Treat Yourself!
Coffee, Tea, Soda, Beer? What’s your go-to drink for your writing time?
My Favorites:
Coffee – I don’t drink coffee.
Tea – Adagio Teas The Walking Dead Daryl Tea and Twinings Prince of Wales Tea
Soda – Diet Coke, usually caffeine free
Beer – I don’t really drink beer, but I do love cider. My choice is Strongbow or Redd’s.
Add yours in the comments!
Easy Meals
1. Crock-pot Lasagna – this is amazing and easy. My family loves it!
2. Quiche – another quick and easy, delicious family meal.
3. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (in the blue box)
4. Casserole made from leftovers – mix the leftovers, add a sauce (pasta, Worcestershire, gravy, HP sauce), if you have rice put it on the bottom, if you have mashed potatoes, spread it on top, add shredded cheese, and bake for thirty minutes at 350°.
5. Pour a can of Chunky soup over cooked rice. You can add cheese, sour cream, crackers, croutons, onion or tortilla strips.
Now, that dinner is finished, get back to writing!
The original of this recipe was as a pie, directly from a colleague who was born and raised in New Orleans. Sweet Potato Pie is a traditional Southern dessert, very similar to pumpkin pie, although I think a little bit sweeter. I was on a trip to Virginia a couple of years ago, and was ecstatic to find a sweet potato pie in the local McDonald’s alongside their apple pies. It was amazing! Even years later, I miss it in my northeast home.
My mother could not grasp the idea that this pie was dessert or that it is typically eaten chilled. For her, it was a side dish and that’s what it became in our house for Thanksgiving.
Over the years I’ve changed it, and sometimes when I can’t find the extra large Keebler graham cracker crust I will make it as a casserole. That is the recipe that I’m going to share with you this November.
I know that this is a fall type food, but I will eat this all year round.
Sweet Potato Casserole
This started out as a pie, but then I got a little lazy, and it became a casserole. It is still pretty awesome!
Ingredients:
1 lg can of yams or sweet potatoes
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 bag of mini marshmallows
Directions:
1. Cook the yams on the stovetop. When hot, drain and return the yams to the saucepan and mash.
2. Add the stick of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and mix thoroughly either by hand or with a mixer.
3. Transfer the smooth yams to a casserole dish. Cover with the marshmallows.
4. Bake in an oven at 350° for thirty-five minutes or until marshmallows are golden brown.
5. Serve as a side dish. Yummy.
Apart from a hearty soup or stew, chicken or turkey pot pie, or creamy mac & cheese, I find quiche to be a really great, warm, easy to eat, easy to make comfort food. I think the common link of comfort foods is softness. Something you can savor and hold on your tongue without changing the consistency or the taste. Quiche is like that.
I’ve adapted this over the years, but the original recipe that I started with came from The Kitchen Survival Guide by Lora Brody. We bought this book when we first got married, and it was wonderful for teaching all the kitchen basics that neither of us knew anything about.
After putting either a non-stick spray or greasing the (8×8 or 9×9 square glass) pan with butter, there are different bases that can go on the bottom of the quiche. The original recipe called for bread. During Passover, I’ve used two layers of matzo, and just last week, I used two layers of Ritz crackers. So be creative, and use what you and your family enjoy.
I’ve also mixed all the ingredients and poured them over the base and I’ve layered each ingredient and then poured the egg mixture over. I think I prefer the layered version.
Put diced or chunked onions on the base. (1 onion)
Cover the onions with the cheese. I like cheddar, monterey jack, colby jack, mozarella. Any of those individually or any of them mixed with each other. (Use about 8oz. of cheese or how much you like.)
Put spinach over the cheese. If you use the frozen box of spinach, drain it well. You can use the whole box.
Combine 8 eggs (the original recipe called for six), 2 cups milk, 1 tsp. salt, 1 TB pepper. (You can add 2 tsp. garlic powder if you like that extra flavor and/or 1 TB dill weed).
Mix with a fork or whisk.
Pour over the layers.
Put the quiche in the refrigerator for one hour.
After one hour, put into an oven preheated to 325° and bake for 40 minutes. If you like the top a little more well done, you can leave it in for another five minutes or so.
Serve hot with salad or biscuits (or any bread/roll that you prefer.)
Lunch Box Snacks
It’s hard to believe that packing a lunch is the easy part. A leftover to microwave. A sandwich to cut – rectangles or triangles? Peanut butter or turkey? Jam or cheese?
Snacks.
Many schools have rules on snacks. Some depend on allergies if the snack will be eaten in the lunchroom or the classroom. Some list “healthy snacks”, which I always find something on the list or prohibited from the the list that I object to. One example is they’ll include raisins, but exclude pretzels. Not sure the reasoning behind that. Raisins are great, and healthy, but not good for your teeth if you don’t have the opporutnity to brush them.
Here is my top ten list (not in preference orderr) for lunch box snacks!
1. Raisins or Craisins
2. Pretzels (my favorite)
3. Baby carrots or carrot sticks. Celery. Broccoli. With or without dip.
4. Granola bars (read the packaging for allergies, though. Same with pretzels. You’d be amazed how many pretzels are made on machines that also manufacture peanut snacks.)
5. Baggie of cereal. Cheerios, Kix, Lucky Charms, whatever your favorite is really.
6. String Cheese
7. Crackers and cheese or peanut butter.
8. Graham crackers with cream cheese
9. Applesauce. (This also goes well with graham crackers.)
10. Apples, oranges, bananas. Fresh fruit is always a good option.
This isn’t quite a recipe, however…
Whether traveling to somewhere new or visiting somewhere you’ve been before, snacks are important. Here are five Snacks to Pack!
Snacks to Pack!
1. Craisins or Raisins. These come in individual packages or you can share them using Ziploc snack sized bags.
2. Pretzels. My kids always want cheese doodles. Orange fingers in the car? Absolutely not!
3. Bottles of water.
4. Granola Bars. They come in all kinds of varieties; my favorites are Nature Valley’s Pecan Nut Crunch.
5. Cereal in Ziploc bags. Cheerios, Kix, Lucky Charms are great for this kind of traveling snack.
Enjoy your summer, whether you’re traveling far or staying near.
Homemade Popsicles. (c)2018
One way to have fun and beat the heat is to make homemade popsicles. We tried this earlier in the week, and it was fun as well as refreshing.
I bought the popsicle makers for 99¢ at Wal-Mart. I’m going back for another one, maybe two. They’re an easy to use contraption. You could also use ice cube trays or silicone ice trays in different shapes. We found mini watermelon shapes in the dollar section at Target.
The flavors we used were Simply Lemonade with Raspberry, and Hawaiian Punch Fruit Punch. The latter is a favorite of mine from childhood. I almost never drink it because it’s just too sweet, but it has the perfect fruit punch taste, and it reminds me of being a kid in the summer heat.
What fruit juices or drinks do you recommend for freezing into popsicles?
