Weekly Menu - Sunday August 23

Tilapia Rigatoni with Avocado and Mango

Now, before I get started, don't give me any lip about once again eating pasta. I'll be honest in saying we eat a lot of pasta 'round these parts, because it's cheap, and we like cheap.

Anyway, on with the recipe!

What's in it:

• Two flanks of tilapia, pan cooked in lemon juice, veganaise and black pepper with a hint of olive oil
  
• Rigatoni pasta
  
• (almost) from scratch pasta sauce, made with tomato puree, fresh garlic cloves (minced), cayenne pepper, red peppers and white onion (minced) and kosher salt
• Sliced avocado
• Sliced mango

This is a super, super easy recipe that I made up basically on the fly last night. I knew prior to cooking that I'd be making tilapia with pasta, but I have been watching a lot of Iron Chef and other Food Network shows recently which gave me the experimental bug. I wanted to create a couple of different tastes within the plate. This is super experimental for me. It's like colors - some match, and some go. The latter is the real challenge - with the real payoff.

The pasta sauce you get at the grocery store always tastes really sweet to me, which, is good, but for the sake of this experiment I wanted something that took on a different personality. I used kosher sea salt to give it a pop-your-tastebuds savor, cayenne pepper to create a bite at the middle of the tongue, and super fresh, super minced garlic cloves to explode at the end. I added peppers and onions for a little texture.

White fish is difficult to cook. I'm pretty impatient with the burner, so I end up putting the heat too high and ending up with unevenly cooked fish. Lately, however, we've been getting a good deal on frozen tilapia that really tastes pretty good when added with something. It's given me more time to practice my craft and thankfully, I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Aside from being touchy in the pan, white fishes are also often difficult when it comes to taste. Some whitefishes, like Catfish, have a great natural flavor, but Tilapia is NOT Catfish. I have struggled with how to get it tasting as I'd like it to. So far, my favorite method is to smother the unthawed slabs of tilapia in a bit of Veganaise, and top that with a bit of black pepper. I then fill the sautee pan with lemon juice, adding a drop of olive oil for flavor. I keep the burner down, around 6, and cover the fish while they cook. The lemon juice really helps to bring out the flavor of the fish and keep it moist instead of flaky.

Now, in order to create some compliments, I sliced an avocado and a mango. I know everyone reading this blog has had avocado, but if you haven't had mango...you should do it right now. It's the sweetest, most wonderful fruit on the planet. The sweetness of the mango and the thickness of the avocado made the tomato sauce almost to wonderful to even imagine.

My favorite part about this meal was creating my first pasta sauce. Tomato puree is so inexpensive, that it's actually a cheaper and fresher way to cover noodles. I will be trying some different things in the coming months.

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Weekly Menu - Tuesday, August 18 2009

Vegetarian Chili

I love chili. It's one of my favorite foods - technically. However, throughout my life I've looked for ways to get around a couple of key things that most people's chili includes - kidney beans and hamburger. I never liked kidney beans. They are horrid, almost as bad as peas. But that's another story.

Honestly, when I finally started cooking in my early 20s, I almost jumped for joy when I realized I could make chili without those things! I enjoy this recipe, which I sort of pieced together from outside sources and my own trial and error.

What's in it:

• Two Red Peppers, chopped
  
• Two Green Peppers, chopped
• 1/2 White Onion, chopped
• 1 Can Black Beans
• 1 Can Garbanzo Beans
• 1/2 Zucchini
  
• 1 can of Corn
  
• Three whole garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Can diced tomatoes
• 1 Can tomato puree
  
• 1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp paprika
• three taps basil
  
• a few crunches of peppercorns
• pinch of sea salt

The measurements for the above spices are rough. I generally work with my brain, my hands and my taster when it comes to spices in anything - I feel it out as I go. It is important with veggie chili that you get the paste nicely seasoned before you cook, though, because the absence of meat definitely leaves some room for flavor.

I cook the chili in my wonderful, wonderful slow cooker on high for about 4 hours, ideally, and then another two on low.

Now, before you complain about the monochromatic pictures, please know - I planned on topping our chili off perfectly with a dollop of Vegan Sour Cream. However, I forgot to pick it up :( Thankfully, we've got a ton of leftover chili that will serve as tomorrow's dinner, and I'll be making sure that I make a trip to the Natural Foods Market!

Weekly Menu is my attempt at creating a weekly pescatarian dinner menu on Sunday night night and sticking to it for the whole week. I'll post the basic recipe, preparation, and photos of each meal daily - please hold me accountable! I'm rallying around my many recipe books to try out new ingredients, spices and scenarios.

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Weekly Menu - Monday, August 17 2009

Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

This is just garden variety spaghetti, but it's my spaghetti - my combination of my favorite ingredients and what I plan on passing down as the best spaghetti ever to my children.

What's in it:

• Whole Wheat Thin Spaghetti
• Garlic and Olive Oil Sauce
• Boca Crumblers Veggie Burger
• Red Peppers, sliced
  
• Portabella Mushrooms, chopped
• Sweet Yellow Onions

The garlic bread is also my "secret" recipe, which is probably no different than anyone else makes it. I don't care, though, OK? I grew up on nothing but tv dinners and goulosh, so learning to cook like a real person is a big deal for me.

What's in it:

• Fresh bakery sourdough baguette
  
• Freshly chopped garlic cloves (2)
• Olive Oil
• Light Butter
• A touch of salt, pepper and paprika

How do I do it?

Let me get one thing straight: I suck at cooking pasta. By that I mean, the boiling and cooking of the noodles. I cannot get it right. I think it's patience, really. I do find that adding salt to the water helps to keep the noodles less sticky AND adds a nice flavor. We eat wheat spaghetti, because it's better than the enriched white stuff, and doesn't cost much more. I've learned to really love the flavor of the wheat, but it does cook differently - less time in the water. It also tends to get stickier on its own.

While the water is boiling, I prepare the garlic bread. The sourdough loaves I use for this are really huge, so one half is enough for two people. I take 1/4 olive oil, 1 tablespoon of Smart Balance, and freshly chopped garlic cloves and heat them up until they're a nice smooth liquid. Then, I pour it over the bread - making sure that the cloves are spread out (they're powerful!). Once that's complete, I crack a few black peppercorns over the whole thing, add a little sea salt, and toss the whole thing in the oven to toast at 300 degrees.

Red peppers and sweet yellow onions are amazing. Well, I like any onions or peppers - but, for spaghetti, I like to use the yellow onions and red peppers because they have a sweetness to them that works well with the tomato sauce. I love finding the right onion and right pepper for a recipe - it's fun to enjoy the differences between them.

Anyway, for the spaghetti, I use a plain old frying pan with just a dab of vegetable oil and a lid. The veggies should be soft, not crunchy, so the steaming that happens with the lid on really gets them tasting scrumptious. Once they've gotten almost completely soft (you can tell by checking the color - darker = softer), I toss in a few chopped pieces of portabella mushroom. The mushrooms don't need much time at all to cook. And what's better than a portabella? Not much.

Once the veggies are cooked, I toss in the Boca crumblers (faux meat) to warm. The crumblers are pre-cooked, so they just need a few minutes in the pan. There are lots of different kinds of faux meat products out there, but I love Boca - it's got the best taste. After the crumblers have warmed, I add the spaghetti sauce, turn the heat down to simmer, and add garlic powder, cayenne pepper, basil and rosemary.

The bread takes about 15 minutes to toast, so if it's in the oven as I'm starting the boiling water, it is finished by the time everything else is. I usually end up getting it in too late and waiting for it, but it is worth it. Fresh garlic bread is wonderful, smells wonderful, and tastes wonderful.

As you can tell, we're garlic people. And pepper people. Bring it on.

So, there you have it - my "Secret" spaghetti and garlic bread. I'm launching Weekly Menu with an old favorite, but just wait - I'll be mixing old favorites with new and uncharted recipes as time goes on.


Weekly Menu is my attempt at creating a weekly pescatarian dinner menu on Sunday night night and sticking to it for the whole week. I'll post the basic recipe, preparation, and photos of each meal daily - please hold me accountable! I'm rallying around my many recipe books to try out new ingredients, spices and scenarios.

Read more...

And now, your originally scheduled menu

Things are changing around our household. The Drummer is going back to school next week to obtain his education credential, after which he'll be free to teach English, should he choose to do so. I will be back in school as well. We'll both be working full-time and trying to continue our other activities outside of work and home, so time will be minimal. Very minimal.

It's not so bad. It's only two semesters, and once those two semesters are over, many new life decisions will be made and things will change again, for the better.

Anyway, with that being said, I've decided to try a new process around here to A. save money B. eat healthier and C. spend less time worrying about what dinner will be. What's that new process, you say? Well, I'll be planning our meals for the week on Sunday night, making sure that the necessary ingredients are in stock, and sticking to the plan.

I've tried this before, and I failed. It's not that I don't want to...it's just that I failed. This time, I really want to make it work. So, I'm going to blog about it - and hope that my readership at large will hold me accountable.

Please? :D

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