Growing Dinner

Store bought basil with cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, and bell peppers.

We posted a while ago about how we were attempting to grow herbs, tomatoes and peppers on Rich's balcony. Well, we started to fail at gardening. Turns out we were using the wrong kind of soil, which in potted balcony gardening is pretty crucial. We remedied that, buying nice Miracle Grow soil, and repotting.

They were much more red in real life. My cell phone camera sucks.

And BOOM! Growth. Except we gave up on the herbs... maybe in the fall we'll plant winter herbs.

JALAPEÑOS!

The tomato plant has been the most successful with the jalapeño pepper plant not far behind it (poor bell pepper plant had a rough childhood and hasn't flourished quite as well in its new environment). So we decided a harvest was in order!

They were still warm from the afternoon sun.

Over the weekend we made orzo with sun dried tomatoes and garnished the dish with the cherry tomatoes we grew! Hooray! If you have any possibility of growing your own tomatoes I cannot recommend it enough. Home grown tomatoes taste a million times better than any organic tomato you'll find in any grocery store. If you can't grow your own (I live in an apartment and I'm growing some, so really anyone can) try to buy some at a farmer's market. Good tomatoes are so worth it. I swear you can taste the sun.

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Gnocchi with mozzarella, basil and tomatoes

It's like pasta but with potatoes.

This is one of the easiest, fastest and cheapest meals and it's hearty and satisfying. Gnocchi are little potato balls that work like pasta and are as versatile as pasta. You could literally put anything on them and it'll be great. I like to keep it somewhat simple because the gnocchi tastes really good by itself.

Ingredients:

Gnocchi

Grape tomatoes

Mozzarella

Basil

Olive oil, balsamic vinegar

Step 1: Boil the gnocchi. Takes about as long as pasta, like 10 minutes or so. When the gnocchi rises to the surface, boil for two more minutes.

 They have risen!

Take the two minutes to shred the cheese and prepare the basil. Drain the gnocchi and put everything together with a small bit of olive oil and an even smaller bit of balsamic vinegar. Fee free to sprinkle with salt and pepper if you want, but we didn't.

Enjoy! A very italian dinner with all the right colors. This can even be gluten free if you find gnocchi that isn't packaged with wheat flour (to keep the potato balls from sticking together). You can also make a mini caprese salad appetizer with the same ingredients.

Total cost: ~$7 (feeds 2-4)

Total cook time: 10 minutes

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Pasta with Eggplant and Asparagus

So, this is pretty basic pasta dish but when you pair it with a vodka sauce it's fucking fantastic. Chunky, flavorful, healthy and very filling and the ingredients are so cheap and the dish lasts a couple of fat kids a few meals.

Ingredients:

Fusili pasta

Vodka sauce

Eggplant

Asparagus

Seasonings

Cheese

We go through this stuff.

Olive oil is going to be the tie-in ingredient. Cook the veggies in it and use it to keep the pasta from clumping together. I'm a big fan of this Spanish oil from Trader Joe's but any extra virgin olive oil will be good. Olive oil is classified in terms of virginity: extra virgin is the very first press of oil from the olives and is great for tasting (drizzled over veggies, in salads) while regular olive oil is not the first press and can be used for cooking. I only buy extra virgin, partially because I really like the taste and partially because I don't have room in my kitchen for a bunch of different cooking oils. But I seriously recommend finding one you like the taste of and using it in everything.

Meaty eggplant

Chop your veggies! Cube eggplant into bite sized pieces and cut the asparagus into half inch sized sticks. Season and layer loosely in a pan on medium heat with a thin layer of olive oil. 

 Adds the crunch

I used to never be a big fan of asparagus but recently I've been in love with it. When it's fresh like this it's so tasty.

Cook the eggplant first to let the seasonings (your basic pepper, garlic, basil, whatever else you like) sink in. Wait until the eggplant is just about done before putting in the asparagus. Limp asparagus sucks.

 Big ol' pot of pasta!

Boil water and cook your pasta! I said fusili because I like the spirals, but you could really use any pasta. Fusili will look the prettiest though. Drain the pasta once it's done to your liking and pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and stir to keep the pasta pieces from sticking together.

Add the vodka sauce to the veggie mix in the pan. Simmer on low for 10-15 minutes to let the flavors soak together. This will also finish cooking the asparagus.

Nom!

Put it all together and top with cheese! Mozzarella, parmesan or whatever you want. I had the idea to add a can of diced tomatoes to the mix but forgot, so you could do that. This is a pretty decent way to get your carbs in, but it's also way healthy.

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Tuna Casserole

Warm and gooey deliciousness!

Rich makes the ultimate comfort food: tuna casserole. Loaded with tuna and cheesy goodness and perfect for an after work weeknight or cold weekend. Or really any time. Because how delicious does this look? Pretty darn delicious.

Ingredients:

Pasta shells

Tuna

Corn

Cream of mushroom soup

Cheese

Step 1. Not so hard, right?

Boil the pasta shells. You don't have to use shells, but don't they look fun? Plus they fit on forks quite nicely.

They really do look fun.

Drain the shells and run them under cold water to stop the cooking process. You'll be baking them so you don't want them to overcook and get soggy.

 It's only good cause of the cream of mushroom.

Mix the shells with a can of cream of mushroom soup, a cup of corn and 2-4 cans of tuna (depending on how meaty you want it...).

 Cheeeeeeeeese.

Top the thing with cheese and pop it in the oven! Bake it really hot, at like 400 degrees, because you just want the cheese to get bubbly and crispy, not overcook the pasta. Leave it in for about 20 minutes, or as long as it takes to get the level of cheesyness that you want.

Devour!

We made this in a 8x8 pan for us two and it fed us fat kids twice (very generous portions both times). You could make this in a 13x9 pan for a family or company with 4 cans of tuna and 2 cans of cream of mushroom.

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