Quick and Easy Recipes

The first week of school is quite overwhelming regardless of how long anyone has been in the classroom. For me, I really struggle with just being up so early and on my feet all day. I also find that my brain doesn't always want to adjust to "school-mode" where I have to be a creative decision maker. When I get home, I just want to lay down and regroup for a few minutes. I often feel like a slug around 3 in the afternoon! This week has made me very thankful for my quick and easy recipes, but mostly for my crockpot. I really love cooking, but it is very difficult to create an elaborate meal when I have so many things to prepare for the following day. Contrary to popular belief, teachers don't finish work at 3 or on Friday!

This past week, we invited some friends to church and asked them to join us for lunch afterward. Because I had spent most of my Saturday in my classroom preparing for the first week of school, I needed to create a very quick menu for Sunday. Luckily, my dearly beloved husband offered to smoke a Boston butt for me, so I just had to come up with some quick and easy side dishes. I have a collection of go-to sides for various meals that always seem to be crowd pleasers. I have shared a couple of them below:

Asian Coleslaw

Ingredients:

3 green onions, chopped
1 (6 oz) bag of coleslaw mix
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 cup toasted almonds
1 (3 oz) package chicken-flavored Ramen noodles, reserve seasoning packet for dressing

Dressing:
1/4 cup oil
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
seasonin (reserve packet)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix coleslaw, noodles, almonds, and sesame seeds. Mix dressing ingredients in a smaller bowl. After the dressing ingredients have been stirred well, pour over slaw and toss the cabbage well so that all of the dressing is spread equally. Refrigerate for an hour for best results!







Easy Peach Cobbler:

Ingredients:

1 box of Jiffy yellow cake mix
1 can of peach pie filling
3-4 fresh peaches
1 stick of butter


Instructions:

1. Set oven to 350 degrees
2. Spray 9x 13" pan with oil
3. Peel fresh peaches
4. Place pie filling and peaches in the pan, spread evenly
5. Pour cake mix over peaches, do not mix
6. Cut butter into peices and place on top of cake mix
7. Cook for 40 minutes
8. Serve with ice cream!