A Little Bit of Cheating

I really shouldn't call it "cheating".  We agreed when we began a plant based diet that if we really wanted something other than a plant based food, we would have that item and then move on.  There was going to be no guilt involved.  We were going to be "mostly" plant based diet people.  We figured that probably a couple of times a week we would eat something that is not plant based.  As the weeks have gone by, we haven't really craved things that are not plant based.

Then it happened.  We were in a small suburb outside our small city to attend an event.  We only had about an hour between the time we drove there after work until the time of the event.  We agreed that we needed to scoot on across town to miss most of the rush hour and then we would find something to eat.  That was a bad plan. 

We ended up at an "upscale" pizza place.  We thought we should be able to find a vegetable pizza, but there was no such luck.  We could have just stuck with the salad bar, but it was a terrible salad bar, i.e. iceberg lettuce, cheeses, bacon, drippy potato salad, etc. 

We went ahead and ordered a pizza.  It was a barbecue chicken pizza, formerly my husband's favorite kind of pizza.  We were actually looking forward to it after we ordered it.  The first couple of bites were pretty good.  The more we ate of it, the less we were in love with it.  We ended up taking about 2/3 of the pizza home and putting it in our freezer.  (I have a really hard time throwing away food, and I need to get over that.)  

We had both been missing pizza.  I'm so glad we tried the pizza, because now it will push me to get back to making homemade pizzas, where we can control the ingredients.  In the past, I would make up to 10 crusts at a time, parbake them, and freeze for work nights for a quick dinner.  I would also make a large batch of pizza sauce and store it in the freezer for those nights, along with some pesto. 

My goal is to get these ingredients made and into the freezer in the next two weeks.  Then we can take care of our pizza cravings. 

Grocery Tales

When we first started this new way of eating, I had no idea how it would affect our grocery buying.  I was curious whether our grocery costs would decrease or escalate.  I sure was hoping our costs would decrease.  There have been some surprises along the way. 

I was surprised to find that the rather large, nice grocery store from which I did a lot of my shopping was a pitiful source for whole grains.  I was looking for wheat-berries, barley, bulgur,

and several others.  Alas, most were not to be found in that store.  I can find them in Whole Foods for the most part, but the nickname "whole paycheck" is not in error.   I need to work on finding a good internet source for grains.  I have heard there are some good ones, but I just haven't had the time to research it yet.  If I find some good sources, I will share them here.

It has also been somewhat difficult to find a good source of a large variety of dried beans.  I have found that while canned beans are great for quick meals, cooking my own dried beans have a much better flavor.  For years I have kept a good supply of cooked beans in our freezer for quick meals, but now we eat them even more.  I am really enjoying the different varieties.  I just happened to stop in Walmart for a non-grocery item and decided to check out their grains and beans.  I was so surprised to find that they actually had more choices than my larger, nicer grocery store.  The prices were good also, so I will be making periodic visits there. 

I buy a week's worth of groceries at a time.  I occasionally have to return for some fresh produce, but not usually.  When I entered a grocery store in the past, I always went through the Produce Department first.  I have always bought a lot of fresh produce, but now we use an even larger quantity of it.  After going through the Produce Department the first couple of times after starting this way of eating, I found that I had no room in my cart left for the rest of the groceries.  I would say that at least 2/3 of our groceries on most weeks is fresh produce.  That meant my other groceries would "squish" my beautiful produce.  Now I buy the other items first, then proceed to the Produce Department at the end of my grocery trip.  All is well now. 

Okay, now the little detail of whether our grocery bills have come up or down.  I think I am too soon into this experience to know for sure.  I certainly had some catching up to do in stocking my pantry, and that has made our grocery bills go up higher than they were before.  I think our bills will now start to stabilize more.  I suspect our costs may come out about the same eventually.  If a person ate a very limited plant based diet, it could be done very cheaply- beans and rice, rice and beans.  I actually love beans and rice, but I love to experiment with new recipes and new ingredients.  That is what pushes my bill up. 

Just last week I bought a very small container of quinoa flour for $9.00.  I mentioned this to my daughter Ashley, (whom I consider an expert on plant based eating and on economical food bills), and she had just bought chickpea flour for $2.50 that week.  The quinoa flour and chickpea flour should be close to the same cost.  She is going to take me out grocery shopping soon in her town to help me locate some low cost pantry supplies.  We are quite the party girls, I know.   

 

My New Love!

I have a new love in my life.  I never dreamed I would be tempted to have a liaison such as this.  Okay, I need to get this situation out in the open and move on.  I really do love tofu.  I didn't mean for this to happen.  I don't even know what drew me to tofu.  I guess I was looking at plant based recipes, and the tofu thing kept popping up.  I would read the enthusiastic reviews and think, "Really?  Are you guys kidding me?"  I have heard tofu jokes all my life. 

I love everything about tofu.  I love the relatively low cost of it.  I love that you can buy it and keep it in the fridge for those times when a meal needs to be placed on the table, and my husband and I are looking at each other wondering how that is going to happen on this particular night.  I love that I can sauté it in a pan for 10 minutes, throw in some veggies, and have a meal. 

Since I am just beginning on this plant based journey, I tend to use an actual recipe for the tofu.  We have used some great recipes.  I will get around to posting some of them soon.  I usually change the recipes at least a bit to suit our tastes.  I tell myself when I try a recipe for the first time that I will not change the recipe until I have made it at least once, but then I usually cave in and do some editing on the recipe.  It is a weakness of mine, always wanting to tweak things and sometimes completely obliterating the original recipe and going off on my own.  As I get the recipes worked out to my satisfaction, I will definitely post some of them. 

If you haven't already, try some tofu!  You just might be surprised.