These recipes are called the Anna-Ghoul Files after my cousin Anna and my friend Ghoulie (who seems to think my cooking sounds yummy).

There are three rules to my cooking:

• Vegetarian (not necessarily vegan)
• Cheap
• Easy to prepare

Any one of these, at any time, can top the list.  Vegetarian because I haven't eaten anything with a face since the early 1990s. Cheap because, if you've been following my fighting-the-Man posts, you can see how poor I am. Easy to prepare because, even on a good day, my hands ache.
======
"Gezunta" - German/Yiddish for "healthy." (Like the "Gesundheit" we say when someone sneezes") While these nachos were originally made with whatever I could find in the cabinet, they've gotten better. When my mom was undergoing chemo, all she wanted were these nachos, or French-onion soup. She did not gain or lose a pound - To her health!

You will need:

• Raw Onion
• EVOO (that's extra-virgin olive oil)
• Some kind of fake meat - "beef" or "chicken" work well. Figure slightly less than one suggested serving per person.
• That $1/packet of chili, burrito, etc spice that you find in the supermarket with the salsa
• Cheese (shredded fresh or Tostito's jar. The jar cheese is nice because it's got a longer pre-opened shelf life. However, shredded cheese can be portioned and frozen.)
• Salsa (of course)
• Chips (of course)

and whatever's in your cabinet, at room temperature.

Measurements are by eye, depending on how many you're serving.  I'll estimate like if it's for my mom and me - two people

In a small- to medium-sized skillet, heat about 1T EVOO at about 1/3 the dial's settings.  (Olive oil gets hot enough to emit icky smoke pretty quickly.) On a dial with 10, figure 3-4.

Slice 1/2 a large onion into approx. 1/4" pieces.

Add onion to olive oil. When using sweet onion, set aside aside one chunk.

Cut fake meat into bite-sized pieces.  When the onion is sweated and the kitchen smells yummy, add the fake meat. Cover and let cook for a minute or two, but be careful not to cook the "recommended cooking time" on its package.

While the "meat"/onion is heating, get two oven-proof, single-serving bowls.  A quick spritz with generic Pam should make dishwashing easier.

Begin to line the bottom of the bowl with a single layer of tortilla chips.  If  you decide that you're using refried beans, a small dollop now will help keep the chips in place.  Add a layer of cheese.

Uncover the skillet.  Turn off the heat; then sprinkle spices over the "meat"/onion. For two people, I use a quarter of a packet. They're more cost-effective than quality spices if you're only going to do this occasionally. (You may need to add a bit more oil, because the fake meats don't have natural oil the way butchered meat does.) Re-cover the skillet.

Preheat large toaster oven / stove to 375F.

Start opening your cans and jars - refried beans, black beans refried, whole beans (yeah you may want to sleep alone). open your jar of salsa. if you want to heat jalapeños, open the jar and start pouring off liquid.  Whatever else you're throwing in, either add a spoon or chop at this point.  (Several years ago, Taco Bell had tater tots in one of its burritos, and it went over well with the people for whom I cooked. If you're adding these, too, I'd suggest cooking them first.) I used Tostitos creamy salsa for my last batches.  We are VERY fond of the Trader Joe's tomato-less Corn Salsa.

Give a quick stir to the "meat"/onion/spice combo. Spoon about a quarter of the mixture into each of the oven-proof bowls.  Add a thin layer of whatever you fancy, then add a layer of chips. At this point, you may be able to line the edges of the bowl with a layer of chips.

Repeat layering, using the rest of the "meat"/onion/spice combo.

Add a thin layer of cheese to the top.

Place bowls into preheated oven. Let cook for at least ten minutes. (it takes a LOT longer if your extra ingredients aren't room temperature.)*

Remove from oven. Garnish with cold salsa - it's a low-calorie condiment. Garnish with sour cream because I like it. You may also add [more] chopped jalapeños, fresh lettuce and tomato, chopped fresh onion, chopped black olives, or any other toppings. Depending on your tastes, you may also want a small bowl of crisp chips on the side.

Serve with cold beer or iced tea, in a frosted glass. (Mom likes soda.)

From prep to sitting at the table is less than 45 minutes.

Stop & Shop has the oven-safe dishes on sale now (Oct 2008), but HomeGoods (and, therefore, probably TJ Maxx and Marshalls) has them for half the price.

This is a great meal to prepare because you can control exactly how much of anything - and how many calories - you use. You can go light on one ingredient and heavy on two more, altering the taste but, probably, not wrecking it.  When my mom was following a specific diet, I prepared nachos with one serving of chips. Yep, ten chips. I made it work, and she had a good meal while keeping to the diet. 

Speaking of my mom: that piece of sweet onion is for her, so she will keep her little fingers out of my cooking!



_____
* You should have enough time to do the dishes while this cooks.

We don't have a dishwasher. Sponges gross me out - they're nothing but breeding grounds for germs. 70s germ orgy pads. Shudder. I know how to sanitize sponges... but then the kitchen smells of cooked dish soap.

My mom got the new Bounty paper towels, the ones that tear off only half a towel if you want. Germwise, I dislike dish towels almost as much as I do sponges. I wash my hands a lot when I cook because (left over from my Bloodborne Pathogens test) I don't want to transfer anything to another surface. I save the paper towels from drying my hands for wiping up whatever I spill on the floor. (I don't hoard them, Little Brother... I can see him clenching his teeth!)  After seeing a commercial for these paper towels, I saved a piece on which I'd dried my hands and used it to wash the dishes. I can't believe how well it held up.

Now, I use one or two of these Bounty towels whenever I cook. I do try to be economical and ecologically-friendly when I wash the dishes:  HOT HOT water over everything, then turn off the water. Sponge (with the paper towel) small batches, rinsing well with HOT HOT water (so that it's practically dry when I put it into the drainer). (An added benefit to this is how great the hot water makes my achy hands feel.)

One of those half-towels will, seriously, do a great job on an entire [small] sinkload of dishes.