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When Tracy Ballard's older children went to college, they often called home to get one of Mom's recipes or ask a basic cooking question.

But the Las Vegas mother of five — ages 12 to 24 — knows those culinary communications will be impossible if her two sons, now 17 and 18, decide to go on Mormon missions.

"They can't call home," she said.

Ballard came up with the next best thing: "The Hungry Missionary" cookbook. The pocket-size book, by Utah-based Cedar Fort Publishing, costs $10 and contains more than 50 basic recipes. The meals are made with minimal ingredients and offer simple directions for novice cooks — young men and young women — to undertake.

Like many LDS families, Ballard said she often invited the missionaries in her Mormon ward, or congregation, to her house for family dinner. She usually asked them what they ate when they were on their own.

"The answer was usually grilled-cheese sandwiches or cereal," she said in a recent telephone interview.

Ballard decided a missionary cookbook was in order.

She pulled out her personal cookbooks that contained more than 30 years of family recipes and made a list of easy favorites: chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese, biscuits, oven pancakes and one-pan rice with vegetables.

"The most difficult thing is probably the skirt steak," she said, but that requires only the meat and five ingredients for a marinade: soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice.

"The whole goal was to make something and that won't take very long," Ballard said, conceding that while all the recipes are easy to make, finding some ingredients may be difficult in certain countries.

One thing that won't be difficult is packing the book in a suitcase. It's slightly bigger than a smartphone. It also includes pages in the back to transcribe any new recipes the elders and sisters — as young LDS missionaries are dubbed — may learn during their proselytizing stints.

It's hardly the first cookbook compiled to help hungry missionaries. Mormon wards often create cookbooks that they give missionaries, and sometimes mission leaders and their wives will have cookbooks for the young men and women in their care.

But Ballard thought there was room for something new.

"I wrote the book for my sons," she said, "but everyone else's missionaries can enjoy it, too." Oven pancakes

6 tablespoons butter

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

Half-teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional toppings

Syrup

Fruit

Powdered sugar

Whipped cream

Melt butter in an 11-by-15-inch baking pan. Do this by cutting the butter into six squares. Spread out the squares on the pan. Place the pan in the oven while it preheats to 450 degrees. Mix eggs until fluffy. Add milk, flour, sugar and salt. Mix well. Add vanilla and stir. Pour batter into the pan with melted butter. Bake 15 minutes.

Cut the pancake into 6 even sections. Serve immediately with syrup and fruit or sprinkle with powdered sugar, or whipped cream.

Servings • 6

Source: "The Hungry Missionary" —

Where to buy the book

"The Hungry Missionary: Quick and Easy Recipes to Keep Missionaries Healthy, Happy and Well-Fed" is available at Barnes & Noble, BYU Bookstore, Latter Day Products, Deseret Book and Amazon.