Tuna Melt

What can I say? I had a craving.

• 1 can tuna, drained
• 1 T mayo
• 1 T mustard (I prefer whole grain or Dijon)
• 1 scallion, chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• Tomato
• Nice, crusty bread, sliced thick and toasted
• Cheese, we used Havarti today

Turn the broiler on high. Mix the tuna, mayo, mustard, scallion and salt and pepper. Mound the tuna salad on the bread, top with tomato and cheese. Place on a sheet pan and place under the broiler for 3-6 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

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Pantry Pasta Puttanesca

A real favorite in terms of pantry dishes, puttanesca sauce really packs a punch. Easily made with ingredients in the pantry, it is a hearty dish that doesn’t require a trip to the market. Putanesca sauce gets its name from the bold, pungent flavor that the main ingredients (anchovies, garlic, red pepper, olives, capers) impart. Read about the history of the sauce, and how it got its name, HERE.

Pasta Puttanesca

• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2-3 anchovy filets
• 1/4 c chopped pitted olives (I always keep a bunch of Fairway’s pitted spicy olives on hand for this dish)
• 2 T capers
• Red pepper flakes
• Pomi chopped tomatoes

Sautee the garlic in olive oil and after a few minutes add the anchovies and olives. Cook another few minutes and then add the tomatoes, capers and red pepper flakes. No need to add salt (with the anchovies already adding plenty) but fresh cracked black pepper kicks it up even more.

Garlic, anchovies and olives

I had a little bit of both orecchiette and perciatelli, and since I didn’t want to open up another box of anything, I mixed both, which was possible since they cook in approximately the same amount of time (11 min vs. 12 min).

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Panko Crusted Chicken Fingers

This morning I ran a 13-mile “marathon training run” in Central Park.  After the run, I had a very strong craving for chicken fingers. So when we got home, we made ’em.

Panko Chicken Fingers

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2-3 eggs
• Panko bread crumbs
• Salt, pepper, and dried herbs/spices to your liking (we added paprika, oregano and thyme)

First, wash and dry chicken and cut into strips.  Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix the eggs and thin with a little water. Mix about 2 C panko with salt, pepper and spices.

Put the chicken into the egg mixture and then let it drip off a little and move it into the panko. Coat with the panko and then put on a baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

I made 2 sauces:

Sheila’s Honey-Mustard

Equal parts of dijon mustard and honey were mixed.

Garlic Barbecue Sauce

1 clove garlic, chopped, 1.5 c ketchup, some hot sauce, 1 T soy sauce and 1 T rice wine vinegar were mixed and heated in a small sauce pan for a few minutes.

The final dish...

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Pantry Dinner Sandwich

A great satisfying lunch or lite dinner:

• 1/4 to 1/2 ripe avocado
• Tempeh bacon (our favorite tempeh product)
• 2 T Hummus
• Tomato, maybe lettuce, or even sliced cucumber
• On toasted sourdough
• salt and freshly ground pepper.

One trick I learned from making bagels on Long Island on Sundays, is that when you make a sandwich, perhaps the most important step, is to cut the sandwich in half (I prefer on the diagonal, but that’s a personal thing), while gently pressing the sandwich components together. If the sandwich is well balanced, all of the ingredients will meld together. Sometimes I make this in the morning and bring it to work for lunch, but eating it right away is preferred.

Watermelon is a great dessert!

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Pantry Pasta

We usually do our food shops every other Sunday night… I wanted to make an in-advance lunch, but since we hadn’t gone shopping yet, we were running low on fresh ingredients. So I decided to make this pantry fave. It is even better with fresh arugula or spinach or some sliced zucchini, but it’s just fine on its own.

Sundried Tomato Orecchiette

• 25 sundried tomato halves (if dried, soak for 20 minutes in warm water; if oil packed, rinse)
• 1 clove garlic
• About 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• About 2 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 can quartered artichoke hearts (packed in water, rinsed)
• Some cheese. I prefer feta or fresh mozzarella, but I was out and all I had was goat cheese, which works fine too. So would grated parm, pecorino or even fontina or gruyere.
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

First place the tomatoes and garlic into a Cuisinart and pulse until somewhat combined. Then, with the Cuisinart on, drizzle in the oil and vinegar until the mixture comes together into a ball. Add more oil or vinegar to taste.

When the pasta is done cooking (I love orecchiette for this, but any pasta shape would do), mix in the sauce, the artichokes, and the cheese.

I added a little dried thyme, and then packed it up for lunch. We have enough for 4 lunches.

Couple this with a baby arugula, tomato and avocado salad and you’ve got yourself a great lunch!

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Lunch, Thursday.

For tomorrow’s lunch:

Burrito-less burrito

I stacked the leftover quinoa (from Sunday’s dinner), rinsed canned black beans, chipotle salsa, chopped up avocado, red onion and cilantro, drizzled with lime juice.

And:

Thai coconut/lime soup

• 4 cups water boiled with 1/2 a sliced red onion and 1 T lime rind and 1 T chopped ginger. If I had lemongrass I would have added it here
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup lime juice (but 1/4 might be more to your liking, I like my soup sour)
• I threw in some frozen veggie dumplings and frozen vegetable medley (Trader Joe’s) with peppers, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms
• 1/4-1/2 cup each chopped basil and chopped cilantro
• 1 T soy sauce

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Mountain Cooking, Day 2 and 3

Saturday (day 2)

we emerged from our tents and scoped out a perfect spot on the field to plant ourselves for brunch and beyond.

Tempeh Bacon and Avocado Sandwiches

with Corn Salad

The corn salad was inspired by Mexican street corn (grilled with mayo, chili powder, lime and cotija cheese.) I made it at home with Trader Joe’s frozen corn, lime, olive oil, ancho chili powder, scallions and feta cheese. The sandwiches were served open faced on whole wheat bread. Dessert was delicious, juicy cherries.

Dinner was kebabs.

Curried Beef and Veg Kebabs with

Corn on the Cob and Grilled Bread

We used red onion, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, and beef….All drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, curry powder and some cumin (although there is cumin in the curry powder–see below–I LOVE cumin on grilled food.)

The curry powder was made from scratch from Mark Bittman’s “Hot Curry Powder” recipe:

• 2 small dried Thai or other hot chili (I used dried ancho)
• 1 T black peppercorns
• 1 T coriander seeds
• 1 t cumin seeds
• 1 t fennel seeds
• 1 t fenugreek seeds
• 1 T ground tumeric
• 1 t ground ginger

All the spices were toasted in a skillet until fragrant and then ground in a spice mill (actually a coffee grinder re-purposed for grinding spices).

Served with the kebabs, we had hummus (bought from Stew Leonard’s) and grilled bread (simply brushed with olive oil and grilled). One trick to great toasted or grilled bread is to not let it lie flat while its still hot. This will ensure it stays crispy on both sides. Check my fancy technique above, borrowed from my card-house building days.

Day 3

Sunday, was brunch—we ate all that was leftover, and it was delicious.

Tomato and Avocado Salad

Watermelon

We also ate apples and peanut butter, stuffed grape leaves, a grapefruit, and cherries…

We left the Mountain Sunday afternoon, and made a couple of food-stops on our way home. First at the 209 Diner for a late lunch, followed by a classic 4th of July dessert — ice cream at D’Lite’s.

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A trick about budget cooking

The thing about cooking on a budget, is that you really have to be tuned in to what is going on in your fridge, so when a bit of produce looks like it might be on its way out, you seize the opportunity to use it… This is what happened today with some cherry tomatoes (that I noticed were getting slightly wrinkled) and some broccoli (that was getting kind of soft). So the challenge was to make something for tomorrow’s lunch that utilized both ingredients… I ended up making a…

Bulgur Salad with Roast Tomatoes and Broccoli

I cooked the tomatoes over low heat with salt and pepper until they got wilted and soft.

I steamed the broccoli and soaked some bulgur in boiling water. When everything was done, I tossed it together (the tomatoes ended up releasing their liquid and kind of melting away) with some sherry vinegar, salt, pepper, and chopped scallions. Voila, lunch.

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Monday, Lunch

One way we save lots-o-money is by bringing our lunch to work every day. In NYC, even a cheap lunch is around $10. We’ve figured out that our lunches usually cost around $3, so we save around $35 EACH a week.

Most of the time, we pack up our lunch the night before so it is all ready to go in the AM. I usually pack a few small portions of different foods, so we can eat throughout the day. We each have lunch boxes too, which is cute.

Today we had chicken/potato leftovers, a simple tomato/bean salad, stawberries/blueberries and yogurt, and an apple. The bigger containers are Matthew’s. Mine are the smaller ones. I’m pretty picky about Tupperware, and I happen to LOVE these containers.

Tomato/bean salad

halved grape tomatoes
canned (rinsed) cannellini beans
chopped parsley
chopped scallion
feta cheese
red wine vinegar/olive oil/salt/pepper

Oh yeah, breakfast was toast with cream cheese.

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