I beat the snow home by about 5 minutes tonight, parking the car just before the traffic got really bad, sending even our quiet little neighborhood into a frenzy of honking horns and hazard lights. LeeLee wasn’t so lucky; he arrived home an hour and a half after the snow really got cranked up, wet and cold after having walked the mile and a half from his office.
If I’d really been thinking this morning, I would have put something in the Crock-Pot to really get the house smelling like winter and comfort food. But this morning, I still held out a modicum of hope that I’d be able to attend tonight’s book club a good hourlong drive away! One look at noontime weather report cured me of those dreams, however (and shortly thereafter, the book club organizer sent out a note postponing the meeting, so no harm, no foul!).
So, the Crock-Pot may not have been called into service, but I turned to the next best thing – “steak” medallions with gravy, mashed potatoes, and English peas. If that’s not comfort food, I don’t know what is!
The hidden beauty of this meal is that it also doesn’t take too long to make, in the end. (Though I made it home early from the office, my day’s work duties weren’t done, so I hadn’t the time to play around in the kitchen!) But its taste is exponentially greater than the time it takes to put dinner together. In no time, LeeLee and I had cleaned every morsel of “steak” and peas off our plates, leaving quite a few servings of potatoes in the pot after having more than enough at dinner. (When it comes to mashed potatoes, I always seem to make enough for an army. I can’t help it.) But no matter; they’ll be great for leftovers later!
There’s no magic to this dish, but it always goes over well. And tonight, it provided enough fuel for us to complete Round 1 of snow-shoveling! And if that’s not a ringing endorsement, than I don’t know what is.
The stats:
“Steak”: $4.99 ($2.50/person)
English peas: $2.78 ($1.39/person)
Potatoes: $3.99 ($1.00/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $11.76 … or $4.89 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe leaves us with a TON of mashed potatoes to use as lunch ingredients for the rest of the week. So the per-person price goes down even more!
:)
did you make your “steak” or buy it?
Hi, Susan! I bought this particular version of “steak” — we’ve also made it with tofu and a roux for the gravy, but today I took the easy way out. :) This kind was made by Vegetarian Plus, and we were able to pick it up at Whole Foods. It’s a great little thing to have the freezer for nights just like this!
Thanks, as always, for commenting! :)