Monday, September 30, 2019

Super Easy Teriyaki Sautéed Mushrooms

This is an incredibly quick, easy, and DELICIOUS way to prepare a batch of sautéed mushrooms to use as a topping on just about anything! It is also extremely inexpensive and the ingredients are likely things you already have in your refrigerator.

I like to put these teriyaki mushrooms on veggie burgers, but I also love them in a rice bowl or noodles, or with other vegetables.

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 clove fresh garlic, smashed and finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Teriyaki sauce (such as Mr. Yoshida’s)
1 tablespoon red cooking wine
Black pepper to taste


1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and olive oil together. When everything is melted and it starts to get a little bubbly, add in your fresh garlic and stir quickly. Never let your garlic burn.

2. Immediately add the fresh mushrooms and sauté to let the mushrooms cook a little bit. About a minute or two. They will shrink down slightly.

3. Once the mushrooms are starting to get hot, add in the red wine and teriyaki sauce. You can add extra teriyaki sauce if you like. When the sauce starts to bubble, turn the heat down to simmer. Gently stir everything for about 4 more minutes.  Add some fresh ground black pepper to taste.

4. Use the mushrooms immediately, or let them cool to store in the refrigerator for later use. 












Sunday, September 15, 2019

Magic Mojo Easy Spaghetti Sauce for Picky Children

My sensitive kid is currently finicky about textures in his food.  He likes sauces that are "smooth with no chunks" and no pieces of unidentifiable herbs or vegetables.  While we are working on helping him broaden his horizons to include more variety and chunky things in sauces, in the mean time he helped me create this great recipe for spaghetti/pizza sauce.  It is simple enough for a kid to assemble, extremely inexpensive, and so tasty!  The credit for the inspiration for this goes to a wonderful and gracious lady/blogger mom, a.k.a. 4hatsandfrugal.com , who also has finicky kids.  We started with her fabulous make-ahead pizza sauce recipe and adapted it to our tastes to be a quick spaghetti sauce.

Ingredients:
1 small can (6 ounces) of tomato paste
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 to 1 tablespoon ground oregano (should be like a powder, not leaves)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make it:
In a medium sauce pan, combine the ingredients (my son measures and combines in the pan for this part).
Turn the heat on to just under medium and continually stir as the sauce heats up.  Make sure it's smooth.  We like to use a whisk; It works great.  It takes just a few minutes before the sauce starts bubbling. Then, turn it way down to simmer while your noodles (or whatever protein/vegetables) are cooking.

We like to put it on Italian Bucatini, which is a large, tubular spaghetti type pasta, and then chop up a baked, crunchy vegetarian "chicken" patty to put on top.  Then we top it all with some Parmesan cheese.

If you are the type that mixes sauce into pasta and mixing before serving, this recipe makes enough sauce to cover an entire 16 ounce package of Italian Bucatini noodles.

SO EASY. SO TASTY. SO YUMMY.





Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Welcome to the Republic of Cold Brew Coffeeland

This summer, I became the queen of the cold brew. It is so easy to make! After being confused by a gazillion online articles about different grind sizes, "gourmet" methods, and ratios, I decided to experiment and keep it as simple and cheap as possible.

One great thing about making cold brew coffee is that once it's brewed in a big batch, it can sit in your refrigerator for up to two weeks (I hear!) and still taste fine (although mine never lasts more than a few days). Making coffee with heated water is not the same. Hot brewed coffee just doesn’t taste fresh or stay good for very long. There are scientific reasons for why cold brew coffee stays stable in the refrigerator with no degradation of quality, but I won’t go into that here. Let’s just get to how it’s made, shall we?


Step 1: Get a container with a lid.  I'm using a 64 oz. Rubbermaid juice thingie that I've had since about 1994.





Step 2: Get a funnel and 8 oz. of ground coffee.  Any kind you like -- it can be freshly ground and gourmet straight from a local fancy roaster, or it can be the standard big brand grocery store stuff.  It is strictly up to you and your taste buds.  It just needs to be a medium grind.
Funnel it into the big jug.



Step 3: Pour cold water into the container and fill it up.  Leave a little room for the coffee to expand.  Put the top on tightly.


Step 4: Give it a good shake to saturate the grounds.  Put it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.  You can also let it sit on your countertop in your moderately temperatured abode.


Step 5: 12 hours later, strain your amazing and delicious cold brew coffee using a French press (pictured above), or whatever straining device you have (coffee filters, cheese cloth, whatever works).

 This cold brew ratio works for me straight into a glass with a couple of pieces of ice and some almond coconut milk (and if we're being honest here, I like to add a few drops of vanilla extract). However, it can also be brewed as a concentrate if you reduce the water to about half the container. The water to coffee ratio can range anywhere from 1:2 to1:8, from the research I have done.  There are a lot of opinions about this out there! Again, it's all up to you and how strong you like it.  

Can you do it with decaf or half caf?  YES, you absolutely can. The process is the same.
Enjoy your delicious cold brew coffee.