What is in a meal and what ingredient makes the meal an excellent one? It all depends on whom you ask that question to. For myself, I would say that three , four or five of my most favorite foods in one meal would make an excellent meal. (Wow, let me state first, that the foods are not blended)! I mention that because I watched a Tyra show, where she gave three contestants their most favorite meals right down to the dessert. But the trick for this contest was that the women had to drink the meal rather than eat it. So a shrimp meal with other veggies and then an ice cream dessert that looked great on the plate were minced, mushed and blended into one drink. Then Tyra said drink up! So, just for the record, my favorite foods, about four or five of them would be a great meal , in one bowl –that is without the blender!

Meals. What is a meal and who invented the first dinners? And why do we, as human beings permit others to decide what we like to eat and what we do not like to eat. The chefs make the meals, the writers compose the recipes, and the critics decide which are good and which are bad, and usually the public just comes along for the ride.

Have you ever just decided that you would make the dish that you know would be best even though it was not in any cook book? Have you just ever experimented with putting all of your favorite foods in one bowl and calling it a combo? How do you think that KFC came up with the mashed potato bowls? Do you think that some chef needed to go to cooking school and spend years in a university to discover that perfect combination of mashed potatoes, corn, cheese and chicken?

Make your own combos. Take five of your favorite foods . Toss them into a large bowl, add your favorite condiment or sauce and you have the most perfect meal that you can think of .

Try these on for size.
1. Rice, mushrooms, baby corn, julienne string beans, covered with grated Romano cheese melted on top.
2. Brown rice, fat string beans, black olives, strained tuna, drop of olive oil, and cover it with shredded cheddar cheese.
3. Chopped tuna, chopped chicken, string beans, chopped baby corn, covered with melted butter.

About tuna. Some do not like the taste or smell of tuna. Here are two interesting facts. When you have canned tuna, you can totally change the taste, odor and flavor of it by adding butter and or adding tomato sauce. You can add tomato sauce to a tuna dish and the tuna can taste just like chicken. I do not know how that happens but it did happen. You can add butter to the tuna , melt it on top; just try it, and the butter makes the tuna lose all the fishy taste, flavor and smell of tuna.

About chicken: What ruins chicken for anyone who decides to eat it is the fat. So get the chicken, take all of the fat off of it before you even cook it.

Those combo-bowls are just suggestions. Make your own combos!

For desserts, you can do the same thing, just pile the goodies on top of your favorite ice cream or fruit. Make an awesome banana split with butter pecan ice cream and chocolate syrup, and add the sprinkles and brown bonnet syrup and you are home free. There are so many ways to make dessert, just use your imagination.

Try them on for size and see how you like them. Better yet, come and write to me here with your very best combinations. You do not need KFC to make a complete, easy-to-cook meal for any meal, lunch or dinner. Do it yourself!

Linda Lin, the experienced, expert author on subjects from a to z. Join Linda Lin as she goes through life, pen in hand, commenting on almost anything that is right in front of you, or almost everything that is written in the very fine print of all the contracts that you ever signed. Linda Lin is not an attorney, but she is an author with great common sense, college along with continued education and a knack for knowing just what everyone is thinking about. Email her anytime and you might be surprised at her very to-the-point and honest replies.