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The Kitchen Recessionista

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

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 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.

:)

Pizza Bandiera With Salad.

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I got home from work tonight at a decent hour, perfectly energetic and ready to go.  But when I looked in the fridge and prepared to pull out the ingredients for tonight’s planned meal – a perfectly good choice – I just … didn’t want it.  Could not fathom the idea of eating a Chinese stir-fry with rice!

No, pizza was what I wanted, and fast.  Thank goodness we had this pizza bandiera on the menu for later in the week! 
The funny thing about this dinner substitution is that the new choice saved me no time.  I still had to prepare the vegetable mixture – a sautee of onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, wine, salt, and pepper – and prebake (and then bake-bake) the pizza dough.  And prepare the salad.  As well as wash two forks, because our silverware drawer was completely bare!  (The dishwasher is running as I type this.  It’s been a bit of A Week for being only Tuesday.)
I’d say I’ve never made this particular recipe – originally from Vegan Planet – before, but there’s a little red star by it in my copy of Robin Robertson’s wonderful cookbook, so clearly I have made it at some point or another.  It must have been years ago, though, and must not have made the impression this one did – because I think I’d remember a dinner as good as this one!  I was skeptical that the flavors would mingle well enough to make a good sauce-and-topping combination, but those fears were quickly put to rest when I tried the final product.  LeeLee and I both loved the mixture of sweet and savory, of mild and spicy, that this sauce provided.  And paired with a fresh lettuce-and-olive salad (I felt like another tomato on the dinner plate would be one tomato too many!), it was a great dinner indeed.
So, in short, we subbed one good but less-sought-after meal for another that we really, really wanted, and we didn’t have to call for takeout or spend any additional time on meal prep.  It’s a win-win!  (And not to worry.  That erstwhile dinner will show up soon enough. I’ll let you know when I make it!)
:)

Vegan Pizzadillas With Salad.

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Now, I’ve gotta be honest: I’ve been looking forward to dinner all the day long.  I knew I was making pizzadillas, you see, and they are just so good and so tasty that my mind kept going back to them throughout the workday – in meetings, at my desk, even when eating lunch.  I know, I have problems.  That’s OK.  Diff’rent strokes and all that.
So after my volunteer shift at the shelter, and after I’d gone by LeeLee’s office to pick him up, and after we’d gotten home, changed clothes (well, I did – my volunteer clothes always come back smelling like hot dogs and dog-dogs), and fed the cat, it was time to get to work.  This is when pizzadillas really shine – they take no time to put together and don’t even dirty up any pots and pans!
I brought out two baking sheets and laid two flour tortillas side by side on each one.  To each tortilla I added several spoonfuls of pizza sauce, spreading it around evenly; a generous portion of sliced white button mushrooms; seven or eight slices of Yves pepperoni; and a heaping handful of Trader Joe’s vegan mozzarella.  Once my pizzadillas were dressed, I laid another tortilla on top of them, sprayed the tops with cooking spray, and cooked them in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
As they baked, I tossed a simple salad of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, black olives, and a little extra vegan cheese.  Then I sat and petted the cat for a few minutes as the pizzadillas continued their time in the oven!
Once they were done cooking, I let them sit for a couple of minutes to firm up and then ran my pizza cutter in the middle of each one crosswise and lengthwise, making four quarters out of each pizzadilla.  We each took four pieces, filled the rest of our plates with salad, and dined happily!
And now we’ve got three more pizzadillas waiting in the fridge for lunches.  LeeLee may have to arm-wrestle me for these!
:)

Pea and Olive Pizza.

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Is it cold enough for you out there?  (Friends in the Southern Hemisphere, just sub out “warm” for “cold.”)
First and foremost, we’re riding quite an exuberant high around Chez Recessionista this week, since my beloved Seminoles clenched the national championship trophy last night!  I would’ve blogged – we had West Coast chili in keeping with the Rose Bowl theme – but I was too busy alternating between jumping to the ceiling in jubilation and flinging myself onto the side of the front door in despair.  (It was a little bit of a rough game for three or so quarters there.)
As a result of last night’s festivities, tonight LeeLee and I are both a bit tired (the game went late last night, and the celebration went later).  So I knew we needed a relatively easy, quick meal to put on the table.
Now, when I made up this week’s menu plan, I had intended to make a batch or two of pizza dough to put in the freezer for nights just such as these.  Alas, my best-laid plans were not to be, and so tonight I found myself stopping by the grocery store on the way home for a Pillsbury pizza crust, which did the job perfectly fine, if I do say so myself.
I came across the recipe for green pea and black olive pizza in Nava Atlas’ The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet, which incidentally is one of my very favorite go-to cookbooks.  My best friend gave it to me as a wedding gift nearly 10 (!) years ago, and it hasn’t strayed far from my reach since then.  I use it all the time, and tonight was no exception.
Instead of a red pizza, I elected to do a white version, so I spooned a few dollops of ricotta cheese on my prebaked crust and topped it with some “pizza blend” cheese (that is, mozzarella and cheddar – I confess I’d never really thought of that combination as a “pizza blend” before, but there the package sits, proudly in the grocery aisle).  I topped the cheeses with a hearty helping of frozen (straight from the bag!) peas and a small can of sliced black olives and put the pizza back in the oven to bake for about 15 more minutes.  As it cooked, I tossed a quick salad (my go-to – romaine with cherry tomatoes, olives, and parmesan cheese) and set the table.  And poured myself a glass of wine while I was at it, because why not?
The end result was fantastic.  This pizza looks so fresh, so dadgum healthy in spite of the cheese, and the Pillsbury dough was a worthy stand-in for homemade.  LeeLee and I each had three slices, and we’ve still got enough for one of us to eat for lunch tomorrow.  I love a leftover!
Stay warm, friends, and go Noles!
:)