I met Jen when I
was in college out in Indiana, our husbands love to “geek out” together over
tabletop and video games, so it’s a great excuse for us to hang out together
when we can. Jen is also a Pampered Chef consultant and I rely on her to keep
my kitchen stocked with my favorite Pampered Chef stuff (especially the
stoneware!).
Jen grew up in Northern Indiana and married her husband
in 2003. Since then she’s had three beautiful babies (Gwen is 6, Lewis is 2 1/2
and Olivia is 4 in heaven). After
working various management jobs, she decided to be a stay-at-home mom when they
moved to Pennyslvania in the summer of 2008. In 2009 she started working for
Pampered Chef and has since turned it into a full-time job. Being able to set
her own hours, meet people, earn extra income for her family and get fantastic
Pampered Chef products are only a few of her favorite perks of the job.
She’s also extremely involved in her local church (planning
the community fair, singing in the worship team and attending Bible study, her
local Mothers Of Preschoolers (MOPS) group and sits on the Board of Directors for
Women of Grace USA. She writes a monthly
article for Women of Grace USA, loves to create music and refinish/fix up
furniture when she has time.
Make sure you check out her Pampered Chef page: www.pamperedchef.biz/jenfretz and check out the
bottom of this post for ways to win a piece of Pampered Chef stoneware (I know
I wouldn't cook pizza or roast veggies without my stoneware pieces, they’re my
favorite kitchen pieces by far!).
Q&A With Jen
Why do you cook at home? I've always enjoyed cooking. I
always thought it was fun to create my own dish based off of a simple/classic
recipe. While I do love it, I get busy and sometimes it can seem like a chore. Still,
the fact that my husband and kids love my cooking keeps me going.
I get a lot of satisfaction out of presenting a new
creation made with things that I already had on hand (hence the name of my
Facebook fan page:
“Cook With What You’ve Got”) and everyone loves it! My husband often boasts about my mad cooking skillz so that does give me motivation in the kitchen. When it comes down to it, as much as I would love to leave the dishes in the cabinets and go out to eat, we are on a tight budget and I have no choice but to cook for my family!
“Cook With What You’ve Got”) and everyone loves it! My husband often boasts about my mad cooking skillz so that does give me motivation in the kitchen. When it comes down to it, as much as I would love to leave the dishes in the cabinets and go out to eat, we are on a tight budget and I have no choice but to cook for my family!
My passion is using ingredients that I already have on
hand to create something new. I love to show other people (at my Pampered Chef
parties) that making a homemade, healthy meal can be easy and very inexpensive
if you are using simple techniques and staples that are already in stock in
your pantry. We’ve all fallen on hard financial
times once in a while and it's comforting to know that I can still provide a
yummy dinner for my family by just thinking outside the box and getting
creative instead of running to the store or through the drive through.
What is your favorite ingredient to cook with? Chicken is
always an easy thing to create a meal with.
Everyone loves it; it's inexpensive and mild in flavor so it can be
seasoned and cooked in just about any way!
I love to include it in pizza, sandwiches, casseroles, roasts, salads,
soups, in nugget form and pretty much anything else you can come up with.
Another thing that I love doing every week (usually Fridays)
is making homemade pizza for our family dinner. I use a simple dough recipe and
then I top it with whatever I have left over in the fridge that week! This is a fantastic way to use up leftovers
in a new way. Sometimes it’s the standard tomato sauce with pepperoni or
sausage, but sometimes it gets funky in the form of BBQ Chicken Pizza (BBQ
sauce, chicken, cheddar, onions, Chicken Club Pizza (chicken, mayo, cheese,
bacon, diced tomato), Breakfast Pizza, (cream cheese or mayo, scrambled egg,
sausage or bacon, cheese), Mexican (simple Mexican seasoning of choice to
flavor leftover meat, salsa, cheese, any veggies on hand). It's always a hit
and the kids have fun helping me make it!
If you could travel to any city or country in the world,
just to taste their food, where would you go and why? I LOVE good authentic Mexican
cuisine! I would love to go somewhere to
get an authentic Mexican meal bursting with fresh flavors with a perfect
margarita.
I love BBQ chicken pizza! A second favorite is Thai chicken pizza!
ReplyDeleteOooo Thai Chicken Pizza sounds amazing, what ingredients do you use?
Deletebacon ham and h-burg - I like meat!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE veggie pizza!
ReplyDeleteI wish I was as motivated as you, Jen! :) Miss you and the family!!
ReplyDeleteCori
Double pepperoni!
ReplyDeleteVeggie pizza with mushrooms and olives! I tried simmering balsamic vinegar with tomato sauce and had some pretty tasty results.
ReplyDelete