one-pot wonders

Please tell me I'm not the only person who has watched That Thing You Do! [over and over].  Remember how they called themselves the One-ders before they hit it big?  And how everyone thought they were the Oh-Nee-ders but it was supposed to be a clever wordplay?

Yeah, well, I fought every impulse in me to keep that stupid pun "clever wordplay" out of the post title.

I have an entire cookbook devoted to One Dish Vegetarian Meals, so I really shouldn't be that impressed/excited by the one-pot nature of tonight's and last night's dinners, but I am completely psyched - I don't think it occurs to me how many pots, pans, and dishes I dirty in my nightly cooking endeavors until I make a meal this easy to clean up.

Last night I made Savory Tofu and Vegetables over Tomato Couscous from the Sept 2007 issue of VT magazine.  There were a few reasons this recipe caught my eye: for one, the tofu is sauteed with the artichoke hearts in the marinade from the artichoke jar.  Marinades are kind of a new thing for me, and it might not have ever occurred to me to use the marinade in the jar if this recipe hadn't put the idea in my brain.  I also liked the idea of steaming the couscous with the juice from a can of tomatoes...yes, I really can be that dense simple-minded.

It was very good for dinner last night, as well as lunch today.  There was one thing that stood out to me as somewhat bizarre, though - it was not cloyingly sweet by any stretch of the imagination, but it was far more sweet than it was savory.  That really surprised me, especially considering how downright tangy the artichokes and their marinade were.  I can only attribute it to the length of time I cooked the leeks and carrots (could have begun the process of caramelizing) and the tomato couscous.

In contrast, tonight we had Smoky Black Bean Tostadas with Garlicky Greens from the March 2009 issue of VT magazine.

As you can probably tell, I forewent the crisping of the tortillas to make fragile (read: super-messy) tostadas in favor of riceless burritos.  For a more attractive picture, click the link, but I'm pretty happy with the way these came out.  I made a few changes to the recipe to make it the friendly one-pot wonder that it was: I just sauteed everything, including the salsa, together.  Also, because I had some leftover and because it's fun, I quartered and sliced a link of Tofurky Kielbasa and I think that really benefited the final product.