VeganMoFo and the last "Pantry" experiment

This is the last meal of the great grocery experiment of 2007 as it is time to begin prepping Thanksgiving dinner and go grocery shopping!

This "Experimental Loaf" was made to see if it would work. It worked, so now I just need to tweak the thickness of the dough and change the filling so I can make a larger one for Thanksgiving dinner.



Basically it is a dough made with a mixture of vital wheat gluten, chickpea flour and whole wheat flour, rolled out, and spread with an herbed paste then rolled up and baked. When I tweak it to perfection, I will post the recipe.

Now I'm off to work, and after work...I'M GOING SHOPPING!

VeganMoFo and "Pantry" Tofu with Cabbage

I had half of a block of tofu in the freezer, and half of a bag of coleslaw cabbage and carrots in the fridge. I defrosted and cut up the tofu, sauteed it with some peanut oil, salt and pepper, along with the cabbage and called it dinner. It was better than I expected!



Other food today included coffee with silk creamer for breakfast, leftover tamale filling for lunch, above mentioned tofu and cabbage for dinner and some soymilk and soy nog mixed with kahlua.

VeganMoFo and Pasta a la Pantry

My love for pasta goes back to when I was a very wee little one and my sister and I would eat spaghetti noodles with melted margarine sprinkled with salt. I think, other than lasagna (because that was Garfield's favorite food), that was my favorite meal. When I first became a vegetarian, I relied heavily on pasta. And still do today, especially when dining out and eating over at friend's and family's homes. I always have a stash of pastas in my pantry. It's easy to make, and easy to make fantastic. Pasta is my go to food on busy days like today. I put the water on to boil, and go get ready for work. After my hair is done, I go put the pasta in. By the time I am dressed, and the make-up is on, I mix in a tasty sauce, then hit the road. And hopefully, I remember to bring it with me. This is a really easy noochy sauce that I use some variation of when I don't feel like going to the trouble of making a full on baked mac and cheese. Very simply, I add to 1 pound of prepared pasta, in this case fettucine: about 1/2 cup soy cream (like Silk) about 1/2 cup nutritional yeast about 1/4 cup ground cashews about 1/4 cup of vegan sour cream (like Tofutti Sour Supreme) about 3 tbsp of margarine (like Earth Balance) about 2 tbsp white miso a touch of garlic powder a touch of paprika a touch of parsley a touch of salt I just throw it all in the pot and stir it up until it gets nice and creamy. It's pretty rich, but it definitely hits the spot. Yum. Edited to add: Today, for breakfast I had coffee with plain silk creamer, lunch was the above pasta, dinner was the above pasta and leftover garlic knots from yesterday. And a few generic oreos to satisfy my sweet tooth.

VeganMoFo and Petits Pains Lail et au Persil

All I can say about tonight, is that when I saw this, I couldn't NOT make it! So yum, so easy, so perfect! The way she describes it just made me swoon. And the way she talks about the goodness and equally the badness of garlic bread just spoke to me. Besides, I had all of the ingredients to make it. (Remember that I cannot buy any groceries until the week of Thanksgiving.)

We decided to make this tonight. I, as I cannot follow directions, did not follow her folding directions. Everything else was followed to a "T."

For the shapes I used, I called unto my past. When I was in highschool, I worked at Subway. It was there that I learned the fine art of "braiding" bread. I surprised even myself when I pulled this long lost talent right out of my behind.


The "knots" are inspired by the garlic knots served up by the local pizza delivery joint, Zitos. They have parm on them, and therefore I cannot eat them. So I made my own. The spirals? Why not?


Today I worked. I forgot to pack a lunch (I had to be at work by 6am so my brain wasn't quite awake yet) and therefore had to buy lunch. I am not sure this counts as a violation of the great grocery experiment or not. I drank some coffee for breakfast with some vanilla soy creamer. For lunch it was a "Gardener's Wrap" and Have'a Chips from Wild Oats, and for dinner I had the above mentioned garlic bread. Yes, I had garlic bread for dinner. In conjunction with some soymilk and generic Kahlua. Lots of it. Sue me. Geez. It is Saturday night, and I've had a helluva week.

Busy Day = Easy Food

Some days are just too busy to create a masterpiece in the kitchen. Today was one of those days. Although I wanted to just kick back and order pizza, I still mustered up enough energy to make myself a nice, and easy dinner. Usually on nights like this, I just boil up some pasta, melt a little EB on it and call it dinner, but I wasn't in the mood for that. So as I tried to think of things I liked together, and stared into my pantry, I came up with this.

Out of my pantry (and fridge) I took:
1 13.5oz can of coconut milk
1 15oz can of peas
1/4 cup of cashews
1 cup of brown rice
1 tbsp yellow curry powder
1 cup of water
1/4 of a log of Lachesis Seitan'O'Greatness (sliced into strips)
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper

Then I threw it all in a nice big skillet, let it simmer until most of the moisture was absorbed and the rice was tender and called it done. There's even enough leftover to take to work tomorrow for lunch.



Other things I ate today: Coffee, a zucchini mushroom burger on a bun with vegenaise for breakfast, a scarborough fair burger on a bun with vegenaise for lunch and above recipe for dinner.

VeganMoFo and the great Grocery Experiment of 2007

Last year my cousin Leah and her boyfriend Tim did something amazing. They dubbed it "The Great Grocery Experiment" in which they vowed to only eat food they already had in their kitchen, and not to buy anything for an entire month!

Think about that. 30 days of eating only wht you already have. Most of us could do that, no problem. Go look in your pantry. There is enough rice, beans, pasta, quinoa, nuts, seeds, oatmeal and cereals in mine to last me until the end of the year! Not to mention the stuff in the freezer and fridge.







(Please ignore any cheese or mayo or ranch or diet pepsis or beers...those belong to my husband. Other than that, I think I have effectively pushed him and all of his animal products out of the kitchen!)

I am going to make an effort to only cook with what I have until the week of Thanksgiving. ( I have quite a feast to plan for that week, so I will surely need to shop for fresh produce at that time.) The challenge will be to make exciting dishes with things I already have, and not resort to rice and beans or simple pasta. From the looks of it, some soba noodles in a peanut sauce with frozen broccoli may just be the ticket for tonight's dinner. I will post everything I make, along with recipes and photos when possible.

I challenge you all to look into your kitchen's and do the same! Think of the money you will save!

Edited to add: I made my first meal, for lunch, with enough left over for dinner. I made Joanna's Spicy Almond Noodles from Yellow Rose Recipes . I subbed peanut butter for almond butter because I was still crving peanut sauce after being dissapointed at Mother's. This really is an excellent recipe! So today's food includes: Breakfast: Coffee, 3 cups with just a tad of soy vanilla creamer, Lunch, the above mentioned Spicy Almond Noodles and Dinner will also be those yummy noodles. I am also going to try to avoind any late night cookie binges too!