Cheese grits, from Allison

Cheese grits
serves 4

1 cup stone-ground grits
4 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
a touch of Tabasco sauce

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Pour in the grits and salt. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn the heat down as far as it will go and cover. Stir pretty often (every couple minutes or so), and cook for about 40 minutes, maybe longer. At the end, stir in the cheese and Tabasco sauce. Serve hot.

Okra Simmer, from Allison

Here we go on the okra recipe!

2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 - 1 1/2 lbs. okra, stems trimmed off and cut into fair-sized pieces
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. dried tarragon
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the okra and cook 2-3 minutes. Add the water and vinegar and simmer, covered, 10-12 minutes. Stir in the sugar and tarragon and boil, hard, until the until the liquid reduces by about half. Season well with salt and pepper.

Dry Mexican Soup, an idea by Alison

Fideos -- A Mexican Dry Soupfrom Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
1 32 oz. box vegetable stock
15 oz. can diced tomatoes
one bunch cilantro
6 cloves garlic, charred in a skillet
2 guajillo chiles
2 Tbsp canola oil
8 oz. spaghetti, broken into 2- to 4- inch lengths
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack
1/2 cup sour cream

Put the stock in a saucepan and turn it to medium high. Add the diced tomatoes, the stems from the cilantro, the garlic, and the chiles. Let simmer 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wide skillet (preferably an ovenproof one, otherwise you're going to have to move this stuff into something ovenproof later) over medium heat. Add the noodles and saute until browned. Puree the stuff from the saucepan and strain it. Pour most of it into the skillet with the noodles. Simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. If the noodles aren't soft yet and they're getting dry, add a bit more stock.

Meanwhile, preheat your broiler.If you don't have this stuff in an ovenproof skillet, now is the time to move it to a short, wide dish that can stand up to the broiler. If you do, just keep going. Sprinkle the cheeses over top and broil until the cheese has melted. Remove from the oven. Stir your sour cream with a fork and drizzle it over top, then sprinkle the cilantro over top. Serve.

Turkey Tips, from Allison

The basic idea with doing turkey burgers, turkey meatloaf, or whatever, is that you have to add a little liquid back, preferably with strong flavors, to keep it from getting dry and yucky. Usually sauteed onions and garlic help, you can also do stuff like throw mustard directly into the meat and the like. So this is just one possibility. The spinach has a lot of moisture in it and, well, cheese is always good. Even just throwing BBQ sauce into the patties helps considerably. So the onions and garlic aren't necessities.

Suggested by Allison - Rachael Ray's Spanakopita Burgers

Here's the official spanakopita burger recipe from Rachael Ray:

1 Tbsp EVOO
1 tsp butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, half chopped, the rest for topping the burger
a 10-oz box frozen spinach, defrosted
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 lb. feta crumbles
1 1/3 lbs ground chicken or turkey
1 Tbsp grill seasoning if you want it

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil and butter over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl to cool.

Wring the defrosted spinach dry. Throw everything into the bowl, mix together, and form four patties from this. Raise the heat to medium high, add the patties, cook 6 minutes on each side (or grill them, whatever).

She tops it with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, sauteed onion slices, shredded arugula and hot peppers, then slathers the top bun with a mix of roasted red peppers and olives.

Suggested by Allison - Baked Beets

Baked Beets
from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off

1 lb fresh raw beets, scrubbed (I cut them up a bit as it says golf-ball sized and mine weren't)
10 clovers garlic, squashed and peeled
a handful fresh oregano, leaves picked from stems
salt and pepper
a good glug balsamic vinegar (it says 10 Tbsp, I didn't use nearly that much)
a good glug olive oil (same story -- it says 6 Tbsp.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Tear off around 5 feet of aluminum foil and fold it in half to give double thickness. Place beets in the middle of the foil and everything else on top, folding the bottom up some before adding the liquids. Then seal the foil around the beets. Put on a baking sheet, place in the oven, and cook around an hour, until tender.

Bastardized Paprikash Csirke (Chicken Paprika), an idea from Allison

For the chicken and pasta I did kind of a bastardized version of paprikash csirke (chicken paprika -- a Hungarian recipe) -- sauteed a bit of onion, threw in cut-up chicken breasts, seasoned with salt, pepper, and lots of paprika while cooking, then when the chicken was ready I added a bunch of sour cream -- probably about 8 ounces. Mixed it all together and served it over the noodles. Normally I'd do the onions in some bacon fat, I'd use a whole bird cut up into 10 pieces, when the liquid ran out I'd add some stock, and I'd use some half-sharp paprika in the mix rather than just the sweet paprika.

Suggested by Allison - Pineapple and Spinach Salad

Here it is. It's from Julee Rosso's Fresh Start, although I've messed with it a bit and I don't bother measuring past the dressing stage. Really, who does for salads? She throws in some parsley and lime zest and doesn't have the coconut.


Pineapple and Spinach Salad

1/2 tsp. finely minced ginger
1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp water
a bit of grated coconut
2 cups pineapple chunks (I just buy a good-sized can of them)
a good handful of coarsely chopped pecans
most of a bag of spinach (I measure soooo closely, lol!)
small sweet onion, thickly sliced

In a saucepan, combine ginger, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and water over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Add the pineapple and cook 15 minutes or so, until the sauce thickens and the pineapple's coated with the syrup. Stir in the coconut. Throw it in a salad bowl over the spinach and onion, toss well, serve immediately.

Allison's tips on eating for cheap

Another thing that might help is to check on vegetarian recipe sites as beans are a good, cheap vegetarian source of protein. For example, here's the Vegetarian Times website's bean link: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/search/?search=beans&page=1&tableid=260&start=1
If you want something about a specific sort of bean, just enter the bean type in the search engine and it'll bring up only those recipes. Some of them are incredibly inexpensive like this: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/7187

Do you have a crockpot? If you do, that makes it really easy to cook dried beans -- you soak them all night and then put them in the crockpot in the morning. Cans of beans are pretty inexpensive, but dried are even more so.

Green Beans with Tomatoes, by Allison

olive oil
minced ginger
a few cloves garlic, minced
some mustard seeds
a little bit of red pepper flakes
green beans
tomatoes (a can of diced toms. or about the same amount of fresh toms diced -- tonight I halved cherry toms)
salt and pepper

Warm a skillet over medium heat. Drizzle in the olive oil, then add the ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, and red pepper flakes. Heat until fragrant. Add the green beans. When they start to look that brighter green of cooked green beans, add the tomatoes. Continue to saute until the tomatoes are heated through. Salt and pepper to taste, then serve.

Eggplant Parmesan, by Allison

1eggplant
a couple cups tomato sauce like for pasta (I made my own, if you use jarred sauce, go ahead and use that)
4 oz mozzarella, grated
some fresh basil
2 oz Parmesan, grated
salt and pepper

Slice the eggplant, salt the slices and let them sit for half an hour or so. Then wipe them off and spray both sides with oil. Shove them under the broiler for 5 minutes, then flip and broil for another 5 minutes. Salt and pepper them to taste.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put about a third of the sauce in a casserole dish, layer half the eggplant on top, cover with the mozzarella, basil leaves, and Parmesan, the rest of the eggplant, and then the rest of the tomato sauce. Cook for half an hour.

Random Sweet Potatoes, by Allison

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees or so.
Peel and dice a couple sweet potatoes.
Throw them into a casserole dish with a couple spoonfuls of brown sugar, a couple tablespoons of butter (chopped into itty bitty pieces).
Stir briefly.
Pour a bit of cranberry juice over top, cover the dish, and bake about 40 minutes.

"Old" Corn, by Allison

a couple pieces bacon
frozen corn
pepper
milk

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Fry up the bacon, pull it out and drain it. Pour the corn and some pepper into the skillet and saute until it starts to brown a bit. Put a bit of milk in and simmer about 5 minutes until the milk is mostly cooked off. Crumble in the bacon and serve.

Apples and Cheese Sandwich, by Allison

Get yourself a loaf of french bread (multigrain if you can), split it in half lengthwise and toast it under the broiler. Smear tarragon mayo on one side and on the other side you want thinly sliced apples and cheddar cheese. Toast again until the cheese is melted, then throw some watercress on it, put the two halves together, cut in three pieces and serve.

Split Pea Soup for Picky Eaters, by Allison

It's from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (excellent book, btw). I've changed the ingredients just a bit because I used the herbs from our garden.

Split Pea Soup even Carl will eat

1 1/2 cups split peas
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tbsp. fresh oregano
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary
1 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper
aronatics: 3 bay leaves, 6 thyme sprigs
2 quarts vegetable stock
a few glugs of soy sauce

Cover the peas with water and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onion and carrots about 10 minutes. Throw in the garlic, oregano, rosemary, paprika, and pepper, saute a few minutes more. Drain and add the peas, aromatics, salt, and stock. Turn up the heat and stir from time to time until the soup comes to a boil. Turn heat to medium low, partially cover the pot, and cook an hour or maybe longer, until the peas have broken down and are nice and soft. Take out the stems and the bay leaves, then stir in the soy sauce and serve.

Easy Vodka Sauce, suggested by Allison

From Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1 onion, diced
1 cup vodka
2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 pint heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion in butter until slightly brown and soft. Pour in vodka and let cook for 10 minutes. Mix in crushed tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes. Pour in heavy cream and cook for another 30 minutes.

Suggested by Allison - White Bean and Pasta Soup with Greens

White Bean and Pasta Soup with Greens
by Deborah Madison: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
amended slightly

2 cups dry cannellini, navy beans, or a mixture
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped rosemary
1 onion, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1 celery rib, finely diced
5 garlic cloves, sliced
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned, with their juices
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup dried small pasta
1 bunch chard, spinach, mustard greens, or kale sauteed in olive oil with a tough of garlic and red pepper flakes

Soak the beans overnight, or I cover well with water, boil them about ten minutes and then let them sit at least an hour.

Heat the oil with the rosemary in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and parsley and cook a few minutes more. Drain the beans and add them to the pot along with the tomatoes and 3 quarts water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until the beans have begun to soften, about an hour. Add salt and pepper and continue cooking until the beans are nice and tender, about another half hour. Just before serving, add the greens to the soup.

Cook the pasta, then drain. Portion some of it into the soup bowls and ladle soup over top. If you want, grate a little parmesan over top.

note: This makes more than our family can eat in one sitting unless we have guests. I make the whole thing and put the pasta we didn't use into the leftover soup for later.

Suggested by Allison - Red Beans and Rice with Turkey Andouille

Red Beans and Rice with Turkey Andouille

Dijon-crusted Chicken, from Allison

Dinner tonight was chicken breasts with a dijon crust, roasted tomatoes, brussels sprouts with mustard butter, and mashed potatoes.

I cut the boneless chicken breasts in half and salt and pepper them. Then I mix equal parts dijon mustard and sour cream (a couple tablespoons of each) and spread the mixture over top. To turn it into a crust, I buzz a slice or two of bread in the blender, mix that with salt, pepper, thyme or some other herb that strikes my fancy at the moment, drizzle on some olive oil and mix it all together, then press that on top of the chicken breasts. Bake at 425 degrees F for about 15 minutes.

You can do it with the bread crumbs you buy at the grocery store, but they don't soak up the mustard mixture as nicely and the texure ends up a bit different.

The sauce for the brussels sprouts was butter, mustard, garlic powder, I think some onion powder, and a bit of champagne vinegar.

Black-Eyed Peas, from Allison

Black-Eyed Peas

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbp. butter
1 onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
1 celery rib, diced
3 bay leaves
a bit of fresh thyme (I put in several sprigs)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup dried black-eyed peas
1 quart water (less in a crockpot)
salt to taste

Heat the oil and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and saute the ingredients up to and including the garlic for about 15 minutes. Add the allspice and red pepper flakes and saute a couple minutes more to blend the flavors. Cook with the beans and water. About 1/2 hour from the end of cooking, throw in the salt.