Quick and Easy week

These next 2 weeks will be pretty crazy for everyone, so I am doing some easy, quick dinners and desserts too. I will BBQ steaks and make baked potatoes one night, Whiskey Pork Chops(recipe in a former blog) with mashed potatoes, Potato and Ham soup, and BBQ pork sandwiches.

The potato and ham soup is really fast. It's great when you have a little leftover ham and don't know what to do with it. Just put 3 1/2 cups of water in a pot to boil, add 3 cups cubed potatoes, 1 cup each carrots and celery cut up into small pieces, and a 1/2 an onion diced. Let this boil until the veggies are soft. While they are cooking, chop the ham into cubes and add 2 teaspoons of chicken broth base to the veggies. Also, in a separate pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir it up until it is a paste. Add 1 1/2 cups of milk and stir with a wire wisk. Keep stirring until thick. Add the ham and thickened milk to soup. Season with salt and pepper of course.

For the BBQ pork sandwiches, I will put a pork shoulder in the crock pot all day seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. When I get home I will shred the pork and add bbq sauce, then keep it in the crock pot for about 40 minutes.

Now for 2 super easy desserts! The first one is a chocolate cream pie. This is so delicious, don't tell people how easy it is!! Just buy a graham cracker pie crust ($1.38 at Foodmaxx) and a large box of instant (or cook and serve)chocolate pudding. Make the pudding and pour into pie. Put it in the fridge to thicken and when you serve it, cover the slice with whipped cream. If you want to get fancy, you can use chocolate sprinkles or grate a chocolate bar on top of the whipped cream.

The second dessert tastes like spring, it's refreshing in the middle of winter. Buy a loaf of pound cake and cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. Put half of the cubes in a glass dish(it's prettier that way, but any dish will do) make a large box of cook and serve lemon pudding. Pour half of the pudding over the cake cubes, add a few fresh rasberries if you want, then cover with the rest of the cake. Top off with the rest of the pudding and decorate with rasberries and mint leaves. Serve with whipped cream on top.

Have a great week!