Tag Archives: gnocchi

Casseroles, Finances, Healthy, Meal Plans, Snacks, Vegan, Vegetarian

Weekly Eating – New Year 2019

January 6, 2019 BudgetEpicurean 3 Comments

Hey y’all! Welcome to the series Weekly Eating.

Here is where I’ll talk about the week’s meal plan versus reality, what we ate for the week, and how we did budget-wise. I hope it gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into our life through the lens of food, and it’s also a way to keep us on track with meal planning and grocery budgeting.

Feel free to share your wins and lessons in the comments below!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day, Happy New Year!

Whatever and however you celebrate, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I know we did, even if the driving sucks it is always worth it to see family.

We also went to Niagara Falls, which was the boy’s first time seeing them. He thought they were “pretty cool”. 🙂

It was amazing being off Monday and Tuesday, and a rough reality waking up at 6am again come Wednesday. But at least it was a short week! Back to the usual grind come next Monday.

Monday:

Breakfast – I honestly don’t remember… we probably just slept in since we had driven home from Ohio the day prior!

Lunch – Leftovers from Christmas week. We came home with like 4 different meals 🙂 Several were not vegan, but I do not waste food if at all possible, so we ate them up this week.

Dinner – mom sent us home with a bag full of leftover turkey and gravy, so I added frozen mixed veggies and flour, topped it all with biscuits, and called it a pot pie

We watched Bird Box on Netflix and drank fizzy wine for the New Year, and went to bed like the old folks that we are haha

Tuesday:

Breakfast – big smoothie of frozen mixed berries, amla powder, flax seed, and almond milk

Lunch – cooked a batch of sorghum and made a “everything in the fridge” lentil curry to go with it in the instant pot. And I thawed the leftover injera from Dec to make it more fun to eat.

Snack – banana bread a friend gave us for Christmas

Dinner – I made a batch of saffron rice and a crazy lazy version of Hoppin John with black eyed peas for the New Year. No greens though, so this year might be disastrous for our finances haha

Wednesday:

Breakfast – big smoothie of frozen mixed berries, amla powder, flax seed, and almond milk

Lunch – leftover half of a tofu sofritas burrito from Chipotle on the drive home

Snack – hummus & cucumber slices

Dinner – we tried jackfruit for the first time. The internet says it is a vegan superfood, and they are right! It doesn’t have much of a taste on its own, but it shreds just like chicken or pork, and cooks into whatever you want.

I made some rolls to put it on, and added some shredded carrots and cooked beans for bulk, and we had bbq sandwiches with baked sweet potato fries.

Thursday:

Breakfast – banana bread from a friend & coffee

Lunch – leftover mushroom soup from Christmas with a big salad of spring mix, blueberries, dried apricots, and walnuts.

Y’all this mushroom soup recipe has been in my family for generations, and we all wait all year for it. Is it vegan? Hell naw. Cause heavy cream and butter are lyfe in Ohio. But am I gonna let it go to waste? Hell. to. the. no.

Dinner – Pumpkin gnocchi with pumpkin I froze earlier, and thawed pesto, topped with cashew cream and hot sauce

Friday:

Breakfast – big smoothie of frozen mixed berries, amla powder, flax seed, and coconut water

Lunch – a big salad, and leftover eggplant parm with frozen mixed broccoli and cauliflower

Snack – Hummus & cut up cucumber

Dinner – I forgot to add one exception to my Veganuary rules… sushi. Sushi, wine, and popcorn are my kryptonite. So when a friend invited us to an over-due AYCE sushi night, I wasn’t about to say “no, put a pin in that until February please”. I had the most plates. 😀

The Weekend

The weekend will include cleaning the house from the tornado it has become. We need to put away Christmas things and generally tidy up the clutter. Mari Kondo has a show on Netflix now, so that’s hopefully gonna motivate me to keep purging clutter. I officially accepted the Dragons on Fire’s challenge to de-clutter and get rid of 1000 items this year!

I’m off to a strong start, decluttering 11 items starting with hats and gloves on January 1st. Then I tackled shoes, purging a total of 15 pairs and keeping another 28 pairs. Pretty sure the boy has maybe 5… (2 tennis, 1 formal, 1 hiking/snow, 1 slippers).

It’s not fair, for girls we have so many different styles compared to dudes, and need all the styles in different colors too! (Flats, flip flops, running shoes, ankle boots, tall boots, heels, formal or casual, black and brown…) But it’s a start.

I’m also oh so happy to have my covey back! I missed these girls over break, and the pure jolt of joy when I find an egg. They had a great time on my friend’s farm, though one met a tragic end… the flock also accidentally expanded. Someone left a box with several quail, and the two groups were combined.

The person watching them kept a few, but I ended up coming home with 11 rather than 9, of which 9 or 10 are girls! So I’m not mad, that means oodles of eggs come spring time.

Food Total: $66.95

No produce box, deliveries resume next week. I also forgot to cancel the Butcher Box subscription, so that charge will show up next week, oopsie… At least their meat ‘meets’ my strict criteria! So the boy will get one treat night next week.

By the way, the deal they are running now is $25 for Alaskan wild salmon. If you use my affiliate link –> http://fbuy.me/lwpAj <– and sign up, we both get 2 pounds of wild salmon free! I would keep going for another box for that!

Meats	$7.08	Dairy	$7.06	Staples	$24.17	Fruit/Veg	$25.55
vegan burgers x2 kinds	7.08	flavored Greek	1.58	org salsa mild med	3.78	org avocados 4 x3	10.47
		plain Greek yogurt 32oz	3.49	coconut water can x2	1.96	frozen berries x2	3.84
		organic hummus 1.99	1.99	coconut water box x2	4.98	sweet potatoes x2 bags	3.38
				hot sauce	1.49	bananas 11	1.39
				organic seed bread x2	7.98	blueberries	1.99
				wraps x2	3.98	big box spring mix	3.49
						seedless cucumber	0.99

How about you guys? Did you have a learning week or an awesome week of wins?

Comfort food, Less than 5, Main Dishes, Pasta, Sneaky Healthy

Crispy Spinach Gnocchi with Sage Butter

October 10, 2018 BudgetEpicurean 7 Comments

Do you ever do “clean out the fridge” nights? If not you should think about doing it! Food waste is a very serious issue, and one way to prevent it is obviously to throw less food in the trash.

But if you don’t know what food you have, it can be very easy to forget about it until your produce liquefies or grows a weird-colored fuzzy coating of something you do not want to eat.

Clean out the fridge meals help prevent that!

Basically, just take a look in the fridge. Not just the shelves but also the doors and drawers. And then try to think of a way to use up those food items! Soups are always a good bet, as are casseroles, burritos, omelets, and more.

This one was inspired by 2 baked potatoes, and a half bag of getting-soft spinach. I went to Google for inspiration, as I usually do, and found this recipe for Potato Spinach Gnocchi. I’ve made my own gnocchi before, using both butternut squash and acorn squash, so I knew that veggies are easy to hide in the wonderful pillowy dumplings.

So I decided to add the spinach to create green gnocchi! Because why not. But I also decided to pan-fry rather than boil them, because I was craving a cripsy coating. You can stop at Step 1 and boil, but I’d recommend the frying route.

I also pared down the prep time by microwaving my spinach rather than steaming and draining, and had already cooked potatoes. If I didn’t I would have microwaved them too. All together, this can be on the table in less than 30 minutes!

Not only do these taste a bit like french fries, but they also count as a vegetable and are healthy for you! Win win. Top with whatever sauce you prefer and enjoy.

Ingredients:

2-3 baked potatoes
1 egg
~1 cup flour
~1 cup cooked spinach (fresh or frozen, fresh is about 3-4 cups packed that cooks down)
1 tbsp garlic or 2-3 cloves
Optional: 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

Sage Brown Butter

3-4 tbsp butter
Handful of sage leaves
Sea salt
Optional: black pepper, salsa, etc.

Step 1: I started with potatoes I baked the day prior, otherwise bake your potatoes in the oven or microwave. Similarly, if using frozen spinach, thaw it and squeeze out the water. I microwaved my fresh spinach for about 2 1/2 minutes with a cup of water next to it in the microwave.

You can do the mixing and mashing by hand, but I prefer my hand dandy food processor. Mix up the potato well, then add the spinach. Process until well combined. Add the garlic, Parmesan, and flour, and process until a thick dough forms.

Step 2: Using 2 teaspoons, scoop little balls of dough into a frying pan set to medium with olive or coconut oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes, flip, and fry on the other side. My pan held about half the dough, so I moved them to a paper towel covered plate while I cooked the other half.

Step 3: Optional – at this point you can enjoy your fried gnocchi with marinara, pesto, alfredo, or whatever sauce tickles your fancy. Since I have an abundance of sage right now, I made a sage brown butter sauce (like I used on my butternut squash ravioli).

Melt the butter in the pan. When barely bubbling, add the sage leaves, and fry for about 2 minutes, until crispy. Do not over cook or the butter will burn. I also tossed in a teaspoon of my Reaper salsa, for a little bite, and it was just enough.

Healthy, Main Dishes, Pasta, Sneaky Healthy, Vegetarian

Spring Green Creamy Gnocchi

April 16, 2017 BudgetEpicurean 2 Comments

This recipe was inspired by one I saw on Hello Fresh (look for a review coming soon!). If you haven’t heard of Hello Fresh, it is a meal kit delivery company. There are many others, like Blue Apron, Plated, Home Chef, Sun Basket, and oodles more.

The whole idea is they deliver the ingredients, perfectly portioned, with a step by step recipe page. All you have to do is pull out a box of ingredients and some cookware and enjoy the process. A friend of mine gave me one of the “free trial” 3-meal deals, so of course I tested them out.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience, but would not purchase it again because of how food and cooking works in my house. But I can definitely see the appeal for many people. One of the best things about the trial run is that I have access to their recipes now though, and there are some great ideas there!

As I was just browsing through the vegetarian section, this recipe caught my eye, because I had just bought asparagus and happened to have half a pound left. I also had some gnocchi in the pantry (from the Dollar Tree no less!). Thus, this recipe seemed perfect.

I switched up the seasonings a bit and swapped plain Greek yogurt for sour cream (one of my many sneaky healthy food swaps!) and it came out so delicious, the meat-eater loved it and even asked for seconds!

If you don’t have or don’t like a specific herb, that’s fine, try a different one. Use basil instead of rosemary, or try thyme, tarragon, or parsley. If you don’t like walnuts, what about almonds, or cashews, or pecans? Not a fan of asparagus? Well, you’re wrong, but that’s okay try bell peppers, kale, or zucchini.

Makes 4 ~1 cup servings.

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive or coconut oil
1/2 pound asparagus
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp crushed walnuts
1 pound gnocchi
1/3 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
2 garlic cloves, diced
Pinch of chopped rosemary
1 green onion, diced

Step 1: Boil the gnocchi for 5-7 minutes, until they begin to float in the water. Meanwhile, dice the asparagus, garlic, and herbs. Add the asparagus and peas to the boiling pot about 2 minutes before draining.

Step 2: Add the oil, garlic and onion to a pan and fry for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Drain the gnocchi and vegetables, add to the pan. Add the stock and mix 1 minute, and then turn off the heat and add the yogurt and walnuts. Mix well to form a creamy sauce.

That’s all there is to it! You don’t need much to create a creamy, tasty sauce that clings to the noodles and vegetables. The walnuts add just a bit of crunch and texture, and you can sprinkle some sea salt on top if you like. (I like).

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:69]

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Comfort food, Healthy, Less than 5, Main Dishes, Pasta, Sneaky Healthy, Vegetarian

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

February 2, 2016 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

During my whole January Freezer Month challenge (read how that went during weeks one, two, three, and four) I had used half of a decorative butternut squash to make butternut squash macaroni & cheese. This is one of my favorite fall & winter time meals, because it has all the creamy comfort of mac n cheese with an added boost of vitamins and fiber. It totally counts as a serving of vegetables!

But what I had discovered was that even a deceptively small-looking squash can create a ton of pulp!

This giant bowl of squash was half! Yes indeed. So, being the frugal epicurean chef I am, I decided this was not to go to waste. After searching the interwebs for inspiration, I had seen several options that were contenders, but in the end the winner was butternut squash gnocchi. It’s the sauce that sealed the deal, which I will tell you about in just a second.

For those who don’t know what gnocchi is or have never had them, go find your nearest authentic Italian restaurant and re-evaluate your life choices. Just kidding. Make this recipe instead!

Gnocchi are typically thick, soft dumplings that may be made from semolina, wheat flour, egg, cheese, potato, breadcrumbs, or similar ingredients. You basically make a thick pasta dough, and create chewy pillows from it. The most classic gnocchi shape is the oval with ridges, created in our grandmother’s day using fork tines. (Did you know the things that make a fork a fork are called tines? Now you know.)

Growing up in Youngstown Ohio, a city with some serious mafia ties (seriously, go read about it), we have some crazy good Italian restaurants. Thus I am well-versed in gnocchi. I’ve even taken a foray into gnocchi making previously, with acorn squash and potatoes. So I was fairly confident that this project would turn out well. And boy did it ever!

The process does take a little bit of time, I think it was just over an hour start-to-finish, and I had already-cooked squash to work with. So be sure you have about 2 hours prior to tackling this. But trust me, it is well worth it! My fiancee, who is allergic to vegetables, told me this was delicious and amazing and asked for seconds. He didn’t even believe me when I said there was squash in it.

The sauce is much easier, I just whipped it all up in my amazing Ninja blender (a Christmas gift from said fiancee) and simmered it on the stove to brown the butter. But I am convinced that the two flavors and textures are the magic that elevates this from “weeknight pasta” to “so good this could be Valentine’s Day dinner at a 5-star restaurant”. But at home.

But hey, I’m not gonna tell you what to top your gnocchi with. If you like marinara, go for it. If Alfredo is your thing, rock on. Shoot, if you want to eat your gnocchi naked, that’s fine with me. Just make sure the blinds are closed. 😉

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked, mashed butternut squash
4 1/2 cups flour plus extra
2 tbsp Italian seasonings
2 tsp nutmeg
Sprinkle of ground pepper and salt

Step 1: If you haven’t cooked your squash, do that first. Go ahead I’ll wait. Bake it, microwave it, steam it, whatever. Then mash it up.

Step 2: Mix your cooked, mashed squash in a large bowl with the other ingredients. Add seasoning to taste, so if you want it heavy on the spices, do it, or go nuts and add cinnamon. Get your hands all up in that squishy dough mess and mix it up nice. Add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time as needed, until the dough just barely still sticks to your hand.

Step 3: Separate out about 3 cups of dough, and turn out onto a floured surface. Pinch off a good handful, and roll it into a log. Cut the log into 1/2 – 1 inch squares. Each individual piece will be one noodle/dumpling/gnocchi. If you’re feeling fancy, go ahead and roll each gnocchi over the tines of a fork to create ridges. (I recommend this step mostly because the ridges create a nice place for the sauce to stick to!)

Step 4: Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. (Here’s a secret tip: I actually used chicken broth to boil the noodles, for extra flavor and because I like bone broth). Boil the gnocchi for about 10 minutes, until they float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Step 5: Top your gnocchi with sauce or topping of choice, and then watch whoever is eating this oooh and ahhh. Including yourself. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back too, that’s step 6.

And if you are just dying for the sauce recipe I used, don’t worry I won’t tease you and leave you waiting. Oh wait. Yup, you have to wait until Thursday’s post. It will be worth it I promise.

Oh, and did I mention this makes a crap ton? This recipe made me about 7 dozen gnocchi total, so I ended up freezing about half. Just lay them out in one layer in the fridge for 1 hour to overnight, then pop in a freezer bag or container and they will keep for about 6 months. So one day’s hard work equals one amazing meal now, and another amazing meal sometime later. Jackpot.

Budget Epicurean