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.

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole (or banana, apple, other fruit)

This is basically my lazy, casual rendition of French toast, with less work. This recipe is about using what you have on hand or things that you may have no other use for or are about to get up and leave you.

The original Recipe is from Vegan Brunch by Isa, amazing book and worth your hard earned money.

This recipe is great for when you have some stale or dry bread that is past it's prime. Because this recipe is the my lazy vegan version, you can use any old bread or an assortment of breads. No matter how old, dry, stale, hard, broken or decrepit it is, because instead of perfect slices our bread is going to be cubed, torn and shredded. I also made sure to save and add all the bread crumbs I had laying around, so dump out those bags and scrap your cutting boards! Waste not, want not.

This recipe is all about using what you already have, so experiment and substitute to suit your needs. If you don't have pumpkin try squash, banana, fruit compote, sweet potato, apple sauce. Anything!

What you will need:
Baking Dish
Bowl
Cutting Board

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin (alternative, depending on what you have could be apple sauce, compote, mashed bananas)
1 cup almond milk (or any other vegan milk)
2 T corn starch (again, it you like potato or other starches use them)
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
two shakes of all spice
optional: Earth balance for buttering the baking dish and dotting the top
Optional add ins: Anything you have laying around, nuts (whole, broken, ground), coconut, dried fruit, chocolate chips, oats, flax seeds, this is your dish and it is about using what you have.

Add ins can either be mixed with pumpkin mixture, or tossed with the bread, or even sprinkled over top of the dish! Whatever you want.

a little liquid from jarred ginger or a little bit of grated fresh ginger (again, this is to taste so for stronger bite add more)
expired bread, I had a good 3/4 loaf but you could round this out with fresh bread, all bread crumbs or any bread like items you have around.

Dice your bread into bite sized cubes or tear into chunks if using soft bread save all end pieces, crumbs, fluffy bits and odds and ends. Set aside.

Mix everything else together in a bowl and preheat your oven to 350.

Place all your bread into a shallow rimmed baking dish (you can use a casserole dish or deep dish, this will result in a softer casserole. As the pumpkin mixture is pretty wet, and depending on how hard/dry your bread is you may want more layers to keep in moisture.) Since I like mine less-moist and a little crispy, I'm using a shallow baking dish so my bread is effectively in a single layer.

Pour pumpkin mixture over bread and let sit until oven is ready, the longer it sits the more it absorbs and the softer it gets. So depending on the tough/dryness of your bread and your preference for soft/pudding style eats you may want to let it sit longer.

Alternatively you can prepare this and place it in your fridge to dish out smaller amounts to cook on an as needed bases. Or even fish out your bread cubes to fry, traditional French toast style throughout the week. MMM

But since I'm being lazy, I'm just gonna plop the whole mess in the oven and not let it sit very long. About 12 minutes, stir let it sit another 12, then bake.

Baking time was around _____, again if you'd like a more pudding style dish you could stir/mix it as it cooks and reduce the cooking time.

Voila!

Serve alone, dusted with sugar, spices, citrus zest, berry sauce, syrup, ice cream or w/e.

VeganMofo V: Recycling your leftovers take 2

 

So the other day I posted about the whole recycling your leftovers, as brought forward by one of my most loved zines The Cheap Vegan ( a sadly out of print zine.

 Issue 14 seems to be on etsy tho!

Where in the last post I turned some smashed beans and other leftovers into a rice bowl/burrito filling.

 

Now that leftover burrito filling becomes soup/gumbo! With the aid of some additional red onion, turnip, canned tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, another spoon full of kidney beans from the batch I made last week, and fresh garlic to pump up the garlic taste.

Start with chopping your new fresh onions and garlic. You want the onion to cook for a bit in some oil with salt/pepper before adding your garlic. While those cook, peel and chop your selection of turnip (or other fridge veggies). Once the onions are getting good, saute the turnip pieces to brown then toss in your spoon full of beans and some tomato liquid. Add seasonings. You want the flavours to blend a bit before you dump the whole can in, but we do want lots of liquid to help boil the turnip so they become nice and soft.

Once you have a nice soupy base thanks to the tomatoes mix in your bowl/leftover burrito filling (if you'd made it all into burritos then slice the tortilla into strips and save it to bake/top your soup bowls with). Now, if your burrito mix had diaya like mine did you'll want to stir the crap out of it as it cooks. The mixture wants to stick to itself but we want it to break apart into soup and get everything all mixed together. So keep string it occasionally and make sure nothing is burning at the bottom. I brought it to a boil and covered for 10 minutes before taking the cover off and simmering until the turnip were finished. Add additional seasons if it doesn't taste the way you want.

I like mine chunky, but smaller piece would cook faster

And voila! So now we have 3 different ways to eat the same thing. Alternatively, if you hadn't mixed your smashed beans with stuff on the first leftover day you could find a few dozen things to do with them. But this worked out well enough.

 

VeganMofo: Cheap Eats, Recycle your leftovers!

Making a large batch of foods definitely saves you on two major resources time and power. But sometimes eating the same thing for weeks (especially if you live alone, and you wind up with even more meals/portions) makes your stomach turn, or heck you get bored with whatever it was.

This is where leftover recycling comes in, a concept I first hear about from the amazing Cheap Vegan Guru Stephanie (author of the Cheap Vegan series of Zines).

 

Leftover recycling allows you to enjoy one meal for a variety of days in different ways and helps strench out your food and time budgets. 

This meal was a combo of leftovers from earlier in the week. I had made the AFR Not-refried beans earlier in the week, some leftover kidney beans from when I cooked up a lbs of them to make the beans + in sauce, plus some chick-in brown rice (brown rice cooked in vegan chick-n stock from bulk barn), steamed carrots from a meal I cooked for the boy and I and the crumbs of Kale chips.

The beans were used with chips originally, rice was a side for some meal same with carrots. So tonight's meal was essentially a bowl. Rice topped with the re-fried bean, kidney beans in sauce, kale chips, steamed carrots topped with some cock-sauce, salsa and Daiya.

 The result was a nice creamy dish that doesn't photograph well but tastes great. Alternatively, it would also be great in a wrap as a burrito. MMM burritos.

So there it is, recycling your leftovers one simple way. Stay tuned for more examples, because this made more than I could eat!

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole (or banana, apple, other fruit)

This is basically my lazy, casual rendition of French toast, with less work. This recipe is about using what you have on hand or things that you may have no other use for or are about to get up and leave you.

The original Recipe is from Vegan Brunch by Isa, amazing book and worth your hard earned money.



This recipe is great for when you have some stale or dry bread that is past it's prime. Because this recipe is the my lazy vegan version, you can use any old bread or an assortment of breads. No matter how old, dry, stale, hard, broken or decrepit it is, because instead of perfect slices our bread is going to be cubed, torn and shredded. I also made sure to save and add all the bread crumbs I had laying around, so dump out those bags and scrap your cutting boards! Waste not, want not.

This recipe is all about using what you already have, so experiment and substitute to suit your needs. If you don't have pumpkin try squash, banana, fruit compote, sweet potato, apple sauce. Anything!



What you will need:
Baking Dish
Bowl
Cutting Board

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin (alternative, depending on what you have could be apple sauce, compote, mashed bananas)
1 cup almond milk (or any other vegan milk)
2 T corn starch (again, it you like potato or other starches use them)
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
two shakes of all spice

optional: Earth balance for buttering the baking dish and dotting the top
Optional add ins: Anything you have laying around, nuts (whole, broken, ground), coconut, dried fruit, chocolate chips, oats, flax seeds, this is your dish and it is about using what you have.
More Options: If you don't want to serve the casserol with syrup or sugar, I would add brown sugar or maple syrup directly to the pumpkin mix to bake in the sweetness so no toppings will be needed.

Also, if you bread mixture looks a little dry once all the juices are absorb splash some more almond milk on top.

Add ins can either be mixed with pumpkin mixture, or tossed with the bread, or even sprinkled over top of the dish! Whatever you want.

a little liquid from jarred ginger or a little bit of grated fresh ginger (again, this is to taste so for stronger bite add more)
expired bread, I had a good 3/4 loaf but you could round this out with fresh bread, all bread crumbs or any bread like items you have around.

Dice your bread into bite sized cubes or tear into chunks if using soft bread save all end pieces, crumbs, fluffy bits and odds and ends. Set aside.

Mix everything else together in a bowl and preheat your oven to 350.

Place all your bread into a shallow rimmed baking dish (you can use a casserole dish or deep dish, this will result in a softer casserole. As the pumpkin mixture is pretty wet, and depending on how hard/dry your bread is you may want more layers to keep in moisture.) Since I like mine less-moist and a little crispy, I'm using a shallow baking dish so my bread is effectively in a single layer.



Pour pumpkin mixture over bread and let sit until oven is ready, the longer it sits the more it absorbs and the softer it gets. So depending on the tough/dryness of your bread and your preference for soft/pudding style eats you may want to let it sit longer.

I added broken walnut pieces to mine and mixed them in last. Mine also looked a little dry so I added a splash of soymilk on top and dotted it with Earth Balance.

Alternatively you can prepare this and place it in your fridge to dish out smaller amounts to cook on an as needed bases. Or even fish out your bread cubes to fry, traditional French toast style throughout the week. MMM

But since I'm being lazy, I'm just gonna plop the whole mess in the oven and not let it sit very long. About 12 minutes, stir let it sit another 12, then bake.

Baking time was around 15-20 mins, again if you'd like a more pudding style dish you could stir/mix it as it cooks and reduce the cooking time.

Voila!

Now because I didn't add any sugar to the casserole the end result isn't overtly sweet. I prefer to sweeten it to taste on the plate with icing sugar and maple syrup (I also lived with my dad, who hated sweets so I tend to let people add their own sugar). However, if your looking for a sweetened dish ready scoop and eat, I would mix in some maple syrup or brown sugar right into the pumpkin puree.

Serve alone, dusted with sugar, spices, citrus zest, berry sauce, syrup, ice cream or w/e.

alternatively if you like pumpkin, you could make this a savory dish by adding sauted garlic, Rosemary, thyme and onions to the pumkin mixture and extra earth balance.

Veganmofo: Student's best friend, the leftovers

Here is a just quick follow up post because I posted yesterday's entry today (oops) which has put me a little behind. Anyway, to follow up on the vegan student's chili I got some handy advice from the ppk on the many applications of leftover chili.




Today I went with the chili spaghetti!Just use your chili in the place of sauce, great for a quick meal and good use of leftover chili (using yesterday's recipe).


Heat your chili (I added some extra garlic and basil to mine as it cooked), cook your noddles and if desired add some vegan cheese/nooch.

Voila! chilli noodle bowls.

After some coffee and a few bowls of this your ready to get back to the books for midterms.

Plus if you are even more strapped for time, and microwave friendly. Zap your noddles in water add your sauce and zap some more until heated through.

Some Tips and Tricks to stretching your food dollar

Simple things that we all know, but sometimes fail to due for convenience, peer pressure and who knows what else. Like buying dry goods in bulk, cooking whole grains like brown rice over white for more nutrient bang for buck and the classic using dry beans. Dry beans, are supper cheap and if you plan a little or even cook a bunch on a day off and freeze for later, the can save you loads.

Buy dry goods in bulk. Again, don't go over bored and make sure you have lidded containers to store them away from moisture and bugs.

some other tips and tricks I often use when I need to save money and still eat well which may or may not be obvious.

Jarred sauces, stocks, soups, condiments and whatever else, they aren't cheap. In fact, most are pricer than making things yourself. Which you likely know, but hey everyone loves the convenience and ease of opening a jar, so my only tip here is to use all you buy. You're going to be recycling the bottles anyway, which means you have to rinse them.

Rinse and save: Whenever I use the last bit of tomato sauce, tomato juice, salsa, veggie broth /whatever it may be, take a small amount of hot water into the bottle. Close the lid and shake to get out every last bit of content, and add this diluted mixture to whatever it was you were making. The small amount of water won't hurt. I do this with ketchup, soymilk and well everything.

Another point, with leftovers EAT THEM! Sure the same food in a row might not be super exciting but you can recycle these too.

Diluting purees/blended soups: If you make a blended soup, make it stretch and change it into something different by adding liquid of choice.

E.g.: I made corn chowder the other day and for lunch today I took out a cup of the thick blended goodness and added it to a soup pot with a bottle of V8 (using the water/rinse trick too) and cooked until combined with stirring. Now this trick would be better with a vegetable soup, but it's still good with the corn chowder. Sure it's still soup, but now its a lighter vegetable soup. This is also great if your feeding more people.

Freezing vegetable ends. Whenever you chopping or dicing vegetables save all those skins, end pieces, stalks or anything else you would usually compost and freeze them into a plastic bag. Then when your bag is full use the odds and ends to make a flavorful and tasty stock.

More on recycling leftovers

Burgers: Just about any leftover can be made into patties or burgers by adding breadcrumbs, cracker crumbs, corn flour, regular flour or some kind of grain and maybe a binding agent. Beans and rice make great burgers just smash with a potato masher and add crumbs as needed to form patties. Soups particularly the thicker kinds can be transformed into burgers in the same way, as can casseroles, chillies, stews, pasta dishes and even braised/roasted vegetables.

Casseroles: Like burgers casseroles can be made out of almost anything. Grains, veggies, legumes, burgers, soups, anything can be made into a casserole. Depending on what it is, you could add some grains , broken crackers or mashed potatoes, some gravy or sauce and you have an instant casserole. Again this is a good way to use up leftovers or if your simply stuck on what to make for dinner. Generally a starch, sauce, veggie or protein (or both!) and your half way there.

Burritos: Basically take anything you have in your fridge and add it to a tortilla and viola, instant burrito. Rice and bean dishes or curries are particularly good served this way but most any left over will do. Vegetable stir fry or sloppy vegans or chilli even your burgers can be added with some lettuce for easy transport and a tasty lunch the next day.

Bulking up: If your making soups, stews, gumbo, sauce or really anything that you feel could do with a little more adding grains is an easy and simple way to make dishes stretch further and feel more filling. Same with blending cooked veggies to add to sauces, spreads, soups or anything you fancy. This adds flavor, nutrients and bulk. The same can be done with beans, once cooked simply blend and add to anything you like.

Mashed potatoes: another cheap and easy solution. Can become a meal in and of itself with the addition of blended white beans and blended steamed greens. Or added to sauce, stews, soups etc to thicken and bulk. It can also turn most leftovers into a burger or casserole and makes a great burrito or breakfast patty if friend with veggies.

So go out and eat something!