A Visit from the Leftover Inventor
'Twas the night before co-op, and all through the house
No food was to be found, not e'en enough for a mouse
The shelves in the pantry were alarmingly bare
It's weeks since a shopping trip restocked in there.
The children were mostly all sick in their beds
While video games and DVDs played 'fore their heads.
And Momma was even ailing, so it fell in my lap,
('Though I confess to an afternoon nap),
From out of the last remnants of vegetable matter,
To somehow arrange a full dinnertime platter.
I'm not kidding when I say we have practically *NO* food in the house. I mean there is food. But there's hardly anything you can DO anything with.
This is always something of an issue in the last few days leading up to co-op, but this time it's compounded by the fact that we haven't gone grocery shopping in... um, well, you know what? I don't think we've actually gone on a full restock-the-pantry grocery shopping trip since the holidays! Maybe during the first week or two of the year. But we've mostly been buying eggs or napkins or whatever as needed.
Which leaves our pantry in a very sad state indeed. (Heck, the other day we even ran out of olive oil! We NEVER run out of olive oil! We buy it in huge gallon bottles and use it two and three times a day.)
It's bad this time.
We have no oranges. No apples. No carrots.
The potatoes are almost gone and so are the onions. About the only vegetables we have now left are lettuce and tomatoes, some kale and a head of cabbage.
But that's after I created dinner, so let me tell you how I managed that.
I first realized we were dire straights when I was making breakfast. (Muffins. I was in a baking mood, something I find often occurs in cold and/or blustery weather, especially when I or other members of the family are feeling a little down and in need of comfort food. Consider today an "all of the above")
They were carrot-raisin muffins with whole wheat flour and ground flax seed. And exceedingly tasty for as incredibly healthy as they were, IMO.
I didn't have much of a problem, a few things to sub out in the recipe ... and then I went to grate the carrots - and panic! I couldn't find any! Honestly, I can not recall a time we have ever not had carrots in my house.
Eventually, I found one small carrot, another chopped into snack-size pieces and one wrinkly one that had been left in the door and gotten all limp. Between them I barely eaked out enough for my muffins.
Onto the dinner delimma.
Momma suggested Tofu Meatballs, so I assumed she knew that we had all the ingredients (staples - in our house at least - like rice, onions, spaghetti sauce ... oops.)
No can do.
So, I have two packages of thawed, drained, crumbled tofu in a bowl and three cups of freshly cooked rice in the rice cooker.
What now?
I think "casserole?" - I'd considered making a cheesy broccoli-and-rice casserole... uh, no broccoli. (That's not strickly true. We have a fist-sized head left. Not enough to count in a family our size.)
So what other vegetables could we use? ... Aha! Zucchini! I will make a cheesy zucchini-and-rice casserole with tofu as my protein.
Now that I have a plan I set out to see if I've got enough to pull it together.
I had another moment of mild panic when I realized that oops, we are ALSO out of cheese. (see what I mean about NOTHING IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE?!?!? ... oh, and if some of you are thinking, "Wow, you used up all that cheese already?" don't be silly! We used up that cheese months ago! This is even more cheese we've already run out of.) But then I recalled that we have a lone can of "Cream of Cheddar" soup sitting in our pantry. It has lurked there for months. Possibly years. I have no clue how or when it could have gotten there. No one ever bought it intentionally. The most likely scenario is that during a holiday shopping trip several Thanksgivings back a can of Cream of Cheddar was inadvertently pulled from the shelf and lost admits the numerous cans of Cream of Mushroom that were supposed to be there. And then the poor, unwanted thing was just left to linger in the dark recesses of the pantry.
Until today!
A can of "Cream of Cheddar" should supply both the flavor and moisture I need for my casserole concoction, quoth I.
(Well, actually I didn't quoth ... but I thought-th it!)
It turned out remarkably tasty and full of comfort-food goodness. Especially for a "use whatever we have" last minute invention.
Made two big casseroles, so I'll give you a halved recipe.
1 package hard tofu, crumbled (rule of thumb when cooking with tofu - if you will freeze it, then thaw and drain, it is much more meat-like in texture and holds shape and flavors better.)
1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1-2 cups cooked brown rice
1 can condensed Cream of Cheddar soup
1 can water
garlic powder
Italian seasoning
vegetable soup base mix
grated Parmesan cheese (the dried in-the-can kind)
Saute vegetables (or at least onion and zucchini) slightly until softened.
Combine all ingredients and spread into casserole dish.
Top with a) more cheese and slivered almonds for crunch b) sliced tomato and more cheese
I did one of each. We had the nut-topping one tonight and I froze the other, so my Thursday dinner duties are already taken care of.
All-in-all, my experiments in the kitchen turned out quite well. However, I defy anyone to try making another meal out of what we have left that isn't some form of "Hey, want an omelet?" ot beans in a corn tortilla. (No cheese, no sour cream. Just beans. In a corn tortilla.)
No food was to be found, not e'en enough for a mouse
The shelves in the pantry were alarmingly bare
It's weeks since a shopping trip restocked in there.
The children were mostly all sick in their beds
While video games and DVDs played 'fore their heads.
And Momma was even ailing, so it fell in my lap,
('Though I confess to an afternoon nap),
From out of the last remnants of vegetable matter,
To somehow arrange a full dinnertime platter.
I'm not kidding when I say we have practically *NO* food in the house. I mean there is food. But there's hardly anything you can DO anything with.
This is always something of an issue in the last few days leading up to co-op, but this time it's compounded by the fact that we haven't gone grocery shopping in... um, well, you know what? I don't think we've actually gone on a full restock-the-pantry grocery shopping trip since the holidays! Maybe during the first week or two of the year. But we've mostly been buying eggs or napkins or whatever as needed.
Which leaves our pantry in a very sad state indeed. (Heck, the other day we even ran out of olive oil! We NEVER run out of olive oil! We buy it in huge gallon bottles and use it two and three times a day.)
It's bad this time.
We have no oranges. No apples. No carrots.
The potatoes are almost gone and so are the onions. About the only vegetables we have now left are lettuce and tomatoes, some kale and a head of cabbage.
But that's after I created dinner, so let me tell you how I managed that.
I first realized we were dire straights when I was making breakfast. (Muffins. I was in a baking mood, something I find often occurs in cold and/or blustery weather, especially when I or other members of the family are feeling a little down and in need of comfort food. Consider today an "all of the above")
They were carrot-raisin muffins with whole wheat flour and ground flax seed. And exceedingly tasty for as incredibly healthy as they were, IMO.
I didn't have much of a problem, a few things to sub out in the recipe ... and then I went to grate the carrots - and panic! I couldn't find any! Honestly, I can not recall a time we have ever not had carrots in my house.
Eventually, I found one small carrot, another chopped into snack-size pieces and one wrinkly one that had been left in the door and gotten all limp. Between them I barely eaked out enough for my muffins.
Onto the dinner delimma.
Momma suggested Tofu Meatballs, so I assumed she knew that we had all the ingredients (staples - in our house at least - like rice, onions, spaghetti sauce ... oops.)
No can do.
So, I have two packages of thawed, drained, crumbled tofu in a bowl and three cups of freshly cooked rice in the rice cooker.
What now?
I think "casserole?" - I'd considered making a cheesy broccoli-and-rice casserole... uh, no broccoli. (That's not strickly true. We have a fist-sized head left. Not enough to count in a family our size.)
So what other vegetables could we use? ... Aha! Zucchini! I will make a cheesy zucchini-and-rice casserole with tofu as my protein.
Now that I have a plan I set out to see if I've got enough to pull it together.
I had another moment of mild panic when I realized that oops, we are ALSO out of cheese. (see what I mean about NOTHING IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE?!?!? ... oh, and if some of you are thinking, "Wow, you used up all that cheese already?" don't be silly! We used up that cheese months ago! This is even more cheese we've already run out of.) But then I recalled that we have a lone can of "Cream of Cheddar" soup sitting in our pantry. It has lurked there for months. Possibly years. I have no clue how or when it could have gotten there. No one ever bought it intentionally. The most likely scenario is that during a holiday shopping trip several Thanksgivings back a can of Cream of Cheddar was inadvertently pulled from the shelf and lost admits the numerous cans of Cream of Mushroom that were supposed to be there. And then the poor, unwanted thing was just left to linger in the dark recesses of the pantry.
Until today!
A can of "Cream of Cheddar" should supply both the flavor and moisture I need for my casserole concoction, quoth I.
(Well, actually I didn't quoth ... but I thought-th it!)
It turned out remarkably tasty and full of comfort-food goodness. Especially for a "use whatever we have" last minute invention.
Made two big casseroles, so I'll give you a halved recipe.
1 package hard tofu, crumbled (rule of thumb when cooking with tofu - if you will freeze it, then thaw and drain, it is much more meat-like in texture and holds shape and flavors better.)
1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1-2 cups cooked brown rice
1 can condensed Cream of Cheddar soup
1 can water
garlic powder
Italian seasoning
vegetable soup base mix
grated Parmesan cheese (the dried in-the-can kind)
Saute vegetables (or at least onion and zucchini) slightly until softened.
Combine all ingredients and spread into casserole dish.
Top with a) more cheese and slivered almonds for crunch b) sliced tomato and more cheese
I did one of each. We had the nut-topping one tonight and I froze the other, so my Thursday dinner duties are already taken care of.
All-in-all, my experiments in the kitchen turned out quite well. However, I defy anyone to try making another meal out of what we have left that isn't some form of "Hey, want an omelet?" ot beans in a corn tortilla. (No cheese, no sour cream. Just beans. In a corn tortilla.)