Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Kwik N EZ Veggie Chili

View the slide show video. This single-serving dish calls for 1/4 package of frozen veggies (four ounces), 1/4 can of beans, chili flavor rec'd (slightly less than four ounces), and two ounces of shredded cheese.

  1. Cover and microwave veggies for about 3 minutes.
  2. Cover and microwave beans for about 90 seconds.
  3. Stir beans into veggies; sprinkle cheese. Microwave for about one minute for cheese-melt gooeyness.
  4. Eat the mixture with tortilla chips for a dippy meal.

The recipe is conveniently expandable for up to four eaters. Choose dish/bowl sizes for separate servings. Or, if using larger community servers, go for wider rather than deeper. Also, microwave for longer times as appropriate.

Guarnicion Blend Vegetables

"H-E-B Sabor Tradicional Mezcla Guarnicion Blend" is my favored frozen veggie mix. Broccoli, cauliflower, corn, and carrots make up the small-chunks mix. If your store doesn't carry it, you might need to cut your own. A close similar item might be Normandy mix.

Normandy Blend Vegetables

My supermarket sells "H-E-B Select Ingredients Broccoli Normandy Blend", listing "broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots". These cuts are larger than the Guarnicion blend veggies.

"Are Normandy veggies Norman?" describes the connection to "Normandy" and vegetable blends. Some blends depend on the brand you buy.

Birds Eye’s Normandy Blend, a mix of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, and squash. Other frozen food brands include variations on that blend. Costco’s Kirkland Signature Normandy-Style Vegetable Blend, for example, contains broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.

Bird's Eye brand "Normandy Blend" lists "broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, sliced carrots, zucchini, and yellow squash". The variety is appealing, but cut sizes appeal more to me as a veggie side than chili dish. The supermarkets that sell this brand in my area seem to be WalMart and Target.

Mixed Vegetables

These veggies are small-sized, but maybe a bit ordinary. "H-E-B Select Ingredients Mixed Vegetables" lists a mouthful—"carrots, peas, green beans, corn, baby lima beans". Eh, info online indicates that peas, corn, and lima beans are not great as healthful plant foods.

Canned Beans

I'm minimizing addressing canned beans. Loads of bean types and flavorings. Go down the canned-beans store aisle and pick something that appeals to you. I'd suggest shaking cans to infer value. Lots of slosh indicate lots of fluid compared to bean amounts. Not a great value to buy mostly water.

Cheeses

Cheese is another topic I'm mentioning sparingly. Pick what you want, whether single type, several types, or mixture. My supermarket's results for "colby cheese" show several products where colby is paired with Jack cheese. "Colby VS Cheddar – 4 Differences To Tell Them Apart" triggered a long-lost memory of having bought colby and it seeming to lose its freshness sooner than cheddar.

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

2019 Halloween, Pre-pandemic Year

A couple of months ago, I met the owner of a house that I had taken pix and videos of for occasional years for Halloween and Christmas. The family was getting ready to move; I said I'd miss the holiday decorations. I offered to send links of YT videos and pix that featured decorations at the house. In poking around my files, I discovered my unprocessed stash of 2019 Halloween images.

I've posted Halloween images for 2018, 2020, and 2021. I'm late for putting out 2019, but I might as well complete the set. Hoping to be more timely for 2022.

The pandemic came early in 2020. The images I captured in 2019, imho, convey more carefree times with no inkling of the coming year's pall and caution over contact during Halloween. The video includes scenery from 25 houses, mostly whimsical. I went on a tear on October 31, 2019 with total of 50 pix and videos. On a few other days of recording and pic'ing, I was less ambitious.


2022 Halloween Nearby Tour
Roving Around Halloween 2021
2020 Halloween Meandering
2019 Halloween, Pre-pandemic Year
Halloween Scenes Around (2018)
Related: April Fooling Easter Halloween and More (from 2018)

Enjoy YouTube Halloween themes playlists: "Baker's Dozen Halloween YouTube Links", "Halloween Music Baker's Dozen Matter"