cupboard challenge: night two

on sunday, i went through my cupboard and pulled everything out and decided to challenge myself to use at least one item i already had each night this week.  subsequently i went to the store and picked up about $30 of supplemental fresh items.  let's do this, cupboard!


night two: meatless burgers and pasta salad


from the cupboard/freezer:  meatless burgers, half a box of rotini, bbq sauce
bought: italian dressing, rolls (also used for sandwiches), swiss cheese (also used for sandwiches), mushrooms

cupboard challenge: night one

on sunday, i went through my cupboard and pulled everything out and decided to challenge myself to use at least one item i already had each night this week.  subsequently i went to the store and picked up about $30 of supplemental fresh items.  let's do this, cupboard!

night one: pad thai

used:  pad thai sauce from cupboard, one egg from fridge, vegetable oil from cupboard

bought:  chicken, scallions, lime wedges, cilantro, rice noodles

taking the out out of "take out" (the take, too)... okay fine we ate in on a friday night.

well, it was a friday night, and we were hungry.  we were going out for drinks to bid farewell to a friend who has made the logical (read: inevitable) decision to move out of the city to be closer to family and pay rent that equals the cost of my phone bill in brooklyn (WHAT.) so we weren't going to go out for an elaborate dinner.

options, options... and it always lands on... take out?

reasons why take out is optimal for a friday night:

-  it's easy
-  you've been at work all day and you're tired
-  clean up is minimal
-  it's delicious

other things to consider, though:

-  it costs at least $20-$30
-  it always takes longer than they say it's going to
-  you've been at work all day and you're tired and hungry
-  it's usually not that delicious

trader joe's cous cous, trader joe's
indian fare, hummus, pita,
shish kabobs from fresh direct

okay, okay - it's not always as doom and gloom as i'm painting it.  i'm sort of like grandpa joe and charlie convincing themselves that the golden ticket would've made the chocolate taste weird anyway -- i'm trying to stick to a budget and take out, while a valid option, didn't feel like a necessary way to spend $30 last night.

but i was truthfully tired, hungry, and didn't want to spend hours (or to be honest even minutes) cooking.

i opened the cabinets and refrigerator and found three separate - very easy - items that combined to make quite a meal.  you might have even chosen the same items were you perusing a take out menu!

trader joe's, fresh direct, and prepared hummus to the rescue!  using stuff we already had, we made chicken shish kabobs served with punjab choley and couscous with a side of hummus and pita.

it's hard to say what the total cost of this meal was in the end, because i pieced together things i already had.  but it was definitely a lot cheaper than going out, cheaper than take out, and rather tasty.

i'd really recommend trying to cook something easy and a little different on a friday night rather than getting take out before you go out to meet friends for a drink -- at least once and a while.  it was really more satisfying than take out would have been, and $30 more stayed in the piggy bank than would have had some pad thai gotten here on its own.

be a vegetable (once a week anyway).

in the past three days i've heard more than four references to the idea that you should "go vegetarian" at least once a week.   this excited me not because i want to save the animals (sorry, i grew up a suburban carnivore. bbqs are life.)  but rather because it's something i was already doing without thinking about it or categorizing or qualifying it.

i read a lot of "helpful tips" and by a landslide, my favorite tips are ones that describe something i'm already doing.  tips that preach something that i'm already doing are awesome because they make me feel like i was doing something right and/or came up with a really good idea on my own, and because they're really easy to follow.

i eat vegetarian dishes about once a week because they're usually at least two of the following:

1.   cheaper than meat

2.  "healthier" than meat (by healthier i mean mixing it up protein/fiber/grain-wise/vegetable can be good)

3.   delicious

tonight i made something that i have decided was all of the above.  i suggest you try it whether you are vegetarian, you tend to eat vegetarian from time to time, or you too read several times recently that you should really go vegetarian once a week.

polenta and black beans.

to make this dish you need: 

store bought pre-made polenta (it comes in a tube)

a can of black beans

shredded cheese (i used pepper jack)

store bought fresh salsa

lettuce

sour cream (optional)

guacamole (optional)

store bought fresh salsa is a great
time-saver and it tends to be delicious

instructions:

in a pot, cook your black beans on low heat.  i've done this for
anywhere from twenty minutes to up to an hour.  tonight g worked late, so i had some time to kill.  i started the beans and cooked them on a really low heat and walked away.  

you want to let your beans cook a while so that the flavors of what you add have time to seep in.  for this dish, i add some fresh salsa from the grocery store.  it costs $4 at the store near me (but that's a "gourmet market" in park slope brooklyn, so hopefully for you it's cheaper elsewhere) which is less than buying onions, tomatoes, garlic, jalapenos, and cilantro - and this saves you time, chopping, and accidentally touching your eye after handling jalapeno seeds (i've literally never not done that).  

add a spoonful or two of the salsa and stir it in.  add more as you desire as the beans start to cook down.  [tip:  if you accidentally let the beans sit too long and they stick to the bottom of the pot, adding some of the salsa will loosen it all up].

slice them like they're cookies.

with the beans cooking, grab a trusty frying pan and start heating some oil. 

pour salsa juice over the
heating polenta rounds.

now, open up your package of polenta and slice it into half inch rounds.  it's pretty much the exact same thing as those logs of cookie dough your mom used to buy - just slice it.

throw those in the frying pan.  you'll want to brown them on each side.  because polenta has no flavor on its own, i like to pour the excess juice from the fresh salsa over the top as they're cooking.  

once the polenta rounds are brown, throw some shredded cheese over them.  lower the heat on the pan and cover the pan so the cheese really melts (think of it like you're melting cheese on a cheeseburger.  oh no! meat! stay focused - this is vegetarian night.)

once your cheese is melted, it's time to plate.  put the cheesy rounds on a plate (five or so will do the trick for each person - you'll be surprised how filling the dish is) and cover them with black beans.  then add your toppings - lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa - anything you want!  it's like a flattened gooey taco.

all in all this meal costs between ten and twelve dollars depending on where you shop and what toppings you want.  it could easily feed four or even six if you added an extra can of beans.  i wish i had thought of this in college!

old ladies (with crock pots) are wise: not for nothin'.

two myths that we believe until sometime in our twenties when we realize they aren't true:

1.  a saturday night at home is lame, especially with regard to eating/drinking.

2.  crock pots are for old ladies.

the sooner you stop believing these, the better!

tonight - a saturday - (gasp!) we're attending a screening of a friend's film.  it's at 8:30 in our neighborhood.  we went out to eat last night, and really shouldn't spend the money to go out again.  (another myth: money is something that you can't run out of!) around 5pm, i look at my watch and realize that if i put spaghetti in the crock pot right now, it will be reaching its point of optimal deliciousness when we get home around 10:30 pm.

spaghetti on a saturday night? 10:30 pm?

here's why cooking on a weekend night is way better than working on a week night: 

-  you aren't tired.  even if you're like, "man, i want some coffee!" tired, there's no way you're the kind of tired you'd be if you had been at work all day.

-  if you enjoy cooking, doing so when you aren't doing it because you feel like you have to (aka you just got home from work and you're tired, hungry, and poor) is an incredibly freeing feeling that you'd be surprised how infrequently you experience

-  you will spend more money going out on a weekend night than you will a week night.  i promise.  you'll stay out later, you'll drink more, you'll eat less healthy things... it's just what you'll do.

okay fine, i'll eat at home on a saturday night.  but a crock pot?  i'm 25, an artist, and i live in brooklyn, man! i'm supposed to be cool!

here's why crock pots are not only cool, they're awesome:

-   they do the work for you.  while you're out at work, doing some job that doesn't feed your passion (you're twenty-something, right?) the flavors of your food are slowly and seamlessly melding together to create a wonderful meal for you to come home to.

-  you can use cheaper meats and cheaper ingredients if you slow cook

-  you can make a shit ton of soup, chili, sausage and peppers, etc. etc. etc. that can easily feed an entire herd of hungry friends or be your lunch for weeks to come

so.  saturday night + crock pot + spaghetti.  here's my recipe for what i'll call: saturday crock spaghetti.

ingredients:

-  two jars of bullshit spaghetti sauce - i bought francisco rinaldi because all of the bottles of my fav sauce, ragu flavored with meat, were expired at the store i was shopping in (use by 7/3/10, the bottle read!) 

-  one green pepper (in my case, a bit of it was missing because i used it in some other      dinner some other night this week.  so, 8/10 of a green pepper) 

- garlic, garlic, garlic.  three cloves minced, three cloves roasted

-  two white onions

-  olive oil

-  a beer (to drink while cooking)

-  one pound of hamburger

-  two shakes garlic powder

-  one shake dried parsley

-  two shakes crushed red pepper 

steps:

if your hamburger meat is frozen, that's fine.  take it out and stick it in the microwave and let it defrost while you prepare the other ingredients.  if it's not frozen, take it out of the fridge while you prepare everything.  beef cooks better when it's heating from room temperature.

in a pan, heat some olive oil.  i like to use garlic infused olive oil when spaghetti is involved because i like my spaghetti to be high on garlic, but any olive oil will do.

while the oil is heating up, cut your two onions into rings.  throw them in the pan when they're cut - if the oil is heated enough, whatever.  make sure the oil coats the onion rings and let the pan continue to heat.  they'll cook.

now chop up your pepper, and add it to the pan.  you may need to add a bit more olive oil so all the veggies are covered -- use your discretion.

mince at least four cloves of garlic, and add them to the mix too.  also: peel three garlic cloves and wrap them in foil.  throw them in the oven at 400 degrees.

now cover your pan for a bit and let the vegetables mingle.

while that's going on, take out your crock pot.  

when the vegetables have cooked about 10-15 minutes (the green peppers should be brighter than they once were, and the onions should be getting soft) transfer the vegetables into the crock pot.  turn it on high but don't bother covering it yet.

now, throw your hamburger into in the same pan you cooked your veggies in.  let it start to brown, and then add your spices to the meat:  two shakes of garlic powder, a shake of dried parsley, and a shake or two of crushed red pepper.

cover and let that cook.  not too long - you don't want to overcook it, just brown it.

as the meat browns, pull that foil with the three full cloves of now semi-roasted garlic out of the oven.  unwrap them and throw them in the crock pot, whole.

go ahead and throw your two jars of bullshit spaghetti sauce into the crock pot.  if there's any left in the jar, rather than using water, throw some olive oil in there, and swish it around.  this gets more sauce out and also adds a little olive oil to your mix.

when your meat has browned, throw it into the crock pot.  

cover and cook until you get home.

p.s.  i have no idea if this recipe is good!  i have to go get ready for the screening i have to go to, now!

p.p.s.  i'll let you know how it comes out!

p.p.p.s.  here's what my boyfriend and dog have been doing since before i started cooking!