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The Kitchen Recessionista

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

Variations on Breakfast: Tofu Rancheros.

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Along with the dinners we enjoy on a day-to-day basis here at Chez Recessionista, we’re also big fans of a good old-fashioned weekend breakfast (or brunch if you’re feeling festive).  Several years ago, before we adopted our recessionista ways, we used to venture out nearly every Saturday and Sunday to eat a brunch/lunch/breakfast/etc., adding about $70 to our weekly dining-out budget!  That will not do, long-term, and so after seeing the light we elected to give brunch a try at home instead.
Over the years, we’ve developed some favorites that never cease to impress.  I thought I’d share a couple of them with you over the next couple of days, just to spice things up around here.  Up first: Tofu Rancheros!
Built on the foundation of our beloved huevos rancheros, this version simply substitutes my scrambled tofu recipe for the eggs and omits the refried beans.  As the scrambled tofu cooks, spray a small pan (we like to use a nonstick omelet pan) with cooking spray and set it on medium heat.  Once it’s heated up nicely, add one corn tortilla at a time, flipping after a couple of minutes.  (We often pull our tortillas straight out of the freezer, and they still take very little time to crisp up!)
Once the tortillas are all heated and a little brown, and after the scrambled tofu is, well, scrambled, it’s time to plate everything up!  Place two tortillas on each plate and then add a nice-sized portion of tofu to each tortilla.  Chances are, you’re going to eat this with a fork anyway (as opposed to rolling the tortillas up like a burrito), so feel free to really heap the tofu on.  I also added several dollops of leftover breakfast potatoes – more on how I make those tomorrow!  Top this with whatever you like – sliced black olives, sour cream, cheese (we like Daiya pepperjack!), nutritional yeast, etc.  Serve with a side of veggie sausage or bacon, and enjoy!

:)

Vegan “Shrimp” With Chili Noodles.

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Over the past few days, I’ve found myself craving the vegan “shrimp” that I’ve come to know and love recently, and tonight I could stand it no longer!  I decided to use them in an Asian-inspired dish, served atop rice noodles that I’d sautéed in a chili sauce.
The shrimp, as usual, couldn’t be easier to make.  We used Sophie’s Kitchen breaded shrimp again, and they baked up just as well as they normally do!  This time around, I tossed some spring rolls onto the baking sheet as well – may as well do double duty! 
As the shrimp cooked, I boiled some water to heat my rice noodles in.  Once the water was rolling nicely, I added the noodles, gave them a hearty stir, and prepared the sauce.  Unfortunately, I don’t have decent measurements to give you – I used equal parts chili sauce (think Sriracha) and soy sauce, then blended in some honey and rice vinegar for sweetness and tang respectively.  I whisked all of the above in a bowl and set it aside until the noodles were fully cooked and drained.
Once they were indeed drained, I put the noodles back into the pan and added the sauce, stirring to coat every strand evenly.  As I stirred, I kept the heat at Low, allowing the sauce to warm up quickly.  Within a minute or two, the noodles had a lovely reddish hue, and it was time to eat!
Now, let me tell you – this sauce was spicy.  LeeLee and I happen to enjoy spicy, however, so that was OK with us.  Also, the sauce seemed to be lacking a complexity in flavor that I was expecting; I’ll have to play around with the seasonings next time and see whether that makes a difference (I know it will, but I’m hopeful it will make a positivedifference!).  That said, we loved this meal – the shrimp paired nicely with the spicy noodles, and the spring rolls of course served as a wonderful side item!  A few more tweaks of the chili noodles and we’ll be in business!

:)

“Beef” and Squash Tacos With Yellow Rice.

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Well, friends, the time has come around again: We are in the middle of a Squash Boom.
I can’t say I’m too upset with this turn of events; I happen to like summer squash very much, and I look forward to seeing the varieties I’m going to receive weekly in my CSA box from Great Country Farms.  But still, after a week or two, serving plain old squash just isn’t going to cut it.  We’ve got to get more creative.
Tonight: Vegetarian “beef” and squash tacos!
This is actually an excellent pairing if you ask me.  The squash fills out the, well, taco filling very nicely and is an excellent complement to the burger crumbles.  I coated a skillet with nonstick cooking spray and threw one diced yellow squash in to cook for a few minutes.  Once it was slightly soft, I added a bag of Morningstar Farms burger crumbles and sprinkled in a generous helping of adobo seasoning for taste.  As the “beef” mixture cooked, I heated up the taco shells, which I’ve had in the freezer for a couple of months (try it – they keep beautifully!).  Unfortunately, the shells had clearly had a fall from grace – or at least a fall from the freezer shelf – once or twice, and as a result they were taco slices rather than whole shells.  That’s OK, though; we just made a salad out of the meal, using the shells as the base!
Soon, the rice was ready, and so was the beef-and-squash mixture.  The tacos had heated up nicely, so we put everything together!  First, we had our layer of taco shells, then a layer of rice, then the beef-and-squash mixture, then lettuce, tomato, sliced black olives, Daiya pepperjack shreds, sour cream, hot sauce – the works.  You could certainly add or subtract toppings based on your taste!
And the final result was magnificent!  LeeLee and I both loved how the squash and burger crumbles played off of one another, giving a complexity to both ingredients that neither one would have had by themselves.  The squash was tender yet firm, the beef teeming with the garlicky adobo seasoning – there wasn’t much left over, I can assure you!
I haven’t done much experimenting with the idea of squash in Mexican recipes,  but you can rest assured that after tonight’s results, I’m just getting warmed up!

:)

Vegan “Shrimp” Sandwiches, Kousherie, and Peas.

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I apologize for posting last night’s meal so late (that is, a day later — ahem!).  Can I let you in on a little secret?  Yesterday was my birthday, so I spent the day as a lady of leisure — volunteering, swimming, chatting on the phone with old friends.  As a result, I was feeling SO leisurely that I didn’t even fool with writing a blog post!  I was thinking of you, though, as I cooked, and felt you might like the menu.  So here it is!

Since it was my birthday, I decided to tackle a few of my favorite foods, beginning with a vegetarian version of the shrimp sandwich I used to love at this restaurant named Harry’s, down on the Gulf Coast in a little town called Carrabelle.  I used the breaded vegan shrimp from Sophie’s Kitchen, and it turned out just beautifully!  I was going to get fancy and mix up an Old Bay Aioli, but I neglected to remember that I had no Old Bay in the house.  (I hope this memory lapse isn’t a sign of old age!)  So once the shrimp was baked and the buns were toasted, we simply topped our sandwiches with some Vegenaise and lettuce and called it a day.  The end result was just like I remembered from Harry’s!  We piled our sandwiches high with shrimp, so there was protein in every bite, and the lettuce gave us a little crunch.  (And I’ll try the Old Bay aioli another time.)
Alongside the sandwiches, I whipped up a big batch of kousherie, with a few modifications from the recipe I’ve just linked to — we used macaroni instead of spaghetti, for instance, and I boiled the lentils along with the pasta.  Also, instead of making a big pot of rice, I simply warmed up two packets of Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice and added them to the mixture before serving!
The peas were a wonderful addition to our plates; English peas are some of my very favorite veggies, and we mowed down the whole pot.  Plus, they added some much-needed greenery to our surf-and-carb meal!
We paired our dinner with a bottle of Flying Dog Dead Rise, a beer brewed with — what else? — Old Bay.  Don’t recoil in horror; it’s actually a very subtle seasoning in this brew, and we love the end result.  It was a fitting way to toast a wonderful day!
:)

Orange Seitan With Rice and Spring Rolls.

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The other day, I visited our local library branch to retrieve some books I had on hold, and while I was there, I spied (OK, actually, I searched high and low, and thenI spied it) one of my favorite cookbooks, The Chinese Takeout Cookbook by Diana Kuan.  I knew it had to come back home with me for another go-round, and immediately upon its arrival I began to plot out what I was going to make and when.
Tonight’s selection?  Orange Seitan!  In the cookbook, Kuan uses chicken, but I find seitan to be a wonderful veggie substitute.  And it was!  I won’t give away all of Kuan’s recipe, because she has a book to sell, but suffice it to say, while the rice cooked I marinated the seitan, then stir-fried it (the recipe calls for battering and then frying, but I skipped that step), then added the orange sauce and heated that through until it was reduced by about half. 
As the seitan and rice both cooked, I warmed up four spring rolls in the oven, and they hung out waiting for the rest of the meal to finish up, keeping warm all the while.
I tell you what, this cookbook can do no wrong!  We ate every morsel of the seitan (and almost all of the rice), and we both loved the mingling of flavors.  The sauce wasn’t overly orangey, nor was it overly sweet – but it had a wonderful hint of both attributes, which we both really appreciated.  We’ll definitely make this meal again!

:)

Black Beans and Rice With Vegan “Scallops.”

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That’s right, friends – tonight we served up Old Faithfulwith a new twist!  Several, actually, if you count the Chesapeake Salsa we served alongside (which was spiced with Old Bay seasoning).
I’ve been dying to try the Sophie’s Kitchen vegan scallops, and tonight seemed like as good a time as any to infuse our dinner table with a Gulf Coast feel.  I prepared the rice and black beans as usual – with a Goya seasoning packet for the rice and a hearty helping of adobo seasoning in the beans – and then got to work on the scallops, which I’d neglected to thaw prior to baking and as a result had to partially thaw during the cooking process, at which time I pried them all apart and finished the cook time properly.
As usual, tonight’s Old Faithful came together in no time at all – about half an hour end-to-end.  But how would we like the vegan scallops?  Would they remind us of the Gulf Coast delicacies of yesteryear?
Well, I’ve got to be honest here about two things in particular.  First, I don’t really recall what scallops tasted like.  Like tofu – stick with me here! – scallops always tended to take on the flavor of whatever we cooked them with, so it’s really the texture that I remember.  Sophie’s Kitchen’s version did just fine on that score, though – here’s my second bit of honesty – LeeLee and I both felt like it would have been a more successful finished product had we seasoned them with something prior to serving.  Perhaps a garlic butter, or perhaps some Cajun spice or blackening rub.  Something of that nature.  But they were still very good as-is, and there wasn’t one scallop left when it came time to do the dishes, so there’s your proof.
The black beans and rice were, of course, as good as ever, and they mingled beautifully with the scallops, the Chesapeake salsa, the vegan sour cream, and, for me, the nutritional yeast (one of these days I’ll have to do a post to fully dedicate my love to nutritional yeast!).  Like the scallops, there wasn’t a single bean or grain of rice left in the pots when dinner was over – a sign of success, for sure!

:)

Sunday Cookout: BBQ Tofu Sandwiches With Yellow Squash and Tater Tots.

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Y’all, today I had a breakthrough in the BBQ-tofu department.  This is life-changing, and I mean that!  (I take my barbecue seriously, you know.)
Let’s cut to the chase.  For the first time, I used Trader Joe’s extra-firm tofu in this meal, and it held up amazingly well on the grill, even after eight hours of marinating time prior.  The tofu strips were firm, grilled evenly, and were easy to flip midway through the cooking process.  Usually, I lose a strip or two (or pieces and parts therein) when I flip them all over, but this time, I lost nary a molecule!  And that’s a good thing, too, because this particular BBQ tofu was wonderfully flavorful and tasty.
Alongside the tofu, I cooked up a sliced yellow squash – two of them, actually – from last week’s Great Country Farms box.  I placed the slices in a long sheet of foil, then topped them with two chopped garlic scapes (also from the CSA box!), a generous amount of chipotle powder, and about a tablespoon of olive oil.  I sealed up the foil with a second sheet of foil for good measure, then placed the packet on the grill for about half an hour, turning it halfway through the cooking time.
All that was left to cook inside were the tater tots – an easy addition to round out the meal!
The weather was gorgeous outside tonight – it has been all weekend, actually – so LeeLee and I had no trouble settling down in the backyard for dinner.  The summer heat is supposed to come back with a vengeance tomorrow, so we enjoyed one last breezy July night and appreciated what we had!  Great weather, tasty food – what’s not to love?

:)

Penne Pasta With Vegan Pesto Sauce.

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Y’all!  We have so much basil right now – two plants that we purchased on the first warmish day this spring, plus one more from our Great Country Farms CSA box a few weeks ago.  Over the last couple of weeks, all three plants have begun to explode, growing by leaps and bounds every time we turn our backs!
This can mean only one thing: It’s pesto season!
Tonight, I concocted a new-to-me pesto recipe that turned out just great.  I confess I didn’t measure, so this won’t be an Official Recipe, but the gist of it was: Bring out your food processor and in it place two large fistfuls of basil, a small package of pine nuts, two cloves of garlic, enough olive oil to give the mixture some binding, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper.  Then process the ingredients until they’re smooth and, well, pesto-like, and wait for your pasta to be done!
Along with the pasta and pesto, I also sautéed a diced zucchini (also fresh from today’s CSA box!), which I added to the penne once I’d drained the pasta water.  Before I knew it, it was time to serve everything up!
I was presented with a big decision to make: Do I mix the pesto in with the penne, or serve it atop and mix it in tableside?  After a brief conference, LeeLee and I elected to go the latter route, and it worked just great.  A little pesto goes a long way, and we were happy to have control over how much we put on our plates!
We both chowed down happily on tonight’s dinner; the pesto was fresh (obviously) and, while it was pretty garlicky, we happen to love garlic, so that worked out just fine.  The zucchini was a great addition to the pasta itself, and the penne was perfectly al dente and held up very well.  And we have plenty left for lunch tomorrow – if that doesn’t say Independence Day, I don’t know what does! ;)

:)

New Recipe: Vegan Creamed “Tuna” Over English Muffins.

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Creamed tuna is a longtime family favorite – my mother used to make it as a go-to dish, particularly in the summertime or when we were camping.  Since we’ve been vegetarian (for the last 15 years or so), I’ve missed it tremendously!  We haven’t had many occasions to have a creamed tuna substitute in the last decade or so – not since Tuno went off the market, anyway, which has been at least 10 years now.  So after several successful outings with Sophie’s Kitchen’s Vegan Toona, I knew it was time to give it the test of a lifetime.  How would it hold in creamed “tuna”?
The full recipe is below, but the shortened version is: I prepared a basic flour-and-almond-milk cream sauce, then added the toona to the pot – we used the Black-Pepper Toona tonight – and stirred everything around to mix it thoroughly.  I spooned the creamed tuna over English muffins, served some steamed mixed vegetables alongside, and dinner was ready!  From end to end, it took about 15 minutes of preparation time; not too shabby for a night when we were short on time and energy.  (Tonight was a shelter night for me, and LeeLee had to bring some work home to finish up.)
The finished product reminded me so much of my mother’s creamed tuna, it was amazing.  Instantly, I was transported back to my family’s dinner table (the actual table is now at our home!), where I ate serving after serving, unable to get enough.  That was the case tonight, as well; we cleaned the saucepan out!  We’re not proud.  Just hungry after a long day of work.
In short, this meal was a definitive success.  We’ll certainly make it again and again!
VEGAN CREAMED TUNA OVER ENGLISH MUFFINS
Serves two-four
What you’ll need:
4 English muffins
¼ cup vegan butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups almond milk
1 can vegan tuna
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
First, toast your English muffins.  I like to handle all four at once by opening them up and putting them on a baking sheet, baking them at about 400 degrees for 10 minutes.  Once they’re in the oven, it’s time to make the creamed tuna!
Next, make a roux by melting the butter in a saucepan and then whisking the flour in to make a paste.  Once those two ingredients are combined, add the milk and whisk continuously until the mixture becomes a cream sauce (this always takes me 5-7 minutes). 
After you’ve got your sauce in order, it’s time to add the tuna!  So spoon in your vegan “tuna” and be sure it separates nicely, rather than forming big clumps within the cream sauce.  Next, add salt and pepper, stir to combine, heat everything through, and let stand until the muffins are toasted.
To serve, simply place two muffins on a plate and spoon a heaping helping of creamed “tuna” atop each open-face slice.  Serve alongside a vegetable or salad to round out the meal, and enjoy!

:)

Vegan Crab Cakes With Veggies and Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli.

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This dinner was a meal of two firsts and an old faithful (though not that Old Faithful!).  We’ve been on a bit of a veggie-seafood kick lately, having recently discovered the bounty of Sophie’s Kitchen (no kickbacks, I swear – I’m just enamored of the products!), and now that the CSA has kicked back up again in earnest, I’m getting a wonderful array of vegetables to use each week alongside.
First up tonight was the mashed potatoes and broccoli.  I found this recipe over at Real Simple, and tonight was its maiden voyage.  First, I chopped two large heads of CSA broccoli in the food processor, then added it to a steamer basket along with a bag of small potatoes, which I halved to speed up their steaming process.  Then it was just a matter of steaming them (I found that the cooking time took about 20 minutes – longer than the 10-12 Real Simple called for), and them mashing everything together with the potato masher, adding the mix-ins as I went.  Next time I might even add some veggie bacon for taste!
As the broccoli and potatoes steamed, I baked four vegan crab cakes in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, flipping them over halfway through.  When I had about five minutes left of cooking time, I heated up a bag of frozen mixed vegetables – they go with any meal!  I placed them in a serving bowl and garnished them with a little chipotle powder, my new go-to seasoning. 
Once everything was cooked fully, it was time for serving – and taste-testing!  We were eager to give all of our new recipes a try, and thankfully we weren’t disappointed!  The crab cakes were sufficiently “fishy” without being fishy, and they went great with my little fake-cocktail-sauce of mayo and spicy ketchup.  The mashed potatoes and broccoli were fantastic – I mashed everything roughly, leaving some chunks of vegetables here and there, and we both loved the texture and the flavor, which was creamy even though we didn’t use any milk.  And of course the mixed vegetables filled out the plate (and our stomachs) beautifully.
We’ll definitely give this meal – both in whole and in part – another try!  It’s a keeper, for sure.

:)