Lent

  Today starts the season of Lent.  Now, by no means am I a religious person - but in my house, if you're going to enjoy Christmas, you have to endure the suck of Lent.  The boy has given up all chocolate.  As usual, I have given up all added sugars.  That means candy, sugar in my coffee, all that jazz.  Not sugar used to activate yeast in bread, or to cut the bitterness of my marinara sauce, or in general purpose cooking up to 2 tablespoons in the whole dish (obviously, if you have company and are doubling a dish, you account for that.  most meals make 4 - 5 servings in my house so that's more like 1.5 teaspoons per serving).  This also does not include fruit.  Fruit is full of sugar, I don't go all out on this sugar thing.  Just do a good clean sweep of getting it mostly out of my diet in the more unhealthy ways it crops up.  Everyone else gets stuck doing it to an extent too.  I stop making dessert or buying sweets, I don't make coffee as often, things like that.
  My husband and I reverted back to an old nasty habit that we are giving up for Lent together - smoking.  I get it, it's hard to give up.  It's easy to pick back up.  It can be a continuous struggle.  Yep, and my dumb self is doing that along with sugar.  Welcome to the new roller coaster!
  Today I had pancakes for breakfast.  I know, pancakes!  It's actually quite easy to make these little buggers without sugar.  Just don't put any in the mix.  I used bananas for a touch of sweetness and omitted syrup too.  It's not about admonishing or denying yourself.  It's about making the kind of changes you can stick with.  While Lent is (only) 40 days, I tend to let my no added sugars continue for at least a month longer.
  I am also doing the 31 day water challenge starting in earnest today.  That's 2 Double Gulp's full of water, every day; more if you've consumed caffeine.  I tried starting yesterday, she wasn't kidding when she said you'd be peeing all the time.
  Finally, I'm working on doing Pinterest 365 again.  This will be my 5th attempt and yes, I'm already behind.  I have a lot of goals for this year, including keeping up on this blog.  This is my first in what will hopefully be a blogging twice a week groove.  Thursdays will be recipes, either something I've tested or something I've made up.

Shopping

  (Yes, I'm pretty much going to ignore the long absence.)

  At the beginning of this year, something very helpful to a lot of families who want to shop responsibly happened - Walmart increased it's wages.  In most areas, a $10 an hour wage is a living wage.  Is it my go to for shopping?  No.  Do I now utilize the Neighborhood Walmart that is my closest grocery store?  Yes.  We even got a Sam's Club membership - though we will likely not renew as we have only used it twice in the four or five months we've had it.  Having grown up with Costco, we've had a Costco card since we came back stateside.  I *knew* that was what I wanted, both because Walmart paid poverty line wages and because they had what I like.  Having both and being able to compare them in a better way (because a walk through just isn't the same), there are very few things I'd get at Sam's over Costco.  Ok, there's one.  Bread.  They have this amazing vegan bread there.  It's fairly healthy, but still not a top choice.  It's ridiculously delicious though.  My son likes it better because they always have samples when we go in and there are more of them.  Sample and Buffet King, people.
  So, back to the stores that are actually close to me.  I have a Neighborhood Walmart, Vista Market (which is a Mexican grocer), and a Super Target.  Seriously, that's it.  Everything else is over fifteen miles away.  I am looking forward to the Sprouts opening in February, but until then, Sprouts is about every other month for shopping.

Neighborhood Walmart:  here's the great thing about Walmart, they price match.  If it's only one or two items, they don't even ask you for the advertisement.  Nice.  I've had some very friendly people tell me that avocados were on sale 3/$1 and once 10/$1!  At Los Altos.  Notice you haven't heard mention of Los Altos?  Yeah, 20 minutes for avocados is not happening.  They carry a pretty good range of organic products, and they are very competitively priced outside the Commissary, Costco, and sales.  They are my go to for quick trips and last minute "oops, I forgot"s.

Vista Market:  Mexican grocers have a great thing in the produce section.  I've never seen produce so inexpensive and still be such good quality.  However - you need to pay attention to when they stock as their produce does tend to go bad faster.  Don't overbuy because of how inexpensive it is.  Their organic produce is more expensive than other stores, so stick with things outside the dirty dozen.  (We like Los Altos better - if you're in El Paso, hit them up if they're closer.  Bigger produce section and a restaurant inside?  Heck yes!)

Costco: We hit up Costco about once a month for the bulk shopping.  Flour, milks, oats, spices, chocolate chips, a splurge or two if it's in the budget.

Sprouts:  Every other month, if needed.  Bulk nuts, things for granola, sale produce.  A few other odds and ends.

Albertson's:  Now, I don't eat meat at all, but the boys do.  I've never seen sales on meat like I have at our Albertson's.  Even my MIL hasn't seen them in Phoenix, so for sure there's a location thing here.  Since we don't have it often, I'm not as adimant that it be organic or grass fed.  DH gets steaks, both boys are happy.  I get another day off from cooking.  They also carry Shamrock Farm's organic milk, so we pick some up since DH likes it better than the Costco stuff (mostly we use Costco organic milk though).  They also carry Califa Farms coffee creamers.  Hi!  Yum.  I reserve this for iced coffee only though since coconut milk gets super thick in the fridge and iced coffee doesn't thin it back out.  They will also have 10/$10 deals.  Depending on what it is (always coconut milk), I may pick up some of those as well.

Commissary:  I know this will not apply to a lot of you, but I do some shopping at the commissary as well.  They are the only ones locally who carry my "butter" of choice.  I also pick up vital wheat gluten and ground flax seed there.  Stay out of the produce, it's generally more expensive - I don't care what they say.

I am a terrible blogger...

...this I have always known.  So in an attempt to make up for that, behold: a recipe!  My son is in love with Cuthroat Kitchen.  He's always asking us to do it and so far we have done it twice.  This time I decided to create my own recipe.  We decide ahead of time what we are going to cook and know what the challenges are so that we actually can put dinner on the table in a reasonable time.  This time we did burgers.  My husband won, who knew my son would like SPAM so much.  It breaks my healthy heart a little.  However - it was the SPAM that won the competition, but the kiddo liked my burger enough to say we could make them again!  I made his without the diced green chilies because the boy doesn't like heat

White bean and quinoa patties
-1 medium eggplant
-2 cans of great white northern beans
-1 cup rinsed quinoa
-3/4c all purpose flour
-1 small can diced green chilies
-a pinch of jalapeno powder
-salt and pepper to taste
-more coarse salt to "sweat" the eggplant

  Cut the top off the eggplant and then slice it lengthwise in half.  Make deep cuts on both diagonals into the flesh of the eggplant and heavily salt with the coarse salt.  Set aside for at least 30 minutes to sweat.  *DO NOT SKIP* this step!  It removes the bitterness from the eggplant which is why so many people think they don't like eggplant.  After 30 minutes give the eggplant a squeeze and you'll understand what I mean by "sweating" the eggplant.  Give it a good rinse to get the salt off, spray some olive oil on the flesh and place flesh down on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Cook at 425 for 30-45 minutes, until the flesh is soft.  Let cool, scrape out the flesh - do not use the skin, that's bitter too.
  Boil 1 cup of water and add the quinoa, cook for 20 minutes.
  Drain and rinse the beans, then smash the heck out of them and the eggplant.  I do this with my clean hands, it's much easier.  Add everything else in and mix it well (I still use my hands), make sure that you mix enough for the gluten to activate in your flour as that's going to keep this thing together.  It will be sticky.  Form into patties, spray tops with olive oil, and bake on parchment paper at 350 for 18 minutes, then flip over and do another 5, spraying the new side in olive oil as well; or pan fry.

We served these on buns with all the fixings.  Some people just at the patty, but everyone enjoyed them!  A few only had these and not the meat burgers - we only had 1 meat patty for each person and we had 3 left over.  So hooray me!  I baked up some fries with salt, pepper, and some more of the jalapeno powder to go with it.  I didn't take any picture while making, but here's a shot of what the finished (leftover) patty looks like

Building a successful pantry

  Healthy cooking can be hard on the fly when you don't have a recipe planned - or your recipe didn't turn out.  So you turn to your pantry and you still have junk food.  It's hard to replace, so do so slowly.  A lot of people will tell you to throw out all the "bad for you" foods and replenish with all healthy foods, but who has that kind of money?!  Make some decisions.  Do you have a lot of box mixes?  Take stock of what's in them, look at the ingredients, when you're starting out "good enough" is good enough!  If you're chock full of hamburger helper, you may want to look at your spice cabinet to create the spice pack instead of using what's in there.  It won't taste the same - I guarantee that, but it will be far better for you.  Take a look at ingredients in the boxes you have, I bet you can make something very similar.  Take notes, write down what you did so when it's successful you have just made your very own recipe.  Next time, just pick up a box of noodles and maybe a new spice.  Create your own spice mixes for your favorite box meals - it'll save you time, be more healthy, and in the long run save you money.
  Let's look inside my pantry, shall we?

Top shelf: cereals, box stock, oatmeal, chocolate chips, Nesquick (home made requires the blender - what?!  It's a rare treat even with the size), brewer's yeast, formula (just in case), crackers, and pinto beans.  Only one Nesquick container actually has any in it, the rest are premixed hot cereals.

Second shelf:  sugars, flours, beans, garlic, egg replacer, trail mix fixings, Abuelita, bread crumbs, baking chips, rices.  Yes, I have that many different kinds.  Sugars: unrefined and coconut, flours: all purpose, whole wheat, rye, rice, corn meal, self rising, polenta; beans: garbanzo, black, split peas, lentils, red lentils; rices: white, brown, basmati, rissoto/arborio.  Have I mentioned me and carbs are besties?

Third shelf: liquids.  Sweet Jiminy the liquids.  I may have every kind of vinegar available on the US market and some from Germany as well.  Oils include olive, peanut, safflower, and sesame.  Shortening, onions get stashed here if there's room, cooking sprays, soy sauce, tamari, bragg's, vanilla, ketchup, curry ketchup (it's the bomb!), lemon juice, lime juice, curry sauce (unopened at this point), and more friggin' Abuelita.  I kept forgetting we already had some.

Fourth shelf: that mailing box - lunch stuff; fruit snacks, fruit pouches, sweets.  chips, soy milk, any liquids that don't fit in the above shelf (currently tapitio and lime juice), canned tomato products and beans, pizza sauce base.

Floor: cat food, trash bags, that's really soda back there for guests, baking soda, big bottles of white vinegar, vegetable oil, and dish soap, boxes of juice boxes, and more chips.  That pink thing?  An apron.


  Dry goods go a long way and are a lot less expensive than the precooked canned or frozen counterparts.  I'm not talking about going crazy here, I get it, making your own enchilada sauce can be a stretch when starting (or you may just be guilty of loving and not giving up your favorite brand).  Look at beans, most will double in volume on cooking.  A can of precooked beans can be as cheap as $.74, you're getting about 14oz which includes the liquid.  You can buy a bag of dried beans for around $1 a pound.  For the not so math savvy, one pound is 16oz.  For $.23 more you're not just getting 2oz though, you're getting more than triple the beans.  15oz precooked, drained beans is about 1 1/2c, one pound cooked will yield 6 cups of drained beans!  I hear your complaints of "I don't have time," and I counter with slow cooker.  Put the beans you'll need in the slow cooker before you head out the door and like magic you'll have cooked beans when you come home.  Some people say you need to soak the beans overnight first.  I'll be honest, I almost never do this.  I forget.  Most beans are forgiving and it's no big deal.  Small beans are not!  Black, navy, and even great white northern beans really benefit from soaking.  Nothing like a hard bean to ruin a meal.  Grains are one of the biggest money savers.  Take the time to premix if you need to.  Make your own pancake mix, brownie or cake mix, bread mix, what not.  The only one I always have on hand is pancake mix, everything else we use various recipes for so it doesn't make sense to have them premixed.  You can pick up a 25 pound bag of flour at Costco for under $8.  It's ConAgra, which morally I have issues with.  You have to make the decision if every purchase has to be moral.  Bulk flour at Sprouts is also an option, but I can't find information on where it's from, so I figure I might as well know where my dollars are going instead of assuming where they are not.  We use flour like crazy, I buy 25 pounds every 2-3 months.  I'm looking at cuts to buy the organic flour, and I'm getting there!

  A note on things not tasting the same:  you'll get so used to healthy cooking that you won't look at boxed foods the same.  More than that - they won't taste the same.  My husband who is against this whole thing in our house recently commented that he didn't want the junk food in the boxes because it doesn't taste good to him, there's a place for it and that's when he's in the field!  SCORE!!!
 

Menu, Hearty Pancake Recipe

I have been slacking at pictures and at blogging.  So lets delve right in to the menu plans from the last few weeks.  I'll link up recipes or cookbooks as I can.  This goes all the way back to the end of October and is somewhat planned for next week, but we'll be out of town so that makes it a bit harder.  The boy can get breakfast at school, so I either let that happen or deal with him forcing himself to throw up.  Yeah, he gets school breakfast.  I cringe when he tells me what it was each time.  Lunches are still mostly left overs or whatever I can make quickly out of left overs, so that only leaves dinners to plan out now, and weekend breakfasts.

M: Spaghetti Marinara
T: Tacos, no recipe, also we now do taco Tuesday.  I use jackfruit as a substitute for meat and season it with some taco seasoning (omitting the red pepper flakes since my son doesn't do heat)
W: Creamy Ravioli, Thug Kitchen, honestly a lot of work for something we didn't really like.
Th: Tortas, Thug Kitchen, these were great!
F:  Pizza
S:  I had planned lazagna from Thug Kitchen, but with not liking the faux ricotta I didn't make it.  However, I also don't remember what I did make!
S:  Meat burritos, threw some home made salsa in with chicken and with beef as well as some plain chicken in the crockpot for the boy (no heat, seriously.  the beef makes it not spicy though so he ate that as well)
M: Falafel and tzatziki, Appetite for Reduction for the falafel.  Tzatziki is just grated cucumber, squeezed, added to a block of mori nu tetra pak organic firm tofu, 2-3 cloves of raw garlic, a little bit of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.
T:  Tacos
W: Cream of broccoli soup, DH suggested adding cilantro next time, I also left mine a little chunky since the boys like soups that way
Th:  Korma, basmati, naan - I can't find the link for the korma, I have the recipe printed out now, but here's a vindaloo if you like spicy
F:  Pizza
S:  "Big Macs"
S:  Lemony red lentil soup, Thug Kitchen, didn't make it - I think we weren't hungry.
M:  Smoked almond and chickpea sammies, Thug Kitchen.  I don't remember these at all, but I'm fairly certain I made them.
T:  Tacos
W:  Pozole Rojo, Thug Kitchen.  Our family didn't care for this.  Too spicy for the boy, too much "other stuff" for DH (it's supposed to only be meat, hominy, and broth apparently), I thought it was alright - but I don't make dinners only I eat.
Th:  Warm the fuck up minestrone, Thug Kitchen.  We liked this one, the boys don't really care for kale so we'll sub in escarole or spinach next time.
F:  we ate out
S: Barley-stuffed peppers, Thug Kitchen.  I made them, we weren't hungry.  I should have one for lunch today.  The stuffing tasted great though, I do taste as I'm cooking!  These would be great with bulgar too.

S:  Potato leek and corn chowder, WW take out tonight.  I messed up, I was supposed to make a potato and leek soup from Thug and just did the other by memory.
M:  Chickpeas and dumplings, Thug Kitchen.  This one is very good, I used cannelini beans instead; except the dumplings needed more salt.  I also messed up and let them cook too long - don't ever do that with dumplings, soggy, nasty, chewy, mush.  My fault entirely.
T:  Tacos
W:  Burritos
Th:  Stuffed shells
  I need to take a moment to discuss these shells with you.  Yes, they are a bit of work.  However, I could wax poetic about the deliciousness of these things.  My eggplant and tofu hating husband loves these (though he likes my tzatiki which is tofu, and the pie, and baked tofu... yeah, just prepare stuff right).  If you make nothing else from this post, make these.  You're welcome.
F:  Pizza
S:  5 spice fried rice with sweet potatoes, Thug Kitchen
S:  Leftovers - clear out the fridge before we leave
M:  Indian fried rice - so we have something to eat that's still good when we get back!
T:  Tacos
W:  Tucson, tentatively spaghetti marinara
Th:  Thanksgiving.  I've already made cranberry sauce to bring (I canned it), I'll make something like a vegetable fold over also (veggies wrapped in bread with a sauce)
F:  Tucson, tentatively still pizza
S:  Tucson, tentatively vegetable soup with dumplings
S:  Leftovers

That's as far as I've gotten.  I suppose I should plan the following week.  I'm going to admit we'll likely eat out that Monday.

  Yesterday I wanted pancakes and we had 3 over ripe bananas so I decided to make enough to freeze some so DH could bring breakfast to work (he generally skips it because he's a total pain like that).  These I did take pictures of!

  Hearty Banana Multigrain Pancakes, makes 27 pancakes:
3c pancake mix (I straight omit the shortening, works just fine without it)
3 black ripe bananas
1c oatmeal (not quick cooking)
3+ T ground flax
2+ T wheat germ
2 1/3c organic soy milk
  you know how to mix and cook pancakes, right?  I thought so.
**Be aware these guys are hearty and take a while to cook.  Keep your heat on medium-low (3) to get them to cook all the way and not burn.  Some of mine are a little underdone, but with no eggs - I'm not worried.  I figured out I needed to lower the heat after the first 6 were (mostly) cooked.

Eating out Veg*n

  So I'm going to cover something a bit different this time.  Ever been invited out and felt awful either saying "no" or ordering a dry salad (yuck!)?  In my case I usually feel guilty because my husband is so accommodating to it when we go out.  He always asks what I can eat at places.  Some days I love that man!  The concern is - how do you find out?  Oh you lucky veg*ns, you.  The internet has come a long way: Happy Cow (which also has an app for your phone!), VegVine, and Vegan eating out are generally my three go-tos for finding out.  If I am asked well enough in advance about a restaurant - I email them.  I have never had a company not respond to my inquiries, though I've gotten answers I haven't been happy with.  Sometimes you just want to be able to eat where everyone does.  I think my worst experience was for Bucco di Beppo's for my parent's anniversary a few years back.  I flew in from Germany to San Diego (with a 4 year old, what was I thinking?!).  I emailed the company weeks in advance and got a promt reply of I could eat nothing.  This is where my parents wanted to go for their anniversary, I flew over 6,000 miles to go to a restaurant I couldn't eat at - and I did it happily, albeit a little disappointed.  I went vegetarian instead of vegan because most of the group was concerned.  Yes, sometimes you bend your principals for the people you love.  Sometimes you don't.  This was before I was doing vegetarian once a week - which I do less and less of since the move.
  Spur of the moment eating out is the worst!  Again, my husband is great at addressing dietary concerns.  While breast feeding our new one in the car (I have no problems breastfeeding in public, but I also understand it can make people uncomfortable so I do it as privately as I can when I can) he went in and checked out a buffet to see if I could eat there.  Lin's Buffet got a thumbs up from him so I finished up, got the stroller, and headed in.  Vegan was easy, crazy easy.  Except those sugared biscuits that screamed at me.  Then I ate one - yeasted and sugared.  OMG.  I need to figure those out for at home.  I am a huge fan of breads where you can taste the yeast, and then to sugar crust it?  Win.  No eggs in it, and I'm assuming there's some milk or butter in them - though I couldn't taste that either.  I've gotten super sensitive to eggs, both taste wise and intestinal wise, so I'm sure there are none.
  While locally I won't be a help to many of you; but anyone in the El Paso, TX area will be happy with the knowledge.  So some very vegan friendly places are:
  - The Hoppy Monk
  - India Palace
  - Thai Chef Cafe (ask to substitute meats for tofu)
  - Tacoholics (Jesse is great!)
  - Lin's Buffet

  I don't really take pictures of food when I eat out - perhaps it's time to change that.  But I can tell you they won't be the best pictures because if I'm not cooking it, I'm much quicker to enjoy it and quality of photo doesn't mean a thing to me when it gets between me and my food!

Cooking

  I'm a terrible blogger.  I keep trying to be better at it.  In the meantime, I've found this wonderful blog.  Let me tell you, if you don't make her recipes you are missing out.  Not all have been hits in our house, but of the few I've made most have been family approved - or at least partially.  Peanut butter and vegetable curry had too much peanut butter in it for us, but had potential.  Her simple tomato soup would make a great soup base for us (I used tomato sauce instead of juice, I just never buy tomato juice, ew).  I was the only one that ate the creamy chili and zucchini stew, I found it delicious, but I don't think anyone else would like it; they all dislike zucchini.  Creamy spinach with brussels sprouts reminded my son of grown up mac and cheese but with brussels sprouts, which only my husband likes... so next time we'll omit those (also, we bastardize these with the addition of ketchup and Tapitio).  My favorite, which I made tonight, so far has been the crispy carrot cutlets (there are no limes in this recipe, those were for my water and I'm terrible at putting things away - plus I drink lots of water, why keep moving them around?).  Mother of all that is delicious!  Estonia = amazing vegan food, who knew?!  The child liked these - let me tell you, that says a lot (picky little schmuck).

   I've also been baking bread about every two days (maybe one day I'll care enough to touch up photos before posting them, also I should learn to photograph food).

 I made copious muffins, including these which the boy would barely even try (like I said, schmuck).  More for me.  I did dates in lieu of raisins since raisins come straight from the devil.  I wouldn't be surprised if they were his wrinkly scrotum proliferating itself... too much?  Yes, I dislike raisins that much.  More than brussels sprouts.  I forgot to take a picture after I'd baked them, and then they were all up in my face so fast I didn't get the chance.  Two days, that's how long they lasted.  They didn't rise, at all.  Still wonderful, don't care.

 
  I know I was supposed to make things for lunches.  I failed.  Sure did, not going to apologize.  DH had been working like crazy with zero days off - no, I exaggerate.  In 7 weeks he did get 1 day off, which meant lots of kid time and tired.  Like incoherent tired.  He decided to take a day off last weekend as well and he did get this weekend off; as bad as it sounds, only because someone died.  So yes, I'm still dragging; but doing better with DS back at school.
  Hopefully I'll post next Thursday, my goal will be to post every Thursday.  I sure hope *someone* remembers!