CABANA BOY COOKS: Cooking without Recipes

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Cooking without Recipes

As I mentioned early this week, this blog is primarily for new or inexperienced cooks. That being said, I don't want to scare them off by always talking recipes.

I don't know anyone that uses a recipe to cook each and every meal. For me the time to use a recipe is when you're doing something for the first time, having guests or you have the time to prepare something more complex. Even then I may not really follow the recipe. If the item is something I have made many times before, I may use the recipe just to remind me not to forget an ingredient or a process.

Many meals may be the result of throwing a few simple ingredients together. You may use a combination of semi-prepared, frozen, boxed or canned items with some fresh foods for your dinner. All of this is alright. I'll buy fresh twice baked potatoes at my local Hy-Vee grocery store because they are on special. It saves me time (I don't have to make them myself), gives me something upscale for dinner and goes well with hundreds of entrees.

I may grill, pan fry or bake some chicken, pork chops, ham steak or fish to go with that twice baked potato and some fresh veggies. All I do to the entree is sprinkle some seasoning before using the cooking process of choice that night and maybe steam those veggies. Here you have a nice dinner that didn't take a lot of work or time but tasted great and met your needs.

Remember this as you plan your weekly menu and grocery list. My favorite line comes into play here. Life is too short not to have fun. So don't make it so complicated and maybe your stress level can go down.

The cheesecake recipe tomorrow just uses a boxed cheesecake mix but I add something to it. What I add changes the texture and lightens it up. There is nothing wrong with doing things like this with your meals.

For those of you on weight-watchers, the cheesecake is only 4 points a portion if I figured it correctly for my wife.

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About the Blog

Cabana Boy Cooks is a food blog that gives a little insight and help on Tuesdays. That is followed by recipes on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. This blog is for all who enjoy cooking but is geared towards new & inexperienced cooks.

This food blog came about because I wrote a cookbook for new and inexperienced individuals wishing to learn their way around the kitchen. It is an extension of that cookbook and offers more than 600 recipes here. The cookbook has an additional 125 recipes plus helpful instruction and advise..

I try to offer recipes that cover all aspects of cooking. You'll see on the tabs above that the recipes are broke into categories. Gluten-Free and Vegetarian recipes are marked behind them with a (GF) or (V) sign. Many of the other recipes can be adopted to meet gluten-free or vegetarian by making minor changes.

Please, don't hesitate to contact me through the comments section of the blog with questions or concerns.

Remember to share my link with family, friends and co-workers.

Thank you for following my food blog and "Happy Cooking."

My Cookbook

More Than Your First Cookbook

Every year, thousands of young people graduate high school or college and find themselves on their own for the first time. Amid all the excitement and freedom that comes with this fresh start, many of these newly independent people will find themselves out of their comfort zone when it comes to one critically important area--food.

This cookbook helps those people establish a new comfort zone in the "Kitchen" and learn to enjoy being creative in their culinary pursuit.

The cookbook draws on all the years of my life to collect the recipes, tips, anecdotes and life advice that will help everyone. From safety and sanitation to menu planning and budgeting, I walk new cooks through all the basics of food preparation. A great gift for children or grandchildren just beginning to cook for themselves and a useful reference for more experienced cooks, this cookbook offers readers 125 mouthwatering recipes to match all tastes and abilities. I believe that cooking should be fun and personal, so all the recipes leave room for experimentation. There are even tips on how to make a few of the dishes fit into a vegetarian diet.

Breakfast, soups, salads, sandwiches, entrees, sides and desserts are all covered, along with a few odds and ends. Whether you're looking for the right way to set the table for a formal dinner, you want to take your grilling to the next level or you just want to figure out how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon, The cookbook will help you find the answer.

GLUTEN-FREE Recipes and Information

A few years ago, my granddaughter discovered she has Celiac and needs to be Gluten-Free. I started doing a special week of Gluten-Free information and recipes on this blog then and they appear every four (4) weeks. So if you happen to be on a Gluten-Free diet or know someone that could this help, please check it out.

There is a recipe tab above that holds all the GF recipes (in alphabetical order). It also holds the information posts in the order they have been posted.

All Gluten-Free recipes have this (GF) mark behind the titles. There are many other recipes on this blog that are or can be easily adapted to be Gluten-Free. So you may want to check other recipes too.

I also try and mark VEGETARIAN recipes with a (V) behind the titles as well. I hope these features help many of you that want or need these options for your lifestyle.

About the Blog's Author

I spend over 40 years in the food industry doing everything from pot scrubber/dishwasher to managing around 250 employees. In 2009 I retired from my career to start a new adventure. That adventure was to write and publish a cookbook for new and inexperienced cooks. Many of my years in the industry involved working in "Higher Education." I saw a need for such a cookbook as I watched college students move on to a life on their own. So it has become a mission of mine to help anyone that wants to improve their cooking skills and learn to enjoy being in the kitchen.

In April of 2011 I started my food blog "Cabana Boy Cooks" as a continuation of the cookbook. The blog covers many areas and topics. It also offers at least two (2) recipes a week not found in the cookbook. There is now over 200 recipes for you on this food blog.

Once a month, I write a food column under "Cabana Boy Cooks" in the weekly newspaper, Nodaway News Leader in Maryville, MO that includes a recipe. Some of the recipes are from this food blog and others come from my cookbook "More Than Your First Cookbook"