Fast Food

We hear a lot about fast food these days. It's unhealthy. Portions are huge. Fast food places even have (gasp!) TOYS for kids (Hey, guess what - grocery stores have toys for kids and even have products that promote with toys.  Do we sue the grocery stores, too????)

Oh, I know that we don't need to be eating fast food everyday.  But I'm not totally against fast food places. Especially having lived in a country, when our four kids were young, where there weren't any kid-friendly, fast food places to stop at when we were making long trips. On a long trip, dragging four tired little kids into a "regular" restaurant to wait on their meals, is no picnic .... which is what we usually did - picnic (because it was also quite costly to eat in that "regular" restaurant with four kids).  And having a picnic in the car  when it's pouring rain outside is no picnic, either. There were many times back then when I wished we'd come upon an honest-to-goodness fast food place. ( Now this country has plenty of fast food places.... ours and theirs. And they are always full.)

However, the fast food place is not my topic here.  Fast food is.  Homemade fast food.  Did you know that you can make fast food at home often FASTER than you can get it at the fast food places?  And, you can make perfectly healthy fast food at home. AND you can serve totally "normal" portions of your fast food at home. Oh.....and get this:  you can actually serve your homemade, healthy, small-portions of fast food at home WITH the toy of your choice, if you so desire.  And no one can sue you for doing so, either (not yet, anyway)!  :)

"Fast food" took over my thinking the other night when I was tired and aching, and didn't feel up to doing a lot of cooking, even though I love to cook. Going out to eat somewhere didn't appeal to me. Just too tired.  So was my husband.  Hence, the "fast food" thoughts - only I wasn't thinking of the hamburger-french-fries kind of fast food.  I was thinking of the "what's-in-my-kitchen-to-fix-quickly-and-easily" kind of homemade fast food.

So I peeked in the pantry to see what lurked there. Onions caught my eye.  Opened up the fridge to check it out and saw those pretty little yellow summer squash.  Cucumbers. Couple of left-over pieces of steak. Some fresh okra.

Hmmmmmmm, let's see. My mind told me to grab those veggies and that left-over meat and get busy "fast fooding".  So I did.

Getting out my great old cast iron skillet, I put in a little olive oil and heated it.  Peeled an onion and sliced it into the skillet. Took several of those little squash and sliced them into the skillet with the onions (the squash were already washed). Stirred everything.  Cut the ends off the also-already-washed-okra and sliced them into the onions and squash. Stirred.  And the cucumbers?  Didn't you know that you can cook cucumbers?  I peeled a couple of them and sliced THEM into the mixture.  Stirred again. Mmmmmm.  Was already smelling good.  Added some salt and pepper, lots of garlic powder and a sprinkling of Herbes de Provence spice.  REALLY smelling good at that point. And almost done. Those veggies cook quickly; only a matter of a few minutes until they were done to my liking (which isn't mushy). Then I took the kitchen shears and snipped up those two pieces of left-over steak - right into the skillet full of veggies. Stirred around a bit until the meat was good and hot and, voila, my fast food supper was done - quickly.  Less than thirty minutes; probably about twenty minutes or so. Just before serving I stirred in a little green salsa. Oh, and I also sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top.  My husband and I both loved it.

So, you see, you CAN fix fast food right at home.  This version, and many other versions.  Be creative.  I often fix a mixture like this and serve it over rice or some sort of pasta.  Sometimes I add slices of green and/or red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, celery, leeks, potato - just any veggie you have and happen to like. Often, too, I will add chopped-up fresh tomatoes (hard to come by this summer in drought-plagued Kansas) or a can of crushed or even whole tomatoes.  Add meat. Or not. Any left-over meat: hamburger, steak, sausage, chicken, left-over hot dogs, etc.  Add any kind of spices/herbs you and your family love. Add some cheese as it cooks, then sprinkle some on top. This is such a versatile "fast food" that you are sure to come up with SOME kind of combination that you and your family will enjoy.  I often cook up a huge pot of rice (usually brown rice) and let it cool, then divide it up into quart-size freezer bags to have on hand for a fast food meal.  You don't even have to thaw it; just put it into the mixture and stir around until the rice has thawed and separated into the rest of the food. I also do this (cooking a big batch) with pasta.

The point is: homemade fast food IS fast. And good. And can be healthy. And can be served in the right portion sizes to your family. This is only one example of a really tasty homemade fast food dish; there are so many others.  So - if you have worked all day outside of your home and come home dead tired, or if you have worked all day inside of your home and are already home dead tired - don't despair.  You can still enjoy a homemade meal that doesn't take up a lot more of your time and energy.

You will enjoy it. So will your family.

Do fast food!

Summer Squash

Due to some unpleasant things (husband's major surgery, long hospital stay, etc. ) happening at crucial gardening moments ... as well as this Kansas drought, our garden this year is pretty much dead. :(  This is disappointing, after our nice, green Spring garden of lettuces, radishes and green onions.  We are still watering tomato plants, okra and a few pepper plants, but don't know what will happen with them.  The big question amongst Kansas gardeners in our area seems to be: "Do you have any tomatoes setting on?"  Well,,,,,,,,,we DID pick and eat two little cherry tomatoes recently.  A sign of hope? :)  We'll see; but I'm not REALLY getting those hopes up.

Fortunately for us, we do have some friends who have managed to have some garden, with their regular watering.  And, also fortunately for us, these same friends have been very generous with us and others with the fruits of that garden.  We have, therefore, been feasting on garden potatoes, onions, turnips, cucumbers, okra, zucchini and yellow summer squash (also some home made bread and rolls!).
 I have been putting many bags of this fresh produce into our freezer.

Did you know you can freeze cucumbers?  I didn't, but read it in my "old" how-and-what-to-freeze  freezer book.  So, I gave it a try and, sure enough, you can. :)  In case you'd like to know about the cucumbers: the book says to just chop them up in the blender, then freeze the chopped-up cucumber in ice-cube trays and freeze; than you can defrost a cube or two and pop them into winter salads - and the cucumber will actually still taste like cucumber. Well, I decided to try it.  I froze two trays-worth of cucumber, popped them out of the trays and put them into a freezer bag ... defrosted a couple to see, and they DID taste like fresh cucumber! Learned something new from that old freezer book after all these years.  Actually, when we lived in France, I learned to also COOK cucumbers ... saute them, sliced or chopped up, with a little onion, bacon and bacon grease (or, olive oil).  Yum!  I decided to also try freezing some peeled, cut in half,  and seeded  for cooking.  Will see how they turn out.

Now, back to the title of this post: squash.  Summer squash is one of my favorite things. I love cooking them. I love eating them. So does my husband.  They are such a versatile and easy to fix vegetable.  My absolute favorite is the yellow squash.  As I blanched slices of yellow squash to freeze I would snitch a piece here, a piece there, pop it into my mouth and, mmmmmmmmmmmm, good!  Just plain like that. That may sound strange to squash-haters, but you squash-lovers will surely understand.

Probably my favorite way to cook the squash (zucchini or yellow) is to cook a few slices of bacon, add some sliced onion and then the sliced squash and stir it all around, cooking, for just a few minutes.  Talk about "fast food" - this is it!  And good for you, too.

This basic stir-fried squash can be eaten as is, as a side-dish, or used in various other ways as a main dish. Some of my tried-and-true uses:

          Do the cooking in a skillet (I use cast-iron), then spread the mixture out over the skillet ...I then 
crack eggs, individually,  over the squash mixture (I usually do 4 eggs) - sprinkle with grated cheese (or not, we like it both ways), cover and let cook two or three minutes until the eggs are set.  I also often top the eggs with: chopped cilantro, chopped parsley, chopped green onion,finely-chopped red pepper, etc. ...use what you like.  We've had this for both breakfast and supper, with a green salad added. It's a quick, economical and delicious dish.

          Another way I use this mixture is to use it as the topping for rice, mashed potatoes, or pasta.  I've put it on top of rice, adding some salsa on top of the squash mixture and then some grated cheese, for a Mexican "flavor".  It's very good with spaghetti, too - adding some Italian-flavored pasta sauce on top, if you'd like.  Haven't tried this one yet, but have thought it would be good:  mix the squash mixture with some cooked rice and use as stuffing for bell peppers ... with (again, or without) some tomato sauce and grated cheese on top.  Sounds good to me.

The other night I stirred up a skillet-full of this mixture, with a little red bell pepper I think, and then stirred in some already-cooked barley that I had in the freezer, sliced a few okra pods into it, sprinkled on some salt and pepper and cayenne pepper flakes, some half-and-half, and some shrimp. Simmer on low for just five minutes or so, 'till the shrimp are pink and cooked.  That was supper.  Quick. Simple, And, good!  Try it.