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The Kitchen Recessionista

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

Spaghettini With Arugula, Soy Bacon, Herbs, and Eggs

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Oh.
Oh, my.
This meal is worthy of company, we decided about two bites in today.  (In this inaugural season, we even decided it was worthy of the president!)
This dish has been on my Pinterest recipe board for months now, and finally today the stars aligned and I gave it a try.  Incidentally, today also marked the first time I’ve ever fried an egg – I’ve only ever made omelets and scrambled eggs, imagine that! – which also worked much better than I’d feared.
Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed our spaghettini tonight.  The slightly tart taste of the arugula mingled beautifully with the creaminess of the fried egg, which in turn melded surprisingly well with the shallots, thyme, chives, parsley, and crushed red pepper.  The parmesan cheese, which I added at the end, sent the dish over the top!
And served in the Le Creuset, it just looks pretty, as well.  To look good is to taste good, too!
Suffice it to say: Tonight’s dish was a success, and it’s been put on the shortlist for the permanent rotation.
Enjoy!
The stats:
Angel-hair pasta: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Eggs: $0.66 ($0.33/person)
Arugula: $3.00 ($1.50/person)
Shallot: $0.50 ($0.25/person)
Chives: $2.59 ($1.30/person)
Parmesan cheese: $1.32 ($0.66/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $9.07 … or $4.54 per person.
BUT WAIT!  This meal makes enough for at least two additional servings.  So the per-person price goes down even more!
:)

Mama’s Potato Soup.

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LeeLee is still battling a window-rattling cough, so I decided to bring in the big guns tonight for dinner – Mama’s Potato Soup.
Growing up, whenever I got sick, my mother whipped up a big pot of this soup – boiling plenty of potatoes in just enough water to cover everything, then adding minced onions, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a dash of parsley and boiling until the spuds are mash-tender.  She always uses the hand mixer to blend everything up with a couple of cups of milk, but I like to use my potato masher for a thicker, chunkier soup.  Top it off with some Goldfish crackers and you’ve got a recipe for healing.
I just asked LeeLee whether he was feeling better post-soup, and he said (albeit raspily) that he was.  I should’ve made a double batch for tomorrow’s lunch!
The stats:
Potatoes: $4.99 ($1.25/person)
Silk: $2.69 ($0.67/person)
Goldfish: $2.39 ($0.60/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $10.07 … or $2.52 per person.
:)

Buffalo Tofu With Bacon-Wrapped Brussels Sprouts and Tater Tots.

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Sunday nights are cookout nights here at Chez Recessionista, and tonight’s menu was slated to be a goodie.  I’d been marinating the tofu with buffalo sauce since this morning and had purchased fresh Brussels sprouts at the Saturday-morning market yesterday to smoke in vegetarian “bacon” alongside the main course in my trusty Brinkmann smoker.
The weather, however, had other plans.
Maybe one of y’all can help me figure out a way around it, but whenever the weather trends toward the foggy and misty – not rainy, per se, but just sort of overall wet – I have a devil of a time getting my smoker to stay hot enough (even with, yes, the dome closed so as to avoid water in the coals!).  Rather than work at smoking tonight’s dinner for two hours, only to find the end result soggy and undercooked, I decided to take things indoors for a change.
Thank heaven for the cast-iron skillet!  It imparted a wonderful sear to the buffalo tofu – and, as LeeLee said whilst leaning against the kitchen doorjamb to provide some color commentary, the skillet just makes the food look GOOD.  “It’s beautiful,” he said, and at that moment I was so glad I’d married a man who viewed the cast-iron skillet as the work of functional art it is.
(Gorgeous, no? ;) )
I baked the sprouts wrapped in bacon at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then cranked the temperature up to 450 for another 20 to cook them along with the tater tots.  By the time the oven timer chimed, the tofu was ready, and dinner was served!
We served tonight’s tofu in lettuce wraps rather than buns because we’re trying to watch our girlish figures.  And it was a great match!  The lettuce was light and airy, not heavy like our typical potato rolls would be, and it matched with the tofu’s flavor perfectly, cooling the spice off just a tad.
The stats:
Tofu: $2.00 ($1.00/person)
Buffalo sauce: $1.99 ($1.00/person)
Lettuce: $2.99 ($1.50/person)
“Bacon”: $3.50 ($1.75/person)
Sprouts: $3.00 ($1.50/person)
Tater tots: $1.99 ($0.50/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $15.47 … or $7.25 per person.
BUT WAIT!  This meal makes enough for one of us to have for lunch tomorrow.  So the per-person price goes down even more!
:)

Mushroom Soup.

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When I put tonight’s meal, a homemade mushroom soup, on the menu list a week or so ago, I had no idea that poor LeeLee – who “never” gets sick, we always say – would come down with a chest cold and need soup more than anything else.  When I learned he’d had a Japanese-inspired soup for lunch, I instantly worried that he was going to be put off by Soup Overload when another bowl of brothy goodness emerged at dinnertime, but he insisted that it was just what he needed.
Now, perhaps the addition of cream to tonight’s vegetable broth was not a good move, congestion-wise — but both LeeLee and I were quite excited to see (and taste!) the beautiful end result, piping-hot in our favorite snowman bowls.
This was the first time I’d ever made this particular soup – I got the recipe off of Pinterest, which is a treasure trove of great ideas! – and I have to say, I’ll be making it again right away.  It turned out great (if I do say so)!  The preparation (I doubled the recipe) was super-easy, and the end result was hearty, filling, and comforting all at once.  Consider this recipe added to the permanent collection!
Again no stats, because of the same issue as yesterday – the case of the lost receipt.  I’m keeping much better track of this week’s!
:)

Tater-Tot Hotdish.

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Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I manage to plan ahead, and tonight LeeLee and I reaped the rewards!
This weekend, we figured out that we’d be ships passing in the night on Tuesday evening – LeeLee had a meeting, I had a stint at the animal shelter – and even my planned Crock-Pot meals for the week required just a bit too much last-minute prep time to work for our staggered dinnertimes.  So last night, after slurping down our taco soup, I went ahead and baked tonight’s meal – the tater-tot hotdish that always seems to make its way into our menu plans this time of year!
The prep work for tonight’s hotdish couldn’t have been easier, and after an hour in the oven and another 20 minutes to cool down enough so I could put the baking pan in the fridge, dinner was but a microwave’s spin away tonight – saving us $15-$20 in takeout and providing leftovers for lunch, to boot!
(No stats today, because I purchased all the supplies for tonight’s meal several weeks ago and promptly misplaced the receipt.  But rest assured the price for tater tots, cream of mushroom soup, cream of celery soup, “beef” crumbles, and mixed veggies was perfectly reasonable!)
:)

Taco Soup.

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(First of all, you will please excuse the other random table accoutrements in today’s photo.  Let’s just say it’s going to take a day to get my kitchen table back to photo-readiness!  The tortilla chips, however, are indeed supposed to be there.)
Happy New Year!
I knew we’d be running short on time tonight – LeeLee had a 6:30 meeting that’s going to run late, and of course there’s the BCS National Championship game at 8 – so this morning I took all of 10 minutes to throw one of our favorite meals, taco soup, in the Crock-Pot.  By the time we got home from work, the house was smelling great, and a piping-hot meal was waiting.
I’ve extolled the virtues of the Crock-Pot many times on this blog, but it’s a new year, so let me do so again: I adore it.  I was chatting with my mother last night, answering her questions about Kitchen-Aid stand mixers (which I heartily endorse, by the way), when it occurred to me – the Crock-Pot gets even more use than my beloved Kitchen-Aid in the kitchen!  Especially in the winter, we pull it out for service at least once, often more, and over the last decade-plus it’s become part of the family.
But back to the taco soup.  It was a hit, as ever, and the mild version of Rotel made the broth not quite as spicy as usual, which was a welcome change.  (I suspect we’ll go back to the regular version of Rotel before too long, as LeeLee and I both enjoy some kick, but it was nice not to have our tongues scalded by jalapenos tonight for a change of pace!)  And the best part?  We’ve got at least three or four more servings waiting for lunches!
The stats:
Chik’n strips: $3.99
Rotel: $1.59
Black beans: $0.79
Chili beans: $1.00
Taco seasoning: $1.19
Broth: $3.49
Corn: $1.00
Tomato sauce: $0.45
Tortilla chips: $4.99
GRAND TOTAL: $18.49 … or $3.70 per person for five servings!
:)

On Migraines, Marathons, and Paella.

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Hello, loyal three readers! I took a little detour for a couple of weeks to jump a couple of headache hurdles and then run a marathon (a real one, not a metaphorical one :)). The race was planned; the migraines were not! But on the plus side, I’m so glad the headaches came a few days before the marathon … I’m just not sure I could have covered 26.2 miles with a throbbing noggin as WELL as throbbing legs!

The first couple of weeks after a big race like that always send me into fits of laziness, where the sofa becomes my new best friend and the cat welcomes a new bedmate once the sun comes up. (When I’m training, I’m up well before the sun and off to the gym!) Though I’ve been dutifully making dinner most nights – and taking photos of each meal, too! – I’ve been a slouch, clearly, in the blogging department. But now I’m back on the wagon – in my writing as well as my training!

And what better way to come back into the blogosphere than with one of my new favorite meals, veggie paella?

I believe I haven’t yet espoused the love I have for my new Le Creuset, which, while certainly a splurge, is quickly becoming one of my favorite kitchen additions. (And truly, it wasn’t really a splurge at all, as I paid for it via a gift card! Oh, I do love a free trip to the cooking store.) Now, the last time I made paella in the French oven, it did not go quite as planned. Oh, sure, it ended up tasting just fine, but it took so long to cook that I finally had to give up, leave the meal in LeeLee’s capable hands, and storm off to my bowling league, where I ate a sad old tired grilled-cheese sandwich so I wouldn’t faint there on Lane 34. I did have some when I got home from bowling, and ate on it all week for lunch, but still. It was not the triumphant Le Creuset arrival I had anticipated!

Tonight, though, changed all that.

See, the problem I had last time (I think) was that I didn’t let the paella mixture come to a hearty boil. I let it bubble up a little, sure, but I didn’t really let it get going before I put it in the oven. So therefore, the rice took forever to cook, sending me into fits of despair each time I opened the oven and popped the lid (I know, not a wise idea either, but I was in A State) and put my teeth on another little hard pellet of grain. This time, I let the paella really get moving before I put the dish in the oven – and within 25 minutes, dinner was ready!

As I write this, it’s all I can do not to sneak back into the kitchen while LeeLee is at a meeting and have another spoonful of paella out of his lunch portion for tomorrow (because I certainly wouldn’t want to steal from myself!). It was really that good. If I do say so myself. And I feel like I can brag a little this time around, because last time’s turned out so very poorly in the cooking portion.

This time, however, the veggie shrimp and chicken simply popped with a saffronny goodness, the peas plumped up, the yellow bell pepper and garlic and onion all nice and golden. All hail the Le Creuset!

No stats today because, to be honest, I have misplaced my grocery receipt. The climb back from post-marathon laziness is steep!

:)

Potato and Pea Coconut Curry.

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First of all, I apologize for the iPhone photo; my camera’s batteries ran down right there at the dinner table (as did the batteries to our fancy-dancy new corkscrew Mike got for his birthday – I think a battery thief is afoot!). I’ll replace them tomorrow morning.

Anyway. On to tonight’s meal!

Rarely have I gotten the hang of Thai cooking; I adore it so, but I’m never able to truly replicate restaurant quality at home. Even the veggies in peanut sauce I made a couple of weeks ago wasn’t quite up to par. It was good, for a homemade attempt at Thai … but I’d just as soon have gone out for the real deal!

But tonight … wow! Finally, a dish I can make.

This is another one from my new Vegetarian Slow Cooker book, and it didn’t disappoint. This morning, I sautéed some onions, minced gingerroot, and garlic for a few minutes until everything had softened up, and then added a cup’s worth of broth to the mix. Once I brought that to a boil, I poured the whole pan into my Crock-Pot atop some diced sweet potatoes and white potatoes, and let the mixture cook all day while I was at work.

When I got home tonight, I mixed some Thai red curry paste in with some coconut milk, threw in a can of drained peas, and flicked the cooker up to high for a few minutes to let everything heat up nicely. As soon as LeeLee got home, dinner was ready to roll!

Normally I would have made some jasmine rice in the rice cooker, but LeeLee had an evening meeting, so I just brought out a Seeds of Change microwaveable rice pouch and called it a day. Sometimes, one must pay for convenience. :)

Suffice it to say, this is definitely a meal I’ll make again. In fact, I can’t wait to dive into the leftovers tomorrow!

The stats:

Sweet potatoes: $4.98 ($2.49/person)
White potatoes: $2.68 ($1.34/person)
Peas: $0.89 ($0.45/person)
Red curry paste: $0.62 ($0.31/person)
Coconut milk: $1.75 ($0.88/person)
Onion: $0.90 ($0.45/person)
Broth: $1.29 ($0.65/person)
Gingerroot: $0.59 ($0.30/person)
Rice: $3.00 ($1.50/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $16.80 … or $8.37 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe makes enough for two lunches the next day. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

Pizza Soup With Garlic Bread.

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A day late, I bring you: A Crock-Pot Creation!

(Hey, the snow’s still on the ground! I’m not THAT late.)

When I told a colleague the other day that I would be making pizza soup this week, I’m afraid she took me literally. “Pizza SOUP?” she asked, and suddenly I realized she must be imagining me putting a whole box of Papa John’s into my new food processor (thanks, Mom!) and proclaiming, “Soup’s on!”

Once I explained what the ingredients actually were – basically it’s a, um, souped-up version of tomato bisque (if you’ll pardon the pun – teehee!) – my colleague’s face relaxed and she smiled. “Oh, that sounds GOOD!”

It really is!

Twenty minutes before the meal was to be served, I tossed some penne pasta into the crockery and turned the dial up to High. Five minutes later, I heated up some garlic bread, and voila! A hearty meal fit for a snow day. Add a little wine into the mix – in a glass, I mean, not the soup bowl! – and it was a wonderful dinnertime treat indeed.

The stats:

Pizza sauce: $1.69 ($0.85/person)
Veggie pepperoni: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Veggie chorizo: $3.99 ($2.00/person)
Penne pasta: $0.99 ($0.25/person)
Bell pepper: $1.17 ($0.59/person)
Diced tomatoes: $1.00 ($0.50/person)
Daiya vegan cheese for garnish: $4.99 ($1.25/person)
Garlic bread: $2.99 ($0.75/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $20.81 … or $8.19 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe leaves us enough for at least two more leftover servings – one of which will be going into our freezer for later consumption. :) So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)

“Steak,” Mashed Potatoes, and Peas.

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I beat the snow home by about 5 minutes tonight, parking the car just before the traffic got really bad, sending even our quiet little neighborhood into a frenzy of honking horns and hazard lights. LeeLee wasn’t so lucky; he arrived home an hour and a half after the snow really got cranked up, wet and cold after having walked the mile and a half from his office.

If I’d really been thinking this morning, I would have put something in the Crock-Pot to really get the house smelling like winter and comfort food. But this morning, I still held out a modicum of hope that I’d be able to attend tonight’s book club a good hourlong drive away! One look at noontime weather report cured me of those dreams, however (and shortly thereafter, the book club organizer sent out a note postponing the meeting, so no harm, no foul!).

So, the Crock-Pot may not have been called into service, but I turned to the next best thing – “steak” medallions with gravy, mashed potatoes, and English peas. If that’s not comfort food, I don’t know what is!

The hidden beauty of this meal is that it also doesn’t take too long to make, in the end. (Though I made it home early from the office, my day’s work duties weren’t done, so I hadn’t the time to play around in the kitchen!) But its taste is exponentially greater than the time it takes to put dinner together. In no time, LeeLee and I had cleaned every morsel of “steak” and peas off our plates, leaving quite a few servings of potatoes in the pot after having more than enough at dinner. (When it comes to mashed potatoes, I always seem to make enough for an army. I can’t help it.) But no matter; they’ll be great for leftovers later!

There’s no magic to this dish, but it always goes over well. And tonight, it provided enough fuel for us to complete Round 1 of snow-shoveling! And if that’s not a ringing endorsement, than I don’t know what is.

The stats:

“Steak”: $4.99 ($2.50/person)
English peas: $2.78 ($1.39/person)
Potatoes: $3.99 ($1.00/person)

GRAND TOTAL: $11.76 … or $4.89 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe leaves us with a TON of mashed potatoes to use as lunch ingredients for the rest of the week. So the per-person price goes down even more!

:)