A Gift To Touch The Heart

There are many gifts I've given and received. Yet as time progresses it's the intangibles that stand out. For me, in a season amidst dinners and goodies, this is the time the true thoughtfullness of family and friends comes to the forefront.

It is always appreciated when the response I get after telling someone my diet, to hear, "Tell me more." I feel that they are genuinely interested in the friendship between the two of us and want to deepen it by digging deeper and showing interest. Yet, I am deeply touched when not only does that someone remember my needs, but fills them.

Many vegans attend dinners by either eating prior to or taking their own food. I attended a party this Christmas where the hostess, bless her, had a spread of mostly vegan food. Her response, "well we can all eat your food but you can't eat all of ours, so we catered to you." She does the same for her celiac friends. True gracious hostess, true friend, truely felt.

There are simple adjustments easily made, with a little research. This hostess researched and found the consensus on Tofutti cream cheese, yes, it's as good as the real stuff. I'll add a few more hints to veganizing a dish. Veganaise is awesome, better than the real stuff. Earth Balance is a simple butter substiute, found for less at the biggest of big box retailers.  A simple google search can yield plenty of options for egg substitute (who doesn't have vinegar, water, and baking powder in their cupboard?). And lastly, keep a shelf stable box of non-dairy milk around. It's easily swapped out for the cow milk in recipes.

Thank you to friends and family that not only invited me to your functions, but also provided me sustance that I didn't have to make myself. It was truely a treat that fed hunger in both my stomach and heart.

Retrench and Clean out the cupboards

How to save money on big spending months, like December, or save the pennies for another trip to Disney. Call it what you will, this is what I'm doing.

Every time I come home from vacation I run to my discount produce market, Superstition Ranch, and stock up. I have now made an exception, especially with December upon us. I decided to look through and eat all those canned foods I ignore because I've been so spoiled with eating fresh all the time. Even my back up frozen foods have gotten a good hard look.

Since I can't get my family to eat soup the majority of the year (can I blame them? Who wants soup when it's 80 degree or higher outside?) I busted out the #10 can of soup I dry-pack canned five year ago. One cup of this stuff, 8 cups of water, some seasoning, and an hour makes for a great meal. It has alphabet noodles, split peas, lentils, rice, carrot, and onion, all our dietary requirements. It goes a long way and I'm hoping to really off set any further expenses this year.

I've also pulled out the freeze-dried foods we started eating a little while back and have those out for snacks. The kids love it. Freeze-dried corn and pears - it's candy!

Soup is very well accompanied by a cool house. Cool, but not a cold house. We have turned on our heat once. In the winter I save energy by making bread or cleaning the oven when the house is too cold. Easy right? It needs to be done anyway. And those sweatshirts need a little bit of exercise in the short time we can use them.

I can really appreciate my produce even more after these sacrifices. Sometimes I look back and am amazed, who knew I'd get so excited over broccoli and lettuce from my garden or a new vegetable or fruit in my basket? I can't wait for the month to be over and can have all that lovely inspiration for meals again!

When Life hands you tofu...Make...

We visited our favorite chain restaurant the other day. We ordered our favorite dishes, but forgot to request they change the tofu in one of the dishes. We really dislike the cubed silken tofu most restaurants serve. Well, they forgot, and served us fried silken tofu. We sent it back and they tried again, this time it was steamed silken tofu, and they insisted on leaving it on the table while they made it right again. I was fine with that. A light bulb went off in my head. Hey! I'll take it home and put it into the blender. It will be a perfect pre-seasoned creamy sauce. Indeed, I did just that, served it with the broccoli that was with the tofu, all over rice and it was pretty good. Reminded me of creamy crockpot chicken. Next time there's a mixup, I'll just accept the peace offering and blend it!

Acorn Squash and Tamari Almonds

Last night my dinner was baked acorn squash. Easy-peasy. Cut into quarters, add coconut oil and brown sugar, bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Super yum. Wish my kids thought so...

They preferred the almonds my husband made. It's amazing what inspiration he can find in the bulk foods isle. He put them in a plastic container with some Braggs Amino Acids (tamari or soy sauce will work the same) sealed and shook the container, spread it in a cooking dish with too much salt, and roasted them at 425 for about 10 minutes. Yes, my son preferred that over sugared squash.

It's a good thing kids eat half their calories before noon. My best cooking is then. Forget dinner...

What do you eat?

We (vegans) all get this question. Well let me tell you. Tonights dinner took exactly 10 minutes to prep and stick in the oven.
Neat loaf and potatos. No, no side dish of vegetable, it was all in the meal.

And it was a hit. No bribes, spoon feeding, or demands necessary. The kids asked for seconds and thirds!

Neat loaf was quickly prepared by throwing the vegetables and walnuts in the food processor, then slowly adding the rest of the ingredients (tofu - yeah for Morni-nu in the cupboard!), rice (it was white, not brown tonight), breadcrumbs, seasonings. It was awesome to get it thrown together so fast!

My mashed potatos were a frozen leftover from a month ago when I boiled potatoes with garlic cloves (2 cloves for every potato) and put cauliflower in a steam basket in the same pot. Mash it all together and it was awesome! No one could detect the cauliflower...

...or the rest of the vegetables for that matter. No complaints about "green things" in my meal! AND my hubby didn't doctor it beyond a sprinkling of garlic salt. What a score!