 

Lunch
Don't buy lunch. Pack it. 

Snacks
Have a selection of healthy, delicious, and easy snacks ready to go. This way, you can just grab something anytime. 


xoxox,
Two Teen Chefs  

Party Food

The holiday season has just about begun- from the moment you wake up on October 31st to the moment you fall asleep on February 14th is when everyone is in the holiday zone. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, New Year's, and Valentine's day, all the big holidays, occur over a very small time frame. This post is about the foods you can make for your friends and family on these special occasions, being a boss teen chef and all. So, mail out some invites and get cooking.

1) Pizza. Honestly, who doesn't love pizza (that's a rhetorical question.... I'm sure there are many haters of pizza out there, but anywho...)? Think of the bubbly pizza and the crisp crust, able to be topped with anything you like. Salty, sweet, savory... Look at how much fun (f)ANNE(tastic food)'s pizza night was. Just buy some pizza dough at the supermarket, grab some sauce, mozzarella, plus your favorite toppings and you are ready to rock. A couple of bonus factors here are that you can have your friends help make dinner, and that you can make an activity out of it. Win.

2) Cake. Another obvious choice. But this time, try to step it up a notch! Make something not from a box, like a simple flourless chocolate cake. If you hate dry cake, like I do, try something homemade. People get really concerned about decorating cakes, but wouldn't it be better to have a slice of a sweet, rich, cocoa brown moist cake dusted with powdered sugar and topped with raspberries than a hunk of cake-from-a-box shellacked in sickeningly sweet neon frosting? Yes. So try it!

3) Munchables and Dippables. Very common. But, next time you host, stir it up! Put out pretzels with homemade honey mustard, or baked tortilla chips and homemade salsa/guacamole!

Every time you cook something, step a little bit out of your comfort zone. This way, you can easily improve your kitchen skills. Good luck!

xoxox,

Two Teen Chefs                                 

A Shoutout to Netherlands and A Photo Disclaimer

Our blog is just taking off, and we want to make something clear right off the bat...

WE USE PHOTOS ON THIS BLOG THAT DO NOT LEGALLY BELONG TO US. WE DO NOT CITE THESE PHOTOS.

Please do not call the authorities- it's okay, kids.

Being anonymous bloggers, we do not photograph our foods, kitchens, selves, friends, families, pets, schools, etc. We often use photographs from other blogs or websites (these are often accompanied by a link to the blog or website somewhere in the article), or photographs from the world wide web. Yup, we click over to our favorite, type in a couple of keywords, and the good folks at Google Images find us exactly what we're looking for. We don't usually link or cite these. And we probably should cite them- but we're two teenage girls with just a few loyal readers and several browsers. So far, you all haven't seemed to mind. If there is any question about where everything is from, we'll do our best to search Google Images again and find the image- we will then provide a link, and credit where credit is due. Moving on...

Our comment on loyal readers is a perfect segue into a shout out to our favorite, most loyal Netherlands Reader! We check our stats each day to see how many people are reading our blog, and the stats tell us the country each reader lives in. Our most loyal reader appears to be from Netherlands. So, thank you for being a loyal reader, and please drop us a comment!


xoxox,
Two Teen Chefs

Because We're Four Years Old... Clearly!

Today, I saw the best idea. Muffin. Tin. Snacks. 

A great, new idea- all inspired by an idea intended for toddlers...  SWEET!

This is all over the blog-i-verse (is that a word?), but mostly on mommy blogs. It's quite a simple concept- you prepare different snacks and place a small portion of each into sections of a muffin pan. It comes out looking like the picture to the left. That picture is from this website, where I first found out about this idea. Sugary Flower, another BlogSpotter (representttt!), does a muffin tin snack/lunch and posts a photo of it every Monday... Muffin Tin Monday! Woop!  This website, while a bit less aesthetically appealing, has some good ideas on what to include into a muffin tin snack. Muffin Tin Mom, another BlogSpotter (woop!) has some great ideas, tips, and FAQ's. 


Wowzers. 


Once I did a couple google searches on the topic, I was overwhelmed by the amount of info out there. These moms are really into muffin tins...


ANYWAY, these types of snacks are great for people of any age. Try them out!


xoxox,


Two Teen Chefs
 

Switching Up the Three Meals of Your Day

Occasionally, that idea will cross your parents minds of having pancakes and eggs for dinner, and that's what this article is ALL about!

Here's the idea:

Breakfast: You want energy that will last you to lunch, but also simple foods that will wake up your taste buds without making your eyes water. Traditionally, we eat toast, pancakes, eggs, sausages, waffles, etc. But does pizza serve this purpose? Yes! As long as it's not high-calorie take out, its not so bad for you. If your parents make pizza on occasion, save a few slices and have them for breakfast the next few mornings. It serves the purpose: Delicious and Energizing!

Lunch: You want something yummy and nutritious, to hold you over through those last couple classes, until you get home and get snacking on your after-school snacks! An easy replacement is taking a leftover dinner, pretty much what I always do. My mom makes a mean meat loaf and i take then in a sandwich, always a delicious lunch. Also, soups! I guess these are lunch foods, but you can definitely replace lunch more dinnery (its a word, people!) foods!

Dinner: Ahh, the classic. As mentioned above, breakfast for dinner! This is pretty much my dinner on the weekends. I love pancakes with strawberries and raspberries! You can technically replace any dinner foods with breakfast foods!

Think of it like this:

Dinner > Lunch > Breakfast > Dinner! 

ITS A CYCLE! whoop! you'll probably be seeing quite a few of these!

Alright, sorry for the shortness of this article, but I'm gonna have to sign off!

xoxoxo,

Two Teen Chefs!

Hidden Masterpeices in Our Favorite Restaurants!

We realized that its hard for us to write articles about our favorite restaurants without giving away our location, as most of our faves aren't chain restaurants. However, that doesn't mean we can't write about our favorite dishes from these restaurants. This is similar to "Recipe Round-Ups", but its more about recipes from restaurants.


In no particular order, here they are!

1. Cedar Plank Salmon and Jasmine Rice
I'd die for this, literally. It's soooo good and actually pretty healthy! The salmon has a really scrumptious marinade, that is definitely made from scratch. The Jasmine Rice makes the meal, its just so delicious and goes great with the salmon. Try something like this at a local restaurant! I get this from a country club.

2. Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
Its in a sub bun with lettuce, tomato, and ranch (but you can get blue cheese instead). The buffalo chicken isn't overwhelmingly spicy, so it goes just right with the ranch dressing. You can probably make this at home, just find a buffalo chicken recipe and put it in between a hamburger bun with some lettuce, tomato and dressing! Super easy to make, and extremely good.

3. Guacamole Burger
This is pretty much your basic bacon burger with a HUGE helping of guacamole on top. It's so good, and like the Buffalo Chicken sandwich, you can just make it at home. Bacon Burger + Guacamole = Heaven! At the restaurant where i buy this, they serve it with their own, special homemade fries. I would recommend making your favorite home fries (oven cooked, NOT fried!) and then, DEMOLISH!

4. Apple, Grape, and Brie Crepe
I can't express to you how much joy I get when I see the waiter/waitress bringing this over! It's your normal crepe with lots of tiny slices of brie, raw apple slices, and grapes cut in half. This takes me 3 minutes tops to devour, but its still huge! (when its folded in fourths, its bigger than my face, and I have a big face, kids!).

5. Caprese Sandwich
This sandwich is mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, pesto, and balsamic vinegar/vinaigrette on grilled white bread.  It's so good! But warning you, its addicting. Last time I had it, I wanted another one RIGHT after!

6. Cheese Gnocchi 
UGH, just thinking about this stuff makes my mouth water! I get it at a local Italian place. Unfortunately, they've removed it from the menu, which WILL be the death of me. It's pretty   much gnocchi DRENCHED in cheese sauce, with a quarter sized amount of marinara sauce, plopped in the middle. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it!




xoxoxo,
Two Teen Chefs

Recipe Roundup; October 19th, 2011

Here's this week's batch of nice, fresh recipes!

• We found these tips at allrecipes on how to cook rice. Rice is perfect under a chunky soup, a moist meat dish, or a stir fry. Too dry? Too fluffy? Read up. 
• For you vegetarians out there, here are some tofu tips and recipes. We're not huge fans, but if you are, go for it. 
• This is a great website (CopyKat) on how to duplicate those amazing restaurant or cafe specialties.
• Just a few more tips on teen cooking from TeensHealth
• Too many tips! Here's a recipe: check out these adorable cupcakes (yes, those ones that look like mini little pies, above and to the left)
• We're back to Seventeen with a whole slew of recipes!

Kitchen Terminology; Julienne

This is a new feature on Two Teen Chefs where we will take a cooking term and sum it up for you. This one is "Julienne". Which means...?

"Julienne is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is cut into long thin strips, not unlike matchsticks. Sometimes called 'shoe string', e.g. 'shoestring fries'. Common items to be julienned are carrots for carrots Julienne, celery for Céléris Remoulade or potatoes for Julienne Fries."   Thanks, Wikipedia. Between that definition and the embedded video, we've summed it up.

Our Progress So Far... October 16th, 2011

Our blog has been on the web and open for viewing since Tuesday, October 4th. A week later, we had some content.  The date of our first post (excluding two "Welcome" posts, telling viewers we would have content up soon...) was October 11th. On October 13th, we posted a comment on one of fANNEtastic food's posts, which a few people have clicked on. All together, we have had 70 pageviews, from the U.S., the Netherlands, Russia, and Germany. People have accessed our site from Macs, PCs, and iPhones- via Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and SimplePie. The image below is a screenshot of information on our audience, according to our host, blogspot.

 

We've had content up for just 5 days, and still, we have had 70 pageviews! We just want to thank you for reading our blog, and tell you about some upcoming things. 

• We are awaiting the approval of Google AdSense- this service will place ADs on our site that are related to our content.
• We are looking at an upgrade, so we'd be twoteenchefs.com, instead of twoteenchefs.blogspot.com. This should attract more viewers.
• We may create a posting schedule. By being more regular bloggers, we will always have something to write. Possible "regular features" include;
• Recipe Roundup
• Rules of Thumb 
• Our Progress So Far (like this post)
• At least two other posts by each chef (there are two of us, so thats four in total) per week.
• We really need some more input and feedback from our readers. What would YOU like to see? Comment below!!!

Thanks for Reading!
xoxox,

Two Teen Chefs

Cooking Resources for Teens

Obviously, this blog is great for information and ideas :D. But, you may be looking for a few other resources- like recipes, tips, strategies, creative ways to do things, or just inspiration. Here are a few places you could find those things. 

• The web.... Oh, look, you've already found your way online. Try out some cooking and recipe websites! This particular one, allrecipes, is great, because you can search for anything you want to make, or by the ingredients you do and don't have. Great reviews, too- and the site has lots of tips on it for you!
• Other blogs... There are tons of blogs out there other than this one that are full of great information. You might even start your own.
• Magazines..... There are tons of Cooking Magazines out there. Every month or two, you'll get a new issue that's full of good recipes and tips, for a lot less money than you'd spend buying each issue at a grocery store, or a pharmacy. Subscribe! 
• Books.... cookbooks, cookbooks for special diets, books on cooking for teens, books on how to cook, and more- they're all out there! Check a bookstore to find what you're looking for, or...
• The Local Library..... it most likely has all of the above resources, and more. Check it out!

Good Luck!

xoxox,

Two Teen Chefs