Budget Vegan

This blog needs a little direction. When looking for direction one generally looks close to home. What that boils down to for me is that I am flat broke and unemployed. I live across the street from a 99 Cent store and I do a lot of my shopping there. What it comes down to, if you can afford organic, gourmet, amazing food, this is not your kind of blog. This blog is for all the millions of broke, unemployed people that are trying to eat their best on a tight budget.

I have discovered one can find all sorts of stuff at places like the 99 Cent Store, Wal-Mart and Target. Not to mention some of the great deals you can find at Trader Joes.

Some of my favorites are:

99 Cent Store

Soy Chorizo

Pre-made Bags of Cole Slaw

Pre-Made Salad

Cheap Produce (it's not always domestic and you need to check the dates, but on a tight budget it's great)

Soy Milk

Some canned goods, but Wal-Mart and Target are actually cheaper

Wal-Mart

Canned goods, such as legumes and diced tomatoes

Frozen Vegetables

Whole Wheat Pasta-now comes in their generic brand

Tomato Sauce-the generic brand doesn't have any high fructose corn syrup and you can get a giant can for $1

Target

There are more Targets in SoCal than Wal-Marts for sure.

The generic canned goods are about the same price.

Some, for example Burbank, have produce, which is sometimes reasonable.

Trader Joes

Some things on the Trader Joe's list are a splurge compared to other places, but if you are avoiding white flour or gluten, it is a great place.

Brown Rice Pasta

Multi-Grain Pancake Mix

Sprouted Grain Bread (Trader Joe's brand)

Soy Ice Cream (if you are not avoiding sugar I highly recommend this; Scoops might be good, but you can get a whole container at Trader Joe's)

Vegan Cookies (Uncle Eddie's Molasses cookies are the best, but Trader Joe's are a little cheaper)

I buy cheap as much as I can, but some of my splurges are the Multi Grain Pancake mix, Ener-G Egg replacer (which actually lasts a really long time), Vegan Cheese (lots of kinds, I like Daiya if I can find it, Follow Your Heart is a very close second), Brown Rice Pasta, Gluten Free Flour for baking, Agave or Stevia for sweetening, good pickles (please don't let Snooki ruin pickles for me).

Today I made Soy Chorizo Tacos using:

Soy Chorizo-99 Cent store

Corn Tortillas-Organic for 99 cents at Whole Foods!

Black Beans-64 cents at Wal-Mart

Diced Tomatoes-around 80 cents at Wal-Mart

Pre-made cole slaw-99 Cent Store

"Cheap" Vegan Cheese-the 3.99 cheddar from Whole Foods, but if I had to change one thing I would have splurged and used a better cheese

I didn't shred the cheese, but lined the inside of the tortilla with it so that it melted as I made the taco. It tastes better that way. To make tacos I take the soft tortilla, fill it with the cheese and soy chorizo, put it in a pan, medium heat, folded (sometimes you have to hold it until the first side is done), 60 seconds each side, then 20 more seconds each side. I didn't take pictures this time, but I still have plenty of ingredients left, so next time.

On a closing note: Restaurant.com still has the $25 certificates for $2 to Cru, among others. If you are looking for a good deal and a way to combat cabin fever, these are a good idea if you can grab a friend to split a meal (they usually require a minimum purchase of $35). I'm going to Cru on Thursday and will share my notes after... Oh yeah, at checkout enter "BONUS" to get the $2 deal.

Cupcakes Continued

I got up at 8am today to frost my cupcakes. Yes I ate one for breakfast. First of all, the cupcakes got really dry sitting in the frig all night. I suppose this is why Babycakes (or any bakery really) only makes as many as they think they will sell. The frosting was set for the most part at least. It was still almost pudding like, not really like frosting at all. Typical frosting is butter and powdered sugar, this is soy milk, agave and coconut oil. I also couldn't follow the directions completely. It calls for a blender with different speeds because you are supposed to fold in the oil while the blender is on a low speed. My blender has one speed. No, I didn't try to use the Magic Bullet. I'm not that clueless, but my actual blender only has one speed. Anyway, I just took a spoon and scooped the frosting on top of the cupcakes, which seemed to work okay. PS, I used turmeric to turn the frosting yellow. I wanted to make Laker cupcakes, but I never figured out how to make purple with something other than food coloring. The coconut oil and flour in the frosting make for very coconutty cupcakes. I guess all the coconut kind of makes up for the lack of refined sugar. Sometime this week I'm going to go to Babycakes in DTLA to remind myself how these are really supposed to taste.

Babycakes Cupcakes

Life without sugar sucks, but aside from sugar cravings it does a body good. So does cutting out the majority of evil "white" things (sugar, flour, etc.). My friend gave up on being vegan so she let me borrow her Babycakes cookbook. So many sugar free, gluten free lovelies to choose from, but I decided to start with the all important cupcake. The chocolate cupcakes (save for the ultra expensive gluten free, sugar free ingredients from Whole Foods) were easy enough. They are neither light and fluffy, nor sweet. I like to call them "adult" cupcakes. I tried one without frosting and it was very heavy. The frosting, on the other hand is a totally different story. It's sugar free and made with coconut oil. It's still coagulating in the refrigerator. To be continued...

I'm So Bored All I Do is Eat

I've never been much of a cook, but out of necessity I've started to experiment in the culinary arts. I have re-committed myself to a vegan/macrobiotic lifestyle and I'm unemployed, so enter the necessity. I am fascinated with white trash food, so most of what make is some variation on a white trash delicacy, such as tuna casserole or macaroni and cheese or cupcakes. I love cupcakes. And on the other hand I love Martha Stewart. One of my goals is to veganize her entire collection of recipes. Since I'm unemployed right now, that just might happen.