baked pasta with rapini and shitaki

As I was perusing the Food Network for research, I came across an Ina Garten recipe for baked pasta. She used 6 T of butter, 3 c of cream and several different varieties of cheeses. Except for the quantity of fat and cholesterol, the dish sounded good. Veganizing it was easy and cutting the fat was a breeze. The dish doesn't really look that photogenic, but it is fabulous! Crunchy on the top because the pasta was baked for 10 minutes, but creamy on the inside. So good.

 I subbed whole wheat pasta for the macaroni, used rapini instead of radicchio as well as switching everything out but the sage and shitaki. The kids thought the rapini was too bitter (nothing new there), although ate pretty much everything else. Whatever wasn't eaten by the kids was taken care of by David who volunteered to be the human food-disposal tonight.

Cost Breakdown:

cashews and Earth Balance: $2

rapini: $3

shitaki: $3

pasta: $3

sage: $1

nutritional yeast, Follow/Heart, Daiya: $4

Total to feed a family of 5 + Dad's lunch:

$16.00

(Food TV recipes tend to be expensive, it seems.)

hot and sour soup with bok choi

  Mikel needed to make something quick today. He likes Chinese Hot and Sour Soup and we haven't had much luck finding a recipe he liked; none were like he's had in restaurants. Although we had tried and failed a few times in the past - too complicated, too sour, didn't have all the ingredients, etc. - it did supply the much needed experience to go from making it so-so, to finally making it exceptional. It was ready in a jiffy and it was tasty. All good.

Cost Breakdown:

1 oz shitaki mushrooms: $1.50

1/2 package baked tofu: $2

onion, garlic, ginger, vinegar, green onion: $2

bok choi (CSA): $2.50 

Total to feed a family of 5:
$7.00