It's been soooooo long!

Wow, I have been a bad member of the blogosphere!!! It's been a while, and I must say that I am hanging my head in shame...however here I be!!!

I have been busy with school, work, and the garden! Considering that it is summer, all I want to do is play outside, but for some reason the weather is not co-operating. Rain, rain and more rain. But what I have to share with the world today is not food per se....but future food. Yes, future food, it's not some futuristic space age food, it things growing in the garden! The pics were taken last week....so there is a fair bit of new growth....but for now this will have to do.

The cucumber plants

Roma tomato.....

Of course Bean must be included, protecting his kingdom.....or just being nosy.....tough call
Lavender....yup...when it rains it smells de-lovely....the thing is massive, at this point taking up half of the walk way to the front door.

Well this is it for now.....hopefully I'll be back with some actual "present time" food!!!!

Stuff!

Here we go...some never posted foods from the last couple of weeks(months):

Whole wheat focaccia...in all the excitement I forgot to take a picture of the whole loaf, so here is the half!

And the inside....

Some week night quick stoup ( yup channeling Rachel Ray) cross between soup and stew. Yummy nonetheless!



Breaded and pan fried tofu, with mashed potatoes and gravy, and peas. Oh yeah, in case it's not obvious hot sauce. We go through a lot of hot sauce around here. It is my mission to attempt to make my own one of these days.
Alrighty, this is it for the day!!

Roley Poley Casseroley??

I am the first person to admit that when I cook pasta I have absolutely no portion control. Meaning that, I have no concept of how much to cook, I know that it expands and grows, but for some reason if there's less than half a bag of pasta left I cook it all. Don't really know why, but it happens. So that is precisely what happened yesterday. Pasta for dinner turned into a casserole for a week.... well, at least 3 days! But it sure is delicious. Penne Rigate noodles, a basic sauce, with some sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, chickpeas, and of course all the normal things that go into tomato sauce....and voila....Casserole for a week. And of course this meal came out of the pantry and fridge.



We both had seconds, and yet it still looked like we didn't even put a dent in it! Crazy I tell you!




....and all plated up!


The shriveled green thing on the left of the plate is a roasted and marinated jalapeno pepper. Momma G makes them every summer. We still have about 10 jars in the garage. But they sure are delicious.

Since I haven't been posting all the grub that we have been consuming (bad me), later on today I will post some of the pic's.

Spaghetti and chickenesque meat(less)tballs....mmm mm

Who doesn't like spaghetti and meatballs?? Since we had a package of the Yves Veg. chicken ground (which I absoloutely love, however not everyone carries it!), and I had been craving spaghetti and meatballs, we made it happen!
Pappi made the Meat balls....I dealt with the spaghetti! The "meat" was mushed up with some seasoned breadcrumbs, and went into the oven with a little oil. They smelled and tasted fantastic! I love Yves ground round, but when they came out with the chickenish one, I almost died! It is so delicious, and there is something about the texture that is just so good!


Well here they be....



And again!!


And the inside shot!!

The picture didn't turn out too hot, since it was rather dark, but delicious none the less. It was such a comforting meal....it made me feel all warm and fuzzy!!!

Back later on with more shizz...and an update on the frugal living!!

Shredded Tofu??

On our last trip to the Asian market, we picked up a package of Shredded Tofu. Mind you it just looks like a giant slab of smoked tofu....and once opened it smelled and tasted like it was smoked as well, but it actually looks like it shredded and then pressed together. And since it is a fairly big package we can get at least 2 meals out of it!!! Frugal, Frugal....




The possibilities are endless!



I grilled it in the panini grill/press for a wee bit, and then off to the oven with some BBQ sauce, and green onion.


And the inside shot!



and one more...



As a side I made "sorta" stuffed potatoes, nuked for a few minutes to get them softened up, then cut in half. A little margarine, green onion, and cheese, and smoke paprika. Into the oven they went!! They turned out quite good. But then again it's a potato!! They can't be bad, and yes I LOVE potatoes!


Back to the tofu for a moment, I think it would be great for something fishy....meaning it would be great for fish sticks...Based on texture alone....Just bread it and fry it....There you go Pappi you can have your fish sticks!!!

Cheap Living=Pantry Living

Wow....it's been a long time....but here I am. Having decided to go back to school, money has become extinct. Money extinction is a popular theme these days. So what are we to do....Pantry Living is where it's at. Most people can survive on the items in their pantry for at least a few weeks whether they know it or not. That is what we are currently doing.
We did a big grocery shop yesterday to replenish some of the things that were depleted in the good old pantry.

• Flour (whole wheat and white) apparently necessary to make bread...who knew!
• Produce and some other "necessities"It's amazing how quickly it adds up. But I figure, the only thing that we will purchase are fruits and veggies, and live off the pantry.

Some of the item in the pantry include:

• A nice assortment of dried legumes ( chickpeas, romano beans, great northern, butter beans, lentils, black eyed peas)

• Rice (basmati, long grain white, brown, sushi)

• A ton of canned tomatoes ( Momma G grows and cans them every fall)

• Spices galore

• Quinoa

• Pasta/Noodles in all shapes and sizes ( I smell a lot of casseroles)

• TVP

• Dried Bean Curd

• Dried Fruit

• Nuts

• Panko

• Oats

...and some more random items

The goal here is to spend as little as possible, and only buy produce (preferably local), and necessities.

So here we go....let's kick of the "Pantry Living" season.....coming later day 1!!

Pay it forward!!

Yay.....I got in on Pay it Forward through Carrie over at The House of Simon, So the first person to comment on this post will receive a "package" my neck of the woods within the next 365 days!!! Pay it Forward is also a great movie that starring Kevin Spacey (whom I love), Helen Hunt, and the kid from The Sixth Sense it's definately a feel good movie (although a wee bit sad)!!!