A Convenient Fudge

This fudge recipe requires only three ingredients and spray oil. You can add nuts, peanuts, coconut, or anything else that comes to mind. The main flavor is chocolate. You can change one or more of the ingredients to different flavor(s) for variations.
Ingredients, in the order of processing and adding

• 12 oz. chocolate chips or other meltable candy
• 16 oz. frosting
• 15 large marshmallows (or 1 1/2 cups minis)
• 1/2 cup or more nuts
• spray oil for the pan

My recent ingredients that I have used most recently are peanut butter disks, chocolate frosting, caramel-flavor marshmallows, and chopped peanuts.
Utensils

• 1 large mixing bowl
• 1 cooking spoon
• 1 or more knives for chopping nuts (I use Salad Shooter), cutting the finished fudge
• 1 8" x 8" pan, prepared with spray oil

Instructions

1. Melt chips or other meltable candy in the large mixing bowl in the microwave oven, using reduced power. Check about a minute or so for about two rounds of heating.
2. Add frosting to the bowl. Microwave another minute or so until you can easily blend the ingredients with the spoon.
3. Add marshmallows to the bowl. Microwave another minute or so until you can easily blend the ingredients with the spoon.
4. Add nuts to the bowl. Blend the ingredients with the spoon.
5. Pour ingredients into the spray-oil prepared pan.
6. Refrigerate for no more than two hours. (If longer, the fudge could be difficult to cut.)
7. Cut into 64 pieces (8 x 8) or fewer. (FYI, the paper cups are available at craft stores and baking supply outlets.)

Note: Instead of waiting 2 hours and cutting the fudge block with a knife, you can wait 1 1/2 hours for cooling, then use a cooky spatula edge, pressing down. If edges of middle fudge pieces look a little warped, lightly shape them.

For other recipes, mostly that I tag as convenient, download my blog catalog file and look for the yellow-highlighted rows.

A Convenient Ganachey Icing

I don't have a good name for my hybrid icing, so I'll refer to it as ganachey icing. Ganache is a term for a chocolate icing with two main ingredients—chocolate (squares, chips, candies, etc.) and heavy cream. The white icing equivalent is white chocolate and heavy cream. A typical ganache to me is the chocolate icing on Hostess cupcakes.

My alternative to heavy cream is canned frosting. The convenience is microwaving two items and not having to boil cream. Anyway, the ratio is typically half "candy" and half frosting, by weight. For cupcakes, I tend to use 8 ounces of candy (Wilton, chocolate or other flavor chips, candy bars, "bark", ...) and 8 ounces of frosting for a batch of cupcakes cut into 48 halves.

You can be as flexible and adventuresome with icing flavors and cake shapes as you want. For that matter, the ganachey icing is good also on cookies and rice crispy bars/squares. I have not ever tried icing a whole cake because I tend to make bite-size desserts.

Melt the candy in a microwave. Follow instructions for melting if the package has them. Otherwise, microwave a minute at a time, using a spoon to test for meltedness each time. When it's melted, spoon in the frosting, stir, and microwave the mixture until it's a syrupy texture. Spread or dip items as desired.

• The first batch of images show icing one mini-cupcake. Coverage should be about 60 (one cake mix box recipe). YMMV for how many bite-sizers you ice.
• The second batch of images show icing a sheet of chocolate rice crispy treats, then cutting and arranging the squares into a container. Yes, that's a squeegie handle I use for spreading the warm ganachey icing—clean!

In case mentioning Hostess cupcakes triggers a Pavlovian response and you want to try making your own, do a Google search for "homemade hostess cupcakes recipe". Of several recipes I've viewed, these bakers are serious scratch-recipe people! One recipe that is particularly eye-catching for details and pictures is Faux Hostess Cupcakes - Childhood Lunchbox Memories. A secondary source for reasonable information is Homemade Hostess Cupcakes.

I myself would probably just be casual enough to bake from a box cake mix recipe, squirt in canned frosting, pour and spread my ganache recipe, and draw the squiggle with more canned frosting. Wouldn't these cupcakes look cute as mini versions?

Visit my other baking recipe articles:

• A Convenient Triple-dose Pnutty Butter Cooky Batch
  Cookies using PB cookie mix, turbocharged w/chopped peanuts & Wilton PB flavor candies
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--German Chocochip Bites
  Cookies using cake mix—German chocolate cake taste with predominance of chocolate, coconut, and pecans
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter
  For Easter, cookies using cake mix, decorated with color sugars, then imprinted with small cooky cutters.
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch
  Easy cooky recipe using cake mix for making red cookies for Valentine's Day. Includes a strip of images at the top of the article.

A Convenient Bean Soup

Now that the weather's getting cooler, thinking about soup. My basic *convenient* soup recipe calls for a can of refried beans and fluid. The image at the top of this article is an idea guide, usable as an auxiliary shopping list. If you can boil water, you can easily make the soup.

The ratio of fluid to canned refried beans is one to one. YMMV for soup thickness, depending on the brand you buy. You might want to start out with half the amount of fluid in case the brand put in more cooking fluid for their processing. (Yes, have done that before, too.)

These instructions make one quart of soup if using a standard 16-oz can of beans. If you want, you can halve the recipe and save the other half of the beans for another time. Or you can store the other half of the processed soup for another sitting.

Instructions

1. Open the can of refried beans.
2. Spoon the beans into a saucepan.
3. Use the can to measure fluid, then pour the fluid into the saucepan.
4. Stir and heat the contents.
5. Add whatever ingredients from the list, or anything else that sounds good. (If you want, add these ingredients AFTER you pour the soup instead of before.)
6. Pour into bowl(s).

If you buy the packaged refried beans, double the amount of fluid and follow the package instructions.

One additional idea—for a group gathering, heat several cans of refried beans and water in a large pot. Set aside bouillon powder. Acquire all the suggested add-ins. Let the guests ladle their own soup and add in what they want. Remember to have extra bowls and spoons on hand. Expand on a party idea. With a bunch of the ingredients, you could even move sideways with the thought and try queso dip and chip ideas.

Another convenient soup recipe you can try is my veggie lentil soup.

A Convenient Veggie Lentil Soup

My veggie lentil soup is about as convenient as can be—three or four ingredients, depending on whether the fluid is all water or part water and part soup stock/reconstituted bouillon. Make no bones about it. Well, you can if you want. You can also further increase work time by buying, washing, peeling, and cutting up fresh vegetables. I title each of my recipe articles as "A Convenient" something or another because I emphasize convenience, mostly in minimizing the number of different ingredients. The table below lists the four options; the pixstrip above provides visual aids.

Ingredient/Recipe-size Options

Ingredients	Full		Half
Image in pixstrip	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Dry veggie soup, 0.9 oz packet	2	1	1	1
Lentils, 16-oz. bag	1	1	1/2	1/2
Water	8C	4C	4C	2 1/2 C
Soup stock/reconstituted bouillon	—	4C	—	1 1/2 C
Minimum number of servings	8	8	4	4

Instructions:

1. Pick the recipe option you want to try.
2. Set out the equipment you'll need. (The pixstrip images show the equipment you should have.)
3. Rinse the lentils as instructed on the package.
4. Put the ingredients into a large pot.
5. Heat the ingredients until they come to a rolling boil.
6. Turn the heat down to simmer.
7. Go do something else for about a half hour or so.
8. When you return,
   • Check a lentil or two for the tenderness you want. Add more simmer time if necessary.
   • Taste for seasoning preference. Add more seasoning as you want.
   • If the soup's thicker than you want, add more fluid.

Note: I understated the amount of seasoning needed. It's easier to add more flavoring later than adjust for overseasoning.

November 16, 2015 (update)
If you want to use fresh veggies instead of veggie soup mix, visit "Sliced-Veggie Lentil Soup".

A Convenient Quiche

(Quiche pixstrip retrofitted into article May 18, 2010)

Yesterday, I baked a quiche that requires only 5 ingredients:

• 1 ready-to-bake pie shell with pan
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 packet of dry vegetable soup mix (0.9 oz)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of shredded cheese (jack, cheddar, swiss, or combination)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Stir the dry soup mix and milk in a 4-cup bowl and let the mixture soak for at least 10 minutes.
3. Use a fork to mix the eggs in a separate bowl.
4. Stir the eggs into the soup/milk mixture.
5. Layer 3/4 of the cheese into the pie shell, followed by the eggs/soup/milk, then the rest of the cheese on top. (Note: For my next effort, I'm thinking of doubling the cheese.)
6. Bake for at least an hour; about half-way time, place foil or aluminum pie shield at pie edge to prevent edge overbrowning. (The original recipe states 45 minutes, which I found to be too short.)
7. Test for doneness using a toothpick. If pulled toothpick shows mixture wetness, bake longer.
8. Let the quiche stand at least 10 minutes before cutting it.

This recipe is from "Spring Vegetable Quiche" in The New Woman's Day Cookbook: Simple and Healthy Recipes for Every Occasion, copyright 2006, ISBN 1-933231-01-7 (online version of recipe at http://www.womansday.com/Recipes/Spring-Vegetable-Quiche).

Similar dish, which uses Knorr soup mix and adds spinach—
http://www.letsmakeknorr.com/Recipes/Print.aspx?RecipeId=6229&Version=2