Single Serving Recipes: 3 Easy Comfort Foods

Reader Contribution by Lemon Verbena Lady
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<em>You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog</em>
<a href=”http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com/”>
<em>http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com</em>
</a>.</p>
<p>I enjoy a really good life. You see, I don’t do much of the cooking when The Herbal Husband is around. Now that he has taken a vacation from the snow and cold temperatures, I’m struggling to cook my own single serving food. I do cook once in a while when he is here, but for the most part I get off easy.</p>
<p>So before he left, I got out a gift that my mom gave to me for Christmas in 1978. It is Barbara Swain’s <em>Cookery for 1 or 2</em>.</p>
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<strong>The 70s Christmas gift that keeps on giving.</strong>
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<p>I have to be honest, I haven’t used it much since I was single. When The Herbal Husband and I met, I was honing my cooking skills with a microwave! One tip I remember is that a 10-ounce package of frozen vegetable can be cooked in seven minutes. You don’t have to remove the packaging but you do have to remember to take off the foil wrapper, if it has one. Place it on a plate before zapping it. Even this 70s cookbook has a recipe for Chopped Parsley Salad.</p>
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<strong>Chopped Parsley Salad</strong>
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<em>Serves 2; Courtesy Swain, Barbara. </em>Cookery for 1 or 2. <em>Tuscon:  H.P. Books, 1978</em>.</p>
<p>• 3/4 cup chopped parsley, lightly packed<br />
• 3/4 cup minced celery<br />
• 1/4 minced green onions (about 4 onions)<br />
• 2 to 3 tablespoons oil<br />
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice or white wine vinegar<br />
• Salt and pepper to taste</p>
<p>1. Combine parsley, celery and green onions in a medium bowl. </p>
<p>2. Toss with oil until well-coated. Toss with lemon juice or vinegar and salt and pepper. </p>
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<strong>Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich</strong>
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<p>Another easy comfort food of mine is mayonnaise. I remember visiting my aunt and having her make tuna fish salad sandwiches for me at lunch. Yum! I just remember her making the tuna fish salad with Miracle Whip salad dressing and green olives. So my version is to use single serving cups of tuna with 2 tablespoons light Miracle Whip, 2 teaspoons herbal seasoning (your choice) and 2 green olives, diced. Combine ingredients and then refrigerate for a 1/2 hour or so. I use light whole wheat bread and a small handful of salad greens to give some crunch.</p>
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<strong>My version of my aunt’s classic Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich.</strong>
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<strong>The Ultimate Herbal Egg and Ham</strong>
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<p>A favorite herbal author of mine, Maggie Oster, has an herbal calendar that inspires me each day. She has an herbal topic each month and then expands on that topic with helpful hints. One hint that stuck with me from when herbal butter was the topic was to try frying an egg in herb butter. Boy, was she right!</p>
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<strong>The Ultimate Herbal Egg and Ham.</strong>
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<p>I used this as part of a Wednesday tradition: an egg, ham, cheese and English muffin. The Lemon Verbena Lady way! I used less than a tablespoon of herb butter in the saute pan. Once fried, I placed an egg and ham on a toasted whole wheat English muffin with a slice of American cheese. It is the way I’m going to make it from now on!</p>
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<p>I hope I have given you some inspiration if you are struggling to find single serving recipes. Despite eating this kind of comfort food once in a while, I have lost 17 pounds since mid-November. They say everything in moderation. You can enhance your cooking with herbs and it doesn’t have to be difficult. Tell me what you are cooking for yourself and we can help each other enjoy cooking with herbs.</p>

  • Published on Mar 9, 2010
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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