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The Kitchen Recessionista

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

Old Faithful.

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Tonight was Animal Shelter Night, and by the time I got home, LeeLee and I were both hungry and had neither the time nor the taste for tomfoolery.  The ingredients for black beans and rice – or, as longtime readers of this blog know it, Old Faithful – were close at hand, and a half-hour later the finished product was sitting on the table, ready for consumption.
I think one of the things I love most about Old Faithful – other than the taste, of course – is the versatility of the dish.  For instance, tonight we had some leftover lettuce, onion, and tomato on hand from Sunday night’s cookout, and so I diced everything up to add as garnish (or, perhaps more accurately, as a side dish – we tend to be a bit heavy-handed with the garnish around here!).  I pulled out a new bag of Daiya pepperjack cheese to add atop the meal, and we still had a wonderful jarred salsa from last week’s tostadas, plus some little spicy pickled peppers from a cocktail party this weekend.  And last but not least, I always keep several cans of black olives on hand for salads and suchlike – they fit in just beautifully with tonight’s dinner, as ever.
I’ve gone over and over the actual making of black beans and rice, so I won’t go into a long dissertation again here.  Suffice it to say, the rice blended nicely with a packet of Goya seasoning during its stint in the rice cooker, and I spruced up a plain can of black beans with some adobo seasoning during the cooking process.  We were both in need of a little extra protein, so I added a chik’n patty to each plate – instead of baking them, I microwaved them, because again, who had the time for tomfoolery?
And the final result was, as ever, delicious and spicy.  The salsa and pickled peppers added a little extra kick, which we both really enjoyed, and the vegetables gave us some much-needed greenery in today’s diet.  :)  Once again, Old Faithful came through for us – it always does in a pinch!

:)

Veggie Burgers With Peas and Tater Tots.

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First of all, let us just take a moment to breathe in the long-awaited spring air (pollen optional) and thank the Powers That Be for finally making it out of winter and into our very first cookout of the season.
Yes!  You heard me right!  Finally, finally, after several false starts over the last month, I fired up our trusty Aussie grill, complete with a showroom-new grill grate and ash dump, and got to work.  First up was an aluminum grill pan teeming with English peas (seasoned with black pepper), which I covered with foil and cooked for half an hour or so.  As it cooked, I baked a sheet of tater tots in the oven indoors (because I still can’t figure out how to make them nice and crispy on the open flame – but give me time!).
While the peas and tots warmed up, I opened up a beer and sat down to leaf through the latest Real Simple.  But not just any beer – a Double Take from a six-pack that LeeLee and I picked up today while at the Safeway.  Why am I mentioning this?  Because said six-packs were on sale for 50% off – on top of a pre-existing sale!  So a $7.99 sixer cost us $3.  Which, as LeeLee pointed out over dinner, means each bottle is precisely $0.50.  Fifty cents!  Now that’s what I call spring fever.
When I was about 10 minutes from dinnertime, I put four veggie burgers onto the grill to warm up, and before long they were sizzling and juicy.  As I took them up, I put two buns on to toast.  I like to cook with a wide-open heat (if it can’t be grilled at full steam ahead, what’s the point?), so they were nearly too brown in no time. ;)
The results were springtime personified.  Everything tastes better after being grilled, and tonight’s meal was no different.  The first cookout of the season always adds extra flair – the newness of the year’s Sunday cookouts hasn’t work off yet!  After the winter we’ve had, I doubt we’ll settle into complacency any time soon.  Veggie burgers, 50-cent beers – what’s not to love?

:)

Vegetarian “Beef” and Bean Tostadas With Rice.

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Tonight, in advance of this weekend’s Sushi Night (to celebrate the cherry blossoms, you see), LeeLee and I ventured to the West End of Alexandria in order to visit our favorite international grocery store, the much-beloved Grand Mart – which, we were surprised to see, has been rebranded “New Grand Mart” since our last visit.  Sushi rice, inari wrappers, nori, veggie dumplings, and Japanese desserts were at the top of our shopping list, but we also needed something to make for dinner and figured why not enjoy some one-stop shopping – and some fun international cuisine while we were at it!
That’s how we ended up with a package of tostada shells, a can of mayocoba refried beans, and a new spicy salsa in our cart along with our Japanese cuisine.  Paired up with some veggie beef crumbles and yellow rice from home, we had a feast coming down the tracks!
When we got home and unloaded everything into the fridge, freezer, and pantry, I put on a cup of rice (with Goya seasoning added for color and taste) in the rice cooker and then began to sautee the veggie crumbles (seasoned with adobo seasoning) at a medium heat.  I confess I was too lazy to heat up the refried beans the appropriate way on the stove, so instead I just warmed them in the microwave once the rice was nearly finished!  As everything cooked, I prepared some lettuce and halved some cherry tomatoes, then chopped some parsley (we were out of cilantro) and opened a can of sliced black olives.  Lo and behold, we also had an unopened bag of Daiya cheddar cheese in the fridge, so I added it to the table for garnish.
Once the rice was ready, it was time to dress up our tostadas!  On each shell we added a hearty helping of beans (this was our first time enjoying mayocoba beans – we loved them!), then a good amount of crumbles, and then all of our veggies and cheese and salsa and hot sauce.  :)  Several spoonfuls of rice rounded out the meal, which we devoured with gusto.  So much gusto, in fact, that we have no leftovers to show for it, but that’s OK.  Sandwiches will have to suffice for tomorrow’s lunch instead!

:)

Pea, Tofu, and Mint Salad.

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Greetings, friends, from my very own laptop!  The MacBook survived its time in the hospital and has made a full recovery.  The best part?  I didn’t even lose any of my data, because the hard drive was pronounced A-OK; it was the hard-drive cable that was the trouble.  All the same, I will be backing up my documents tonight, and you should too.  :)  Here endeth tonight’s public service announcement.
On to dinner!
I stumbled across this recipe a few weeks ago and filed it away for a night when spring was finally here.  Tonight is that night!  In standard fashion, I made a substitution, eliminating the feta cheese and adding a block of tofu in its place for more protein and less fat.  (And no dairy!)
So this morning, in anticipation, I crumbled up a block of tofu and marinated it with salt, pepper, onion powder, and oregano, leaving it in a zip-top bag in the fridge all day while LeeLee and I toiled away.  After work, I got home first, and when he called to say he too was on his way, I got moving in the kitchen.  First, I shelled some pistachio nuts to make sure they were ready to go.  Then I diced an onion and sautéed it on the stove while a bag of frozen peas defrosted in the microwave.  As the veggies cooked, I made the dressing.  It called for honey, so I used some from my cousin’s hives down in Florida – you can’t beat that.
Next, I spread out some spinach on two plates – one for me, one for LeeLee, of course – and washed and de-stemmed the mint leaves for use as a garnish.  Then, just before serving, I put everything else together!  I topped the spinach with a healthy dose of tofu, then mixed the onions, peas, and pistachios together and topped the tofu with the veggies.  I split the dressing over each of our plates and then garnished the meal with quite a few mint leaves (we both love them).  Just like that, dinner was ready!
And it was awesome.  We both marveled at how filling the recipe was – sometimes, dinner salads can be a little light on staying power – and how tasty, as well.  We’re both crazy about the dressing, as well!  We’ll definitely use it again in many, many salads – it has the potential to be incredibly versatile.
The combination of warm and cold ingredients was great, as well; the warmth made us feel like we were eating a “real” dinner, while the cold ingredients, such as the tofu and spinach, were a great counterbalance.  In total, the meal couldn’t be beat!  We’ll definitely make it again.

:)

Vegetaran Pho. Very, Very Hot Vegetarian Pho.

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With all the craziness we’ve had, schedule-wise, the last couple of weeks, I completely forgot to tell you a story about our latest round of vegetarian pho!  It’s a cautionary tale, so beware.
I’ve made this pho recipe a hundred times, all with great success.  When you get right down to it, it’s an easy meal to make – the only time-consuming part is the hour spent baking the tofu strips to add in at the last!  And this instance was no exception.  The tofu baked beautifully, the noodles cooked up as they should, and the broth was as tasty and flavorful as ever.
The problem, we learned too late, came with our mix-ins.
Upon serving the pho, LeeLee and I always add lots of fresh vegetables to the top of the dish.  Basil, bean sprouts, jalapenos, and Sriracha are mainstays, and last Sunday was no different.
What was different – again, we learned this much too late – was the spiciness of our jalapeno. 
Without thinking twice, LeeLee and I each put four or five slices of the pepper into our bowls, then (and this was another mistake) doused the whole dish with a liberal helping of Sriracha sauce.  Then we dug in … and that’s when we saw, crystal-clear through tear-streaked eyes, the error of our ways.
The HEAT!  The SPICE!  The cough-inducing, grabbing-for-water, can’t-breathe PAIN!
This was perhaps the hottest jalapeno either of us had ever eaten in our lives.  It was so hot, in fact, that after a few more minutes of attempting to gamely choke down spoonful after spoonful, we threw in the towel, threw out the pho, and served ourselves some leftover noodles from the colander, topping them with more baked tofu and vegetables – but not the jalapeno.
So our planned pho became an unplanned tofu-with-noodles dish, with a sinus-clearing intermission.  It could’ve been worse!  And we’ve learned a valuable lesson: Always, ALWAYS check the heat of your chilies, even those you’ve used a thousand times.  You never know when a pepper will jump up and slap you in the face.

:)

Pad Thai Soup.

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First of all, please forgive me if the typeface, links, and such are all wonky tonight.  I arrived home to find my beloved laptop will not boot up — all it does is give me a sassy blinking file folder! A quick scan of the Apple site shows it may not be serious — in that I may not have lost all of my data — but I’m taking it to the shop tomorrow for a thorough once-over. Please send it healing vibes if you’re so inclined!

So tonight I come to you from my faithful iPad, which explains any text wonkiness you may experience. With any luck, I’ll be back in business tomorrow!
Now, let’s talk about tonight’s dinner.
I made Pad Thai Soup tonight, and let me cut right to the chase: It was fantastic.  It’s not nearly as heavy as traditional pad Thai, which was just fine with me!  I typically stay away from pad Thai at restaurants because I find it to be a bit peanut-buttery for my taste, but in soup form, sans any creaminess, the favors hit just right.
I started off by bringing a pot of water to a boil in order to cook my rice noodles.  This is probably a good time to admit that I’d never cooked rice noodles before. I didn’t put together until this weekend that the “rice sticks” in the Asian food aisle at the grocery store were actually rice noodles, so I always selected soba or udon noodles instead. Now that I’ve seen the error of my ways, I will rectify the situation in future meals!  I’m a huge fan.
While the rice noodles sat in their hot-water bath, I prepared the stock.  A carton of broth (plus a couple of cups of water for good measure), half a container of sliced mushrooms, some garlic powder, one diced shallot, several tablespoons each of soy sauce, brown sugar, and Sriracha, a quarter-cup of lime juice — everything went into my trusty Le Creuset and came just to a boil.  Once the broth was bubbling, I turned the heat to low and let the soup simmer while I baked my …
VEGAN SHRIMP!
I cannot TELL you how hard it is to find vegetarian shrimp around these parts.  Where my family lives in Florida, you can just go to the Publix and buy some Yves veggie shrimp like a civilized human being. Up here, it takes an act of Congress just to find any vegetarian seafood — and even then the selection centers primarily on veggie calamari.  
So when I went to Whole Foods earlier today and spied the Sophie’s Kitchen breaded “shrimp,” my heart sang with joy.  I knew it would be perfect for tonight’s soup!
I put the shrimp in the oven and let it warm up. By the time it was finished, the noodles were ready to be drained and the soup was heated through.  All that was left was to chop some cilantro, green onions, and peanuts, and we were on our way!
I already gave away the ending to this story — we lapped our soup up in no time and went back for seconds right away.  And there’s plenty left for tomorrow!  Broken laptop or no, the night is looking up.
:)

Chorizo Pizza With Salad.

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Pizza in the pan (and halfway gone).

This time yesterday, I was sure that tonight would be our first cookout of the spring!  But today, we witnessed snow falling all afternoon (our final snowfall of the year? Who knows?), and the thermometer mercury dropped to the 30s once more.  So it looks like we’ll plan for a cookout nextweekend.  I’ll be ready!

In the meantime, we had all the fixins for pizza at the ready, and Pizza Sunday is almost as fun as Cookout Sunday, so our hearts went on with dignity and grace.  Last night, upon surveying the forecast for today, I pulled a bag of homemade pizza dough out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge overnight (and all day).  This afternoon, we swung by the office to pick up the two packages of Daiya cheese I’d purchased but forgotten to bring home last week.  And tonight, I shaped said dough into a pizza crust, prebaked it for 12 minutes, then added some pizza sauce, Daiya mozzarella, and Lightlife chorizo slices, and continued baking the pizza for another 15 minutes or so.
As the pie baked, I threw together a quick salad – lettuce, cherry tomatoes, green olives, croutons, and a little leftover mozzarella from the pizza.  By the time the pizza was ready, the salad was on the table and waiting.  All that was left was to pop open a beer and bask in the glory of a snowy Sunday, with basketball on TV!
And bask we did.  The pizza turned out great (if I do say so), and the salad supplemented our veggie intake.  And the beer?  Well, it was just the cherry on top.

:)

Vegan Spinach Lasagna.

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Hello, friends.  Long time no talk!  I apologize for my radio silence – I was away at a conference and had only the very best intentions of blogging from the hotel room, and then we hosted LeeLee’s family for the week and had only the best intentions of blogging once they’d gone to bed.  But good intentions did not yield any blog posts!  I apologize for that.

I’m back on the wagon (and in the kitchen) today, though – with only the second homemade meal I’ve cooked in the last two weeks!  Usually, LeeLee and I like to go out on Saturday nights, but we found ourselves craving something healthy and homey.  My mother’s spinach lasagna recipe fit the bill, as usual!
I’m not following her regular recipe precisely to the letter tonight, however.  Instead, I’m using tofu to replace the cottage cheese and vegan cheese to replace the dairy mozzarella.   We’ve been trying to eat less dairy and eggs at home for a number of reasons, and what better time to experiment than with a tried-and-true recipe that only the two of us will eat this weekend?  No dinner party to prepare for; nobody to “show off” for.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to test some substitutions.
So, here’s what I did.  First, I made the sauce by emptying two cans of tomato sauce into a saucepan, then adding a diced onion, a jar of sliced mushrooms, and some basil, oregano, garlic powder, and sugar.  As that simmered, I defrosted a package of chopped spinach and added it to the mix as well.
Once the sauce had come together nicely, I put the lasagna together.  First, in a normal-sized lasagna pan, I added a half-cup or so of sauce to the bottom, just giving it a nice base layer.  Then I added one layer of uncooked lasagna noodles, then a container of extra-firm tofu, which I crumbled with my hands to give it a ricotta-like texture.  Next, I added about half of the remaining sauce, spreading it out nicely, and then topped that with half of my vegan mozzarella.  Then I added another layer of lasagna noodles, the rest of the sauce, and finally topped it with the rest of the mozzarella.
I covered the lasagna with aluminum foil and placed it into a 350-degree oven for an hour.  In the last 15 minutes of the bake time, I added a loaf of garlic bread to the oven and tossed a fresh salad to accompany the meal.  Once the timer dinged, dinner was ready, and LeeLee and I feasted while watching the latest installment of the NCAA basketball tournament!
As far as the vegan substitutions went, they didn’t miss a beat.  The lasagna was as comforting and hearty as ever, and the taste was fantastic.  LeeLee felt the taste was slightly different — though “just as good,” he insisted — from the dairy version, but I confess I didn’t notice any change in the taste or texture at all.  The only difference I did notice was the slight lack of cohesion when slicing pieces of lasagna for serving; when I do it over again, I’ll use Daiya mozzarella rather than the Trader Joe’s brand (the Daiya tends to hold up a little better in baking).  Either way, I will definitely feel comfortable serving the vegan version to friends, family, and other dinner guests!  And I’ll bet that most of them won’t even notice the lack of dairy.  The secret’s in the sauce, as usual!
:) 

Cuban Sandwiches With Yellow Rice.

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I tell you what, the DC area has nearly every cuisine and nationality represented in its restaurants, except for one glaring omission: Cuba!  I’m a native Floridian, and Cuban cuisine is certainly near and dear to my heart.  I confess that until I moved to another state, it never occurred to me that some grocery store bakeries didn’t have Cuban bread or that a strong cup of Cuban coffee was an art not appreciated (nor replicated) nationwide.  And a good Cuban sandwich?  Forget it.
So LeeLee and I have brought a little taste of the South (WAY South!) with us up here to ol’ Virginny.  And now that I have a new sandwich press – purchased on Black Friday and used weekly, so I suppose it’s not quite as “new” as it once was – there’s just no stopping us from making a good Cuban sandwich any time the mood strikes.
Our version is vegetarian, of course, but it still packs a wallop.  Having no access to Cuban bread up in these parts, we improvised by using the same steak rolls we used the other night (well, not the same ones as the ones we used for our buffalo tofu, but from the same package – work with me, here!).  Atop these rolls, we slathered some mayonnaise, then a long pickle slice, then Tofurky peppered deli slices, then Lightlife “ham,” then several rounds of vegetarian pepperoni, and, finally, some Daiya provolone slices.  Put the top on, place the sandwich delicately into the press, and five minutes later, voila – Cuban sandwiches!
I served some yellow rice alongside the sandwiches – always welcome.  If I’d had a little cup of black beans, I’d really be set!  But alas, sandwiches and rice were the only components on the menu tonight.  We found a way to survive.  ;)

:)

Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie With Cabbage.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I don’t know why we don’t make shepherd’s pie and cabbage more often – we always love it!  But sadly, this is one of the few times each year that we take the time to make this meal.  At least with the pie, I have a little bit of an excuse – it requires several different components and, as a result, a bit of time.  With the cabbage, I’ve got no good excuse at all!  I suppose I do use up the cabbage we get each year with our Great Country Farms CSA shipments, but that’s about the extent of it.
And it’s a shame, too, because we polished off almost an entire head of cabbage tonight at dinner and put a considerable dent in the shepherd’s pie itself!  LeeLee made it clear that his vote was solidly in the “Make this more often” camp, and I have to say, I agree.  It’s comforting, filling, hearty, and delicious.  And, multiple steps aside, it’s not difficult to make.
I always use a recipe I got from PETA a hundred (or perhaps a dozen) years ago, and it hasn’t failed me yet.  This time, instead of using a canned mushroom gravy, we used the frozen Tofurky brand, and it was so tasty.  I kept the rest of the recipe intact and was, as usual, very pleased with the results!
Now, I said this dish takes time to make.  Thank goodness that St. Paddy’s Day was on a Monday this year; this afforded me lots of time on Sunday to put everything together!
As the potatoes cooked, I prepared the “meat” filling.  Instead of blending everything in a bowl as the recipe calls for, I cooked the ingredients together in a pan to allow the flavors more time to mingle, and then I poured the veggie mixture into the bottom of my favorite ceramic pie plate.  By the time those shenanigans were over and done with, it was time to prepare the potatoes, which I did with my beloved potato masher.  A little almond milk, a little butter, and I had a fine crop of mashed potatoes just waiting to top the pie!
And so it did, just moments later.  Once I was pleased with the optics of the dish, I placed a sheet of foil over the top and put the pie pan in the refrigerator.  When I was ready to bake it tonight, I just cooked it at 350 for about an hour (maybe an hour and 10), and it was perfectly warm.
In the final 15 minutes that the pie was in the oven, I steamed the cabbage, which I’d pulled off the head with my hands and seasoned intermittently with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.  (When it arrived on the table, I also sprinkled my serving with some nutritional yeast, which I adore.)  The shepherd’s pie and cabbage paired just beautifully with one another – and with the Guinness we served alongside dinner!

:)