Are you in need of an easy quick recipe for dinner? No matter how busy you are, your family still needs to eat. If you're the cook, dinner can become an insurmountable problem on a busy day. Take-out gets boring pretty quickly and puts a strain on the pocket book as well.

Lets face it, half the battle is in planning ahead. When you know the menu, and have the meat thawed, then an easy quick recipe like this one is a snap. If the dinner hour approaches with no plan in mind, then a lot of energy will be expended in the planning and shopping. With a few simple recipes and planned ahead menus you can have dinner on the table in double time.

This Taco Salad recipe is a staple at our house. Some people like the corn chips mixed into the salad, others like to eat the chips separately. If you want to mix it all up before serving that's ok also. You could add canned pinto or kidney beans that have drained and warmed. I like to serve it just like this. Some people use Thousand Island Dressing instead of the sour cream. The great thing about this meal is that the salad, meat and starch are all included in the one recipe. This is easy to double. I will usually cook extra meat for my freezer, giving me an additional easy quick meal in the future.

Taco Salad

1 pound ground beef

1 package taco seasoning mix

½ large or 1 small head of lettuce, shredded

1 avocado, sliced or diced

½ green bell pepper, sliced thin or diced

½ large diced onion

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

¼ cup black olives, sliced

1 package corn chips

1 jar salsa

½ cup sour cream, fat free sour cream works fine

1. Prepare the taco meat according to seasoning package directions and let simmer until ready to serve.
2. Shred the lettuce and dice the vegetables.
3. I like to put out all the ingredients in separate bowls and let each person mix their own salad.
4. Start with a bed of shredded lettuce, add vegetables. Top with the hot meat, then the cheese. A dollop of sour cream goes on top and surround with corn chips.

Are you in need of more quick and easy dinner recipe ideas? Join our newsletter for complete menu ideas, shopping lists, cooking lessons, and more at http://easysoutherncooking.com/quick-easy.html

We offer healthy, quick recipes at http://easysoutherncooking.com/healthy-quick-dinner-recipe.html

Diane Watkins is a traditional southern style cook. She enjoys cooking, teaching, and writing about good food and family. For more information on southern cooking and recipes for everything you need to complete a traditional style holiday meal, visit her website Easy Southern Cooking at http://www.easysoutherncooking.com

¶ 6:16 PM 0 comments

Tea and time have something in common. They both begin with letter "T". There is a reason for that. Under that commonality also lies a lesson of life.

To enjoy tea, we need to take time.

First of all, even before the steeping starts, we observe the tea leaves. Leaves from different types of tea come in different shapes, texture and colors. The shapes are typically from the delicate hand rolling. The majority of the workers in a tea garden are women. Imagine how those beautiful girls and ladies pluck the leaves in a sunny spring morning. After the leaves are dried, they hand roll them to form a certain shape and sort them out at the end. Tea is no longer mere leaves but a form of art from beautiful hands.

Second, you pour hot water into the cup. You dont just sit and wait (and getting bored and even impatient). Watch the leaves unfold and dance up and down slowly. This agony of the leaves is necessary for the flavors and nutrients to be released.

Steeping is also about timing. Not too long, not too short. The timing depends on our individual preference in taste.

Finally, we dont gulp a cup of tea as we do with a can of soda. We sip. Before we sip, we observe the color and the uprising mist of the liquid. We smell the aroma. These are all part of enjoyment of tea.

It all takes time. All the good things in life take time to brew and to enjoy.

Time is the most precious thing. It is also most constant thing as well. We can't get more of it by rushing it. We could potentially lose it if we rush - not only time but also all the great things in life that must be enjoyed with and over time.

A Chinese proverb says it all, Hurry and impatience prevents the enjoyment of hot tofu.

You may ask, what about the need for speed and convenience?

Yes, they are some times our friends. They are the propellers of civilization and evolution from nomadic to agriculture to industrial society. Mankind invented automobiles, aircrafts and spacecrafts to move from A to B faster. Fast foods have become a part of our diet in the past decades as more and more families have two working parents and more and more people are into sports, travel and adventures. The faster pace of living demands speed and convenience.

But there is a limit. Overdose of speed and convenience can and have already hurt our quality of life. Recent years have seen increased health problems such as obesity and cancer. More people and families are suffering from stresses of all kinds. Our physical and psychological well being does not improve even though economically we are better off.

It may be time to slow down a little bit and to get back to the basic of life. Tea can help in many ways with its powerful healing power and the lesson it teaches us about time and timing.

Jay is the owner of TaimuTea.com - an online tea store that focuses on tea knowledge, news and education in addition to providing quality fresh teas from Taimu Mountain and its surrounding areas in Fujian province of China. http://www.taimutea.com

¶ 3:13 AM 0 comments