Experimental Cooking: Chunky Spaghetti Sauce

Growing up, my mom made the BEST spaghetti sauce. It was just the right blend of sweet and salty, and was chunky enough to feel like you were getting a decent meal. When I started living in places where I had my own kitchen, I got the recipe from her and started making it. But over time, the canned sauces and tomatoes that she used have vanished from the grocery store shelves. I've been trying to recreate the recipe using different things for a while now, but I've finally got it to where I think I like it... at least until these things vanish...

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce (makes at least 10 servings)
1 large can of diced tomatoes (I'm not sure on the size of this can, but I'd estimate it around 24 oz or more)
2 15 oz of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
3 Roma tomatoes (skins still on, diced)
8 baby sized sweet peppers or 2 regular sized sweet peppers (diced)
1/8 of a sweet onion (diced)
1 cup of water

Spices:
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
2 Tbsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

Put all of this into a large pot, bring to a boil, and then turn down to simmer for 3-6 hours.

Commentary: Depending on how hot your "simmer" setting is on your stove, this should cook for at least 3 hours, but can cook much longer. Just keep a close eye on it, because it will start to cook down. You'll want to stir it regularly, and you can add tomato juice or water if it starts getting too cooked down. I usually make this on a Sunday, starting around noon, and letting it cook until dinner time. The leftovers freeze REALLY well, so I portion those into 2 serving containers, which makes it easy to reheat for another meal!

Variations: They are many.

• My mom always browned a pound of ground beef and mixed it into the sauce before she started cooking it. Italian sausage would be another good choice. It does make it a more filling meal.
• You can add more raw veggies of your choosing to the mix. I added a pint of crimini mushrooms to it once (only let them cook for about an hour, unless you prefer mushy mushrooms). I added about 2 cups of shredded carrots the last time I made it, and you couldn't even tell they were there! When you're cooking it for as long as you do, you lose a lot of the flavor of the veggies, but they're still delicious!
• If you added a bit more water, this would almost work as a chunky tomato soup, with a bit of an Italian flavor to it.

Experimental Cooking: Easy Rice Noodles

Seattle is in the throes of another Snowpocalypse (the third one since I've lived here, and I've only been here five years!), so we're doing a lot of cooking with what we have on hand. I've pretty much determined that getting my car out of the subterranean garage it's currently parked in isn't going to happen until the snow on the parking lot thaws at least a little bit. I don't look forward to driving up the hill that leads out of the garage until my car can have some traction!

Last night, looking for a starch to add to our meal, I grabbed a bag of gluten-free brown rice pasta that I had bought for a writer's retreat. We don't usually eat that sort of pasta, and I wasn't entirely sure how it would cook up in small quantities (I made a whole bag the first time I made it and it was a sticky mess!). And thus, Easy Rice Noodles were born. My hubbie liked them so much that I made them again tonight!

Easy Rice Noodles (serves 2)
2 servings of brown rice pasta
about 3 tablespoons of Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce

I started out by breaking the noodles into thirds. This is partially because I was brought up always breaking spaghetti noodles in half before you cook them. But especially with brown rice pasta, you want to make sure the whole noodle is underwater all the time. So unless you have a monster pasta pot, break the noodles.

Then you just cook them up according to the directions on the package. My experience thus far has been: longer is better. 7 minutes left us with noodles that were still a little solid in the center, and 9 minutes was much better.

Drain the water off the noodles, and then pour about 3 tablespoons (give or take, I didn't measure it) over them. Stir it all up, and serve.

Commentary: So the very act of pouring the Soyaki on the noodles renders them not gluten-free (wheat is involved in most soy sauces). If you're wanting to make this a gluten-free dish, I recommend replacing the Soyaki with some sort of gluten-free teriyaki sauce.

So far, this has gone great with coconut shrimp and gyoza (hey, we can't go grocery shopping in the Snowpocalypse!). It would probably also make a nice addition to a sweet stir fry.

Experimental Cooking: Black Beans and Veggies

Finally, a cooking post with a picture! This is a pot full of the start of black beans and veggies, which is a great meal that cooks up a large amount, and works perfectly as leftovers. This is what I make for lunch pretty much every week for the hubbie and I, cooking it in a large batch on Sunday afternoon (sometimes for Sunday dinner too), and then portioning it out for our lunches to take with us to work.

Black Beans and Veggies (8-10 servings)

• 3 cans black beans, rinsed thoroughly
  
• 2 Roma tomatoes, cut into bite sized chunks or smaller
  
• 3-5 mini bell peppers OR 1-2 regular sized bell peppers, cut into bite sized chunks or smaller
  
• 1 cup frozen corn
  
• 1/4 onion, diced (usually a Vidalia onion)
  
• 2 cups water
  
• 2 tbsp Taco Seasoning

Mix all of the ingredients into a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Serve with rice. Add salsa and shredded "Mexican" cheese if you like.

Commentary: This stuff smells AMAZING while it cooks, and it tastes great too. Rinsing the black beans helps cut down the sodium content that canned beans tend to have.

Variations: I have a lot of suggestions for this one:

• If you aren't opposed to raw veggies, just put the onion and corn in while the beans are cooking, and save the tomatoes and peppers to be tossed on the top. My hubbie doesn't like raw tomatoes or peppers, so I cook them with the rest.
  
• If you're a meat eater, you could add some taco meat or spicy sausage to this. Cook the meat separately, and then add it when you serve up the finished meal. We found a nice spicy chicken sausage at Trader Joe's that is delicious with this recipe.
  
• The recipe itself is vegan and super low fat, but then we toss cheese on it, which changes both of those factors. I suspect it would taste just fine without the cheese, or with a vegan or low-fat cheese.
  
• If you don't have my version of Taco Seasoning on hand, you can definitely substitute store-bought taco seasoning. You'll have to experiment with how much to add, but I'd guess about half a packet would do.