Thursday, November 14, 2013

More Quick Meal Ideas

Fast Pizza.....preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place a couple of individual-size, Kontos-brand, hand-stretched pizza crusts on a cookie sheet.  Spread a few spoonfuls of pizza sauce on top of each crust and then top with your favorites including some sliced, shredded or grated Italian-style cheeses. Bake for 5 minutes. One of our pizza sauces on hand at the store contains ground pepperoni, so you really do not even need to add meat.  (If you prefer a crisper crust, slide the pizzas right onto the oven rack instead of placing the cookie sheet in the oven.)

Salad - while the pizza is baking, toss some pre-washed 80-20 blend of romaine and spring-mix salad greens in a bowl with some chopped tomatoes and other veggies of your choice.  I like a handful of sliced onion and some black olives.  Dress with your favorite dressing or vinegar and oil.  I like Garlic Expressions salad dressing.

Have a little more time and feeling adventurous?  How about stuffing some poblano peppers and baking those?  I like to blanch the peppers in boiling water for a couple of minutes to soften them so they do not need to bake so long to become tender.  You can make a stuffing out of finely-ground beef mixed with finely chopped veggies such as onions, garlic, and celery, and some bread crumbs or cooked rice to help hold it all together.  Adding a beaten egg to the mixture also helps the stuffing combine like a meatball inside the pepper.  Prepare a  light tomato sauce and spoon it over the tops of the peppers in a casserole dish.  You could add about a half cup of water to the casserole before placing it in a 350 degree oven uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how cold your ingredients were and how large the stuffed peppers are.  For safety, test with a cooking thermometer for beef doneness (recommended 160 degrees for ground beef).  These are good with any style potatoes--mashed, baked, fried, or hash browns.



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