Weekly Meal Planning: A Well Stocked Pantry

I'm trying to be more careful about how much I spend on groceries. Part of my problem is that I love grocery shopping, so the more I buy, the more time I get to spend shopping! It's great. But not great for my bank account, especially since I've been doing the whole independent IT contractor thing recently. Although I am happy to report that I was recently accepted as a HelloTech "Hero"! It's basically like Uber for tech support. While the pay is about half of what I make on my own, I'm hoping it will provide some more steady supplementary income. Maybe I'll at least be breaking even on my expenses instead of living off my savings! Wouldn't that be great.

So part of being careful about my grocery shopping is meal planning. I'm going to plan 3-4 meals for the week. I really don't eat that much, and a recipe usually makes way more than what I can eat in one sitting.

Hopefully this will keep my grocery bill down, eliminate waste, use more (all) of the ingredients I buy, and provide some tasty meals during the week! Consequently, I think I also get a nice little ego boost every time I look at most recipes: I'm like, pssh... 3/4 of this recipe are pantry ingredients for meeeee! I take some serious pride in having such a well-stocked pantry. That's probably one area of my life where I would have a really hard time going minimalist. I could easily go minimalist with clothes, furniture, cosmetics (I barely use any as it is) and pretty much anything else, but don't you dare try to pare down my pantry.

Here's my first meal plan for this week. I think one of the keys of planning successful meals around leftovers is using different flavors from meal to meal. My first meal centers around Mexican flavors, the second is Indian and the third is Chinese. I'm using the same base ingredient (pan seared tilapia), but avoiding repetition by varying the cuisine.

Some of the recipes call for too many servings, so I'm using this recipe servings converter to scale them down.

Meal 1 - Fish tacos with pico de gallo and chipotle cream sauce

Recipes
Pan seared tilapia (★★★★★)
Yum! I don't think something could taste bad if it has chipotle crema on it. Also, first time ever pan searing fish... success! Kenji was right, it really is foolproof. I grew up eating tacos so often that I didn't really use a recipe besides for the fish. I did forget to add the corn (I love adding corn to everything. And lime. Everything tastes better with more lime), but I think that ended up being for the better. 

Pantry

2-4 frozen tilapia fillets 

eggs 

flour 

panko breadcrumbs  

tortillas 

chipotles in adobo sauce

greek yogurt 

white vinegar 

corn 

tomatoes 

onions  

Shopping List
1 bunch of cilantro

1 head of cabbage 

2 limes 

1 box jalapenos (from TJs)/or just 1 jalapeno if you can buy singles 

Notes
1. Remove fishy taste from fish by marinating in cow's milk for no more than 20 minutes.
2. Pan sear all fillets, use 1-2 for the tacos, save leftovers for next meals.
3. Pico de gallo: mix equal parts chopped tomatoes and chopped onions; minced cilantro (to taste), minced jalapeno (to taste), juice from 1/2 of a lime and salt
4. Make a sour cream substitute for the chipotle crema by mixing 1 tsp vinegar : 1/3 cup greek yogurt
5. Make a chipotle crema to drizzle on top of tacos by mixing 1 tsp vinegar, 1/3 cup greek yogurt, 1 tsp chipotles in adobo and juice from 1/2 of a lime.
6. Assemble tacos with shredded cabbage, corn, pico de gallo (drain well before adding), fish and chipotle crema. Garnish with slices of lime.

Leftovers from this meal
1-2 pan seared tilapia fillets
5-7 jalapenos
cilantro
1/2 of an onion
cabbage

Meal 2 - Yogurt ginger curry

Recipes

Yogurt ginger curry (★☆☆☆☆)
I was so disappointed with this recipe. When I tasted the finished curry sauce, it tasted like watery yogurt. I did use powdered ginger in place of fresh, but I also added extra dried minced garlic. To fix the curry, I  fried up half an onion in ghee and a heaping tablespoon of curry powder, then added it into the curry sauce. I also added 1 tbsp of tomato paste, 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1/4 tsp of dashi granules (for some umami kick, but not enough where you could taste it specifically), and 5-6 curry leaves. It was also extremely thin, so I thickened it with cornstarch. After improvising for a good 45 minutes, I felt that it was finally passable. I garnished with chopped cilantro and a heavy squeeze of lime--the lime really helped. Instead of using the fish fillets, I used TJ's masala burgers and triangles of whole wheat pita bread. What I put on the table ended up being not bad, but what this recipe initially produced was incredibly disappointing. After all my fiddling, I'd give the final product a solid 3 stars.

Leftovers to use
1-2 pan seared tilapia fillets or masala burgers
cilantro

Pantry
yogurt
cumin seeds
asafoetida (sub with garlic or onions if unavailable)
fresh ginger
turmeric
coriander
paprika
cayenne
rice or flatbread

Shopping List
(none)

Notes
1. Reheat fish on wire rack on baking sheet, covered with foil at 275° until they reach 125-130 internal temp (~15 minutes for 1" thick fillets)

Leftovers from this meal
3/4 cup curry sauce

Meal 3 - Black bean stir fry

Recipes
Tilapia with scallions and black bean sauce (★★★★★)
This was delicious! I mostly used the recipe for the sauce, since I already pan seared the tilapia. But I couldn't help but tinker with the sauce, as I'm wont to do. Mind you, this was before I even tasted it. But in my experience, just using the black bean sauce can be fairly overwhelming, so I added some stuff to balance it out. I added 1 tbsp sake, 1 tbsp mirin, 1/2 tsp chile garlic sauce, 1 tsp garlic paste and 1 tsp ginger paste. I stir fried carrots and mushrooms in sesame oil with some salt and pepper (white and black), then added a few pinches of chinese five spice. When the mushrooms and carrots were just about done, I threw in some shredded cabbage and put the fish in the oven to reheat it. When the vegetables were cooked, I turned the heat down (so the sauce wouldn't burn) and poured in about 2/3 of the sauce. I put it back on the heat and let it reduce down just a little. I filled a bowl with brown rice, broke up the tilapia into chunks, then scooped the saucy veggies over it. The neutral flavor but seasoned flavor of the fish balanced the strength of sauce, and the brown rice provided a warm, nutty background for it all. Overall, an excellent dish. 

Leftovers to use
cabbage

Pantry
black bean garlic sauce
oyster sauce
soy sauce
sesame oil
rice vinegar
chile sauce (e.g. sriracha)
carrots, corn, water chestnuts or other good stir fry veggies

Shopping List
1 box of mushrooms

Notes
1. Omit fillets if none left
2. Stir fry mushrooms, leftover cabbage and any other stir fry veggies in sauce
3. Serve with tilapia and rice, top with a fried egg for something heartier

Leftovers from this meal
stir fried veggies
1 tilapia fillet

Side 1 - Mason jar farro salad

Recipes

Farro salad (☆☆☆☆☆)
My barley had gone bad! It was the quick-cooking kind from TJs, so I imagine it expires more quickly than the raw kind. So I skipped this and made the coleslaw instead. 

Leftovers to use

cabbage

Pantry

green apple 

mayo 

milk

white wine vinegar

honey

mustard

poppy seeds

farro/barley

dried cranberries

nuts

Shopping List

(none) 

Notes

1. Skip if no cabbage leftover. 

Side 2 - Kenji's creamy coleslaw

Recipes

Creamy coleslaw (★★★★☆)

(Let's be real--this is a Kenji recipe, so I might as well just give it 5 stars right away. If it's anything less than 5, then I screwed up.) 
Update: Soooo... as much as I love Kenji and his recipes, this turned out just a little too dry. Granted, I did scale it down by a factor of something ridiculous like 16 because I had so little cabbage to work with, so the dryness may have happened in translation. Not to worry, because a little extra mayo made it perfect. The flavor was great, and even James ate quite a bit. It was perfect with the chili we (I) made! I think this is probably my new go-to coleslaw recipe. 

Leftovers to use

cabbage 

Pantry

carrots 

fresh parsley (from herb garden)

white sugar

kosher salt

mayo

apple cider vinegar

dijon mustard

sugar 

Shopping List

(none)

Notes

(none)

Side 3 - Pickled jalapenos

Recipes

Pickled jalapenos (★★★★★)
Good, but spicy! I'm such a wimp when it comes to spicy. I did not add any additional spiciness to this recipe, but I still find them quite hot. They actually tasted pretty good as a garnish to the curry though. My friend--who has a much greater spice tolerance than I do--reported that they were extremely tasty, and both of my sisters love this recipe, so I'm going give it five stars on the merit of their judgment. It's not the recipe's fault I can't do spicy. But I am looking forward to putting these into cornbread muffins with a dollop of cream cheese and eating them with chili! 

Leftovers to use

5-7 jalapenos 

Pantry

white balsamic vinegar (for best flavor; champagne works well too)

sugar

salt

fresh garlic

Shopping List

(none)

Notes

1. Skip if no jalapenos leftover.

Grains, legumes and rice, oh my

I have way too many grains. When I moved into my current apartment, quite a few of my moving boxes were taken up by my pantry food. Yes, I moved my food. Is that weird? There are also things that made the move that went from my old freezer to my new freezer.

I have a hard time throwing things out, if you couldn't tell.

A few years ago, I went through a period of buying every single unidentifiable grain that I could find in stores, from Trader Joe's to tiny Indian markets.

It's time to clean out my pantry of all the couscous (whole wheat and white), moong dal, black azuki beans, whole green lentils, Sri Lankan red rice, millet and barley. Because if I don't find recipes for them now, I never will.

Moong Dal requires a rather long cooking time, probably about an hour or so. Might make a good plan ahead meal in a slow cooker.
 - Moong dal tadka from Veg Recipes of India. A simple recipe of moong dal, tomato, onion and spices.
 - Buttery moong dal from the New York Times. A similar recipe, but without the tomato.

Sri Lankan red rice uses a 1:1.5 ratio of rice to water. What I was really craving when I bought this was my amma's beetroot rice, but I got the red rice, even though I knew it was different. I might try making beetroot rice with the red rice and see if it turns out any good.
 - Beetroot rice recipe that calls for basmati, but I'll try it with red rice instead. Will need to substitute some ingredients, like sambar powder and biryani masala. Mostly calls for a tomato, onion, beets (obviously), and spices.
 - Another beetroot rice recipe, but it calls for chicken and coconut milk and no tomato.

Black azuki beans that I had no idea were azuki beans!! Randomly bought them at an Indian grocery because I thought they were... well, honestly I had no idea what they were. I just bought them. And now I am pleasantly surprised to find out that they are azuki beans. At least I think they are. I'm going to cook them tonight and find out!
 - Osekihan

Whole green lentils were perhaps the most boring prospect in my cupboard, but I think they're turning out to be the most exciting!
 - Persian lentil salad sounds refreshing and crisp. Simple too!
 - Sprouted lentils used to be the bane of my existence as a kid. I would open the oven door and find a jar of lentils, sprouting. I would open the cupboard the week after and find a different jar. Then I would go to load the dishwasher and there was another jar. LENTILS EVERYYYWHERRRRRRE. It drove me crazy. I thought they were disgusting and slightly repulsive, especially the way they would grow in the dark. It would have been much more exciting if my mom had hid Nabisco snacks in our oven, dishwasher and cupboards, but of course she never would have done that. Interestingly enough, I've totally come around to lentils (and find Nabisco snacks repulsive), but I attribute it to eating delicious, warm and satisfying dal in Sri Lanka, not my mother... However, it is something we have in common now, which brings the grand total to 1. I might try a combination of the sprouted lentils in the Persian lentil salad! Now that sounds delicious.

I'm still looking for recipes for the millet, barley and brown rice mix.

Curried Couscous with Roasted Cauliflower

This dish is great hot or cold, but I prefer it as a cold curry salad. The curry is a savory, warm flavor, rounded out by the creaminess of the mayonnaise, altogether delicious when served cold.

Some great additions are fresh cherry tomatoes, fresh diced bell peppers (orange, yellow or red) and diced celery.

Ingredients
1 box Israeli couscous (1 lb)
1 head cauliflower, broken in florets
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 carrots, diced
1 cup mayonnaise
1-3 limes (I always prefer more)

Instructions
Cook the couscous according to package instructions. Rinse in cold water, drain well, and set aside. Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Toss cauliflower and carrots with all the spice powder and salt, then spread on a baking sheet and roast until just barely cooked, about 10 minutes. You don't want to overcook the cauliflower and carrots--in fact, you want them to have a slight bite in the finished dish. Remove and let cool.

Add the roasted vegetables to the couscous, then gently toss with the mayonnaise, lime juice, and any other additions.

Original recipe from Mendocino Farms

Double Corn Cakes with Black Beans

Garnish with fresh avocado, salsa, fresh tomatoes, sour cream and/or guacamole.

Ingredients
1 medium yellow onion, diced (1 1/2 cups)
3 cloves garlic, minced (1 tbsp)
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced (1/4 cup)
1 tbsp cumin powder
2 cans black beans (15 oz each)
1 can diced tomatoes (15 oz)
1 cup corn and 1/2 cup corn
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tube pre-cooked polenta (18 oz)
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Instructions
Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, jalapeno, and cumin; saute 5 minutes. Stir in beans, tomatoes, 1 cup corn. Season with salt and pepper if desired (go easy on the salt if the cans are not sodium-free), cook 5 minutes or until heated through. Remove from heat, gently stir in lime juice. Cover and keep warm.

Crumble polenta into microwave safe bowl and mash with fork until nearly smooth. Add remaining 1/2 cup of corn. Microwave 1 minute to soften polenta, then fold in beaten egg until mixture is smooth. Shape polenta into 8 cakes, gently flattening with palm.

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cook corn cakes, 5 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Serve cakes over black bean mixture.

From the Vegetarian Times magazine, April/May 2015 edition.

Tres Leches Cake

This cake is best baked the night before, then frosted and topped with strawberries right before serving.

Also... this is a huge cake that is quite rich, so could easily serve 10 or 15 (depending on their appetite for cake and tolerance for sweet richness). I always make too much cake every year. Next year, I think I'll try halving the recipe and making it in a 9x9 pan. Additionally, the original recipe calls for 3 tbsp of sugar for the icing, but I'd recommend 1 or even none--the cake is sweet enough as it is, and unsweetened whipped cream might help balance it a bit.

Something I want to try next time too is making this in a muffin tin--I think these would make fantastic little mini cakes!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs, whites and yolks separated
1 cup sugar, divided (3/4 and 1/4)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

Tres Leches mixture
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Icing
1 pint (16 oz/2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoons sugar
1 lb of strawberries

Instructions
* Separate your eggs first, so your whites will be closer to room temperature before you start whipping them. Add a pinch of cream or tartar and/or salt to keep them from collapsing. If you don't have a hand mixer, a hand blender or regular blender will help turn the egg whites from translucent to opaque. But after that, use a hand whisk to take over. If you try using something with blades after you've gotten almost to the soft peak stage, the blades will collapse the whites.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Beat/mix egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Add milk and vanilla, stir.

Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into the middle of the prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, put back in the original pan, then pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all of the tres leches mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.

Allow the cake to absorb the tres leches mixture overnight.

An hour or so before serving: wash, pat dry, then cut the strawberries into fourths. Whip the 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over the surface of the cake. Top with the cut strawberries.

Original tres leches cake recipe from The Food Network

Chapatis

From a cookbook, Mangoes & Curry Leaves (p110-111) by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I was borrowing this cookbook from a friend and had to return the book, but very much wanted to save this recipe.

CHAPATIS

Chapatis are one of the world’s simplest breads to make and one of the best to eat. A dough is made with flour, salt, and water, then balls of the dough are rolled out thin and cooked on a griddle or a skillet. Once you get the hang of making chapatis, you can turn out eight breads for breakfast or for dinner in the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee (well. almost).

Chapatis, sometimes called rotis in the north of India and in Pakistan, are quintessential Subcontinent. Village people make them over a simple fire of dung, while people living on the street in Delhi, or herdsmen in the desert, cook them on a makeshift fire of scrap wood and brush. They are a true staple food (like rice) because they not only feed and nourish, but they also taste good day after day, meal after meal. Some of the best simple meals we have ever had have revolved around chapatis: chapatis and dad, chapatis and a curry.

If you’re making chapatis for the first time, try to find atta flour in a South Asian grocery. Atta is a special kind of whole wheat flour, made from hard durum wheat that is very finely ground. An attractive pale yellow brown in color, it makes the best chapatis because it is strong and makes a dough that rolls out very smoothly. The cooled breads have an inviting warm-grain flavor and fine texture.

About 2 cups atta flour, or substitute whole wheat flour, sifted, plus extra for rolling
1 teaspoon salt
About 1 cup warm water

To make the dough by hand, in a medium bowl, mix together the 2 cups flour and the salt. Make a well in the middle and add a cup warm water. Mix with your hand or with a spoon until you can gather the mixture together into a dough (depending on your flour. you may need a little extra water or a little extra flour to make a kneadable dough). Turnout onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to to minutes.

To make the dough in a food processor. place the 2 cups flour and the salt in the processor and pulse to blend. With the machine going. slowly pour the water through the feed tube and continue to process for about 5 seconds after a ball of dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let stand for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours. (The longer the dough stands. the easier the breads are to shape and the more digestible they are.)

Divide the dough into eight pieces. Roll each one into a ball under your lightly cupped palm. Place some flour on your work surface, dust your palm with flour, and flatten each ball in the flour, pressing both sides into the flour in turn.

To shape the breads. work with one piece at a time, leaving the others lightly covered. Working on a lightly floured surface, flatten the dough with a rolling pin, without turning it over, rolling from the center outward with light strokes and rotating the bread slightly between each stroke, until it is 7 to 8 inches in diameter. Set aside and repeat with the remaining breads. Do not stack the rolled-out breads; if you don't have enough counter space for them all, roll out just a few and begin cooking, then roll out the others as the breads cook.

Heat a cast—iron griddle or skillet over medium-high heat. Rub the surface with a well—oiled cotton cloth or paper towel. When the griddle is hot, place a chapati top side down on the griddle and let it cook for only 10 to 15 seconds, then gently flip to the second side. Cook on the second side until small bubbles begin to form in the dough. approximately 1 minute. Turn the chapati back over and finish cooking, about another minute. At this stage, a perfect chapati will start to balloon. The process can be helped along by gently pressing on the bread. Because the bread is hot, we find the easiest method is to use a small cotton cloth or a paper towel wadded up to protect your fingertips. Gently press down on a large bubble, forcing the bubble to widen. If the bread starts to burn on the bottom before it has ballooned, move the bread (with the help of your paper towel) across the skillet, dislodging it from the point at which it is beginning to burn. When you are satisfied with your chapati, remove it and wrap in a clean towel.

Cook the other breads, stacking each as it is finished on top of the others and wrapping the stack in cloth to keep the breads soft and warm.

MAKES 8 BREADS, SERVES 3-4

Serve with any meal, or for breakfast or a snack. Use to scoop up salsa or to lift pieces of kebab, or wrap them around sandwich fillings.

VARIATIONS: You can include 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee or melted butter to make more tender breads. Add it to the flour and mix it in before adding the warm water; you will need a little less water. To make smaller breads, which are easier to handle, divide the dough into twelve pieces: the breads will be about 5 to 6 inches in diameter. And you can also cook the chapatis in oil or ghee: Put about 1/2 teaspoon oil or ghee on the hot skillet and spread it over the surface before you lay down each bread to cook.

MAKES 12 BREADS

PHULKA: If you cook the breads over a gas burner or a wood fire, you can make the version of chapati known as phulka or phulka roti. You need heatproof fingers (as most experienced chapati makers have), or a light touch with tongs. to do this successfully. Proceed as above, cooking the bread in a skillet. Once you have turned the bread back over onto the first side, cook it for a minute. then hold it vertically directly above the flame and turn it slowly to expose the edges to the heat. The bread will puff out as the air in it expands and the edges will get evenly cooked. You can also try doing this using the skillet as your heat source: Lift the chapati out of the skillet, place the edge on the hot surface, and then turn it slowly as if you were rolling it on the skillet so the whole outside edge gets exposed to the bot surface; the chapati should puff.

TANDOOR ROTI: Chapatis are sometimes baked in tandoor ovens. To bake your chapatis, set up the oven as described in Home—Style Tandoor Naan (page 116) and preheat it to 500°F before you start rolling out the breads. Place as many breads as will fit directly on the preheated stone or tiles and bake until done, about 2 minutes. They will usually puff up while baking and become touched with color. Use a long—handled spatula to remove them from the oven. Brush the top of each with a little ghee or melted butter if you wish, then stack them and wrap them in a cotton cloth to keep warm while you bake the remaining breads.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I finally found the perfect way to eat butternut squash.

I had a perfect squash sitting on my sideboard for more than a month. I bought it in the height of autumn, in the frenzy of pumpkin, scarves, furry boots and butternut squash. I bought it even though I knew that as far as squashes go, it's really not my favorite. Actually, I don't like squash much at all except for kabocha no nimono. So there it sat, through the unchanging greenery of the trees (thank you SoCal), a hot and sunny Christmas, and a watery first week of January. The recent and welcome deluge brought it to the forefront of my mind again, as I craved autumnal and wintery tastes, and a warm and cozy bowl of soup.

A straight puree of butternut squash did not sound appealing, but the deep and rich flavors of a roasted squash sounded delightful.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients
1 three-pound butternut squash
1 large onion
1 head of garlic (Or less, depending on your taste or what's available. But if you like garlic even just a little bit, do the whole head. Trust me.)
2-4 cups stock
salt & pepper
1-2 tablespoons cream (or more, to taste)

Instructions
If you're making this in advance: Preheat oven to 350°F. Roughly mince your garlic. Cut butternut squash in half; remove seeds. Cut onion into chunks. Toss onions with the garlic, salt, pepper and oil/butter. Put squash on roasting pan, cut-side up. Rub generously with oil or butter, then season with salt and pepper. On the same roasting pan, put the onions onto a square of aluminum foil with the sides crimped up to make a shallow bowl. Or, put them into a separate casserole/oven-safe dish. You just want to make sure to catch the juices. Bake at 350°F for 1.5 hours or until fairly soft and carmelized-looking. Poke the squash in the thickest parts to ensure even cooking. Once it's finished, remove and let cool. Refrigerate the squash halves and onions for up to 3 days. When you're ready to make the soup, scoop the flesh of the butternut squash out.

If you're not making this in advance: Seed, peel and cut the butternut squash into 2 inch chunks. Toss with onions, garlic, salt, pepper and oil/butter. Add to roasting pan and pour about 1 cup of stock (depending on the depth of your pan) over it. Bake at 350°F for 1.5 hours or until fairly soft and carmelized-looking.

Add squash to a large pot, along with the roasted onions and garlic. Add at least 2 cups of stock or more--enough to cover the squash and onions. Cook for about 20 minutes over medium-low heat, or until the squash begins to fall apart.

Remove from heat, and puree using a hand blender or a regular blender in batches. Once pureed, add back to pot and add cream/butter. If you like your soup on the thinner side, add more stock until you reach desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with pine nuts and goat cheese, or just sip it straight out of the ladle from the pot because it's that good.

Original roasted butternut squash recipe from Serious Eats

Tofu Ground Beef

I am not a fan of fake meat. I've tried it, admitted that it wasn't bad, and subsequently never ate it again. For me, there is little point in being vegetarian if you spend your meals pining after that which is forbidden. Rather, I enjoy vegetables and grains and legumes on their terms--as vegetables, grains and legumes.

However, like all things, there are exceptions. One dish that I sorely miss is mabudofu: hearty, slightly spicy, totally delicious and belly warming. Unfortunately, the main ingredient is ground beef. Besides ground beef, there are chunks of tofu, and green onions for garnish. All this served on top of steaming, hot rice. I tried making vegetarian mabudofu once. I opened up the packaged, forewent the ground beef, and just added tofu.

It was a disgusting mess.

Since then, my desire for good, but quick vegetarian mabudofu has only increased. This was a childhood favorite for me and a quick standby for my parents. We'd often have a roll of frozen ground beef in the freezer, and our fridge was always stocked with multiple boxes of tofu. I would also heavily encourage my dad to make it whenever I saw we had ground beef (i.e. almost every week). I was nothing short of obsessed. I probably still am.

So there a few obstacles in my way to obtaining a good recipe for veg mabudofu. One, a ground beef substitute. I could, of course, go the fake meat route. For reasons outlined above, I'd rather not. Although it may be my Plan Z, should all other options fail. Trader Joe's sells a meatless ground beef, though I've yet to try it. However, there is something I have found that sounds perfect: tofu ground beef. Now, this is not a store-bought soy product chemically manipulated into looking like and tasting like ground beef. Rather, it's a seemingly straightforward and simple way to give tofu a ground beef texture. I found it buried in a cookpad recipe. I've yet to try it, but I'm writing about it and posting it so that I'll hopefully get around to trying it out sooner rather than later.

Tofu Ground "Beef"

Ingredients
1 block of firm tofu (Probably the firmer the better, although some experimentation is certainly in order to determine whether extra-firm [sold in the plastic tub filled with water] or super firm [sold vacuum packed without water] would be better. The original recipe recommends the extra-firm sold in water.)
Sesame or neutral oil
Soy sauce

Instructions
1. Wrap the tofu in paper towels, place on microwave-safe plate and microwave for 2 minutes.
2. Drain off the excess moisture completely.
3. Heat up sesame oil (or neutral oil) in a pan over medium heat. Add the tofu, then scramble. Chopsticks probably work best for scrambling them into ground beef sized pieces. Keep scrambling and browning them until it begins to resemble ground beef.
4. Add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce, stir fry quickly (a bigger utensil would probably better at this point, once it's been broken up into pieces), then remove from heat.
5. Serve in place of ground beef in mabudofu.

Crispy Tofu from kitchentreaty.com

I'm dying to try this recipe I just found on kitchentreaty.com when I was looking up flatbread recipes. Sounds like it turns out with a great texture!

Crispy Salt & Pepper Tofu

Ingredients
1 block extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper (or to taste)
Additional salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Press tofu to remove excess moisture. To do so, line a plate with several paper towels. Place tofu on paper towels and top with two or three more paper towels. Place three or four more plates on top of the tofu, making sure they're well-balanced. Drain for 20 - 30 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure plates are still balanced (toppling plates = bummer!)

Remove tofu from paper towels. Place on cutting board and cut tofu into squares or rectangles, as desired.

Add the vegetable or canola oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to a large plate or shallow baking dish. Mix.

Working in batches, dredge the tofu in the corn starch mixture, turning to coat evenly.

Carefully add tofu to hot oil in skillet. Cook over medium-high for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally to brown all sides.

Remove tofu from pan and place on several paper towels, blotting to remove excess oil.

Serve as desired.

Food Swap - Round II

Second edition of the food swap! The haul: some yummy baked goods, like chocolate chip pumpkin bread, brownies (already baked this time), and some cumin-spiced Indian butter cookies. We also got something neither of us have tried before--dried jujubes! They're very chewy, and kind of like a very dry date, but a bit firmer and tougher. The brown airy flesh has a pleasant, slightly fruity, but not overwhelming sweet taste. Also in line with the sweet items was a tub of whipped cinnamon butter--oh my god amazing. I could eat that stuff straight.

We also got some homemade thyme, oregano, garlic croutons made from the most amazing bread ever from BREAD Artisan Bakery in Santa Ana. Also in the bounty is a nice big bag of homemade granola.

Some ready-to-eat items were a cold orzo salad, hummus and salsa. The salsa had oregano in it, which I never understand because it makes it taste like pasta sauce instead of salsa (Trader Joe's has a salsa that they add oregano too as well... Bought that once, never again). So I tossed it all in a pot (we got 3 containers of it!), added a can of tomatoes, some tomato paste and herbs, and made a great pasta sauce for the spaghetti squash I cooked up last night (and had no idea how I was going to eat).

On a side note, I'm not really convinced that spaghetti squash is all that great. It's pretty bland, the texture is meh, and it has a pretty high moisture content, making the resulting dish kind of soggy. I think I'm going to try to put the leftovers into a casserole with a hearty sauce. I much prefer regular pasta over squash, but it was fun to try! Also, the shells of the squash are fascinating and I want to figure out something to do with them. They're almost like a very thin, hard plastic material. Maybe a planter for bromeliads?

Back to the bounty: peach salsa (Jim wanted this--I'm not a huge fan of peach salsa), salsa verde (delicious!), prickly pear jam (wasn't able to try it but sounds intriguing), and nut "chorizo!" Very excited about the salsa verde and the chorizo for breakfast this week. We also just coincidentally made some pico de gallo on Saturday, which will be great with all of that too.

I've also tasted just about the best mustard I have ever had in my entire life. It's the Oktoberfest beer mustard in the picture. We got 2 jars of it because it's soooo good. We got a couple of pretzel rolls that they sell at TJ's ($.99 each!) and just dipped chunks of bread into the mustard. Amazing. We also got another jar of mustard that was only so-so; it had a really spicy kick at first and then it mellowed out and had an almost sweet aftertaste. I'm going to let it mellow out some more in the fridge for awhile; it must have been freshly made.

From the same woman that made the beer mustard came infused kosher salt: sriracha and pinot noir. The sriracha salt is so good! We dipped some of the pretzel rolls in the sriracha salt with the mustard and I swear you couldn't tell the difference between that and a real pretzel.

On the non-edible (but still delicious-sounding) side, I got a bar of cucumber-avocado soap and a small jar of coffee facial scrub. Actually, the facial scrub is edible, although it probably doesn't taste very good.

And finally, a bottle of bouquet garni vinegar that I'm not really sure what to do with but am excited to have! All in all, a very successful swap. However, I did feel like at the last swap, there was a better selection or at least some more exciting items. At this one, there were only a few items that I really, really wanted. The rest of them were otherwise fairly meh. Although, maybe that serves as a good reminder to bring good stuff. The pomegranates were, surprisingly not as popular as we thought they'd be, although that may have been due to the fact that someone else had also brought pomegranates (and pomegranate wine, and pomegranate arils...). What WAS popular (and surprisingly so) were the green apples from Jim's dad's backyard! I think there were a couple factors that helped the apples: (1) telling people that they were sweet green apples, as opposed to tart and (2) offering samples to prove our point. We ran out of apples by the end, except for the few we wanted to save for ourselves. We had probably 6 small pomegranates and 4 large (which we never set out anyway) left over by the end. My 3 jars of pumpkin spice syrup I easily traded away, although I think it was better that I didn't bring a whole bunch of jars. They weren't quite as popular as I thought they would be, though people still seemed excited about them. All in all, a lovely day :)