Budget issues

[Guest guest]

I have recently gone back to lacto-ovo vegetarian after a break from it for

about a year.  My husband chose not to follow me, which is fine.  In fact, my

husband is an OTR truck driver, so he is only home on the weekends.  On the

weekends I often plan a meat meal with several big veggie side dishes.  That has

worked rather well for us.  Monday thru Friday is just me and my son (and 7

month old baby), so we make easier, smaller meals and they are always

vegetarian.

 

My dilemma:

I want to eat healthy.  I want to reduce the amount of CHEESE we eat (it is in

probably 3/4 of the meals we make!).  But I am also looking for ways to cut our

food spending. 

 

Please do not just say " eat beans and rice " because I do not know how to cook

w/o a recipe.  <sigh>  I have been scouring the web this week in my free time

looking for inexpensive meal planning and have gotten some ideas.  But I am

really struggling.  I definitely think adding more beans and rice to our

repotoire (sp?) would be great, but I would need specifics on what to do with

them.  We do not like lentils, and only eat chickpeas in Chickpea Cutlets (or

hummus).  Not big fans of peppers either.  Other than that, we are pretty open

to eating whatever.  :-) 

 

I think what I am looking for are recipes that go together - like you buy a

whole can of coconut milk; use half for this recipe and half for another recipe

that same week.  I think maybe we waste a lot of food on recipes that don't use

all of a can of something, or require SEVERAL ingredients that we don't

regularly have on hand.

 

Please point me in the direction that works best for your family!

Thanks!

Jennifer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

We love this quick, easy and cheap black bean recipe from vegan

explosion:

http://veganexplosion.com/

 

She also has a great fideo recipe and queso dip (if you are looking to

get away from cheese). I would say the queso is the only recipe with

something you may not have on hand ( nutritional yeast).

 

The only change I make in these recipes is to sub the rotel for a can

of plain diced tomatoes since my boys don't like spicy things.

 

I hope you enjoy!

Sheramy

 

Sent from my iPhone

 

On Mar 4, 2010, at 5:09 PM, Jennifer Simmons <callmearavis

wrote:

 

> I have recently gone back to lacto-ovo vegetarian after a break from

> it for about a year. My husband chose not to follow me, which is

> fine. In fact, my husband is an OTR truck driver, so he is only

> home on the weekends. On the weekends I often plan a meat meal with

> several big veggie side dishes. That has worked rather well for

> us. Monday thru Friday is just me and my son (and 7 month old

> baby), so we make easier, smaller meals and they are always

> vegetarian.

>

> My dilemma:

> I want to eat healthy. I want to reduce the amount of CHEESE we eat

> (it is in probably 3/4 of the meals we make!). But I am also

> looking for ways to cut our food spending.

>

> Please do not just say " eat beans and rice " because I do not know

> how to cook w/o a recipe. <sigh> I have been scouring the web this

> week in my free time looking for inexpensive meal planning and have

> gotten some ideas. But I am really struggling. I definitely think

> adding more beans and rice to our repotoire (sp?) would be great,

> but I would need specifics on what to do with them. We do not like

> lentils, and only eat chickpeas in Chickpea Cutlets (or hummus).

> Not big fans of peppers either. Other than that, we are pretty open

> to eating whatever. :-)

>

> I think what I am looking for are recipes that go together - like

> you buy a whole can of coconut milk; use half for this recipe and

> half for another recipe that same week. I think maybe we waste a

> lot of food on recipes that don't use all of a can of something, or

> require SEVERAL ingredients that we don't regularly have on hand.

>

> Please point me in the direction that works best for your family!

> Thanks!

> Jennifer

>

>

[Guest guest]

I cannot recommend the Veggie Meal Maker program highly enough.

http://veggiemealmaker.com/

 

I've been using it for two weeks and have loved every recipe, have stayed on

budget for grocery shopping, and my shopping trips aren't even stressful

anymore. It's incredible. I use the vegan version, but they have a vegetarian

version too.

 

Christina

 

 

callmearavis

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 14:09:50 -0800

Budget issues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have recently gone back to lacto-ovo vegetarian after a break from it

for about a year. My husband chose not to follow me, which is fine. In fact,

my husband is an OTR truck driver, so he is only home on the weekends. On the

weekends I often plan a meat meal with several big veggie side dishes. That has

worked rather well for us. Monday thru Friday is just me and my son (and 7

month old baby), so we make easier, smaller meals and they are always

vegetarian.

 

 

 

My dilemma:

 

I want to eat healthy. I want to reduce the amount of CHEESE we eat (it is in

probably 3/4 of the meals we make!). But I am also looking for ways to cut our

food spending.

 

 

 

Please do not just say " eat beans and rice " because I do not know how to cook

w/o a recipe. <sigh> I have been scouring the web this week in my free time

looking for inexpensive meal planning and have gotten some ideas. But I am

really struggling. I definitely think adding more beans and rice to our

repotoire (sp?) would be great, but I would need specifics on what to do with

them. We do not like lentils, and only eat chickpeas in Chickpea Cutlets (or

hummus). Not big fans of peppers either. Other than that, we are pretty open

to eating whatever. :-)

 

 

 

I think what I am looking for are recipes that go together - like you buy a

whole can of coconut milk; use half for this recipe and half for another recipe

that same week. I think maybe we waste a lot of food on recipes that don't use

all of a can of something, or require SEVERAL ingredients that we don't

regularly have on hand.

 

 

 

Please point me in the direction that works best for your family!

 

Thanks!

 

Jennifer

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Casseroles IMO can be very cost effective.

Elbow noodles (or even egg noodles), 1-2 cans of bean ( I guess 1 bag of dry), 1

can of tomatoes (flavored ones can be used, too, like basil and garlic or

zesty), and a veg. I usually use broccoli or peas.

Boil the pasta and drop the veg into the water for the last 3 minutes of cooking

time. Drain that and toss in baking dish sprayed with Pam. Drain and rinse the

beans, drain the tomatoes saving about 2 tbsp if the liquid. Mix pasta, beans,

tomatoes and juice all together. At this point you could mix in cheese or just

sprinkle some on top. That is how I am lowering our chesse intake. I use less

when I JUST sprinkle it in top. And it's training my tastebuds to go with out

it.

Bake in oven for 15 min at 350, covered to keep it soupy, uncovered to make it

crispy in the outside.

I'll try to think of some more. Stuffed tomatoes with rice and possibly a meet

sub like crumbles. Add some Rosemary or basil to the rice and make extra so you

can use it with a stir fry or another broc casserole with the basil rice, broc,

and some cubes of tofu.

U am ready for dinner and didn't even eat breakfast yet.

Eat fruits and veggies for snacks instead of the packaged stuff.

Good luck! I am getting my bill down to under $70 regularly (2 months ago it

was consistently over $100)

Stir fry once a week is CHEAP, too.

 

Cassie

" life's a garden, dig it! "

 

Sent from my iPhone

 

On Mar 4, 2010, at 5:09 PM, Jennifer Simmons <callmearavis wrote:

 

I have recently gone back to lacto-ovo vegetarian after a break from it for

about a year. My husband chose not to follow me, which is fine. In fact, my

husband is an OTR truck driver, so he is only home on the weekends. On the

weekends I often plan a meat meal with several big veggie side dishes. That has

worked rather well for us. Monday thru Friday is just me and my son (and 7

month old baby), so we make easier, smaller meals and they are always

vegetarian.

 

My dilemma:

I want to eat healthy. I want to reduce the amount of CHEESE we eat (it is in

probably 3/4 of the meals we make!). But I am also looking for ways to cut our

food spending.

 

Please do not just say " eat beans and rice " because I do not know how to cook

w/o a recipe. <sigh> I have been scouring the web this week in my free time

looking for inexpensive meal planning and have gotten some ideas. But I am

really struggling. I definitely think adding more beans and rice to our

repotoire (sp?) would be great, but I would need specifics on what to do with

them. We do not like lentils, and only eat chickpeas in Chickpea Cutlets (or

hummus). Not big fans of peppers either. Other than that, we are pretty open

to eating whatever. :-)

 

I think what I am looking for are recipes that go together - like you buy a

whole can of coconut milk; use half for this recipe and half for another recipe

that same week. I think maybe we waste a lot of food on recipes that don't use

all of a can of something, or require SEVERAL ingredients that we don't

regularly have on hand.

 

Please point me in the direction that works best for your family!

Thanks!

Jennifer

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Jennifer,

One thing that we do is just keep some easy to cook, affordable foods

from all the food groups on hand – so we always have rice, pasta,

barley, bread, polenta (the ready-made kind in a tube), crackers,

tortillas, frozen waffles, cereal, oatmeal, etc. for grains – then we

always have canned and dry beans, dry peas and lentils, tofu, eggs,

nuts, seeds, soy milk, canned lentil soup, etc. for protein – we get a

CSA share so we always have fresh veggies and fruit on hand, and keep

things like apple sauce, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, dried fruit and

raisins, and juice for back ups – and then we are lacto-ovos, too, so we

have milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. Even if I have no recipes planned for a

week, we keep all these things stocked and the grocery list is made up

of these things on most weeks.

 

Then, at meal time, if I don’t have a specific recipe I’m using, I just

ask what grain everyone wants – when we get consensus on rice or pasta

or polenta or tortillas, etc., I then ask what veggies they’d like with

that – and add a protein if anyone still needs protein at dinner time,

and dairy is an addition sometimes and not others. So, for example, if

everyone wants pasta – I ask if they want that in a veggie soup, or with

tomato sauce and tofu, or in a casserole with beans and tomatoes and

cheese. If they want rice, I ask what veggie they want steamed with

that and then how they’d like the rice – stir fried with veggies, in a

soup, with lemon juice and cracked pepper on it, with a little tomato

sauce and chopped onions, etc. With polenta, we might have salad, sweet

potato fries, and canned lentil soup. It’s really pretty easy. Sure,

it means we sometimes have weird meals like frozen waffles, sliced

avocado, orange wedges, a few cashews, and glasses of soy milk … but

everyone’s happy, tummies are full, and we’re off to bed. :-) Some

nights, that’s all that matters around here. :-)

 

Oh, and I very rarely cook by a recipe – I just get ideas from recipes

and then use what I have – so I might use a whole can of chilies in

something, just to use it up and not have left-overs, or I just add

extra onion so I don’t have to put away a ½ an onion and forget to use

it. And veggie soups are super, super easy – just chop up whatever

veggies you have, cover with water, add a veggie bouillon cube and a

sprinkle of dry parsley and oregano (or cilantro, whatever you like), a

couple shakes of black pepper, and onion and garlic – save soft veggies

(zucchini, tomato, etc.), pasta and lentils or canned beans for the last

15 minutes of cooking. Then, dinner’s ready. It’s impossible to mess

this up, and it’s different every time. And I just throw in whatever I

have, so sometimes it’s a huge pot of soup and we eat left-overs all

week and freeze some for the next time we have two sick parents and no

energy to cook a homemade soup that will help us get better again. :-)

 

Oh, another thing I do sometimes when I am using a recipe, and it calls

for an item I don’t use often – I just go online and do a search for

whatever it is, in whatever quantity and add “recipe” to the end, and

find recipes that way. So I might type: 8 ounces coconut milk recipe.

And I’ll get recipes that need exactly what I will have left. :-) This

is how we always get a pumpkin pie on the same day we have a bisque

soup. :-)

 

Good luck!

Lorraine

 

 

On

Behalf Of Jennifer Simmons

Thursday, March 04, 2010 2:10 PM

 

Budget issues

 

 

I have recently gone back to lacto-ovo vegetarian after a break from it

for about a year. My husband chose not to follow me, which is fine. In

fact, my husband is an OTR truck driver, so he is only home on the

weekends. On the weekends I often plan a meat meal with several big

veggie side dishes. That has worked rather well for us. Monday thru

Friday is just me and my son (and 7 month old baby), so we make easier,

smaller meals and they are always vegetarian.

 

My dilemma:

I want to eat healthy. I want to reduce the amount of CHEESE we eat (it

is in probably 3/4 of the meals we make!). But I am also looking for

ways to cut our food spending.

 

Please do not just say " eat beans and rice " because I do not know how to

cook w/o a recipe. <sigh> I have been scouring the web this week in my

free time looking for inexpensive meal planning and have gotten some

ideas. But I am really struggling. I definitely think adding more

beans and rice to our repotoire (sp?) would be great, but I would need

specifics on what to do with them. We do not like lentils, and only eat

chickpeas in Chickpea Cutlets (or hummus). Not big fans of peppers

either. Other than that, we are pretty open to eating whatever. :-)

 

I think what I am looking for are recipes that go together - like you

buy a whole can of coconut milk; use half for this recipe and half for

another recipe that same week. I think maybe we waste a lot of food on

recipes that don't use all of a can of something, or require SEVERAL

ingredients that we don't regularly have on hand.

 

Please point me in the direction that works best for your family!

Thanks!

Jennifer

 

 

[Guest guest]

I'm lacto-ovo vegetarian too.  I'll send you a few of my favorite recipes in a

separate email.

 

I buy a bunch of veggies usually carrots, celery, green peppers, onions, garlic,

zuchinni, squash, spinach, lettuce, mushrooms and add them into pretty much

every meal of the week.  I get the staples:  rice, pasta, pasta sauce, quinoa,

fajita shells, different canned beans and go from there...Each week we pretty

much do:

 

- Beans and Grains night - I do Black Beans, Red Beans, White Beans, Pinto 

Beans etc. I serve it with rice, couscous or quinoa. I don't follow a recipe but

I usually just saute green peppers, onions and garlic, add the beans and let

them simmer about 20 minutes.  Depending on the bean I'll add different herbs or

spices.  Like Black Beans get a Bay Leaf or Red Beans get cilantro.

 

- We do a Pasta Night - this week I cooked Quorn Crumbles with Pasta Sauce over

Penne Pasta then side salad.  Eggplant Parm, Veg Lasagna.  Usually it's just as

simple as a jar of sauce, throw in some veggies, chickpeas or kidney beans and

cooked pasta.

 

- Mexican Night - Black Bean Quesadillas - sometimes add sweet potato or avocado

to the quesadillas, I make Bean and Veggie Fajitas, Pinto and Rice Casserole,

Bean Burritos with Rice and Veggies

 

-  Asian Night - Veggie Stir-frys (the veg combination are endless but I love

carrots, onions, zucchini and broccoli with Soy Sauce), Veggie Fried Rice with

egg, Stir Fry Veggies over Rice Noodles and crushed peanuts.  Whole Foods has

fantastic Thai Curries prepackaged that you add to veggies.

 

-  I buy Whole Wheat Pizza Crust from Native Sun and add pizza sauce, Mozzarella

Cheese and whatever veggies are leftover from the week

 

-  Soup Night - veggie broth, can tomato sauce, then add whatever veggies

(frozen ones work great with soups) and whatever beans you want. 

 

Some times I buy Gardeburgers and serve with Frozen French Fries.  Quorn has

amazingly delicious products that I'll serve with Baked or Roasted Potatoes or

Rice Pilaf.

 

I love allrecipes.com for recipes.  I also get veg cookbooks from the library

sometimes.  My faves are Veganomnicon, Vegan with a Vengeance, How to Cook

Everything Vegetarian.

 

Sorry if not exactly what you are looking for but hopefully gives you a few

ideas.  Good luck!

Denise

 

 

 

 

On Mar 4, 2010, at 5:09 PM, Jennifer Simmons <callmearavis@ > wrote:

 

 

 

I have recently gone back to lacto-ovo vegetarian after a break from it for

about a year. My husband chose not to follow me, which is fine. In fact, my

husband is an OTR truck driver, so he is only home on the weekends. On the

weekends I often plan a meat meal with several big veggie side dishes. That has

worked rather well for us. Monday thru Friday is just me and my son (and 7

month old baby), so we make easier, smaller meals and they are always

vegetarian.

 

 

 

My dilemma:

 

I want to eat healthy. I want to reduce the amount of CHEESE we eat (it is in

probably 3/4 of the meals we make!). But I am also looking for ways to cut our

food spending.

 

 

 

Please do not just say " eat beans and rice " because I do not know how to cook

w/o a recipe. <sigh> I have been scouring the web this week in my free time

looking for inexpensive meal planning and have gotten some ideas. But I am

really struggling. I definitely think adding more beans and rice to our

repotoire (sp?) would be great, but I would need specifics on what to do with

them. We do not like lentils, and only eat chickpeas in Chickpea Cutlets (or

hummus). Not big fans of peppers either. Other than that, we are pretty open

to eating whatever. :-)

 

 

 

I think what I am looking for are recipes that go together - like you buy a

whole can of coconut milk; use half for this recipe and half for another recipe

that same week. I think maybe we waste a lot of food on recipes that don't use

all of a can of something, or require SEVERAL ingredients that we don't

regularly have on hand.

 

 

 

Please point me in the direction that works best for your family!

 

Thanks!

 

Jennifer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Personally, I love the (dairy-free) Hurry Up Alfredo recipe from Vegan Yum Yum,

available online at

http://veganyumyum.com/2009/09/hurry-up-alfredo-vyy-cookbook/ I like that it's

all pantry staples ... we usually have soymilk, nutritional yeast, soy sauce,

pasta, etc. on hand, and it's fine if you sub roasted cashews for raw. I serve

it with a steamed or sauteed green veggie.

Also, for rice and beans -- I cook the rice per the instructions on the bag or

box, using vegetable stock in lieu of water (or even just adding a bullion cube

to the recommended amount of water) to add flavor without much effort. Then, in

a separate sauce pan, I saute garlic and onion until they're golden, then toss

in a can of rinsed black beans and a tsp. or so of cumin and some chili powder,

if I'm in the mood. Sometimes I add salsa or tomato sauce if I have some

leftover from another night. Serve with a salad or steamed veggies.

 

Good luck!Jessica

 

 

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