sausage-style beans with grilled green beans

Continental

I have been craving mashed potatoes topped with Italian Sausage drenched with a flavorful sauce. Since I didn't want to use seitan or soy again, although Tofurkey makes a great Italian Sausage, I needed to get the flavor of Italian sausage in some other way. I chose beans since we haven't had our weekly quota of legumes. I seasoned the beans with ground fennel seeds, crushed chili, Hungarian paprika and garlic. I added a chopped tomato to help get some sauciness into the beans and splashed on some balsamic vinegar for a tang.

I served it over mashed potatoes and topped it with grilled green beans cooked crisp-tender. I infused some olive oil with garlic, chili flakes and fennel seeds, and used the oil for the green beans and I stirred the strained solids into my mashed potatoes.

So, I achieved what I set out to do - infuse the flavor of Italian sausage into my beans, achieved wonderful texture and grilled flavor with the green beans and got my creamy mashed potatoes to tie everything together.

Nice.

Cost Breakdown:

3# potatoes: $3.50

almond milk, olive oil, garlic, spices: $2

beans: $2

tomato, green beans, onion: $3

Total to feed a family of 5:

$10.50

  

spinach and mushroom strata

Brunch

I made this recipe on May 1. It is from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. I have been a fan of Robin's books since the first one I picked up way back when - Vegan Planet.

Back to the recipe: It says it makes 6 servings, but after I assembled it, I knew this would be too much for my family and I didn't picture this as all that popular as a leftover. So, I put it into two square cake pans and froze one. I grabbed it out of the freezer today and put it in the toasted oven - more welcome during the summer, and baked it for a little over an hour.

It turned out just as good as the first time and I didn't have to lift a finger. My kind of brunch.

The dish has spinach, mushrooms, onion, tofu, a little cheese and cubed bread.

Cost Breakdown:

onion, garlic, mushroom: $2

spinach: $2

tofu: $2

bread: $2

cheese: $2

Total to make 6 servings as written:

$10.00