New Place, First Meal

Yes, we've moved since I last posted here. And last night, I got the kitchen unpacked, so tonight, I cooked dinner!

I've recently started using Ibotta and Cartwheel to save some money. (I mean very recently... so far I've saved a little over $5 with Cartwheel and before the receipt for this meal I had $2.50 on Ibotta.)

So today when I went grocery shopping on my lunch break, I tried to buy exclusively things that were on one app or both. Out of the whole receipt, the only things not on either app were potatoes, which I thought I would use in tonight's dinner but decided to go with pasta instead.

Which means this meal was made exclusively from items purchased cheaper or with rebates using those two apps. And I totally winged the whole meal. And it was pretty delicious.

To ease myself back into the food blogging thing, I'm not going to do formatted recipes, just a narrative of what I did.

Boneless Pork Chops, Onions, and Italian-Parmesan Pasta

First, I started the water boiling for the pasta, to give myself some time to figure out what else I wanted to do. Once it started boiling, I put in the pasta and cooked it about 7 minutes (I didn't use much). While that was boiling, I put Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and shallot-pepper seasoning in a bowl and mixed it up, and whisked an egg in another bowl. I also chopped up about half an onion. Once the pasta was done, I drained it in a colander and rinsed it with cold water. Then I put a skillet on the hot burner and melted about 1 Tbsp butter in it. I dredged the boneless center cut pork chops in the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture, coating them evenly, and put them in the skillet. I didn't time them, but a few minutes on each side? Part of the time it was covered, and part of the time it wasn't. Like I said, I winged it all. Once I cut into one and they were done, I moved them to a plate and put the pan lid over them to keep them warm. Then I put another 1/2 Tbsp or so of butter in the pan and put in the onions and maybe 1 tsp of minced garlic. I stirred them up to get the bits up from the pork in the pan mixed in with the onions, and I salted them a little. While they cooked, I put some zesty Italian dressing in the pasta and mixed it thoroughly, then did the same with some Parmesan.

Couscous Cakes

Couscous Cakes

adapted from here

Instructions
1 cup cooked couscous
2 eggs
about 3 T panko bread crumbs
parsley, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder
3 T olive oil

Equipment
saucepan, saute pan, stove

Instructions
Lightly beat the eggs. Mix the cooked couscous in with the eggs until incorporated. If it seems too thin, add the panko crumbs a little at a time, mixing thoroughly to see if you need more. Add the seasonings and mix thoroughly. Heat the oil in a pan. Form the couscous mixture into cakes with damp hands and drop carefully into the pan. Cook until browned on each side (about 5-7 minutes per side for me).

Yields
I got five out of this much mixture

Total time
Including cooking the couscous, about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10
Not including the pot you cooked the couscous in, all you have is a bowl that you mixed in and the pan of oil.

Difficulty rating 4/10
The trickiest skill required is knowing how much of the panko you need to mix in. It's not even hard to flip the cakes, if you wait until they're done on the first side.

Flavor rating 5/10
This is the simple, basic version. The original recommended including chopped pistachios, which I didn't have and I didn't think would go too well with the seared tuna and sauteed green beans, so I left them out. I would definitely recommend putting SOMETHING in them, and if you don't, go a little heavy on the salt, or serve them with some kind of sauce on them.

Adjustability: high
You can put all sorts of things in these, as long as they're small (or chopped fine) enough to not break up the structural integrity of the cakes. Pistachios or other chopped nuts, peas or chopped pieces of broccoli, asparagus, carrot, or other veggies, small pieces of meat like chicken, bacon, or ground beef... the possibilities are endless. You can also change the seasonings to whatever you want, and serve it with any kind of sauce (to match whatever you put inside them or serve it with).

Make it with...
I started off thinking I'd just make some sushi rice to go with our tuna, then I thought I'd try making rice pilaf, and then Birk suggested couscous or quinoa. So anything you'd make a grain with, you can make these with.

Egg Sandwich and Toasted Edamame

It's time for a two-fer!

Egg Sandwich

Ingredients

bread (we used the same everything French bread from last night's grilled cheeses)

eggs (about two per sandwich)

salt and pepper

cheese (I had white cheddar)

butter

Equipment

skillet, pan, stove

Instructions

Mix up eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper like you're making scrambled eggs (because you totally are). Butter a skillet and start the bread toasting. Cut your cheese into tiny cubes. Butter a pan and heat it up. Add the eggs. When they just start to cook, add the cheese. Keep stirring it and chopping it with the spoon until you have scrambled eggs. Keep an eye on your toast (flip it over when one side is toasted). Once everything's done, make sandwiches.

Yields

I made three sandwiches out of four eggs.

Total time

About 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/5

All you have to deal with is a buttery skillet, an eggy pan, and a raw eggy bowl.

Flavor rating 8/10

Yum! Simple but delicious. Hard to go wrong with butter, bread, eggs, and cheese.

Difficulty rating 2/10

Super easy. Unless you're terrible at cracking eggs. Then it's like a 3. Or like 5 if you're really, really bad at it.

Adjustability: high

It's a sandwich... add whatever you want! Use different cheeses, mix in vegetables or meats, add stuff like lettuce or tomato or whatever you want. That's what I love about sandwiches.

Make it with...

I made it with the recipe below, toasted edamame. But again... it's a sandwich. Chips, pretzels, veggies, whatever floats your boat.

Cost

Half a dozen eggs: about $2

Everything French bread from Walmart: $1

Butter from kitchenventory

Brick of white cheddar cheese from Target: about $3

Cost for all ingredients: $6

Toasted Edamame

Ingredients

bag of frozen edamame

vegetable oil

a few Tbsp Parmesan cheese

about 1 tsp minced garlic

salt and pepper

Equipment

baking sheet, oven

Instructions

Rinse/thaw your edamame. Toss it in vegetable oil. Add minced garlic and toss again. Spread it on the baking sheet and sprinkle with Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes.

Yields

a bag's worth of edamame

Total time

about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 1/5

You have an oily bowl (or colander if you're like me and get tired of being told there's too much oil in your vegetables, so you added oil while the vegetables were still in the colander) and, if you line your baking sheet with foil, a piece of foil to throw away.

Flavor rating 7/10

I think this is an excellent vegetable side dish, personally. Our edamame had been sitting in the freezer for about a year, so it was a tiny bit tough, but it was still tasty.

Difficulty rating 1/10

The hardest part was opening the jar of minced garlic.

Adjustability: medium

You could use other spices or herbs or something, but that's about it.

Make it with...

Anything! It's a side dish. Goes with any meat, any non-meat, any sandwich, whatever.

Cost

Bag of edamame: about $2

Parmesan cheese from the kitchenventory

Minced garlic from the kitchenventory

Cost for all ingredients: $2

Cost for this recipe: $2

Look, I Made Lunch! Eggs, Potatoes, & Bacon

I've pulled out the Sistema again, finally. Sistema is this great collection of plastic lunchware that I absolutely love and has had the most success getting me to take lunch to work. I have a whole set of green: three containers and three little squeeze bottles for sauces (two of the bottles are blue and pink/purple).

Anyway, this isn't a commercial... I'm just excited about using my Sistema containers again.

Today, I brought lunch that incorporated a little bit of leftovers from last night's dinner! I didn't eat all of my piece of pork, so I cut it into tiny pieces and made an egg scramble with some diced onion and cheddar cheese, which I paired with leftover potatoes from dinner, plus a couple pieces of bacon that were in the fridge!

The little dressing container in the middle of the potatoes on the right has a little bit of honey in it... don't judge, I like syrup or honey with my bacon. It's not as uncommon as you might think (at least not in the South).

I actually used another Sistema container to bring the Accidental Cookies to work, and one of the tiny squeeze bottles to bring the lime icing (it's a little liquidy, so I didn't want to put it on the cookies and have it all drip to the bottom).