Grandma Nola's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My son, J, thinks these are the best. It’s a pretty standard recipe, but the added vanilla pudding makes things a bit more interesting. Recipe can be halved.

Ham and Cheese Casserole

This recipe starts out based on Cook's Country's macaroni and cheese casserole with some minor changes, such as adding ham. I dress it up a bit with some thyme and chicken broth, too. The whole point is to use up those bits of ham left over from your holiday meals. Although it’s already cooked, I like to brown the ham first just to get a little more flavor into the casserole. Happy eating!

Rolled Tacos

Growing up on the Arizona/Mexico border, I ate a lot of Mexican food. One of the treats that I especially loved was rolled tacos (taquitos). These were usually made with leftover roast. They were just a way to use up leftovers, but they were so popular that some restaurants served them with beans and rice as a menu item. Our high school served them every couple of weeks, and the students loved them. By the way, the lunch ladies could be seen early in the morning actually rolling the tacos. No frozen, pre-formed cafeteria food back then!

What you need for rolling tacos are fresh corn tortillas. If they’re fresh, you don’t have to soften them before rolling. My mom bought tortillas at the tortilla factory behind our local Safeway store. She got them hot off the press and could roll them while they were still warm. If you don’t have a factory nearby, try a Mexican grocer or any store that sells a lot of Mexican products. Otherwise, just buy the corn tortillas in your favorite grocery store and soften them (see notes).

The salsa is homemade. I’ll save that recipe for another post.

Raspberry Cake

I love raspberries, so I started playing around with an easy way to use this yummy fruit. This is based on the old Jello-O cakes from years ago, but I've kicked things up a bit with cream cheese icing flavored with raspberry extract. The vanilla pudding mix makes the cake just a little heavier. That helps the cake hold up when it's infused with the sauce.

Linguini Delight

What's delightful about this dish? Well, I didn't have to visit the grocery store! If you're like me and keep a few common pantry items around, you'll be able to concoct your own version of Linguini Delight. Have fun with it!

Tuna Pasta Salad

A lady I worked with many years ago served this salad at an office luncheon. We all loved its savory flavor. Made with common ingredients, you might not have to make a special trip to the grocery store for this one.

Hobo Stir Fry

I call this a hobo stir fry, because it's just a collection of whatever vegetables I have on hand. In this case, I've made an "Asian" style sauce. If you want something less salty, you can always thicken some chicken broth with a teaspoon or two of corn starch and leave out the other sauce ingredients. Most of the time, I add some bean sprouts to the vegetable mixture, but I didn't have any, so I added extra broccoli, instead.

Whole Grain Helper a la Vagabond

How about adding veggies and herbs to a simple boxed meal? Try the whole grain variety, too. I'm not fond of whole grain pasta, but I couldn't taste the difference in this dish. This is another meal I divide into one-cup serving containers for a quick and easy lunch. Much better than another frozen dinner! Microwaves nicely. 

Green Enchilada Casserole

While this is a tasty supper dish, I like to divide it into individual freezer containers and take it to work for lunch. It makes about 8-10 lunch servings--my very own Vagabond Cuisines!

Church Pot Luck Casserole

Need a quick and easy for a potlock? Or how about it's cold outside, and you need some gold, old-fashioned comfort food to stick to your ribs? This casserole will keep 'em coming!

Tomato Beef

My mom found this recipe in a newspaper about 50 years ago. This was long before stir fries became popular!

Mom's Sunday Roast and Gravy

When I was growing up, mom did a lot of baking, but this is one item that she didn't put in the oven. We lived in a warm climate, so she always used the stove top instead of the oven for cooking roasts, which had to cook a long time. "I don't want the oven on for several hours," she would say. "It heats up the kitchen too much." And so we have a roast cooked on the stove top.

Macaroni Tomato Soup

Years ago when I lived in Utah, there was a restaurant that featured a very basic soup that my kids loved. Soon I was making it at home to rave reviews. It took me a couple of tries to figure out that the missing ingredient in the tomato juice base was nothing but ordinary, canned beef broth. I've tried using beef bouillon, but it makes the base too salty. Folks have gushed over this soup and suggested adding all sorts of things to it. I kinda like it the way it is--simple and tasty.

Chicken Fajita Fettuccine

What do you do with all of that leftover fajita meat? Toss it with some pasta, of course! When I was raising kids, Saturday night was fajita night. Come Sunday and Monday, I was always looking for something to do with the leftovers. It seems I always had onions, bell peppers, and sour cream left along with some fajita meat. This recipe cleans out the fridge and fills tummies, too!

Mexican Casserole

Originally, this was a crock pot recipe, but I never could figure out why it needed to be cooked for such a long time. It's a fairly basic casserole-style dish that only needs to bake a few minutes in the oven to bring the flavors together. So...goodbye to long cooking times (only for weekends), and hello to weeknight supper!