By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

The National Pork Board did a survey recently that showed that nearly 83 percent of Americans prepare their daily at-home meals without the benefit of recipes.

This may be because everyone is using many prepared products.

But it also is the result of a factor with which every home cook is familiar: Recipes You Know by Heart.

These are the dishes you make without thinking, your hands moving automatically about the tasks while you listen to the news or the story of your spouse's day, or arbitrate the kids' latest battle.

The Pork Board, an industry promotional group, is looking for these very dishes for its "No Recipe" Recipe Contest (if that's not an oxymoron). The winner gets a personal assistant for one month to do errands and shopping, plus a supply of pork products, gifts and $1,000 cash.

Second and third prizes include gifts, pork products and $600 and $300 cash, respectively.

Of course, the recipe in question must contain at least one pork product. Other requirements, which functionally define a Recipe You Know by Heart, are: no more than six ingredients total and total prep and cooking time of 40 minutes or less.

If you're interested in entering, check www.otherwhitemeat.com, or send an entry to The "No Recipe" Recipe Contest, P.O. Box 9114, Des Moines, IA 50306 (be sure to include your name, address, phone number and keep your entry to no more than 150 words).

As for me, I think half my gray matter is taken up with Recipes I Know by Heart — or maybe recipes I used to know by heart but now have to think about for a little while.

There's Grandma's beef hekka: beef strips, sliced yellow onions, carrot strips, shirotaki noodles (yam threads), shoyu and green onions, quickly stir-fried together.

There's Mom's hamburger gravy: browned hamburger (pour off the fat) and onions, cooked in a bubbling white sauce.

The Chicken Thing: chicken parts browned, then dumped into a casserole and baked in a sauce of mushroom soup and melted butter. (We don't eat this one often anymore because it's too fatty, but I dream about it sometimes.)

The simple shrimp scampi: Raw shrimp marinated in a little olive oil and a lot of chopped garlic, tossed with Progresso Italian-Style Bread Crumbs, minced parsley and grated parmesan cheese, then baked at 375 degrees. (This works equally well with strips of boneless chicken breast or pork tenderloin, or with pressed firm tofu.)

And these days in the interest of health, our house has adopted my Greek slaw: Very thinly sliced crisp vegetables (any combination of white or purple cabbage, sweet onions, radishes, celery, fennel, carrots, bell peppers, jicama), chopped fresh cucumber and tomato, crumbled feta cheese or fresh-grated parmesan, chopped walnuts and/or sliced Kalamata olives. Toss with a very light dressing of fresh or bottled oil-and-vinegar dressing.

Roasted, julienne-cut beets are wonderful in this, too.