#three spoons

[lowspoonsgourmet]

(3-4 Spoons) Double Use Recipe: Tuna Croquette and Tuna Wrap

So I really wanted to make THIS recipe but it seemed really complicated for a spoonie so I made a Spoonie friendly version of it!! Tuna Croquette The more you make the more spoons it will take to make it ive found because of the mixing and amount of cooking All the ingredients are based around using ONE 2.6 package of tuna so if you want to make more you can but you will have to adjust accordingly) Ingredients:

Packaged Tuna or drained canned Tuna (the pre-drained kind is easier for me to handle i’ve found)

Dash of lemon juice

Small handful of breadcrumbs (you can probably take these out if you really needed to but you would have to add less wet ingredients to make up for it.)

2 small squirts of yellow mustard

Shredded Mozzarella cheese (optional)

Seasonings: Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Salt, Pepper, Lemon Pepper if you have any. Season or dont season to taste

Prepare: Put all ingredients in a bowl (or you could use the package the tuna comes in and you wont have dishes!)  and mix. You are aiming for a paste like consistency thats thick and clings to the spoon but will fall off lightly with touch.  After mixed put it in the fridge to chill slightly. This makes it a bit more firm ive found but you could skip this step heat up a pan with some nonstick spray on the bottom (or any sort of fat like butter or oil) and with a spoon scoop out small amounts of the mix. If i squish them against the side of a small mixing bowl ive found i can make patties instead of using my hands Place patties in pan and cook until a small crisp browness comes to each side this may be less apparent if you didnt use bread so in that case heat until more firm and hot At the last minute i like to sprinkle some cheese on one side and let it melt slightly into the croquette but this could also be skipped for less spoons Tuna Wraps

Follow the above directions using the same ingredients up until cooking them. Instead of cooking them smear the cold mix on a flour tortilla and wrap accordingly. If making wraps you may want to take out the breadcrumbs bc double starch. But you could leave it in if you want. 

[lowspoonsgourmet]

10 minute 2 or 3 spoon Tuna Salad

What you’ll need

1 medium-sized tupperware or other resealable bowl

1 fork

1 spoon

can opener (if you have the type of can without a pull-tab)

1-3 cans of your preferred meat (I switch between chicken, ham, turkey, and tuna)

Mayo (whatever kind you have on hand – this DOES work with goVegan mayo)

Relish

Whatever spices you generally like (For me that’s dry dill, salt, pepper, cayenne, and dried parsley flakes, but whatever you have handy / can handle is totes fine)

Yields: 1-4 sandwiches or wraps, depending on how many cans of meat you use.  Can be refrigerated for up to 7 days.

How to make it:

Put your choice of meat in the bowl.

Add mayo – approximately a quarter of a cup, but if you eye ball 3 large spoonfuls, it’ll be pretty close

Use the fork to add a generous scoop of relish (I use 2 big scoops if I’m using 3 cans of meat)

Add your herbs and spices

Using the relish fork, mash it all together.  The meat may take a bit of time to mash, but be patient with yourself and it’ll get there.

Add mayo if it seems to be too coarse

Spread on toast, bread or on a wrap, and enjoy!  This is a good one to have on hand if you’ve got lunches to pack or you know that you’re coming up on a low-spoon week, because it keeps really well in the fridge and when all is said and done, you’ve only got 4 things to actually wash.  (Fork, spoon, tupperware bowl, tupperware lid)

Enjoy!

ace-of-swords

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Meal Idea:  Sausages and Pierogies. For the low spoons version of this meal you want pre-cooked sausages and frozen pierogis.  What is a pierogi? A pierogi is a semi-circle shaped piece of pasta - about as large as the palm of a hand (a bit smaller). It’s stuffed - usually with potatoes and sometimes other ingredients are included with the potato filling. Cheese is common. Pre-made ones are available in the freezer section of most grocery stores. They’re quite cheap for the amount of food.  Frozen pierogies can be heated by boiling them (not my favorite), stir-frying them, or baking them in the oven. There’s probably a way to successfully microwave them but I am not familiar with it. If you cook pierogies in the oven you will need to spray them with some sort of oil-spray (e.g. PAM, or I just use spray-on olive oil) A common accompaniment to pierogies is sour cream - though I personally rarely eat them with it and find them fine that way.  I think most folks will know what sausages there are - but varieties of sausage are really diverse! I want to talk about some that you might encounter at the store. The sort of sausage you want to use for this meal is the ‘link’ type. Breakfast sausages can be OK with this, but, a more substantial variety is usually better.  A few common types of sausages are: Kielbasa - not a spicy sausage. Nice and meaty. Kind of a smoky flavor. Smooth texture. Chorizo - mildly spicy sausage. Very flavorful. Made from pork. Andouille - quite spicy sausage. Made from pork. Thicker texture. In addition to these types there are a variety of what I’ll call “artisan sausages” that describe themselves by their filling: e.g. chicken-and-apple-sausages. These varieties can get a little pricey if you’re looking to stay super-cheap. If you’re conscious of the price though you can even use hot-dogs for this. Just fry them in the pan, grill them, or boil them like you would the above kinds of sausages. Preparation of this meal consists of heating the sausages and the pierogies. You can heat the sausages by boiling, pan frying, or grilling. I prefer pan frying. You simply place the sausages in a frying pan with a small amount of oil and heat until you have the desired level of skin crisping. As mentioned above you can heat the pierogies in a variety of ways that the package will detail. When making pierogies and sausages you can A) cook the pierogies and sausages in different heat sources or B) cook them together in the same pan. Cooking in the same pan creates less clean-up. I prefer to bake my pierogies in the oven while frying the sausages - if the pierogies are cooked on top of aluminium foil on the cookie sheet there is minimal extra cleanup, and when I try to fry the pierogies and sausages together I inevitably end up burning the pierogies. YMMV.  If you want to add vegetables to the meal - sliced peppers, onions, and mushrooms all make good accompaniments. Just fry them with the sausage* (or grill them, if you’re grilling. kebobs can be good for grilling vegetables, or simply wrap them in aluminium foil). With onions you might want to put them in before the sausage so they can caramelize. Mushrooms however should probably be added near the end of the cooking to avoid burning them. *If you are boiling your sausage I’d recommend pan-frying the vegetables. I personally would rate this meal 3-5 spoons depending on the heating methods used and how many items are being cooked together (to minimize clean-up).

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Eggs and Oats

This is a really simple way to cook a more substantial oatmeal. I sometimes get home from work and I have no energy left to cook, but just making oatmeal won’t be enough to keep me full for the rest of the day. I came up with this to add more heft to it. You need:

½ cup oatmeal (any kind, but the consistency will be rougher if you use non-instant)

2 eggs (or one egg and two egg whites)

¼ cup of milk (I usually just slosh a bit in to avoid the pain of measuring)

salt

(optional) spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, or nutmeg.

(optional) honey or brown sugar for sweetness

Put a frying on the stove and turn it to medium low. If you have some, grease the pan with a little butter for easier cleanup. Then add the oatmeal, eggs, and milk. Stir to combine. Add a shake of salt, and a shake of whatever spices you’re using. Stir it all together. Let it cook (you don’t have to stir it constantly, I sometimes wander off. Just make sure you come back to stir/check on it every minute or so). Then, after like 5 minutes it should all be combined and look oatmeal-y, any egg bits should be totally opaque, and it just looks generally done. Take it off the stove and put it into whatever you’re eating out of. Put brown sugar or honey on top for sweetness. The most energy-consuming part of this recipe is honestly cleaning the pan afterwards, so put it in the sink to start soaking once you’ve gotten the food out. Then, dig in!

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Soup and Potatoes (3-4 spoons)

I tried something that was mentioned on LSF a while ago and it worked really well so I thought I should say it here so people don’t have to go back to that blog and look for it!! I wish I could say who submitted it originally, but I don’t have any idea who it was. I’m sorry!

Prep time: 5-10 minutes??? How fast can You boil water Cook time: ~25 minutes, according to my box of potatoes

Anyway, Ingredients: -a box of au gratin potatoes –> requires water, milk, and butter or margarine, quantities of which should be listed on the box –> requires the operation of an oven -a can of condensed soup –> requires water for uncondensing

And then all you have to do is prepare the potatoes and soup according to their respective instructions! The potatoes require stirring to combine everything in an ovensafe vessel, but only for like a minute or so to melt the butter, and you could even do that in the microwave beforehand if you wanted to! The soup also requires a bit of stirring, but even less than the potatoes – just enough to know that the stock has combined with the added water! This, of course, can be done after the soup has been heated (as opposed to while it’s heating) if you used the microwave!

When they’re both warm and ready, you can just throw them in the same pot together and enjoy! I put mine in a different bowl, but if you’re careful I’m sure you can just eat it right out of the ovensafe vessel you used for the potatoes.

It’s really filling (I can’t finish it all despite not really having eaten all day), and very, very cheap! The box of potatoes was I think .79 american, and Campbell’s soup usually runs 10 for 10, I think. I’m on mobile so it appears that I can’t tag for spoons, but I think I’m remembering the scale correctly enough for this to be accurate!

I don’t recommend using a cream-based soup, of course, since the potatoes are basically mac and cheese with a root instead of a noodle, but otherwise you can and should use any soup you think this would work with! Personally, I think most soups could use more cheese – but on the other hand I think most of anything could use more cheese. Also, this is probably pretty high in sodium! Condensed soup is basically a Festival Of Salt, so be careful if that’s a problem for you!

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Tilapia with fruit salsa

Not sure how many spoons this takes for others, but for me it’s like 2 as long as I don’t have to clean a pan. My wife came up with this recipe and made it in the toaster oven.

Ingredients: 4 or 5 tilapia fillets 1 jar of fruit salsa Olive oil or cooking spray Foil Foil pan

Heat the oven to 350 to 375. Oil or spray the pan. I buy my tilapia frozen, so I just cut open the little individual packets and slide the fillets into a pan. Once I fill the pan in one layer, I open the jar and dump it over the fish. I usually put some water in the jar to get out all the salsa and add that for moisture. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Check the fish then. It might need more time if you have thick frozen fillets.

You can eat this by itself really, or with some salad greens from a bag, or some heat and eat rice or quinoa, or tortillas. It’s nice because it seems fancy, has protein, makes leftovers, and you can switch it up with different salsas or sides. I get everything at Aldi and it’s pretty affordable as well.

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Easy crockpot pork

This is one of my favorites because I barely have to do anything and it’s a good amount of protein, plus I’m a sucker for anything barbecue flavored.

Ingredients: 1 lb pork tenderloins (no bone= less mess and these are usually cheap) I freeze mine in bags until i need it 1 20oz bottle rootbeer or Dr pepper type soda Your favorite BBQ sauce Optional: chopped onions and a few spoonfuls of brown sugar. Tastes great without but I love onions and sweetness. Some stores carry little containers of prechopped onion that are great for this.

Put a crockpot liner in your crockpot, your lack of dishes will thank me later. If using onion, add half now, put in half the pork, add the second bit of onions, the optional brown sugar, and the rest of the pork. Pour in the soda, put it on low for 6-6-8 hours. If you forget and it’s in an extra hour or two, it’ll still be fine. When done, remove it and either eat as is or shred in a bowl to add sauce. What I really like is that it is so tender, shredding is really just mashing with a big utensil like a wooden spoon.

I usually add a sweet potato on the side, which is literally 1 sweet potato stabbed on top a few times and put on a pan in the oven at 400 for ~45min. Boom, done, southern food craving satisfied.

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Easy Peanut Rice Curry

Spoons: 2 if rice premade, 3-4 if not

Vegan: Yes

Gluten-free: Yes

Allergens: Peanuts/tree nuts, rice

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

~¾ C cooked rice (white/brown doesn’t matter)

2 spoonfuls peanut or other nut/seed butter (pref. chunky peanut butter)

1 pat butter or margarine, or 1-2 tsp oil of your choice, can omit if your rice was already cooked with some sort of oil

Salt, seasoned salt, and/or curry spices to taste

Put the rice, nut butter, and butter/margarine/oil in a microwave-safe bowl or tupperware and microwave on high for 90 seconds or until any solid oils, if used, are melted.  Remove from microwave, add salt and spices, and stir.  The whole process takes about 5 minutes, and you can sit while the microwave is running and while you’re adding the spices and stirring.

If you don’t have curry powder or seasoned salt, a good combo that I like is cumin (3-4 “shakes”), garlic powder (1 shake, can substitute with asafoetida), ginger (1-2 shakes), and pepper or cayenne (several grinder twists or a tiny bit, respectively), and a pinch of salt.  Most of these spices are also supposed to be good for your immune system, though I doubt there’s any real effect in the amounts you’d have in this.

If you’re trying to size up the recipe to feed several people at once, I’d suggest forgoing the microwave and just using freshly-cooked rice if possible and add the other ingredients to the rice pot, or another saucepan, and changing the spoon level to 5-6 spoons.