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The Kitchen Recessionista

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

Buffalo Tofu With Peas and Tater Tots.

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When I first put this meal on the weekly menu, I had grand visions of tonight being the first cookout of the season, just a hair before spring’s official arrival this Thursday.  The weather has been so mild, so sunny and lovely these last few days, that a barbecue seemed a reasonable assumption to me.
Now, it is snowing.  So much for reasonable!
And so our cookout became a cook-IN, with the buffalo tofu baking for a solid hour in the oven instead of for 25 minutes on the grill.  I can think of worse dinners! :)
I began marinating the tofu right after I woke up this morning, slicing the block up into eight strips and pouring almost a full bottle of buffalo sauce into a zip-top bag atop said tofu strips.  Every few hours I reached into the refrigerator and turned the bag to allow the tofu to marinate evenly, and there it sat, chilling, until I needed it tonight for dinner!
When it came time to bake, I laid each strip out on a baking sheet and turned the oven to 350.  I cooked the tofu on one side for 20 minutes, then flipped each strip and cooked it all for another 20.  A sheet of tater tots joined the tofu for the final 20 minutes, at which time I cranked the oven temperature up to 425 (and added a can of peas to a saucepan on the stove).  By the time the buffalo strips had been in the oven for an hour, everything else was ready!
We served the tofu on steak rolls with all the sandwich fixins – lettuce, tomato, onion, nutritional yeast (for me – LeeLee doesn’t care for it as much as I do), and the like.  And cookout or no, it made for a perfect Sunday night meal!  We’ve even got enough tofu left to make a hearty lunch for tomorrow – huzzah!

:)

Pierogies With Peas, Pimientos, and Sauerkraut.

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I’m sure I’ve espoused my deep love of the cast-iron skillet in these pages before, but please allow me to do so again now.  Alongside my beloved Crock-Pot and French oven, the cast-iron skillet is one of the very best and most versatile cooking supplies I have on hand, and I just don’t know what I’d do without it.  From delicious pancakes to skillet potatoes, from sauces to tonight’s pierogies, it handles every single meal with aplomb, and I only wonder how I made it as long as I did without my own personal skillet!
But my cast iron is just a new baby.  My grandmother’s skillet, on the other hand, has been in service for the better part of eight decades (and perhaps more than that – it’s entirely likely that it originally belonged to my great-grandmother).  My aunt has it now, but I’m hopeful that one of these days it will end up here in my kitchen, well-seasoned and smooth as silk.
Skillets.  They stand the test of time, living longer than most of us.  You’ve just gotta love a kitchen appliance like that.
Anyway, on to tonight’s dinner.
I knew I wanted to make pierogies tonight, and originally I’d planned a tossed salad to accompany it.  But we’ve had salad several times lately, and quite honestly I’ve developed a little bit of salad fatigue as a result!  So I combed the cabinets instead and came up with a plan.  Why not add peas and pimientos to the skillet near the end and make a one-pot meal?  Why not, indeed.
So I heated some oil in the cast iron, put the pierogies in to begin to heat, and after 10 or so minutes I flipped them over to brown on the other side.  After another seven minutes, I flipped them back over to finish cooking, added the can of peas, the jar of diced pimientos, and a hearty helping of sauerkraut, and then topped the dish with a sprinkling of pepper.  Everything was nicely heated within another five minutes, and that was that! 
The final result was fantastic.  The peas and pimientos added color to the plate, yes, but more importantly they added depth to the final product, balancing the potatoes and cheese with some light, fresh-tasting vegetables.  And the sauerkraut was just the cherry (?) on top, adding the perfect amount of zing.
I confess there are no leftovers – we mowed down every last morsel, and would’ve considered scraping the pan had it not still been so hot!  But it was indeed a successful meal – an invention that I’ll definitely cook again in the future. 

:)

“Sausage”-Corn Chowder.

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I can’t help it.  Every time I use the Crock-Pot, I feel so smug with myself!  I love coming home to a freshly made dinner after a long day of work, even if it was my own doing hours earlier!

Tonight was no different.  On one of our first springlike days, a light chowder was just the ticket!  So, before work, I put everything together: a can of kernel corn, a can of creamed corn, a package of Morningstar Farms sausage links, a diced onion, quite a few halved baby yellow potatoes, some salt, some pepper, a bit of oregano, and two cups of water to wash it all down.  :)  After nine or 10 hours cooking at Low heat, everything was nicely cooked by the time we got home tonight!

But there was one more step to take.  About 10 minutes before serving, I opened a can of evaporated milk and stirred it into the chowder, which gave the soup a lovely, hearty consistency.  Once the flavors had mingled and the milk had heated up, we ladled out two bowls’ worth and chowed down!  … and went back for seconds.  Because why not.

Despite our second helpings, there’s still enough for LeeLee (or me, but probably LeeLee) to enjoy for lunch tomorrow!  Once he gets through the leftover pizzadillas, that is.

:)

Vegan Pizzadillas With Salad.

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OK, OK, I admit it: My name is Hope, and I have a pizzadilla obsession.
I only end up making this recipe about once a month or so, but I could eat them every day and still feel content!  They take no time to prepare or cook, and paired with a salad (or just by themselves, if we’re in a huge hurry), they’re a perfectly hearty meal.  And you can use the whole container of tortillas in one recipe!  Let me state that again: YOU CAN USE THE WHOLE BAG OF TORTILLAS IN ONE RECIPE.  For someone who is always stashing leftovers in the already-stuffed freezer for later, this is wonderful news indeed.
LeeLee and I each polished off one pizzadilla apiece in short order and wolfed down our salad as well (this time, instead of preparing the salad in a large serving bowl, I made individual salads – so as to save some of the lettuce for tomorrow’s lunch salad portions!), leaving no trace.  LeeLee had to head out to a meeting shortly thereafter, but I lingered in the kitchen, making several more meals’ worth of pizzadillas while I had both the time and the inclination (to say nothing of the ingredients!).
I love to start the week with a fridge full of lunches and a belly full of good food.  It really puts me on track for the days to come and makes today a happy Monday indeed.

:)

Pinto-and-Tomato Tostadas With Rice.

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If you back out the fresh vegetables, tonight’s meal can be classified as a clean-out-the-pantry dinner, as well as a new recipe entirely!  I just sort of made it up as I went along, and it turned out great (or so says LeeLee).
After our Pantry Cleanout week awhile back, I made a personal commitment to keep up with digging deep in the cabinets for long-forgotten treasures.  As a result, over the past few weeks I’ve been cobbling together tasty meals from items I have on hand already – chik’n posole, for instance, as well as red beans and rice – and tonight was no exception.  The only difference was that this recipe was new to me, created on the spot for the occasion!  It’s safe to say I’ll definitely make it again.
Here’s how it went.  I put some rice and Goya seasoning in the rice cooker and pressed the Start button.  Then I pulled a can of pinto beans and a can of Rotel (well, Safeway brand tomatoes and green chilies, if you want to know the truth – they were having a sale the other week) out of the cabinet and mixed the two together in a saucepan with some adobo seasoning.  As the bean mixture came to a boil, I heated a small omelet pan to medium heat (and added some cooking spray beforehand) and warmed up a total of four corn tortillas, which I’ve been keeping in the freezer and pulling out when needed.  These tortillas would end up being the base for my tostadas, so I wanted them to be as crispy as possible!
As all of this cooked, I diced up an onion and a tomato and pulled some leftover lettuce out of the refrigerator.  We even had some Daiya vegan mozzarella to finish using up from some weekend festivities! 
By the time LeeLee got home, dinner was nearly ready.  When the rice cooker finished its work, I spooned some of the rice and some of the bean mixture atop the corn tortillas – two on each plate – and then topped it all with some of the veggies and cheese, adding an extra spoonful of rice on the side.  (The photo above is pre-veggie; I wanted you to be able to see the tostadas in their natural habitat!)
This recipe was definitely a success!  We cleaned our plates, the rice cooker, and the saucepan.  And the vegetable dish.  And even a bottle of Tabasco, which in all honesty was on its last few drops anyway. 
Pinto-and-tomato tostadas for the win!

:)

Rigatoni Aglio e Olio With Vegetables.

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In my first two podcast episodes, I discussed (at varying lengths) my pasta-making franchise.  And by “franchise,” what I mean is, “the two times I’ve made pasta recently.”  Tonight’s meal featured the second such attempt at making rigatoni, which I froze after I’d made a full batch, waiting for the perfect day to use it.  Today was just that day!
Even though there’s still plenty of snow on the ground, I can’t help but dream of spring, which I feel sure is right around the corner.  This aglio e olio with vegetables is a nod to primavera – the season and the recipe – with lots of spring-like veggies, such as yellow squash and bright yellow cherry tomatoes.
As the pasta water heated up to a boil (which took about 15 minutes), I heated up a skillet and sautéed a diced onion in olive oil, adding sliced yellow squash a few minutes into the process.  Just before the water was rolling nicely, I added a jar of sliced mushrooms to the pan as well and topped the blend with some garlic powder, parsley, salt, and pepper.  Then I dumped the bag of frozen pasta into the water and added the cherry tomatoes to the skillet (they never need very much time to heat through).
Once the rigatoni was ready, I drained the pot and added a colander’s worth to the skillet as well, tossing everything together to mix and adding a splash more olive oil for texture.  We served dinner up straight from the skillet, not even bothering to transfer everything to a prettier serving dish; who needed that?  By the time the meal was on our plates, it was pretty enough!  And paired with a fresh green salad, this recipe really hit the spot.
In Recessionista fashion, LeeLee and I both jumped for joy at the realization that we have plenty left for lunch tomorrow!  And I’m pretty excited, too, that a lack of rigatoni in the freezer means that I should pull the pasta extruder out for another go-round.  This weekend!

:)

Chik’n Posole.

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The snow whooshed in first thing this morning just as the Weather Service said it would (though in our yard at least, it didn’t quite hit the mark the NWS had predicted), and after a day of working from home and taking a mid-afternoon break to sled down our neighborhood hill and shovel the walk, the far-and-away best fuel for our souls was a hearty bowl of chik’n posole.  The heat from both the stovetop and the peppers warmed us right up!
This is by far one of the easiest meals I make, and yet it always tastes so impressive.  Who would’ve thought that a mix of chik’n strips (we used Trader Joe’s brand this time), Rotel, yellow hominy, broth, garlic powder, minced dried onion, and black pepper would create such a first-class dinner?  But it does, every single time, and LeeLee and I are always surprised by it.
In typical snow-day fashion, we paired tonight’s meal with a full-figured red wine (we always tend to splurge on wine for snow days – and by “splurge” I mean $10 a bottle rather than $5), and I even crumbled a few tortilla chips into my soup bowl for some added pizazz.  The end result was fantastic – we always dip chips into our Taco Soup, and I’ll have to keep it in mind for this meal too from now on!
As I write this, we’re both trying to ignore the leftover king cake that is featured prominently in the middle of our dining-room table – remnants from a Mardi Gras soiree we enjoyed this weekend (I’ll talk about it on the podcast very soon!).  But I know we’ll soon break down and have a sweet treat.  With four inches of snow on the ground, it just seems like the perfect way to cap off the evening!

:)

Minestrone (and More!).

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Tonight, LeeLee and I attended a long-awaited meeting of our monthly dinner group – a group of friends who take turns hosting potluck dinners at one house each month.  I say “long-awaited” because it was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago, but a deluge of snow forced the hosts to postpone!  We were afraid that was going to happen again tonight – half a foot of snow looms large for tomorrow – but we managed to thread the needle and make it to dinner and home again in the nick of time.  Good thing, too – as usual, the spread was fantastic!
Sometimes, our dinner group hosts announce a theme for the month’s meal; sometimes not.  Tonight, we enjoyed an Italian feast (this dinner was supposed to happen on Valentine’s Day weekend, remember), and LeeLee and I brought minestrone for the occasion.
With our selection firmly in mind, this morning I pulled out my recipe for Italian Wedding Soup from my much-loved copy of Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson, and got the Crock-Pot ready to go.  I admit I went a bit offroad with my interpretation of Robertson’s recipe – my ingredients don’t sync up one-to-one with hers – but her version definitely provided the foundation for my own!
I put a can of cannellini beans, two cans of mixed vegetables, a can of diced tomatoes, two ribs of diced celery, one diced onion, and a healthy dose of dried parsley in the crockery and finished it off with a carton of vegetable broth (four cups in all), turned the slow cooker on, and moved on with my life.  When it was time for us to leave for the party tonight, I carried the cooker, heating element and all, out to the car, nestled it in place on the floorboard with a plethora of towels and rags, and hoped for the best.
LeeLee did his level best to keep the ride, well, level, but I fear I was overly optimistic when putting the soup into the cooker earlier today.  At the beginning of our ride, the minestrone filled the Crock-Pot to the brim, but by the time we arrived at our hosts’ house, there was half an inch of headspace that wasn’t there before.  The floor mat in the car, in the meantime, was soaked with broth, as were the towels I had so carefully placed around the meal.  But all in all, the minestrone was no worse for wear, and it was certainly devoured in short order as part of the first course!  I dished up almost a dozen small bowls of the soup and brought only a few spoonfuls at the bottom of the slow cooker back home with me.
As far as the rest of the meal went, we had plenty of food to feast upon – spaghetti and marinara, garlic bread, asparagus with butter sauce, beet salad, cole slaw, cheese and crackers, Key lime pie, cake, cookies … the list goes on.  Paired with a plethora of great wines, dinner left us all fat and happy!  And as usual, the conversation flowed freely, as did the laughter.  I can’t think of a better way to ring in a Monday snow day!

:)

Asian Tofu With Braised Vegetables.

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Well, at least one thing is now clear: I don’t care for bamboo shoots.  (Who knew, right?)
This dish looked so GOOD in the cookbook I found it pictured in (which shall remain nameless since I’m giving the dish – spoiler alert – an unfavorable review but it may have been user/palate error), and I couldn’t wait to give it a try.  So after work I diced the tofu and fried it up in my most wok-like pan, then added some sliced mushrooms, shredded cabbage, snow peas, and – yes – the bamboo shoots, stir-frying for a few minutes before putting a lid on the pan to braise everything for the final touch.
Once everything was nearly cooked, I added some soy sauce and brown sugar to the mix, stirred everything around, and gave it a minute or two to breathe before flicking the eye of the stove to Off and declaring dinner ready!
We served our tofu and vegetables with steamed rice – which goes with everything, you know – and sat down to eat.  LeeLee dove right in, declaring dinner a masterpiece, but I hung back.  There was something … off … about the meal.  Something wasn’t right with the smell.  Something footy was, well, afoot.
One taste of the bamboo shoots got me my answer.  With enough sauce, I’m sure they can hide right away – as they likely do when I enjoy them at restaurants – but here at home, they stood right out in all their bamboo-shoot glory.  Again, LeeLee and I diverged in our feelings – he loved them, and polished off my discards, but I just could not stand them.  I did finish everything else on my plate, but I confess this was not the best meal I’ve ever made – or even that I’ve made this week! – and it’s likely not one I’ll make again.
That said, we ate, we enjoyed the company and dinnertime chat, and we did so on our typical Recessionista budget.  As a result, I count the night as a win. :)

:)

Red Beans and Rice.

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“What are we having for dinner tonight?” LeeLee asked me earlier today.  “I hope it’s something light,” he added, surveying (as I had not one hour earlier in my own mind) the scene of our weekend behavior, which teemed with pizza and Thai.

He looked very relieved when I replied, “Red beans and rice with a chik’n patty!”  If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last 10 years in this marriage, it’s that red beans and rice is always an acceptable dinner.  Always!
And so, with half an hour to work with, I put the rice into the cooker and opened a can of dark red kidney beans, seasoning them as I like to do with Cajun seasoning (Tony Chacherie is our brand of choice!).  The beans simmered as the rice steamed, and once the rice cooker clicked off, I put two Morningstar Farms chik’n patties in the microwave and heated them up for several minutes.  The microwave dinged as the rice finished steaming, and I flicked the stovetop off – and we were ready to sit down to dinner!
It was, as usual, a comforting, hearty, tasty, and healthy meal – one that filled us up without weighing us down.  Sadly, there were no leftovers, but that’s all right too – another signal of a meal well-liked!

:)