Veganmofo: Set yourself up for success: fast, easy ways to get yourself fed when time or mental health isn't on your side

Somedays you have time, ingredients, and space to prep and make a ton of rad experimental delicious vegan goodies and other times our energy levels, stress, work, lives, mental health, budget or a million other things are just telling you that you cannot.

This has been a huge huge struggle for me the past few years having moved into an apartment with a less then ideal kitchen, poor storage space, low counter space, and only being in the province 2 days a week meals groceries (and produce) are a rare sight. When you are in a hotel more often then home eating right or at all becomes a struggled so here is a collection of tips, tricks, recipes and hacks I have collected and will be posting throughout the month on Instagram and here!

 Especially when it comes to depression or mental health I find it important to remind myself that A) eating is important and B) healthy eating is important but eating period is better then nothing.

Something that helps me the most is having a stash of emergency food. Simple easy to prep food of various levels of nutrition. Maybe this food is all you have the energy to make, or maybe eating it will give you enough time/energy to make something better. Regardless eating is important some things I find helpful to keep on hand.

Meals/Food

• Canned veggie soups/chilli
• Potatoes (mashing, frying, baking they are endlessly usefull filling & last a while. mashed potatoes takes very little effort and you can kinda let the pot boil while you do something else. Make extra mashed potatoes. Leftovers are useful and saves you energy later)
• instant oatmeal (or ground oatmeal which is basically the same) Regular oatmeal isn't too diffcult and overnight oats work as well, but if instant is the difference between you eating and not then buy the instant
• ramen/instant noodles: faster then regular noodles and if you have dried veggies/miso/frozen veggies/tvp you can easily bulk it up & make it healther
• protein powder: Smoothies are easy, vegan milk/ice/banana/fruit/green any combo of those. If you just have vegan milk, mix the protein powder in it's better then nothing.
• Boxed pilafs/flavoured grain or dry grain & powdered veggie broth. They last forever and are super easy/filling as a main or side.
• Fake meats/vegan frozen meals/burritos: When you feel up to it cook, freeze your extras. If you are short on time or energy it is ok to buy these things, even if they are pricey. Be honest and gentle with yourself, will you eat this? will you be able to eat this with an easy side? 
• boxed mixes (easy enough to make your own and store for fast pancakes or biscuits or seitan just store the dry ingredients in a jar in your pantry with the wet instructions. Yah this isn't crazy easier then just following a recipe but when your brain is fried having 1/2 the work already done helps)
• Frozen dumplings/samosas/spring rolls: Carb/veggies/sometimes protein done. Check asian grocery stores for better quality but even the North American style frozen options are better then nothing.
• Indian curry pouches: They have loads of accidentally vegan curry pouches, normally they are stored in a metal pouch you can boil or dump into the nuke. If you feel up to it add a grain or eat alone.
• Frozen waffles/pancakes: Either buy some on sale or whenever you make pancakes freeze the extra to pop in the toaster.

Ingredients/Things to keep on hand for fast bulking

•  frozen veggies: great for when you haven't been able to hit the grocery store, you can add them to bulk up & healthify almost anything. 


• Mixed veggies for ramen/stirfries/sides/soups/top potatoes
• single veggie types: Ideally greens (spinach/kale/chard/broccoli/peas) tend to be more nutritious and easily added to anything from mac-n-cheese (boxed or from scratch), butter noodles, ramen, as a side, added to mashed potatoes, or biscuits
• Steamed veggies are an easy side or way to improve any meal (you got some instant rice, add veggies/baked potato topped with veggies)
• miso: add hot water for warming broth, flavour powerhouse from soups to gravies to roasted veggies or just mix with vegan butter on steamed veggies
•  
• tvp unlike tofu or tempeh or faked meats it can be stored forever in the pantry and added to anything (jarred pasta sauce boiled with tvp is instantly more filling) rehydrate it with soysauce and eat on rice or noodles or tacos I like to keep both the minced and chunk kind available
• 
• lentils : similar to TVP last forever easily cooked into dahl curries, or to bulk up soups, add them to rice/grains in the same pot. chillis, Tacos, Burritos, Spagettie sauce the uses are endless. Red lentils can thicken soups/curries, you can make spreads or dips for cold portable food or filling stews/casseroles/potpies etc
•  
• broth powder: you can toss grain/lentils/tvp/frozen veggies into a pot with some veggie broth for a cheap filling meal that takes very little time
• 
• Nut butter: if you were able to get fruit or bread or crackers it makes an acceptable filling snack or meal. You can toss it into oats, smoothies, with miso to make sauces. Toast is an acceptable meal if that is what you have.
• Jarred sauces: Pasta sauce/tomato sauce is super versitile and useful but taco sauces/bbq sauce/curry sauces or paste are all easy flavour boosts. You can easily marinade veggies or tofu by throwing them together with a jarred sauce then into the oven later.
• jarred lemon juice from tea, to muffins, to sauces, to veggies/noodles, lemon garlic noodles
• minced garlic/frozen pureed garlic/ginger or peeled and frozen garlic/ginger + micro-plane zester makes seasoning super easy flavour
• Curry powder/All seasoning mix: make a mixture you love or buy one. Something you like the taste of makes eating easier. Just nuke a potato or veggie, instantly season soups. You can make your own to make your fav dishes even faster or to change up instant ramen, grains or steam veggies
• Leftovers. Anything you have already made can be saved for later, try to make a habit of freezing extras for later. Even freezing plain cooked grains or beans can make the difference between feeding yourself something good later on with minimal prep. 
• Hemp Hearts: not the most frugal thing but these nutritional power houses can be added to anything. Batters, smoothies, pudding, apple with PB, sweet or savory they help me feel better about whatever I am eating. I usually toss them on top of everything for a little bit of texture. Their duality between real food and desserts means you can always add a little boost to your food
  

I will try to showcase some more ideas and tips as the month goes on with more details!
But happy Mofo! <3

Vegan Frugality: How to be a Cheap Vegan (basically a subject close to my heart)

I know in the past I have raved about The Cheap Vegan Zine (which is sadly out of print) and from time to time I share budget or frugal friendly tips. The reason for this is both a passion for great whole foods being accessible and attainable for everyone but also from the very real economical situation I grew up in and find myself in today. Nova Scotia is one of the worst places for food affordability and quite often I see Stephanie (of Cheap Vegan Zine Fames) and my shared bane faux frugal tips. Mock money saving ideas that cost more then they save, or cheap meal plan ideas for 1$ a day which is frankly not attainable for many people due to local food prices, other economic factors like shift work (hours available for cooking), access to transportation/printers/internet and other resources that factor into comparison shopping and other things like initial disposable income or a well stocked pantry (not everyone has a well stocked pantry to start with or enough $$ up front to buy the much cheaper 10 kl bag of flour or other bulk items).

But enough about the politics of food and affordable living, onto the real money saving and cutting down on food waste stuff. One of the best tips from The Cheap Vegan Zine is a simple one: Recycle your Leftovers! Something I have talked about before and other blogs has tackled (perhaps accidentally). This serves a few purposes: 1) cuts down on food waste 2) saves you time and often money by using something you've already made to make something new 3) saves you from eating the same damn thing for weeks on end. Which when your cooking for a smaller crowd can be helpful because honestly who wants to make 1/2 recipe of chili or w/e just because you live alone, no one that's who.

I loved the ideas given for re-purposing soups or stews into casseroles then into veggie burgers and other tips.But I always wished there were more examples given, so I present you with some stuff I have been cooking lately which you may or may not have already seen on Instagram!

Inspired by this post of Mofo's past from Vegan Sparklers : Cauliflower Tandoori Lettuce Wraps.
I made a modified version making my own Vegan Tandoori paste using Coconut Yogurt & spices I had it is loosely based on this but with fresh ginger, added the zest of the lime and red pepper flakes.

The Finished Product!

Looks impressive, but was a bit bland/mild for my taste. So the next day before moving onto the lettuce wraps I basted the cauliflower directly with my homemade rub and baked it again in the oven (which was better but got to be a bit bitter in areas where the spices were thickly applied).

The Vegan Sparkles post already had one step of recycling leftovers built in, roasted cauliflower steaks, rice and cucumber raita for diner. Then lunches or dinners later using all  last the diner components w/tomato to make lettuce wraps. Same meal with a different application and super fast because you already made it last night.

I did mine a bit differently because white rice is nutritional cardboard and I wanted more veggies I made a vegan turmeric rice w/peas but used it the same. I also steamed some carrots and sauteed in vegan butter and added hot sauce to my wraps because I found the spice was a bit lacking and it didn't need the raita otherwise.

I took this concept yet one step further this afternoon by throwing the whole dutch oven with the roasted cauliflower head leftovers onto the stove with some additional water, 2 chopped carrots and 1 diced potato. I poured the water over the cauliflower to rinse off the spices into the bottom and build a sauce for the curry, put the lid on to let the vegetables steam/boil (position the cauliflower on top if you can!). And in a separate pan I sauteed an onion and 2 garlic cloves with salt and pepper and added them on top once they were cooked. Because the cauliflower had been a bit better on my second bake attempt (likely from me applying too much paste!) I added salt and a bit of sugar to the curry as it cooked until the bitterness subsided. The water and other vegetables helped too. You can also curb bitterness with coconut milk or other vegan dairy products.

Cooking it down for about an hour with the lid partial ajar adding more water or stirring as needed. Once the liquid was reduced and the veggies were cooked I added a sprinkle or Vegan Butter and Flour to build up the gravy, cooked until it thickened and voila meal 3 Vegetable curry simply cut the cauliflower into chunks and serve with leftover rice and more cucumber raita.

You could easily make this curry with any vegetables or bulk it up with beans or tofu/tempeh/seitan/tvp leftover you have hanging around. Or if you prefer a soup simply add additional water or broth  (tasting for seasoning) to thin it out. Even a Dahl style dish with lentils. This curry is a bit more of a Japanese style with the diluted spices, added salt, and roux thickened sauce. If you have access to it you could also bulk it up with coconut milk (or add the coconut milk and blend it into a bisque), since coconut milk is a bit more $$ I stuck with the water.

1 dish, 3 meals which if I had any more left I could also add oats and blend the curry into a burger which might still happen. OR blend the curry/vegetables into a thick sauce/gravy for tofu/tempeh/seitan or other dishes. This is also a good tip if you have picky eaters who don't like vegetables you can still get the nutrients. If you do go the blended sauce (or pureed soup route) and there is still too much for you to eat (or you get sick of curry style dishes) freeze the sauce/soup into ice cube trays and use this recycled curry as a flavour booster or starter for your next meals. Once frozen you can pop the curry ice cubes into a freezer bag and you have your own veggie fueled curry paste (flavour & nutrients!).


Bonus Points: Since I am not a huge fan of Vegan Yogurt I added the rest to my homemade tandoori paste and readjusted the spices stirred it together and tossed it into the freezer for future use (marinating tofu or tempeh, as a rub or curry/soup base).

I also took the bag of marinade (since it used a whole fricken expensive can of coconut milk!) and threw that in the freezer. You can reuse most marinades a few times before they need to be thrown out and freezing can help prolong their life. Or take a tip from Isa's VWAV and use leftover marinades to build sauces, gravies, dressings, or soups/stews. In fact I could have defrosted the leftover marinade to bulk up my curry but I really want to try it out on tofu.

Possibilities are endless and you just have to experiment. Sometimes even when things don't turn out or live up to your expectations you can still turn them around into something you'll enjoy.

Veganmofo15: Lunch on the go! #19

For the ultra lazy vegan on the go: microwave burritos!

Behold the burrito!

These are a pretty simple standard in our house hold, where we make huge batches to freeze for fast and lazy meals.

The steps are pretty simple: Buy bulk tortillas when on sale, cook a large pot of rice and a large pot of refried beans and optional black beans/salasa.

Everyone has their own go to recipe, but I prefer to make lime scented rice, with refried pinto beans +jalapenos, Cooked cumin scented black beans and optional diaya or fire roasted tomatoes.

Once assemble you add a base of rice, re-fried bean and your toppings  then roll them up by the dozen. We then wrap ours in paper towel and freeze for up to six months (but really they never last this long). Although it seems sacrilegious, I don't usually put salsa in these and instead serve them with salsa on the side. I find this helps them keep longer in the freezer without getting weird. We do sometimes cook the beans with tomato/onion/salsa for flavor, but you want to avoid rolling them with anything too wet.

I actually found this rogue burrito in the bottom of our freeze from a batch made last year, which was still quite good. I ate it with some Salsa my roommate's parent's brought us from their supply (which is not spicy, so I added equal parts sriracha and tobasco). I prefer to serve them with hot sauce/salsa on the side or ontop after they are cooked.

Burritos really aren't a pretty food. Sorry.

My roommate Tory started this tradition, and honestly it is a pretty great way to keep everyone fed during the killer school months and other high stress times. She recommends nuking them burrito in its paper towel for 1-1.30min flip then repeat on the other side. I typically nuke them then bake them on high for a bit or pan fry to get them crispy on the outside.

Either way enjoy this filling, portable, and lazy vegan lunch. Happy Mofo!

Veganmofo V: Iron Chef Challenge #1: Secret Chickpeas!

 So I was a tad bit late to the game and craving something hearty (after all it is thanksgiving weekend, even if you are a single girl living alone). Therefore my humble entry into the first Vegan Iron Chef Challenge is

::drum roll::

Chickpea Pie!

As it turns out there are about a million different ways people make shepard's pie both vegan and non-vegan. The way my mother used to do it was super plain, fry hamburger (maybe onion), top with cream corn and mashed potatoes, sprinkle paprika and bake. But a quick google search brings up thousands of variations most of which seem to involve gravy and some carrots/peas/corn/green bean combo.

Here's my recipe.

Single Chick's Pea Pie

• 1 can chickpeas (homemade if you aren't pressed for time)
• 4 thin skinned potatoes
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 small (10 oz) cans of veggies (whatever is on sale, I used 1 carrots and peas + 1 10 oz can of carrot, pea, corn and bean)
• 2 large spoon fulls of white miso
• 2/3 cup warm water
• 1/4 WW flour
• 1/2 onion
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp celery seed, poultry seasoning, oregano, thyme, sage, Rosemary, paprika
• 1 tsp coarse ground salt
• fresh ground pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp earth balance
• 1 cup water, vegetable stock  or water mixed with boullion.
• 2 stalks of green onion (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and heat 2 large Tbsp of oil oil in cast iron skillet
2. Scrub and chop potatoes before adding to boiling water, cook until done and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, Dice onion and mince your garlic. Add onion to hot oil and stir, add salt and pepper. Drain your can of chickpeas and vegetables (keep chickpeas separate from veggies!).
4. One onions start to become translucent add your garlic (reduce heat to medium high) and seasonings. Continue to cook until fragrant.
5. Add chickpeas, stirring to coat everything in oil/spices. Cook until chickpeas are seasoned. Then add earth balance until melted and sprinkle flour into pan. Stir quickly to dissolve flour completely (it may be easier to combine flour/earth balance in a small dish and then add to pan).
6. Once flour mixture is coating the chickpeas, mix miso and warm water together stiring until miso is dissolved. Add the miso mixture to skillet and stir. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then add your water/broth slowly, stir until mixture thickens.
7. 
8. Continue to cook chickpeas/gravy until mixture is thick and begins to bubble, reduce heat to simmer stirring occasionally. Allow this to cook for another 7 minutes before adding your drained vegetables. 
9. Cook mixture until your mashed potatoes are ready, aim for at least 15 minutes so the flavours can hang out a bit.
10. When potatoes are cooked, drain and mash them with the Almond milk, adding just enough to get a consistency you enjoy. Mix in the green onions to the potatos.
11. 
12. Take your gravy chickepea mixture and layer it into an oven safe casserole dish or pie pan. Cover mixture with mashed potatoes, top with additional green onion pieces if desire crack black pepper and parika over top. Bake until top is golden brown and dish is heated through.

This is a super rich and pretty salty gravy thanks to the miso, I think next time I would try adding 1/4 cup of nooch to the base to see how it goes. In my household we always ate shepherd's pie with a side of pickles, so grab some of those if you have them and chow down.

Either way there is no attractive way to plate this puppy, so here she is:

Silky, creamy, rich and savoury filling with potato/scallions.

VeganMofo V: Bachelorette Meals Part 1

Sometimes after a long day at work/school/volunteering and you kinda just need to put something in your face before you take the dog out and go to bed. The PPK has been a little obsessed with these terrible, lack-luster or otherwise poor meal offerings that us single folk like to chow down on. I'm a little bit obsessed too.

Bachelorette Meals might not be the mightiest of offerings but they have served me well enough through years of university. They certainly haven't killed me yet. And since this The Unhealthy Vegan Blog I figure the pseudo meals deserve some lime light. In all their single-hood-glory, I bring you yet another series of lameness:

Vegan Eats for Sad-n-Single Folks: Bachelorette Meals 
(there is a tongue and cheek thing happening here, in case that didn't come through).

These sad offerings of non-meals consumed by the lonely over the sink in their single bedroom apartments sometimes in the wee-hours of the morning.

Many are limited to grains with seasoning, spoonfuls of spreads, crackers for the adventurous. Just clicking through the thread, almost makes me want to cook/eat my way through it.

So now, I'll show case a few examples from over the many years of single-dom through which I've survived.

Fried Tofu

A single persons best friend. Fried foods offer the warm comfort that others may gain through companionship, it's fat content and protein-y goodness makes this humble offering an speedy way to a sustained stomach so you can get back to watching The Early Edition on Netflix.

Bonus points here for this is pre-fried packaged tofu puffs from the Asian discount store. So I just opened the pack and poured some sauce into the dipping bowls. But I used fancy dipping bowls and lacquered chopsticks, LIKE A LADY.

Burritos
Frozen morsels of salvation. Even making them yourself can count as bachelorette chow (what you opened some can beans and put it on some bread, face it you are one of us). Although the below pictured is actually a wicked-fancy-stuffed-to-the-max-morsel from a local take out place, it's take-out so the cooking effort was dialing the phone.

ok, sorry not the most photogenic of foods.

And unlike 98% of Bachelorette-Chow Burritos may actually offer more than one food group/nutrient requirement. So really, these are the all-stars of single-person-foods, there is avocado and lettuce in there. FRESH VEGGIES (sometimes frozen veggies, but at least they are green).

Bachelorette-Smash
Perhaps the closest thing to true bachelorette-chow, The Smash features a selection of available edibles a-top a baked potato. Most often a can of drained chickpeas, fake-bacon-bits, and seasoning. Earth balance if one is feeling refined.

Bonus points for microwaved potatoes that are then pressed with a fork in your bowl and seasoned with spice mix.

Boxed-Mac
Although the vegan version is arguably not of the same neon-orange calibre, it is still packaged and easy. So I figured it deserved a brief mention.

I will conclude this post for now on the ultimate bachelorette meal the one that inspires pity form your friends and family. Assending to new culinary lows in bad habits and despair, may I present:


The Vegan-Ice-Cream Diner
It can be observed in two distinct levels of culinary thought and levels of desolation, the classier approach is the dinner sunday which offers the comforting embrace of sugar.

Not only does this distinguished school of thought offer the user the self-esteem-boost which comes from eating out of an actually dish but it's liberal thoughts on flavour mingling and add-ins provides an assortment of sugar sources.

This is for the classy-folks among us

 The second school, is reserved for the more accustomed solo-travellers. Those who have been segregated from humanity long enough to shed even the most basic of social customs. This level of desperation and loneliness should not be rushed, it can only be undertaken after sufficient solitude. Always alone, often unspoken, this is the meal eaten with a shield of humility. The meal we hide from our cats/dogs, because you don't want anyone watching you eat this.

It's clean-up is a breeze and it's social stigma is long lasting. Ice-cream from the carton. Bonus points for both eating the whole thing at once and for the sad-affair of returning the half eaten carton to the fridge to eat for dinner the next day.

Happy Mofo Folks!