Potato Tacos

For some reason I thought I already posted this recipe.  I'm assuming I had planned to back when my life was absorbed with studying and never got around to it.  While looking through my posts to make sure it wasn't a repeat, I noticed we eat a lot of Mexican food.  Not real Mexican food, but our strange version of it.  It is so easy to turn vegan and it is generally inexpensive so that meets our main food criteria.  Plus we really like it.  So here's another one.

This recipe comes with a free tip that I learned from the always useful Internet.  Aldi's sells jalapenos in a bag of about 6-8.  This always seems like a great deal to me and I can't help myself from buying the bag instead of the one jalapeno that I actually need.  Then, of course, at the end of the week I'm left looking at a mostly full bag of jalapenos just waiting to go bad.  My solution is to mince and freeze them.  This is obviously a good idea but leads to terrible, burning hands caused by chopping way too many hot peppers at once.  Usually I was my hands, wait a little bit, and I'm fine.  The last time though, I was a mess.  The pain was actually getting more and more intense.  Out of desperation, I had Kayleigh type "how to stop hands burning from jalapenos" into Google and she came up with the crazy solution was washing your hands in cold water and mustard.  This seemed very weird to say the least but I was desperate so I squirted some plain old mustard into my hands and washed them.  I kid you not, the burning stopped immediately.  Amazing.  I also smelled like hot dogs all day!

I adapted a recipe from "Color Me Vegan" by Colleen  Patrick-Goudreau.  Several year's ago I received this as a birthday present and we spent weeks trying recipes from it.  It got to the point where we'd be checking out at the grocery store and Bill would say something like "So I guess we are doing purple this week?"!

Potato Tacos

2 cups sweet potatoes (1 inch dice)

2 cups Yukon gold potatoes (1 inch dice)

1 cup onion, diced

2 red bell peppers, diced

1 jalapeno, minced

1 clove garlic

2-4 tablespoons vegetable broth (or water)

Salt & pepper

Hard shell tortillas

Toppings such as salsa, guacamole, cilantro, etc. (doesn't really need any toppings in my opinion)

Using a steamer, steam both kinds of potatoes until soft but still holding their shape (10=15 minutes).  In a large skillet, add 1 tablespoon broth and saute the onion and peppers until soft.  Add additional broth as needed. This takes about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook one additional minute.  Add the potatoes to the skillet and season with salt and pepper.  Cook until all ingredients are well blended.  Slightly mash the mixture so that it somewhat sticks together (to make an easier taco  filling).  Place into taco shells and top with your chosen toppings.

Steamed

Sauteed

Mashed

Tortilla Pizza (or what to eat when everything goes wrong)

We've had to get creative several times this month as we attempt to limit our grocery shopping.  One meal, in particular, really challenged us.  I had planned pizza.  Usually I make my own dough but I had a mix hiding in my pantry (I think it came in a subscription box but can't be sure).  It was supposed to make two pizzas so we decided to give it a try.

I mixed it up first thing in the morning.  It looked like a tiny puddle of nothing but I covered it as directed and waited.  3 hours later, nothing had happened.  Maybe the yeast in the mix is old?  We added a sprinkle of yeast and waited some more.  By mid-afternoon it was obvious this was not going to turn into pizza.  No problem, There's still time to make our regular pizza crust... Seriously, is this all the flour we have??  Great.  Thank goodness for tortillas!

We have often made quick lunch-time pizzas using tortillas.  The nice thing is that they are individual size so everyone gets their favorite toppings.  For Bill and Kayleigh that is basically cheese.  For me it is a variety of sauteed vegetables.  This time I used mushrooms, onions, spinach, olives, and garlic.  I meant to add artichokes but completely forgot.

But wait, we weren't in the clear yet.  I heard my daughter say "where's the pizza sauce" and I wanted to scream.  How can we be out of pizza sauce?  Probably all those lunchtime tortilla pizzas!  No problem.  We grabbed anything that sounded like it would make pizza sauce and mixed it together.  Shockingly, it worked!

What a ridiculously easy and yet exhausting meal!!

Panic Pizza Sauce

1 can diced tomatoes with juice

1 can tomato paste

1 tsp oregano

pinch of crushed red pepper

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together and mash the tomatoes a little.  If you don't want any chunks (like Kayleigh) blend it.

Tortilla Pizza

Flour tortilla - any size but smaller usually works better

Pizza sauce

Toppings of your choice

Assemble the pizza on a pan or stone.  Place in a 425 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until tortilla becomes slightly browned.  Slice like a pizza and eat.  

Oh, and that pizza dough mix didn't go to waste.  I added tons of whole wheat flour to it until it kind of formed a ball and then made bread sticks.  They were ridiculously salty so I guess it was a good thing we didn't use that for our crust.  Further proof that homemade is always better.

March Grocery Challenge Update

Just to recap, our goal for this month was to spend $100 the first week and then $20 each of the remaining weeks.  Along with the groceries, we've tried to spend less on other things as well.  I didn't realize how much impulse buying I was doing lately until we tried this experiment.  So many times I've been tempted to run out and grab something but then I stop and think about if I really need it.  So far, every time the answer has been no.  There may be a few items that we end up buying next month but nowhere near what we would have bought if we weren't doing this.  So that is good and hopefully we've all broke some bad shopping habits.

As far as the grocery part of the challenge is going, it hasn't been as good as I hoped but not too bad.  On March 7th I sent my husband to the store with a very short list.  He didn't pay any attention to what he was spending but came back with $23.16 worth of food.  Even though that is over the budget, it isn't too bad.  We would have been well under except we discovered the first day of the challenge that we were out of tamari and that wasn't going to work for a month so he got that.  He also got 3 bags of cheddar cheese because it was on sale.  That will keep in the freezer so that's OK.

The beets and beet greens provided 3 side dishes for the week and there are still two beets in the fridge.  Nothing was thrown away this week so - Hurray!

On March 14th, my mom had asked us to run to a store in a neighboring town for her because that is the only place that carries the soy milk she likes.  That's when I made the terrible decision to just buy all our food there.  My list was so short that I thought it would be fine.

Well, all I can say is it's a good thing that list was so short (and that I forgot to get the salad dressing and Kayleigh had leftover rolls) or who knows what we would have paid!  Also, they didn't have Kayleigh's yogurt so we still ended up going to Meijer.  I'm having major buyer's remorse!  Our total came to $27.22 (including $1.79 for Palmolive to clean my husband's bike).  Hopefully we do a little better the rest of the month.

Here's the breakdown of our purchases:

3/7 all from Meijer
2 bunches of beets with greens                 $3.98
Yogurt                                                       $2.69
Mushrooms                                               $3.99
Ham                                                          $3.50
Tamari                                                      $3.00 (on sale)
3 bags of Cheddar                                     $6.00 (on sale)

3/14 from local grocery store except yogurt (Meijer)
Palmolive                                               $1.79
1 bag iceburg salad                                $2.49
2 bunches of broccoli                             $5.98
2 heads of cauliflower                            $5.98
Ham                                                        $3.00 (hmmm... surprisingly cheaper than Meijer)
2 loaves pumpernickel bread                 $5.98
Yogurt (Meijer)                                     $2.00 (on sale)

Spanish Grains

We are about half way through our March grocery challenge.  The main focus of this month is to reduce our grocery bills but a side effect I was hoping for is that we'll use up some of the items that have been sitting around for way too long.  Last week I was looking through some of my mom's cookbooks and I came across a recipe that uses quinoa, amaranth, and farro.  I have all of those items and, while we use quinoa all the time, the other two just sit there on the shelf.  I'm sure I had something in mind when I bought them but I have no idea what it was!

The recipe I found had a lot of steps and created a main dish.  Tonight with dinner I was wanting something similar to Spanish rice but with other grains so I borrowed the cooking directions for the grains and then went from there.  This turned out to be the perfect side dish to have with our enchiladas and I'll definitely be making this again.

Spanish Grains

1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed well (I had tri-color but regular quinoa cooks the same)

1/4 cup amaranth

1/4 cup farro

2 cups vegetable broth

1/2 tsp salt

1 can diced tomatoes with chilies

Combine the broth, quinoa, amaranth, and farro in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil and then partially cover and boil for about 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.  Lower the heat to medium-low and add the tomatoes with their juice.  Continue to cook until all the liquid is absorbed, about 10 - 15 minutes more.  Taste and add salt if needed.

I wish I had thought to take a picture of it on my plate but I was too hungry so all I have is the picture of it cooking.  The can of tomatoes was also from our pantry.  We had bought it at Whole Foods and it was tomatoes with jalapenos and cilantro.  A can of plain diced tomatoes with a can of diced chilies would work fine too. If it isn't spicy enough for you, you can add some chili powder when you add the tomatoes.

OK I didn't think the cooking picture did it justice so here is a picture of it in the leftover container.  Not much better, but a little!

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March Grocery Challenge

Instead of making New Year's resolutions like everyone else, I seem to always challenge myself in March instead.  Last year I picked several items such as drinking a glass of water every morning and parking in the back of the parking lot at work to do every day for a month.  This year I had already mapped out an exercise and food challenge but then I got a better idea.

Now that I don't have to spend all my spare time studying, I seem to have a lot of extra time. Through February I used most of that time to declutter our house.  When I first mentioned this, Bill and Kayleigh looked at me like I was crazy because they didn't think there was anything left I could get rid of.  But there was!!  I cleaned every room, closet, and drawer upstairs.  The basement still hasn't been touched - maybe next year!  But during this process I realized that we really have a crazy amount of food.

I have two big pantries in the kitchen and 3 other cabinets and a drawer that we keep food in.  We also have the refrigerator/freezer as well as a separate freezer downstairs.  All of these are packed full but somehow that wasn't enough space so I took over the closet in one of the spare bedrooms as well.  Is this really necessary?

So, to help us get through some of this food as well as to save us some money (college is creeping up quicker than we'd like) I came up with the idea of not grocery shopping for a month, kind of.  We are used to eating a lot of fresh vegetables and we each have specific foods we rely on that I didn't want to eliminate.  It was meant to cut back our stash, not make us miserable and unhealthy.  So I decided that we would have a $100 grocery trip to get enough of some items that we use all the time for the month.  We weren't allowed to stock up on random things though.  Although Bill and Kayleigh both readily agreed to this challenge, I didn't feel it was fair to make Kayleigh change her lunches.  Every day she takes the same lunch (warning - it is pictured below and will make all vegans scream in horror - I've learned to just not think about it!).  Plus we can't live without any fresh vegetables for a month.  So each week we can spend up to $20 for her lunch items and 2-3 fresh produce items.  If there is enough money we can also use this for bread items depending on what is planned for the week.

Earlier this week I planned out a month worth of meals and the grocery list for the beginning of the month.  Today we went to Sam's Club, Aldi and Meijer.  Here are our results:

5 bunches of bananas that will be frozen once they ripen for my breakfast smoothie, 2 bags of flour tortillas, 2 2-pound bags of carrots, 1 bag tostada shells, and a 5-pound bag of Cuties.

5 boxes of hard shell taco shells, 4 soy milks, 3 almond milks, lasagna noodles, jumbo pasta shells.

15 pounds of baking potatoes, 10 pounds onions, 5 oz baby arugula, 2 8-oz bags of baby spinach, 1 pound baby spinach, 1 pound kale medley (all greens are frozen for my smoothies), 1 head iceberg lettuce,

2 loaves wheat bread, 2 baguettes, 2 pounds garlic (there were 21 bulbs in there!).

For Bill - granola bars that he eats for breakfast and iceberg salad.

And here is Kayleigh's horror of a lunch:

Brioche buns, yogurt (from a cow) and (yes, that is a deli bag) ham, What can you do?

Those are Kayleigh's favorite buns and they don't always have them so we bought one bag for this week and one bag to freeze.

Our total spent was:

Aldi                 $20.23
Sam's Club      $48.54
Meijer              $35.46

TOTAL           $104.23

Not bad.  If we hadn't got the second bag of buns we would have been good but that is money we will not have to spend another week.  I was hoping Sam's would have big bags of greens but they didn't.  They did have all that garlic, though, that wasn't on my original list.

So we are off to a good start.  We'll see how this goes!

Spice Organization

This is a really simple idea but something that has saved us so much time and frustration.  We use a lot of different spices and I've tried a million different ways to keep them organized.  Ours are in this cabinet in our kitchen:

The problem is that you are looking down at the tops of the lids when you open the cabinet.  That means we had to pick each bottle up and read the name, then put it back until we finally found what we were looking for.

I've tried organizing them by type of spice, size of jar, alphabetically.  The problem was that they always get messed up after a few meals.  A few years ago I brought a different brand of turmeric and were thrilled to see that they printed the name on the top of the lid.  Each of us would often say "why can't they all be like this"?  One day I was again rearranging the spices and decided to just go for it and label the tops of all the lids.  Kayleigh soon came in to help.  When Bill saw what we were doing, his reaction was "That is FANTASTIC"!  I thinking looking for spices was his most hated part of cooking!  We did this over a month ago and it still looks great and is working perfect.

We decided to keep the font large and abbreviate the name so that they were easier to see.  When we run out of a spice, we either switch the lids, if it is the same brand, or move it to the old container.  We could always make a new label but I'm hoping to avoid that when possible.

This is the label machine we have if anyone is interested.  It is really easy to use.  Warning - it will make you want to label everything in your house!

Label Maker

Weekly Meal Plan

In order to simplify things for Bill and Kayleigh, I've tried to pick recipes all from the same book or location each week.  Last week we focused on this book:

Vegan Casseroles: Pasta Bakes, Gratins, Pot Pies, and More

because my mom just bought it and was asking for good recipes to try.  We made quite a few when I first got it a couple months ago but I tried to pick new recipes that we hadn't tried yet.  We repeated Aloo Gobi, however, because Bill really likes that one.  On Sunday, we had the two appetizers along with tacos.  Other than that, all our meals for Monday through Friday are listed below.  I took leftovers every day in my lunch and we all finished everything off between lunch and dinner on Saturday.  So very little waste and no disasters.  Not a bad week!

Unlike past weeks, I actually remembered to take pictures of a few of the meals this time.

One-Dish Appetizers
We had both of these on Superbowl Sunday.  Bill is the only one who actually watched the game but it seemed like a good excuse to make some snacky-kind of things.

Caramelized Onion Dip  - I found beet chips and kale/spinach chips to eat with this.  It was thicker than regular onion dip but good and I ate it all week.

Loaded Nacho Fries - Although the recipe calls for frozen fries, I made my regular baked fries instead.  I took a large portion of this to work on Monday for lunch and it warmed up surprisingly well.  We had tomatoes, jalapenos, green onions, and cilantro as toppers.

Dutch-Oven and Skillet Casseroles
Aloo Gobi - We eat this on brown rice.  Bill really likes it and it works well as leftovers.

Jambalaya - I included this one because it is the recipe that my mom specifically mentioned.  I make my own Cajun spice mix and next time I will use a lot less because it was very, very spicy.  It was good though.  Kayleigh thought it would be better with some beans added in.

Veggie and Dumplings - My hands-down favorite of the week.  Delicious.  A word of warning - as with all recipes that include dumplings, make sure you use a large pot.  My husband picked the wrong one resulting in a big mess.  It still tasted good though!

Old Favorites and New Twists
Bean and Rice Casserole - Good and very easy. It would be really quick to pull together if you had leftover rice.  Kayleigh was very happy that it didn't include onions!

Taco Casserole - Bill wasn't home the night we had this. I really liked it but Kayleigh didn't.  It also warmed up well which surprised me because of the crushed tortilla chips.

Dessert Casseroles
Baked Coconut Rice Pudding - This is not sweet at all but we liked it.  I added mini chocolate chips to my portion because dessert isn't dessert without chocolate!

Sauces, Toppings, and Basics
We used the Nacho Cheesy Sauce on the Loaded Nacho Fries and Taco Casserole.  For the Bean and Rice Casserole, we used the Cheesy Sauce.  We figured out that Kayleigh doesn't care for smoked paprika so next time we'll cut back.

Some other recipes that we didn't have this week but have made in the past and really liked are:

Mujadara
Mediterranean Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Nacho Tots Casserole

I thought maybe I had some older pictures of these from last year when I stopped blogging but I couldn't find anything.

Overall, this is a good cookbook.  It seems a little heavy on nutritional yeast but we don't view that as a negative since we love it!  That's really the only "unusual" kind of ingredient and the recipes are easy to follow and don't take very long.  I've been really happy with how well everything warms up the next day.  That makes lunches so much easier.