Voodoolily's Snacktastic Recipe Thread!!

[Ookii]

Hey VL I challenge you to create a healthy and nutritious meal for a family of four for less than 10 dollars.  You also have to shop for all you ingredients at Whole Foods.

[cmlancas]

Tilapia will be the main course. And then lettuce. Not sure about a starch.

I think for four you need to expand it to $15 :P

[Nebu]

Hey VL I challenge you to create a healthy and nutritious meal for a family of four for less than 10 dollars.  You also have to shop for all you ingredients at Whole Foods.

Someone watches too much Top Chef!

[Sauced]

Hey VL I challenge you to create a healthy and nutritious meal for a family of four for less than 10 dollars.  You also have to shop for all you ingredients at Whole Foods.

She came up with at least 4 meals while we were watching the show.

[voodoolily]

The dumbasses never hit the bulk bins!

[Signe]

One of my favourite summer things to make is Linguine with rapini, kale or any bitter green, really.  This week I'm going to try VDL's recipe with pancetta.  Yum.  Also, Righ likes this much better than pasta with tomato sauce.  I love bitter greens.  They're great in a salad with apples, citrus fruits, roasted pears, and pine nuts, too.   

[voodoolily]

I love bitter greens too. I still have some rapini to use up. Maybe tonight? I was thinking of making a gratin of fennel and apple with some greens in there (to go with a pork loin chop and a parsnip puree).

Signe is the only person I know who actually cooks my recipes. Or claims to.

[Ookii]

I will if you give me your big healthy meals for under 10 bucks recipes.

Though I wouldn't want Antonia's meal.

[Signe]

I also pass on the veggie ones or one that can be turned into veggie/fish recipes to my sister.  She's a really good cook.  I gave her your miso fish recipe and she makes the pear and rosemary focaccia as a side when ever she has company.  I hardly cook anything complicated anymore.  I can't eat most of it anyway.  But I do use a lot of your ideas, if not total recipes.  Sometimes you put together things I hadn't thought of before.  I used to bake a LOT but I've mostly given it up.  Poor Righ.  I can't eat most of what I used to cook anymore, anyway.

PS One of the spell checkermathingamajiggy's suggestions for focaccia is "cowcatcher". 

PPS  I love how you mix food with bugs on your blog, too. 

[Bunk]

I like your recipies VDL, but they are usually a little beyond what I'm willing to try. If you want to throw a few "easy" ones up here - especially meat or pasta related, I'd be up for the challenge.

Oh, and parsnip free, preferably.

[Signe]

Don't give him any bacon recipes. 

[Paelos]

Anybody have anything good for squash? I like it but have no idea what the hell to do with it.

[Prospero]

That's a pretty open ended question. What kinda squash we talkin' about?

[Nebu]

The dumbasses never hit the bulk bins!

Spring rolls FTW.  I don't know why Dale didn't do this.  Sprouts, pea pods, and hell... shrimp is a possibility.  Fresh and tasty. 

[hal]

Easy veggie dishes? Well I have a few. Fresh green beans sauteed with oregano with olive oil of course. Carrots with beer and dill. Not a lot of beer now. It would be OK if the beer dried up as it finished. Your guests will swear that you sugared the carrots there really sweet. Aspargus and scrambled eggs would be great right now. I of course will get some sauteed onion and garlic in there some how but I am a crazy dago so allowances must be made.

[Signe]

My mother used to make a lovely cold string bean salad with just salt, pepper, olive oil and a bit of fresh mint.  She also used mint and lemon in her iced tea.  I love summer food. 

[voodoolily]

Paelos - winter squash (acorn, delicata, etc.) roast and mash, stir into risotto; halve and scoop out seeds, stuff with sauteed apple, walnuts and a crumble of blue cheese. Summer squash: slice, grill, and eat as antipasti or on pasta (bite-sized pieces with penne in aglio olio).

Ooki - Any of my soup recipes fit the bill. My white bean, brat and chard soup recipe is <350 cals/serving (a fat, billing bowl), with 12.5 grams fat, 9 grams fiber and 22 grams protein. My big-ass pot of nabe would do it too (although a bit high in sodium).

Bunk - Easy, light supper: Red kale and potato tortilla
Serves 4 as a first course or two as a light dinner

1 fist-sized white or Yukon gold potato, scrubbed and diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp fresh thyme
pinch red chili flake
3 tbsp julienned sun-dried tomatoes or chopped fresh ones
3 c kale shredded (2 or 3 leaves, destemmed)
4 eggs, lightly beaten (or 2 eggs and 1/2 egg white for a lighter, fluffier version)
1/3 c grated manchego

Preheat your oven to 350. Heat a little oil over medium heat in a medium-sized skillet. Saute the shallot for a minute and toss in the potatoes. Stir the potatoes around and add the garlic and seasonings. When the potato starts to stick to the pan add about a half cup of water and put a lid on it. Let it simmer in there until the potato softens up to your liking. Remove the lid and stir the starchy liquid around, and then add the tomato and kale. Stir this around until the kale wilts a bit. Give it some cracks of pepper and a pinch of salt.

Slowly pour the eggs over the top of the veggies, and let it sit in the hot pan for a minute until it begins to set up a bit. Then sprinkle the cheese over the top. Bake for like 10 minutes. Serve in wedges. I like mine with some toasted como. If you were to have this for dinner you could add a nice mixed green salad.

[Bunk]

Paelos - winter squash (acorn, delicata, etc.) roast and mash, stir into risotto; halve and scoop out seeds, stuff with sauteed apple, walnuts and a crumble of blue cheese. Summer squash: slice, grill, and eat as antipasti or on pasta (bite-sized pieces with penne in aglio olio).


Bunk - Easy, light supper: Red kale and potato tortilla
Serves 4 as a first course or two as a light dinner

Sounds interesting actually. I often make omlettey variations for quick dinners, but they are typically more meat oriented. I don't think I've ever bought Kale, and I have no idea what Manchego cheese is like.

To Paelos - regarding squash - we Canadians like to pour maple syrup in them when we bake them.

[Prospero]

I like to hollow out acorn squash and fill them with fresh cranberry sauce and bake them.

[Sky]

I need good recipes for vegetable side dishes, beyond just steaming things.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/bookstore_detail.asp?PID=325

My diet these days consists of burgers and snappy grillers. Snappies are ground-up win in a casing. Kitchen is still based out of my apartment, so when we're at the house, it's meat from the grill with a side of meat from the grill.

Thanks for the kind sentiments, I'm amazingly happy these days and it's not even a particularly nice house (I don't make a lot of moolah), but it's a double lot and extra deep, and at the end of a dead-end. Nice and quiet.

Back to recipes! Maple syrup is the nectar of the gods.

[voodoolily]

Sounds interesting actually. I often make omlettey variations for quick dinners, but they are typically more meat oriented. I don't think I've ever bought Kale, and I have no idea what Manchego cheese is like.

I love greens. Chard is another favorite. Manchego is a semi-hard cheese that tastes a bit like Romano or parm. It's delicious in slices with a sliver of quince paste (available in a can in the Latino section of the grocery store).

[Bunk]

Back to recipes! Maple syrup is the nectar of the gods.

I use it on various random things. I had a Sockeye fillet the other day, didn't know what to do with it. Decided to crush some walnuts I had, sprinkle em on top, and then doused it in maple syrup. BBQ'd it skin down til done, was really quite good.

[Ookii]

I made maple bacon cupcake thingies, I hope they're good.  I'll know in a couple hours. 

[voodoolily]

It's been a couple hours. Are they good?

[WayAbvPar]

How about some cornbread muffins with maple syrup and bacon chunks mixed in? Someone make a batch and tell me if I have a winner.

[schild]

It's been a couple hours. Are they good?

They were OK. They had the consistency of muffins rather than cupcakes.

How about some cornbread muffins with maple syrup and bacon chunks mixed in? Someone make a batch and tell me if I have a winner.

A thick maple/bacon dip would probably be more palatable.

[voodoolily]

I was thinking just corn muffins with bacon in them, split and served with a pat of butter and maple syrup on top (like a pancake).

[Sky]

Why spoil it with muffins? 

[WayAbvPar]

I was thinking just corn muffins with bacon in them, split and served with a pat of butter and maple syrup on top (like a pancake).

That makes more sense. When are they going to be done? 

[SuperPopTart]

Okay why don't we have like a Top Chef Live thread?

This is just wrong wrong wrong.

BTW: I was waiting for Nikki to kick the damn bucket on this season's show. She should have gone way before Sir Kiwi. I liked him.

The little hobbit - serial killer looking fella.

[SuperPopTart]

I was thinking just corn muffins with bacon in them, split and served with a pat of butter and maple syrup on top (like a pancake).

Paula Deen makes this amazing Corn Casserole..

It's high in fat and calories but in moderation it is so good.

[Signe]

It is chocolate concrete that you make in the fridge. 

Fancy kind: 

Kind in most people's fridge: 

Cadbury makes a chocolate tiffin bar but I never tasted it and I never see it in shops anymore. 

I'm not a tiffin person.

[SuperPopTart]

See, the top looks delicious.. the bottom looks more like a meat product. But thank you for the clarification. I've never seen it before today.

[eldaec]

The freaky light brown colour in those pictures makes it look as if your recipe uses some kind of cocoa free chocolate.

In which case, no wonder.



5oz butter
5 tsp high quality cocoa or drinking chocolate - I use this
3 tbsp syrup

Melt the above together.

Add

10oz shortbread biscuits - crushed.
Dried fruit and/or nuts to taste.

Line a tin with greaseproof paper, pour everything above into it and press down.

Melt some chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), pour on top of the other ingredients, then stick it all in the fridge.


While you wait for the tiffin to set, order more chocolate from the link above, because everything they produce is 

[SuperPopTart]

Oh wow.. "Estate Chocolate.."