Okay so it’s been a minute since I’ve written anything food related because it’s been a minute since I’ve felt like cooking. Hey, we all have our life gaps, right? I’m actually one of those annoying people that as devastated as my heart is by all things COVID-19, it has also given me the time to consider what in my life holds true value for my soul. The number one thing has proven itself to be, of course, my friends and family. My bubble consists of those nearest and dearest to my heart, which includes my dear friend, Jen. Now, don’t get confused by this. There’s now a Jennifer and a Jen. An Aquarius and a Virgo. And we both love good food and have mutual respect for our budgets. We do a lot of meal prep together and once a week we make a real, live, hot meal fresh from the kitchen for our enjoyment. Our live meal prep is one of my favorite moments of the week because I include carbs. I truly believe that it is both the carbs and the spirit in which these carbs are prepared that makes me a kinder and gentler human being. I’ll be honest, carbs make me nice. You want me complacent for some bad news? Feed me a carb heavy meal right before the ball is dropped.

This week’s meal was a combined effort in its inception and creation. Here are the ingredients:

½ Cup of Frozen Spinach, thawed and chopped $0.50
½ Cup of Onion, chopped $0.79
2 good sized Sweet Potatoes, baked $1.94
½ Cup of Green or Red Pepper, chopped (Our pepper was at the stage of maturity when it was half-green and half red. It was like a young’un’s first season off of their parent’s credit cards.) garden freebie!
2 Large Portobello caps with stems $3.43
1 Tablespoon of Minced Garlic
16 OZ of Ground Chorizo – $3.69

Obviously, all of these are as preservative free, non-GMO, and generally as healthy as possible, right? I mean, we all know that we don’t want to imbibe creepy chemicals that give us the potential to turn into The Joker in ten years. 

The total cost for this meal was $10.35. This covered two heaping portions for dinner and two hash breakfasts, for a whopping $2.58 per serving.

First step: Prep your oven and mushrooms. Set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Clean your mushrooms. I have found that the best way to clean a mushroom is NOT TO RUN IT UNDER WATER. This will make your mushroom slimy and it will disappear like eyebrows in the 90’s when you cook it. To clean your mushroom, first, lightly brush off all visible dirt. Then, grab a paper towel or a clean washcloth. Get it a little damp (I mean a little btw, not an Italian little that’s really the “large” of everyone else. I’m Italian, I can say that). Wipe your mushroom down with your damp towel. Good job. I’m proud of you. Way to wipe.

Next up: Get everything chopped. Once you chop everything on this ingredient list, get those stems out of your mushrooms, and chop those. 

And thennn (I miss 90’s movies now that I mentioned the eyebrows… If you get it, you get it): Get out a medium sized skillet. This skillet should be the same size as your largest conventional burner. If your largest burner is on a big, fancy stove: first off, congratulations, you should be proud. Second, use the burners of the common folks, not your big ol’ burner that can fit the stock pot of the gods. Drizzle a little of your favorite oil in the pan and turn your burner onto medium. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest setting for your burner and 10 being the highest, it should be a setting of 4.5. This is my favorite non-committal burner temperature. Since you have your oil out, rub your mushroom cap (and now I have Sublime in my head. This is just turning into a 90s fest) with oil on the smooth parts. Set the oiled-up mushroom in a roasting pan, and then drizzle the fluted bits of the mushroom. Oh, and those fluted bits are the gills, if you want to be fancy. Just a little mycological trivia to drop at a dinner party. You’re welcome. Set the mushroom caps upside-down in a roasting pan. Set this aside for the moment.

And thennnnn: Once your pan is up to temp, dump all of your veggies into your oil. Don’t get too flamboyant with your dumping. Grease splatters can burn you and can cause fires and how embarrassing would that be to explain that to the hot fireman? Sautee your veggies until the onions go clear and the peppers get vibrant. 

And thennnnnn: Add your raw (RAWR!) meat to your sauteed vegetables. Give it a few stirs, then mash in the potato. Cook this mixture until the meat is par cooked. This means that the meat should be mostly grey with a slight pink tinge to it.

And thennnnnnn: Pile your meat and veggie mixture into the mushroom caps. To ensure an appropriate stuffing to mushroom ratio, mound the filling up over the mushroom. You should now have a stuffed mushroom that is half mushroom and half stuffing. No judging it you want to go overboard. This stuff is delicious. Don’t worry if you have extra. It’s an awesome left over on its own.

Finally: Roast your stuff mushrooms in the oven with the temperature on 350 for 12-15 minutes. Adjust cooking time based on the size of your mushrooms if needed. You want the mushroom to be firm but not dry when they’re done.

Serve in slices or as a whole. The stuffing is delicious, so if you have a dining companion that won’t do mushrooms, they’ll still be satisfied with the flavor profile of this dish, but they will definitely be missing out on something special. The first bite with the mushroom cap – oh my goodness. UMAMI BABY! So good!

Something else that takes the flavor to a whole new level of deliciousness: red wine. We paired our stuffed mushrooms with a 2016 red zinfandel from The Seven Deadly Zins ($16), and we were so glad we did! This really rounded out the dish and brought forth so many underlying flavors to really add some extra flavor layers to the meal.

A great alternative serving of this that you could do would be stuffed mushroom caps to really wow your friends at a party or for a tailgate. We also used our leftovers as a breakfast hash under eggs. YUM! It was a great way to start the day.

If you try this recipe out, we would love to hear your experience and any variations you make. 

Be kind to others and make sure to be as kind to yourself!

Jennifer and Jen