Hi friends,
I pray you are well, healthy and safe during this time of crisis. Our governor has done an amazing job and we are learning to adapt to our restrictions. Thankfully for this coffee girl who goes a bit stir crazy after a couple of days, Starbucks drive-thru is still open. What was once viewed as a regular treat is now viewed as a bit of a luxury. It gives us someplace to get out of the house, take a nice drive the long way around and a yummy dose of much-needed caffeine for me.
Even Griffin loves his pup cup and the way the baristas fawn over him.
While we make a trip out once or twice a week, the rest of our time is spent at home. I miss meeting friends for lunch and coffee, miss date night out with my hubby, miss window shopping, but I’m so abundantly grateful for all of God’s blessings. Our family is safe and healthy. We have food on our table, a roof over our head and a secure job that will weather this storm.
I’m enjoying my writing time, working on projects we’ve put off for too long, decluttering and organizing. Watching movies and Facetiming with friends.
I’ve also got an Instapot I’ve been dying to try out. I found a cookbook and some wonderful recipes to work with what we have in the house. Over the years I’ve shared recipes from each of my books, dishes my characters love to make. I thought I’d share a few with you to try out during this time. Hope you enjoy them!
Reader Question:
Do you have a favorite dish? A quick and easy dinner? I’d love it if you’d share the recipe or even just the name of the dish.
My prayers are with you,
Dani
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We have two favorites in our house. One is called “Garbage” – not sure where the name came from. It was my husband’s recipe from when he was young. It is like an upside-down shepherd’s pie. 1 pound of browned ground beef cooked with diced onions, black pepper, and Worcestershire Sauce (2 Tbs). Mix 1 family-sized can of Campbell’s Vegetable Beef soup with the ground beef. Prepare enough mashed potatoes (thick not runny) to cover a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spray the baking dish and add mashed potatoes, then top with ground beef/soup mixture. Liberally add Worcestershire Sauce over top. Sprinkle cheese over everything. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
The other is “Pizza Spaghetti” – It is baked spaghetti with pizza ingredients. Yum!
Thanks for the recipes you shared. They look tasty!
Hi Rebecca,
That sounds delicious. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. Anxious to give it a try.
Hi Dani,
I am hunkered down with my crew. My husband had just started working from home this year because all our 6 kiddos were in school full-time. 🙂 Now, our “office” (our family room) which he had prepped for homework time and an office for my e-commerce business, and him to work out of, he is a software engineer, is now a full-time office for our whole family. That is 8 people in 500 square feet doing homework, work, and because we have a bunch of band kids, impromptu band concerts as they play and record videos to “rank up” in band. 🙂 My sweet husband sometimes uses both of his sound dampening earbuds and headset together. 😛
My favorite go-to meal is either a simple salad (our lunch most days):
1/2 of a cucumber cubed
1/4 of a bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow) cubed
5 or so cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half
1 string cheese cut into segments
lots of bacon bits
sunflower seeds
drizzled with Italian dressing
Or for the whole family, I make homemade chili with shredded cheese and Doritos.
I shared my Zesty Homemade Chili recipe on my writer site here: https://www.genabessire.com/post/zesty-homemade-chili-by-gena-bessire
I also make Homemade Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese frosting that are the perfect complement to my Chili recipe. The recipe is here: https://www.genabessire.com/post/homemade-cinnamon-rolls-with-cream-cheese-frosting-by-gena-bessire
Have a great rest of your week! Thank you for sharing your recipes too,
Gena