pasta with mushrooms in white wine shallot sauce + grocery shopping





Kinda fancy.  Seriously easy.

Ingredients

1 package thin spaghetti
1 package mushrooms sliced
1 teaspoon flour
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup white wine
2 shallots sliced thin (if you don't have shallots then you can use onion and some fresh garlic)
1 Tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and Pepper

Get your pasta started and then start sauteing the mushrooms and shallots in a little bit of olive oil. Season with thyme, salt and pepper and when they are nicely browned, sprinkle with flour then add the broth and wine.  Let that reduce to half and by that time your pasta should be done.  Drain it well and then add it directly into the saute pan, keep cooking while the pasta begins to absorb the broth and wine. When it is absorbed it is finished.
Serve with a nice green salad, fresh baguette and if you want to really fancy it up, this chocolate cake for dessert.





My total for the week, $22.71

I have things in the pantry and freezer that I really want to use up by the end of the month so I'm keeping the shopping light.  I suppose that is why my pantry looks so bare all the time.  I only like to buy what I will use fairly quickly.  If I run out of anything I'll let you know.  I also bought 3 random items...a spray nozzle for the hose, a 3 pronged weeder and a eye shadow compact to test out.  I swear there isn't anything that store doesn't carry.

So that's it.  Make nice today.




64 comments

  1. That looks delicious, will you be having the rest of the white wine with dinner? Cheers! x

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  3. ooh girl you fancy. Your pasta looks perfectly twirled in this photo, if I may say. Bonus(es) of making this: 1. guests always love a mushroom dish. 2. No slimy restaurant mushrooms! Maybe it's more of an Ohiocentric issue, but I so rarely enjoy mushroom things in restaurants because they are so rubbery. I'm quite envious you can walk out your door and cut fresh thyme for cooking. We are forecast to have another four inches of snow fall tonight and I miss my herb garden! Not even financially dimwitted me can justify paying $4 for 10 sprigs of sad looking herbs.

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  4. This sounds delicious. It would play as a side dish in my diet, but a delicious one:).

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  5. Im not vegan....but yummo. I might have to try this (not that I cook but you make it sound easy). Thx!

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  6. The recipe is do-able for me and it's pretty elegant, isn't it. Maybe it will teach me to like mushrooms; nothing else really has...

    When you buy makeup at the dollar store, is it a brand you recognize?

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    1. I am curious too Janet. I've seen the retro brand Aziza cosmetics at the .99 store and was tempted to give it a try. Is this the brand of eyeshadow you're trying? I remember Aziza from the 1980's, they were a good drugstore brand. Let us know what you think!

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  7. I Love your recipes!! Never thought I'd be so excited to see someones shopping list!! I love it and look forward to it each week!
    Keep up the good work. Your honesty and realness are so refreshing!
    Betsy

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  8. Yum, blackberries on the shopping list. Just spotted that!

    I have good childhood memories of picking blackberries in the warm sun. My hands would be dyed a pretty color after we 'brought in the harvest' (I think we ate more than what we gathered!). I just see that word...blackberries...and it makes me happy. Healthy berry goodness.

    Our neighbor would make a syrup for pancakes with blackberries but my mom would bake a cobbler or a crisp. Or jam/jelly. She'd always cut back on the sugar, so I think we got a truer taste of the fruit. Wish I was as inventive or industrious as these moms were...

    So, can you help me out here, Janet? Share your plan for the delicious blackberries? Thanks!

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    1. vicki we've been using these mostly with our morning fruit and yogurt. some with dessert. love them any way!

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    2. Well, that's all to good use, too. I have no quarrel with a yogurt parfait...

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    3. Our blackberries only come in autumn and are usually paired with the freshly harvested apples, yum!

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    4. I don't know why I sorta forgot about blackberries. They're decent enough in the frozen food section as well. In fact, my hubby is doing the grocery shopping tonight and I put fresh (or frozen) blackberries on the list because those, and raspeberries and boysenberries are as good for us as blueberries. But this is a new one: I've never thought to pair them with apples. Yum. Thanks for the comment. My brain disappoints me a lot. I'm just not food-creative to think of good combos and pairings...

      ...although, I made a scrumptious melting-pot of soup/stew tonight, throwing in a lot of stuff that needed to be used up...sauteing some garlic and onions in a little EVOO, diced organic tomatoes, then a half sack of frozen chopped broccoli and a little fresh chard/spinach/kale, in addition to some leftover organic tomato soup and just a hit of salsa. I feel proud of myself. I never cook. I'm trying really hard to cook-in. Be healthy. It probably sounds silly to another reader but it's a big achievement, for me. And, I gotta tell you, I'm slurping a little bowlful of it right now for dinner, and it's darn good.

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  9. I love simple, healthy pasta dishes and yours looks like one I want to try. Love mushrooms. I recently looked at a movie on Youtube that I think you would be quite interested in and very educational about the food we consume and shopping selections. It's called "Seeds of Death" (I know, horrible title), by Gary Null. Goes into great detail about GMO's and how they effect our health. I learned so much from this film, I had no idea all the things that are going on with our food. Being vegan you avoid a lot of it but we still must be so careful of the cereals and grains that we buy. If you have seen it or if you do watch it please let me know what you think. I myself was quite shocked!

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    1. Hi Lana, Pretty much everything grown in the U.S is now GMO. This is also briefly touched upon in the film "Forks Over Knives." Disheartening isn't it?

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    2. watched it last night lana. truly disheartening. :(

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    3. So, what do we do? What did you come away with, all of you?

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    4. Well Vicki, It is frustrating but what can you do? I do my best by trying to buy organic at the very least (for our health and as support for the organic growers). I think in parts of Europe they have banned GMO, American beef products, high fructose corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated oils. I feel our FDA is dragging their feet, it comes down to politics and money once again.

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    5. Troubling. Just troubling.

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  10. Looking at your pasta makes me hungry! I just noticed that mushroom risotto and mushroom pasta require similar ingredients. I bet it's even tasty with some freshly steamed asparagus or peas added to it. I'll have to try this pasta! ox

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    1. And I would even add a few drops of soy sauce to it. I'm Japanese and I love adding soy sauce to everything! (But it really adds good flavor to a dish.)

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    2. Still wondering how your .99 store manages those prices - I saw "cheap" asparagus at the store yesterday for $7 and then it's from Mexico (to Switzerland) which makes for ecological nonsense. Local will be $8-10 in spring, depending if you go direct to the farm or store. (per kilo)

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  11. Your pasta recipe sounds really wonderful, I'm definitely going to try it. It cracks me up that you can find both produce & a spray nozzle at your 99 cents store- I love that!
    Kristi

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  12. Janet, I'm out here visiting LA and saw a 99 cents store and had to run in because of your inspiration!

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    1. Went to the one on S. Fairfax across from the LACMA. It's small, not as big, clean or organized as the pics from your local store but I was intrigued by the items for sale. The produce section was small though the items look good. Picked up seltzer water bottle and snacks for much less than the Whole Foods in Beverly Hills where I visited earlier in the day.

      Have you heard of Aldi's? It is a low price supermarket owned by the same Germany company that has Trader Joe's. Heard it's coming to LA. That's my favorite place to shop back in the DC Metro area.

      Have a nice day, Janet. I love the weather here, it brings calmness.

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    2. you picked a good time to visit. the weather has been so good. but we need rain!
      i'm so happy you've reported back. i do feel so lucky that our store here in redlands is so nice. i'm glad you were able to get some things. yes, i've heard that aldi owns tj's. have a great trip!

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  13. Looks tasty.

    Thought of you as my hand basket of groceries on Saturday was totalled to $85. That's hand basket not trolley! For 1 meal!!!!

    Hope you are well and happy x

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    1. Wow, I wonder if eating at a restaurant would be cheaper in this instance? $85 for one meal... if you don't mind may I ask what the meal was?

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    2. All I can say is, the wages BETTER be better in Australia; how on earth can a family afford to live and feed their children? What a challenge...and what a shame. Nobody should have to pay that much for groceries uinless the whole basket was caviar or something!

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  14. I put this pasta recipe at the top of my list of recipes to make -- my near-by grocery store even has mushrooms on sale this week! How can you get out of Trader Joe's without picking up a bunch of flowers? They're my downfall -- especially when it's so snowy here. BlueBlonde

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  15. Your pasta dish looks wonderful. I believe we will have it this week! I am loving your simple, delicious recipes. The bean soup was delicious. Even my teenage sons ate It up! You really have a good thing going here. I believe it is you have such good content. Not a continuous sales pitch about one thing or another. Each post is a bit thought provoking, interesting and we all chat about it. It really is quite amazing. Have a nice evening!

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    1. Thought-provoking is a good way to put it. For instance, the reader comments in Janet's post here about genetically-modified food; a huge controversy. I came across a National Public Radio article written last month about this very thing. I read it tonight because the reader comments here poked my brain again...that's okay, my brain needs poking.

      So, this article talked about a 26-part series that was written for the environmental website, Grist. They apparently hired a man named Nathanael Johnson to get at the heart of the debate. Mr. Johnson seems to have considerable journalism experience as a food writer and is a child of 'hippies' who'd gone "back to the land" (so, that's how he grew up). The NPR article indicated Mr. Johnson's series was about presenting his findings as a "humble quest for truth."

      Well, at the end of this long series he did for Grist, his final post was: "What I learned from six months of GMO research? None of it matters." In other words, he is on the side of the food scientists and not the food environmentalists (my interpretation). Apparently his series caused a big uproar on the Grist site; I guess readers felt betrayed. I'll definitely be reading more...who to believe...

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  16. Janet, if you can purchase good wine for .99 cents a bottle - I'm moving to Redlands, CA!

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    1. Trader Joe has good cheap wine: It's Charles Shaw and it cost about one buck!! It's only a buck in CA

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    2. denise some .99 stores do carry wine and beer. it runs $2-3 a bottle. ours only has it now and then.

      but as anon says trader joes carries what used to be called 2 buck chuck, which is now $2.49 a bottle here in california. :)

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  17. "Make nice today." Love it mom!!! As always, you make me smile.
    Pasta looks delicious. 😋 Kimberly

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  18. Janet, because of you I now frequently stop by our local 99 cent store to check out the produce. I live in Northern CA, the store is in Lodi. I have been AMAZED at the great produce and refrigerator items. Everything I've bought there has been good quality. In the past, I ignored the produce section, only picking up a few office supplies or seasonal things. Now, I head straight to the produce to see what goodies are available. So grateful you've shared your grocery lists, and also loving the recipes you've been posting.

    Barbara

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    1. Does anybody here ever frequent the produce section at Target? I, too, always skip over it and run to non-food items I went there for. Last time I was in Target, there were heaps of bananas which looked like they were rotting. Are there good buys with Target's fresh vegetables and fresh fruits?

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    2. Hi Vicki, Actually I've found that Trader Joes bananas are .19 cents as opposed to Target's .29 cents. Target's produce isn't as inexpensive as one would think - and I've only seen organics in the way of lettuce and that's it. I can get produce cheaper at Ralphs or Food For Less.

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    3. Thanks. I would say I'll continue to skip the produce at Target! I can see where, for one-stop shopping in a hurry, it might be okay once in awhile but, not for me.

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  19. Cleaning out kitchen cabinets is really satisfying. the purse forum - better known for triggering foolish expenses - also hosts a small group of people who share your routine:
    http://forum.purseblog.com/the-kitchen/the-cleaning-out-the-kitchen-cabinets-club-688971.html

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  20. Love all these ingredients, so am definitely make this!

    Janet, I thought of you this morning as I came across a story about Tieks ballet flats and it mentioned they had a cute vegan line and when I checked, they were cute (NOT trying to entice you to shop, I just know that finding vegan shoes is not always easy!). Here's the link: http://tieks.com/boutiek/

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    1. thanks for the link wendy but i'm not sure i'm going to look. :))

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    2. Oh good for you! I am not buying either but is a good thing for your back pocket for another day!

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  21. I spent 75.00 at the Commissary yesterday, though that did include a new Pur filter for my tap and 20 cans of cat food. And then 25.00 at TJ's. And I'm just one.

    Though I am stocking up for my surgery.

    Need 99 cent store and a plate of that pasta!

    xo Jane

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  22. Your Mushroom Bourguignon is on our menu tonight, but I have all these ingredients and will check this out next. I just spent a week with my daughter eating vegan. She took me to the most amazing Vegan restaurants in Vancouver. Several were raw vegan, which didn't float my boat, but the others were fabulous. She sent me home with one of her cookbooks, so I'll be diving in deeper. Even husband agreed, everything was fab. I'm probably up five pounds:)

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    1. yay jennifer. that's funny that you are up 5...should be the opposite!

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    2. Sometimes I like to read stuff about U.S. showbiz just for no-brain relaxation and I picked up a bit about the actor Alec Baldwin. He'd been vegetarian for years and years because his first wife, the actress Kim Basinger, was vegetarian. Over time he just got fatter and fatter to the point of being diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I don't know what he did to change his diet but I think it had something to do with the second wife with whom he now has a new baby; she's all over the web these days for posting daily yoga positions, like for a whole year (I guess she was/is a yoga instructor). I did hear him say on a late-nite talk show that he was doing the yoga and I think she had him eating cleaner with more veggies perhaps rather than so much pastas. I don't remember all the chat but this was what I seemed to pick up. Bottom line, I do know vegetarians who are not thin but any vegan I've ever known about or seen is definitely on the trim side. My primary care doctor is all for being vegan; he said he's seen great results from patients who embrace it...no more diabetes medications or blood pressure drugs and he did mention weight loss of course; it all goes together. I'm no expert on the topic but, Jennifer, hang in there; maybe any weight gain is temporary!?!

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  23. Janet- I truly do have a charming little spiral notebook where I am capturing your delicious recipes. I suppose I could print them out, pictures and all, but the little book is handy. I note the day of the posting if I need to refer to the pic. Keep 'em coming. I will have a great little cookbook eventually. This one looks seriously delicious and I can make it Weight Watchers friendly. Just omit the chocolate cake - :)!

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    1. i'm flattered. and what a cute idea. i would love to have them all in one book too. :)

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    2. I confess to my printing addiction: I believe I have printed out every recipe Janet has ever posted. (Maybe I can make up for the paper by making notes on the back!)

      (I hope you don't mind that some of us do this, Janet. For me, it's just for my own use. I don't think you're copyrighted, but still...)

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    3. i don't mind on bit. i should do it myself!

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  24. Janet,
    For your "book" - might be fun to have a table of contents something like this,
    pantry
    recipes
    tips
    in the garden
    in the cottage
    out and about
    just thinking about what a great book, I mean you have such an audience.
    thanks for sharing such simple yet fancy dishes.
    pve

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  25. that looks delish Janet! Sounds like it would be wonderful with a splash of marsala too!
    xxoj.

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  26. Yum Janet! I made this dish for dinner last night - I was home alone but I was worth it! It was divine - many thanks.

    Regards
    DeeJay from Whangarei, New Zealand

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  27. A friend was having some guests in town from Holland. One of them was vegan so he asked if I would cook a vegan meal. Sure, I said. So I made a nice polenta and a mushroom ragout and dude comes and announces he doesn't eat fungus.

    When does your book come out?

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  28. Hi Janet,
    I was wondering, with your compassion for animals, do you have or have you had pets in your life? :-)

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    1. this period in my life is the first that i've not owned an animal. we always had dogs and cats growing up and we had them when the boys lived with us too. :)

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kindness is never out of style.

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