My Wednesday Pantry-Some Links to Share for Kitchen Newbies

     

     I don't have much orignal to share this week from my kitchen and pantry. Last night I changed up the chicken-rice hotdish a bit, mostly because I didn't realize DH had eaten the last of the cheddar I had earmarked for the recipe.  I've shared the simple chicken rice, cheese, and broccoli "recipe" a gazillion times so here's the twist. Hold onto your socks-I put a healthy squirt of ranch dressing in with the soup an dmilk mix, and instead of cheddar used mozzarella. I left the broccoli out and just steamed and served on the side. I'll admit it was quite tasty with the change ups.Of course there is plenty for a day or two of lunches or part of a leftover night. It was the beigest looking dish you can imagine-no cheddar deep yellow or green broccoli poking through, so I didn't bother to take a picture.

     I've been on the fence about ordering a few meal kits for DD2 to make next week and ultimately decided no. Instead, I think I'll sen dher to the store list in hand (after she looks through the pantry and freezer) with some recipes either form  her new cookbook she got at Christmas or any of the other volumes I have. 

     She'll be moving into an apartment next year so will be doing her own cooking, but also start the road to when she will really need to be budget conscious. I'm a big fan of  cookbook writer and anti-poverty, food security advocate Jack Monroe, and her plethora of books she has published. I wish someone would partner up with her and do a conversion to US measurements as I think her stuff looks fantastic, and I've even tried a thing or two, and would help so many people wo want  tasty food but are on a tight budget. If you are familiar with  her (her choice of pronouns) and know of a collaboration with US conversion, let me know. In the meantime, here is her website, Cooking on a Bootstrap, which she makes available to anyone. I donated to a kickstarter for her a couple years back on I believe what was to be her third book, and would have received a copy as a thank you. There were issues with how it rolled out, her health took a beating and there were many unkind people, but I was pleased with myinvestment. (I have done  a few other Kickstarter and Patreon donations) I declined to have the book shipped to me, knowing it could be used locally and not add to the costs of the project with international shipping. 

Here's a couple other sources for low cost, beginner cooking if you want to share with your children, grandchildren, or other kitchen newbies in your life.

• Luke Catleugh is a fashion, home, travel vlogger but posts it seems 2-4 times a month  simple recipe vlogs that he whips up for himself and his roommate Zara in their outside of London flat. He uses basic ingredients he gets at his local Aldi, or sometimes the other store sin his area, but rarely anything extra. I love that he scours his massive shelf of cookbooks before planning his meal. He is very young, but quite practical. his mom must be proud! Here was a video of 6 Simple Weeknight Dinners, all vegetarian.

And a few more:

• Eater.Com-The Easiest Recipes and Tricks for Beginners
• Mediocre Chef-Food Blog for Beginners
• Simply Recipes-but I think many are a lot more than simple, so ma want to stick with the Quick and Easy tab.

     And of course, don't forget that you can binge away on all the BuzzFeed and Tasty recipes that op up in  so many online portals like Facebook, or even just Google search page. I still stand by the best recipe book is my old church cook book. It doesn't though come with any basic tips, an din fact, some of the recipes assume a set of knowledge and accomplishment already. Well, that's because it was meant to be used  year after year, moms and sons, dad's and daughters, sisters, and friends  We'll have a good time this week cooking together, both the old and hopefully the new.