On the heels of Renee's great news, I have been thinking about the things I do automatically that make the way we eat really easy. So, here are some of the must have-must do things that happen around here.
Must Haves Rice cooker: There are two things I'm consistently not good at in the kitchen. One is making biscuits, but that's ok, as I really shouldn't be eating them anyway (I do have a work around that is pretty good, though). The other? Making rice on the stove. I either get it too mushy or too al dente. With my handy rice cooker, I just load it, hit the switch, and go off and do something else. It shuts itself off, even. Sometimes, I make rice and portion it out so I can just pull out a portion and zap it later to go with leftovers. Strangely, with the rice cooker, brown rice cooks in about 25 minutes, so no excuses that brown rice takes too long. The rice cooker also works great for barley, quinoa, and other grains. Crock pot/Slow cooker: This is another great press button and walk away tool. A while back, I was really into using the crockpot to make seitan cutlets. The crockpot is also great for cooking large batches of beans without having to worry that the water gets too low and you burn them. I also make marinara in there, and have even used it to cook polenta. You can even carmelize onions in there for onion soup. I've also made lasagna in it, subbing in tofu for the ricotta (if you mix it with spinach, who can tell it's tofu?). Blender: I am still having a love affair with my Vitamix, although it got today off from breakfast duty. Smoothies are a great thing for breakfast, and I up the protein by adding hemp hearts (hulled hemp seeds). Even if you have a high powered blender, you probably want to make your vegan raw balls in your food processor. Stove-top Smoker: Renee asked me once how I manage to eat beans without that smoky flavor of ham. You can buy liquid smoke (I've got some in the cupboard), but you can also get a small stove-top smoker box for about $20 that allows you to smoke onions, tofu, or anything else you feel like putting in there. While smoked red onions look like worms in a pot of navy beans, they sure are good. What's in my pantry Beans: Red, white, black, chickpeas, lentils--you name it and it'll probably show up in my cupboard. I love cranberry beans (borlotti) sauteed in garlic with rosemary and crushed red pepper then served over soft polenta. Pinto and black beans make great burrito fillings, and I have yet to meet a chickpea I didn't like. Runner's World has a great lentil taco recipe, too. Make a batch of "cheez" and you can really go to town (Note: You can leave the added fat/oleo out of that sauce and you won't know. I'm currently hooked on making roasted green chile cheez sauce--I think it's better than the rotel version)! Grains and Grain Products: Brown rice, brown basmati, rolled oats, quinoa, whole wheat couscous, pearl couscous (also whole wheat), polenta, barley. I also have some red cargo rice up there that might be a bit scary right now. We're lucky to have a Chinese grocery that gets a wide variety of mixed rice blends that even contain lentils and other fun things in them. I also try to keep Three Ladies brand rice noodles in there, as well as rice vermicelli. Rice paper wrappers for summer rolls are a mainstay, and there's also seaweed sheets (I know it's not a grain, but I have been contemplating some black Thai sticky rice veggie rolls lately). Canned goods: Tomatoes, tomato paste, coconut milk (it comes in "lite"), mushrooms, and back up beans for meals in a rush. I also like to keep a can of emergency Herdez salsa around (when I run out of Renee's salsa verde). Fresh Produce: Of course, anything in this group is good. I do keep a bag of Walnuts in the freezer. I also always have carrots, celery, onions. I also try to keep a bag of baby spinach (the Popeye stuff from Kroger is cheap and good) and a big bag of mustard greens in there. I'm a mustard green freak. I eat the stuff raw, and my most common way to cook it is to saute it in garlic and crushed red pepper just until it wilts. Money saving tips I buy the bagged bananas and peel them, put them on a cookie sheet and freeze them whole for smoothies (if you don't have a Vitamix, you can slice them into chunks and then just bag them. If you cut every banana into the same number of chunks, you will know how many chunks=1 banana). I buy and use a lot of citrus these days. Keep an eye on the price per lemon/lime and make sure the bags are not actually more expensive than the individual ones. Oranges are almost always cheaper by the bag. My produce fellas start putting stuff on "clearance" around 10 in the morning. Often, I can score an eggplant that is perfectly fine for 89 cents just because it is older than the new ones they are setting out. The same is true of various peppers and the fancy little cukes. Normally, I'd warn against buying packaged things, but bagged greens like mustard greens can be a great deal--you don't throw anything away. Also frozen vegetables are awesome--they don't have the salt and again require no cleaning so there's no waste. I don't buy fresh broccoli or cauliflower unless it is majorly on sale, for instance. Artichoke hearts are a great freezer deal, too, and are great in pasta sauce. Frozen veggies also give you control over the "mush" factor. You can thaw them and throw them uncooked into pasta salads and the like, too. Make your own veggie stock. Save those carrot peels, onion peels, garlic cloves that are tiny, celery that goes wonky. Freeze it and when you have enough to fill your crock pot, add water and salt and a bay leaf or two and you've got some "free" stock from what was going in the trash anyway. I also save the cooking liquid from my seitan making. Why not? If you have a Whole Foods or other store nearby that sells in bulk, it's a great way to try out new things without committing to a big bag. You can just buy a cup of quinoa, for instance. When I lived in Auburn, I shopped at this little natural food store (Dayspring) that had five gallon buckets in the back with dehydrated hummus mix, falafel mix, nuts, seeds, spices, couscous, and even granola. I hit that store every pay day and had a good stock of "instant" fixes. I also recommend looking for Chinese and Asian grocery stores. Sam's Oriental in Little Rock is a great place to shop, as is the Asian Grocery in Ashley Square and the Indian Grocery on Rodney Parham across the street from Lily's Dim Sum. iHerb.com is also a great shopping resource once you figure out that you really do need a large can of nutritional yeast or that you don't want to drive across town and hit every store you can find for hemp seeds or other things. If you use my code, JIX581 on your first order, you get $5 off. And, if you order $40 bucks worth of product, shipping is free! Restaurants: Go Indian or Vietnamese and you're almost guaranteed a great meal. People often ask me if there is anyplace I am willing to eat; honestly, I can find something to eat just about anywhere, and there are lots of great guides out there for how to order veg when dining out. American-themed restaurants are the exception, really, but I probably won't be walking into Cheeburger, Cheeburger anytime soon (and even if I do, I'm sure they have a salad). I think the problem is not so much that there aren't options but that we often don't take advantage of them because we're afraid the other diners will look at us funny (or we say, oh, well, it's a treat).
3 Comments
I can't believe I didn't think of one of the most important tools we all have: the FREEZER. I even have a small chest freezer. Freezing 1.5 cup bags of cooked beans (that's equivalent to a can), cooked seitan, leftovers in portion sizes--all are great ways to save time and money. I even freeze left over polenta cakes so I can just grill them right out of the freezer.
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Mom
9/8/2011 05:54:30 am
Such a practical person, makes me proud!
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4/30/2012 06:56:29 pm
it is very good article about those who are health conscious. i like the theme you have chosen.
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