Katya4me

Last night's dinner was very simple. I'd gotten a loaf of bread on markdown and had goat cheese and mushrooms in the fridge. I made mushrooms in sauce, sliced the loaf in half, buttered and popped in the oven for 5 minutes to toast up. Finished up with the goat cheese and all of the mushrooms for the two of us. Really good and definitely worth doing again.

I've had a can of Thai soup in the pantry and keep not making it because it calls for chicken and mushrooms to go with it. I finally had those today and was in the mood for soup. I cooked up 2 small chicken thighs and added some rice vermicelli noodles as well. Very good lunch on a wet chilly day.

Hubby made the usual triple batch of pizza dough earlier this week. Yesterday, he said he'd like to have tofu as a topping on the pizza, so I found a recipe for crumbles. The recipe said pepperoni, but we both got more of a sausage vibe from them. We did those with pineapple bits and it was pretty good. Might try a different recipe for crumbles next time. Tonight, we tried out Too Good To Go and got 8 random empanadas. After we baked them at home, they turned out to be chicken and potato and very good. The remaining 4 will be lunch tomorrow.

I was in the mood for a grain salad today but didn't quite end up with that. I started with this recipe for crispy oven baked tofu and doubled the sauce amount. While it was baking, I cooked a batch of buckwheat. I cut up the last bell pepper, half an onion and a small handful of cherry tomatoes to toss in a skillet. While those were cooking, sliced up some Napa cabbage and added that to the skillet as well. Tossed the buckwheat with some of the sauce, tossed some more on the veggies and added to the buckwheat. Gave that a good stir and tossed in some Thai basil leaves. Tofu came out of the oven, tossed it in the last of the sauce, then added to the bowl. Tofu turned out a little softer than I would have liked but I was happy with the flavors overall.

Made skillet noodles tonight. We didn't hold hard to keeping them vegan and ended up doubling the recipe. Came together as easily as promised and looking forward to eating it more for lunch tomorrow.

Lunch today was tasty tofu sandwiches. We did them on club rolls and I did some quick pickled spicy daikon radish to go with them. Did Thai basil instead of cilantro and only did 1 slice of tofu per sandwich, so have plenty of leftovers for later this week.

Didn't have rice last night, but made these bowls anyway with some some thread noodles. Ate half last night and other half will be leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was Shepherd Pie, from a Serious Eats recipe that has disappeared from their site. Ground beef and potatoes, but you cook the frozen peas with diced jalapenos for a nice little kick in the middle layer.

Tonight was refried beans quesadillas, baked in the oven. I had a bit of bbq sauce to use up, so mixed it with the beans and then used up the last of a bottle of salsa for dipping. Yum.

Tonight was cleaning out the fridge. We had some rice cakes in there, along with some bacon, bell peppers, 2 kinds of mushrooms, onions, green onions, shredded carrots and half a pack of extra firm tofu. Hubby chopped everything up and made a stir fry while I put together a sauce, using up other ingredients in the fridge. Ended up tasty quite good for a somewhat random meal.

Last night was Shepherd pie, vegan style. Added a couple of tablespoons of harissa to the veggies and it was perfect for us. Perfect winter comfort food and definitely a keeper.

Monday was absolutely gorgeous, so I grilled harissa chicken thighs. I marinated them for an hour, then while the chicken was grilling, I cooked the marinade into a sauce. Had that with the chicken over rice and it was perfect.

Last night was Salt and Pepper Tofu over white rice. I'd been craving carryout and this was the perfect substitute.

We had some leftover produce in the fridge, so I made Butternut Squash Chili for dinner last night. Topped it off with cubed avocado and crushed plantain chips for a nice easy meal.

Coming back from 3 weeks of vacation, the fridge was pretty empty. On Friday, hubby made a batch of Spicy Garlic Udon Noodles and while the tofu didn't crisp up, it was very good. Yesterday, for future meals, we made Mushroom & Butternut Squash Fettuccine Alfredo, most of the squash squashed when stirred, but very tasty. For dinner last night, we went with a reliable stand-by, Sushi Bake and it was very good.

Ooh, if you are doing Christmas treats, these would be very appropriate: https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/christmas-rice-krispie-treat-bites/ I'd also recommend cracker toffee, which is super easy to make.

I know I'm seeing this late, but if you are still looking: I just keep a box of Ghiradelli Double Chocolate brownie mix in my pantry and it makes very nice dense brownies. If you want a cream cheese swirl, I'd use the box mix and follow these instructions to add the cream cheese to the brownies.

I picked up some king oyster mushrooms last week, and today used them for lunch. Soy Butter Glazed King Oyster Mushrooms over brown jasmine rice. I had 10 oz instead of 16 oz. of mushrooms, so only needed to cook them in 2 batches instead of 3. We do like sauce, so I didn't reduce the glaze amounts and it made for a delicious lunch for 2 with no leftovers.

Visited Cider Lab last weekend, got some crowlers and growlers to bring home. Had a crowler of the orange clove tonight, absolutely delicious. 😋

Made a triple batch of pizza dough, decided to try and make this focaccia with 1/3 of it using this recipe. I wanted to try Chinese sausage in a different format but with this dough, tasted more like a calzone. Not bad but not a keeper.

Some catching up here as well. Wednesday was beautiful, so I grilled 2 salmon fillets and yellow squash with a spicy Asian sauce made from random ingredients. While I was grilling, my husband made sesame noodles. That made for a very tasty and easy dinner with leftovers for the next day. On Thursday, I had a head of cabbage and part of a butternut squash lingering in the crisper drawer. I saw a recipe for doing a sheet pan dinner with them and sausages. I didn't find any sausage in the freezer but I did find a bag of Trader Joe's Italian meatballs and decided to roll with that. Turned out pretty good and leftovers from that went with the leftover noodles as well.

This Sunday was our last day of racing for the year. I'd found some kind of beef bone in the freezer with maybe a pound of meat on it. Defrosted it and seasoned it before tossing it in the Instant Pot for 40 min. Shredded the meat and tossed it with a bit of BBQ sauce to be used later. On Sunday, I used it to make grilled quesadillas and that worked out well. However, it only used about half the meat. I used the remainder in tonight's Roti John sandwiches. I had some sliced red onion in the fridge and used the BBQ beef instead of ground beef. I topped them with kewpie mayo and Sriracha. My husband and I both approved and since there's 4 more rolls in the bag, I think we'll be making this again soon.

I used this recipe as a basis for making hand pies tonight. I had an open can of red curry paste in the fridge, so used that instead of green and used a whole can of coconut milk. I was out of mushrooms, but had some baby carrots and bell peppers, so went with those. I grated the zucchini instead of chopping it. I may have been able to put a little more filling in than I did, but 2 of them made a tasty dinner. Lots of leftover filling, so I'll have it over rice for a future meal.

Last night, my husband made mushroom lasagna. We were a bit short on the amount of mushrooms called for, but it still came out really well.

I made braised bean curd skin last night and had it over brown jasmine rice. Based on previous experience with the bean curd skin I had in the pantry, I did not soak it and that was the correct decision. However, I think the lengths were too long and needed to be cut in half. I also oven roasted some Chinese broccoli and sprinkled it with coconut vinegar and sesame oil after it finished. Made for a good dinner now I need to re-stock my star anise.