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 and Grits.

by

tofu-and-grits

Awhile back, I debuted my version of vegan shrimp and grits on these pages, and it quickly became a mainstay in our recipe rotation. The combination got me to thinking – why not put together a vegan tofu and grits recipe that capitalized on all the best parts of both?

So, today, armed with a recipe for tofu fish sticks from VeganLunchbox.com, I set out on my quest. I’ve made the tofu fish sticks plenty of times, but why oh why had I never thought to put them together with grits? Why must I deprive myself of these things and suffer so? (Hee.)

Tonight, that all changed. I put the tofu sticks together per Jennifer McCann’s recipe (more or less – I left out the almonds and lemon juice and didn’t fool with putting the breading into the food processor) and let them bake for 15 minutes on each side. In the last 15 minutes of baking time, I prepared the vegan cheese grits just the way I like them!

First, I boiled four cups of water and then added in a cup of grits with a pinch of salt. Then, a few minutes into the cooking time, I added a can of diced green chilies to the pot. Then several minutes later I added several tablespoons of tomato sauce. And finally, just as the grits were thickening up and nearly finished, I stirred in a cup of Daiya cheddar cheese, continuing to stir until it was melted and blended nicely.

Then LeeLee and I piled our plates high and began to chow down! The tofu turned out quite nicely (if I do say so myself); I always forget how the breading adds a whole new depth of flavor and texture to tofu! The kelp granules gave it a seafoody taste without being overly fishy, and the cornmeal provided a nice Southern undertone to the lot. And the cheese grits – well, y’all know how I feel about a good cheese grit! And these were VERY good, I must admit.

Also, let’s not downplay the beauty that is dipping one’s tofu into one’s cheese grits. The best of all worlds!

No leftovers for lunch tomorrow because we mowed everything down pretty nicely, but that’s OK. I’ve got some strawberry jam from the springtime just waiting to be put on a sandwich instead!

:)

Burger-and-Mushroom Pizza.

by

burger-and-mushroom-pizza

LeeLee and I missed one another for dinner tonight – he had a nighttime meeting and I worked a little later than usual, so I ended up dining alone. But never fear! I was not subsisting on crumbs here at Chez Recessionista. No, instead I feasted on homemade pizza.

Well, technically, not every component of tonight’s meal was homemade. I cheated a bit and bought a roll-out pizza crust from the store because I didn’t want to fool with waiting an hour for handmade dough to rise tonight. But it’s still homemade in my heart!

First, I heated up two veggie burgers and then chopped them up. As they cooled off, I warmed up the dough on a pizza pan in the oven for about 8 minutes and then topped it with pizza sauce, slices of mozzarella cheese, the burger crumbles, and some sliced mushrooms. Then I baked the pie for another 14-or-so minutes, rotating the pan once to ensure the crust browned evenly. And then I pulled it out of the oven triumphantly, cut it into eight slices, and feasted! (Not on all eight slices, mind you.)

I’ve got plenty left over for lunch tomorrow (or a late-night dinner for LeeLee tonight if he comes home hungry!), which is always a bonus! And only one pizza pan to clean up. Life is good!

:)

Lemon Basil Pasta.

by

lemon-basil-pasta-4

Well, friends, after a long weekend away for our annual trip to Ocean City, Md., LeeLee and I have returned rested and revived, ready to take on the remainder of the week. This weekend, we played Skee-Ball. We traveled in a coffin-shaped car through a haunted house. We pedaled a two-person surrey down the boardwalk and back. We lounged on the beach reading two new-to-us used books (both featuring the cast of “Dallas,” I must confess) for hours. We boogie-boarded, we sunbathed, and we relaxed.

But what we did not do was put dinner in the Crock-Pot this morning, for we were not here. So there will be no Crock-Pot Monday this week; it’ll return next week in fine form!

However, we did make it home with time to spare to make a fresh dinner for ourselves. Ocean City was Big Fun, but it was not necessarily a home-cooked health-fest! So tonight I went out to the back yard, cut a stem off our basil plant, and whipped up a batch of lemon-basil pasta.

You might remember that lemon-basil pasta is a springtime and summertime favorite around Chez Recessionista, especially when the basil is fresh from the yard and the cherry tomatoes are at the peak of ripeness! And as it happened, I had a box of rotini on hand, just waiting to be cooked up. So the only ingredients I needed from the store were three lemons and a block of Gruyere – easily procured!

While the rotini boiled, I placed chopped basil leaves, cherry tomatoes, diced Gruyere, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar into a large bowl and mixed everything around well. Then I tossed the pasta with the sauce and veggies once it had cooked through to al dente. And then: We ate!

Actually, we tried to eat, but we spent half of our meal shooing the cat away. She’s not usually a beggar for people food, but our three nights out of town has left her a bit more attention-starved than usual, and that manifests in several (semi-obnoxious) ways. Tonight, her action plan was to attempt drive-by thefts of our food, again and again and again. She did not succeed, but she was also undeterred. Now, she is sleeping soundly on the sofa. Go figure.

We had a great trip, but it’s good to be home. And even better to know we’ve got lemon basil pasta leftovers waiting for tomorrow’s lunch!

:)

Vegan Garden Skillet Supper.

by

garden-vegetable-skiller

Our CSA has bestowed an embarrassment of riches upon us this season! And we’re really only just getting cranked-up. Just today, I came home from work to find a box of squash, beets, potatoes, onions, apricots, peaches, and more on my doorstep – and I am absolutely thrilled!

I knew just what I was going to make with several of the above ingredients: A garden skillet supper, which I originally learned about over at Christy Jordan’s Southern Plate blog. This recipe is genius in its versatility: Add a little of this, subtract a little of that, and regardless of what you’ve got at home, you can contour this dish to fit!

In my version tonight, I heated up four veggie burger patties, broke them into crumbles, and then tossed them with two diced zucchini and two small white onions (both from today’s box from Great Country Farms), plus one diced red bell pepper from Mr. Lopez’s stand at the Saturday farmer’s market. Then I added some salt, pepper, chipotle powder, and garlic powder, and finally half a jar of salsa just to add a little extra zing to the occasion!

As the veggies cooked and softened on a low and slow heat, I put a cup of white rice into the rice cooker and got it moving as well. By the time the rice cooker had clicked off, the veggies were ready as well, and we got the show on the road!

Wow! This dish packs a wallop of flavor, in large part due to the blend of vegan “beef” and veggies, and enhanced by the spices and salsa. LeeLee and I both went back for seconds and only too sadly convinced ourselves not to go back for thirds, giving in to better judgment. But that’s OK. We’ve got plenty left for the weekend! There won’t be a morsel left by the time we’re done.

:)

New Recipe: Nacho Salad Supreme.

by

nacho-salad-supreme

Friends, I’m afraid I have something to confess to you all. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been doing quite a lot of celebrating here at Chez Recessionista: First our wedding anniversary, then my father’s and my trip to Alaska, then the Fourth of July, then my birthday, then good old Alexandria’s birthday. We’ve hosted friends, gone out to eat with loved ones at fancy restaurants, and toasted more than our share of cocktails if you’d really like to know the truth. All of this has made our presence on the scale a bit more weighty, if you catch my drift. And I think you do.

So enough of all that. We’re getting on the right path again. The party may not be over – who wants that? – but at least the party needs to ebb and flow a bit more than it has been of late.

Enter the joy that is the dinnertime salad. Tonight’s rendition: Nacho Salad Supreme!

Admittedly, the name of this meal doesn’t sound all that light. But it’s sort of a placebo attempt, honestly. If you call a salad “Nacho Salad Supreme,” it’s got to be sinfully delicious, right? Even if it’s heavy on the salad and light on the nacho supreme.

First off, I scrambled some tofu on the stovetop by using my favorite breakfast recipe. As the tofu and tomatoes cooked, I heated up a can of vegetarian refried beans and prepared some veggies.

Once the tofu had firmed up nicely and lost its liquid, it was time for plating! I started by placing a light handful or two of tortilla chips on each of our plates, and then topped the chips with some refried beans. Next, I added a generous helping of scrambled tofu, then topped the tofu with lettuce. I then dotted the dish with cherry tomatoes, and then piled on quite a few sliced black olives. Next, I cut up an avocado and split it evenly across our plates, and finally topped the whole shebang with nutritional yeast, vegan sour cream, and salsa.

Does one or more of those ingredients not do the trick for you? No worries. Sub any ingredients in and out at will! We used what we had on hand, and it worked just perfectly for us, but there are so many ways to customize this dish and make it your own.

The final results were A+! We cleared our plates and then went back for the rest of the refried beans and lettuce. And the tortilla chips at the bottom of the pile did make us feel like we weren’t toeing the straight-and-narrow line quite so much. Crunch without a ton of calories – not a bad combination! And a pile of veggies and scrambled tofu on top? Heaven!

Here’s to a better showing on the scale!
NACHO SALAD SUPREME
serves two (or more)

What you’ll need:

¼ bag tortilla chips
The ingredients for scrambled tofu
1 can refried beans
1 head or bag of lettuce
20 cherry tomatoes
1 small can sliced black olives
1 avocado, sliced
Nutritional yeast to taste
Vegan sour cream to taste
Salsa and hot sauce to taste
Vegan cheese, optional

Prepare the scrambled tofu according to the recipe and heat up the refried beans. When they’re ready, on two plates layer everything according to the ingredient list above (and feel free to sub ingredients in and out at will!).

:)

Crock-Pot Monday: Vegan Chik’n Posole.

by

crockpot-chikn-posole

Tonight was my last night of tai chi class for the summer, but don’t worry – Crock-Pot Mondays will definitely continue! For the class’s last hurrah, this evening I came home to a slow cooker full of vegan chik’n posole, one of our favorite go-to summer soups.

I don’t usually cook posole in the Crock-Pot, but this morning I dared to be different and got it all suited up! And what a wonderful hands-off slow-cooker meal it is: The ingredients were prepped and mixed in 5 minutes flat this morning and I didn’t have to do another thing to it until we got home tonight and put a ladle into it for serving! Now that’s a low-key, no-fuss meal I can get behind.

The prep work went as usual: Add a big can of hominy, a bag of vegan chik’n strips, a can of tomatoes with green chilies, some dried minced onion, some garlic powder, some ground pepper, and four cups of vegetable broth to a pot (in tonight’s case, the Crock-Pot) and cook until piping-hot. On the stove, obviously you’d bring it to boiling first, but with the slow cooker, all that’s needed is to flip it to Low and let time work its magic!

The final result was as wonderful as usual. The hominy kept its bite despite 10 hours of cooking, the chik’n strips were wonderfully tender, and the tomatoes with green chilies only intensified in their spiciness. There were only a few spoonfuls left at the end of dinner – a sign of a meal well-loved!

:)

Saturday Cookout: Vegan “Beef” Fajitas With Yellow Rice.

by

vegan-beef-fajitas

Happy birthday, Alexandria!

Last night, we had a couple of friends over for a birthday cookout – Alexandria turned 266 years old this week, and what better way to celebrate than to put some fajita fixins on the grill and whip up some Cuba libres? I feel sure George Washington and Co. would approve.

So it came to pass that I sliced one red and one green bell pepper, plus a poblano pepper, and nestled them into an aluminum grill pan along with several handfuls of sliced baby Portobello mushrooms in a healthy dose of olive oil. Then I seasoned the whole kit and caboodle with cumin, garlic powder, salt, dried minced onion, and chipotle powder, and tossed them all together again, then set them aside until Go Time.

That, truly, was the hardest part of yesterday’s dinner prep! The refried beans went from can to grill pan (covered with foil); the vegan beef tips went straight from plastic package to foil packet, as did the flour tortillas (but not the same packet as the beef tips. Ahem.).

All that was left to do was to flip the rice cooker on after adding a double dose of rice and Goya seasoning (we were having company, after all, and quite honestly I was excited about the prospect of leftovers!), and fire up the grill. Once the grate was heated nicely, I added the tray of fajita veggies to the mix and let it cook for about half an hour in all, stirring occasionally. The same went for the refried beans, which ended up silky smooth on account of the long cooking time.

I cooked the vegan beef tips for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally, and then heated up the tortillas for the last 10-or-so minutes of the grilling time. Then it was time to take everything off the grill and dig in!

We piled our tortillas high with beans, rice, beef, and veggies, and then topped them with shredded lettuce, vegan sour cream, salsa, and some leftover olives from the appetizer course. We added a little extra rice on the side for good measure and were off to the culinary races!

The fajitas turned out beautifully, I’m happy to say, and at the end of dinner there wasn’t a speck of food left on anyone’s plate. Together, we finished off the beans and beef and made a significant dent in the rice and tortillas, but we were admittedly being cautious; there was strawberry-rhubarb pie with soy ice cream waiting for dessert!

The city’s fireworks display over the Potomac was a triumphant cherry on top of a wonderful day. Here’s to 266 more years, Alexandria!

:)