Laugh at Yourself

You are only human and you are running a household. If you cannot find quick fixes with what you have left on your refrigerator, maybe you can come up with something from what is available. This is an impromptu affair. No one is expecting you to come up with masterpieces and meals suited for the royalties.

While you still got time, you must settle at your PC and try researching about the matter. While you are on it, try to picture the materials that you already have. You can start your research with what you’ve got. The idea here is to come up with something that your guests wouldn’t know you had a hard time doing. You have to do the recipes in easy strides.

Drop the oven and other tools that may take quite a time to prepare. Settle for the recipes that provide you with easy mixes and simple instructions. You must collect as much simple recipes as you can. Print them out so that you can ponder a bit as to what you would like to pursue. Now that you have the recipes, you can collect your materials to help you select which ones are you going to make.

Who are your guests? Adults can munch on some salads with some bread or cookies that you have on your storage. You must make your salad taste good even though you don’t have every ingredient in the book for the best one to be done. Now you can put those experimenting skills to a test. You can include the ingredients that you already have on your salad. You just have to make sure that everything will blend well and will taste great.

If you have kids coming in, you must also work on some easy desserts to be served. You must check your own children’s stored goods to see if you can come up with easy recipes using some of their goods. If you have to prepare meals, you can settle for easy fried chicken that most kids love to eat. This will also be enjoyed by your adult guests.

Now that you have done the best things that you can, given the short period to be able to prepare, you can surprise your guests through the presentation. Make your simple recipes appear elegant by placing them on serving plates with decorations. This way, no one will notice that you hurried the process. They will enjoy what you have for them. This way, you can all enjoy the time you will spend together.

After going through such phase, you must learn from it and stack up quick and easy recipes that you can pull out in emergency situations like that. You don’t need to be a good cook to be able to satisfy your guests with the food that you serve them. All you need is loads of imagination and determination to come up with the right material even at times when there is really not enough time.

To those experienced in the kitchen, this kind of meal is easy to make. But to the novices might still find pasta a little daunting or troublesome. One thing that you should watch out when cooking pasta is the noodles. You need to test every now and then to see if the noodles are done. The pasta cooks pretty quickly and leaving it too long can result to soggy noodles.

Avoid placing the pasta when the water is not yet boiling. This will help prevent the pasta from becoming all mushy, soft and sticky. Also, keep the water at a boil at all times. You can help make the pasta firmer if you add salt into the boiling water. Note that you should not cover the pot when you already placed the pasta. When the pasta is done, take it off the boiling water. The pasta will continue to cook if you leave it there. With that, one half of your pasta meal is done. The other half would be the sauce.

The good thing about pasta is having several choices for sauces. Actually, at some point you will be stomped on what kind of sauce to make due to the varieties. If you’re a pasta person then having a couple of sauces stored in your refrigerator would be the best ways to go. If you have pesto, you can use that to sauce your pasta. Add additional garlic, some mushrooms or even Italian sausages and topped with cheese and you can have a good meal.

Bottled or canned sun-dried tomatoes can go well with pasta. I always try to have some sun-dried tomatoes ready since you can just pour it over your pasta and voila! A tomato based pasta without the traditional tomato sauce and pastes. Top with grated cheese and partnered with bread and you can have a fulfilling meal in no time.

If you want a cream-based sauce, just prepare some sliced olives, cream, oregano and grated cheese. Mix the cream, olives and oregano together with your pasta and finish off with grated cheese on top. A simple cream-based pasta but can be quite joyous to the palette.

Olive oil is also a staple sauce for pasta and can be quite easy to use as well. You can mix olive oil with canned seafood or slices of meat or sausages to create a sauce for your pasta. You can add basil for flavor and don’t forget the grated cheese. If you want to experiment, try adding spicy flavored meat or canned seafood. Spicy pasta may not be for everyone but still a good dish in my account.

A pasta meal in a flash is really just that. In a span of 15 to 20 minutes you would have already prepared a good, hearty meal of pasta in either tomato, cream or olive-based sauce. It is a quick meal that I personally won’t get tire off.

One of the downside of quick and easy ways of cooking is that we often substitute fresh products with processed ones. This is so we can prepare our meals faster. We go to bottled and canned ingredients just to keep up with the time element of preparing and cooking the meals. Although, some products would claim that no preservatives have been added to their products. Prioritize these product lines when doing your weekly groceries.

So the best thing really is to rely on only fresh ingredients. What you can do is shop and prepare the ingredients beforehand. This will cut a load off your cooking time. You can now cook meals faster and have more time enjoying your meal.

Another way is convert an existing recipe into something healthier. Learn to substitute unhealthy ingredients with healthier ones. If the recipe is going to cook noodles, go with wheat noodles. Replace meat with high grade varieties that have less fat in them. The substitution can even be a little drastic. You can go with the vegetables you like instead of sticking with that the recipe tells you.

Also, learn to minimize or reduce the amount of the unhealthy parts of the meal you are preparing. Salt, for example, can be bad if you use too much. Just keep the salt to a minimum, don’t go adding excessive amounts to what you’re cooking. The same goes with butter, cheese, cream, and sugar. The taste will be affected, naturally, but in the long run you can have a healthier meal plus you will appreciate more the natural tastes of the ingredients during a meal. The vegetables are crisper and the tastes are fuller. .

Look for better ways to prepare your meal. If the recipe tells you to fry your chicken, why not broil it or grill it instead. There will always be some healthy options that you can use to prepare your meals. The kitchen and the recipe book should not tie you down with convention. Sure there are standards, but learn to think and experiment with your cooking. Now if your objective would be preparing a fast and easy meal, experimentation may not be the good way to go. Nevertheless, using different ways to cook your meals can get quite satisfying and at times surprising results.

Quick and easy recipes can be quite healthy if you just put your mind and put some extra effort into your cooking. Sure, the easy and quick ways are very tempting but not having the right nutrients is just not worth sacrificing over speed and convenience. But why sacrifice the other when you can have both.

A healthy way of cooking meals faster and simpler than before should be your new approach in cooking your meals.

How many times have you scolded your kid for playing around the kitchen? Well this is understandable given the potential dangers around the kitchen, knives, hot surfaces, boiling water, hot oils, etc. But by involving them in the cooking process you will be able to teach them the proper and safe conducts in and around the kitchen. This beats scolding anytime.

Children love the whole process of cooking. They the way big pieces of ingredients are chopped, sliced, or grated and mixed together to form a terrific dish. Maybe to them it’s a big jigsaw puzzle which when you get it right you will have one whole piece of dish that you can enjoy and eat.

Be patient when you’re working with kids. Expect a big mess of things. Your work table will most likely be overrun by various ingredients, drops of seasonings, scattered utensils, measuring instruments, and other cookware. This is fun to them, and who knows you might enjoy a taste of chaos once in a while. It might actually be liberating. But for the kids, the experience is hilarious and when they made good with their food, the feeling would be fulfilling.

There are several easy recipes that kids can make. Some very easy and simple dishes include omelet recipes and other breakfast dishes. Making French toasts is quite easy as well. Salads and sandwiches are also quite easy to make plus they are very healthy. Your kids can also bring these sandwiches for their lunch breaks.

One simple recipe is making a banana crepe, or make than a chocolate banana crepe. What you will need is some crepe flour, milk, eggs, melted chocolate, butter and of course sliced bananas. Mix together everything in a bowl except for the chocolate, bananas and butter. Let your kid do the mixing process. Use the butter to grease a crepe pan and then pour the crepe mixture on it. Make sure to spread out the mixture over the pan. Remember to flip it to cook the other side. Once cooked, spread the melted chocolate, line up the banana slices, and then fold it. You can add some more chocolate on the outside. Enjoy this with your kid.

Making pancakes is also another easy one. You can either go with the quick cooked pancakes available in the market or make your own from flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Whatever you decide, your kids can handle the mixing of the pancake mix, the greasing of the pan, the flipping of the pancakes and the presentation and additional touches like topping with chocolate or strawberry syrup.

Allow your kids to experiment and be imaginative. You will enjoy quick and easy recipes if you cook them with your kids. Sure expect a dirty kitchen later, but you have so much to gain if you involve your kids with the things you do.

There are a number of quick and easy ways to prepare healthy snacks which you can do given that you have such a tight schedule. And even if you it appears that you have an uncompromising schedule, it would be best to slip in a few minutes each day to consider your health.

Now if you’re an adult you take responsibility for your own state of health, but if you’re kids are snacking as well, then the more you should be responsible for their health relies on your hands as well. In order for your kids to eat healthier snacks, what you should try to do first off is prepare something interesting.

Keep your kids and your self interested. If you find a banana ordinary, serve it with peanut butter or jelly. Make sure to keep colorful foods like apples, orange, and carrots part of your snack time. Search for healthy dips or fillings for sandwiches and even for rice cakes, carrot and celery sticks. Be inventive and look for other combinations that can spice up your healthy snack time.

Those packed of potato chips can be quite unhealthy so why not go with tortilla chips and a homemade salsa. By just combining tomato, and chili you can create a pretty awesome salsa. This beats the processed, too salty chips you buy off the supermarket shelf.

Fruit smoothies are pretty good snacks as well. You will have to prepare the fruits in advance. Place the fruits inside your freezer. When you crave for a snack, get a frozen banana, for example, and pour in milk and just blend. You can produce a really creamy drink.

If you want something heavy to match your smoothie, then why not prepare several pieces of ham, cream cheese and bell pepper slices. What you do is spread the cream cheese, this should be the fat free one, on top of the ham. Put a bell pepper slice on it and roll the ham. Or if you’re not a ham person, try baby carrots with hummus. Actually, you can dip other vegetables in your hummus as well. Cherry tomatoes and sliced red bell peppers are quite good when dipped into hummus.

A fresh salad is also a refreshing and very healthy snack. All you need is some romaine lettuce, slices of carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, a little bit of salt and pepper to taste or better yet just use vinaigrette. You might want to prepare the vegetables in advance if you want to have your salad faster. There are salad ready vegetable packs available in your neighborhood supermarket but can be quite pricy. It would be better if you prepare the vegetables yourself.

Now the key in this healthy snack routine is to keep your health snack near your reach at all times. When you begin to feel the urge to snack, you take your snack pack and start munching. This way you will not have the urge to buy that chocolate bar or a bag of chips from the vending machine. With the quick and easy ways of preparing healthy snacks, I don’t see why you have to resort to the unhealthy ones.

Some of the basic meals you can prepare during a camping trip include hard boiled eggs and bacons for breakfast. Fish or chicken partnered with some boiled potatoes for lunch or dinner would be a nice treat as well.

The key for camping recipes is simplification. You can get your favorite meal then get the core ingredients, think of how you can transport the ingredients in the smallest available storage space and you’re ready to go. Camp meals are all about how much you can carry comfortably in your backpack.. You’re not going to cook inside the convenience of your kitchen. But rather, you will be working outside, on the grass and using firewood or charcoal. With this in mind it would be best to keep your recipes simple. Make something that you will just have to place on a skillet or frying pan all the necessary ingredients and let it cook.

For example, you can add some flavor and zing to your bacon if you add some onions, salt and pepper and add milk and eggs. That may sound a bit weird but it tastes pretty good. Add potatoes or mushrooms (or both) for a fuller meal and you’ll have a hearty breakfast that will keep you pumped up until lunch.

When you plan to cook fish over an open camp fire, you might want to remember packing aluminum foil with you. The foil will help protect the fish from being burned. Camp fires, when you’re not used to it are not as easy to control as a burner stove where high, medium, and low heat can be set with a dial of a knob. Before you wrap your fish in foil, you can add some onions, pepper, and even garlic inside it to add flavor. If you have some lemon with you squeeze some on the fish. Remember to pack the aluminum foil and other non-biodegradable trash for that matter back with you if you don’t see any trash cans at your camp site.

Grilling is a good way to cook over a camp fire and a good way to interact with your family as well. It is a social activity during a camping trip that both the kids and adults seem to enjoy. You can grill hotdogs or roast marshmallows over the camp fire. But what you can also do is pack some sausages with you and grill them for dinner. Pack some buns and ketchup and mustard as well. Go with pre-cooked sausages. You will spend less time cooking them on the grill, since you’re basically just heating them.

A quick, painless camping recipe involves being prepared beforehand. When you bring your food with you during a camping trip, it is best, of course, to prepare them before hand for faster cooking. For example, if you are bringing vegetables make sure they have been cleaned and cut to the desired sizes.

This way you will have more time enjoying the food rather than preparing and cooking them.

The first is tortilla chips. To do that, you will need some corn tortillas, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder and salt.

Since you will be baking this, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while you cut the tortilla into 8 wedges similar to what you would do for a pie or pizza and then arrange the wedges in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

If you have mister, good because this will make it a lot easier to mix the oil and lime juice. If you don’t, you will have to work with a spray bottle. When the mixture is ready, spray this over each chip wedge until it is moist. Next, combine the cumin, chili powder and salt in a small bowl and sprinkle on the chips by hand.

Bake the chips for about 7 minutes and then rotate the pan and bake for another 8 minutes. Make sure this is not too brown and then serve this with your choice of garnishes, guacamole or salsas.

For those that have done this before and want something different, they can try and serve buffalo or chicken wings. The ingredients you will be needing for this include a few pounds of chicken wings, black pepper, salt, vegetable oil, butter or margarine, Tabasco sauce and white wine vinegar.

First, chop off the tip of each chicken wings and get rid of it. Then chop the wing in half so you have 2 pieces. Next, grind on fresh black pepper and sprinkle with salt if desired.

Since this is not yet cooked, put these into the deep fryer until it is golden and crisp while you are stirring or shaking occasionally. When ready, remove and drain using paper towels.

Now melt the butter or margarine over medium heat in a heavy saucepan, add the hot sauce and a tablespoon of wine vinegar. When ready, put the chicken on a warm serving platter and pour the sauce on top.

If you want to keep things simple, you don’t have to bake or cook anything. The only thing you have to do is bring out different kinds of cheese so everyone can try them out. Such an activity is known as a cheese tasting party. To make it interesting, put the cheese varieties with some crackers but be sure that it does not dominate the flavor.

The cheeses that are ideal for such an activity include Bel Paese, Boursin, Abbaye de Belloc (a rich French cheese), Fontina, Gouda, Havarti, Mozzarella, Port du Salut, Scamorze, and Swiss. Of course, there are others out there you can try if these are not available so have fun buying different kinds from the store and serving this to your guests.

These are just a few of the quick and easy appetizer recipes you can serve to your guests when they come over so read up on new ones and then experiment a little so it is not the same each time. If you enjoyed the appetizer during your visit in another house, get the recipe and learn how it was done.

The first is called the sweet pepper burger and for that, you will need at least a pound of extra lean ground beef, some sweet red pepper relish, mustard, salt, ground black pepper and grated red onion.

Once you have all the ingredients, cook the burger for about 5 to 6 minutes on each side or the desired doneness. Heat the bread and cook the relish and red onion as well then when everything is ready, put it all together and serve.

You have probably eaten Mc Chicken and you can make the same one at home. To do that, you will some vegetables just like you used in the sweet pepper burger and then some chicken. When you have everything, cook the chicken separately until desired and do the same for other ingredients. Once everything is finished, put the burger together and serve.

Want to combine some western and Asian cuisine into a burger? Well you can by learning how to make a peanut satay burger. The ingredients for this include ground beef, crunchy peanut butter, cumin, tomato paste, chopped onions, bread crumbs and the burger buns.

Combine the beef with the other ingredients including the peanut butter into a burger patty then grill for 5 minutes. Put these on a burger bun and together with salad and plum sauce.

If you want to make a European burger, try the German burger. To make this, you only have to add 2 tablespoons of beer, caraway seeds, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut as topping with the rest of the ingredients you normally find in a burger. You then combine everything together then serve later on with sauerkraut and melted cheese.

Do you want to try eating a sweet burger? Well here is one recipe and this is called the honey and ginger burger. To create this dish, you will need 2 teaspoons of ginger powder, a beaten egg and soy sauce as well as the other ingredients normally found in a burger.

Before you make this into a patty, mix all the ingredients together and allow the mixture to rest for about 1 to 3 hours in the refrigerator. After setting, take it out and shape this into a burger patty. If it is too sticky, coat it with some seasoned flour before cooking. Broil for about 4 minutes on each side before putting this inside the burger bun and your choice of relish.

Burgers are served in different countries and cooked in different ways. What makes each one unique is one or two ingredients that completely changes its taste. If you don’t like to use beef, you have the option of replacing this either with fish or chicken.

Don’t forget to add fries or chips and so you don’t get used to serving the same kind each time, try out the different quick and easy recipes available. After all, you don’t order the same burger each time you eat out in a hamburger joint.

The clubhouse sandwich has been around for a very long time. It is believed that this originated in club cars of passenger trains. But regardless of where it came from, there are certain ingredients that this meal will always have.

This includes toasted white bread, some chicken crispy bacon and few vegetables. If you don’t have chicken, you can try changing it for either turkey or shrimp instead.

To start this recipe, you need the following ingredients so check your refrigerator and bring out at least 6 stalks of celery, 2 onions, 8 slices of bacon, 12 slices of toasted white bread, 2 pounds of chicken, 2 medium sizes tomatoes and 4 lettuce leaves.

When you have everything ready, you start by cooking the chicken and then let it cool after 25 minutes. As you know, the chicken that is used for the clubhouse sandwich is turned into chicken salad which is why you have to mix it with other ingredients.

Once the salad is ready, it is time to cook the bacon until it is crisp and brown which should be done within 4 to 6 minutes. You better transfer the bacon to a paper towel first to drain the excess oil which is not good for those who have high cholesterol.

The last thing to do now is to put everything together. You get a piece of bread and then spread the chicken salad on the surface. Put some bacon, tomato or lettuce in between before putting the next layer of bread over it and then doing it one more time until you have three layers of bread.

With that, you now have a clubhouse sandwich. With the number of ingredients you used, you can share this with 3 other guests. Remember, a clubhouse sandwich has to be cut into quarters and then secured with a toothpick. That way, the sandwich won’t fall apart before it reaches your mouth. You can also put some side orders in beside the clubhouse sandwich by adding chips or fries.

Now that you know how to make a clubhouse sandwich, you can have this anytime you want rather than ordering it from the restaurant. What is even better is that you can do this at a much cheaper price especially if some of the ingredients are not readily available because you can replace these with something else.

It doesn’t matter where the clubhouse sandwich came from. What is important is that you know how to make it so can enjoy it and share with others.

One thing you should know about the clubhouse sandwich is that is more than just a snack which is why a lot of people eat it for lunch. Its light and healthy at the same time because it gives you a combination of B vitamins, iron and protein.

So the next time you feel hungry try having a clubhouse sandwich instead of a large meal. This is a quick and easy recipe you can make rather than another dish that will take you double the time to prepare.

The first thing you can make is peanut cookies. For that, you will need some flour, baking power, white and brown sugar, eggs mil, vegetable oil and of course, the peanuts.

While you are preparing the ingredients, you can already preheat the over to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit or 150 degrees Celsius. Now get a large bowl and then add all the other ingredients except the peanuts with a wooden spoon until you get a brown paste as a result.

Next, pour in the peanuts and mix this with the paste this time using your hands. Be sure you don’t overdo it because you don’t want the dough to become tough.

Now grab a small amount of dough and roll it into a small ball using your palm. After making one, do another until you are able to fill up the entire tray. Be sure to leave at least inch or two distance between each cookie so the dough can expand without compromising the nearby cookies while it is being cooked.

Once the tray is full, put it inside the oven and bake it for about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove it after and then sprinkle some powdered sugar then let it cool for a while before serving.

Another quick and easy cookie recipe that is a favorite is chocolate chip cookies. Unlike the first recipe, you have to mix some ingredients in one bowl first before mixing it with the rest.

With a medium bowl, you mix flour, salt and baking soda. With a bigger bowl, you mix shortening, brown and white sugar as well as pure vanilla. Don’t forget to add some eggs and mix it until it is completely combined.

When this is ready, you mix the content of the medium bowl with those in the larger bowl until you have a moderately thick cookie dough.

Now scoop the dough into a small bowl and then put this on the tray. Make sure each ball is at least an inch apart and then let it bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. If after 8 minutes the cookies still look doughy, wait for two more minutes before bringing it out of the oven. Let it sit for 3 to 5 minutes before serving.

The nice thing about making cookies is that if you are not able to finish everything in one session, you can always put the rest in a cookie jar. Just remember to finish it as soon as possible because it tastes different after several days.

If you are having a hard time removing the cookies from the wax paper or tin foil, it will be handy to have a spatula.

There are other great quick and easy recipes for cookies. You just need time to work on the kitchen and then have some fun.

If you are too lazy to make cookies, go and buy some from the store. When you take a bite, ask yourself how they made it and then try to replicate it. This is the best way to learn from those who make millions selling cookies all over the country.