Budget

MYO Vegetable Broth

by ladypbwiggins

Okay vegans, vegetarians, plant-based, clean whatever your label this is a definite budget booster. Standing in the grocery store or online  trying to decide which is the healthiest vegetable broth to buy could be overwhelming. Like the good determined to be clean eating people you are, time is spent reading and comparing ingredients. Even after choosing the one with the least ingredients, you think about the preservatives added so this little box can sit safely on the shelf.

Make Your Own is the solution. It is very easy. I must admit I used the recipe with a few changes. I added a jalapeno. Wasn’t very spicy because it was diluted by 10 cups of water and the water from the vegetables. Also, I did not use a pot to simmer on the stove. I used my 10 cup pressure cooker on the soup setting. I had more than a 10 cup yield. Less liquid is lost with the pressure cooker.

My yield was 4 cups in 3 ziplocked bags.

3 bags x 4 cups = 12 cups bagged and

1  1 quart mason jar= 4 cups

So I had 16 cups of vegetable broth.

But wait that’s not all. What about the cooked veggies? I juiced them. From that process i got another 16 cups The result was thicker so I think it would be great for soup or chili bases.(The darker jars contain the veggie juice). So I had a total of 32 cups of vegetable broth.

And then there’s the pulp from the juiced veggies. I’m thinking about dehydrating to make a veggie boullion. Don’t know if that will work but I shall see.

For the Budget

It cost at my local market $2.60 for a 32oz box of organic vegetable broth. 32oz = 4 cups

I made 32 cups. 8 oz  =1 cup

32 cupsx8oz = 256 oz

256oz equals how many 32 oz boxes.  I made the equivalent of 8 boxes of organic veggie broth with no preservatives. I froze most of it. The cost was under $10. The mushrooms were the expensive part. If you make it without mushrooms and use other veggies it might be even less.

To be fare; If I had purchased 8 boxes the cost would have been $2.60×8= $20.80. I know for some the $10+ dollar difference isn’t much but don’t forget about preservatives and sitting on shelves.

It only took the time to wash 1 carrot, 2 celery stalks , 1 onion 1 leek, 4 garlic cloves and 8 oz of mushrooms. Put in pressure cooker. Bottle after it cools. That’s it. I juiced the cooked veggies so that took about another 5 minutes to put them in my Nama J2 and bottle the juice.

Make Your Own: No Tuna Chickpea Salad

by ladypbwiggins

I liked tuna salad before vegan. I have my own veganized version using chickpeas. The difference is capers, a cashew based Mayo(Make Your Own recipe) and coconut amino. I had used avocados, seasoned salt(homemade).

Of course I had to try this one. It was the first thing I made. I forgot to take a picture, so I forced myself to make it again. 😂 That is why you saw other posts first.

This is good. Almost as good as mine. I could eat bowls of this and nothing else. 5 stars

Get the book and Make Your Own

Make Your Own: MaYo

by ladypbwiggins

I must confess. I don’t usually eat mayonnaise.  Too oily in the mouth. But this mayo has no oil, so I’m giving it a try. For my mayonnaise replacement, I use avocado.

This one may become a staple. It was very easy to make. I specifically made it for the Chickpea No-Tuna salad sandwich. That is tomorrow’s endeavor.

If you like mayo

Nut Milk with Nama J2

by ladypbwiggins

Hey J2 owners, I just made walnut milk.  I have wanted to make it but squeezing the milk from the nut bag is painful these days. I made cashew milk because I didn’t have to strain it. I made the cashew milk in my Vitamix.

But today, I decided to experiment. I put 2 cups of walnuts in the hopper and turned on. Then I slowly poured filtered water into the mix. The result, strained walnut milk and pulp. I ran the pulp back through to get all the liquid out. I’m going to use the pulp in a burger patty or baked goods.

I am liberated from the nut milk bag!

Make Your Own: Nutty Date Granola

by ladypbwiggins

Who loves granola? I have had many types. Some reporting to be vegan. All reporting to be healthy. Some were. I had not ever used dates as the fruit supplying the sweetness and the glue. The recipe called for Medjool dates and a variety of seeds and nuts.

Before Baking

It was gooey and delicous.

After Baking.

Now don’t make my mistake. I got sidetracked and baked a little longer than most people would like. I enjoyed the crispness. It was a quick blend of nuts, oats and seeds. You can use any nuts you want. I used walnuts.

The Fast Has Ended

by ladypbwiggins

Like many churches across the country, a corporate fast began. On January 1 many people declared resolutions.  For the Fast, I set goals. Goals that I expect to enrich my Black Soil.

  • First priority obviously was spiritual. The goal was to resume personal bible study aside from studies in Bible study groups.
  • Reset healthy vegan eating. Depression pushed eating out, fluctuating between pescaterian and vegan. I enjoy seafood but my health demands veganism. I win my blood pressure war when eating clean vegan. I must also lose weight to mitigate the pain in my degenerating L4-L5 vertabra.
  • Sew/knit one garment a month. I began to crochet a baby sweater. In progress. Practiced hand-knitting techniques. No sewing.
  • Hang a picture. Purchased but unhinged.
  • Organize my files and desktop. Still have a week in January. 😆

The first two were the highest priority and I got those done. I am now back in the habit of making my meals. This is not only healthier but economical. With food costs, actually all costs, rising, this helps.

I will continue working on these goals and replacing them with new goals as they become habits.

Looks Like?

by ladypbwiggins

Lab experiment to replace tuna salad

Sometimes you just want a sandwich.  Sometimes you just want a salad topping. This jackfruit based offering gives me just that. It’s simple, quick and few ingredients.

Here is my final meal. It is jackfruit, celery, serrano pepper, avocado and salt to taste on a bed of spinach, arugula and tomatoes.  The salad dressing is a homemade avocado/cashew milk dressing.

The Veggie Burger Search Continues

by ladypbwiggins

A few posts ago, actually, quite a while ago I made my own veggie burger blend. A few days ago I discovered Javant’s Healthy Vegan Eating on YouTube. I made it. It is pictured below. His mix is made with no oil and no soy, so I had to give it a try. It was very good. I guess the walnuts along with the mushrooms gave it the fatty moisture mouth feel, aka texture.

I had forgotten that I made a veggie burger mix posted in My Vegan Burger. There are differences that could make a big difference to some people. First of all,Javant’s recipe is to be cooked. It uses cauliflower, walnuts, mushrooms, carrots, red onions and seasonings. Javant’s ground is designed to be used for multiple purposes.Therefore, no specific seasoning was used. It was very general. Mine is raw; designed for raw vegan lifestyle. My mixture included mushrooms, carrots, green onions,ground flax seed, soaked sunflower, jalepeno, and liquid smoke. There were other seasonings used, but they were specific to burger flavors, or at least they might have conflicted with Italian or Mexican flavors. I thought I had resolved my search for a homemade vegan burger blend. I’m down to two. I’m going to take a little from his and and add to mine. I will then cook a batch and dehydrate another batch. I learned a lot from Javant. I will continue to checkout his videos.

Javant’s Veggie Grou

Loss Replaced With Better

by ladypbwiggins

I was so excited about getting the great results of beet and celery juicing. I began to plan for other juice meals and then……

Silence. My Caynel Masticating Juicer stopped. I thought it had over heated. I waited. Turned the switch. Silence. I tried again. Silence. My juicer died. Of course the warranty had expired. It was laid to rest last night in the dumpster.

Now I await the arrival of my new juicer. Didn’t plan to spend that much money on a juicer but it is my medication provider. It cost about 4x as much as the other. I will let you know if it provides 4x the quality.

It is my expectation that the loss will be replaced with better.

Stroganof Inspired

by ladypbwiggins

Today I was looking through my #Healthy Mind Cookbook and noticed several strogonof recipes. I am not a big creamy sauce person but the thought of using nondairy cream intrigued me. I used sweet peppers from my garden, a red onion for a little bite,fresh chopped garlic, fresh purple basil with its flowers from my plants, cumin, dried oregano, dried dill sauteed in avocado oil. Then I added shitake mushroom and enough flax milk to cover. Salted to taste with Celtic Sea Salt. Simmered until mushrooms were tender.

Strogonof Sauce Inspired

I poured thos over a baked potato. It was quite tasty. I might be getting good at this vegan cooking thing 😄😄😄