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The Kitchen Recessionista

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

Lemon-Basil Pasta.

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Could it be? Is spring finally here?
I’m afraid to say that too loudly, in case there’s another snowstorm just waiting to blow in from wherever.  But I think maybe, possibly, we’ve turned the corner – maybe, possibly, we’re homing in on spring!
And what better way to celebrate the change of the season (if not in calendar, then in weather) than a hearty bowl of lemon-basil pasta?  This is one of those dishes we find ourselves turning to quite often in the spring and summer months – but the first tasting of the season is always the most special!
Now, when I added this dinner to the menu plan, I confess I’d expected to have a hearty crop of basil from which to harvest at this point.  Ma Nature had other plans, so a harvest from the Safeway had to suffice.  No matter – the taste was spot-on regardless!
This dinner couldn’t be easier to make.  Boil a pot of penne pasta (or ziti, or rigatoni, or whatever you like – we always tend to gravitate toward penne in this meal for some reason).  While it’s heating up, in a large serving bowl mix one-quarter cup of olive oil with two tablespoons of white wine vinegar, then add salt and pepper to taste (but add more pepper than you think you’ll need).  Then add the juice of two to three lemons (we always like a little extra lemon juice in ours, so we go with three), and then add a container’s worth of halved cherry or grape tomatoes.  Tonight, we actually used a container and a half, because we had half a container left over from another meal and what’s the use in that?
Finally, I pulled out the aforementioned package of basil from the refrigerator and washed it, then chopped the whole handful up, down to the stems.  I added the chopped leaves to the serving bowl, mixed everything together, and waited for the penne to be ready.
Once it was al dente (actually, we like ours a little softer than al dente – I know, I know, such commoners we are), LeeLee helped me drain the big pot full of water and then I poured the penne into the serving bowl, stirring throughout to mix everything together.  Once we’d spooned hearty helpings onto our plates, we sprinkled some Daiya mozzarella on top of the penne, added a little extra pepper (for old time’s sake), and voila!  Dinner in a matter of minutes.
And in true Recessionista fashion, we’ve got plenty of leftovers to last us for several lunches.  But the pasta will have to wait its turn – we’ve still got the remainder of our Easter feast to get through first!

:)

Vegan Pad Thai.

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On the heels of my adventures in Pad Thai Soup a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try out the more traditional version of the dish tonight.  And so, armed with a recipe from the great Robin Robertson’s Vegan Planet, I got home and went straight to work in the kitchen.
Thai and Asian dishes are always very daunting for me – they have a ton of preparation steps – but once you get right down to the cooking, they’re really not difficult at all.  The same was true for this Pad Thai recipe!  Once I got through the prep work, I was home-free.
As the rice noodles cooked, I sautéed the tofu in peanut oil, and then stir-fried some bell pepper, garlic, and scallion.  Then I added a diced tomato along with some seasonings – soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and the like – and tossed the tofu back in.  By this point, the rice noodles were also finished, so I added them in and tossed everything around, dousing the pan with a little more peanut oil for good measure.
The end result was good, but “just” good – it lacked a bit of the peanutty taste I’ve come to know and love about restaurant-style Pad Thai.  I’m certain I read the directions properly and followed suit in my cooking; the peanut oil just didn’t add enough of that nutty flavor for my liking.  But LeeLee and I solved that tableside!  We just went into the cabinet, pulled out a jar of peanut butter, and added a spoonful to each of our plates, blending it in with the hot noodles.  Voila!  Extra peanut flavor in no time.
Even with our dinnertime hack, though, this wasn’t the best dish I’ve ever made.  I was glad to try it – and I love Robin Robertson! – but this just wasn’t my favorite.  It was edible, it was even enjoyable, but it wasn’t quite up to par.  Oh, well.  Not every recipe can win the Michelin Five Stars! ;)

:)

Old Faithful.

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Tonight was Animal Shelter Night, and by the time I got home, LeeLee and I were both hungry and had neither the time nor the taste for tomfoolery.  The ingredients for black beans and rice – or, as longtime readers of this blog know it, Old Faithful – were close at hand, and a half-hour later the finished product was sitting on the table, ready for consumption.
I think one of the things I love most about Old Faithful – other than the taste, of course – is the versatility of the dish.  For instance, tonight we had some leftover lettuce, onion, and tomato on hand from Sunday night’s cookout, and so I diced everything up to add as garnish (or, perhaps more accurately, as a side dish – we tend to be a bit heavy-handed with the garnish around here!).  I pulled out a new bag of Daiya pepperjack cheese to add atop the meal, and we still had a wonderful jarred salsa from last week’s tostadas, plus some little spicy pickled peppers from a cocktail party this weekend.  And last but not least, I always keep several cans of black olives on hand for salads and suchlike – they fit in just beautifully with tonight’s dinner, as ever.
I’ve gone over and over the actual making of black beans and rice, so I won’t go into a long dissertation again here.  Suffice it to say, the rice blended nicely with a packet of Goya seasoning during its stint in the rice cooker, and I spruced up a plain can of black beans with some adobo seasoning during the cooking process.  We were both in need of a little extra protein, so I added a chik’n patty to each plate – instead of baking them, I microwaved them, because again, who had the time for tomfoolery?
And the final result was, as ever, delicious and spicy.  The salsa and pickled peppers added a little extra kick, which we both really enjoyed, and the vegetables gave us some much-needed greenery in today’s diet.  :)  Once again, Old Faithful came through for us – it always does in a pinch!

:)

Veggie Burgers With Peas and Tater Tots.

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First of all, let us just take a moment to breathe in the long-awaited spring air (pollen optional) and thank the Powers That Be for finally making it out of winter and into our very first cookout of the season.
Yes!  You heard me right!  Finally, finally, after several false starts over the last month, I fired up our trusty Aussie grill, complete with a showroom-new grill grate and ash dump, and got to work.  First up was an aluminum grill pan teeming with English peas (seasoned with black pepper), which I covered with foil and cooked for half an hour or so.  As it cooked, I baked a sheet of tater tots in the oven indoors (because I still can’t figure out how to make them nice and crispy on the open flame – but give me time!).
While the peas and tots warmed up, I opened up a beer and sat down to leaf through the latest Real Simple.  But not just any beer – a Double Take from a six-pack that LeeLee and I picked up today while at the Safeway.  Why am I mentioning this?  Because said six-packs were on sale for 50% off – on top of a pre-existing sale!  So a $7.99 sixer cost us $3.  Which, as LeeLee pointed out over dinner, means each bottle is precisely $0.50.  Fifty cents!  Now that’s what I call spring fever.
When I was about 10 minutes from dinnertime, I put four veggie burgers onto the grill to warm up, and before long they were sizzling and juicy.  As I took them up, I put two buns on to toast.  I like to cook with a wide-open heat (if it can’t be grilled at full steam ahead, what’s the point?), so they were nearly too brown in no time. ;)
The results were springtime personified.  Everything tastes better after being grilled, and tonight’s meal was no different.  The first cookout of the season always adds extra flair – the newness of the year’s Sunday cookouts hasn’t work off yet!  After the winter we’ve had, I doubt we’ll settle into complacency any time soon.  Veggie burgers, 50-cent beers – what’s not to love?

:)

Vegan Grilled-Cheese Sandwiches With Tomato Soup.

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Roundabout 10 a.m. today, LeeLee called to say he’d been pulled into a meeting for tonight – a meeting, I might add, where they’ll serve nice appetizers and wine, so let’s not feel too sorry for him.  ;)  I had originally planned on making black beans and rice for dinner tonight, but once I’d be dining alone, I decided to forge a new path!
So once I got home and got hungry (for once, the two were not synonymous), I pulled a container of soup out of the freezer and began to warm it up in a saucepan.  I’d enjoyed the other half of this soup several months ago and froze the leftovers for just such an occasion as tonight’s!  (I admit, as well, that I’m a bit relieved to be cleaning out the freezer; I need more space for some Easter goodies!)
When the soup was almost hot enough, I plugged in my trusty sandwich press and prepared a grilled-cheese.  Atop two slices of bread I added some Vegenaise and two slices of Daiya cheddar, and then sliced a Roma tomato to sit in the middle of the sandwich.  Once it was assembled, I put it in the press and let it cook until the cheese was bubbling out and the bread was nicely golden brown.
And then it was time to eat!  I used a couple of leftover tostada shells from last night as a dipping vessel for my soup, which gave it a nice crunch.  And dinner was fantastic!  I didn’t have a single morsel left by the end, and if the Wonder-Cat had gotten her way, she would have helped.  (What you don’t see in the photo above is Lucky, sitting atop the coffee table just off to the left of my TV tray, watching intently, waiting for the perfect moment to strike!)

:)

Vegetarian “Beef” and Bean Tostadas With Rice.

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Tonight, in advance of this weekend’s Sushi Night (to celebrate the cherry blossoms, you see), LeeLee and I ventured to the West End of Alexandria in order to visit our favorite international grocery store, the much-beloved Grand Mart – which, we were surprised to see, has been rebranded “New Grand Mart” since our last visit.  Sushi rice, inari wrappers, nori, veggie dumplings, and Japanese desserts were at the top of our shopping list, but we also needed something to make for dinner and figured why not enjoy some one-stop shopping – and some fun international cuisine while we were at it!
That’s how we ended up with a package of tostada shells, a can of mayocoba refried beans, and a new spicy salsa in our cart along with our Japanese cuisine.  Paired up with some veggie beef crumbles and yellow rice from home, we had a feast coming down the tracks!
When we got home and unloaded everything into the fridge, freezer, and pantry, I put on a cup of rice (with Goya seasoning added for color and taste) in the rice cooker and then began to sautee the veggie crumbles (seasoned with adobo seasoning) at a medium heat.  I confess I was too lazy to heat up the refried beans the appropriate way on the stove, so instead I just warmed them in the microwave once the rice was nearly finished!  As everything cooked, I prepared some lettuce and halved some cherry tomatoes, then chopped some parsley (we were out of cilantro) and opened a can of sliced black olives.  Lo and behold, we also had an unopened bag of Daiya cheddar cheese in the fridge, so I added it to the table for garnish.
Once the rice was ready, it was time to dress up our tostadas!  On each shell we added a hearty helping of beans (this was our first time enjoying mayocoba beans – we loved them!), then a good amount of crumbles, and then all of our veggies and cheese and salsa and hot sauce.  :)  Several spoonfuls of rice rounded out the meal, which we devoured with gusto.  So much gusto, in fact, that we have no leftovers to show for it, but that’s OK.  Sandwiches will have to suffice for tomorrow’s lunch instead!

:)

Pea, Tofu, and Mint Salad.

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Greetings, friends, from my very own laptop!  The MacBook survived its time in the hospital and has made a full recovery.  The best part?  I didn’t even lose any of my data, because the hard drive was pronounced A-OK; it was the hard-drive cable that was the trouble.  All the same, I will be backing up my documents tonight, and you should too.  :)  Here endeth tonight’s public service announcement.
On to dinner!
I stumbled across this recipe a few weeks ago and filed it away for a night when spring was finally here.  Tonight is that night!  In standard fashion, I made a substitution, eliminating the feta cheese and adding a block of tofu in its place for more protein and less fat.  (And no dairy!)
So this morning, in anticipation, I crumbled up a block of tofu and marinated it with salt, pepper, onion powder, and oregano, leaving it in a zip-top bag in the fridge all day while LeeLee and I toiled away.  After work, I got home first, and when he called to say he too was on his way, I got moving in the kitchen.  First, I shelled some pistachio nuts to make sure they were ready to go.  Then I diced an onion and sautéed it on the stove while a bag of frozen peas defrosted in the microwave.  As the veggies cooked, I made the dressing.  It called for honey, so I used some from my cousin’s hives down in Florida – you can’t beat that.
Next, I spread out some spinach on two plates – one for me, one for LeeLee, of course – and washed and de-stemmed the mint leaves for use as a garnish.  Then, just before serving, I put everything else together!  I topped the spinach with a healthy dose of tofu, then mixed the onions, peas, and pistachios together and topped the tofu with the veggies.  I split the dressing over each of our plates and then garnished the meal with quite a few mint leaves (we both love them).  Just like that, dinner was ready!
And it was awesome.  We both marveled at how filling the recipe was – sometimes, dinner salads can be a little light on staying power – and how tasty, as well.  We’re both crazy about the dressing, as well!  We’ll definitely use it again in many, many salads – it has the potential to be incredibly versatile.
The combination of warm and cold ingredients was great, as well; the warmth made us feel like we were eating a “real” dinner, while the cold ingredients, such as the tofu and spinach, were a great counterbalance.  In total, the meal couldn’t be beat!  We’ll definitely make it again.

:)

Vegetaran Pho. Very, Very Hot Vegetarian Pho.

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With all the craziness we’ve had, schedule-wise, the last couple of weeks, I completely forgot to tell you a story about our latest round of vegetarian pho!  It’s a cautionary tale, so beware.
I’ve made this pho recipe a hundred times, all with great success.  When you get right down to it, it’s an easy meal to make – the only time-consuming part is the hour spent baking the tofu strips to add in at the last!  And this instance was no exception.  The tofu baked beautifully, the noodles cooked up as they should, and the broth was as tasty and flavorful as ever.
The problem, we learned too late, came with our mix-ins.
Upon serving the pho, LeeLee and I always add lots of fresh vegetables to the top of the dish.  Basil, bean sprouts, jalapenos, and Sriracha are mainstays, and last Sunday was no different.
What was different – again, we learned this much too late – was the spiciness of our jalapeno. 
Without thinking twice, LeeLee and I each put four or five slices of the pepper into our bowls, then (and this was another mistake) doused the whole dish with a liberal helping of Sriracha sauce.  Then we dug in … and that’s when we saw, crystal-clear through tear-streaked eyes, the error of our ways.
The HEAT!  The SPICE!  The cough-inducing, grabbing-for-water, can’t-breathe PAIN!
This was perhaps the hottest jalapeno either of us had ever eaten in our lives.  It was so hot, in fact, that after a few more minutes of attempting to gamely choke down spoonful after spoonful, we threw in the towel, threw out the pho, and served ourselves some leftover noodles from the colander, topping them with more baked tofu and vegetables – but not the jalapeno.
So our planned pho became an unplanned tofu-with-noodles dish, with a sinus-clearing intermission.  It could’ve been worse!  And we’ve learned a valuable lesson: Always, ALWAYS check the heat of your chilies, even those you’ve used a thousand times.  You never know when a pepper will jump up and slap you in the face.

:)

Pad Thai Soup.

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First of all, please forgive me if the typeface, links, and such are all wonky tonight.  I arrived home to find my beloved laptop will not boot up — all it does is give me a sassy blinking file folder! A quick scan of the Apple site shows it may not be serious — in that I may not have lost all of my data — but I’m taking it to the shop tomorrow for a thorough once-over. Please send it healing vibes if you’re so inclined!

So tonight I come to you from my faithful iPad, which explains any text wonkiness you may experience. With any luck, I’ll be back in business tomorrow!
Now, let’s talk about tonight’s dinner.
I made Pad Thai Soup tonight, and let me cut right to the chase: It was fantastic.  It’s not nearly as heavy as traditional pad Thai, which was just fine with me!  I typically stay away from pad Thai at restaurants because I find it to be a bit peanut-buttery for my taste, but in soup form, sans any creaminess, the favors hit just right.
I started off by bringing a pot of water to a boil in order to cook my rice noodles.  This is probably a good time to admit that I’d never cooked rice noodles before. I didn’t put together until this weekend that the “rice sticks” in the Asian food aisle at the grocery store were actually rice noodles, so I always selected soba or udon noodles instead. Now that I’ve seen the error of my ways, I will rectify the situation in future meals!  I’m a huge fan.
While the rice noodles sat in their hot-water bath, I prepared the stock.  A carton of broth (plus a couple of cups of water for good measure), half a container of sliced mushrooms, some garlic powder, one diced shallot, several tablespoons each of soy sauce, brown sugar, and Sriracha, a quarter-cup of lime juice — everything went into my trusty Le Creuset and came just to a boil.  Once the broth was bubbling, I turned the heat to low and let the soup simmer while I baked my …
VEGAN SHRIMP!
I cannot TELL you how hard it is to find vegetarian shrimp around these parts.  Where my family lives in Florida, you can just go to the Publix and buy some Yves veggie shrimp like a civilized human being. Up here, it takes an act of Congress just to find any vegetarian seafood — and even then the selection centers primarily on veggie calamari.  
So when I went to Whole Foods earlier today and spied the Sophie’s Kitchen breaded “shrimp,” my heart sang with joy.  I knew it would be perfect for tonight’s soup!
I put the shrimp in the oven and let it warm up. By the time it was finished, the noodles were ready to be drained and the soup was heated through.  All that was left was to chop some cilantro, green onions, and peanuts, and we were on our way!
I already gave away the ending to this story — we lapped our soup up in no time and went back for seconds right away.  And there’s plenty left for tomorrow!  Broken laptop or no, the night is looking up.
:)