No Bull, No Bucks.

Vegan cooking problems:

When you want to make stroganoff, but all you have is vanilla soy milk instead of regular!

What’s your favourite home-made, simple ingredient meal?

I’m talking no store bought veggie burgers, no pre-made vegan cheeses, no tofutti, no brand name “chikn” strips. Whatever you can whip up at home using fruits, vegetables, and other very common ingredients?

I love using chickpeas to make “chicken” based recipes. Lentils and red kidney beans are great for vegan meatloaf! Homemade almond milk can serve as a great base for awesome alfredo sauces, as well as ice cream (always plenty of bananas!)

Go-Doer Vegan Meal Plan

I don’t often plan out what I’m going to make for meals. I find myself so caught up in the millions of things I need to do or want to do, and somewhere along the way I forget to have a proper meal! I’m a go-doer, always wanting a new project, a new book, or a good game. 

I don’t want to spend hours cooking food, and at the same time I want the food that I eat to be tasty and interesting. On top of that, I want to be able to eat on a fairly small budget. Here’s a list of groceries I’ve come up with, followed by a few possible recipes, that let me start working on achieving that. The grocery list assumes that some other staples - spices, oils, and baking ingredients - are already in the pantry.

Grocery List:

• Bananas
• Firm and Silken Tofu
• Frozen fruit (strawberries mainly, though berry mixes are great)
• Juice (orange, apple, or pomegranate)
• Walnuts
• Red Bell Pepper
• Tomato
• Dried Cranberries
• Mixed salad bags (and dressing, if we run out)
• Nutritional yeast
• Sugar
• Spinach
• Lentils (and other mixed beans)
• Mushrooms
• Soy milk
• Canned soup/other vegetables if necessary (broccoli, carrots, etc)

Possible Recipes:

• Mushroom Lentil Stroganoff
• Spinach and Mushroom Pockets
• Mocha Banana Smoothie (based on this, but with espresso)
• Strawberry Smoothies
• Green (Spinach) Smoothies 
• Tofu Scramble
• Walnut Cranberry Salad (w/ Balsamic Vinaigrette)
• Silken Tofu Omelette
• Mac n’ Cheese
• Lentil Burgers
• Chocolate Scones (assuming you have cocoa)
• Cranberry Orange Muffins
• Pancakes (so many choices!)

The entire grocery list altogether should come to about 60 dollars, and should last over 2 (almost 3) weeks for one person.

Simple Cinnamon Granola

maddegoesvegan:

My roommates and I decided to make this spontaneously this weekend, and the whole process took us 15 minutes from start to delicious.

• 2C rolled oats
• 1-2T agave syrup
• 1-2T olive oil
• 1.5T cinnamon
• 2t nutmeg
• handful of almonds, chopped (or any nuts)
• 5 dates, chopped (or any dried fruit)

Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes, or until crispy. Shake pan every five minutes to make sure granola doesn’t burn. Allow a few minutes to cool, and enjoy!

Beam Me Up, Biscotti!

I used to be a huge fan of biscotti. I mean, come on, a cookie designed for the sole purpose of going perfectly with coffee? The biscotti and me, we’re on the same wavelength here: it’s all about that cup o’ Joe.

It’s hard enough to find store bought biscotti around here, much less vegan-friendly ones. And biscotti does take a considerable amount of preparation time, since you have to bake it, slice it, and bake it a second time. But it is worth it, for the coffee drinker looking for the edible soulmate of their morning latte.

Here are a few good and fairly simple vegan biscotti recipes:

• Cranberry Almond Biscotti
• Gingerbread Biscotti
• Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
• Vanilla Biscotti