You can make garlic mash potato as an accompaniment for sausages as a simple family meal. However, make a little extra mash potato and you have the base for a formidable Salmon Patties Recipe. Mildly flavored with fresh coriander capers and gherkins this is one of those canned easy beef stew salmon recipes which is also good in lunch boxes. An all round winner.
While these charts can be a helpful way to get simple beef stew started I find it more useful to actually find and make a recipe or two from a cookbook or other source that I trust. That's how I learn what foods they work with and how they taste when combined and cooked in a dish.
Here's to brightening our days with well-balanced meals so we can be refreshed with each meal and get a decent night's sleep! Yes, we'll keep hoping this day will come, right? Well, it takes much dedication and motivation to get on a healthy diet and remain on it. Alas, it need not be boring to eat healthy! Get creative!
Ham hocks are a type of meat that is low in cost and high in flavor. Smoked hocks have long been used to enhance dishes made with peas, beans, lentils or greens. Let the hock simmer in water overnight in a slow cooker, then take it out and allow it to cool. Separate the meat from the rind and bone and add to soup or stew.
When I worked in the kitchen of a college dormitory years ago, we had spoons that were similar to this OXO Stainless Steel Slotted Spoon, but they weren't made nearly as well or looked as nice. They were very thin and I suspect maybe were made of aluminum. This OXO spoon is very plain but yet has an elegance to it. The brushed stainless steel has a rich look, and it doesn't show fingerprints easily. The handle is nice and thick, due to the black non-slip section attached to the bottom, and it doesn't dig into your hands when using it.
You ate the cafeteria food too. Meals were supplemented with government surplus stacked to the ceiling at the end of the long room, a stack which grew shorter as the year progressed. The brown pasteboard boxes were filled with cans of beef stew in a crock pot, lima beans, string beans and hominy. The big high school boys were allowed extra helpings on hot dog day, the only "junk food" served. There was no pizza. Pizza was something someone who had been to Chicago or D.C. had heard of. Kids cleaned their plates and went outside to run around (the elementary school ones) or chatted up the high school girl or boy you had your eye on. There was the rare fat kid - but if you look back at the class picture he was nowhere near the size of even sorta fat people you see at the mall nowadays.
Now they come with automatic controls and even timers to help them do their cooking more effectively. Many cookbooks have even been written chocked full of meal recipes specifically for the cookers of today.
Either freeze individual portions, or freeze entire entrees. For example, when making meatballs, you can make an extra batch and freeze them. easy beef stew no tomatoes and slow-cooked meals also freeze well.