Fancy, Easy Meal

Back in January I went to a cooking class at Central Market in Plano with my mom. She and my dad received free cooking class coupons with the purchase of their new car, and my dad wasn't interested in going with her. (I think that's a weird thing to get with a new car, but whatever.) It was a watch-and-learn class, rather than hands-on, but we did get to sample everything made. My favorite wound up being the crab-stuffed portobello mushrooms. It only consists of 3 ingredients, one of which I keep on hand anyway. It's not necessarily an inexpensive meal, but it's fast, easy, and delicious.

Start with a package of portobello mushroom caps. Buy them on sale if you can because these babies aren't cheap.



Scrape out the gills. (The chef in the class said they'll turn your teeth black if you don't. I'm choosing to believe him.) Be sure to wash them, too.



Get out your handy-dandy bottle of remoulade. (You do keep this on hand, don't you?! You can't make a good po'boy without it!) Smear some on each of your mushroom caps.




Place ready-made crab cakes on top of mushroom caps. Smoosh it to fit if it's not the right size. If your crab cakes are small, throw a couple extra in to eat alone.



Bake at 375 until the crab cakes are nice and browned. In my oven, it winds up being about 20 minutes.

Serve with a salad and enjoy!



If made with Central Market crab cakes, the cost of this meal is high, but still cheaper than a restaurant. I buy Albertson's crab cakes (10 for $10 in the frozen section). If I can get the mushrooms on sale for $5, then this feeds the 2 of us for $7 (or $9 if I bake extra crab cakes), not including the cost of any sides, such as salad. Not too bad for a fancier sort of meal!