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When I met the lovely, effervescent Daffodil Campbell at Camp Mighty, I was a bit starstruck, as I’ve long been a fan of her writing. When she turned out to be just as, if not more lovely in person… I quickly identified my mission: make her love me. Ok, so maybe it was a bit less stalkery than that, but I sensed in her a kindred spirit and couldn’t wait to get to know her better. And I did! It worked out marvelously. Mwahahaha.
Over dinner our final night, she mentioned having blogged about a broke-ass food challenge of sorts, in which she fed a group of 40 for $5 each, and I asked if I could re-blog it here for my masses. I love this recipe. It’s comforting, healthy, impressively ethnic, and can be prepared vegetarian or vegan or not, depending on your inclinations and the crowd you’re feeding. I figured it could be just the thing for some of you industrious brides to take advantage of for an engagement party, rehearsal dinner, hell… why not your wedding? While I don’t necessarily recommend slaving over a stove on your big day… with the right group of volunteers and stealthy prep-work, it can be done! Or, you could just throw a bad-ass party for no good reason at all, and impress your friends with your culinary prowess while your pocketbook stays fat and happy tucked away in your purse.
So, without further ado… take it away, Daffodil!
(PS: more on Camp Mighty, coming soon!)
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Last weekend we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary with a group of friends. I had considered having the food catered – picking up trays of food from our local grocery store, and saving myself a lot of time and stress. But the prices were high, and I wanted the food to be hot and fresh. Besides – I love to cook.
The response from friends hearing that I was cooking for about 40 people on my anniversary ranged from “You ARE?” to “Are you sure?” to “Of course you are!” to “I am so glad you are – yummy!”
Inspired and wanting to rise to the challenge, I sat down with my cookbooks. I wanted to find recipes that were simple – the more ingredients a recipe has, the more it will cost. A tip – if you need a spice or other ingredient that you don’t use often, find a store that sells spice by weight – lots of health food stores do, and you can buy just what you need for the recipe, not a whole jar that will then sit in your pantry. Also, I have a limited diet these days SO I was hyper-aware of this, but it’s a good thing to remember: You want to make something everyone will be able to eat. I decided on a big salad, daal, rice (all vegetarian and very filling, with plant-based protein) and chicken. I started cooking that afternoon and it took me about 2 hours. I had hoped to let the chicken marinate more but it just didn’t work out that way, so I put them on the grill to start them off and add some smoky flavor, then stabbed them repeatedly with a fork (which also helped my stress about cooking for 40 people, since I was feeling kind of stabby by about 4pm) basted, and cooked it on a low heat in my convection oven to allow the flavors to develop slowly.
A caveat about cooking for a large group: YOU NEED BIG PANS. Big ones. And big serving dishes. And a lot of silverware and dishes. We discovered that we needed forks about an hour before the guests started to arrive.
Awesome. Added to the stabby vibe.
The following is a detailed description of the menu, with some overly-simple directions. Sorry about that.
Dinner for 40, for less than $3 per person.
SALAD
The salad was set up salad bar-style. This meant that leftover greens could be bagged and refrigerated, along with with the individual garnishes. People could choose what they wanted to put in their salad, and how much. No dressing? NO PROBLEM. Hate carrots? HEY ME TOO.
The salad bar had dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, sunflower seeds, sliced cucumbers, sprouts, some goat cheese, shredded fresh and crusty french bread (better than croutons!) and balsamic strawberry vinaigrette.
Balsamic Strawberry Vinaigrette
Ripe Strawberries
Balsamic Vinegar
Salad oil blend or olive oil
I am embarrassed to even call this a recipe, actually. I chopped up a bunch of overly ripe slightly wrinkly strawberries into small pieces, put them in a bowl with their juices, poured in enough balsamic vinaigrette to cover them, stirred enthusiastically while gently giving the strawberries a little smooshing, and then let them set. Just before serving, I added salad oil (about the same amount of oil as balsamic) and gave it a good shaking. That’s it! Also great with blueberries. The trick is to use a very sweet, juicy, extra ripe fruit.
RICE
For dinner I made a huge pot of rice. There is a trick to making rice of you don’t have a rice cooker. If you live in Hawaii, you know what a rice cooker is. If you live in rural America, you might have no idea what I am talking about. I learned about rice cookers when I moved to Maui. They are like crockpots – but for rice. They cook rice quickly and efficiently and have an automatic shutoff when the rice is done. I don’t know how they work exacty, but we’ll just call it a miracle and move on. I don’t have a rice cooker. I make my rice in a big pot.
Public Service Announcement: Instant rice is not rice.
Confession: this technique for cooking rice was taught to me by Kevin Flaherty during the middle of a very memorable weekend at his parents beach house off-season. He also taught me some fun things to do with climbing ropes and carabiners. Thanks for the memories, man.
Melt a small pat of butter or heat a tablespoon of oil in the bottom of a pan. Makes sure the bottom of the pan is fully coated. Wash your rice. Just do it. Pour however much rice you need in the bottom of the pan. DO NOT STIR. Pour cold water over the rice – 2 cups of water for one cup of rice. Turn the heat to high – and when the water comes to a boil turn it down and simmer until the water is gone. You cannot put the lid on tightly – if you want to use a lid it has to be slightly off-center so steam can escape, and you have to keep an eye on the pan – once the water is gone you must turn off the heat or your rice will burn! It’s easy to tell when the water is completely gone – look for bubbles on top of and between the grains of rice. Bubbles = water still cooking off. I used one cup of uncooked rice for every 5 people – so 8 cups of rice and 16 cups of water.
DAAL/DHAL/DAL/LENTILS
I used a huge, heavy ceramic-coated cast iron pot with a lid which prevents sticking, minimizes the chance of burning, and is good for slow cooking.
3 tbs butter or ghee
1 onion, chopped
1 tbs fresh ginger (I buy the prepared ginger root puree in a jar)
3 tbs garlic puree (also purchased in a jar)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried chilis (Confession: I once used a package of crushed chili peppers I got from Pizza Hut that I found in my junk drawer to season my daal - Now I have a bottle of them.)
Sautee all in pan until onion is clear, then add:
1 cup lentils (I used french green lentils) stir around well to coat, then add:
3 cups water
1 cup veggie broth
1 can chopped tomatoes with chilis
Bring the whole thing to a boil, turn down the heat and put a lid on it. Stir *very* occasionally, cook for 1 hour and see how the lentils are doing. They probably need another hour to get really soft. Once lentils are pretty soft, smooosh them with a potato masher to break them up a bit. Then add a little lemon juice, some pepper, and a lot of salt. You have to do it to taste – but lentils in my experience need a lot of salt. However, salt will keep them from getting as soft as they should – so don’t add it until the lentils are soft.
This made enough for 10 people – so I quadrupled it. Like I said: you need big pans to cook for a crowd.
SPICY MASALA CHICKEN
First, to clarify: This is NOT CHICKEN MARSALA. No, no it isn’t.
Sauce/Marinade (enough for 10 chicken thighs)
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ginger puree (same stuff I used for the daal)
1 tsp garlic puree (same stuff I used for the daal)
1 tsp crushed dried chilies
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp honey
Confession: This recipe calls for marinating the chicken, but I don’t have the time or the space to marinate chicken for 40 people, so I basted with the marinade and it was really yummy. If you have time and space, go ahead and marinate the chicken for a few hours or even overnight. Another problem with marinating – I used frozen chicken thighs. Bone-in, with skin, that you can cook from frozen without having to defrost. They are cheap and flavorful. The fat cooks out of them, and the skin comes off during cooking…….so go for it. I counted on 1/2 pound of chicken per person, and so I bought 20 pounds of chicken. Turn your oven on to 300 degrees and let it preheat while you grill the chicken a bit for flavor. If you have a convection oven, use it. We put the thighs – still frozen – on the grill skin side up. Put the heat on Medium, closed the lid, and grilled for 10 minutes watching for flare-ups due to the fat cooking off. Don’t want to burn down your house while preparing for your dinner party. That’s called irony.
After 10 minutes, transfer the chicken into a large pan (I needed three large pans – 9×12 with high sides) and peel off the skin and excess fat. Spread the chicken out single layer with slight overlap, which prevents the edges from getting overcooked and dried out during slow cooking.
STAB THAT CHICKEN WITH A FORK.
Go on, STAB IT ALL OVER.
Now drizzle the sauce/marinade all over the chicken using a spoon to conserve so that you have enough for all of the pieces. Put it in the pre-heated oven and bake for about 45 minutes.
So that’s it. The bulk of the food cost was baby greens ($8), the chicken ($25), the lentils ($5 or so), and the rice was less than that, and everything was delicious!
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Thanks a million to Daffodil for sharing her wondrousness with us! Make sure you check out her super duper blog, Adventures in Paradise. Before you know it, you’ll want to make her love you, too
What do you think? Would you use a recipe like this to cater your own event?
Back by popular demand, the triumph of my holiday cooking experience from last year (originally posted 12/10/10). Enjoy!
I’ve teased. I’ve taunted. I’ve tantalized you all with tales of my epic vegan holiday feast layer cake from Thanksgiving… and the time has come to SHOW YOU THE YUMMY! I got the inspiration from a series of posts on “meat cakes” over at Vegansaurus, and felt compelled to take up the challenge and put my vegan culinary skills to the test of tests by making as much of it from scratch as possible… from the faux turkey base to the mashed potato icing and cranberry sauce topping.
With Christmas right around the corner, I thought I’d share it now for those of you still looking for that “blow them away” holiday table treat. I have to say, making it was much simpler than it seems (bonus!), I still consider it the masterpiece of my culinary endeavors thus far.
It’s an entire holiday dinner in one meal: “turkey”, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing. For a lover of sweet and savory together, this business rocked my palate’s world. And everyone, even my most carnivorous of friends, was transfixed by the beast. Most people thought it was a regular cake! Everyone embraced it, vegan or not, and they gobbled it up like they were the (very very hungry) turkeys. And oh yeah baby, it was even better the next day.
I started with a base of homemade “turkey” seitan, for the meat part. Seitan is a protein-rich meat substitute made from vital wheat gluten powder… and though it may seem intimidating, its super easy peasy lemon squeezy to make. After a “meh” test run with one recipe I found, my bestie directed me to Ellen DeGeneres’ recipe… and holy gobblesworth, it was DELISH!
The big “trick” to making it successfully is to freeze between layers, which allows it to “set” and makes for easy spreading with the softer components like the potatoes and sauce. For the turkey and stuffing, I filled them each into a round pie pan, packed them down, and froze them for about an hour before layering, which created the right shape and size to begin with.
I also planned ahead to stack them in a way that makes sense, considering their textures. Turkey on the bottom because its sturdy and pre-shaped from the pie pan, then I slathered that with mashed potatoes. Once that had set in the freezer, I turned out the pre-frozen stuffing from the pie pan on top, and slathered that with sweet potato puree. Once that was set, it was easy to layer on the cranberry sauce. Then another layer of turkey, then sweet potatoes, another pan of stuffing, and the icing of mashed potatoes once more. I “piped” out a border to hold in the cranberry sauce topping, using a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off, which really added to the “cake” effect. I know, it sounds m-fing crazy. And it was time consuming, but actually really fun, and more rewarding than I ever imagined. I mean, I never pictured myself making a whole (delicious) thanksgiving meal by myself, much less turning it into a trompe l’oeil like a layer cake!
Hungry yet? Well, an epic feast deserves an epic post, so here come the recipes! And yo, its so much simpler than it sounds. Trust.
The Seitan Turkey
4 Cups vital wheat gluten
1 Cup bread crumbs
1 Cup nutritional yeast
3 Tablespoon dried thyme
1 large onion small dice and caramelized
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ Cup extra virgin olive oil
4 Cups strong No Chicken, chicken stock (veggie stock)
1 full sheet of cheesecloth
Butcher’s twine
Start a large pot of water boiling. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another. Caramelize the onions until soft and golden brown and add them to the dry ingredients. Mix the two bowls together until a loose batter forms, and shape that into a loaf-y shape. Lay it out onto a full sheet of cheesecloth, folded over once.
Roll it up tight into a cylinder, and tie it with bakers twine at either end, and twice in the middle. Drop that puppy into your hot water, cover, and let simmer gently for 2 hours, turning once throughout.
When its done, carefully unwrap it while its warm. Otherwise, the outer layer sticks to the cheesecloth and makes it much harder to remove. If you’re feeling cheeky, you can brush it with Earth Balance butter and blackening spices and bake it awhile to get a nice browned outside. I didn’t find this necessary, either way really. By the by, this makes a HUGE roast, so I’d halve the recipe if you’re cooking for a smaller crowd. Or, just freeze half and save it for a rainy day!
The Stuffing
This is the one component that was semi-homemade, as I used Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix and followed the instructions by adding veggies and broth. I just wanted to mention it because I used sauteed Trader Joe’s Stuffing Starter (a blend of celery, onions, fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) as the base, which was too easy and tasty for words. Its SO worth trying, I freaking loved it! I also added raisins, which adds a supremely sweet and rich dimension that I simply adore.
The Sweet Potatoes
One 3-pound bag whole sweet potatoes
Unsweetened, organic soymilk to taste
Earth Balance butter, to taste
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
This one is very dependent on how you like your mash. I boiled the sweet potatoes whole until they were fork tender. The skin just slips off when they’re warm, but be careful not to burn your fingers. I pureed them in my sexy-ass 14-cup Cuisinart (thanks, Cuisinart!) and added enough milk and butter until they were juuuuuust right. I gotta say, this was the silkiest, most satiny, savory sweet deliciousness ever. I lurved these babies!
We don’t have pictures of these final two parts, whoops! Use your imaginations, k?
The Mashed Potatoes
One 5-lb. bag whole russet potatoes
Unsweetened, organic soymilk to taste
Earth Balance butter, to taste
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
I did these the same way as the sweet potatoes, and I don’t really know what I did wrong (was it the type of potato? The cook time? Did I over-puree?)… but they turned out a bit gluey and thick. It was actually pretty suitable for this dish, especially the icing part… but if it were just a side dish I’d have tossed it out and started over cuz I prefer my mashed taters more light and fluffy in general.
The Cranberry Sauce
1 bag whole, fresh cranberries
1 cup orange juice, with pulp.
1 cup sugar
cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg to taste
pinch of salt
This one is simple pimple. Just boil everything up in a pot, then reduce and simmer until it reduces to your desired thickness. Add the spices last, so you can monitor how potent you want them.
That’s it! Just layer and freeze, layer and freeze, “ice” with mashed taters, and brace yourself for an EPIC flavor party in your mouth. To serve, just cut into slices and warm them up individually, but its also super yums when cold. Oh, enjoy all the compliments and comparisons of yourself to Martha Stewart…. cuz that’s just how fly this bad boy is. It really is. YUM. And if you’re like me, after your tastebuds do a happy dance, you and your friends can do one too… like we did!
It’s no secret that I like food. I super like to play with my food. And I love to find fun new ways to display edible goodies at parties, from intimate dinner shindigs to all wedding-related events like showers and rehearsal dinners. But don’t be scurred… it don’t take no fancypants skills to craft a creative culinary display! Even the smallest effort in presentation can translate to a more visually dynamic buffet… and today on Broke-Ass TV, we’re sharing a creative and fun way to showcase your finger foods, by turning them into topiary trees!
Even Brussels Sprouts seem like fun when they’re impaled into tree-form. And that’s a feat that few can beat! Just mix a little dijon mustard with a dollop of mayo, a squirt of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper for a delish dip to accompany your sprouty friends And for the strawberries, you just can’t go wrong with a sexy blend of cream cheese and cool whip! Yeah, you heard me right. COOL WHIP. Mmmmmm.
You like what you see? Subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up-to-date with all our on-camera shenanigans! And let us know if you have any requests for future DIY ditties!
A few weeks ago I lead a DIY workshop at The Wedding Pantry, making “favors with flava” – homemade Bath Soaks and Sugar Scrubs. It was my first time leading a workshop, and it was hella fun! Making your own bath soak and sugar scrub is insanely easy and inexpensive its silly, so make some for yourself while you’re at it. I’ve been using our scrub and its ahhhhhmazing!
They put out a cute sign for the event, I felt so legit! (See that wedding dress in the window there? Its made of PAPER, yo!)
Here’s the ingredients for the sugar scrub. Everything in it is not only natural, but edible too! And the smell? Just don’t blame me if you find yourself licking your fingers in the shower, yo. You can use any oil you want as the base, but I prefer coconut or almond. Coconut oil is mega moisturizing, and its solid at room temperature, so its an excellent vehicle for the sugar in your scrub. I brought fine granulated white sugar, brown sugar, and sugar in the raw. I like to mix all three, about 1/3 of each… but you can customize it to be as coarse or as fine as you like by changing that up or omitting one completely. Honey adds even more moisture so I like to add a squirt of that as well. The best part is there are no rules. Just mix it all together until you reach a consistency you like!
You might even have all the ingredients for our homemade bath soak already in your pantry. Really all you need is coarse kosher or epsom salts and essential oil to scent them… but you can add oats and/or baking soda for a more skin soothing and moisturizing soak. You can get little bottles of essential oil at a natural foods store. I bought Lavender because its relaxing, and grapefruit because its so invigorating. Just remember that a little goes a long way!
In between each step, we all went around playing “Two Truths and a Lie” which adding a fun bit of spice and girly slumber party fun to the workshop. None of the girls were very good liars, though… it was adorable.
Ta Da! Behold, the finished products. We got those jars at Ikea – they come in packs of 4 for $4… and one for a dolla makes me holla! A little ribbon and a gift tag puts the perfect touch on your gifties… even if you’re just giving them to yourself
Food for the event was provided by the totally boner-worthy Soho Taco. I ate wayyyyy too many of their gourmet veggie tacos and their topping bar was mad addictive. I’m a huge fan of taco carts at events – heck, we had one at our engagement party – and these are by far the best I’ve had. I highly recommend them!
Yum.
Just look at this motley crew of workshoppers! We had a total blast, and I’m so happy to have had the opportunity. Thanks to Eva and Wendy at The Wedding Pantry for having me, Holly Steen of Cakes and Kisses Photography for taking these gorgeous photos, and to Rico at Soho Taco for dinner!
I’ve teased. I’ve taunted. I’ve tantalized you all with tales of my epic vegan holiday feast layer cake from Thanksgiving… and the time has come to SHOW YOU THE YUMMY! I got the inspiration from a series of posts on “meat cakes” over at Vegansaurus, and felt compelled to take up the challenge and put my vegan culinary skills to the test of tests by making as much of it from scratch as possible… from the faux turkey base to the mashed potato icing and cranberry sauce topping.
With Christmas right around the corner, I thought I’d share it now for those of you still looking for that “blow them away” holiday table treat. I have to say, making it was much simpler than it seems (bonus!), I still consider it the masterpiece of my culinary endeavors thus far.
It’s an entire holiday dinner in one meal: “turkey”, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing. For a lover of sweet and savory together, this business rocked my palate’s world. And everyone, even my most carnivorous of friends, was transfixed by the beast. Most people thought it was a regular cake! Everyone embraced it, vegan or not, and they gobbled it up like they were the (very very hungry) turkeys. And oh yeah baby, it was even better the next day.
I started with a base of homemade “turkey” seitan, for the meat part. Seitan is a protein-rich meat substitute made from vital wheat gluten powder… and though it may seem intimidating, its super easy peasy lemon squeezy to make. After a “meh” test run with one recipe I found, my bestie directed me to Ellen DeGeneres’ recipe… and holy gobblesworth, it was DELISH!
The big “trick” to making it successfully is to freeze between layers, which allows it to “set” and makes for easy spreading with the softer components like the potatoes and sauce. For the turkey and stuffing, I filled them each into a round pie pan, packed them down, and froze them for about an hour before layering, which created the right shape and size to begin with.
I also planned ahead to stack them in a way that makes sense, considering their textures. Turkey on the bottom because its sturdy and pre-shaped from the pie pan, then I slathered that with mashed potatoes. Once that had set in the freezer, I turned out the pre-frozen stuffing from the pie pan on top, and slathered that with sweet potato puree. Once that was set, it was easy to layer on the cranberry sauce. Then another layer of turkey, then sweet potatoes, another pan of stuffing, and the icing of mashed potatoes once more. I “piped” out a border to hold in the cranberry sauce topping, using a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off, which really added to the “cake” effect. I know, it sounds m-fing crazy. And it was time consuming, but actually really fun, and more rewarding than I ever imagined. I mean, I never pictured myself making a whole (delicious) thanksgiving meal by myself, much less turning it into a trompe l’oeil like a layer cake!
Hungry yet? Well, an epic feast deserves an epic post, so here come the recipes! And yo, its so much simpler than it sounds. Trust.
The Seitan Turkey
4 Cups vital wheat gluten
1 Cup bread crumbs
1 Cup nutritional yeast
3 Tablespoon dried thyme
1 large onion small dice and caramelized
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ Cup extra virgin olive oil
4 Cups strong No Chicken, chicken stock (veggie stock)
1 full sheet of cheesecloth
Butcher’s twine
Start a large pot of water boiling. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another. Caramelize the onions until soft and golden brown and add them to the dry ingredients. Mix the two bowls together until a loose batter forms, and shape that into a loaf-y shape. Lay it out onto a full sheet of cheesecloth, folded over once.
Roll it up tight into a cylinder, and tie it with bakers twine at either end, and twice in the middle. Drop that puppy into your hot water, cover, and let simmer gently for 2 hours, turning once throughout.
When its done, carefully unwrap it while its warm. Otherwise, the outer layer sticks to the cheesecloth and makes it much harder to remove. If you’re feeling cheeky, you can brush it with Earth Balance butter and blackening spices and bake it awhile to get a nice browned outside. I didn’t find this necessary, either way really. By the by, this makes a HUGE roast, so I’d halve the recipe if you’re cooking for a smaller crowd. Or, just freeze half and save it for a rainy day!
The Stuffing
This is the one component that was semi-homemade, as I used Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix and followed the instructions by adding veggies and broth. I just wanted to mention it because I used sauteed Trader Joe’s Stuffing Starter (a blend of celery, onions, fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) as the base, which was too easy and tasty for words. Its SO worth trying, I freaking loved it! I also added raisins, which adds a supremely sweet and rich dimension that I simply adore.
The Sweet Potatoes
One 3-pound bag whole sweet potatoes
Unsweetened, organic soymilk to taste
Earth Balance butter, to taste
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
This one is very dependent on how you like your mash. I boiled the sweet potatoes whole until they were fork tender. The skin just slips off when they’re warm, but be careful not to burn your fingers. I pureed them in my sexy-ass 14-cup Cuisinart (thanks, Cuisinart!) and added enough milk and butter until they were juuuuuust right. I gotta say, this was the silkiest, most satiny, savory sweet deliciousness ever. I lurved these babies!
We don’t have pictures of these final two parts, whoops! Use your imaginations, k?
The Mashed Potatoes
One 5-lb. bag whole russet potatoes
Unsweetened, organic soymilk to taste
Earth Balance butter, to taste
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
I did these the same way as the sweet potatoes, and I don’t really know what I did wrong (was it the type of potato? The cook time? Did I over-puree?)… but they turned out a bit gluey and thick. It was actually pretty suitable for this dish, especially the icing part… but if it were just a side dish I’d have tossed it out and started over cuz I prefer my mashed taters more light and fluffy in general.
The Cranberry Sauce
1 bag whole, fresh cranberries
1 cup orange juice, with pulp.
1 cup sugar
cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg to taste
pinch of salt
This one is simple pimple. Just boil everything up in a pot, then reduce and simmer until it reduces to your desired thickness. Add the spices last, so you can monitor how potent you want them.
That’s it! Just layer and freeze, layer and freeze, “ice” with mashed taters, and brace yourself for an EPIC flavor party in your mouth. To serve, just cut into slices and warm them up individually, but its also super yums when cold. Oh, enjoy all the compliments and comparisons of yourself to Martha Stewart…. cuz that’s just how fly this bad boy is. It really is. YUM. And if you’re like me, after your tastebuds do a happy dance, you and your friends can do one too… like we did!
For Thanksgiving week, if you’re anything like us, you’re running around prepping for the upcoming festivities and don’t want to deal with too much cooking or cleaning. But rather than turning to fast food in a frenzied fit of festivity, melt into this comforting noodle soup that’s as easy as 1-2-3!
I love soup in general. I must have gotten it from my dad, who says “If I have not soup, I have not eaten.” And this soup in particular has been rocking my early-winter world. First, its awesome because it has the ultimate Broke-Ass ingredient, Ramen noodles. Second, it’s a flexible recipe; we made it with whatever we had lying around… so feel free to improvise with whatever you’ve got sitting around your fridge or freezer that night. Third, its tasty and faux-fancy enough to be served to friends with a hunk of warm, crusty bread in a dinner party pinch. Does it get any better?
Pho (pronounced fuh) is one of my go-to comfort foods, whether it be a rainy day dinner or flu-fighting remedy, I love its brothy smoothness, its noodley texture, its vegetable-infused nutrients. But, in our ‘hood, the best pho around is like $9 a bowl. Pho that, man! So I came up with this bad boy in a comfort craving crisis, and while its certainly a far cry from traditional pho, its mushroomy beefiness and the texture of the ramen noodles are a good enough substitution for me. It would be fun to try out with more likely ingredients like tofu, carrots, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts and onion. Oh, and don’t be shy – if you got ‘em, give it a squirt of lime juice or a few jalapeno ring floaters in there too!
Ingredients:
* 2-3 cans vegetable broth
* 1 package sliced mushrooms
* 1 package frozen stir fry mix (I used an asparagus blend, it was delish)
* 2 packages ramen (you’ll only use the noodles, so flavor doesn’t matter)
* a few healthy splashes of soy sauce
* a few shakes of onion powder
* a healthy splash olive oil
* Salt/Pepper to taste
First, saute your vegetables with a little olive oil on medium, in a hot stockpot or dutch oven until soft. Splash with some soy sauce and onion powder and let it cook a few minutes more. Don’t overheat the pan, otherwise the mushrooms won’t let out their yummy juice – it’ll just dry up. I gotta tell you, I just discovered PictSweet has a frozen, sliced mushroom in the bag – and its pretty freaking phenomenal. I use mushrooms a LOT, so I’m obsessed! Oh, I see you eyeballing my gorgie Le Creuset… a wedding gift from my cousin Vita. It’s so damn sexy. Big ups, Vita!
Get a second pan of water boiling, then add your ramen noodles. After 3 minutes, drain those puppies. No one likes overcooked ramen. That shiz is nasty.
Meantime, add your broth to the pot of vegetables and heat through. How much you use depends on how rich you like the flavor of your soup. Less broth is much more savory, “beefy” and salty. More broth will dilute the flavors some for y’all with weaker palates. Usually between 2-3 cans should do.
Then mix your noodles and soup in accordance with your preferred soup:noodle ratio, grab a spoon, cozy up with your sweetheart and enjoy! It’ll warm your cockles, and who doesn’t like that?
You got a soup recipe I should try out? Let me know, I’m always on the prowl….
We here at Broke-Ass HQ like to keep lunches light, easy, cheap, and palate-pleasing… so the BLT has become a common default for our mid-day meal. But we’ve put our own special spin on this oldie but goodie, taking it from a porky classic to VEGGIETASTIC. It’s quickly become Hunter’s favorite sandwich – he begs for it on a near daily basis!
By subbing out healthier alternatives for the bread, bacon and mayo, and by adding the creamy goodness of avocado – this sammich brings the decadently creamy, crunchy and salty flavor party to your mouth, without all the narsty saturated fat!
Ingredients:
2 slices of your favorite bread. (We love Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Breads. The sprouting process activates beneficial enzymes which cause the grains to sprout and become living and nutrient-rich. Plus, they’re the YUM.)
3 slices veggie bacon (Vegan Alert! MorningStar has egg in it, but there are vegan alternatives like Lightlife Smart Bacon)
1/4 ripe avocado
1/2-1 Tbsp. Mayonnaise (We LOVE Vegenaise – a non-dairy mayo alternative that beats out mayo in taste tests among all our friends)
1-2 leaves romaine lettuce (has more nutrients than iceberg)
1 fresh tomato, sliced
Salt/Pepper to taste
First, toss your bread into the toaster to get it nice and warm and toasty just the way you like it. While that’s running, saute your bacon slices over low-medium heat in a nonstick pan until it just slightly begins to brown on both sides. A squirt of oil in the pan will help it crispify. (Hint: the lower and slower it cooks, the better it is!)
When the toast is ready, slather one slice of bread with your 1/4 avocado, mashed. Spread the other slice with your mayo (or mayo alternative). Stack up your lettuce, tomato and bacon slices… sprinkle with a little salt and pepper… slice it up, and VOILA! A no-fuss, no-muss, healthy twist on an old favorite.
Admiring that professional construction? Using the avocado as glue for the tomatoes, and mayo as glue for the bacon, helps to hold the sammich together like a happy, tasty family. And just look at how happy it can make a hubby! Who could resist?
Got a Meatless Monday recipe to share? Want to see me de-meat-ify your favorite? Hit me up in the comments, and happy cooking!
(are you all, “meatless monday? What? why?” click here to catch up)
Vegan & Gluten-free Pumpkin Harvest Alfredo!
That’s right, we’re showing the love for fall by uniting Pumpkin + Alfredo in tasty matrimony and celebrating with a flavor party in your mouth! Adapted from Manifest Vegan‘s pumpkin alfredo recipe, we’ve made some simple alterations that pack a perfect punch. Its super simple and incredibly decadent, even though its healthy. There’s practically no telling its dairy-free! I made it this weekend, and it was a culinary epiphany. We absolutely LOVE IT!
Ingredients:
A pack of your favorite pasta, 12-16 oz. (We used Trader Joes Brown Rice Pasta Spirals – mmmmm!)
1/2 bag fresh baby spinach
1 carton mushrooms (we used crimini), sliced
1/2 bag frozen peas
1/2 tsp. garlic salt, or 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
Toasted walnuts (optional)
For the sauce:
1 container (12 oz.) silken tofu, drained
1-1/2 cup pumpkin puree (we roasted/pureed a pumpkin, but you can also use a canned variety)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (find this at natural food stores. Its got a mild nutty, parmesan-like taste and is uber rich in vitamins)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed, aka flaxseed meal (find this in the baking section)
1-1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup olive oil
Steps:
Get your water boiling for the pasta. Always toss a healthy hit of salt into your pasta pot for flavor. Cook the pasta according to the directions. Set aside.
Meantime, put all sauce ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth and incorporated. Try to not eat it all straight out of the mixing bowl!
Sauté mushrooms and peas with garlic until the mushrooms begin to brown…
Then add the sauce from your blender. Gently warm the sauce, but not to boil. Once it’s heated through, fold in the spinach and turn off the burner. The warmth from the sauce will wilt the spinach juuuust right. If the sauce looks too thick, stir in a bit of water until it reaches your preferred consistency.
Pour the sauce over your pasta in each serving bowl, and top with toasted walnuts, if you like it like that. Oh, we likes it like that! (To toast raw walnuts: spread ‘em on a sheet pan and roast at 350 for 8-10 minutes, but watch them closely so they don’t burn! No one likes burned nuts, hehe.) The trick to this one is that the sauce is so creamy and packed with veggies that you really only need a handful of pasta to fill ‘er out. That keeps the carbs and cals lower – cha ching! Double bonus!
Voila! A rich, creamy, and cozy autumn meal that’s way healthier than your average alfredo, and cheaper than dinner out… amped up with the power of pumpkin and fresh veggies! Even our non-vegan pals adore it. Last night, our die-hard carnivore friend said “Dana, whenever you make this, I will come eat it.” ‘Nuff said, yo! So don’t be scurred of something new. Whip up a batch and let me know what you think!
What do you think? Will you give it a try?
Got a recipe you want us to try? Hit me up in the comments, and maybe your recipe will be featured on Meatless Mondays!
{Don’t forget to check out this week’s Bargain Bash! Get a Gobble Green vegan or gluten-free home meal delivery starter kit at 44% off!}
I love to cook, a lot. A lot a lot. Like, A LAWT. Back when we were fancy, cable-having people, I watched the Food Network like it was porn and worshipped at the altar of Ina Garten. I cooked all the time.
Then we moved to a place that didn’t really have the best kitchen for cooking, and we cut the cable cord, so I slowed my cooking roll… but never stopped feeling that itch. That wanna-cook-twinge. It was always there.
So now that we’re finally in a new house with much dreamier kitchen (and Ina on hulu), I’ve been getting back in the game…. learning to better support my vegan diet requirements without leaning too much on processed foods, and LOVIN the results! Cooking at home keeps our bodies healthier and wallets heavier, (and who doesn’t want that?), so we thought it would be fun to share our favorite recipes with you in a new feature we’ll call Meatless Mondays!
You could be eating this! (yeah yeah, we’re working on our camera skillz)
While I could go on about the various health, environmental, ethical and fiscal benefits to moving to a plant-based diet, I don’t expect y’all to just give up meat and dairy just like that. It ain’t easy, I know… and its not necessarily for everyone. But I will encourage you to experiment! It doesn’t have to be “all or nothing” – try subbing out a meal or two each week with something meatless… I bet you won’t be sorry! The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone is a great starter resource that speaks to all levels of interest and commitment without judgment, but this short and sweet video from the Ted conference presents a great perspective on how every effort we each make, even if in baby steps, adds up to big results.
To celebrate kicking off Meatless Mondays, we’re amped to introduce this week’s Bargain Bash sale! Whether you’re trying to cut back on meat, or time in the kitchen, or those pesky extra holiday pounds…. Gobble Green‘s vegan and gluten-free meal delivery service is a bad-ass treat you’ll love to eat! You may remember Gobble Green from our Flab to Fab Test Lab, and we loved our month on the plan so much that we invited them to be part of the Bargain Bash!
This week (and this week only) you can score an introductory week of fresh, balanced, and delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners served right to your door, anywhere in the US, at 44% off! With tasty items like banana nut muffins, “chicken” salad, and “meatloaf” with mashed potatoes… you’ll love the healthy, yummy convenience that Gobble Green delivers. Click here to get started!
Enough with the talk now…. ONTO THE FOOOOOD! Come on by later, we’ll be showing you our Pumpkin Harvest Alfredo Pasta. Now, doesn’t that sound sexy? Watch for falling drool!
by Alicia Silverstone is a great starter resource that speaks to all levels of interest and commitment without judgment, but this short and sweet video from the Ted conference presents a great perspective on how every effort we each make, even if in baby steps, adds up to big results.
