Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't make "not knowing a good recipe" stop you from baking creatively. You don't need any recipe to cook. All you need to do is create what you feel like. For example, my boyfriend felt like having some cookies. I just looked in the cabinets, saw that we had chocolate chips and went from there. Don't know the perfect amounts of each item? That's ok! Cooking is always an experiment, and that's how some of the best recipes come to be, by just trying to create something! So here I blended together eggs and butter and sugar and brown sugar. Then I added some vanilla, some baking soda and the chocolate chips. To add a little more flavor I tossed in some milk chocolate toffee chips. Within 10 minutes, without thinking, the smell of chocolate chip cookies were in the air. And there's nothing like a warm chocolate chip cookie in the winter!

Deep Fried Fish

You can't get any more inexpensive than this meal. All you have to do is have a little luck and catch it yourself!

We caught these beautiful rainbow trout while visiting gorgeous Lake Tahoe. Instead of filleting it and getting only small fillets out of it, it's easiest to fry the whole fish. Simply clean it, season it, and then dip it in flour.

Add 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil to your skillet, and fry until golden. Adding a mixture of adobe sauce and bbq sauce gives it a little kick, and makes this basically FREE meal a healthy (those omegas3) and fulfilling one.

"Bake 1 bird and eat 2 dishes" (Ginger Chicken Soup and Roasted Chicken)

In times like these, make sure to get the most out of your chicken. With this recipe, you can use the chicken TWICE. You can make a delicious ginger chicken soup, that will bring back memories of what your mom used to make, what always made you feel better and cured that winter cold. And then you can simply put it in the oven and have a delicous roasted chicken. The soup and roast chicken will stretch out to several meals during the week.

First,

The Soup

• Wash the chicken thoroughly with hot water
• Boil water in a pot with 1 tsp salt
• Put the chicken in the boiled pot
• Add 3-5 slices of ginger
• Add 3-5 cloves of garlic
• Boil until the chicken is done - about 25 minutes
• Take out the chicken
• Put in your favorite pasta (I like spiral) and cook until done
• Add salt, ground pepper and chopped green onion for seasoning

Next, the Chicken

• Put in the chicken that you cooked in the soup into a foil pan
• Brush with a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar (and any hot sauce - optional)
• Bake in oven at 400 for approx. 15-20 minutes or until the skin is brown (It only needs to be baked this short time since it's already been cooked in the soup)

Here's to getting your cold cured fast with this!

A Pomegranate Touch

The holidays are soon approaching, and for some, there's the pressure of "what to make", "what will be different". All you have to do is take a simple store mix, and add some leftover makeover, in this case, a splash of color, from a pomegranate.

I made a Devil's food cake mix, and simply added a "snowy" cover of powdered sugar, and then a lot of pomegranate seeds for that eye popping look. You can make them into cute little cupcakes and put it on a holiday platter or a nice big sheet cake for that wow effect. The pomegranate seeds give each bite a little extra moist sweetness.

Rice Wraps

Again, the next time you have leftover Chinese takeout, you don't have to just heat it up the next day. Turn it into something new. For $1.49, you can buy a package of rice paper, completely fat free. You simply place it in a little bit of water, to make it soft, then put a little bit of healthy greens, and in this case we had a little fried fish from the chinese takeout.

Roll it up, and if you have a little hoisin sauce to dip it in even better. These are simple and unique for a party as well. Enjoy!

A different "Bed of Rice"

How many times do you see a recipe that says serve on a "Bed of rice". That bed of rice thing can get a bit boring time after time. How about changing it up and using some vegetables instead. Here I simply used some sprouts and some asparagus. It's very simple, very easy:

• Roast the asaparagus with salt, pepper and olive oil


• Saute the sprouts in a little olive oil

Done, in less than the time it takes to make rice.

Then when you add a great steak, or a delicious chicken, the sauces with the sprouts and asparagus make a perfect combination!