A Meal That Served Several Purposes

Did you ever have one of those weeks when there seemed to be too much to do and too little time to do it all? Did you ever experience a time when you knew you would be leaving for several days, and there was some food in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten before you left? Did you ever completely draw a blank when it came time to cook a meal for your family? Well, if you answer is "yes" to any of these questions, you would understand my predicament last Tuesday evening. Everytime I opened my refrigerator, I saw a big bag of fresh green spinach starring at me, not to mention a container of fresh sliced mushrooms waiting to be used. All of this along with a mind occupied with many other more important details of our upcoming trip, and not a meal preparation. I remembered this "Eggs California" recipe that I had used before. I washed the bag of spinach thoroughly and put it in a pan of water on the stove, boiling the water and turning the spinach, until it was cooked. I drained it, and pressed all of the water out of it, in a sieve. I sauteed the pack of sliced mushrooms in extra virgin olive oil for 10 minutes, and set aside.

I then followed the steps of this recipe, omitting the chopped green chilies, and substituting the sqeezed dry spinach and the sauteed mushrooms. So quick and simple. I know it would work to substitute what you have on hand also(well, maybe not left over mac and cheese, or corn on the cob).

I whipped out a package of these apple muffins, added the milk it called for, plus I added 1/2 tsp. of vanilla,. stirred it all together. With a sprayed ice cream scoop, I filled a sprayed muffin tin. Sprinkled the batter with a cinnamon/sugar mixture, and baked in the oven.

I agree, this method is not quite as scrumptious as the labor intensive muffins that I sometimes bake, but they taste mighty good, right out of the oven with a bit of butter on them. To make the bowl of fruit, I used what I found in the refrigerator that needed to be used...canned peaches, fresh blueberries, peeled and sliced apples, and sliced bananans. As always, I drizzled some orange juice over the bowl of fruit and returned it to the refrig until serving time. All of us really enjoyed this egg recipe. The cottage cheese, spinach, mushrooms and shredded cheese made a tasty combination. This served the purpose for me, a quick, simple, delicious meal, using up the food in my refrig, and feeding some hungry mouths. Try it, you may like it. The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks..."Fix-It and Enjoy-It"cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good. Many outstanding recipes are included in this book.