Anything Goes Discussions

Well, after a day of shopping and playing with my daughter I’m ready for something quick and easy. OBTW, school is on spring break, so I’m free all week. That doesn’t mean I want to or am I able to take the time to cook. Grilled Cheese sounded good, but I didn’t just want a regular grilled cheese sandwich. What I found in the fridge was some veggies, a tomato and some lettuce. In the spice cabinet I found some lemon pepper and was all set.

After getting the pan out and heating it up to medium high I buttered the bread, sliced the tomato and pulled off a few good slices of lettuce. Pick your cheese as you like, I used 2 slices of regular American. I put a slice of the bread on the pan, placed the cheese, 2 tomato slices a good sprinkling of lemon pepper, salt, the lettuce and the second piece of bread on top. About 90 seconds later I flipped the sandwich and let it go for another minute until the bread was the way I like it. Of course if you make it you can leave the sandwich in pan as long or as short as you like.

A nice tall glass of milk and a can of tomato soup that I warmed up in the microwave and I was all set. My daughter was eating her sweet potato, meaning she was otherwise entertained, so I enjoyed another quick and easy straight from what was in the fridge in less than 10 minutes.

Remember….Anything Goes for Dinner……

With a family, a job and no time for planning dinners I found that anything goes in making dinner. I’ve aways loved to cook, but now it’s only been on a weekend or a special occasion. When I cook after work I’m competing with a 13 month old child to see how fast I can make her food and get the rest of dinner ready for my wife and I.

So what’s the solution? I grab whatever I see first and improvise. Okay, so that’s what most of us parents do, but I believe it’s all in the spices that makes something a good dinner like beans & franks. Speaking of beans & franks, that happens to be what I grabbed today for dinner and it turned out pretty good with the spices that I added from the fridge.

It takes 2 plates, 1 pan and 1 pot to make this yummy comfort food. I started out putting 2 large cans of baked beans into the pot on medium low heat. While the beans were heating up I opened a package of frozen hot dogs, separated them onto a plate and put them in the microwave for 3 minutes. Walking back to the stove I put the pan on the stove on medium high with a little spray seasoning, and minced garlic (I always have a tub of minced garlic in the fridge).

Back to the beans for some seasoning with a couple shakes of onion powder, about a tablespoon. Salt and pepper to taste, then I added the kick. That kick is whatever hotsauce you have in the fridge, I happen to have Mexican hotsauce from the ethnic aisle at the market. Kick in whatever makes you happy, but I hit it with about 8 shakes. About this time my daughter is asking for more food or her juice, so off I go to give her what she needs.

While I’m there the microwave goes off and I take the franks over to the pan with the garlic. Before putting them in the pan, cut them into bitesize pieces. After you put them in the pan turn it up to high and add 3 or 4 glugs of steak sauce. Let the franks cook up so that they have some fry marks on them and transfer them to the beans, sauce and all. Turn up the beans to medium and get out the bread.

We just happen to have small onion sub rolls that I sliced in half and toasted. While they are toasting I put the beans & franks in a bowl and serve it up to my wife. The toaster goes off right about the time I’m done putting the plates out and I put on some garlic spread, but you can use whatever you have, remember it’s anything goes for dinner.

All this took about 6 to 8 minutes, my daughter was just finishing her dinner and was ready for her Cheerio dessert. My wife and I enjoyed a nice comfort food meal with our daughter and it didn’t take hours. I believe that with a mindset that you can cook with anything, you can make some pretty good things from regular pantry items…….

Remember, Anything Goes for Dinner….