Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Oh Shit Meal - Mushroom Alfredo with Artichoke Hearts

A couple friends have this thing they call an "Oh Shit Meal". I think they described it like this:
It's for when you suddenly realize that you haven't eaten all day, or in the last three days, or whatever, and you really Really need food. Or when you've had a long day and want to eat but don't want to cook.
Essentially, they have a collection of instant meals kept for just-in-cases. Since I have a hard time stomaching much in the way of froze, freeze-dried, or "ready to eat" food, my version of an Oh Shit Meal is essentially something I could pop in the oven or a pot (or microwave if I had one) and heat up without much prep. Which generally means leftovers. Here's what I made after coming home from a long day and a two mile walk from random stuff I had in my house:

Ingredients/Materials:
Cooked pasta
Condensed cream of mushroom soup
Alfredo sauce
Artichoke Hearts
An Oven-safe Bowl

Instructions:
Fill the bowl about 1/3 with pasta. Dump some mushroom soup on it. Put another layer of pasta. Dump some Alfredo Sauce on it. Add some artichoke hearts. Stick on a pie tine or baking sheet in the oven at 350-400ºf until hot. Probably about 30min.


Substitutions:

Ingredients:
Use some other sort of starch instead of pasta; I considered potatoes and couscous, but the pasta was already cooked. Rice might also work.
Skip the mushroom soup.
Use milk instead of Alfredo sauce. The main point is to thin out the condensed soup a bit, so milk will work fine. But you do have to have one or the other, condensed mushroom soup, or alfredo sauce.
Skip the artichokes.
Add whatever else you have in the kitchen, roasted garlic, olives, cheese, squash, green beans...

Instructions:
Put it in the microwave for a few minutes instead.
If I'd felt like washing a pot or pan, I would have stuck the whole shebang in that over a flame and not bothered with a bowl.

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