Fast Food Friday/What I Cooked

Here I am again with a Fast Food Friday/What I Cooked combo edition.  If you see something on any of my what I ate posts that you'd like to see the recipe for Fast Food Friday, let me know.

Sunday: We had dinner at church after Great Vespers for the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Monday: Quick and easy burritos with spinach tortillas, refried beans, avocado, salsa, and rice.

Tuesday: Banana French toast and scrambled tofu.  Breakfast for dinner is always a hit at our house.  The french toast is really good and uses simple ingredients that we usually have on hand, so we make this pretty often.

Banana French Toast
1 ripe (good size) banana
3/4 cup orange juice or non-dairy milk of your choice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
Sliced bread
vegetable oil

Blend the banana, liquid and cinnamon (if using) in a blender until smooth. Pour it into a bowl or pan. Coat the bread on both sides with liquid.  This will do 8-10 slices of french bread or 4-5 slices sandwich bread. Unlike with regular french toast, it doesn't really have to be soaked through. Oil a nonstick or cast iron pan, and heat over medium. When hot, arrange slices of bread in one even layer in your pan. Cook on each side for 2 minutes. I actually use a timer. Flipping too soon or too late doesn't turn out as well. Basically you're caramelizing the sugar from the banana, and since you're dealing with sugars, it sticks more than regular French toast. You need to give it a firm scrape underneath with the spatula when you flip it, because you want make sure you keep the yummy coating on the bread and not leave it on the pan.  Add oil to the pan for each new batch. Top with maple syrup and/or fruit.

This is adapted from Student's Vegetarian Cookbook by Carole Raymond.

Wednesday: I took chips and salsa for the pitch-in, so no cooking. I had planned to take 17 bean & barley soup, but I forgot to turn on the crockpot. Guess what we had for dinner Thursday?

Thursday: 17 bean and barley soup. I know, big surprise, right?  This actually worked out well, because I had a meeting Thursday night, and dinner was all set. I got the 17 beans and barley in a bag from Trader Joe's. I'd been eyeing it for a while. I'm glad I tried it, but I think I'll just go with my own mix in the future.

Friday: Ate at church

Saturday: Sushi! Yum :)  Some of these have red bell pepper, carrot, and avocado, and some have avocado and marinated mushroom.

I hope everyone on the new calendar has has a Blessed Feast of the Annunciation today!

Fast Food Friday/What I Cooked

Wow, I can't believe we're almost 2 weeks into the Fast already!  This is what I cooked during the first week of Lent.

Cheesefare Sunday: Leftovers :)

Monday: James found out he had gotten a new job, so we celebrated by going out for Q-doba.

Tuesday: Curried Lentils

Wednesday: I took this Chickpea and Tahini casserole to the post Pre-Sanctified pitch-in.

Thursday: We had a fend for yourself kind of night. James had burritos with refried beans and salsa. I had a baked potato topped with broccoli, chickpeas, barbecue sauce, and some nutritional yeast.

Friday: Each week a different family or church group hosts a dinner before the Akathist to the Theotokos.

Saturday: I made this Black Bean Coconut Soup.  Easy and so delicious. It also happens to be oil-free. Another recipe adapted from Okay, So Now You're a Vegetarian by Lauren Butts.

2 14.5 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed (or equivalent cooked dried)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 1/2 cups water
1  4 oz. can diced green chiles
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 14.5 oz can coconut milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup cooked rice (I use brown)

Add beans, tomatoes, water and chiles to a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15-30 minutes.  It's even better the next day. The original recipe calls for a seeded and minced fresh jalapeno pepper instead of the green chiles. That's even tastier, I think, since it adds a fresh note, but that's not something I keep on hand. I often make it this way since it is entirely from pantry items. My guess is that shrimp would go well in this, since it's got a lot of Caribbean flavors, but I never tried that before I stopped eating seafood.

I hope to be in this space next week with some non-food related stuff. It's hard to tell from the blog, but I actually do think about other things during Lent. At the moment I'm finding the opportunity to spend so much time in corporate prayer a great comfort in the face of so much suffering around the world. May God grant comfort to all those suffering as well, and may He bless the efforts of all who give aid.

What I Cooked: Cheesefare edition

I thought I'd share what I cooked for Cheesefare week today, rather than after the fast has begun. It was quite a week! I did make a fair amount of soup for my flu-fighter. He's on the mend now, thanks be to God, and even went to work on Friday. 

Sunday: Leftovers for me, canned chicken and rice soup for James--not his best Meatfare Sunday.

Monday: Egg drop soup. I'd never made this before, but it was really simple. I thought this would be the perfect thing for someone with a sore throat. Nourishing, tasty, and easy to swallow. Well, it was very nourishing and tasty, and I thought the leftovers made a terrific breakfast. Unfortunately, it didn't work out so great for James. Let's just say that the texture didn't bring the best thoughts to mind for someone having sinus issues.  

Tuesday: Tortellini soup. This was a big hit.

Wednesday: Macaroni and cheese, corn "soufflé," and roasted vegetables--for twenty.  I've mentioned before that most Wednesday nights we have prayer, adult study, and dinner at church. Usually that means I don't cook on Wednesdays, but occasionally I take my turn to cook for the whole group. I had volunteered for this week. So, on my way home from work on Tuesday I stopped and bought groceries. Then I whipped up a batch of tortellini soup for my poor sick guy, who ate it and went to sleep.

I proceeded to spend the rest of the evening cooking. I really enjoy cooking, so I had a good time making some of my favorite foods, listening to music, and hoping everyone would enjoy the meal I was preparing.  About midnight the mac and cheese was almost finished baking, and the other two dishes were done. I was contemplating whether to push on through and make a batch of brownies before going to bed, or to get up early to make them the next day. I'd almost decided to go ahead and make them (I'm not a morning person) when James came groggily into the room. "Are you cooking for church tomorrow?" he asked me. "Uh-huh," I replied. "It was canceled," he told me. "Father sent an email earlier today."

!!!!

















Needless to say, I did not make the brownies, and we have been eating macaroni and cheese, corn casserole, and roasted vegetables ever since. I wasn't quite sure whether to feel relieved or sorry that I hadn't made the brownies yet. I am very thankful that I had cooked a meal that we really like!

By Friday evening we were getting a little tired of this meal, and James was still craving soup. Per his request, I made another batch of the tortellini soup. As I said, it was a big hit. I also mixed up some desperation chili which gave a whole new spin to the mac and cheese. Normally, I would have asked some friends over to help us eat all that food, but company isn't really the best idea when part of your household is miserable and possibly still contagious. By dint of eating it for lunch and dinner pretty much every day, we've actually managed to polish off most of the Wednesday dinner. Whatever macaroni we don't finish today will go in the freezer. I think I accomplished my goal of going into Lent feeling really good about saying farewell to cheese, and I also think this is going to be a Cheesefare week to remember!

What I Cooked

Sunday: Nachos with re-fried beans, corn and tomato salsas, guacamole

Monday: Penne with TVP "Bolognese" sauce, pea salad, garlic cheese bread

Tuesday: Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese sauce
















Wednesday: Ate at church

Thursday: Evening meeting, leftovers

Friday: We had friends over for a fondue party. When we made the plans a month ago, we thought it was for the week of the Publican and the Pharisee, but we miscalculated. When we realized the mistake it was too late to reschedule to another day before Lent. We had a delicious dinner and a lot of fun playing cards. I didn't even think to take any pictures, so here's some of the fondue I ate as leftovers. Definitely doesn't do it justice.

Saturday: The plan was to go to Five Guys so James could get his cheeseburger fix before Cheesefare week, but the poor guy had a terrible sore throat. All he wanted was soup. I made this gypsy soup from The New Moosewood Cookbook, which is one of my favorites. It has a delicious broth and lots of immune boosting ingredients. Turns out James has the flu, so probably lots of soup will be eaten at our house this week.

What I Cooked

We love cheese at our house, quite a bit, and we tend to eat lots of cheesy, "junky" food this time of year. I'm of a mind that it's good to go into Clean Monday feeling kind of sick of cheese.  So--plenty of cheese. That's what you'll be seeing for the next few weeks here.

Sunday: Panini. I make this on a George Foreman Grill. It works really well. The bread was homemade whole wheat. My sandwich had sauteed collard greens, mushrooms, and, of course, cheese. White Irish cheddar. Yum. I try not to eat a lot of processed foods, but I admit to loving these cheesy corn puff things.

Monday: Homemade pizza for my Valentine. Kalamata olive, onion, crimini mushroom. It also has this. More processed foods. Yep. Lots of junk around here right now. We both do quite like this "sausage." Also cake, of course.

Tuesday: Haluski--I love this meal. It's hard to tell, but there is a ton of cabbage and onion in with those noodles. No cheese in this, but plenty of butter. I like to make it with homemade egg noodles, and then it is really, really, insanely good. But even with these run-of-the-mill store bought (from when we were sick) this is very tasty.

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Snacky dinner
Not a whole lot of cooking here, but I did make spinach artichoke dip and hard boiled eggs. That's a pear in the middle of the bottom row.

Friday: Total indulgence dinner. Scrambled eggs with cheese, biscuits and gravy.  I love biscuits and gravy.  My grandmother always used to make this for me when I was a little girl. One of the main reasons I kind of like the "sausage" stuff.  I put some mushrooms in this gravy, too.

















Saturday:
Vegetable fried rice with egg.

What I Cooked

We were out of town at the beginning of the week. We came home with either food poisoning or a stomach virus, so we subsisted on Gatorade, ginger ale, and canned soup for a few days. Not a lot of cooking going on. Things are back to normal now, thankfully!

Thursday: A favorite quick and easy dinner--quinoa with kale and tahini sauce. We love this, and I try to keep the ingredients for the sauce on hand. As long as I have some kind of fresh greens, I can have this on the table in about 20 minutes. Plus it's an oil-free Lenten dish.



Friday: Tempeh hash with potatoes and cabbage.

Saturday: Enchilada bake served with lettuce, tomato, sour cream.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

What I Cooked

Sunday:
We just ate our Cheesecake Factory leftovers.

Monday:
I don't know what to call these, but I make these quiche or fritatta-like muffin things with rice, cheese, eggs, and veggies. These had spinach, and we ate them with roasted sweet potatoes. Basically the recipe for the fritatta muffins is: 2 eggs, 1 cup rice, 1/2 cup cheese, 1-2 cups fillings. Bake in a muffin tin at 400 for about 20 minutes until slightly browned on top and eggs are cooked. This makes six: obviously it can be scaled up easily.

Tuesday:
Pot pie made with a "turkey" gluten loaf that I made and had in the freezer from Thanksgiving, salad, homemade rye bread.

Wednesday:
Wild rice and mushroom soup, more salad and rye bread, plus a wacky cake with peanut butter frosting.

Thursday:
I made a different version of the frittata rice muffins with chiles, black beans, tomatoes, and cheddar to use up leftover odds and ends. We also had eggless (vegan/Lenten) banana french toast.

Friday:
Red beans and rice, sauteed collard greens, cornbread. This is one of my favorite dinners. I love these collard greens, the recipe comes from Veganomicon.

Saturday:
Out of town. Out to dinner with family.

What I Cooked

Long time, no see. Obviously I took a break from blogging. I decided I miss it, so I'm back. I'm not going to belabor why I stopped or why I'm starting again. I'm just going to dive right back in. I thought it might be fun to do a weekly recap of dinners. I figure I can use it as reference for meal-planning. I'd like to use it help me recognize when we get into ruts, as a reminder of what we ate at different times of year, favorites, and things we didn't like as much. Plus whenever I ask James for ideas when I plan meals, he's stumped, so hopefully it will be a good reference for him, too. I always enjoy seeing this kind of things in other people's blogs, so perhaps it will be interesting to others as well.

Sunday: Chili Cheese Fries--homemade oven fries, topped with leftover homemade three-bean chili, and colby-jack cheese. Easy, yummy comfort food.

Monday: Potato soup, old school pea salad, beer bread. I think I've found my new favorite potato soup recipe. For future reference--from Betty Crocker Vegetarian Cooking, Jalapeno Potato chowder, substituted canned green chiles for the jalapenos, celery for the bell pepper, upped the potatoes to ~4 cups and upped the milk to 3 cups. Creamy and good--added cheese not necessary.

Tuesday:  I had an evening meeting, so it was fend for yourself sandwiches or leftovers.

Wednesday: On Wednesday nights we have prayer, dinner and adult study at church, so I usually don't have to cook.

Thursday: I worked late, so we had a fallback quick pantry dinner. Organic boxed max and cheese jazzed up with some crumbled black bean burger from the freezer and diced canned tomatoes.

Friday: Baked tempeh, rice pilaf, roasted cauliflower.

Saturday: We had a Cheesecake Factory gift card, and we went out to dinner...so it was kind of light week for cooking this week.