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Fast, Easy, and Time Saving Meals
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This month, it’s all about the home kitchen and busy lifestyles. How do you prepare dinner when baseball practice ends at six, chorus rehearsal starts at seven and the church community wants a delicious dessert for sharing to appear at 7:30. We hunted around to find a few suggestions for you. Maybe, you might want to make some of these recipes regulars in your family’s supper circle. They are simple and full-of-flavor and most of them use ingredients usually found right in your pantry. Also, for some additional ideas, we will be chatting with Elise Thomas, who is sharing some of her special, quick recipes in a new book called “Elise’s Home Kitchen: Eat Dessert First.”
Twenty-Five Quick Ideas to make Time-Saving Meals
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Seared Zucchini Tomato Medley
Intriguing and unexpected 3 vegetables make their own sauce.
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About the Recipe: This vegetable medley will transform into a side dish or even a meatless entrée. It has a fresh flavor that can enhance the flavor of any dinner entrée and rivals complex vegetable dishes, yet only takes minutes to make.
Read More – Seared Zucchini Tomato Medley
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Chocolate Pecan Turtle Treats
A super easy way to make those tasty bar cookies.
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About the Recipe: Turtle candy has always been a family favorite. This recipe is an easy way to make some cookie squares filled with soft caramel-like pecan filling, covered with combined dark and milk chocolate. Serve squares as a special dessert or snack treat. They are super easy to make.
Read More – Chocolate Pecan Turtle Treats
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Elise Thomas – Cookbook Author and Entrepreneur
Courtesy of Elise Thomas – Photo credit: Yonel Cohen
In 2020, when the world was hit with a pandemic, Elise Thomas used her own small kitchen oven to begin baking her signature gourmet cookies. Selling them first out of her garage, her business quickly skyrocketed into a successful chain of bakeries–Cookie Co.–and earned her the nickname “the cookie lady.”
Excerpted from Elise’s Home Kitchen: “Eat Dessert First” by Elise Thomas (Shadow Mountain, 2024) Photo credit: Yonel Cohen
Now, in her debut cookbook, Elise shares not only the delectable baked goods she is famous for but also the fast, easy, and delicious meals that have become staples for her own busy family. Recipes are broken into sections based on cravings: Burgers, Sandwiches and Tacos, Pasta, Soups, Salads, Side Dishes, Appetizers and Dips, Breads, Cookies, Cakes and Pies, Desserts and Treats, Breakfast and Brunch.
The book is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other fine bookstores across the country.
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Blackened Salmon Tacos with Creamy Lemon Sauce
Recipe from Elise Thomas’ book “Elise’s Home Kitchen: – “Eat Cookies First.”
Excerpted from Elise’s Home Kitchen: “Eat Dessert First” by Elise Thomas (Shadow Mountain, 2024) Photo credit: Yonel Cohen
About the Recipe: Putting her favorite foods into tacos is always a win! Blackened salmon, perfectly cooked, in a tortilla with a crunchy slaw and a creamy sauce puts smiles on her family’s faces every time. With this recipe, the creamy sauce is doing double duty. It’s both what flavors the slaw and what is used on top to finish each taco,
pdf for Copy of Recipe – Blackened Salmon Tacos with Creamy Lemon Sauce
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Cookies & Cream Icebox Cake
Elise Thomas’s recipe from Elise’s Home Kitchen: “Eat Dessert First.”
Excerpted from Elise’s Home Kitchen: “Eat Dessert First” by Elise Thomas (Shadow Mountain, 2024) Photo credit: Yonel Cohen
About the Recipe: This is one of her favorite make-ahead summer treats. It’s sure useful to have one in the freezer ready to go for a special treat when her family needs a pick-me-up. This is also a very flexible recipe –you can switch up the ice cream flavor or the type of cookies used. Mint chocolate chip ice cream would be amazing!
pdf for Copy of Recipe – Cookies & Cream Icebox Cake
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Wedding Shower Chicken Pasta Salad
Elise Thomas’s recipe from Elise’s Home Kitchen: “Eat Dessert First.”‘
Excerpted from Elise’s Home Kitchen: “Eat Dessert First” by Elise Thomas (Shadow Mountain, 2024) Photo credit: Yonel Cohen
About the Recipe: Elise said, “Food attached to memories always seems to taste better. That is the case for this chicken pasta salad. It was served at my wedding shower many years ago and is my mom’s go-to for special occasions. Lucky for you, you don’t have to wait for my mom to make it for you!”
pdf for Copy of Recipe – Wedding Shower Chicken Pasta Salad
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Chickpea “Meatballs” with Gnocchi
Favorite supper with tender juicy plant-based proteins.
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About the Recipe: Surprise! These tender “meatballs” are prepared with chickpeas and mushrooms. They have a crispy crust and soft centers, so perfect for a rich, chunky tomato sauce with potato gnocchi. It’s a great way to add some plant-based proteins.
Read More – Chickpea “Meatballs” with Gnocchi
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Fresh Spring Sesame Green
Brighten your meal with vivid spring green veggies.
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About the Recipe: Refreshing spring unfolds nature’s best veggies such as green beans, peas, asparagus, and leafy lettuce. Their fresh flavor and crisp tenderness only need simple additions like a touch of oil and squeeze of lemon. We invite you to welcome the season and add a touch of spring with this quick-fix side dish.
Read More – Fresh Spring Sesame Green
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Easy Stuffed Italian Chicken Breasts
Serve with Balsamic Sauced Veggies.
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About the Recipe: This is an easy way to add stuffing inside a chicken breast using only prosciutto slices and fresh basil leaves. Then sauté a few basic onions and mushrooms, add roasted red peppers and olives, that are served over fresh spinach leaves. Then only drizzle with some pan juices for a delicious healthy dinner dish.
Read More – Easy Stuffed Italian Chicken Breasts
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Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Prepare ahead – Pasta salads taste better the next day.
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About the Recipe: Everyone loves a pasta salad for an informal party or casual dinner. With warm weather knocking on our door, give your next pasta salad a global flavor. You can even make this two or three days ahead so the flavors will meld.
Read More – Mediterranean Pasta Salad
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Kluski ‘n Kapusta Noodles and Cabbage
An attractive, easy-to-make side dish to serve for a spring buffet or supper.
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About the Recipe: This cabbage and noodles dish just couldn’t be easier. It only uses a few ingredients, and the oven does most of the cooking. The dish is popular in Eastern Europe, especially in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. For a main dish, it can be enhanced with smoked meats or even sauteed mushrooms and onions. It makes a delicious attractive dish to serve with that spring supper.
Read More – Kluski ‘n Kapusta Noodles and Cabbage
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Gluten free
Strawberry Banana Stack Cakes
Cut the sheet cake into squares for breakfast or make a layered dessert.
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About the Recipe: A flourless yogurt cake topped with fresh chopped strawberries can be sliced into small squares and served for breakfast or snacks. If you want to serve a fancy strawberry dessert, stack or layer two squares, spreading whipped cream between the layers. Garnish the top with a dollop of whipped cream, a few banana, and strawberry slices.
Read More – Strawberry Banana Stack Cakes
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Nutter Butter Cakes
April Fool – no real butter is used and it’s a” no bowl” recipe.
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About the Recipe: They are amazing little cakes that will reflect the type of nuts used. I added some orange flavor, but other flavors can be used. Theses mini cakes are tasty desserts to serve with ice cream or fruit. Also, they are so easy to make since they are combined in a food processor. You can call it a one-bowl wonder recipe.
Read More – Nutter Butter Cakes
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