Tonight’s meal is a good news/bad news situation. No, I don’t mean bad news like another time I made this meal and found a caterpillar in it. That was more a bad news/disgusting news situation. Rather, tonight is a legitimate duality of emotions battling for dominance: On the plus side, we had fresh kale in last week’s CSA box. On the minus side, last week’s CSA box was the last of the season.

So you can see my range of emotions here tonight.

With all of that firmly in my mind, I valiantly woke up this morning and proceeded with the pre-work job of putting together tonight’s meal in my beloved slow cooker. As usual, I used this tried-and-true recipe from my friends over at Real Simple, and also as usual, it didn’t let me down. Tonight, I used Tofurky’s Andouille sausage – a first for this dish! – and was so pleased with the results. The sausage is smoky but also a bit mild, vocal in its presence but not quite dominating. This is, of course, a wonderful blend of traits.

By the time I got home from work tonight, the Crock-Pot had done its job just beautifully and the stew was piping-hot and ready to eat. I heated up a couple of slices of garlic bread in the oven to accompany the meal and then, as we do most Crock-Pot Mondays, LeeLee and I treated ourselves to the TV trays and ate our dinner watching the “CBS Evening News.” (We’re a Scott Pelley family.) Generally, we eat at the dinner table, but on Crock-Pot night we give ourselves a little treat.

The final result was glorious! We both adored the Andouille sausage, the beans were so smooth they were almost creamy, and the diced tomatoes gave the stew a bit of a kick. In all, we each enjoyed two helpings, and we would’ve gone back for thirds had we not wanted to save some for lunch tomorrow! High praise, indeed.

:)

This recipe has been on the docket for a week now, just for tonight! I had animal-shelter duty right after work, and the Democratic presidential debate is coming on TV in short order, so I knew time would be short (and so would my energy). So this morning before work I took 15 minutes or so to throw a meal into the Crock-Pot … and boy, am I glad I did!

What I didn’t realize when I put together tonight’s vegan beef stew is that we’d also be getting a little bit of rain this afternoon and evening, giving the air a humid chill. I can’t think of a better main course to serve during these times than stew!

This is a recipe from a longtime favorite cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens’ Crockery Cookbook (which, as I may have mentioned before, my friend Stuart always calls the “Crockery Cookery”). This book is such an old friend to me! We’ve been together through thick and thin, through first recipes and new houses and single life and marriage. I love this cookbook, which is now beginning to separate from its spine with use. And this beef stew recipe is such a great mainstay in the book; I could make it again and again (and have!).

I won’t get into all the ins and outs, since our friends at Better Homes and Gardens have books to sell and whatnot, but I was tickled pink to be able to use all local vegetables today – carrots and onions from Mr. Lopez at the Saturday market and potatoes we picked ourselves back in September. The recipe calls for celery, but I was fresh out. No biggie.

I mixed all of those veggies with some herbs and spices, some vegan ground “beef,” and some vegetable juice, flipped the switch to Low, and went to work! By the time I got back form the shelter tonight, having petted cats for an hour or so, dinner was ready and waiting, and not a moment too soon – LeeLee and I were hungry!

We both dug in and enjoyed a couple of heaping helpings, and there’s still plenty left over for lunch tomorrow. Lunches this week have been a joy, I must say – divan today, spinach lasagna from Saturday’s football game on Monday. I can’t wait to enjoy some stew in my Thermos for a midweek kick!

:)

Boy, was I happy to see (and smell) the Crock-Pot when I arrived home tonight!

LeeLee and I knew today would be a long day for us both. We each have projects that are about to come to fruition this week, and today was the day for each of us to spend extra hours at work getting everything in order for the rest of the week. So though it took a few extra minutes this morning to prepare the slow cooker, I knew it would pay off in the end!

“The end,” incidentally, came around 7:20 tonight, when I entered the house to be greeted by a screaming kittycat – who was two hours late for feeding time – and the wonderful aroma of one of our favorite Crock-Pot creations, cowboy stew. I came across this recipe years ago over at the wonderful Stephanie O’Dea’s blog, A Year of Slow-Cooking, and it quickly became a favorite here at Chez Recessionista!

And so it came to pass that this morning, I placed some vegan ground “beef,” chili beans (I can never find Ranch-style beans!), tomatoes with green chilies, Italian stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and two cans of small whole potatoes into the crock with a cup of water and some garlic powder and dried minced onion. (The recipe calls for corn, but I just plain old forgot to pick any up at the store this weekend! Ah, well.) (The recipe also calls for an optional garnish of jarred jalapeno slices, which I dutifully and excitedly purchased and then … forgot to use. Ah, well, once more!) Then I flicked the heat to Low and left the house for the day.

We ate tonight in shifts – I got home first, then LeeLee arrived about 40 minutes later – but we enjoyed our meals nonetheless. We served the stew with a slice of garlic bread on the side – perfect for dipping! And each of us went back for seconds, because this recipe is just that good.

And what’s even better is that we’ve got plenty left over for lunch tomorrow! This may be the autumnal debut of my beloved Thermos – who knows? I’ll keep you in suspense!

:)

All right, all right, today it’s been made perfectly clear: Autumn is coming, y’all. Today started out hot and humid here in the DC area and has ended up with just a touch of crisp and cool air blowing in. Autumn is COMING! It’s about time to bust out the pumpkin plates.

But first: A Crock-Pot full of our favorite taco soup will ease the way from season to season quite nicely. Topped with a few tortilla chips, it’s the perfectly complete and filling meal for any time of the year!

I’ve gone on and on about taco soup (I even filmed a Tiny Kitchen video about it!) for years, I recognize. My friend Jessica gave me this recipe eons ago, and I’ve tweaked it and customized and made it my own as the years have gone by. It’s easily become one of our favorite meals here at Chez Recessionista, and it makes leftovers that can last for days. What’s not to love?

So tonight, I breathed a sigh of relief when I arrived home to find the soup cooking merrily away in the slow cooker, the house fragrant with the smells of diced tomatoes and Mexican spices. The 10 minutes it took to put everything together was certainly worth the final result of not having to whip up a full meal after a long day at work and at the animal shelter afterward!

Over Labor Day weekend, I resisted the onslaught of autumn, I admit. But now I think I’m ready for the changing of the season. Summer’s been a blast. But fall has some wonderful characteristics, too. Apple-picking, college football, long-sleeved shirts – these are a few of my favorite things. And if taco soup can stay in the mix, I think we’ll be OK.

:)

Happy College Football Day, friends! This may as well be a national holiday in our home, so I’ll keep it brief now (and get back to watching TCU vs. Minnesota), but suffice it to say we enjoyed several hearty helpings of pizza soup when we got home from work tonight. We chowed down in front of our TV trays so as not to miss a moment of the evening’s first game, and a great time was (and is) had by all!

:)

Now, I know it’s a rarity around here to cook a chili that’s not in the Crock-Pot, but tonight we did just that (though not to worry, a Crock-Pot creation is coming near the end of the week!). Truth be told, I’ve had the ingredients for Robin Robertson’s Beer Chaser Chili, fresh out of her One-Dish Vegan cookbook, available for a couple of weeks and haven’t done a thing with them. Tonight, that was going to change!

Once I got home from work, I pulled out my trusty workhorse Le Creuset and diced up half of a huge onion from Mr. Lopez’s farm stand, then pulled both a green bell pepper and a jalapeno from the back yard and added them into the French oven as well with a bit of oil. After the veggies were translucent, I added in some spices (Mrs. Robertson has a book to sell, so I won’t get into all the whys and wherefores), two cans of pinto beans, some crushed tomatoes, some veggie “beef,” and a bottle of Dixie Blackened Voodoo (a favorite around here). Then I set the chili to boil, turned the heat to Low, and covered it to cook for more than half an hour.

Within the last 20 minutes of cooking time, I put a pan of tater tots in the oven to bake. “Chili Taters” is a perennial favorite dish of ours from our local chili joint, Hard Times Café, and tonight inspiration struck to try it at home for the first time. Why, pray tell, haven’t we done this for years? The blend of starchy potatoes and chewy protein is a wonderful marriage indeed.

And that marriage lasted throughout this meal, that’s for sure! First of all, we loved the flavor of this chili – it’s the first time I’ve made this particular variation before – and secondarily we loved the merger between the tater tots and the chili itself. As per usual, I put my tater tots on the bottom of the bowl and topped them with the chili (as Hard Times does); LeeLee put his chili on the bottom and topped it off with the tots. It takes all kinds, doesn’t it?

At any rate, we’ve got a ton of chili left over for tomorrow’s lunch, which is always a beautiful thing. Time to bust out the Thermos and get to work!

:)

With tai chi being out for summer break, we can move our Crock-Pot weekday around to suit the rest of our busy schedules in a way we normally don’t during tai chi season itself! I knew I was going to the animal shelter after work tonight (speaking of, did you know that Saturday, Aug. 15, is Clear the Shelters Day? Go visit your local shelter to find your new best friend!), and I also knew I would be ravenously hungry by the time I got home afterward. So a quick pot of chili java was easy to put together before work this morning – and it was the perfect welcome-home meal after a long day away this evening!

I’ve written about chili java plenty of times before – the recipe comes from Robin Robertson’s wonderful One-Dish Vegan – and it never gets old around these parts. I mean, c’mon. Vegan “beef,” with red beans and spicy chili powder, mixed with coffee, of all things? How could I not be in love?

So this morning I put all the ingredients together (the above, plus some others as well – Ms. Robertson has a book to sell, so I won’t get into all the details here!), flipped the slow cooker to Low, and left for work. By the time I got home tonight, the house had taken on a wonderfully rich smell of simmering chili, and LeeLee was circling the Crock-Pot like a shark, waiting for the dinner bell.

He didn’t have to wait long. Ding ding! We dug in straightaway, topping our chili with some vegan sour cream and Daiya pepperjack for good measure.

Y’all already know how this is going to end. Two helpings apiece later, we were stuffed to the gills and loving it. The coffee melds beautifully into the rest of the dish, leaving behind an earthy richness that can’t be beat. And some diced green chilies really give the chili some extra pep in its step, as well! To say nothing of the veggie-beef and beans. (And furthermore, this is a chili that even tomato haters will like – there’s nary a nightshade in the bunch!)

I’m thrilled to know that we’ve got plenty of chili left for lunch tomorrow. Something tells me that it will go quite quickly!

:)