Freshen Up Spaghetti

There are just days when not one single new recipe sounds tempting, days when all table counterparts are too tired to cook, too tired to eat, and too tired to try new foods, days when comfort foods are needed. What is this tables' ultimate comfort food: spaghetti. Plain white noodles with garlic and herb jar sauce. Having fresh veggies in the fridge and not wanting to make a salad, Fresh & Easy Veggie Spaghetti was made instead.

Recipe:

In a large pot, one small onion was diced and cooked until translucent. To onion, one diced zucchini, half carton of sliced bella cap mushrooms, one tablespoon of minced garlic, one teaspoon of dried oregano and basil were added and allowed to simmer on low until zucchini was tender.

Scaled for Likability:

Normally, if vegetables are going to be added to jar spaghetti sauce it is spinach, mushrooms, and sometimes a small jar of black olives. Never zucchini. Why? Because just as I suspected but never put to test, the vegetable cooks down into the sauce causing the sauce to be watery. Nothing worse than watery spaghetti sauce. To offset the extra water, next time one tablespoon of tomato paste will be added to the jar sauce while simmering and the seed portion of the zucchini will be omitted. Otherwise, the zucchini was a nice change to spinach.

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add po...

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almos...

Cold Corn Bean Salsa

Nothing says junk food like chips and salsa, chips and cheese dip, chips and guacamole. Over the years I have perfected my salsa. It's good on tacos, on nachos, on enchiladas, and of course on chips. Just because I have the best salsa doesn't mean I don't like to try new salsa's like this Best Black Bean and Corn Salsa. Modifications Made: Shoepeg corn was replaced with one can of standard yellow corn with no salt added. Petite diced tomatoes were reduced by half. Italian dressing was swapped for half teaspoon comino, half teaspoon of chili powder, and two tablespoon of fresh lime juice. Salsa was made and let rest for two hours before eating. Scaled for Likability: Good Salsa this was not. Good it was however. It was too much for chips by themselves but was great served over a soft beef taco.

Eating Waffles

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