Sign Up for the Weekly Catch-Up!

The best of the blog, in your inbox.

The Kitchen Recessionista

So, here we are, in a recession. Let's eat!

Tofu Scramble Taco Salad.

by

tofu-scramble-taco-salad

It’s Taco Tuesday around here again! Tonight, I used the remaining taco salad shells from last week while cooking up some tofu scramble – normally reserved for weekend brunch – to serve as the salad’s anchor. Then I topped each bowl with plenty of lettuce, tomato wedges, sliced black olive, vegan pepperjack cheese, sour cream, and salsa, and we sat down to eat.

It’s amazing how quickly this meal comes together! From beginning to end, the cooking time took less than 20 minutes, and we had a hearty, healthy, flavorful meal to show for it by dinnertime! LeeLee and I chowed down with gusto, mowing down our crispy bowls in no time flat and then adding a few tortilla chips to sop up the rest of the scramble (and its allies). We left not a molecule on either plate and aren’t a bit ashamed!

We’ve been at the beach for a few days, enjoying our annual summer vacation, and it’s definitely time to get back into good dietary order. This taco salad was just the ticket we needed to get back on the on-ramp to good health!

:)

Taco Salad.

by

vegan-taco-salad

Today marks the beginning of Week 2 of Ironman training (did I mention that I’m training for an Ironman triathlon? Yes, well, I am), and also served as the first two-a-day workout of the week. So by the time I got home from work, my stomach was rumbling and my patience for lengthy cooking times was … short. To say the least.

Enter: Taco salad!

We gave the cat her kidney fluids and then I got straight to work on dinner. In one pan: A package of cubed seitan, seasoned with adobo seasoning and cumin. In my trusty pot: A can of refried beans brought to a simmer. And in the oven: Two crispy taco-salad bowls, ripe for the filling!

As everything heated up, I went out back and plucked some lettuce leaves from the garden, then came back in and washed them off, setting them aside until Go Time. Once the shells were heated through and the seitan was fully cooked, I turned off all the eyes to the stove and got to work on the assembly line.

First, I heaped a generous portion of refried beans into each bowl. Then I topped the beans with plenty of seitan (but not all), and then the lettuce from the garden. Next I added the rest of the seitan and then some cherry tomatoes, sliced black olives, and Daiya pepperjack vegan cheese. We finished our salads off with some hot sauce from She Peppers and then the dressings of choice (I’ve been in LOVE with Daiya’s Ranch dressing lately!), and then we dug in!

There’s something so fresh, so filling, about a dinnertime salad, and LeeLee and I both ate our fill and felt perfectly satisfied after the fact. That’s not to say we didn’t pine for more – our appetites extended far beyond our hunger! – but all in due time. We’ve got two more taco bowls left, after all, and who’s to say what the rest of the week’s meals will bring?

:)

Vegan Toona Melts With Fruit Salad.

by

vegan-toona-melts

Well, friends, Ironman training is here. I’ve got 20 weeks to go before the Big Day and the “official” training plan began yesterday! Which means today was my first two-a-day of the season, with a swim before work and a run afterward. So by the time I got home, I was feeling a bit … tired. Sleepy. Maybe even a little sluggish.

Thank goodness for these “tuna” melts! I’ve written about them before – Sophie’s Kitchen has outdone itself with this vegan toona, y’all! – and they never cease to fill our stomachs and make us happy. Tonight, I experimented with two different kinds of vegan cheese, Daiya’s cheddar slices and Field Roast’s Chao slices, and LeeLee and I were pleased with both styles.

We served the melts alongside a heaping fruit salad, which was teeming with blueberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, blackberries, and some hand-picked strawberries. It was the perfect quick-fix meal! So fresh and light on a hot late-spring day, but yet so filling, as well. That’s a combination that never gets old.

I made a full four muffins’ worth tonight, and I’m pleased to say that we’ve got plenty left for lunch tomorrow. I can’t wait!

:)

Black Bean Salsa Tacos With Rice.

by

black-bean-salsa-tacos

We must be on a Tex-Mex theme this week: First tortilla soup, and now black-bean salsa tacos! We must also be on a Make-Ahead Vegan Cookbook theme, because as it happens this recipe also comes from its pages. We’re working our way through it, meal by meal! And we haven’t been disappointed yet.

These tacos are so incredibly simple to make, and the greatest part is, they can be prepared in advance and heated just before serving. In the microwave, at that! So while the rice cooker hummed away, I heated the bean, corn, chipotle, and spice mixture up in a suitable container and then warmed up some taco shells (you may remember we have a combination microwave/convection oven, so they can’t run in tandem). When the rice was ready, so was everything else, so LeeLee and I sat down to eat.

These black bean tacos are amazing! The mixture of beans and corn fused beautifully with the cumin and chipotle pepper, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice sent everything over the top. There are also some “hidden” ingredients, such as coconut oil and balsamic vinegar, that you can’t pick out of the flavor profile (or at least I can’t) but that surely add a heft to the dish. A delicacy, indeed!

LeeLee and I each mowed down two tacos as well as our fair share of rice, and were very pleased to see that we’ve got another serving’s worth for tomorrow. We’ll both vie for it – who’ll win? Time will tell! I’ll report back.

:)

Tortilla Soup.

by

tortilla-soup

You know, some days are just plain old tougher than others. Days when you strap yourself into the roller-coaster ride and get taken on an adventure you had no idea was coming – sort of like hopping on what you thought was a carousel and learning that it was Space Mountain instead. And it’s on those days, my friends, when you may want to just come home, drop your gear, and call the pizzaman. But what may be a better idea is to roll up your sleeves and burn off that stress in the kitchen.

I was right there tonight – I didn’t feel like cooking, didn’t feel like eating a healthy meal, and just wanted a plate of good old fatty food instead. And believe me, I’m no prude when it comes to the fattier meals in life – I just knew that I hadn’t started the week with two workouts for nothing! So I pulled out my beloved Le Creuset, added the ingredients for tortilla soup, and got to work.

This is yet another magical recipe from Ginny Kay McMeans’ The Make-Ahead Vegan Cookbook, and like all the others we’ve tried, it’s a clear winner. And not for nothing, it used two of my favorite kitchen items – the aforementioned Le Creuset and my immersion blender! Love, love, love.

As usual, I won’t go into the ins and outs of the entire recipe since Ms. McMeans has a book to sell, but I will say that a chipotle pepper in adobo makes an appearance (luckily, I have plenty in the freezer after opening a can over the weekend!) and the fire-roasted diced tomatoes round out the brothy soup very, very nicely indeed. We garnished our bowls with tortilla strips, vegan sour cream, and hot sauce, and then dipped some tortilla chips in for good measure. The final result was perfection – a smoky, earthy taste that had plenty of heat without being overpowering. The blended onions and garlic sang, and the chipotle brought the spice!

We each went back for seconds – in LeeLee’s case, thirds! – which is always a measure of success. I can’t wait to try this soup again!

:)

Sunday Cook-In: Veggie Burgers With Sriracha Asparagus and Wild Rice.

by

sunday-cookin

We are on about Day 88 of rain (with a couple of breaks here and there), and LeeLee and I have just about had enough. We’ve been perfectly patient throughout Mother Nature’s outburst, you see, but we are ready for springtime to begin, thank you very much!

So imagine my dismay when I looked out the window about a half-hour before I was to start cooking dinner and saw that the rain continued to pat-pat-pat down, making puddles out of puddles. I sighed, resigned to dinner’s location change, and then pulled out my trusty grill pan for service.

The wild rice was always going to be an indoor activity, so without missing a beat I flicked the rice cooker on and it went about its merry way. The asparagus – well, I do love a nice grilled stalk of ’gus in my day, but it bathed in Sriracha just as easily indoors and then roasted at 375 for about 20 minutes until it was crisp-tender. And the grill pan worked wonders on tonight’s veggie burgers! I even managed to achieve those sear marks that are so coveted on the patties.

At any rate, tonight’s dinner may not have been the one we had planned on, but it was a delight nevertheless! And I know in my heart that one of these days the rain will stop – at least for a while. These gloomy days before then will only serve to make the sunny times brighter!

:)

Vegetable Curry.

by

vegetable-curry

Friends, I must admit: LeeLee and I were gluttons tonight.

We didn’t mean to be, of course, but this meal, this curry sauce, it carried us away. In what turned out to be yet another winner from the Make-Ahead Vegan cookbook, tonight’s vegetable curry was such a success, so hearty and filling and flavorful, that I dare say we left scant little for lunch tomorrow. This is not something we’re proud of, but there you have it.

For a few minutes there, I wasn’t sure we’d enjoy this meal much at all. In the middle of cooking, I realized that I was missing two ingredients: The veggie broth (for the sauce) and jasmine rice (for the side)! Oh, how I was verklempt. But then I came to my senses and realized that a couple of cups of water would do the trick with a little salt (and more coconut milk than the recipe called for) – and that instead of jasmine rice, nobody would care if I served short-grain sushi rice on the side! So into the rice cooker it went and I moved on about my day.

I won’t divulge the whole recipe here, since Ginny Kay McMeans has a cookbook to sell, but suffice it to say, after 35-40 minutes of cooking, with the occasional ingredient (including my beloved cauliflower and chickpeas) added throughout the process, the curry was ready! And so was the rice, which had shed its sushi origins and adopted an Indian motif.

LeeLee and I dug in with gusto, and as I’ve already admitted, we found it difficult to say When. This was a fantastic curry recipe that we’ll look forward to enjoying again and again! And though we didn’t use this as a make-ahead meal tonight, we certainly will in the future. I’m looking forward to it already!

:)

Old Faithful.

by

old-faithful-5

I don’t know what is about good ol’ Old Faithful – black beans and yellow rice – that keeps me coming back, but here we are, time after time after time. What’s so funny is that it’s been at least two months since we’ve last dined with Old Faithful, and yet there was no time lost in catching-up – like an old friend, we picked up right where we left off!

Tonight, LeeLee and I ate in shifts; he was out with a friend when I got home and was ready for dinner, and to be honest we weren’t sure whether their night out was going to wind up at a restaurant. Well, it did, but the small salad he had wasn’t quite enough to tide him over, so voila – Round Two with Old Faithful, coming right up!

LeeLee enjoyed a bit plainer of a meal than I did, preferring to go straight to the beans-and-rice, no lines, no toppings, no waiting. I, however, sliced an entire avocado atop my plate, along with a generous handful of cherry tomatoes, some vegan pepperjack cheese, some vegan sour cream, and, of course, a hearty dose of salsa and hot sauce. When it comes to Old Faithful, I do not PLAY.

Either way, we both enjoyed our Old Faithful helpings very much – and though there’s nothing left for lunch tomorrow, dinner tonight was worth it. Faithful, indeed!

:)

Recessionista on the Road: The Café, Key West.

by

cafe4

THE CAFÉ
509 Southard St., Key West, FL
Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; weekend brunch 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; weekend dinner 5 p.m.-10 p.m.

Like clockwork, LeeLee and I visit Key West each and every spring – partly as a reward for enduring another chilly winter in the Mid-Atlantic (which, this past year aside, generally brings all of the wind and not much of the snow), and partly because we just plain ol’ love Key West. And one of the very first stops we make (after the hotel’s rooftop pool, of course) is to The Café, located just a half-block off of the main artery of Duval Street in the heart of the city.

Let’s get one thing straight, though: The Café isn’t just a tourist stop. It’s a local hangout, as well, a meeting place for family celebrations, book clubs, and girls’ nights out. And each year, for a week, it becomes home to LeeLee and me, too, for several meals. (The first year, we tried limiting ourselves to one visit in the interest of restaurant diversity. We pined for the place for a full year before breaking down and coming back multiple times on our next visit!)

A quick scan of the menu will tell you all you need to know – the kitchen is working. And there are so many veg options available that it can admittedly be a bit stymieing at first. But never fear: I’m here to help you navigate the great choices to pick out some of the very best. Though you really can’t go wrong, so relax.

I’ll give you a rundown of LeeLee’s and my general habit on Visit 1:

Sit down, order a local Florida beer (may I suggest Cigar City?). Peruse the menu for about 25 seconds before deciding, as usual, that we’d like to share the un-Wing-Dings (either hot or BBQ style), wonderfully piping-hot rectangles of tofu that are unlike any tofu you’ve ever put in your mouth. Devour each one, swear we’re too full for dinner, and then dive in anyway.

cafe1

The main course is where things get a little more interesting. After a big plate of un-Wing-Dings, sometimes we’re known to split a stir fry bowl (fair warning: They are enormous). Peanut tofu over soba noodles is a fan favorite of the Recessionista Traveling Band, and it’s more than enough for us to share. Other times, we decide to go split-skies on two different sandwiches – the curried “chicken” salad is LeeLee’s far-and-away go-to, and the housemade seitan peppersteak is mine – and are equally thrilled by the results. Either way, try to plan ahead and ensure your lodging has a fridge you can use – you’ll eat like royalty for several days!

By this point, LeeLee and I are usually ready to cry uncle. But then our server comes round and points us toward the desserts, some of which are perched enticingly atop the bar, and we order another beer and a slice of vegan coconut cake to share (because to each order a slice would be Much Too Much, you know?). And though we are stuffed to the gills, we are satisfied, fat and happy, happy to be in Key West, at The Café, at that very moment, with those very people. And before our feet even cross the threshold back out onto Southard Street, we’re planning our next visit, be it in a day’s or a year’s time.

:)

Vegan “Beef” Pho.

by

vegan-beef-pho

Today started out as a decidedly Pho Day, what with the frosty morning temperatures and whatnot. As the hours ticked by, though, the climate warmed up a bit and I found myself shedding my jacket, but no matter: Pho was already seared firmly into my brain, and there was nothing I could do about it.

With that difficult decision made, I came home from work, gave the cat her fluids alongside LeeLee (which works much easier now that we’ve learned we can just serve her dinner while we stick her with a needle!), and began Pho Prep.

First, I minced several tablespoons of fresh ginger and two cloves of garlic. I added them both to my trust Le Creuset and then threw in a star anise pod for some authentic Asian flavor. Then I poured in a carton of veggie broth, plus a little extra water for good measure, and added a parcel of cubed seitan. Once things got to boiling, the seitan looked a little lonesome, so I added a can of Asian mushrooms and the pot seemed much more lively.

Now, this is probably a good time to say that I sort of made this recipe up as I went along. We typically enjoy tofu with our pho, but I was craving a more “traditional” (and I use that loosely, since we’re vegetarian) pho with a meatier texture. Enter seitan, my hero of the ages! And it didn’t disappoint.

When we got closer to dinnertime, I heated up a pot of water and added in plenty of vermicelli noodles, which cooked up in an instant. We drained them, flipped off the switches to the stove, and got ready to prepare our pho!

First into the bowl were the aforementioned noodles, with plenty of seitan-and-mushroom broth ladled on top. Then we busted out the add-ins – jalapeno slices, parsley and cilantro from the garden, lime wedges, and a hearty dose of Sriracha! And then we sat down to eat.

Wowza! This pho was so meaty, so hearty, and LeeLee kept repeating over and over how this was the best pho I’ve ever made. Now, I tend to take some of those proclamations with a grain of salt – LeeLee is often complimentary, and I really appreciate that – but this time I do have to agree with him. This pho really got to the essence of what the dish is supposed to be about – at once earthy and light, filling but not overly so, a blend of bright broth and fresh noodles and chewy, happy protein. We both devoured several bowls (and I even went back for a spoonful of noodles by themselves, just because!).

On the minus side, there’s no broth left over for lunch tomorrow. But there are plenty of noodles, and I feel sure we can find a use for them!

:)