Ten Easy Meals

Are you in a time crunch between all of your priorities? Check out these ten great meals that you can make in under ten minutes. You can learn more about quick easy meals at The Kitchn.





1. Quick and Easy Fried Rice: Fried rice can come together even faster than 10 minutes if you happen to have a good selection of leftovers floating around. It's the end-all recipe to using up leftover rice and is tasty enough to eat for any meal of the day — yes even breakfast.

2. Apple-Arugula Salad Wraps: Although wraps seem more like a lunch food, for a quick dinner they can contain actual food groups and even do away with dishes if needs be. Perfect, no clean up!

3. Thai Crab Salad with Chili, Ginger, and Coconut: Since this meal merely needs to be chopped and tossed, it's quick to throw together and has big bold flavors that will satisfy without a laundry list of ingredients.

4. Miso Soup: Miso soup is perfect for those worried about over cooking tofu as it simply warms in this rich broth and suddenly, dinner is served! Check out this version with a poached egg — extra tasty!

5.The BEST Pancakes Ever: Pancakes might traditionally be breakfast food, but they're perfect for any meal in fact... we want some right now!

6. Egyptian Tomato Soup: This recipe just barely passes the 10 minute mark, but it can be made entirely from your pantry so there's minimal chopping or prep — making it a winner in our book!

7. Friday Night Slow-Cooked Brisket and Onions: So technically speaking this meal takes 5-8 hours to make, but there's really only 10 minutes of prep work involved. Make it before you head out the door to work and when you return dinner is already done for you!

8. Spicy Grilled Shrimp: These shrimp get a quick brine before hitting the grill, but since they cook up so quick, we're willing to overlook the extra brining time (only 30 minutes). Just make sure to drop them in the brine the second you come home from work or possibly lessen the salt and brine them while you're away (so they don't get too salty) to make things extra easy.

9. Thai-Style Omelet (Kai Jeow): This recipe comes together in less than 10 minutes which might even leave you time to walk the dog or check your email before dinner!

10. Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Corn, Goat Cheese, and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes: This meal is labeled as a 10 minute dish and mixes up with many things that you probably already have on hand.

What are your favorite no-time, extra-quick weeknight meals?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Single Serve Cookies

You are home alone, but you still want something sweet around the holidays. Check out these single serve cookie recipes from The Kitchn. These are great when you are having a craving for sweets.


You know the feeling: it's late at night, you have the place to yourself, and you just want something sweet. But just a little something. You don't want to make an entire cake, or a dozen cookies, or anything that you'll be tempted to eat the entire thing. Instead of busting out a pint of ice cream or a candy bar, treat yourself! Make one of these single-serve warm, gooey homemade cookies.
Yes, of course you could just prepare the whole batch and just freeze the rest of the dough if you have that kind of self-restraint. If, however, you just have one egg or you know yourself well enough that you couldn't resist making the whole batch, these recipes are here to help.

1. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie for One - Good Life Eats 2. XXL Buttery Sugar Cookie - Sally's Baking Addiction 3. XXL Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Brownie Cookie - My Happy Place 4. Single-Serve Peanut Butter Cookie - Chocolate Covered Katie 5. Single-Serving Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookies - Chocolate Moosey
6. One Giant Snickerdoodle Cookie - Sally's Baking Addiction 7. Jumbo Cinnamon Butterscotch Oatmeal - Bake Your Day

Houseguest for the Holidays

Are you traveling for the holidays? If you are staying with a friend or family member, it is very important to be a respectful houseguest. Hosting guests is very stressful, but you can help make it easier for your loved one. Read over these tips, and you can comment below with some tips of your own. You can learn more at Apartment Therapy.



Keep your belongings, neatly, in your room.

As someone who aspires, at least, to keep her house in order, I really appreciate it when my guests do their best to keep their suitcases and extra belongings in their designated areas. Of course, items like coats and shoes (which we don't wear in the house), are left out, and I am happy when guests take it upon themselves to notice where they belong and put them there.


Take care of your own special needs.

If your hostess asks about things you can't (or prefer not to) eat, it's okay to be honest— to a point. But if you have specific dietary or health needs, it's nice to take care of them yourself rather than expecting your hostess to learn about and provide for your needs. For instance, before I was more familiar with gluten-free diets and before gluten-free alternatives were ubiquitous, a houseguest of mine brought her own gluten-free pasta. I appreciated her foresight and consideration — and that, for the sake of my preparations, she told me she would do this beforehand.


Fit in.

Try to notice the rhythms and rituals of your hosts. If their habit is to sit and eat around the table together, join them rather than grazing, even if that's what you're used to. If your hosts enjoy conversation once all the kids are down, spend some time with them even if all you want to do is go to bed yourself! On the other hand, if you know your hosts go to bed earlier than you do, assure them that you're fine up on your own or even retreat to your space so your hosts feel comfortable leaving the common area as well.


Strip the sheets.

This could depend on how well you know your hosts, but this act, to me, shows a thoughtfulness about the practical side of having houseguests and a willingness to help however possible — and this means a lot. If you're not on a do-my-laundry-in-your-washer level of familiarity, leave the bed linens and towels in a tidy pile. Otherwise, if you can swing it, do the sheets and put them back on the bed. My mother always does this, and recent houseguests did this for me and what a relief! How nice to leave your host's place even better than when you got there.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving with their loved ones!

Learn More About Veteran's Day

Make sure to thank a veteran today for their service to our country.  There are millions of veteran's in the United States.  We want to thank them for all of their sacrifices to serve our country.  You can learn more about Veteran's Day at CNN.


There are 19.6 million veterans in the United States.

There are 1.6 million female veterans.

There are 9.3 million U.S. veterans are over the age of 65.

There are 39,890 veterans of World War II, the Korean War and theVietnam War still living.

Timeline:
November 11, 1918 - The armistice ending World War I begins at 11 am.

1919 - President Woodrow Wilson proclaims November 11 as Armistice Day.

November 11, 1921 - The first Unknown Soldier is reburied atArlington National Cemetery. The tomb has the words inscribed, "Here rests in honored glory An American Soldier Known but to God."

May 13, 1938 - Armistice Day becomes a federal holiday.

June 1, 1954 - President Eisenhower signs a bill changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day in order to include all U.S. veterans.

May 30, 1958 - Unknown Soldiers from World War II and the Korean War are reburied next to the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

1968 - Congress changes the date of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October in order to give federal employees a three-day weekend. The change begins in 1971.

September 25, 1975 - President Gerald Ford changes the date of Veterans Day back to November 11. The change begins in 1978.

May 28, 1984 - An unknown soldier from the Vietnam War is reburied in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1998, he is identified through DNA tests as Michael Blassie, a 24-year-old pilot shot down in 1972 on the border of Cambodia.