Week 14: Project Food Budget

Week 14 of Reluctant Vegetarian's Project: Food Budget

Goal: $75
Actual: $82.34

House renovations continued this past week, so I haven't been cooking a lot (so sad). Nearly every meal I made for the past week except one were test recipes for the next Happy Herbivore cookbook. Most of the recipes I made called for ingredients I mostly had on hand, so the bulk of the budget went to fresh fruits and veggies for snacks and many salads plus these

• Quiche with Greens
• 40-Clove Broccoli and Chickpeas
  
• Whole-Wheat Beer Bread
• 5 test recipes for Happy Herbivore cookbook + making a recipe a second time because it was so good
  

Once my seemingly never-ended renovation project is done, I can't wait to get back to doing more cooking!

Hello to my fellow food budgeters!

• Emily Levenson
  
• Maria Marz
• Veggie Converter
• Dairy-Free Cooking
• Motor City Girl In the Steel City
• The Happy Cactus
• The Vegetarian Salmon
• Test Kitchen Tuesday
• Newly Vegan
• Always Sick and Tired
• Veggie on the Cheap
• MeloMeals: Vegan For $3.33 A Day
• A Guy, A Girl, And a Dinner Plate
• The Amateur Low Carb Flexitarian
• The Veggie Life
• Caroline Cain Holistic Health

Quiche with Greens

As a vegetarian, I ate a lot of quiches. When I first went vegan, I resigned myself to never eating quiche again. How naive I was. Of course you can make vegan quiches, and of course they are delicious!

I tried my first one from the Happy Herbivore website this past weekend (here's the recipe). It was ridiculously easy to put together and absolutely fantastic. I could see myself eating this every day for the next few weeks and not getting sick of it. Plus, at 78 calories, 1 gram of fat, and nearly 7 grams of protein a slice, it's a filling, light meal. I made mine with 6 cups of swiss chard. It didn't look much like the picture on the website so I didn't think it would turn out, but it was great. Hurray for vegan quiches!

Back to Cooking: Recipe Test Pics

Wow, house renovations suck. As I mentioned, my husband and I are renovating the third floor of our house. It's a very large room that will become our hang out and guest room and my exercise room. Contractors worked on it for three weeks before we had to paint. After five long weekend days, five late weeknights, a giant bucket of primer, and four shades of paint, we are finally done painting so the contractors can finish. But boy, I bitched and moaned the whole time. Not only was it just awful, miserable work, but I had very little time for cooking. I am not happy when I'm not cooking.

I did manage to squeeze in some test recipes for the next Happy Herbivore cookbook. Lindsay's recipes were perfect when I wanted something fast and nutritious with ingredients I mostly had on hand. And, I swear, each recipe was better than the next. For fat-free or low-fat recipes, pretty much every recipe I tried just blew me away. Every time I sent in feedback, I'd say, "I think this is my favorite recipe so far!" I'm warning you in advance: You will want this cookbook! Here are just a few pictures of some of the recipes. The second one, sadly, does not do this dish justice. And the last one...if I even told you the name of it (which I can't do), you would probably start drooling. Trust me: Awesome!

Week 13: Project Food Budget

Week 13 of Reluctant Vegetarian's Project: Food Budget

Goal: $75
Actual: $60.57

I'm under but it's because I haven't been cooking a lot. We're in the midst of a home renovation project, and the cooking I've done has been mainly test recipes for the next Happy Herbivore cookbook. Mostly the budget went to fresh fruits and veggies for snacks and many salads plus just a few other things...

• Hoison-Mustard Tofu with Unfried Rice
• Whole-Wheat Beer Bread
• 2 batches of Low-Fat Spicy Hummus
• Maple Muffins
• Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
• 4 test recipes for Happy Herbivore cookbook
  

(All the baked goods are for some thank-you gift bags for people.)

Looking forward to being done with the house renovation so I can do more cooking!

Hello to my fellow food budgeters!

• Emily Levenson
  
• Maria Marz
• Veggie Converter
• Dairy-Free Cooking
• Motor City Girl In the Steel City
• The Happy Cactus
• The Vegetarian Salmon
• Test Kitchen Tuesday
• Newly Vegan
• Always Sick and Tired
• Veggie on the Cheap
• MeloMeals: Vegan For $3.33 A Day
• A Guy, A Girl, And a Dinner Plate
• The Amateur Low Carb Flexitarian
• The Veggie Life

Unfried Fried Tofu & Hoison-Mustard Sauce

I learned this technique for dry-frying tofu in Appetite for Reduction and have been using it a lot. It gives tofu the same great texture as frying but without any fat.

1. Press a block of tofu for at least a half-hour to get as much moisture out as possible. The more dry your tofu is, the better the results. Cut up the pressed tofu into half-inch cubes.
2. Heat a pan over medium heat and spray with a little bit of cooking spray. Add your cubed tofu and let it cook for 5 minutes, flipping with a thin spatula to keep the pieces intact, with the goal to get the tofu browned on all sides.
3. After 5 minutes, drizzle 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, toss to coat, and cook for another 5 minutes.

The result is chewy tofu with a great fried texture. Doesn't it look delicious?
It doesn't have a strong taste, so it would be best with flavorful sauces or gravies instead of on its own. My favorite sauce is the Hoison-Mustard Sauce from Appetite for Reduction, where this technique came from. I've said before that I don't like to post recipes from current cookbooks, but I think posting one or two is okay--I know I'm more likely to buy a cookbook after I've tried a few recipes first. Since I haven't posted any AFR recipes yet, I'm posting this--my all-time favorite tofu recipe!

Hoison-Mustard Tofu
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 block extra-firm tofu, pressed and cut into half-inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 small onion, diced small
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (1/2 teaspoon if you want it spicier)
• 3 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons hoison sauce
• 2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard

Instructions

1. Fry the tofu per the instructions above and set aside.
   
2. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes in the sesame oil. Cook for about 10 minutes, using a little cooking spray if it becomes dry. Veggies should be soft and brown.
3. Add the mirin and let it cook for 3 minutes. Mirin is a thick, sweet Japanese wine. I think it's important to use it in this recipe to get the sweet and thick consistency of the sauce, so I don't think you should substitute anything for the mirin. It will look like this after you add the mirin.
4. Add the hoison and mustard and cook for another minute.
5. Add the tofu to the sauce and toss to coat.

This tofu and sauce is so amazing, it's hard for me to wait to even put it on a plate. I want to gobble it all up right out of the pan. I had it with the Unfried Fried Rice from Appetite for Reduction, which I first talked about here.I think this sauce would also make a good dipping sauce for spring rolls and other types of Asian appetizers.

Maple Muffins

I started out a third day of painting (actual painting--the last two days were just priming) on a sweet note: Maple Muffins from the Happy Herbivore Cookbook.

Made with pumpkin and applesauce, these are fat-free and just 3 WeightWatchers PointsPlus values (that's low). They weren't super dense like most oil-free muffins. Instead, they were surprisingly light. With a hint of maple and pumpkin pie spice flavor, they were just sweet enough. They were fantastic--a great start to a day I'm not looking forward to.

A similar recipe is posted on the Happy Herbivore website (you can use either sweet potato or pumpkin puree; the version I made didn't call for flax eggs).

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

I haven't been cooking because of a renovation project of the third floor of my house. After three weeks of work, the contractors have put in new drywall, added a storage closet, added electrical, did HVAC work, enclosed ductwork, added a space for a bar area, and added trim.Now it's our turn. This weekend we need to clean, prime, and paint all the surfaces. Not only is it a huge pain, but it leaves little time for cooking.

We started spackling on Friday night, and I forgot to mix up the dough for the whole-wheat no-knead bread I make every week. On Saturday morning, I was breadless--my equivalent to not having air or water.

So I made Vegan Whole Wheat Beer Bread from the Happy Herbivore website. I had no idea how it would turn out. I don't even like beer.

It was the quickest, easiest bread imaginable. You combine whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder with 12 ounces of beer (I used oatmeal stout). It's done in an hour.

It was awesome!!! The outside was crispy and inside was chewy with a great texture. It tasted delicious--not at all like beer and with just a hint of sweetness. I also loved that it used no oil and slid right out of the pan.

I ate it with some low-fat spicy hummus I made for snacks during the day, and it was just perfect. I'll definitely make this bread again.