Recipe - Tostones with Sauce

Tostones Sauce

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves
~ 1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar
8 oz. can of tomato sauce

Directions:
In mortar and pestle, crush garlic and salt into a gooey paste. Add olive oil and white vinegar and stir. Add tomato sauce and stir until well mixed.

Here is a nice little video on making the twice fried tostones: http://video.about.com/latinfood/Fried-Plantains.htm.
The sweet ones are called maduros and the recipe can be found here: http://icuban.com/food/platanos_maduros.html.

Cleaning Out The Pantry

W always tries to get me to cook from the pantry. I always respond that there is nothing in the pantry to eat. W challenged me to only purchase essentials from the grocery store but I kept saying we had nothing to eat. So this morning, I suggested we clean the pantry out and take an inventory.

HOLY SMOKES! We have a lot of food in there!!!

I filled an entire 8.5"x11" sheet of paper with the inventory. Then, we challenged each other to come up with 8 meals. The more things we used, the better. Here are our lists (which will also give you an idea of what is in our pantry):

W's list:

1. Lentils, onions, tomato sauce and spices over rice.
2. Steak with veggies in green simmer sauce over brown rice. *
3. Scones with scrambled eggs. *
4. Meat/rice loaf (like meatloaf but with rice). *
5. Salmon rolls w/sushi rice and seaweed. (We eat this a lot).
6. Tofu with veggies in green simmer sauce over rice.
7. Pasta with tomato sauce.
8. Lasagna w/tomato sauce and faux cheese. **
9. Tacos w/refried beans and / or burritos with scrambled eggs and beans.

My list:

1. Pasta Puttanesca. **
2. Rice and mung bean casserole. **
3. Cuban style black beans (from dried beans) and rice.
4. Linguine w/ pesto. *
5. Risotto with some frozen veggie.
6. Spring rolls (like the ones we get at our favorite Thai food restaurant) with water chestnuts. *
7. Three course meal: butternut squash soup, smoked oysters w/faux cream cheese on crackers, pasta with mushroom & truffle pate.
8. Miso soup with rice, seaweed and tofu.

Notes: Not everything on our lists is in the pantry but every meal on our lists uses at least one thing from the pantry. One star (*) was for using more than one thing in the pantry. Two stars (**) was for using a few things in the pantry and for creating something that sounded really good at that moment.

It was a really fun exercise and now we are challenged to eat out of the pantry. There is nothing wrong with having a pantry full of food unless you don't eat any of it because you don't know what is in there. That mystery is solved. For now.

Gratitude

While on one hand, Thanksgiving is my favorite "food holiday" (followed closely by Halloween - yeah baby), on the other hand; it is also a day of gratitude. There are so many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for every member of my family (nuclear and extended). I am thankful for my friends, my cat, and my lovely house. I am thankful for my job which is challenging and interesting. I am thankful to live in a world where Obama will be the next president and the hope that brings. I am thankful that I didn't get booed out of my living room when I played the first song I ever wrote on my bass guitar for our guests. I am thankful to be alive.

What are you thankful for?

Omnivore's List of 100 Things Eaten or Not

Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Mark any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush.
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle (love truffled anything)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (are you kidding???)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float (love this with vanilla vodka...)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (my dad loved this)
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads - Would never even try this.
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis - Nope - not going there.
69. Fried plantain (One of my favorite things. Ever.)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette - Nope - count me out for this one, too.
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (YUM)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict (had this for my last birthday - thanks W)
83. Pocky (ditto)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (Don't drink coffee).
100. Snake

I scored a 64/100. What about you?

Cutting Grocery Costs

Our food bill is astounding. I know that some of it has to do with the fact that we eat organic and some of it has to do with the fact that our kids inhale fruit (could be worse). It also probably has to do with the fact that my kids eat a lot of snacks (like Veggie Booty and bagel chips). Lately, we have been trying to figure out how to significantly reduce our bill. In today's Oregonian, there was an article about how four families cut their food bill. Perfect timing! Last year, Rebecca Blood did a whole series on how to eat organic on a reduced budget. Although we learned some things, they didn't seem to affect our total food bill. One thing has really helped, and that is Citymama's Meal Planning Mondays. I subscribe to her blog so every Monday I see what she is cooking for the week. This inspires me to talk to W about what we are going to cook for the week. Having a meal plan and sticking to it is a great way to reduce food bills. Otherwise you are wandering around the grocery store grabbing random things that may not add up to an actual meal!

This is our menu for this week:
Sunday - Will's Indian style franks and beans with brown rice
Monday (yesterday) - Tacos (ground turkey, refried beans, tomatoes, avocado, cheese)
Tuesday - Meatloaf (pre-cooked and frozen), mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans
Wednesday - Pasta with white beans, arugula, garlic bread
Thursday - Salmon sushi balls (basically canned salmon wrapped in sushi rice with nori around it)
Friday - Out for sushi and to see Ani Difranco (yay!)
Saturday - ???

We make it a practice to bring leftovers for lunch so I had Will's Indian style franks and bean with rice for lunch yesterday and today I am planning to make a taco salad. W is actually starting to gather data on exactly how much meals cost.

So what do you do? Do you create a menu for the week? Do you know how much your meals cost? Do you have any tips for us? :)