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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Good Food Is Important to Life

Cheap & Easy: A Cookbook for Girls on the Go

Good food doesn't have to be hard.  You can buy pie crust instead of making it.  You can buy biscuit mix and cake mix and cookie mix.  You don't have to start from scratch.  Lots of people will say that food is always better if it takes you all day over a hot stove, but don't believe it.

Quick and easy counts too.  If you really don't know how to cook, but you want to learn, start with the easy stuff.  Read the recipes on the biscuit mix box. 

If you add milk and sugar to biscuit mix until you have a dough or batter and pour it over sweetened fruit in a pan or Pyrex dish and bake at 350 until it browns on top, you have made a cobbler.  You can make the crust however you like it.  If you use 1 cup of mix, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup milk, you will make enough for a small cobbler.  Drop it by tablespoons on the fruit.  If you use 2 cups of mix, 1/2 cup sugar and 11/2 cup milk you will have a pourable crust.    Adjust the kind of crust you want to make by how much milk you add to the biscuit mix and sugar.  If you want a real pie crust, buy it.  Surprise everybody.  You cooked it.

As you experiment with these small beginnings, you may find that cinnamon or allspice adds flavors that rival the big time chefs.  And it was easy.  

If you are trying to avoid carbs, you need to cast a hungry eye at vegetables like spinach.  Fresh spinach looks intimidating, but don't fear.  You might want to cut off the stems, but if they are young and tender they won't hurt anything.  Rinse them and drain them for a little while, and let the skillet heat up.  Put 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil in the skillet until it melts or gets hot.  Reduce the heat to low.  Add the spinach leaves and put a lid on the skillet.  The spinach will wilt and release liquid.  Watch it and stir it until the leaves are tender.  Add salt to taste. 

Toast or whole wheat crackers are good with almost anything.  Add garlic powder or whole roasted garlic for a little kick.  Cheese goes good with this too. 

Get pre-cooked chicken and warm it in the microwave if you are in a hurry or your mother called to say she would meet you at your house.  You don't have to show her the package.  And you did cook some stuff.  She'll be so proud.

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