They do, however, contain real otters.
Ridiculously easy roasted potatoes - you wash some potatoes (I like Yukon Gold, you can use red ones or those little finger dudes) and cut them into decent sized pieces. Quarter red potatoes, sixth your Yukon Golds, halve the little fingers. Toss in olive oil and a packet of onion soup mix. Roast at 400 for 30 minutes or so, or until done.
I’ll try to be as generic as possible with my description, because I think many cultures give these different names.
Grilled cheese on toast.
SpaghettiOs / canned spaghetti
Cook spaghetti as normal. Grill cheese on toast as normal. Mix. Serve.
Alternative method:
Sluice spaghetti on bread. Layer of cheese. Toast under griller. Serve.
Tomato soup:
Roast some whole tomatoes. Purée them, then mix with cream. Season to taste.
Simple but tasty.
A rye grilled cheese made from three slices of crispy fried baacon, a generous amount of amish baby swiss cheese (Lacy), and a smear of Jif Peanut Butter. Outside buttered and grilled/toasted. Gooey peanut butter and the mild nutty swiss all highlighted by bacon… it’s ridiculous.
This is a favourite to serve to unexpected guests, to make them feel welcome. It is made with stuff I always have in the pantry.
Light the oven or grill. If you don’t have an oven, put a big frying pan on the fire. Butter a few slices of bread lightly on two sides. Put a few thin slices of cucumber on the bread. (I always have a cucumber in my fruit bowl. Even cut open, they keep better on the fruit bowl then in the fridge, and they make easy instant veggie everything). Where was I? Oh yeah, thin slices of cucumber on the buttered bread. Top with cheese. Whatever cheese you have. A slice, or sprinkled cheese you have left over from yesterday’s pasta, any cheese is fine. Let the bread bake untill the underside is crisp and has just started to brown, and the cheese on top has melted. Cut diagonally and serve with soup you have just made from a can or a packet.
Dear lord! How in the hell did I forget to add bacon to my ham sandwich? :smack:
Where do I report for punishment? Was it the third or fourth door on the left?
MICROWAVE BROCCOLI QUICHE
(Carl Childers voice “Some people call this a casserole; I call it a quiche.”)
Melt butter/margerine w/crumbled cheese crackers in the bottom of a deep casserole dish
Dump a pound of frozen broccoli florets.
Dump some frozen corn if desired. I do.
Spray butter/marg or add pats of it to top
(Cauliflour is also a good idea.
I suppose carrots might appeal to some, also.)
Heat in microwave on high at least five minutes till broccoli & other veggies soften.
Add either shredded cheese or break up a slice or two of cheese
More cheese cracker crumbles
Heat another 3-5 minutes
Pour on egg batter mixture (6 eggs/2 splashes milk, salt & pepper to taste)
More cheese shreds or pieces, more crumbles cheese crackers
Nuke for about 10 minutes so that egg batter solidifies.
I was just thinking of starting a thread like this while eating tonights dish:
Hot Dog Casserole
Layer above in a small casserole dish (3 layers) and bake at 350 deg for 25 minutes. There is no set cooking time because everything is safe to eat without cooking. 25 minutes allows the onion to infuse into the mix but remain a little crunchy in texture. None of the ingredients excite me as a combination it’s wonderful. This freezes and microwaves well.
Recipe #2 is something I just threw together and you CAN’T screw it up:
Raspberry stir fry
It is important to have raisins for sweetness and the pecans will really absorb the flavor. Of course, Raspberries could be used (toss any fresh fruit in last for a quick coating). Any other vegetable like bok choy can be added for appearance or crunch but you’re just throwing money at it. Let cost dictate the neutral vegetables. I’ve tried this with dried cranberries and they worked well. Tomorrow I’m going to try some mandarin orange slices. This dish is nice because you can infuse the garlic into the oil ahead of time and set the pan aside. It makes a nice presentation to make it at the last second and serve it directly to plates as a salad. It’s a noisy, fragrant and tasty intro to a meal. The beauty of this is that you can use any combination of ingredients as long as you have something sweet to complement the raspberry flavor.
Start boiling water for pasta, any size or shape of pasta will do. Sautee some sliced onions and garlic in a little butter or olive oil (using a cast-iron pan if you have one). Add those tomatoes you meant to use for salsa before they got mooshy and smash them up with your spatula.
Put in a chopped up green vegetable if you have one handy, broccoli or green pepper or zucchini, or all three if you’re really hungry. Salt, pepper, oregano/Italian seasoning if you like. Turn down to low for a few minutes of simmering while the pasta cooks.
Voila! If you wanted meat, you could also cook up a couple of those kielbasa sausages that are often on sale for real cheap.
I think basically ANY time you sautee onions and garlic, you’re on the road to delicious.
I posted this recipe in another thread when I was looking for a name for this dish. We decided it’s called “Noodly Food”. 
Brown 1lb ground beef (or a little more or a little less) with salt and pepper.
Remove beef, leaving fat. Saute 1 chopped onion and one diced sweet red pepper in the beef fat. If it was lean beef, you may not even have to drain it now. If it was fatty, go ahead and drain off the extra fat if you want.
(Meantime, you are boiling water for noodles)
Add beef back into pan, add 1 can cream of mushroom and approx 1/3C milk (depending on how “saucy” you want it)
Simmer until the noodles are done.
Drain and butter noodles (any kind will do; elbows, egg noodles, whatever). Serve ground beef mixture on top.
It’s even better the next day. You can serve the leftovers over instant mashed potatoes, too. (Hint for instant mashed-potatoes to kick up the flavor and the nutrition): don’t use any water. Use all skim or 1% milk, in place of water. Also, use more butter, salt and pepper than the instructions call for. Especially pepper.
The best yummy/effort ratio I know of is good old cornbread. Corn, cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, water, oil, butter, baking powder. Throw it together, add whatever you want (I add in honey because it’s awesome and I have a terrible sweet tooth, some people like chiles, and I’ve tried apple chunks and loved it), bake.
Then try not to eat the whole pan. I dare you.
I’m making notes as fast as I can, everything sounds so good.
Purplehorseshoe, I’m going to try your toaster oven chicken breast, every time I cook chicken breast it comes out so dry it’s pathetic. I usually bake chicken thighs till just about done, drain off the water and fat, put on any kind of spicy sauce or marinade, and finish off under the broiler. Them’s good eats, hot or cold.
Chicken and Black Eyed Peas
chop and saute one green pepper and one onion in a tablespoon of oil till it starts to get soft. Add 1 lb. of ground chicken (you can use ground turkey or LEAN hamburg, but I like chicken). Salt and pepper, chop up and stir around till it’s cooked through. Add 2 drained cans of black eyed peas (you can use black beans or any kind of canned beans) and 2 cans of diced or stewed tomatoes, with juice. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Serve over rice with cornbread on the side. This recipe can be tweaked several ways, add garlic, hot sauce, any seasoning of your choice as it’s rather bland. But pretty darn good, and it freezes well.
Minced beef
Chopped Onion
Cooked Rice
Breadcrumbs
Herbs / Pepper
Big tin Cream of Tomato Soup
Mix the beef, onion, rice and breadcrumbs together in a bowl with herbs and pepper.
Shape into balls.
Put in a casserole dish
Empty tin of soup over the top
Cover with foil and stick in the oven for 40 mins
Meatballs ‘n’ sauce… done.
Tomato Soup
Get yourself one can of stewed tomatoes, any style. I used the Italian one with onions and garlic and herbs, and it was great. Dump 'em into a pot and heat through on the stove, or portion out into bowls and nuke in the microwave until hot. Swirl in one big dollop of sour cream and mix.
Simplest thing in the world, and so good.
Oh, good, let us know how the chicken came out. Non-pathetic, I hope. 
Y’all are way better at condensing a recipe than I am! I can’t believe how complicated my long-winded version looks, but I just wanted so badly to be sure I didn’t leave anything out…
Fresh tomatoes tossed with fresh basil and feta.
Fresh tomatoes topped with cottage cheese and dill.
Yeah, that’s pretty darn good - a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar or balsamic kicks it up a notch
Crock pot, pork shoulder or butt, can of green enchilada sauce.
Set the pork to cooking with 3/4 of the enchilada sauce and go to work. When you come home drain and shred the meat. Stir in remaining enchilada sauce. Serve with tortillas or on a bun with BBQ sauce.
I add dry fine eggs noodles to cream of celery or asparagus soup. Enough noodles that it looks like fettuccine alfredo.
Okay, so it’s zucchini season and if you know anyone with a vegetable garden, you’re overrun with zucchinis. Here’s an idea; turn them into fresh zucchini soup. ready in under ten minutes.
Dice half an onion per person. Dice a zucchini. One zucchini will make a good soup for two persons, two zucchinis serve four, etc.
Put a pan on the stove. Throw in a dash of oil and stir the onion until not quite brown. Add zucchini and stir about a minute untill they’re covered with oil.
Add a soupbowl of water per person. Add soup cubes according to the instructions on the packet.
Let softly boil for 8 minutes. Puree with mixer. Serve with pepper, milk or cream, dill OR nutmeg if you have either. You can add diced cucumber if you like.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say this soup is great. But it is fast, good, light and nutricious, and as I said, any recipe that means zucchinis are used up is a good thing when in zucchini season.