One Frugal Foodie

I forgot to mention that I just received a copy of Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, the new cookbook by Dreena Burton.  It is the first cookbook of hers that I have viewed, but I may have to go back and buy the other two!  It has sucked me in already.  Her style is to use healthful ingredients whenever possible, which perfectly suits my taste buds.  Last night I took my first stab at her recipes, and it was very successful.  I prepared the Polenta Casserole.  It was quite simple to make, easily customizable, and my husband said “very good,” …. a definite bonus.

The recipe called for fresh thyme, which would likely add a nice flavor boost, but I couldn’t locate it.  I added some extra oregano to compensate and the flavor still turned out wonderful.  I also added a chopped zucchini.  This is an addition I highly recommend.  It melded perfectly in this Mexican inspired casserole and added some needed veggies …

This morning, we used up a past-its-prime banana to trial Dreena’s Banana Cream Pancakes.  They were a wonderful blend of banana, coconut milk, and spelt flour. We used just a bit too much banana, so our pancakes were a little bit dense, but my husband gobbled them up with fervor.  I try not to have sugar in the morning, so I had my pancakes with cashew butter.  They weren’t bad, but I recommend a sweeter topping for this sugar-free pancake.

I have many other recipes marked from this cookbook… so I will keep you posted as the trials continue.  So far, so good!

As some of you may know, I decided to trial a vegan diet for one week, and my husband hesitantly joined in.  I hear often of people who convert from vegetarianism to veganism, making that final leap from dairy and eggs.  However, I hadn’t heard of the other approach, those who already live without dairy and/or eggs foresaking meat to become vegan.  Honestly, I really wasn’t expecting much from the venture … just hoping to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our daily diet as an end result.  After all, how much difference could one week really make?

To give you a little background, one of my husband’s favorite phrases is “if we weren’t supposed to eat meat, then why does it taste so good?”  He has always leaned more toward the carnivorous side of omnivorous eating.  But on Saturday, the final day of our vegan week, he actually said, “you know, I’m okay with continuing on this vegan diet.”  Over a decade we have been together, yet somehow, he always finds a way to shock me.  He said he feels better, less tired and heavy.  He is also hopeful that it might help him to lose those last pounds around his middle.

So, will we remain on a vegan diet?  Mostly.  At the moment, we have a lot of non-vegan food in our freezer that must be eaten.  Seeing as how neither of us feels like eating a lot of meat at this point, it may take us a while to get that cleaned out.  As well, we may not be ready to dissect menus even further when it comes to eating out.  (okay, okay, we both love seafood and sushi too, what about a pesce-vegan?) However, we both agreed, that once our old stocks of food have dwindled, our home will become vegan.

It sure will save on grocery bills!  Our groceries this past week were 1/3 cheaper, we didn’t waste an ounce of food (a truly amazing victory), and our appetites were always fulfilled.  I think we were both quite surprised. 

So last night, I finally made that watermelon-sized spaghetti squash, going the pesto route, with VeggieGirl’s suggestion to add sun-dried tomatoes.  I served up just 1/2 a squash, but the portion sizes were huge!  The dish was yummy, even my husband finished every last bite.  For added “meat” the pesto was spiked with sunflower seeds, walnuts, and flaxseeds.  Overall, a delicious dish, but really not photogenic.  The beauty was on the inside.  Regardless, here are a few more photogenic items that we have enjoyed in our continued vegan week …

Pumpkin Bread - Another successful recipe trial, not to sweet and perfectly moist.

Vegan Pizza - Follow Your Heart’s Vegan Gourmet “Cheese” did melt … with a little coaxing.  It was good, I will admit, very mild in flavor (I have always hated the pungent taste of real cheese).  However, I think I am still okay with a cheese-free pizza.  This one is on a homemade whole wheat crust, with some garlic tomato sauce, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and chopped olives.  Simple enough!

Veggie Burger Salad: We picked up a box of Nature’s Burger Mix from Fantastic Foods on clearance.  It was an insanely good price, especially since the box makes 6 veggieburgers with just the addition of water.  Alas, it was on clearance for good reason.  These bland veggieburgers received two thumbs down from this household.  Luckily, the avocado dressing helped to save the day.

Amy’s Thai Coconut Soup - Our spirits were lifted by this awesome souop.  It is quite hearty on its own due to the coconut milk, and full of flavor.  however, there weren’t many bonuses, it was truly soup.  So I spiked it with some sweet potatoes and poured the whole thing over a bit of brown rice for that full meal feel.

More great meal ideas to come!

So, I am technically writing this in the wee hours of day 6, but day 5 was a long day.  Nutrition took a back seat today, as I didn’t quite make it to the store until after dinner.  Luckily, I scrounged up some healthful items to go with our carb-loading and sugar-cravings.  But, still no meat cravings…

First, I must report a good deal.  We just ordered Nutiva’s Coconut Oil from Amazon. Several months back, after reading how wonderful coconut oil is for you, and that it is supposed to be good for thyroid disorders, we purchased 2 jumbo jars.  Well, it did nothing for my thyroid, but the stuff is fantastic!  After many months, our supply is just beginning to run low, but Amazon has a great deal on it (free shipping, $10 off, etc.) so we decided to restock.  If you are willing to buy in bulk, this is a great deal.  We got 108 ounces (almost 7lbs) of the organic extra-virgin coconut oil for $34 delivered.  It is our oil supply for months. I absolutely love the wonderful buttery taste, though it does have a coconut vibe.

Okay, aside from the great nutiva deal, the first half of the day was rather uneventful food-wise.  Cereal, leftovers, a clif nectar bar.  For lunch, I once again turned to the freezer.  We gave Amy’s Samosas a shot, but I did pair it with a boisterous salad of our remaining lettuce, a lone carrot, and a can of peas, oh yes and some yummy, creamy, homemade dressing with that Vegannaise.  I have tasted some awesome foods from Amy’s, but alas the Samosas failed to excite.  While they had nice big potato chunks and were wonderfully organic and flavorful, the dry texture just didn’t work for me.  But, it was quite filling.

Some recipe trials led to a very successful batch of Chipmunk Chunk Cookies (to be in an upcoming food-allergy cookbook) …

And then, the delivery …. chocolate … loads of it …. it was like Christmas!  Wonderful organic, vegan chocolates from Sjaaks.  My husband and I dove into the regular dark bar first.  It was more like a semi-sweet, easily satisfying my sweet tooth.  Of course, the cookies helped too.  We had to ration though, just one bar for today.

For dinner we once again turned to pasta.  With 1/2 jar of that precious Amy’s Garlic Marinara remaining, I quickly threw together a chickpea marinara with basil, mushrooms, and onions, atop whole wheat angel hair, and garnished with chopped black olives.  Who needs parmesan when you have flavorful olives?

After a quick shop this evening, we are now stocked with enough veggies to last a few more days, and enough squash for a week.  Does anyone have any idea what to do with a watermelon-sized spaghetti squash?

Forming quite the routine, my day started out with preparing our smoothies (kiwi-berry this time), snacking on rice cakes with nut butter, and sneaking some of VeggieGirl’s pumpkin bread from the freezer.  I regained some virtue with an apple later in the day.  However, both lunch and dinner had to get a bit more creative as we were tragically running out of vegetables!  Not a good thing to have happen when you are eating vegan.

With more of that wonderful Amy’s Soup on hand (organic, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free) I had a good option for lunch.  I set the rice cooker on with enough rice for two, and topped it with a steamer basket filled with the last two small sweet potatoes I had, diced into 1/2 inch square bites.  I put the Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable soup on low to warm and went back to my work.  The rice cooker went click about 10/15 minutes later and viola!  I had two wonderful lunches ~ two bowls of rice topped with sweet potatoes and some southwestern style soup…

The soup had quite a kick, much more than either of us expected.  I was glad that it was tempered by the rest of the meal, as on its own, the soup definitely would have been too spicy for our taste buds.

I had planned to get out for some grocery shopping before dinner … but … that didn’t happen.  Then, I settled on giving that Vegan Gourmet cheese a real go, on pizza.  But, when I went to proof my yeast to make the crust, I discovered that it had completely fizzled. 

So, I reached for what little veggies I had left, and some of those fun products/ingredients I was trialing out.  With just two tortillas remaining, I made us each a super-stacked medium-sized burrito.  Piled with rice, black beans, carmelized onions (saute in a bit of oil for 15 min over med-low heat), spicy guacamole, shredded vegan “cheese” (a bit gratuitous, I really don’t think this was needed), some chicken-free chicken (smoky), and a few dollops of mild salsa for that tomato vibe…

Of course, we needed some greens though.  So I made up some little salads with greens, shredded carrots (all the veggies I had left), the rest of the beans, and that dressing I made the other day (yum!).

All in all, not a bad day, but I must get out for some groceries tomorrow.  I like to make those prepared foods last as long as possible by using them more as a base for recipes or as a flavorful “condiment”, but with too few vegetables in my crisper, they seem to be moving into starring roles. 

My husband gave today’s meals a “good.” He liked yesterday’s better, but is still amazed that really, nothing seems different about our diet.  Not a meat craving in site : )

Overall it was a tasty day.  It was refreshing to find comfort in a pasta marinara, a dish I take for granted.  Just a quick low down for some vegan meal ideas … 

Breakfast: (vegan (egg-free/dairy-free), gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free) The smoothie has become our routine.  It seems to be the best way to break our “nightly fast” (otherwise known as sleep) with the least amount of disturbence.  Plus it is a great energizer for morning workouts, and we headed out for one today.  Frozen mango and pineapple are the best deal (at Trader Joe’s) I have found around here when neither the fresh or frozen fruit is on sale, so I prepared our old reliable mango coladas.

Snack: We were both starving when we got back as some major traffic detours made for a late arrival home.  I sliced my husband up a thick slice of the Banana Orange Chip Bread (still awesome even though it deflated), and held my hunger back with my usual rice cakes with a thick layer of almond butter and cinnamon.  Yes, I really do like rice cakes.

Snack II: Still hungry, but husband isn’t yet, ate an orange.

Lunch: (vegan (egg-free/dairy-free), gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free) Needing something in a jiffy (in the middle of a project), I turned to Amy’s, Amy’s Kitchen that is.  They are a mainstream organic vegetarian company, with a huge vegan line-up.  I have long been a fan of their chili, which can often be fetched on sale for under $2 a can and makes a very hearty lunch for two with some rice (I have even spotted it at Walmart).  Luckily, their soups have been on sale quite a bit lately as well.  We tried the lentil vegetable - low in sodium variety.  Sadly, my first thought was “needs salt.” Refraining, I reached for the pepper grinder instead, which helped to give it a little of the spark that it was missing.  It was more like a chili with very little liquid, so I dished up two large bowls of leftover brown rice, and divided the soup between the two.  It was hearty enough with the lentils and brown rice to tide us both over for a couple of hours.

Snack: Oh goodness, the remaining 1/2 of the quick bread loaf has magically disappeared!  Wherever could it have gone?

Snack II: Feeling guilty about the two mongo slices of cake-like quickbread I had just downed, I steamed up some kale and broccoli.  Just enough to meet a bit of my greens quota.

Dinner: (vegan (egg-free/dairy-free), gluten-free, nut-free) It seems my husband had been into the bread and the cookies, so he wasn’t very hungry.  I had planned pizza, but decided to go with a simple pasta instead, featuring a very non-frugal pasta sauce from Amy’s.  The price tag keeps it off of my purchase list, but it was a gift.  Considering the virtues of this organic, all natural, vegan (and loaded with garlic) pasta sauce, I figured it should pretty well be able to handle its own atop some noodles. 

I cooked up some brown rice rigatoni, topped it with the sauce (added a bunch of sliced mushrooms), sprinkled some vegan gourmet cheddar cheese atop (a splurge for the week, really I must try a vegan cheese during vegan week, don’t you think?), and fired it in the oven to see if that cheese would melt.  I have heard that vegan gourmet does, but apparently I didn’t have it in for long enough.  I baked it for 10 minutes, and tried a quick broil for 3.  It really didn’t go anywhere, but it was quite tasty. 

Overall, my husband gave this very simple meal two thumbs up, and even said “wow, I don’t feel sick and I haven’t had meat for three days.  I’m not even craving it.”  Leave it to my husband to think that not eating meat would make him feel sick.

Oh, before I forget, if you live near a Wild Oats that hasn’t been shut down by Whole Foods, they have a few good items in their weekly flyer beginning on Halloween.  I added the Oetker Organics pudding mix, Pacific organic broth, and bulk organic quinoa to my shopping list, you may find a few other deals. 

Now where are those cookies?

No, we haven’t had trouble sticking to the diet … actually today was easy.  We even sampled a few vegan convenience foods, but on my behalf, they were foods that I likely wouldn’t have tried if we weren’t eating vegan this week.  More on that in a minute.

More importantly, I am doing recipe trials for a food allergy cookbook (egg, dairy, nut-free).  This week I thought I would try a few of the quick breads which are consequently vegan.  They have each been delicious (my family positively raving about the results), but in my oven, they keep caving in:

While a novice at cooking, I have been baking for years, though I probably haven’t attempted anything that needs to rise in quite a while.  The strange thing is, the other recipe testers are yielding beautifully fluffy loaves with the exact same recipe.  So what is it that I am doing differently?  I noticed that I was using a white-wheat flour, which is supposed to mimic white flour in baking.  Could it perhaps be too heavy?   I am just barely living at 3000 feet, could I be having some altitude issues?  Has my baking powder gone bad?  Any ideas.  Oh well, as you can tell, it is still an awesome loaf, a very tasty Banana Orange Chip Loaf (sans most of the chip as my husband ate almost all of the little chocolate morsels).  I did the baking powder test, and it does look feasible that mine has fizzled out, so I will head off to the store tomorrow to give it another go!

As for the rest of our vegan noshing day:

Breakfast:  Jumbo smoothies (a mango colada for the husband and a black cherry smoothies for myself) spiked with good stuff like ground flaxseed

Mid-Morning Snack: Rice Cakes topped with almond butter and cinnamon (PB & J for the husband)

Lunch: The beginnings of my new product adventures, my very first mock-meat ever.  Sure, I like a good veggie burger now and then, but really I only eat the grainy ones.  This was true mock-meat, Carey Brown’s Chicken Free Chicken, actually formed in the shape of a chicken.  A little creepy, but it did taste quite good.  In both taste and texture it was like a cross between a real chicken breast and packaged chicken sausage.  My husband kept repeating “smoky.”  We both thought it was surprisingly good, an excellent sub for meaty cravings really. 

However, due to its soy protein base, I probably won’t go for it again.  This specific ingredient isn’t a good one for either of us.  Anywho, I made a wonderful salad with it, a few veggies, and a quick and creamy salad dressing I whipped up.  We both agreed that the salad dressing deserved a repeat performance:

• 1/4 cup Vegannaise (the grapeseed oil version)
• heaping 1/2 teaspoon Lemony Dill Seasoning from Vegetarian Express
• Rice milk to desired consistency

The quick bread was an afternoon adventure.  We noshed on some fruit while waiting for it to emerge.  Though it sunk in the middle, we both wolfed down two thick slices with huge smiles.

Dinner: I got home a bit late from a soccer game, but was feeling energetic enough to whip up a new recipe.  My eye had been on the Quinoa with Sweet Veggies and Almond Butter, and it looked easy enough to give a whirl.  Since I was out of squash, I subbed some steamed kale to get our greens. 

We both liked it, scarfing down every last bite, but the recipe still needs a bit of work.  I thinned the sauce just a bit with a touch of almond milk, and I ended up adding about 1/2 teaspoon of maple syrup as it had way too much tamari.  It was very overpowering.  Perhaps if I lowered the tamari and added a pinch of crushed red pepper, or even serve up a bit less sauce than the servings imply.  I also think just a hint of maple helps to temper the overly salty blend.  Anyway, I willl likely experiment with this one some more. 

I have been toying with the idea of giving the vegan diet a whirl for some time now.  After all, I am half way there with dairy-free living and I often feel energized from meat-free meals.  Yet, it wasn’t until two inspirations emerged that I decided to declare our house vegan for this week. 

First off, thursday is World Vegan Day.  Really, what better time could there be?

The second inspiration came from two great vegan friends, Hannah and VeggieGirl.  As if they coordinated with one another to coax me over to the vegan way of life, each sent a package of wonderful baked goodies! 

For my birthday (it seems I have had a month long celebration!) Hannah sent a dozen Vegan Ginger Biscotti …

Though I am not a cake person, she insisted on making me some cake for my birthday as well …

VeggieGirl sent an entire (very large!) loaf of her famed Pumpkin Raisin Nut Loaf …

So with a taste of the good vegan life, I have begun vegan week!  Today I started the morning with some leftovers.  I fortified a large serving of the Orange Spiced Whole Wheat Couscous from The Hippy Gourmet with garbanzos/chickpeas for some extra staying power.

Last night we met with friends at the new Trader Vic’s on the Las Vegas Strip.  I ordered a virgin coconut drink, which hit my taste buds just right.  So, for a lunch starter, I decided to make my unsweetened mango colada.  It contains frozen pineapple and mango, a small ripe banana, a tablespoon of unsweetened coconut, and a bit of unsweetened almond milk.  Seriously, I must have used some super-ripe fruit, as it was the sweeetest thing I have had all week!  It kicked the pants off of the Trader Vic’s drink.  Perhaps I should share my secret with them? ….

Since this was more like a large snack than a lunch, I continued on with an afternoon of snacking:

• Steamed broccoli (yes, I really do get cravings for it)
• Raw carrots for crunching
• Rice cakes slathered generously with cashew butter and sprinkled with cinnamon
• Apple cake from recipe trials for a new cookbook we are publishing
• Tea, and lots of it

At last, it was time for dinner, my vegan stumbling block.  Breakfast and lunch are a breeze, but dinner, when my hearty cravings set in, can be a problem.  Luckily, an old friend was nestled in my vegetable keeper, a large Chinese eggplant.  I stir-fried it up with broccoli, red bell peppers, onions, and ooops… I accidentally left the neatly chopped mushrooms on the counter, uncooked.  Well, I have done some prep-work for tomorrows meal I guess! 

For the sauce I used a Hoisin (sweet potato base) with some tamari (soy sauce) and of course, garlic.  Set alongside a hearty helping of brown rice, and dinner was served.  To my pleasant surprise, my husband scraped up every last bite within mere minutes and proclaimed, “really good!”  He was right, simple but tasty.  Though I am sure all of the salt in the sauces helped a little.

It did fill me up … temporarily, but I can now feel a void coming on.  Thank goodness for that leftover apple cake and some pints of Purely Decadent “ice cream” chilling in the freezer!

I really enjoyed reading and writing on this topic this week, so thought I would let people know it is up on Go Dairy Free - “Surprising Foods to Ease Your Budget Into Organics.” - It adds in a few foods/concepts that I had not considered before in my own shopping.  Just in case I am slow about posting here, and you are looking for something to read on that lunchtime break, Go Dairy Free is updated every day, religiously.

Today, we were running out of food.  Ever been there? With no time to make it to Trader Joe’s or the main market we shop at, one of those market and produce type places, I scrounged the fridge for any remaining items that might make for a hearty lunch.  I found some leftover coconut milk from a prior meal, two broccoli crowns, a bag of baby carrots … hmm, it was looking promising.  A couple of pantry items and viola!  Lunch was served. 

I really wasn’t expecting my husband to like this throw together meal (even though it did taste much better than it looks), but to my great surprise, he said it was great.  So, with both his and my approval of the dish, possibly out of starvation, I will put up the recipe just in case someone else should like to make their own version:

Lunchtime Leftovers Rice (vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free … bad stuff-free)

• 1 cup brown rice (I used jasmine brown)
• 1 cup regular coconut milk
• 1.5 to 2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
• 1 large broccoli crown
• 1 to 2 cups baby carrots
• 3/4 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas) - I used the organic ones, they are littler and more nutty, not quite as potent in flavor
• fresh ground pepper

I have one of those wonderful inventions, the rice cooker.  I put the rice, coconut milk, water, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt in the rice cooker and clicked “on.” I used 2 cups of water, but you may need a little less depending on the rice you use. 

Cut the broccoli into florets, and place the florets and the baby carrots in the steamer basket that goes atop the rice cooker (or steam atop the stove).  If using the rice cooker to steam, allow the rice to cook for ten minutes before placing the vegetable steamer atop them. 

When the rice cooker goes “click.”  It is all done.  I chopped up the cooked vegetables into smaller bites, and tossed them into the rice cooker along with the garbanzo beans. I gave the whole thing a good stir to mix all of the ingredients together, added some fresh ground pepper and a touch more salt to taste, and served!  It wasn’t pretty, but really it did taste pretty darn good. 

On another note that darn cat of ours sneaks into the closet and sleeps on my clothes every time we leave the closet door open.  Today, I was once again haphazard.  With the lower shelf packed to the brim with T-shirts, the little monster decided to make that extra effort to jump up to the next shelf and make herself at home.  Finding several items pushed onto the floor and a tubby house cat who knew she was busted, one might think I would be mad.  But, all I could do was smile and giggle at the site of my fuzzy friend, and of course… take a picture….

Okay, I couldn’t resist picking up another eggplant this week. Though it seems my subconscious was working in my favor, as when I returned home with my loot, I discovered a wonderful aubergine recipe on Pig in the Kitchen (yes, I always jump on my computer the second I get home, it’s a sickness really). 

There was just one catch, I have never fried anything, I mean anything, before.  Oil and I aren’t good friends.  As long as I can lightly drizzle it or pop it in an enclosed pan while still cool, we are okay.  Really, since frying is not considered healthy, I felt no reason to train myself in this art form.  But who can resists Pig’s recipes?!  I was especially intrigued by the coating of quinoa, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds.  Aha, the elusion of health!

Alas, my pumpkin seeds seem to have met with a very tragic fate, some moisture snuck into the container, the results of which nearly causing me to lose my appetite.  Luckily, I have yet to find anything that fully succeeds in killing my appetite.  So, to adjust for my ingredient deficiencies, and because I was feeling too lazy to make homemade sauce, I modified the recipe a bit.  If you are ready for the full experienc, try Pig’s recipe, she even ventures a dollop of dijon mustard in the sauce.  I was intrigued, but still too lazy, so out came the jar of pasta sauce… but hey, one new cooking adventure at a time right?

Quinoa Crusted Eggplant

(Vegan, Gluten-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Nut-Free)

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant
• Tomato Sauce (your choice, I used a jar of Classico with mushrooms and olives that was on sale for $1 a jar!)
• 1/2 cup dried quinoa
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Cooked Rice, Brown or White (I put the rice in the rice cooker to prepare while making the rest) (optional)
• Oil for Frying (regular refined olive oil, peanut, or other high heat oil)

Slice the eggplant to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness.  Pour the sauce in a large skillet over medium heat, add 1/4 to 1/2 jar of water, and add your eggplant to simmer.  Allow the slices to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes while you move on to prepare the rest. If the sauce becomes too thick during the simmering process, just add a little more water.

You might use a food processor or blender for this step, but I found a spice grinder to be very efficient and clean.  So, place the quinoa, sunflower seeds, crushed red pepper and salt in your spice grinder and give it a good whirl.  If using my mini-appliance method, then you may need to do it in two or three batches.  It is still very quick with no clean up though! 

Pour the resultant crumbs in a shallow dish.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  The oil should be ready to sizzle, but not too hot, lest you get splattered with drops of hot oil (as I did).

Remove the eggplant slices from the sauce, and coat them in the quinoa/seed mixture (a good flip in the coating should do it).  Carefully place them in the hot oil, and cook about 2 to 3 minutes per side.  As Pig mentioned, there are a lot of little crumbs that disperse, but I tried not to let it bother me.

Remove the slices with a slotted spatula and place them on a wire rack or paper towels to drain and cool for about 5 minutes.  Serve with some of the tomato sauce you were simmering them in and rice or a salad, if desired.