Cooking

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

Newlywed Chicken: 3 Totally Different Meals Fast

You’ve heard of engagement chicken, but what about newlywed chicken? Did you envision preparing elaborate and elegant meals when you got married? Thought you’d give Martha a run for her money? Me too.

In reality, it can be very stressful to figure out what you and your spouse will eat every night all week/all month/all year. Here’s an idea that can jump-start your planning this week or rescue you when you feel uninspired or overwhelmed. A chicken is my solution. Yes, a whole roaster chicken cooked on Sunday so you have time to prepare it.

Meal 1: Roasted Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Veggies

Roast* your chicken in the oven for the amount of time specified on the label. I suggest liberally shaking kosher salt on the inside and outside first. You can also mix crushed garlic and herbs ,such as sage and thyme, with a tablespoon of butter and slide this under the upper skin of the chicken (it’s sort of like giving it implants). This ensure a moist well-flavored chicken. While it roasts you can whip up mashed potatoes and any vegetable you have on hand. Have you heard the expression “winner winner chicken dinner”? That is how your spouse is going to feel about this classic home cooked meal!

*If you’re too busy to roast a chicken, you can put it in your crockpot for 4 hours. Just add 1 cup of chicken broth so it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Meal 2: Layered Chicken Enchilada Bake

Shred ½ of the remaining chicken and make this quick layered chicken three cheese enchilada recipe. It takes 10 minutes to assemble and 30 minutes to bake. Blend some margaritas while it’s cooking and you’ll have an instant fiesta dinner!

Meal 3: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Shred the remaining newlywed chicken and use it to make Asian chicken noodle soup. If your spouse is like mine, soup doesn’t count as dinner, so you may want to make this for both of you for lunch. Here’s the recipe adapted from The Londoner Blog:
Ingredients:
Splash of sesame oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 spring onions, chopped
2 handfuls of shredded chicken
2.5 cups chicken stock
1 cup boiling water
Piece of ginger about the size of your thumb, thickly sliced
3/4 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 red chili, chopped
1 can of sweet corn
1 big handful of thin noodles (I use somen noodles..but any will work)

Directions:
Put a saucepan onto medium heat and add a few splashes of sesame oil, add your garlic until it starts to sizzle. Stir it around a bit & add your spring onions. Fry until they start to soften.
Toss in the chicken and stir to make sure it gets nicely coated in the oil & garlic. Pour in your stock & boiling water. Add your ginger slices, fish sauce, soy sauce, coriander & chili. Just before it comes to the boil add your sweet corn & noodles. Boil 2 more minutes and serve immediately.

So, from one newlywed chicken on Sunday you ended up with 3 completely diffent meals for the two of you. Not a bad way to begin the week! It took me longer than I care to admit to figure out how to utilize one ingredient a few different ways to make quick and interesting dinners for 2. I also thew out a lot of leftovers and felt badly about it.

I hope you and your spouse enjoy these dishes and that he washes them!

Kitchen Chaos: Newlywed in the Kitchen

Newlywed kitchen chaos happens. Everyone needs to and typically loves to eat. Getting married and cooking together should be no big deal right?

There are all sorts of hang ups and stigmas that can appear once you’re married and sharing a kitchen. There are the sexist concepts from long ago, such as a woman’s place is in the kitchen or barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen depending on who you’re speaking with. There is also what you consider normal kitchen roles based on both of your childhood observations of parents. Add busy work schedules into the mix and you could be headed into kitchen chaos.

My newlywed kitchen chaos was 100% my own creation. My husband walked in the door on a Friday night to find me face down, crying on the carpet. After pulling a 60 hour work week I was frustrated that the roasted chicken wasn’t going to be ready the moment he came home from work. He calmly took me out for Chinese and got to the root of the problem: I was trying to be my mom. She is an amazing cook and always had a gourmet dinner on the table at 5:15pm. The fact I overlooked was that she was a stay at home mom and had more time to prepare family meals.

Newlyweds, learn from my mistake. Discuss which of you can actually cook (take out on plates does not count) and decide what the other spouse can do to help. If you both cook, it may be easiest to alternate nights instead of collaborating. My mother’s marinara recipe versus your Nonna’s can be one ugly argument.

Whatever kitchen formula you come up with, just make sure that it is fair to both partners and results in a meal that allows you to enjoy each other’s company and reconnect after your day.

Cooperation in the Kitchen: Blending Tastes as Newlyweds

Working on blending tastes as newlyweds? There are many things that we develop as we grow from infants to adults. Among those is a sense of taste. We become used to what we knew from our childhoods and develop dislikes for certain foods. This is very natural and should be expected.

However, it must also be realized that the foods you favor may very well differ from the ones that your spouse would choose. The beginning of a marriage is all about recognizing and embracing those differences. It can be difficult, especially when two picky eaters are paired together and left with very few foods that seem to overlap.

The best thing that you can do for your marriage if food is a source of disagreement – and even if it’s not – is to share the duty of making the evening meals, and also the responsibility of grocery shopping. You will eventually come up with some common ground and recipes!

Go to the Grocery Store Together – Shopping for food together is a great way to find common tastes. There are many foods that might be overlooked when discussing the topic in your kitchen, which will become more apparent as your loop through the aisles of the local grocery store. For the first few shopping trips, allot you and your spouse extra time and don’t try to follow a list directly. Instead, walk together and pick out foods that you both like, which could be incorporated into meals that both of you will be happy eating.

Preparation – Once you have stocked your kitchen with foods you agree on, it is time to cook. Seasonings, rubs, marinades, sauces, and more go into the very best meals and that means finding common ground on these issues as well. Don’t panic if he or she likes the sauce a bit spicier than you can tolerate. The great part about marriage is that it is all about the two of you being happy. Also, don’t be afraid to do things in your own way. If you know that you both love chicken parmesan, but he likes more heat, then simply split the sauce into two small pans and allow him to add some more peppers and onions to his. Small efforts like this can go a long way toward maintaining the peace and happiness in the household.

Be Open Minded – Easy to say and hard to do, but even if you think you will hate a favorite food of your spouse’s give it a try…you might surprise yourself and like it! Even if you don’t, ask him what aspects of the dish make it his favorite…maybe it’s the sauce or how the flavors meld together. This information can help you create a dish that is similar, but something you will like too.

How are you handling blending tastes as newlyweds? We’d love for you to share any solutions or funny stories in a comment!

Win An Amazing E-Cookbook With 200 Healthy Chef Written Recipes!

Newlywed ladies heads-up! You now have a new way to cook. Yes, you can actually get healthy, amazing tasting meals on the dinner table on a daily basis. We’re offering the chance to win an e-cookbook version of Chef Jeff’s Dinner Revolution!

Each of the 200 recipes in the cookbook has 10 or less ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. Most of the time you will even be done with clean-up within that30 minute span.
Guess what? You don’t have to be a chef to use these recipes! Chef Jeff has purposely written the recipes to be extremely family friendly and easy to prepare, so even the most novice of cooks can create amazing meals. He focuses on providing clear and simple instructions for each recipe.
Even better, each recipe has the complete nutritional breakdown so you know exactly what you are feeding your family.

Imagine your spouse asking what’s for dinner and you calmly reply “Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Cherry Tomato Sauce” or “Tilapia with Coconut Curry Sauce.” Sounds amazing doesn’t it?!
Please leave a comment to be entered to win one of 2 of Chef Jeff’s e-cookbooks. We’ll randomly select the winners next Friday!

Newlywed in the Kitchen

How are you handling being newlywed in the kitchen? Marriage brings about the merging of two lives and of course two kitchens. Hopefully you both are fantastic cooks and can alternate who cooks evening dinners. If that’s not the case, you may need to get creative in the kitchen!

Scenario #1: You are used to having a bowl of cereal or yogurt for dinner and your partner is more of a meat a potatoes person.

Get a crock pot! Nothing makes a meat and potatoes guy happier than coming home to pot roast, lemon herb chicken or even lasagna in the crock pot. The best part? You do the prep work the night before and come home from work to a fabulous meal.

Having trouble coming up with ideas or recipes? The Spruce Eats has over 30 crockpot recipes for you to try out and crockpot355 is a blog written by a woman who used her crock pot every day for a year!

Scenario #2: He’s an organic guy obsessed with freshness and you’re perfectly happy eating frozen dinners every night.

If you possess some cooking ability, let your spouse buy the groceries (organic of course) and then plan some simple weekday meals that will make you both happy.

Compromise. Let your partner grill some free range chicken while you steam some frozen veggies mix in the microwave. Everybody ends up with a well balanced meal.

Scenario #3: Both of you counted on your former roommates to feed you.
Sounds like it’s time to tune into the Food Network for some cooking tips, or sign up for a few cooking classes together. You can also check out Rachel Ray’s site for great simple recipes.

Cooking together can be romantic and completely delicious. Select a recipe, turn on some music, open a bottle of wine and then start cooking! One of you can make the salad or sides while the other focuses on the main dish. You may end up making dinner and making out…and who could ask for more than that?!

If the last time you cooked the fire department arrived 30 minutes later, you might have to consider a meal delivery company like Hello Fresh or Blue Apron.

Whatever your kitchen scenario might be, there are solutions out there. Be creative and you’ll both end up happy and full! Do you have any stories from being newlywed in the kitchen? We’d love to hear them in a comment!