Culinary Throwdown!

7.10.2009

The Troll is sponsoring a monthly culinary throwdown. this time it is "obamanation meals". This challenge involves feeding a family with very little money and still delivering essential nutrition; a critical consideration since you will need to do everything you can to prevent disease or sickness because your health care options will be nada very soon. i think the future will be like in Logans Run you get a certain age (i.e. no longer able work hard enough to give the State 80% of your income) and you'll just go into a box and get vaporized. your survivors will receive a tax credit if you do.

I thought, whats more cost effective than walking out to my garden and finding whatever's ripe and ready, sauteing it up and serving it with a local trout filet which can be had for about a buck fifty. but in all honesty? each baby squash and tomato costs about $20 when i consider the money i have spent on tilling, and compost and mulch and organic soaps and sticks and cages and fences and fungicides and seeds and tools and fertilizer and my precious time.

while i admired my "lemon ice" sunflowers and marveled at the sacred geometry at its center (fingerprint of the Creator) i thought: creamed tuna! seems a natural progression does it not?

this was a meal my mom made when we were kids and it was a favorite of my brothers and mine. it is very cost effective and it tastes great. so here goes.

you need: bread, chunk light tuna -not albacore!, milk, butter, flour, onions, carrots, broccoli, eggs, and an open mind. hard boil the eggs and set them aside to cool.

cut the veggies up small. put a couple of spoonfuls of butter in a skillet and saute the onions, broccoli and carrots all at once. if you are cooking for children you want the veggies to be soft not crisp. when everythings cooked down, get a spoonful of flour and sprinkle it over the veggies and stir. i dont know how much flour but not too much. just enough to lightly coat the veggies. now add milk all at once. i dont know how much you'll know when because you want it to not be thick or too runny.

meanwhile, put the bread in the toaster or oven to make "toast points". i like the Pepperidge Farm Very Thin wheat for this. but while you are making the toast don't let the veggie sauce get too thick! now that the toast is in the oven add the tuna to the veggie mix and add more milk if you need to. you want this to pour over the toast.

lay the toast points out. you need them to be a bit crisp so they hold up under the creamed tuna. slice the boiled egg and add to tuna and pour or spoon over tuna. i messed up and mine got too thick, hence the addition of the word "spoon" but trust me, when my MOM made this it rocked. and looked better than this:

wow. this doesnt look that good, does it? it tasted good though. you get the savory tuna infused with buttery goodness, the carrots add a hint of sweetness, the egg offers extra protein and the broccoli adds color and vitamins. add a simple green salad and a glass of sweetened sun tea you made earlier in the day. (extra Obama points!! no energy used to heat water for tea!) Serve it on a kitcshy farmy tablecloth on nice china and it tastes a bit better.

For dessert, open freezer and take out pint of chocolate chocolate chip haagen daaz ice cream that you bought with the money you saved on meat. set it on the counter to soften. stroll back out to the yard and admire the "chianti" sunflower that bloomed today. when you come back in, the ice cream will be ready. enjoy!

17 comments:

  1. I just love your sunflowers, especially the 'lemon ice'flower.

    This is a great economical dish and it also goes a long way with rice...I sometimes add corn or celery if I have it and some grated cheese or leave out the cheese and add a teaspoon of curry powder at the start when sauteeing the vegetables...makes a nice cheap creamy curry.

    I would have some lemon sorbet for dessert. ♡

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  2. Excellent economical entree. Mama Troll used to make something kind of similar and we had NO CLUE it was a budget thing.

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  3. chianti, pls. love that sunflower.

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  4. I have wild raspberries in my yard for the ice cream and they are just popping out big and fat right now and the best part is...we don't tend them at all. They just is.

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  5. This looks delicious. We eat a lot of tuna (not albacore!), so I'm going to make this ASAP. Love the old timey looking table setting, too. So sweet!

    (P.S. Look for a health care post coming soon. Guaranteed to piss off 99.99 percent of readers, but boy, am I SICK OF IT.)

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  6. I think you've missed your calling - you could write for a food magazine. We used to make tuna casserole as a kid; tuna, noodles and white sauce. I loved it and also had no idea it was budget food. The flowers are beautiful and you made a good point about the cost of organic foods.

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  7. hello aunty!

    Mmmm I'm going to totally make this sometime!

    I hope you are well! Love you bunches.

    Edith

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  8. What? I think this looks really yummy. But then I love all things tuna. :) I had to laugh about the cost of your homegrown veggies. I think the only thing I save money on is tomatoes, because for some reason, they grow like weeds around here. Thanks for sharing the recipe! :)

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  9. That looks great. Some sliced tomatoes would really go with it. Like Boxer, I had a lot of tuna casserole when I was growing up. In college my room mate use to make tune and cream of mushroom soup in a hot pot. When you have the munchies you'll eat anything.

    And your right about the expense of a garden. I tried to tell the Mrs that the free garden probably ended up costing $300 with the fencing and stakes and weed cover, etc. $300 would have gone a long way at the local Produce Junction.

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  10. Loved this post ! and the sunflowers are gorgeous.

    When I was a kid we would have creamed peas on toast (frozen peas or fresh peas never ever canned), with hard boiled eggs chopped up and added for protein. We love Obama up here to your North and we're SO used to Obamanation politics 'cause ... Canada's peppered with crazy socialists'. Can you say free health care, employment insurance, day care and the like ?

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  11. Aw....that is the dearest chicken tablecloth!

    Yummy--we ate (et?) plenty of tuna on toast at mah house too. Sometime Mama made that whole thing ya done described (minus the broccoli,) then stirred in cooked macaroni, poured the creamy tuna / mac into a buttered casserole and topped wif crushed saltines and grated parm , baked until bubbly--we never ever knowed it were poor folks' food.

    That chiati sunflower is a beauty!!

    But, c'mon! Hagan Das? That ain't budget ice cream, Chick-pup.

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  12. I never liked tuna. But I am imagining the same recipe with other fish. When I do, this sounds pretty good.

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  13. i loves sunflowers ..
    never done seen me no pink one though .. ;)
    and i'm coming over to have me some of that there on your table rightaway ...

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  14. Guess what I just made (and enjoyed) for my Sunday Supper ? Uh Huh ! Creamed tuna with veggies (cauliflower, onions, green & red peppers and frozen green peas - 'cause I put green peas in everything) followed chickory's detailed instructions placed creamy tuna veggie medley on imported Italian egg noodles. Yum - a dash of Parmegiano Reggiano, freshly ground pepper. Uh Huh ! Now I'm having a bowl of French Vanilla ice cream topped with fresh local strawberries. Merci Chickory ! kisses to Trout from Miss Dee

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  15. Looks delish!

    The flowers are simply gorgeous!
    Well done!

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  16. looking forward to swapping peach cobbler recipes with you, chicko

    loved the Thoreau photos, too.
    abg

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