Spaghetti Tacos??!! I Can Top That! :)

Over the years I've been told by a few (hundred) people that I'd probably eat just about anything as long as it was slapped between two pieces of bread!

Actually...no.  There are a few things I just won't eat like the rubbery skin that forms on top of jello or puddings.  Ick!   And octopus.  With the kind of luck I have, there's no use in buying a lottery ticket unless I just want to donate money to the state.  But guess who would probably get that little blue-ringed octopus that just happened to accidently get mixed in with the load from 'today's catch'!  Winner, winner, winner!

Sushi is another food you won't get past my lips.  Never mind the warnings of maybe ingesting a parasite or two while munching on raw fish...I just like my seafood cooked!  If you take me to a sushi restaurant, be prepared to watch me flick my bic all over the place while trying to cook each forkfull of the 'Night's Special'! 

But if the menu is kind of thin at home, this is where my genius mind comes into play.  The following are 'kitchen-tested recipes'  (my kitchen...and a very loose definition of 'recipes') that have helped me get from paycheck to paycheck:

The chopped up meat from a two-day old chicken thigh along with a bit of onion placed between two leftover pancakes makes a fine 'pretend' chicken-stuffed crepe.  Especially if you thicken up a little bit of hot milk with a teaspoon or two of Jiffy Mix, creating a white gravy to pour over everything.  (Season to taste, of course).  Or just open up a can of Cream of Mushroom soup!  Cut the 'crepe' in half to feed two (if you can find someone to share this with.  I'm still looking...).

Five or six chopped green olives as well as a dollop of sourcream or cream cheese all rolled up in a flour tortilla is tasty, too.

Sliced pepperoni and provalone cheese placed between buttered Italian bread and then 'nuked until warm and melting...the cheese, not the pepperoni...will make you think you died and went to Heaven.  If the bread is toasted first, it's even better!  Don't want to heat up an oven for just two pieces of bread?  Then smash them flat until you can stuff them in the toaster...and for God's sake, don't butter them first!  How do I know this?.....

Scrambled eggs with chopped kielbasa and some green verde sauce definitely wakes one up in the morning!  Sometimes I'll add onions, crushed red pepper, and cheese to it, too...doesn't matter what kind.  I used Blue Cheese on it once and found the flavor interesting...although everyone else complained that "it stinks in here!"  (Therefore, the "once").

All out of mayo for that tuna salad sandwich you wanted?  Well, just use sour cream, Ranch dressing, or cream cheese...or you can always use tarter sauce if you like pickles in your salad.

All out of milk for that boxed Mac and Cheese you started making?  Use powdered coffee creamer.  If you don't tell, they'll never know!

Need more mashed potatoes than what your three potatoes made?  Add some instant potatoes to the mixture.  To this day my husband swears he hates instant potatoes while loving my 'real' ones!  Lol!

Peanut butter and pancake syrup make a great sandwich, providing you let the syrup kind of soak into the bread before putting it all together.  So good...and worth making sure you eat it with a slightly wet facecloth nearby! 

Chopped salami, sliced onion, any kind of cheese, mayo, and mustard make a delicious quesidilla...especially if you first lightly fry the flour tortilla in a buttered pan.   Actually, frying a flour tortilla seems to make ANYTHING taste better.  Just taking the fried tortilla and dusting it with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and crushed red pepper will turn this into a taste treat while also warming your stomach and giving you a 'full' feeling.  Remember not to breathe on anyone, though!  Especially if you're eating this late at night and then going right back to a bed that you share with your 'significant other'!  (Peppermint mints and candy canes just won't help, either...trust me!).

Want something quick and sweet?  Take that fried tortilla...spread butter, sugar, and cinnamon on it...and then roll everything up.  Yummmm!  And if you're lucky enough to find that your child didn't eat that snack-sized box of raisins you sent him/her to school with, dig some raisins out for yourself and add them to the spread!

Grated cheese and some margarine are great in rice.  Don't have any rice?  Use grits.  No grits?  Use Cream of Wheat!  No Cream of Wheat?  Well, grab a spoon, dip it into the margarine and then the cheese...

Which reminds me...grated cheese 'shoveled' into cooked Ramon Noodles is sooo delicious.  Especially since it melts into globs that stick to your spoon!  Tasty AND entertaining!

And, of course, my childhood favorite;  place cooked spaghetti with melted butter in a bowl...and then drown it in milk!

Remember...Necessity is the Mother of Invention.  The less you have, the more creative you'll have to be but there is a bright side...you may be the one who comes up with the NEXT food fad! 

Enjoy!