By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

Cooler weather often brings on cravings for warm beverages. Old, good habits die hard, though, and that may mean never venturing beyond a cup of coffee or plain hot chocolate. It's easy, though, to prepare both innovative and inexpensive treats, like a dessert beverage of sugar-free hot chocolate, blended with pumpkin pie spice and a few dollops of prepared cheesecake filling before reheating; a fiery breakfast wake-up call of heated tomato juice, hot sauce, chili sauce (the bottled kind adds a dash of sweetness), cayenne and black pepper; or a peppy party punch featuring warmed pineapple juice, honey, fresh tangy ginger and seasonal spices.

Food preparation at any time of year can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast - as the following split-second sensations prove. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it! Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from both family and guests.

Breakfast

One Red Hot Morning
Warm a mixture of tomato juice, hot sauce, chili sauce, cayenne, black pepper and carrot juice.

Triple Tasty Tea
Brew apple-cinnamon teabags, carefully remove bags with a utensil and warm tea with finely diced raspberries and strawberries and freshly chopped mint, stirring, until finely diced fruit becomes like liquid.

Parties

This Punch is a Real Hit
Warm pineapple juice, along with honey, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper, advises Reader's Digest health newsletters, for a dynamite punch.

Side with Fresh Pears in this Cider
Substitute a mixture of diced, ripe pears in your favorite hot apple cider recipe, along with vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks that you'll carefully remove with a utensil just before serving.

 

Dessert

Express Yourself with this Espresso
Stir in dollops of caramel sauce and butterscotch sauce (both usually found in the ice cream aisles of supermarkets), almond extract and whipped cream to hot espresso, topping with dark chocolate shavings.

A Very Chipper Hot Chocolate
To prepared sugar-free hot chocolate, add pumpkin pie spice, a few spoonfuls of the filling of prepared cheesecake, blend well and reheat until hot.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Sauce doesn't just have to be for dinner. Why not give your breakfast some easy pizzazz with an innovative draping. A few rich sauces, like Hollandaise, have always held a place in breakfast-lovers' hearts, but even everyday fare can be fun. In a microwave-safe container or small saucepot on low flame, heat pure maple syrup, orange juice, lime juice, freshly ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and chopped fresh mint for French toast or pancakes. In the same types of pots, heat raspberry jam, molasses, finely diced fresh pears and blueberries and sauce your oatmeal with it.


Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.