Just a short post today, because my husband of five years is taking me out to dinner in a few minutes. But I did just want to comment on today’s anniversary picnic and outing at the National Arboretum, where we wandered amid the herb garden and the bonsai walk and the Asian collection. It was a fantastic afternoon!

For our picnic, we brought along sandwiches made with Tofurky Italian deli slices on Asiago bread as well as a bean-and-corn salad served on a bed of lettuce, with fresh strawberries on the side and coconut granola bars for dessert. It was the perfect lunch for a hot June day!

Now: On to one of our favorite restaurants. It’s not Chez Recessionista, but it’ll have to do! ;)

:)

First of all, I recognize that tonight’s photo looks a little … sloppy. That’s because what you are looking at is LeeLee’s plate, mid-meal. The reason is simple: The meal smelled and looked so good that once I put everything on my plate, I strode confidently to the table and commenced eating, without a single photo taken. In fact, it wasn’t until my plate was nearly cleared and I was on my way back to the kitchen for seconds that I remembered my duties here at Chez Recessionista and ran back to the table, asking LeeLee to WAIT! I NEED A PHOTO!

On the plus side, the meal was very good. :)

I had wanted to cook this out on the grill, but the rain was looming, and the humidity was reaching 100%, and, frankly, it just didn’t seem like very much fun to be outside cooking something that I could just as easily cook indoors. So I caved to the weather. I won’t make a habit of it, though!

Anyway, the peppers and chik’n made great fajita fillings, and the refried beans and rice were great on the side. We’ll definitely be making this one again – perhaps on the grill next time!

The stats:

Chik’n strips: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Bell peppers: $3.00 ($1.50/person)
Refried beans: $1.59 ($0.80/person)
Rice: $2.25 ($1.13/person)
Tortillas: $2.99/six ($1.00/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $13.82 … or $6.43 per person.

:)

Tonight, we did our best to beat the rain while cooking some burgers out on the grill and cleaning out the remainder of last week’s CSA delivery – just in time for a new one tomorrow!

I wrapped two batches of asparagus in foil (with butter and seasonings, of course) and put them on the grill to cook while I tended to another batch of crispy kale inside and put the baked beans on to warm up. (I also added a foil packet of squash to the grill – may as well get tomorrow’s lunch cooked along with everything else!) I had two frozen veggie burgers left from the weekend’s festivities, so as we got closer to time I put them on to heat up. At the very last, I draped them with some leftover cheese and, once they were off the grill, topped each with a sliver of leftover veggie bacon from brunch a few days ago – yum!

The best part? We beat the rain! Here’s hoping we can do so again tomorrow, when I have another grill-friendly meal to prepare. Stay tuned!

The stats:

Burgers: $3.50/four ($0.88/person)
Buns: $0.99/eight ($0.12/person)
Asparagus: Prepaid (CSA)
Kale: Prepaid (CSA)
Baked beans: $2.19 ($1.10/person)
“Bacon”: $4.99 ($0.62/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $11.67 … or $2.72 per person.

:)

It’s Tuesday. You know the score. Evening meetings, things to do. So as usual, I needed a meal that would be quick to prepare and provide us a nutritional boost, too.

The Crock-Pot to the rescue!

I gave this recipe a try for the first time a month or two ago, and it’s been waiting in my arsenal ever since. Tonight I used more barbecue sauce than I did the last time around, and the meal was even taster as a result. This casserole is a filling, hearty dish, perfect for a stormy evening like tonight. The kale that was served on the side, baked to crispness in the oven, was a great accompaniment! I’d never tried the recipe before, but you can bet I’ll be using it again and again now.

The stats:

Chik’n strips: $3.49 ($1.75/person)
Barbecue sauce: $1.50 ($0.75/person)
Jiffy cornbread mix: $1.18 ($0.59/person)
Eggs: $4.29/dozen ($0.36/person)
Sweet potato: $0.79 ($0.40/person)
Corn: $1.99 ($1.00/person)
Kale: Prepaid! (Part of our CSA delivery.)

GRAND TOTAL: $9.31 … or $4.85 per person.
BUT WAIT! This makes enough leftovers for at least one additional meal, so the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

I think I’m finally getting the hang of pizza crust!

I’ve used the same dough recipe for years, and through that time I’ve worked quite a bit on the spices and flavoring. This time around, though, I think I got it right, and the pizza really popped as a result! The trick to seasoning is, I think, to feel like I’ve over-seasoning the crust with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano; once I felt like I’d really messed it up by putting “too much” in, I think I got it right. :)

I made the dough last night, letting it rise for an hour before I put it in the refrigerator at bedtime. This evening, all I had to do when I got home from work was pull the dough out of the fridge and start cooking! It was so easy – I’ll have to get my act together more often on the night before Pizza Night.

Accompanying the pizza tonight was a tossed salad filled with lettuce, tomato, garbanzo beans, and a homemade dressing. It was a great summertime meal for a nice hot day!

The stats:

Flour: $2.89 ($0.29/person)
Yeast: $8.49 (($0.27/person)
Cheese: $1.99 ($1.00/person)
Ground “beef”: $4.69 ($2.35/person)
Sauce: $1.85 ($0.93/person)
Tomato: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Lettuce: Leftovers from lunch!
Garbanzo beans: $1.00 ($0.50/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $21.91 … or $5.84 per person.
BUT WAIT! I’ve got beef, cheese, and sauce left over. I’ll either mix them together for an upcoming sauce or put them in a wrap or sub for lunch. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

If it’s Sunday night, it’s Cookout Time! :)

Tonight, after a stint at the gym for LeeLee and a dip in the community pool for me, we cracked open a homebrew and lit up the grill for a farmer’s market feast. I sliced a zucchini and a yellow squash (purchased at Wednesday’s farmer’s market on my way home from work), mixed them together in two foil packets (along with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder), and threw them on the grill for half an hour or so, while the tater tots baked inside and the Devil Beans that LeeLee procured from the farmer’s market yesterday warmed on the stove. (I’d just like to add that I recognize the Devil Beans are a little more expensive than our usual fare, but I’ve gotta tell you, it was worth every penny. God bless Miss Kitty and her farm stand! :))

A little closer to time, I put two veggie burgers on to warm up, and nearer still to serving, I put two buns atop the grates to toast. The final result? A great Sunday night meal that left us full and lingering on the patio for another hour or more.

The stats:

Veggie burgers: $3.50/four ($0.88/person)
Buns: $0.99/eight ($0.12/person)
Onion: $0.50 ($0.25/person)
Tomato: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Squash: $2.50/five ($0.50/person)
Devil Beans: $6.00 ($3.00/person)
Tater tots: $3.00 ($0.75/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $17.49 … or $6.00 per person.

:)

Please forgive the tardiness of this post – as you can see, this was last night’s meal, but we were in a hurry to get to our evening plans out with friends and I didn’t have time to post after dinnertime! So here I am, a day late. :)

If you’ve been reading these pages for very long, you can probably tell that ramen with Rotel is a go-to meal for us. Within 10 minutes, I can have a hearty, filling dinner on the table, and while many nights we love to linger well after the meal is finished, sometimes we have places to go and people to see! That was of course the case last night, so ramen with Rotel fit the bill beautifully. I believe it’s my favorite ramen-based meal – and all things considered, one of the healthiest, too! No sodium-laden flavor packet to content with, no frying in oil; just good old noodles with tomatoes and green chilies, topped with a protein-packed chik’n patty. It can’t be beat!

The stats:

Ramen: $0.29 ($0.15/person)
Rotel: $1.69 ($0.85/person)
Boca Chik’n Patty: $3.50/four ($0.88/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $5.48 … or $1.88 per person.

:)

Tonight, we took a chance on the dark clouds that loomed above and fired up the grill anyway, hoping our bet would pay off. And it did, in the form of well-cooked hot dogs, Brussels sprouts, and baked beans!

Initially I was concerned that even if we were able to cook out, we’d have to come indoors to eat (because who wants to run inside mid-meal when the sky opens up?). But by the time dinner was ready and the buns were toasting on the grill, the clouds had given way to evening sun, and even the humidity dissipated, giving us a nice cool dinnertime under the blue sky. Success!

And the meal appeared to be a success, too (if I do say so myself). Of five franks, only one was left at the end of the meal (which LeeLee will probably have for breakfast tomorrow – he’s weird like that), and there were no more sprouts or beans to be found. Paired with a homebrewed beer, it was the perfect meal!

The stats:

Tofurky Franks: FREE!
Buns: $0.99/eight ($0.12/person)
Brussels sprouts: $2.00 ($1.00/person)
Baked beans: $2.00 ($1.00/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $4.99 … or $2.12 per person.

:)

On a sunny, crisp, cool night after a Monday back at work, sometimes you just want to try something new and refreshing. So, before our friends came over for cocktails, I pulled some Tofurky lemon-pepper tempeh out of the refrigerator and got to work for a little pre-margarita meal.

This tempeh was part of a package of items the Tofurky folks sent to me recently to review, so I’ll spend most of my time focusing on it in today’s. First of all, it was easy to cook – always a plus on a busy night! All I had to do was throw the strips in a pan, cook them for two to three minutes on each side, and they were ready to serve! Tonight we choose to serve them on hoagie rolls with some (vegan) mayonnaise, onion slices, tomato, and lettuce leaves from the garden, though I could imagine serving them with pasta, in wraps, or in other dishes as well.

But the proof was in the eating. And by the end of the meal, there was not one tempeh strip left between LeeLee and me! We loved the flavor (LeeLee is especially partial to lemon), and the way they melded with the rest of the meal was great. They seem pretty adaptive, yet also quite able to stand on their own.

I’m still getting used to the texture of tempeh as a whole – I like it and will buy it from time to time at the grocery store, but I haven’t gotten my taste buds to adapt to it the way they have to, say, tofu. But the way this tempeh was seasoned made it MUCH more palatable for me. I think one of the problems I’ve been having all along is a lack of flavoring, because this marinade really popped.

We paired the sandwiches with English peas and vegan mac and “cheese” for a lovely, light summertime meal. It was a treat indeed!

The stats:

Tofurky lemon-pepper tempeh: FREE!
Sub rolls: $2.50/six ($0.42/person)
Mac and Cheez: $2.19 ($1.10/person)
Peas: $1.75 ($0.88/person)
Onion: $1.00 ($0.25/person)
Tomato: $0.79 ($0.40/person)
Lettuce: FREE!

GRAND TOTAL: $8.23 … or $3.05 per person.

:)