What I ate last week

I missed my Sunday post! It was a boring food week, anyway. My life has been so hectic lately with work stuff, and I’ve been relying on easy, basic meals.

Quickbread I threw together to use up the last of some frozen applesauce and almond pulp. It was great with peanut butter. Also pictured: coffee with walnut milk (my new favorite!).

Roasted vegetables and baked tofu. I mostly ate them cold on salads.

Tofu banana rice pudding (tastes better than it sounds)

This is just gratuitous food porn; I went to a vegan Mexican buffet on Superbowl Sunday — my mom’s treat.

Onto the budget. I have $85 for February.

Olive oil	$6.99
Blue cornmeal	$1.99
Peanut butter	$1.99
Tofu	$11.23
Lentils	$1.00
Lettuce	$4.00
Parsley	$0.49
Onion	$0.37
Broccoli	$2.07
Carrots	$1.99
Garlic	$1.00
Total	$33.12
Remaining	$51.88

It was a relief to finally go shopping! I went a little overboard on tofu, but I don’t get to the Asian market very often, so I stocked up. It’s also really nice to have olive oil again.

The cornmeal was an impulse buy, but I saw it at Grocery Outlet and had to have it. It’s my absolute favorite. They only had one bag, which was disappointing, but probably actually a good thing. I would have bought them all and probably ended up on an all-cornbread diet for the rest of the month.

What I ate this week

Calzones! For the dough, I used a mix of whole wheat flour, all purpose flour (the last of a giant bag I bought to make cookies over the holidays — I’m so glad it’s gone now), and millet flour. I filled them with lentils and balsamic roasted broccoli. I mixed a healthy dose of nutritional yeast into the lentils, so they had a creamy-cheesy flavor. These were pretty outstanding, actually. I made 12 and froze them with the intention of having them for lazy/emergency situations.

And then I ate 8 of them this week. So! There goes the stash.

I house-sat for my mom for three days, so that took care of the rest of my meals. I got to eat luxury items like store-bought hummus and fresh strawberries!

For breakfast on the days I was home, I ate walnut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches. And more iced coffee with walnut milk. It’s been quite the walnut party around here.

I didn’t buy any food this week, and I ended up coming in under my January budget by $6.28. Now that the new month has begun and my budget has refreshed, I almost don’t know how to spend it! I’m tempted to try to go another week without shopping, but I’m at the point where I probably have to buy some vegetables. I have absolutely no fresh food left. I had grand plans to walk over to the farmers’ market this morning, but of course it’s raining. Toast isn’t looking so bad if it means I get to stay in bed all day.

January Budget Breakdown

Lentils	$1.00
Rice (short grain brown)	$10.96
Coffee (decaf)	$6.00
Wheat Thins	$1.00
Pretzels	$0.50
Oats (quick)	$1.99
Tea	$2.24
Gum	$2.00
Altoids (sugar-free)	$2.00
Bananas	$6.00
Cilantro	$0.50
Bean sprouts	$0.79
Broccoli	$2.58
Garlic powder	$1.99
Vanilla	$3.00
Miso	$4.00
Tofu (firm)	$3.87
Restaurants	$8.30
Budget	$65.00
Total Spent	$58.72
Remaining	$6.28

What I ate this week: brown food

This week was ugly. And full of rice. For breakfast: baked cinnamon raisin banana rice pudding. I used up some frozen bananas and the last of a big bag of raisins. This was improvised and came out okay, if awfully brown looking (ugly) and a little dry. It’s even cheaper than oatmeal, so I will probably be doing some variation of this again.

Here we have a sandwich consisting of a big slab of baked tofu and pickled carrots and daikon. I marinated the tofu in miso, nutritional yeast, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. I had two loaves of Dave’s Killer Bread in the freezer, so I’ve been eating a lot of sandwiches. And toast! And toasted sandwiches! I ended up doing a second variation of this sandwich using my last block of tofu. That batch was marinated in some of the brine from the pickles (white vinegar + water + sugar), soy sauce, ginger, and garlic powder.

When I ran out of tofu, I moved on to straight pickle sandwiches (a new low?). They’re gone now, but I have about a quart of bright orange brine leftover. Time for more pickles? Maybe! They’re cheap and add a lot of flavor to things.

I bought a case of something labeled “Asian wheat noodles” (which, as it turns out, are quite salty, thin, and starchy) on sale at least 3-4 years ago. I still have almost a full case — probably enough for 20+ servings. I don’t know why I’ve been avoiding them for so long, but this is another item I’ve moved from house to house, cupboard to cupboard, and then proceeded to ignore. They’re packaged in neat little bundles, and they cook almost instantly, so I’ve discovered they are actually great for making a quick bowl of soup. Here I boiled them with broccoli, nutritional yeast, miso, and lots of garlic powder (clearly a favorite flavor combination). I ate this a couple times this week.

I finished off the last of my almonds last week, so I couldn’t make almond milk this week. I decided to experiment again with rice milk. This time I used cooked rice, which eliminated the residual sludge problem I experienced with raw rice, but damn, I still really don’t like rice milk. So much for that. I might make it again if I get desperate, but it will be a last resort.

My next experiment was walnut milk, since I have a ton of walnuts in my freezer (my uncle has a tree). I thought it might be too bitter, as raw walnuts tend to be, but it was actually good! I used about half a cup of walnuts and 5 cups of water, which resulted in a really creamy milk. I ended up with almost no pulp, thus eliminating the need to find something else to do with it. Overall, a big success. I’ve been enjoying it in my coffee.

The budget:

Broccoli	$2.58
Gum	$2.00
Altoids (sugar-free)	$2.00
Tea	$2.24
Total	$8.82
Remaining	$6.28

Admittedly, not much of that is actually food, but I couldn’t help myself. I have a gum/mints problem. I specify the sugar-free variety of Altoids because they are the only vegan ones — the regular ones in the big tins contain gelatin (nasty). The gum was on sale for $0.50/pack, so I bought four. I may not be eating much for the rest of the month, but my breath will be super fresh!

I’ll be house-sitting for three days next week, so I don’t anticipate buying anything else for the rest of the month.

What I ate this week

I started the week by roasting everything. This is definitely my favorite way to prep food on the weekend; it makes assembling salads and bowls throughout the week really quick and easy.

Above we have baked tofu with lemongrass and ginger; more baked tofu marinated in balsamic vinegar, miso, and nutritional yeast; baked brown rice with mushrooms; roasted green cauliflower with nutritional yeast and balsamic vinegar; and onions, carrots, and sweet potatoes roasted with garlic and olive oil.

I used the gingery tofu to make spring rolls with spinach, more of my carrot and daikon pickles, and the last of the bean sprouts from last week. I almost finished off a package of rice paper I’ve been hanging onto for at least a couple of years. I didn’t have any fresh herbs and almost walked to the store for cilantro, but in the spirit of making do with what I had, I just went without. These still had a lot of flavor. I didn’t have peanut butter (sad!), so I improvised a sesame-miso dipping sauce. Not bad! My rolling technique needs serious work, though.

I was out of vegetables by Thursday night, so when I got bored with toast, I had to get creative. I realize this does not look appetizing at all, but it was actually really delicious. I cooked the last of my dehydrated mushrooms and about half a bag of dehydrated soy meat (coming soon: my exclusive guide to All Things Dehydrated from the Asian market!) in a nutritional yeast sauce with soy sauce, garlic powder, onion flakes, and dried basil. Served over rice. There was not a single fresh ingredient in this, but it was satisfying, and I would make it again.

Breakfast was more baked banana oatmeal. I’m out of oats now, so I will have to change things up next week.

I had a few pieces of yeast-raised cornbread in the freezer, so I took those to work for snacks. I also kept eating away at the pretzels and Cheerios snack mix from a couple of weeks ago. I made a lot of banana smoothies for dessert.

Amount spent on food this week? $0. I did receive some produce as a gift from my mom, so that helped a lot. One night I felt particularly indulgent and ate an entire bunch of kale for dinner. I could have stretched it out over a couple of meals to make it last longer. While I think I’ve done a decent job of keeping my diet fairly healthy this month, I have definitely had to cut back on my vegetable intake.

I have just over $15 remaining for the rest of the month. I don’t think I will have a problem making it under budget. I’m already making a mental list of all the things I want to buy next month, but I’m realizing I don’t really need most of them, so I’m going to try to be as judicious as possible with my spending. For instance, I’m almost out of olive oil, but is it wise to buy a new bottle when I still have canola oil and Earth Balance? Probably not. Do I want it anyway? Yes!

Baked Brown Rice

I cook my rice in the oven. This “recipe” (more of a method) was a revelation for me. The rice cooks evenly every time and never sticks to the pan or turns out soggy. The best part is really that you get to ignore it for an hour and come back to find it perfectly cooked.

There are, of course, endless possibilities here. I have added all manner of things to the pot — vegetables, alternate grains (half barley/half rice is a great combination), lentils, herbs and spices, broth instead of water — it always works, as long as the rice:liquid ratio is correct.

I usually double the recipe and bake it in my 3-quart stainless steel saucepan. It makes a ton of rice, but it freezes well.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice
2 1/3 cups water (measured in a dry measuring cup — just trust me)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons oil (optional — makes the rice less sticky)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375.

Add the water to an oven-safe saucepan*, cover, and bring to a boil on the stovetop.

As soon as the water boils, add the rice and salt (and oil, if using). Stir, cover with the lid or a piece of foil, and transfer to the oven. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for at least 10 minutes before removing the lid (this allows the rice to continue steaming). Fluff with a fork and serve.

*If you do not have an oven-safe saucepan, transfer the boiling water to a baking pan (8×8 is a good size for this amount of rice) or Pyrex dish.

What I ate this week

These were objectively weird, but actually pretty decent. I had some salad dressing leftover from over a week ago, and it was starting to look a little questionable, so I decided the safest route would be to cook it. I marinated some tofu cubes in the dressing, baked them, and then made tacos with some anemic corn tortillas I dug out of the freezer. I was wishing for salsa, but it did not materialize.

Rice noodle soup with dried mushrooms, soy meat, bean sprouts, green onions, and pickled carrots and daikon with miso-soy broth. Four varieties of soy in one big bowl! I ate this a few times throughout the week. It started to get monotonous, so I tried adding nutritional yeast to the broth to change things up. Of course that made it better.

I had a few servings of some old, kind of gross pumpkin soup hanging around in the freezer, so I finished those off with some pretzels. I’m so glad that soup is gone.

I ate more baked oatmeal everyday for breakfast and a few lunches (same as last week, but without the walnuts).

My homemade milk experimentation continued, and I ended up making a good batch of almond milk that didn’t separate as much as last time. My method was exactly the same, and the nuts were from the same jar, so I don’t know why I got such different results. Mysterious!

Oh, and I discovered that raw rice milk is pretty decent, until you get to the end and have to deal with the two inches of gelatinous sludge cemented to the bottom of the jar. That was gross. I almost took a picture, but ultimately decided to spare you. Next time I’ll cook the rice first.

Onto the budget! There’s not much to report.

Bean sprouts	$0.79
Lunch at Extreme Pizza	$8.30
Total	$9.09
Remaining	$15.10

Monday was a spectacular failure in pretty much every way, and due to unexpected circumstances at work, I didn’t end up getting to take a lunch break until 3:00pm. It was too late to drive home like I’d planned (traffic starts to suck around that hour), and I was starving and cranky, so I just ended up getting a personal vegan pizza at a place by my office. I almost never cave and eat out unexpectedly, but it was a rough day overall, and I was almost in tears by the time I got away for lunch. I just couldn’t even stand to look at the Clif bars in my desk and wanted real food. Anyway, it was a lot to spend, but I don’t really regret it.

The only other thing I bought this week was a bag of bean sprouts for my never-ending rice noodle bowls. I was starting to miss green vegetables. And then…

My mom showed up at my door last night with a tub of spinach, a green cauliflower, a bunch of kale, a bag of carrots, a bag of frozen blueberries, 3 small sweet potatoes, and 3 blocks of tofu. She doesn’t know about my budget. She was just being nice, not knowing I had nothing but condiments and coffee in my fridge. I’m very grateful, but it sort of feels like cheating. In any case, I’ll be eating well next week.

I’m movin’ on out!

…of my office. In about a month.

I’m beyond excited to leave my shit-tastic job and move into a new, exciting role at a start-up company with some super cool co-workers. I’m almost counting down the hours until we make our exit from the hellhole where we currently work. I’m expecting a fairly dramatic exodus. Our boss is going to have a meltdown. It’s going to be interesting (and maybe kind of fun?!).

But, I’m going to be giving up a decent salary for a profit-sharing situation. If there’s no business, there’s no money! I’m anticipating a few slow months before we really get up and running, so I may have to dip into my savings just to pay my rent. It’s a little scary, but ultimately, I know it’s going to be so worth it.  After all, this is exactly what I have been saving for.

Sanity is worth a few months of beans and rice, right?

My almond milk problem (and what I’m doing about it)

I spend a stupid amount of money on almond milk.

Stupid.

I did the math on it when I was thinking about how I was going to approach my budget this year, and I just about punched myself in the face when I realized how expensive it really is. I can go through a gallon a week by myself, easily, and that’s if I don’t even bake anything. I just drink a ton of it in my coffee and tea. The worst part is that it’s one of those auto-pilot things: I finish a carton, I go immediately to the store, I buy another one (and usually a few other items I could do without — you know how it goes).

A half gallon of refrigerated Almond Breeze or Silk costs about $3 at Target. That’s $6 per week, or $312 per year, which is 31% of my 2014 grocery budget! That’s insane!

Done. I’m done with that. I can’t do it anymore. I love it, but I just can’t afford it.

So, of course, I have to start making my own. It’s really kind of stupid that I’ve never done this before. I got all flustered on Saturday and walked 3 miles round-trip to the co-op* and invested $9.75 — literally all the cash I had in my wallet — in a nut milk bag (which is absurd for a mesh bag, but fine). I soaked a cup of raw almonds overnight and then blended them up with about 7 cups of water. I used the nut milk bag as one uses a nut milk bag, and no complaints there. The pulp went into my oatmeal.

The resulting milk was… okay. The flavor was decent. It was watery because I used a lot of water (I’m cutting costs around here!), but truthfully not too much thinner than the store-bought stuff. I could hang with it. I used it in iced coffee and was pleasantly surprised. Not bad at all.

What sucked was my first morning cup of hot coffee. The milk separated, and I ended up with a mouthful of almond grit at the end. Hey, that’s unpleasant!

So, I have to figure out what to do about this. I’m thinking about mixing in some lecithin as an emulsifier next time to see if it holds up better. Or maybe I just need to strain the milk twice? Or “stir and drink, stir and drink, never let it settle!” (Remember when Joey and Chandler made their own cappuccino to avoid the bully at Central Perk? Who doesn’t miss Friends, honestly?)

Experiment number two was rice milk. Commercial rice milk basically tastes like sweet water, but I figured homemade would probably be better. I started this morning by soaking a cup of raw brown rice for about 11 hours. After two minutes in the Vitamix, I strained it through my expensive mesh bag, and there was almost no sediment remaining! Maybe a tablespoon! Everyone else on the internet seems to end up with a cup or so of rice pulp leftover. I actually got scared and strained it twice, but it the second time didn’t really catch anything. My milk is pretty smooth and creamy (I tasted it but haven’t really used it in anything yet), but I’m a little concerned about consuming so much raw rice. I’m envisioning digestive issues. Well, I’ll find out tomorrow morning when I try it in my coffee. If I can make myself like this stuff, I will really come out ahead financially.

I will report back when I find the solution. I have to crack this, because I’m not giving up my coffee or milky black tea!

*I seriously hate the co-op and its outrageously outrageous prices, but where else was I going to buy a nut milk bag locally? Whole Foods? Worse than the co-op!

What I ate this week

This is the first of my Sunday food roundups. How exciting! Since this challenge began mid-week (January 1 was Wednesday), this isn’t exactly comprehensive, and it didn’t all come out of my new budget.Banana Walnut Baked Oatmeal

I envisioned this as a banh mi salad, but a really bastardized version. It had pickled carrots and daikon, cilantro, Thai basil, and (this is where it gets questionable) chopped up Yves “chicken” deli slices. Those are not recommended, by the way. Salty and weird.

Several other salads were eaten this week. This one had baked tofu (marinated in soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, and garlic powder), garlicky olive oil roasted carrots (my favorite way to eat carrots!), and caramelized onion/balsamic/raisin dressing. I still have some of that dressing left, so I plan to buy more lettuce next week to finish it off.

Baked brown rice with mushrooms and cilantro. The cheap dehydrated mushrooms from the Asian market are a great value, but I’ve found I really have to cook them to death to get them tender. So, I rehydrated them in boiling water first, and then cooked them again in the oven with the rice. They got nice and soft and chewy and mushroomy! I threw in half a bunch of cilantro just to use it up before it wilted. It would not have been my herb of choice in this dish, but it was okay. I ate this with a couple of generous spoonfuls of nutritional yeast mixed in, and it was pretty good for a pantry meal.

Oranges! From the tree behind my house.

Cheerios snack mix with peanut butter, pretzels, flax seeds, and raisins. Used up some pantry items and was pretty happy with the result. I have a lot of this left, so I will be snacking on it for at least the next week.

Earlier in the week (last year, har har), I had a lot of pho with more of those dehydrated mushrooms and soy meat. Soon to be repeated because I still have most of the ingredients.

Additional breakfasts included gluten-free chocolate bread pudding (lots more of that in the freezer) and overnight oats with frozen berries and chia seeds.