Is this Us?

Who doesn’t enjoy a quick, convenient meal? Since cooking isn’t my favorite thing to do, I’m not opposed to scooping up a sandwich, pizza or a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Of course, they’re usually less healthy than homemade foods, but that’s the price we pay for convenience. Since everyone likes time-saving strategies, how about trying this:

                                     https://youtu.be/fbl874RrDTk

It’s hard to digest the idea of mixing food and dirty water, but at least no one had to wash a pot or pan, and when dinner is done, everything goes back into the dishwasher. Cooking a meal like that for friends requires a lot of jars, and could produce undesirable flavors if the lids aren’t tight. But then, short-cuts require sacrifices. When life feels overwhelming or too complicated, we resort to questionable quick fixes involving medicines, relationships, and other distractions, which can be recipes for disaster. What better, long-term do solutions do you suggest?

Cutting Chocolate Cake Corners

I’ll eat one more forkful. Yum! Earlier this week our children made a delicious chocolate on chocolate cake. I helped with the set-up and clean-up but, they did the real work. Thank goodness they did because if I had mixed and baked that cake, it would have been inedible.

When the recipe said to cream the butter, I wanted use the microwave instead of the hand-mixer. When the recipe said to use three cake pans, I thought two would do. My corner-cutting  would have produced a crunchy-on-the outside, gooey-on-the-inside disaster.  But, since the kids used wisdom, exercised patience and followed the directions, the cake turned out deliciously moist and fluffy.             

The right dose of patience can yield outrageously great results or a hot mess. Check out this guy’s funny advice on cutting corners:

Good commercial. He must know how I roll. Give me the quick-fix as often as possible so I can move on to the next thing.  In our fast-paced culture, we often miss out on the best by settling for less (e.g, our fast food choices). When you’re ready to slow down, do it right and eat well, try this: best-ever chocolate cake recipe.  

What corners do you cut and what are the results? 

What’s for dinner?

Our kitchen is closed, at least that’s what the sign on the refrigerator says. It’s really not closed, but sometimes I wish that were true. My husband cooks and enjoys it, so I’m always happy and relieved when he prepares a meal. Although I’m the only one at our house who prefers not to cook, we are a family of big and little foodies. We like watching the cooking shows, sampling different foods and visiting new restaurants. At our house a commonly heard question is: “What’s for dinner?”

Fortunately, my family doesn’t always expect a gourmet meal. Last week one of our kids raved about a friend’s home-made mac and cheese lunch. Our children like our mac and cheese, so I figured this friend’s lunch must have been great! When I approached the mother about her recipe, she laughed and willingly described her very simple “secret”—jarred cheese sauce poured over wheat pasta.

I froze for a second and hoped that our kid, with the discriminating palate, wouldn’t show visible signs of disappointment about the recipe. No worries. My little munchkin, who has helped make oven-baked mac and understands the complexities of mixing in specialty cheeses for fuller flavor,  grabbed a pen and wrote down both ingredients. Of course, if I try to serve wheat pasta for dinner, I’d hear, “Hey, what is this stuff?” I suppose we can all benefit from expanding our perspectives on creating  simple meals. Watch this:

I probably wouldn’t serve that food combination for dinner. Maybe that’s the beauty of a meal, if it’s quick, healthy and it works for you—go for it. Things don’t always need to be expensive and complicated. What do you enjoy that’s simple, yet satisfying?