Budget Meals for the Week

Ahhh Sunday! The day that I destroy my kitchen (even more than usual) to make my meals for the week. I have been super busy lately with working and going to the gym, so now it is even more important that I observe this ritual. Last week I ran out of home cooked meals and ended up eating lots of Boca burgers and Clif bars. Not that I am complaining too much. Today I made several dishes that will hopefully keep me fed all week. I also think I did a pretty decent job of keeping everything fairly inexpensive. Cheap food does not equal any lack of flavor or nutrients in my kitchen! This post will detail my cooking adventures for this weekend.

First off, I made a big stir fry with my old nemesis...frozen vegetables! I have never cared for the texture/flavor of frozen veggies. Something about them has always bothered me. Maybe because I grew up eating a lot of canned goods. I will eat any vegetable fresh (except celery, because that is NASTY), and I occasionally use canned veggies in my cooking, although I am trying to get away from that. Frozen veggies are very cheap and easy to stock up on, so I have been forcing myself to try like them. I think I found a winner with this dish.

Thanks to the magic of Sam's Club, I picked up a 4.5 pound bag of frozen stir-fry veggies for around $7. This mix includes broccoli, snow peas, carrots, red pepper, water chestnuts, and mushrooms. Oh, and I found 2 sketchy-looking sauce packets when I opened the bag. They weren't really frozen like the vegetables, which made me even more suspicious.


I tossed some veggies in my handy microwave steamer and put them in the microwave until they were in a less-frozen state. I ended up nuking 2 batches, or about half of the bag. I was actually planning on using a sauce packet for some reason.

For my protein in this whole ordeal, I decided to use some tofu. I picked up a couple of packs of Melissa's organic extra-firm tofu at Hy-Vee last week on sale for $1.99 each. My favorite brand of tofu is Nasoya, but since Melissa's is usually $3-4 I figured I would give it a try. All I did was press it for a while, using a handy kabocha squash

Cube it...


...and bake it. Yes, I bake tofu. Quite a lot, actually. It helps firm it up and dry it out, without adding much extra fat. My favorite thing to bake it with is my handy $1 pizza pan I got at the Salvation Army years ago. It is now well "seasoned" and really does the trick.


See? Slightly crispy, chewy, golden deliciousness! I didn't season it this time because I was going to add it to something, but it was still tasty plain and hot out of the oven. The sauce that came with the veggies was actually pretty decent on its own, but that didn't stop me from adding tons of fresh garlic, sesame seeds, and chili garlic sauce!


This dish came together beautifully, and ended up making 3 hefty servings for around $5.50, or about $1.83 each. It was so flavorful that I actually didn't mind the texture of the vegetables. Hopefully this is a step forward in training myself to accept frozen veggies into my life!


Another fairly cheap dish I made was a big breakfast scramble. I am famous for my scrambled tofu, which I usually make with firm tofu. Lately I have been making it with silken tofu for a change. I have a very rocky relationship with breakfast. I used to skip it all the time. Horrible, I know. It took me a lot of training (and Luna bars) to get in the habit of eating breakfast every day. A good portion of my morning meals still consist of eating some type of bar in my car on the way to work, but that is still better than nothing! I figured I would eat better breakfasts if I cooked a bunch of food to heat up in the mornings. So that is how this mess came to be.


I actually had about half of a tube of Gimme Lean sausage in the freezer, so I figure I would use that up. I also added some diced red onion, minced garlic, and jalapenos, along with two boxes of tofu. Seasoning includes ground mustard, tumeric, nutritional yeast, Braggs, and black pepper.

While I was making this mess, I was trying something new in my slow cooker. I guess you could call this a Tuscan style "baked" beans dish. I will probably tweak this a little next time, but it basically consisted of a pound of white beans soaked overnight and a jar of Trader Joe's bruschetta.

I just tossed the ingredients in my slow cooker and let 'er rip on high for about 8 hours. I have learned the hard way that when set on low, even for 10 hours, my slow cooker is NOT capable of cooking beans. I checked on these beans a few times during the day, and they were technically cooked after about 4-5 hours, but I love how they broke down a little after going all day. They really have the same consistency of baked beans from a can. Yum! This whole pot of beans cost about $3.50, and it made a TON. I am not sure how many meals it will last me, but they will all be super cheap.

Waffle My Falafel: A Cautionary Tale

Another Friday night home alone. For some people, the boredom could be stifling. For me, it is a chance to catch up on laundry, clean the litterbox, and most important of all, clean and prep the kitchen for massive weekend destruction!

I did a little shopping at my local food coop after work today. The primary reason being that I needed more lentils. I have been making an awesome lentil salad on a regular basis so my need to restock has been high. I will share my recipe at the end of this post.

Anywho, I came home, put stuff away, (ate another Boca burger with sauerkraut), and stood back to assess my fridge situation. I have a feeling that a lot of vegans do this to make best use of fresh ingredients on hand. There are usually my most costly (not to mention perishable) goods in the kitchen, so extra care is needed to ensure proper usage.

Looking at this picture, you would think that I don't have any actual "food" in the house. Also, I have a really shitty fridge because I rent. I swear there are about 7 packages of tofu in that middle drawer though! Bare fridge aside, there was one thing in there staring me down...

...nestled among the almond milk, soy milk, and carrot juice was this stupid bowl of sprouted chickpeas that has been haunting me all week! I sprouted them a while ago with every intention of snacking on them during the week. They were good, but they just didn't hit the spot for me this time. They are pretty cute with their little curly "tails" though!

Somehow the idea came into my head to make falafel. Even though I've never really cared for it or made it before. There is some spice in it that has never really agreed with me. I decided that it would be good this time because I would be the one controlling what went into it. So I threw these suckers into my Magic Bullet and pulsed them into a gross clumpy mess. I am sure that a food processor would have been the tool of choice here, but I actually do not own one! Soon though. Soon. I really need something between the mini-convenience of the Magic Bullet and the extra-large death machine aka Vita-Mix.

After getting the chickpeas to a workable consistency, I tossed them in a bowl and stirred in some lemon juice, chopped red onions, minced garlic, cumin seeds, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and sea salt.

I know parsley is a main falafel ingredient but you know what? I didn't have any and I think it's gross anyway SO THERE! I had chickpea flour on standby in case the mixture turned out to be too moist, but it wasn't. It wasn't actually a bit on the dry side. Just the excuse I needed to stir in some of my favorite tahini of all time. Falafel blasphemy, I'm sure.

This is seriously the best stuff ever. After stirring in about a tablespoon, my mixture didn't look much different, but it did stick together fairly well went pressed into balls (hehe..balls!). I didn't think it would hold up enough to be fried though. Plus, frying is a very very rare activity in my kitchen. So I turned my oven on and even oiled a cooking sheet when I suddenly struck inspiration: I have a waffle maker!

And not just any waffle maker! A George Foreman waffle maker that I got on clearance at Target for $7 a few months ago! I had only used it once so far (to make waffles of all things) and I was impressed at it's non-stick abilities. Hopefully they would impress me again because I was about to squash some pretty wicked stuff between it. So I balled up my dough and waffled away!
Ladies and gentlemen, this experience has changed my life! Excuse the crappy picture, but they were perfectly crisp on the outside and densely moist in the inside. SO GOOD!

This awesome discovery in waffling got me to thinking: wouldn't this be a great way to make all veggie burgers/patties? Because if you think about it, what is the main problem with making these at home? I know what mine is. They fall apart either while frying them or flipping them over while baking them. Unless you add a boatload of vital wheat gluten, which is not always a bad thing I suppose. But really think about this! With a waffle maker, you can have a doughy or crumbly batter, but it will all stay in the same place while cooking evenly on both sides! I have also been toying with the idea of making pakora in muffin format to avoid frying, but now I am thinking that I will waffle them instead! Long story short, expect more waffle posts!

And oh yeah, I'm not done...as promised, here is my famous lentil salad "recipe". I make this almost every week!

The base of this dish are French lentils. These are super cute little green speckly lentils that I buy in bulk at my coop super cheap. They also have the best flavor of any lentil I have ever tried. You could probably use just about any kind of un-split dried lentil you want. Just boil them up until they are cooked through, but not falling apart and mushy. Try using 2 parts water to 1 part lentils, boil for about 20 minutes, then drain any excess water. I also highly recommend adding some vegetable bullion to the water for extra flavor.

Let the lentils cool for a bit, then toss them in a bowl with sea salt, black pepper, dried thyme, and chopped red onion. The thyme really compliments the earthiness of the lentils, and the onions add an amazing textural dimension, along with a pungency that really brightens things up. But the party doesn't stop there! For a light "dressing", I stir in a dose of red wine vinegar and a big spoonful of good quality whole-grain mustard. This final mixture tastes amazing warm right out of the bowl. It's very hard not to immediately shovel it all into your face! It will keep in the fridge for a few days, getting even better as it "marinates".

Stuff I've Eaten Recently: iPhone Addition

Since I was without blogging capabilities for a couple of months, I amassed a decent collection of food photos on my iPhone. I tend to take pictures of food when I am eating out and stumble upon something tasty anyway, since I use Foodspotting (follow me here). I also sometimes take pictures of delicious food I make to text family members and such. Yes, I lead a life of non-stop excitement. Don't be jealous.

So here is a round-up/catch-up of some of my food highlights from late 2011 and early 2012. In all of their crappy iPhone 3GS glory!


Exhibit A: Sam's Club inspired salad

Location: Break room at work via my kitchen at home

Ingredients: Baby spinach, avocado, blackberries, walnuts, home-grown mung bean sprouts, red onion, and a homemade red wine/dijon mustard vinaigrette.
Comments: I got the idea for this salad from a recipe on the bag of avocados I got at Sam's Club. Most of the other ingredients came from Sam's too, hence the name. It was tasty, with a nice contrast of textures, but I made the dressing a little too tangy and it kind of clashed with the avocado.

Exhibit B: My favorite Aldi salad!
Location: My kitchen
Ingredients: Garden salad mix, carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, red onions, radishes, green olives, raw sunflower seeds, garlic vinaigrette.
Comments: This is one of my all-time favorite salads! Everything is from Aldi, including my favorite dressing of theirs. Okay, I guess the sunflower seeds aren't. I make this salad with an entire bag of their lettuce mix and happily spend the next half an hour crunching away. Oh, and I have to make it in my big mixing bowl because it's the only bowl I have that is large enough to contain all of this goodness!

This is just another example of my favorite salad, with a little Hy-Vee mixed in. I shop where the veggies are the best deals!

Exhibit C: Split Pea Soup. Two liters of it, to be exact!
Location: My kitchen
Ingredients: Split green peas, carrots, onions, garlic, veggie stock, and spices...all boiled up and destroyed in the Vita-Mix.
Comments: Super cheap, easy, filling, and freezes well! Also very nutritious and high in protein and fiber.

Exhibit D: HEALTHY SURPRISE PACKAGE!!!
Location: Delivered monthly to my house!
Ingredients: AWESOME AND WIN!!
Comments: If you have not heard of Healthy Surprise, you have now and you have no excuse not to subscribe to it! You get tons of awesome natural, gluten-free vegan goodies delivered to your door monthly. You can cancel any time you want (you won't) and the people that run it are super friendly and dedicated to making sure you are 200% satisfied with everything. The package pictured above was actually a larger size than I normally get. Thanks to the incompetence of the USPS, one of my packages was "lost" (I know you ate it, Minnesota mailman!), but as soon as I notified Healthy Surprise, they sent me a double-sized one to make up for it. I will probably be posting more Healthy Surprises, and some product reviews.

Exhibit E: Big Ass Boca Burger
Location: My kitchen
Ingredients: 2 Boca Grillers Vegan patties, pickles, tomato, red onion, sauerkraut, and vegenaise on a toasted whole wheat sandwich thin.
Comments: I know, I know, faux meat and...wheat?? I'm horrible! My mom actually bought Boca burgers for me the last time I was home and I somehow got addicted to them. I have also wussed-out in ridding myself of wheat 100%. I don't actually have a wheat allergy/intolerance, I just used to work for the wheat industry and I HATED IT. I think lately I have just been working out and lifting weights so much that I have been bad and craving some omni guilty pleasures. Like a huge, disgusting, sloppy burger. I am definitely guilty of not getting enough protein at times (not my fault salads are awesome), so I have been making a conscious effort to boost my intake. This sandwich contained 37 grams for only 350 calories!

Exhibit F: Rajas Tacos
Location: Rusty Taco, St. Paul, MN
Ingredients: Corn tortilla, grilled veggie filling including pablano peppers and mushrooms, fresh cilantro.
Comments: So. Freaking. DELICIOUS! This place blew my mind! After scarfing up these little beauties, I promptly returned to the counter and ordered more.
This one was filled with black beans and toasted pumpkin seeds! I will definitely be craving these in the future!


Exhibit G: Veggie humus sandwich and veggie chili with blue corn chips
Location: Bushel & Peck's, Beloit, WI
Ingredients: The sandwich was filled with house made humus and carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce; the chili had three different kind of beans in it and was probably the best chili I've ever eaten.
Comments: I was stuck in Wisconsin last week on a business trip and the only health food type store just happened to be a block from my hotel. They have a little cafe in the back that has a couple of vegan options if you ask. The chili was seriously amazing. I thought I made a mean vegan chili, but I am seriously jealous of theirs now.

Well, this post takes care of a bunch of pictures on my phone! Who knows what I will blog about next time. In the not-so-distant future, I do have a lot of business trips coming up, so expect some posts about vegan survival on the road!