3 posts tagged “successes”
What Was I thinking?
I was thinking that cheese and noodles are good.
Call squant on the way home. Ask him to make the macaroni and cheese. When he asks what to do, tell him this:
Boil until done:
- about a small shoebox's worth of organic bulk macaroni from the hippie grocery.
When done, drain, then put back in pot. Add:
- 1 pint microwaved milk (just make it hot, don't boil.)
- 1 1/2 blocks of monterey jack cheese.
- Some garlic.
- Whatever other spices you want.
Whack with a hammer until crumby and then sprinkle over the top
- 1 box (6oz) safeway cornbread stuffing mix - microwaveable
- The rest of that half block and cheese you have left.
When you get home about an hour later, check the oven. Damn, that smells good. Not quite done yet, though. You want to cornbread crumbs to be toasty brown. Let it bake about 10-15 more minutes.
The Verdict
Squant is a very good cook - unlike me, he doesn't seem to have this urge to add everything to every recipe. Therefore, when he was going for "Whatever other spices he likes" he added some paprika. Not paprika, cayenne, kelp, powdered ginger, and sage, but just paprika.
Cheese and macaroni and cheese is not one
of those dishes where things get uggy after a few days, so it keeps
well. The fact that squant made an uberload of it has not been a
problem. Mac n cheese is a simple dish with simple tastes. Cheese and macaroni and cheese is similar but with more cheese. It is also very good - we've been eating it for lunch and dinner since monday and we still look forward to mealtimes.
What Was I thinking?
I was thinking it was late, I hadn't eaten all day, and squant mentioned we had a couple of cans of black beans. Need food that basically makes itself.
Recipe
Cook in rice cooker:
- 1 1/2 c toasted quinoa
- 3 c water
- 2 tbsp corn oil
Mix together in 9 x 12 baking dish
- 1 triangle wedge of pepper jack cheese, grated
- 2 cans black beans, drained
- 1 medium sized tub salsa fresca
- Cooked quinoa from above
Serve in a bowl with corn (or in my case soy flax seed cause I like em') chips as silverware. Put 1/2 avacado on each and a few dollops of good, hot salsa.
The Verdict
squant "I was really worried when it came out of the oven that the beans and cheese and salsa would be overwhelmed by the quinoa but this is freaking delicious."
And it was. Freaking delicious. Also, cheap mccheaperson.
Otherwise known as oatmeal raisin flaxseed macadamia nut coconut cookies.
What Was I thinking?
I was thinking the counter project had just started, we had a four day weekend ahead of us, and there were a number of recipes on the interweb which alluded to the possibility of some delicious cookies.
Recipe
In one bowl mix:
- 1 c flour
- 1 c flax meal
- 1 c shredded coconut
- 1 c macadamia nuts
- 2 c oatmeal (1/2 steel cut irish style, 1/2 toasted regular flattish oats)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
In another bowl cream together
- 1 c brown suga'
- 1 c wht suga'
- 1 c vegan buttery spread stuff
Then beat into the sugar mix:
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
Mix the two bowls together and add:
- 1/2 c raisins
Drop the cookies (about 2 tbsp worth) about 1 inch apart on oiled cookie sheets. Try not to eat too much of th raw dough. It's good, but it's better cooked. Cook about 10 minutes. Check, then cook for another 15 minutes. Man, those suckers smell good. Notice Squant staking around the kitchen. Squant wants cookies.
Take the cookies out of the oven. They are HOT. Try not to burn fingers or tongue attempting to eat cookies before they have cooled.Wait five minutes. Use a very stiff spatula to scrape the suckers off the sheet. They're stuck. But oh, so freaking delicious. Stop at 4 with a congratulations to yourself that you've done well. Feed the same number to squant.
The Verdict
He likes them.
These cookies will not last nearly as long as 24 giant cookies should last two people. At my house, we had one with each meal. Sometimes after dinner we'd have two.
The good news is they are full of fiber.
They could probably stand to have the butter spread stuff halved, or even quartered. Flax meal adds a lot of oil, so they were slightly more greasy than necessary.
