Iron Chef for Teenagers: Ideas?

Our ward is having an Iron Chef competition for a combined young men/young women activity in a few weeks. I've honestly never seen more than fifteen or twenty minutes of the show, but have been doing a lot of reading up on it. It sounds like fun. How do I pull off a cooking competition for roughly 15-20 teen age boys and girls (mostly girls), especially on a very limited budget and in around 45 minutes? My biggest fear is that two or three will do all the work and the rest will wander the halls playing with their cell phones and ipods?

Any ideas for simple foods that will keep everyone interested and involved?

Here are a few that I've come up with. Maybe that will generate some ideas from all of you, too!

Set up a "grocery store" and give each person a set amount of money. Everyone has to buy something that will contribute to the meal.
Have some sort of secret ingredient like pineapple or potatoes (any other good ideas?) that everyone has to use in some way
Have each team make crepes: they get to choose the ingredients to make the fillings--one dinner crepe, one dessert crepe.
Have each team designate two head chefs, one girl and one guy. Do you think that would help the kids pay closer attention and keep themselves more occupied?

I went on a really fun date in high school where we had a cooking competition. We all went to the grocery store with $1 each. My team made stone soup (broth and veggies mostly) and had gummy peach rings for dessert. I think the other team made hotdog cut up in tomato soup or something.

I've been reading about hosting grown up iron chef dinner parties. I wonder if we'd end up with hot dog soup with a bunch of thirty something husbands making dinner.... (To his credit, my husband is an excellent and creative cook who loves to try new things. And he doesn't really like hot dogs any way. Grilled cheese is more his style.)

Deutsche Butterplätzchen (German Butter Cookies)

So I don't know much about Germany, except they make really cool castles, cars and dogs. These cookies however, are awesome. I got the recipe from culinary institute. The theme was left over Easter eggs. I would suggest making these... they are yummy


GERMAN BUTTER COOKIES

this is a large ( ward size) recipe you can cut in half, or fourths.
8hard boiled egg yolks, mashed.
1 lb softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond flavoring
4 cups flour (sifted)
Cream butter, adding sugar gradually. Add egg yolks and almond flavor. Add flour slowly, mixing well, but DO NOT OVER KNEAD.Using a cookie shooter we made them into little balls and flattened, press onto parchment-lined baking sheet. If you are using a flower-shaped shooter, you can put a smudge of jelly, or a small chocolate morsel or 1/2 a maraschino cherry in the center of each one - but don't use sprinkles, they just detract from the cookie. Bake at 400 degrees until the edges are JUST brown. Any more than that, and they are over baked

Guacamole

Ages ago there was a request for this recipe...I didn't remember until I made it to go with tacos the other night. Hope you can still use it. Enjoy!

• 3-4 large, ripe avocados
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 3-4 green onions, chopped
• Lime or lemon juice, preferably fresh
• 1-2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (chop the stems as well as the leaves, that's where a lot of the flavor is stored...in the oils contained in the stems)
• 1 med-large tomato, chopped

Cut each avocado in half. With a spoon, scoop out the avocado seeds and set aside, do not throw them out as you will use them later. Next, scoop out the meat of the avocados into a medium bowl. Mash the avocado with a fork or potato masher to make a slightly chunky mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in garlic and green onion. Add lime/lemon juice to taste, mix well. Stir in tomato and cilantro, mix well. Once you're happy with the taste of your mix, add back into the mix the avocado seeds. Leaving the seeds in the mix will help keep it from turning brown. Refrigerate until ready to serve. When ready to serve, seeds can be removed or left in bowl. Serve with tortilla chips as a dip, or as a garnish with tacos, burritos, enchiladas, sandwiches, burgers, etc.

Crockpot Chicken with Rice

Tonight for dinner we are having this meal. It is one of my favorites so I thought I would share!

Chicken tenders (enough for you family and left overs! I usually use about half a bag of tenders from BJ's/Cosco)

2-3 cans of Cream of Chicken soup (I use 98% fat free)

1 carton sour cream (I use light)

1 cube of softened cream cheese (I'm using fat free and will let you know how it works!)

1-2 packets of Italian dry seasonings...the kind you make salad dressing with.

Rinse Chicken and put in crock pot (still frozen) Combine all other ingredients. If I am cooking a lot of chicken, the whole bag worth, I'll use three cans of soup. Usually I just use one or two. If the sauce is a bit thick you could add a bit of milk. The chicken will let off juices while cooking and thin the sauce out a bit. I usually add about half a cup of milk.

Cook in crock pot on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8 hours.

When the chicken is done take two forks and shred the chicken. Serve over rice! I hope you all try this...it is really good and is good for a crowd

Bran Muffins

this is my moms recipe and my favorite muffin!

2 cups All Bran
2 cups boiling water

Pour boiling water over all bran and let set

2 cups sugar
1 heaping cup shortening

cream together well in a very large mixing bowl.

4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 qt. buttermilk
4 cups all bran

Add to creamed sugar and shortening. Mix thoroughly. Add all bran mixture (bran and water). Mix well.

5 cups flour
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Add to preceding and stir together well. Fill greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 11 minutes for small muffins or 14 minutes for larger muffins. This recopied makes one gallon of batter, which makes about 7 dozen muffins. This stores really well in a container in the refrigerator for up to six weeks! I sometimes make a batch and pull it out and bake a few at a time. Super good with butter on warm muffins or jam! Hope you enjoy!

On the Menu this Week!

This week for suppers our family had:
Baked Pork chops
Baked Ziti
Tacos
Spaghetti
New England Boiled Dinner
Chicken Stir Fry
Pancakes and sausage
I agree that this time of year you can feel like you're in a cooking rut! The kids love the Pancakes and sausage and my husband is adjusting to the Breakfast for dinner idea. We usually do it about once a month and do Omelets, Waffles etc.. This time we topped the pancakes with chocolate chips, syrup and fruit.

Chicken Stir Fry

1 pound cut up Boneless Chicken breasts
Fresh Vegetables (Chopped/Grated Carrots, Snow peas, Broccoli etc) and/or
Frozen Vegetables
Water Chestnuts(optional)
Can of Baby corn (optional)
3-4 Crushed Garlic cloves
Oil

Heat Oil in skillet, add Chicken, chopped up Onion and Crushed garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the Vegetables, Fresh first then a couple minutes later frozen. Add Water Chestnuts and Baby Corn. Mix all together and cook until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked through. Stir Fry sauce is optional also. This is great served over any type of Rice.

On the Menu this Week...

I find myself in a rut this time of year because I am so tired of casseroles and am looking forward to BBQ season. These are my typical meals... ones that we are all getting way too much of lately!

• Spaghetti
• Taco's or Taco Salads
• Chicken and Rice
• Homemade Pizza (kids love it, but I'm tired of it)
• Sunday Roast

This week I did make a Family size Chicken Pot pie (which was delicious - recipe to come), and I bought one of those Bertolli frozen pastas (not for those counting calories), I added a cup of peas and it spruced it up and it too was delicious!

So - what are some easy ideas for dinner... ones that will take me through to when I can pull out our grill?