quickandeasycooking

I could easily become a vegetarian. Sometimes I go for days without eating any meat. My family, however, is another story. I live with a group of carnivores. Try this easy green bean idea. It’s great to serve to company.

Green Bean Bundles

1 package of bacon

2 cans of whole green beans

1 bottle of Catalina dressing

Cut each bacon strip in half. Wrap each half slice around 6-8 whole green beans to form neat bundles. Place the bundles seam side down in a 9×13 inch baking dish. Pour the entire bottle of Catalina dressing over the green bean bundles. Cover and marinate in the frig at least two hours and no more than 24 hours. Cook at 350 degrees about 20 minutes or until the bacon is done.

Potatoes! My favorite vegetable. Here’s an easy one to try.

Garlic-Butter New Potatoes

18 small red potatoes, quartered

salt

1/4 cup of butter

2 minced garlic cloves (use the refrigerated kind)

1 tbsp parsley

pepper to taste

Cook quartered potatoes in salted water until done. Drain. Melt butter in skillet. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly to avoid burning the garlic. Add parsley and pepper. Pour over the potatoes.

My husband is half Italian, and he will sometimes take an entire Saturday to make fresh pasta the way his mother did when he was little, from scratch with a hand-turned pasta machine. It tastes great, but takes a lot of time and effort. So, even though he feels he’s being disloyal to his Mediterranean roots, we usually buy dried pasta.

We do eat pasta dishes at our home often. Here’s a quick and easy one that you can do in minutes. 

Feta and Tomato Pasta Dish

Cooked spaghetti

¼ cup olive oil

½ to 1 onion, chopped

2 to 3 cloves of minced garlic (you can substitute the refrigerated kind)

4 small fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 white wine

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the minced garlic and cook for another minute. Stir constantly so the garlic won’t burn. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook for about two minutes. Take off the heat. Add the crumbled feta cheese and toss with the cooked spaghetti. Serve immediately.

Sometimes you just have to cheat and get take-out. But you can make it seem more like a real meal with just a few tweaks.  Here are a few ideas:

1. Take-out pizza (or even good old frozen pizza) is a standard. Turn it into something special by adding a beautiful fresh green salad and a glass of wine. You can also dress it up with appetizers, such as garlic and cheese bread, cheese sticks or an antipasto tray of olives, tomato wedges, chunks of good cheese and salami.
2. We love our fried chicken here in the south. Don’t stop there. Get the cole slaw and potato salad, too. Serve the fried chicken in a napkin lined pretty basket. Pile the  salads on a nice platter and garnish with fresh tomato wedges and chopped parsley.
3. If you’re craving take-out Chinese, spoon the rice onto a large serving platter and top it with the sweet and sour pork. Add a basket of egg rolls.
4. If you grab a bag of deli sandwiches on the way home you might think they’re boring. But if you cut each sandwich into fourths and pile them on a platter surrounded by chips, they’ll look much more appetizing. Add a bowl of salsa and another of a creamy dip.

I love the flavor of rosemary. It is absolutely my favorite herb, and I use it whenever I can. This summer, I’m growing two pots of it on my deck.  One of my favorite recipes is Rosemary Biscuits. These little jewels are so delicious, especially for brunch. There are only four ingredients. And if you don’t want to use rosemary, you can substitute chopped chives or try any other herb you happen to like. Or, you can make this a three ingredient recipe, and leave out the herb completely. They’re still extremely tasty!

Rosemary Cream Cheese Biscuits

1 8 oz. package of crem cheese, softened

½ cup of butter or margarine, softened

1 cup of self-rising flour

Chopped rosemary (amount is according to your taste)

Beat the cream cheese and butter at medium speed for about two minutes or until combined and creamy. Gradually add the self-rising flour, beating at low speed just until blended. Don’t over mix. Spoon the dough into ungreased miniature muffin pans. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden. This makes 18 to 24 miniature biscuits.

When I was growing up, my grandmother made homemade peach ice cream. It was cold and creamy with chunks of fresh peaches throughout it. We all took turns with the crank; I guess nobody had heard of electric ice cream freezers then.

This is definitely not homemade ice cream, but for a cheaters recipe, it’s pretty darn good. At my house, everybody loves Oreo cookies and everybody loves ice cream (my daughter in particular), so this is a favorite summer dessert. It’s easy, too.

Cookies and Cream Frozen Dessert

1 16 oz. package of Oreos, coarsely crumbled

½ gallon of “homemade style” vanilla ice cream, slightly softened

8 oz. of Cool Whip

Combine the Oreos and the softened ice cream until blended. Fold in the Cool Whip. Spoon the mixture into a 13×9 pan. Cover and freeze until firm.

It’s not even June yet, and it’s already in the 90s here. This is the perfect dessert to help everybody cool off a little.

I love appetizers. There’s something so compelling about those delicious little bites. You can easily make an entire meal out of different appetizers. Here are a few of my tried and true:

1. You’ll love baked havarti cheese (but your arteries won’t). This is an easy twist on that old reliable, baked brie. Just buy a block of regular havarti or havarti with herbs. Thaw a sheet of frozen puff pastry. Wrap the cheese in the puff pastry and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes until the puff pastry is browned. Serve with crackers.
2. Spread soft cream cheese on baked Italian garlic toasts. Top with drained sun-dried tomatoes. This not only tastes great; it looks great, too.
3. For a quick Mexican dip, mix Velveeta cheese with salsa. Cook on high in the microwave; stir and cook again. Cook for one minute intervals until thoroughly mixed, stirring after each minute. Warning: this needs to be kept warm. A small crock pot is a good container for this dip. Serve with tortilla chips.
4. Top refrigerated spinach dip from the grocery store with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Serve with bagel chips or the Italian garlic toasts mentioned above.

Pineapple Casserole is a great side dish for both breakfast and other meals. If you’re hosting a brunch, it makes a nice addition. This casserole is absolutely delicious with ham. In fact, I may serve it this weekend to our house guests.

Pineapple Casserole

1 20 oz. can of pineapple tidbits (you can substitute crushed pineapple)

1/2 cup of sugar

3 tbsp. of flour

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (either mild or sharp - I always use sharp)

1/2 cup of Ritz cracker crumbs

1/4 cup of butter, melted and cooled a little

Drain the pineapple, but reserve 3 tbsp of the liquid for later use in the recipe. (Don’t discard the remaining juice; use it to add to orange juice.) Combine the sugar and flour. Stir in the reserved 3 tbsp. of pineapple juice. Add the mixture to the cheese and pineapple. Turn into a greased casserole. Sprinkle cracker crumbs on top, and drizzle the melted butter over the crumbs. Bake at 350 degreees for about 30 minutes.

This dish can be put together in a snap. Try it with a spiral honey ham and biscuits laden with butter and jam. Or, you can even serve it to your guests for dessert. It’s not too bad cold, either!

We’re in a crunch week at our house. Our twins are graduating from high school, we have two parties at our house this week and we have house guests coming for the weekend. There’s not much time for cooking, but I hate to resort to fast food (and rarely do).

Tonight, we’re having a quick meal that I’m pulling together out of the pantry and refrigerator. Once more, I’m relying on a whole roasted chicken, but I didn’t buy it from the grocery store deli. Instead, I roasted two myself during the past weekend for snacks and quick meals.

All I’m doing is cooking two packages of Knorr’s rice sides in the creamy chicken variety. Then, I’m sautéing red, yellow and green peppers and sliced onions in olive oil. I’ll add the diced chicken, and there you have it – a great meal that is super easy to put together. Add a green salad and you’re done!

This is a super casserole from a church cookbook (where the best recipes are!) It’s a great company dish and only takes a few minutes to put together. I first had it at my former next-door-neighbor’s home years ago, and it’s still one of my favorites.

Chicken Artichoke Casserole

2 14oz cans of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered

3 cups of diced cooked chicken (either poached or from a deli chicken)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 cup of mayonnaise

1 tsp. of lemon juice

1/4 tsp. of curry powder

1 1/2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

1 1/4 cups of bread crumbs

2 tbsp. of buttler, melted

/3 cup of white wine

Grease a 9×13 baking dish. Place artichokes on bottom. Mix soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice, curry and wine. Layer the chicken over the artichokes. Pour soup mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle with the grated cheddar cheese. Toss the bread crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle them over the top of the casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes.

I usually add a little more cheese than this recipe calls for; it adds a nice taste.  This easy chicken casserole is actually a quite elegant company main dish. You can serve it over pasta or rice or just by itself. I’ve never tried adding cooked pasta to the casserole when you assemble it, but I don’t know why that wouldn’t work, too.

Do the kids wait until bedtime to mention they need three dozen homemade cookies for a class treat the next day? Does your huband say at the very last minute that it’s his turn to bring a sweet snack for the office? Here’s a recipe for the very easiest cookies ever made!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup of chunky peanut butter

1 cup of sugar

chocolate kisses

Just combine the first three ingredients and shape into balls. Place the balls on a very lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Immediately press a chocolate kiss in the center of each cookie.

This yields about 2 to 3 dozen.

Have fun with this and change it any way you wish. I’ve done it with smooth peanut butter when I was out of chunky and didn’t want to go to the store. I’ve even left off the kisses and just called them peanut butter cookies. You can certainly add chopped walnuts or pecans.

You can easily double this recipe if needed. Enjoy! It’s easy to eat too many!