Paul Deen is coming out with a clothing line. I had to stop using Deen’s recipes because I stopped fitting into my old clothing. Now vegan recipes from Tofu Guru on You Tube and modified recipes Food Network‘s Giada Laurentis, Robert Irvine and Sandra Lee have helped me slim back down.

It is possible to use quality ingredients, even organically-grown items, on a budget. On Halloween weekend, I had an early Thanksgiving with my husband’s side of the family. I made baked pumpkin pasta and pumpkin trifle for less than $7 per person.

I hear you. I know you can do better. Please comment and direct me to recipes that cost even less.

I modified three foodnetwork recipes to create this main dish and dessert. I shopped at Trader Joes, BevMo and Ralphs for the list of ingredients.

Baked Pumpkin Pasta
Ingredients:
1 package penne pasta $.99 per package
1 can organic pureed pumpkin $.99 per can
3 TB heavy cream
3 TB olive oil
granulated dehyrated onions
1/4 tsp crushed garlic
1 pound of uncooked sweet chicken sausage (casings removed) $3.99 per pound
2 TB dried basil
3 TB dried parsley
1 TB powdered cloves
1 package of Lite shredded mozarella
5 TB powdered parmesan cheese
1 jar tomato basil spaghetti sauce $1.49 per jar
1 cup of red wine–Syrah from Shiloh Road $9 per bottle during BevMo 5-cent sale

Serves 6
Time: 1 hr 20 minutes
Directions
1. You can choose to use two stove burners at once or boil the pasta first and then cook the sauce. Boil the pasta as directed but undercook by two minutes. Do not drain. Let the penne sit in its water while you prepare the sauce.
2. Remove the casings from the sausage. Saute raw sausage with olive oil, garlic and onion. Break up the sausage with a wooden spatula. Add herbs. Cook until no longer pink for about 15 minutes on high.
3. Turn down the heat to medium. Add tomato sauce and pumpkin puree. Add cloves and 1 cup of red wine. Stir so that tomato, pumpkin and meat are combined. Cover with lid and turn down heat to simmer.
4. Line oven-save casserole dish with parchment paper. Ladle  half of the meat sauce as first layer. Add a layer of drained pasta directly from pot as the second layer. Add half the mozzarella as the third layer. Repeat. Sprinkle top with extra herbs if desired.
5. Broil in oven on high until cheese melts slightly. Mixture will be hot because you just cooked the pasta and sauce. 5 minutes.

Serve with red wine.

Notes: Lite-mozzarella made with skim milk has a texture closer to elastic. Be warned. However, you might not mind.
Tip for Low-Sodium Dieters: This is not a low-carb or low-sodium recipe. You can reduce the sodium by making your own tomato sauce instead of using canned. You can also slash salt by using ground meat instead of sausage. Reduce the amount of parmesan by half for lower sodium too.
Tip for Vegans: Substituting soy cheese and tofu raises the price to $14 per serving.
Tip for Gluten-free Dieters: You can use brown rice pasta if you require a gluten-free dish. However, the texture of the noodles will have a different bite.
Tip for Vegetarians: You can also swap out the meat and rely on cheese for protein if you want a vegetarian dish; for this, I recommend adding sauteed sliced zuccini, mushrooms and matchstick carrots.
Tip for Low-Carb Followers: You can use layers of vegetables instead of pasta for this dish.

Pumpkin Pudding

1 package of vanilla pudding
2 cups of heavy cream
1 can of organic pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground ginger
1 TB ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Gingerbread Cake cubes
1 cup boiling hot water mixed with 1 tsp of baking soda
2 cups molasses
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 can organic pumpkin puree
4 TB ground cinnamon
2 TB ground ginger
1 TB ground cloves
1 cup canola oil
2 cups chocolate chips
12 store bought ginger snaps
optional whipped cream or butterscotch chips

Line 2 8×8″ oven safe cake pans with parchment. Pour batter. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.
Cool and cube cake pieces.

Pumpkin Trifle
Use individual dessert glasses or one large trifle bowl for presentation. Alternate layers of pudding, cake cubes and crushed ginger snaps. Top with butterscotch chips or whipped cream.

Note:
Tips for Low-Fat modifications: You can switch to a lower-fat dessert by using milk instead of heavy cream. However, the texture of the pudding will be looser. I wish I had a solution to make this lactose-free but I don’t.
Time-saving tip: Save time by skipping the cake cubes. Use the store bought gingersnaps and pudding only. For diabetics: For less sugar, skip the chocolate and butterscotch chips; also use, sugar free pudding mix.

What do Cary Grant and Benjamin Cottrell have in common? A sense of style. I know. I know. Cary Grant had a stylist. I don’t know if Benjamin Cottrell hires a professional interior designer to decorate his 900 square foot apartment. Have you seen it? Apartment Therapy took a house tour of Cottrell’s bachelor pad and I felt jealous. Benjamin Cottrell and Cary Grant come to mind because this week at work I studied men’s decor, specifically DIY bachelor pads. The Chicago Tribune says that men fail miserably at decorating with adequate lighting for their apartment but that’s for another blog post.

Back to mod, glam and masculine! First of all, I love unisex living spaces. Second, of all, mod glam masculine decor really impresses me! Why? Because it’s incredibly hard to do. And when I was a teen, I wanted to be whisked away by David Bowie as the Goblin King. Maybe it is similar to the current teen obsession with sparkling vampires and tanned, shirtless werewolves.

David Bowie played King Jareth in the movie Labyrinth. Instead of kidnapping a baby boy and enticing a young woman to be his queen, the Goblin King should have kidnapped an interior design team. I liked his wardrobe but he lived among cobwebs, crumbling M.C. Escher buildings and oubliettes! Not really a place to entertain humans.

Happy Halloween!

Chicken has been nearly $7 per pound for the past three weeks at Ralphs. I’m guessing that my neighbors in Santa Monica must make a run for the eggs when this happens. When the price of meat is high, I’ve noticed that the grocery chain’s egg case looks like it has been attacked by poultry zombies. Cartons are scrunched and eggs are cracked.

Pineapple Fried Rice image from Creative Commons

So I am relying on canned chunk chicken breast that I bought from Costco four months ago. When I became tired of Waldorf salad with sliced Fuji or Gala apples and chicken, I turned to something Thai-inspired. That sounds way better then poverty-necessitated.  Don’t worry! We are all in the same mess.

So here is something that can stink up the office microwave for your lunch:

12.5 oz canned chunk chicken
1 TB granulated dried onions
2 TB curry powder
1 TB canola oil
1 can of pineapple chunks minus the syrup or juice
1 can of stewed tomatoes
3 splashes of Terriyaki soy
2 cups pre-cooked long grain white rice

Add the fully-cooked chicken chunks and onions in a large saute pan with the vegetable oil. Fry items together. Add curry powder to the oil and pour in the rice. Add the pineapple. Make sure burner is on high and you have a spatula handy to stir-fry the rice and meat mixture. For vegans, you can substitute the protein with tofu. If you are vegetarian but eat eggs and fish, you can use scrambled eggs but I do not recommend fish for this recipe. Pour the stewed tomatoes and soy. Combine. Cover with a lid and let it simmer until the sauce becomes absorbed by the rice and the rice becomes an attractive curry yellow-orange. Approx. 15 minutes

Serves 3 people
Estimated cost of ingredients: $13 with canned chicken, $11 with eggs, or $15 with tofu
Caution: This is not for those on a low-carb or low-sodium diet