Mmmm. This curried chick salad is another tester recipe for Joanna’s book, and dalas and I are totally in love with it. Chickpeas, golden raisins, curry… so good. We are going to a picnic next weekend that is a tumblr meetup and I am going to make this for all to enjoy. Maybe served with crackers, so you can scoop some out? Not sure yet, but it’s gonna be there. So yummy.
Taco salad is a quick dinner that I love to make when I am feeling lazy but still want something delicious. I truly love it. Tortilla chips, Fantastic brand taco filling, salsa/tomatoes, tofutti sour cream, cilantro… yum. Not that healthy, but whatever, it’s good. It’s like eating a snack for dinner.
This is a breakfast that I have been eating lately. It’s super hearty and healthy! It is really simply too: 1/4 each of quinoa, millet and amaranth cooked for 15 mins. Makes two servings. I put mine in a bowl, add a little soymilk, some flax oil, some maple syrup and some hemp protein powder (Living Harvest brand). So filling! And, it doesn’t give me a headache like oatmeal does, hooray! I think it would be great with toasted nuts on it too… maybe some coconut, and coconut milk. Lots of options here!
Today I made enchilada casserole from Vegan Fusion. Yum! It was so good. Here it is sitting in the skillet getting ready to be mixed up. I also made chili sauce, and then layered it all with spelt tortillas and baked it.
Here it is on my plate, with a bit of salad and served with cilantro and tofutti sour cream. We have a huge casserole dish of this left and I am looking forward to eating it foreevvvveerrrr.
We went to Breitenbush hot springs last weekend and were served some really delicious food. I forgot to take a photo, but we had really tasty vegetable soup, barley, rosemary pepper buns, big salads with beets, corn, carrots, celery (etc), tasty homemade dressings and pomegranate tea! So good. Everything was vegan, and they even had gluten-free versions of the biscuits. Cool! It was amazing, a total hippie paradise. I can’t wait to go back! Our friends were there staying for the whole weekend so we got to hear about the great breakfast they serve too… zucchini bread, granola, tea, and lots more. I just want to eat all day long, haha.
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March 28th, 2008
7287pwkr
I don’t have anything interesting to say about myself, but everyone should go and listen to the new podcast from fellow Portlanders, Stumptown Vegans! Yay!
West African Peanut Soup! This is a tester recipe for Joanna’s new Yellow Rose cookbook. This soup/stew was really delicious, as I expected. Any soup with sweet potatoes and peanut butter has to be at least slightly delicious. Yum yum.
Cupcake disaster. I don’t have any cupcake liners so I oiled up the pan pretty well before baking. Unfortunately when I was removing the cupcakes (with chopsticks) I noticed that the teflon coating had flaked off onto them all over the sides. Gross!! So, I used a fork to dig out the centers and we ate those. So sad.
Since the cupcakes died, I made this awesome spiced caramel popcorn with nuts from Super Natural Cooking (written by the lady who writes 101coobooks.com!). It was really, really good and easily veganised by swapping the butter (for popping) with oil.
Falafel pitas, another Yellow Rose tester. These didn’t turn out quite right for me, but that’s partially my fault. I still have some of the mix left in the fridge so I might tweak it a bit to see if I can get it to hold together. I looove falafel.
Breakfast for dinner! These maple ginger tempeh strips are yet another Yellow Rose tester. Testing recipes is fun! I have some more tempeh sitting in the marinade right now, so it might be breakfast for dinner again tonight. So fun. It was always awesome as a kid when you’d get to have pancakes or something for dinner.
Annnnd one more Yellow Rose recipe for today! This is the lemon mint pasta with zucchini and peas. Nice, light-and-fresh tasting. After this is gone I am going to lay off the pasta for a while because we’ve been eating it more than usual lately and I prefer it as a less frequent meal. This was tasty though! I imagine it being awesome at a summer outdoor dinner.
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March 18th, 2008
7287pwkr
I neglected to take grocery photos these past couple weeks, but I have been taking photos of my meals! I am still cooking lots of new things, which is great.
Himalayan stuffed bread from the Vegan Fusion cook book! Yum yum. It has yam, onion, jalapeno, garlic and stuff inside, with a coconut curry sauce on top. This cookbook does not disappoint!
Inside shot.
Check out this cabbage! It’s really crazy inside.
Curry vegetables, making use of leftovers and the sauce from the stuffed bread. So colorful.
Still hot & steaming, from Vegan Planet. Includes shiitake mushrooms, tofu, bamboo shoots, green onion, cilantro. I have never had hot & sour soup before, so I am not sure if it’s authentic tasting or not. Regardless, it was very good.
I have had an unopened package of arame seaweed sitting around for a long time so I finally did something with it. I made the arame salad & dressing from Vegan Fusion, but I gotta say that I just don’t really like seaweed that much, other than nori. It’s hard to eat something that tastes like the beach smells.
I made the marinara sauce from Vegan Fusion along with their barley “neatballs” from a sandwich recipe. Served over soba noodles (they have wild yam in them!)
Yesterday was our 3-year wedding anniversary and we went out for dinner at Van Hahn, a neat Vietnamese place in town that is run by nuns. It’s so great, pretty quiet and the food is cheap and delicious. This was our second time there. I want to eat everything on the menu!
dalas ordered Thai spice soup. It has tofu, pineapple, herbs, noodles, dumplings, something like fake squid (?). The bowl was SO huge, we brought home a lot of leftovers.
My dinner from Van Hahn. It is a noodle bowl with lettuce, delicious vegan spring rolls, pickled something, peanuts, sauce… yum. I had the rest for lunch today.
Our appetizer was dumplings. They are SO GOOD! Gooey and filled with really tasty stuff. It was only like $2.99 for 4 of them?? Amazing.
This burrito is possibly my favorite burrito. It’s from Los Gorditos in SE Portland and has soyrizo, avocado, tofutti sour cream… I predict that I will be eating there a lot this summer. I can’t wait to bike around!
I’m going to be doing some recipe testing for Joanna’s new book, so we will be eating some of that stuff this week. I have falafel, pea pasta and some sweet potato peanut stew planned.
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March 13th, 2008
7287pwkr
A modified version of the Mayan Wonder Bars from the Vegan Fusion cookbook. I like them, but unfortunately dalas isn’t into the flavor (he said it reminds him of dark chocolate), so I tossed half of them into the freezer since there is no way I can eat a whole pan of them in a week or so. They are made with nut butters, various nuts, seeds, toasted quinoa, maple syrup.. yum! Do you like our E.T. mug? dalas’ mom sent it to us when we first moved to Portland along with a bunch of other housewares and dishes.
Here are some meals from last week:
This is a funny meal. Our soymilk machine came with a recipe book that has some recipes for using okara (the leftover pulp from the beans), and this was one of them. Super hippie oaty nuggets. It’s just okara, pasta sauce, spices and oats, baked in the oven. It was like a pizza granola bar. It tasted pretty alright, but so strange. A flavor that you wouldn’t expect in a baked oat item. Ha ha. Also, beets! I think I will try making a burger-tye thing with the okara next time.
This was supposed to be a chili, but I forgot to soak beans and didn’t have any corn. I replaced the corn with peas and added some TVP in place of beans (not ideal, but whatever) and it was actually pretty tasty. dalas wasn’t into the tempeh so next time I will leave it out and have beans instead. Maybe pasta as well to make it even more minestrone-like.
Delicious wrap. Consists of: Warm spelt tortilla, sundried tomato & basil hummus (homemade- from the Vegan Fusion/Blossoming Lotus cookbook), grilled zucchini, marinated & grilled creamy tahini tempeh, shredded raw carrot, mixed greens, maple-balsamic dressing. This was a huge party in my mouth.
Inside shot. Man, they are so tasty. dalas said that they are his new favorite thing to eat.
I went grocery shopping at New Seasons on Saturday and came home with some good stuff. I was planning on making the lemon bars from Veganomicon that day for a potluck, but I forgot to buy cornstarch and I didn’t really leave myself enough time to let the bars set properly. So, instead I made a variation of the lemon macadamia cupcakes from VCTOW, omitting the chopped macadamias and using ground cashews instead of ground macadamias. They were tasty! I forgot to take a photo, but they were sweet with a little crystallized ginger slice on top. The potluck itself was great, there were enchiladas, green beans, awesome salad rolls w/peanut sauce (my favorite thing), spicy bean burger tower things, coconut cake, booze. Yay potlucks!
This week’s groceries:
Breakdown:
-5lb bag carrots 3.99
-Soy deli baked tofu 3.99 (why don’t I bake my own tofu? I am not sure. This is something I have been lazy about for no good reason but I like how firm this stuff is. I like using it in salads)
-Mushrooms 3.28
-Garlic 2.00
-Lime juice 3.59
-Dried apricots 3.99 (Total bummer that they were all out, except for one lonely apricot, in the bulk bin. I need them for soup!)
-Brown basmati rice 2.99
-Cilantro 1.29
-Agar agar 5.99 (Ugh, this one hurt. I know I can get it at the Asian markets for way cheaper, but I wasn’t going to have time to go that day… and then I ended up not making the lemon bars anyway)
-Frozen artichoke hearts 3.99
-Active dry yeast packets 3.99
-Low sodium bouillon cubes 1.99
-Green onions .99
-Cumin seeds .41
-Bulk almond butter 3.52
-Spelt flour 2.65
-Arugula 1.99 (Uh, I didn’t buy arugula, but they also didn’t charge me for my kale… mixup?)
-Salad greens 1.89
-Red onions 2.44
-Safflower oil 5.99
-Jalapeno chili .60 (I actually bought a jalapeno and serrano pepper, but they seem to always just charge me for jalapenos)
-Yams 3.84
-Plantains 2.26
-Ginger root 1.40
-Red cabbage 2.70
-Lemon 1.08
-Whole cloves .80
-Cinnamon sticks .40
Grand total: $73
Obviously there were a few things that I could have purchased elsewhere for less money, but I’m not too concerned about it because that $73 is going to feed us for more than a week. Typing up my grocery receipts has made me realize that the cashiers make more mistakes that I thought. Arugula? No serrano peppers? It’s not a big deal because I am not losing any money, but it would suck if I was charged more for something by mistake. I don’t watch the screen as my items are being rung in because I am busy packing my bags. I always try to bag my own groceries, because I have specific preferences for what I want in which bag, since I have to carry them on the MAX.
Things I plan to make this week:
-Lemon veggie rice & Apricot/beet/cumin soup
-Artichoke sunflower spread
-Spicy kale & yam with jerk plantains (from Vegan Fusion)
-Himalayan stuffed bread with curry sauce & salad (also VF)
-Mayan Wonder Bars (as seen above)
We had the last of our grilled tempeh wraps today. They are so colorful, tasty and nutritious. I love them! Hopefully next weekend we will make it to the Sweetpea brunch.
I haven’t heard back from the preschool yet about the cooking job, but I’m still hopeful. I also placed a hold on a book at the library about being a personal chef, because I think that might be a really awesome way to earn a living while cooking.
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February 25th, 2008
7287pwkr
I went on another weekly shopping trip today! I actually went out yesterday too, to Fubonn (Asian shopping center with a big grocery store) on SE 82nd and a quick stop at Trader Joe’s as well. At Fubonn I was hoping to find lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind paste and mirin. Out of the bunch I could only find the lemongrass… I probably missed some of the other stuff, but man, I can’t find those lime leaves anywhere! I went up and down all the isles carefully and looked at all the stuff. I did find some pickled tamarind, but it contained some weird preservatives and dyes and I don’t like eating stuff like that. In fact, a lot of the stuff I picked up had MSG in it, which I’m just not interested in consuming. I had fun there though, and ended up buying some vegetarian orange “chicken”. There were a lot of big veggie ham tubes/loaves! I also picked up some coconut buns, also known as honey buns (not vegan, in case you were wondering). I haven’t had one since being in Vancouver/Victoria last summer. They are a Vancouver Chinatown necessity, so cheap and delicious.
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, which I don’t really care much about, except that it marks the day that I moved from Vancouver, BC, to Brooklyn, NY to move in with dalas. So it is a special day for us, but we always end up having annoying Valentine dinners where we wander around and can’t find anywhere to eat, ha ha. This year we avoided the situation altogether by staying in and watching Lost with some friends! Ariel and Amelia came over earlier and we made cupcakes. This was my first vegan cupcaking making experience, believe it or not. I just haven’t made them before because I don’t know what I would DO with them! dalas isn’t a huge cake fan, and I have a problem with my sweet tooth, so if there’s a sugary product in the house I will probably eat it all. As a result, I don’t eat a lot of cupcakes (whew!). In the past year I have eaten three: two at What the Heck fest in Anacortes, and one at Sweetpea on their opening. Now I am not sure what the number is, but they’re all gone now. Luckily I had plenty of help!
I also made some Cuban black bean soup last night, which was really tasty. I love having a big pot of soup hanging out in my fridge so if I am feeling too lazy to get serious about cooking dinner, I can just serve up some tasty soup with some greens on the side. I will take a picture of that one later!
Today was my weekly New Seasons grocery trip, which gets pushed back a day or so every time because we always end up having food for slightly more than one week. Here’s today’s haul:
Breakdown:
-3 zucchini 3.71
-Bananas 1.47
-Canned diced tomatoes 1.79
-Coconut milk 2.19 (yikes, so much cheaper at Trader Joe’s… but I used some up in the cupcakes that I needed for dinners so I needed more!)
-Tahini 4.99
-Hemp protein 13.99 (dalas wants to gain weight, so I’ll be adding this to his smoothies in hopes that it will help a bit!)
-Sundried tomatoes 4.39
-Cornmeal 1.63
-Red bell pepper 1.95
-Sprouted grain tortillas 2.69
-Millet 3.01
-Dry garbanzo beans 4.56
-Paprika .80
-Nutritional yeast 1.02
-Veggie variety tempeh 2.79
-Spelt flour 2.18
-Tomato paste 1.19
-Eggplant 3.32
-Chard 1.99
-Purple beets 2.49
-Broccoli 4.23
-1 Jalapeno pepper .75
-Yellow beets 2.49
-Kale 1.99
Weird… I don’t think they charged me for my serrano pepper (or maybe it was weighed with the jalapeno) or my regular soy tempeh. Oh well! Bonus free groceries?
Dishes that I plan on making this week:
-Holy hummus wraps (from the Blossoming Lotus cookbook, they sound so good, with veggies & tempeh. I’m making sundried tomato hummus to go with it!)
-Southwest tempeh chili (yum… lots of tempeh this week!) with cornbread (Kosmic Korn Bread! also from the BL Vegan Fusion book)
-Tropical Ratatouille (Vegan Fusion as well… this was my reason for purchasing the eggplant & zucchini, which I haven’t had since they went out of season)
-Beets, greens, millet, lentils and some mix & match meals
I want to eat everything in the Vegan Fusion book. I can’t wait until fresh veggies are back in my life so that I can truly take advantage of the recipes.
Skillet full of stuff: the last of the seitan sausage, savory lentil hash and pierogies
A couple days ago I interviewed for a vegan cooking job at a local preschool. It sounds truly amazing, and also a little unbelievable- I can be PAID to COOK?? For kids? Kids who love baked tofu?? It is definitely my ideal job, and I hope that it works out in my favor. Everything about it sounds perfect, from the nice bike ride to/from the school, to the work hours, the colorful building, the positive environment, the school garden, planning meals, cooking, baking, working around food… yes please! I was so happy to see the ad, because I had seen it a long time ago and always regretted not applying. I am not actively LOOKING for a job right now, so it feels good to apply for something that I would really love to do instead of just applying for any old job that pops up. I have my fingers crossed and am definitely keeping positive about the possibility. Even if I don’t get the job, there’s a chance that I could be hired as a sub for the main cook, so that is cool too. If this doesn’t work out then I will probably look into other vegan cooking options, probably at local eateries and stuff, although I really love the idea of working for a non-profit organization.
dalas has a half day of work today, so he’s done already! Yay! Time to make lunch.
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February 15th, 2008
7287pwkr
dalas and I went for dinner at the Dart residence the other night and finally exchanged Christmas presents. It was very book oriented! I was really excited to receive the Blossoming Lotus Vegan Fusion cookbook! If you click that link, you can find some free recipes from the book. Blossoming Lotus is one of those places that I feel great about ordering ANYTHING from their menu, because I know it will be delicious, nutritious and satisfying. I looked through the cookbook page by page and I feel like if I ate that food all the time, I would feel AMAZING. Everything is just so good. There is a really great photo of a bunch of vegetables and fruits creating a serious rainbow of food, which made us invent the concept of “full-spectrum eating”. I mean, I know it is a real thing to eat all different colors of foods, but have you heard a more awesome magical hippie term for it?? Full-spectrum eating! Ha ha. Anyway, it’s funny but also true. Oh, I just googled it and it already exists. I’m not surprised, oh well. It doesn’t take away my enjoyment of the concept.
From flickr user ladnlins.
On Friday night I tried a recipe from my blue notebook. A lemony lentil loaf! Nice recipe title. It was really good! For a while I was skeptical, so I added a couple ingredients. I’m sure this is true for many veggie loaves, but this one doesn’t hold together very well when it is hot. I ended up cooking up the leftovers in the skillet, turning it into more of a savory lentil hash, which tastes amazing with a bit of ketchup. Very brunch-y!
Here goes:
1 c uncooked brown lentils
3 c water
1 piece kombu, 4″ long
1 c cooked rice or other grain (I used a TJ’s brown rice blend that also has daikon radish seeds, um!)
1 vegan bouillon cube (for cooking rice- optional, this was my addition for extra flavor)
1 tbsp miso
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
3/4 c - 1 c celery, finely chopped (my addition)
2 pieces of whole grain bread, processed into crumbs with a bit of olive oil in the food processor (my addition)
Cook lentils with the kombu piece in water for 45 mins. Remove kombu, cut into small pieces and return to pot (I just left it out, except for the bits that tore off). Stir in all the remaining ingredients and press into a loaf pan (mine is non-stick, you might want to grease it up a bit if yours isn’t) and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 mins.
Oh! I bet you could also glaze the top with some kind of sauce like a traditional meatloaf. This isn’t really meatloafy tasting, more like a savory hash that is reminiscent of tasty stuffing. Goes really well with other brunchy things, as I think I already mentioned. I didn’t take any photos, sorry! We finished it off tonight. Yum yum.
I still have two meals left on my list for the week- cuban black bean soup (I keep forgetting to soak the beans, but it’s definitely happening tonight!) and cajun tempeh bacon. Wow, I really can’t describe how awesome it is to have a weekly meal plan. Making one grocery trip a week is truly amazing, and this new food schedule/plan has made my life a lot more mellow.
I have been thinking more and more about food and its role in my life lately. dalas believes that cooking is my strongest skill, and he has been encouraging me to choose it as my official path in life. Making big life decisions like that are scary for me, but I know that it is important to pick something specific to concentrate on otherwise you will feel scattered and unmotivated. Since becoming unemployed last November, I have been working on a lot of different things, earning money mostly from re-selling vintage items in addition to some art sales. It’s fun, but do I really want to scrounge around in dirty bins forever? I feel excited when I find something cool, and I like when I can make a good profit on an interesting item, but is it really fulfilling? I’ve been feeling conflicted.
Cooking is something that I really love doing, and seeing people eating and enjoying food that I have made makes me feel so great! I think that making food is my way of contributing to the world and helping people. I guess I believe that your career and life’s work should help someone, somehow. It should be helpful in a way that isn’t based on money or making that person (or yourself) rich. I have always known that I’m not cut out to be a teacher or a nurse or anything like that, so for a long time I have felt like there were no “helpful” careers that suited me.
So, why not food? I have said it before, and I will repeat that I think food is one of the most important things, ever. Every human needs to eat good, healthy food. It is required for LIFE. Sure, you can survive on junk food, but lifeless food often equals a pretty lifeless existence. Food isn’t just about survival, but also about nourishment and enjoyment. Last year my mom told me that she doesn’t enjoy making OR eating food. It broke my heart! Everyone should enjoy food. I want to make food for people to enjoy, food that will nourish their bodies and make happy minds.
I am also excited thinking about our garden this year. Last year was a MAJOR improvement on the year before, so I hope this year it will be even better! That’s just the way gardening works, you learn new things every time so it’s always getting better. Here are some photos from my garden last year:
I grew a lot of greens! Snap peas,broccoli, kale, spinach, buttercrunch lettuce, beans & various herbs. I definitely want to grow all of those things again, and want to add chard, squash, maybe onions… we’re going to have a CSA share too, so maybe I should try to grow a lot of things that I can preserve. Anyway, there are a lot of options.
Sugar snap peas. I can’t wait for these!
Seriously lush lettuce
Baby broccoli.. I ended up with SO MUCH broccoli!
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February 12th, 2008
7287pwkr
Surprise, another rainy day! I love Portland and accept the rain as part of living here, but man, I am tired of getting wet every time I go outside. It’s hard to ride my bike in the rain, and it makes me dread trips to the post office. In the winter I really wish we were rich so that we could just have our groceries delivered to us, but New Seasons’ $15 fee is too much. Oh well.
On Wednesday I made drunken noodles for lunch, but they weren’t as tasty as the first batch because I had too many noodles. They were still good, so it wasn’t a big deal. Wednesday night I made Snobby Joes from Veganomicon, you can find the recipe right here! This was my first time eating a sloppy joe of any kind, and it was good! dalas liked it, he said he was surprised at how much it tasted like a “real” sloppy joe. Also, he said that they should be serving these in school cafeterias instead of gross low grade meat. True!
Man, they were SO filling. I couldn’t eat everything on this plate, it was just too much. I liked them, but I am not a huge fan of tomato paste/sauce based things, so if I make them again it will be mostly for dalas. I feel the same about spaghetti and tomato sauce pastas too. But, I love tomatoes! What’s wrong with me?
Today I made my very first baked seitan. I have never made seitan using the boiling method, because it kind of freaks me out. This was so simple though, and I am happy with the results! It tastes good. I will make more, for sure.
I had to break a $20 bill today so I walked over to Nature Bake and picked up a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread (The Good Seed) along with some tasty chocolate chip cookies!
They had a bunch of day-old bags, only $3! Yum. Their website says they are moving in late February or early March, and let me just say this again: I AM REALLY SAD. Don’t leave me, Nature Bake!
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February 8th, 2008
7287pwkr
I love the Anatomy of a Grocery Trip posts that Jess writes, so here is one from me! This is week two of attempted meal-planning (& trying new recipes) and hopefully only one grocery trip for the entire week. Although, I already know this isn’t true, because I have to go to Trader Joe’s tomorrow to buy toilet paper, and I think I might need some nice firm tofu as well. I made some really tasty pesto last night so I should also pick up some more pasta. I wrote down “firm tofu” on my grocery list, but I can’t figure out what recipe it’s supposed to be a part of. Oh well. Here are the dishes that I plan on making this week:
-Cuban black bean soup
-Drunken noodles (they were such a hit, I had to make them again)
-Lemony lentil loaf
-Cajun tempeh bacon
-Snobby Joes (from Veganomicon)
-Seitan Pepperoni
-Jerk-spiced portabello mushrooms (I have made these before too, but have been craving them)
Since there are only two of us, I always end up with plenty of leftovers. Sometimes I will make a new dish for lunch, sometimes dinner, and then the other meal gets to have leftovers. I plan on serving all of those things with a nice salad on the side, or some steamed broccoli/chard/kale.
Here’s what I bought today at New Seasons:
-thai rice noodles 2.50 (I know these could have been cheaper at Pacific Market, but it started to rain and I wanted to make just one trip today)
-4 kaiser rolls 3.56
-steel cut oats 1.75 (bulk- enough for so many breakfasts!)
-Soy Deli baked tofu - 3.99 (I never like my own baked tofu, so I buy it)
-Lemon juice, not from concentrate 2.99 (this is a new thing for me, I’m just wondering if it will keep for a long time…)
-Tofutti sour cream 2.79
-Tomato paste 1.19
-Diced tomatoes 1.79
-Bay leaves 0.16
-Dried sweet basil 0.34
-Curry powder 0.16
-Lightlife tempeh 2.79
-Broccoli 3.31
-Tomato sauce 0.99
-2 portabello mushrooms
-Salad greens 1.68
-Cremini mushrooms 3.14
-5 yellow onions 3.12
-Bananas 1.93
-Rainbow chard 1.99
-Ginger root 0.49
-1 serrano chile 0.05
-6 or 7 Gala apples 7.52 (most expensive item!)
-2 red onions 1.47
-Fresh basil 2.99
-Green bell pepper 1.11
-Kale 1.99
-Red bell pepper 1.92
GRAND TOTAL= $61.36
Pretty much everything was organic, except the rice noodles, mushrooms and probably the toffuti sour cream?
I don’t know how this compares to other people’s grocery costs, but I feel ok about it. This will definitely feel us for a week, if not a bit more. Grocery shopping is fun. I love the fact that New Seasons has so many bulk spices! I really like planning out stuff ahead of time, even though it takes me a long time to decide which dishes to make. I already made the drunken noodles (with a crazy amount of leftovers) and we’re having Snobby Joes and leftover sweet potato salad for dinner!
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February 6th, 2008
7287pwkr
BBQ pinto beans, chard with homemade honey-mustard dressing, creamy sweet potato salad. dalas was pretty into this meal, declaring it a perfect plate. We believe in the perfect mouthful- you should be able to take a bit of each thing on your plate and combine it together to create a delicious mess of food. You can definitely do that with this meal! The beans are just cooked pintos with some Trader Joe’s BBQ sauce, but I tend to overcook the beans a little bit so that they are nice and soft, as if they’ve been baked (but without the effort). The chard is steamed and dressed with some honey-mustard stuff that I made yesterday, it was so easy! Yeah, I eat honey. It was a simple 5 tbsp honey, 3 tbsp dijon mustard, 2 tbsp rice vinegar whisked together. Yum. No oil or anything!
The sweet potato salad was super delicious. I have not eaten a lot of potato salad in my life, so I don’t really know what makes a “good” potato salad. Regardless, I know that this was tasty, and my Southern husband agrees, so it must be good! It’s also surprisingly not unhealthy, since the recipe contains no mayo (I think my veganaise smells kind of weird anyway.. can that stuff go bad?). I have NO IDEA where the recipe is from, so I might as well post it:
Creamy Sweet Potato Salad:
-3 med sweet potatoes, cooked whole in their skins then cubed (I baked it in the oven for an hour… not sure if that was right, but it turned out well! )
-1 green pepper, finely chopped
-2 celery sticks, finely chopped
-3 scallions, thinly sliced (I can NEVER find scallions, so I just used 1/2 a yellow onion)
-1/2 c chopped hazelnuts (I didn’t have many so I did about half hazelnuts, half pepitas)
-1/2 of a walnut-sized piece of ginger, grated, or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
-1/2 silken or fresh tofu
-2 tbsp oil
-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
-1 tbsp lemon juice (I didn’t have any, so I used lime juice)
-1 tbsp tamar
-1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds soafed in apple juice (uh, I just used 1 tbsp dijon mustard)
-2 tbsp hazelnuts, toasted, for garnish
Mix all ingredients from sweet potatoes to ginger together in a large bowl. Mix the dressing into the bowl with the rest of the stuff, stir it up, chill it for approx 1 hour before serving. Makes a nice big bowl, enough for a potluck or a dinner with leftovers for later.
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February 5th, 2008
7287pwkr
I shop at too many different grocery stores. There are a few within biking distance for us, which is pretty important since we don’t have a car (I don’t even have a license!). I usually do all the grocery shopping, because I also do all the cooking and I can go out for groceries during the day while dalas is working. I really love grocery stores, and I think it’s interesting to wander around in them and see how they differ from one another. I also like finding weird products. I am not necessarily a bargain food shopper, because I think that buying good quality food is important, and I like to buy organic whenever possible even though it costs a bit more. We don’t really buy a lot of stuff nor do we do a lot of out-of-the-house activities that require money, so we’ve never had a grocery budget. Sometimes I will try to keep track of how much we’re spending, but then I get lazy and stop.
Here are the places where I get my food:
1. Farmer’s Market! I know this isn’t a grocery store, but it is my #1 favorite place to get food. Last year was the first time that I shopped at the farmer’s market on a regular basis, and I am dying for it to start again! I shop at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, because it is the closest to my house. Last year our CSA farm had a booth there so it was really convenient to pick up my veggies and shop for more at the same time. The farmer’s market also had some really delicious food-to-go vendors, and my favorite thing was the harvest crepe from the crepe booth! It was vegan, filled with greens, avocado, basil and tomato. YUM.
2. CSA Farms: Also not a store, but WAY BETTER. Having a CSA share changed my life and I am so happy to be supporting local farmers. Not only a CSA share mean that you get awesome fresh veggies every week, but they are cheap too! It really means a lot to me to know where my food is coming from, and nothing could provide that better than a local farm. Last year we went with Winter Green Farm, chosen mostly because they had a weekend pickup site at the market that is close to us. They were pretty good, and the produce was always awesome and organic. Their farm is about 100 miles away, which was a bit more than I wanted and we had to pay a bit extra for their travel costs. This year we chose Sauvie Island Organics. I have heard a lot of good things about them, and their farm is very close! I will be biking to one of their bulk pickup sites, which wasn’t possible last year because I was working during their pickup hours. Also, their season is longer than Winter Green… May-Dec VS June-Oct. I’m so excited for it to start!
3. New Seasons: I don’t go to this grocery store very often, but I like it a lot. There are none within biking distance to me, and all require at least 2 buses/trains for me to get there. I’m trying to plan meals ahead of time so that I can make one big trip there per week or so, hopefully that will go well. I think their prices are decent, and their produce always looks/tastes pretty good. I can usually find everything I want there, which is nice! I also know that they pay their employees fairly and give decent benefits, which gets a thumbs-up from me. They also have a pretty good bulk section, but I can’t get dry soybeans there! What’s up with that?
4. Wild Oats: I used to work close to a Wild Oats, so sometimes I would stop there after work to get something for dinner. I can bike there, but I don’t do it very often. Before trying out the New Seasons thing, I would buy organic bulk items (beans, grains… but still no soybeans!) there and hemp milk! I’ve heard that Wild Oats is going to change a bit now that it has been purchased by Whole Foods, but it won’t affect me a lot since I am not really a frequent shopper.
5. Whole Foods: Currently the only Whole Foods is downtown, so I rarely go there. However, they are the only ones that I have found with dry organic soybeans! I might buy them from my friend’s co-op instead though, because I don’t really like giving Whole Foods much of my money. I do have to give them some credit though, because they always have all the random ingredients that I am looking for. I never buy staples there, because they charge WAY more than other stores. It’s pretty ridiculous. They are opening one up in the Hollywood area, so I might go there more often. We’ll see…
6. Trader Joe’s: Things I buy regularly from TJ’s: organic apples, extra firm organic tofu, bananas, plantain chips, roasted cashews, secret Amy’s roasted veggie pizzas (hidden under the TJ’s brand name), coconut milk, pasta, earth balance. We used to get our soymilk there too, before the days of the mighty soymilk maker. Trader Joe’s is great for cheap staples, and snacks!! They have so many different kinds of nuts and chips and stuff. I can bike there OR take the MAX, so it’s pretty easy either way. They also have a lot of beer with better prices than the Plaid Pantry at the end of our street.
7. Fred Meyer: Uh, I hate Fred Meyer. It is the closest store to us, so we have done a lot of shopping there over the past 2.5 years that we’ve lived on this street in Portland. I shop exclusively in two sections of the store: produce and the “natural” foods section. Unfortunately the vegetables usually suck and they have a limited organic section so sometimes I end up with conventional potatoes or green beans. Sometimes it looks like the organic fruit hasn’t been touched in weeks, and once I bought a bag of organic onions only to discover that one of them was totally rotten. It was the first time that I have ever seen a rotten onion before in my whole life. Thanks, Fred Meyer! They are also really unreliable and are often out of a product right when I need it. I’ll never forgive them for the time that I had my wisdom teeth out and wanted to try that Zen Soy pudding, and they DIDN’T HAVE ANY. Jerks! I used to stop at Fred Meyer on my way to work to pick out some kind of Amy’s frozen meal for lunch, or a crappy vegan burrito, maybe an apple, or some kombucha. Not bad, but man… Fred Meyer is a total bummer. Everyone buys so much crap from that store, and looking in their carts makes me sad.
8. Limbo: Limbo is cool! They are really far away from me so I’ve only been a few times, but shopping in there is fun. They have a long hallway with so many shelves filled with giant jars of crazy teas and herbs and spices… it feels like being in a witch’s house. The first time I turned that corner and saw all those jars I was totally blown away! What a cool place. They have good veggies as well, and it’s cool that they are next to Trader Joe’s since their produce in notoriously bad. When the Hollywood Trader Joe’s moved I was really wishing for a Limbo-esque store, but instead I got a fucking Panera Bread. THANKS A LOT. What a disappointment.
9. : Food Fight Grocery. Today I bought mustard from them! I also tried the nachos for the first time, and they were GREAT. Food Fight is awesome, and has so many vegan items that are hard to find. My most common purchase from Food Fight is Smooch Lions candy. Man, those things are tasty. I saw a new kind of bottled kombucha there today! They are kind of far away for me too, but I think I might need some of those nachos again soon.
10. Pacific Market: This is an Asian grocery store a few blocks from my house. It freaks me out a little bit, because a lot of the things on the shelf seem like they’ve been there for years, but everything is really cheap. They have so many different kinds of rice noodles and curry pastes! Lots of tea! Weird agar pudding mixes! It can’t compare to Fubonn, which I still need to explore more thoroughly. Pacific Market is definitely less overwhelming though, although I am always confused by their checkout system.
I think that covers it in terms of grocery stores! Soon there will be a discount grocery store near me too, so I can get cheap soy ice cream and stuff! Nice!
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February 4th, 2008
7287pwkr
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