Hello? Is anyone there?

It has been several weeks since my last post.  Sorry about that.  January was a month from hell.  We were all sick at one point.  Ugh.  Now we are all well. Yay!  How are you?  Are you still attempting the challenge?  Man, was January tough.  Josh joked that as soon as we started the challenge, we all were sick, exhausted and did not want to cook.  But we made it.  We order no take away or did we go out to eat.

Here are some of the meals I cooked.  What have you been cooking?  Have you gone out to eat or cut down on your dining out?

15 Bean Vegetable Soup.  Easy and delicious.

Udon Noodle Bowl

Tacos, always a favorite.

Butternut squash, wild rice, black beans, and steamed broccoli.

Smothered seitan medallions in a mixed mushroom gravy, collard greens, and Johnny Blaze cakes.

Roasted carrot coconut soup.  Such goodness.

Pizza:  roasted eggplant, garlic, spinach and Daiya cheese.

BBQ soy curls, sweet potato fries, and cilantro slaw

Swiss chard dinner pie with a side of roasted cauliflower.

Cuban black bean soup with chimichurri tofu, and roasted butternut squash.

Veggie pot pie.

It is cold here. I am off to make some pretzels as a treat.  Keep me posted on your progress.

peas and love….

Krys and the boys

Take away? No way!!!!!

Well this weekend was a bit crazy for me.  A friend asked if I could help out with a baby celebration and make 48 cupcakes and a cake for Sunday.  Needless to say, I did not leave the kitchen all day Saturday.  I was up to my eyeballs in cake batter and icing.  For a person who loves to cook, I was tired and so did not want to.  Ugh.  Times like this makes you really fight to complete the project and not order take away.  There is a lovely Thai place up the street as well as a vegan hot dog stand.  Did we order take away?  No way!  Instead I looked in the freezer and found some taco filling I had made a while back.  Josh made some homemade tortillas while I was icing cupcakes.  We had an avocado, salsa, and black beans in the fridge.  While the tortillas were cooking on the griddle.  Josh also chopped some potatoes for the tacos.  Soft tacos for dinner!  Delicious.  Thanks, honey.

Friday night I made pizza for us.  I made a BBQ chickUn pizza for me and Josh and a Daiya cheese pizza for the boys.  A friend said she started making her own pizza and loves it.  I have to say, I totally agree.  Homemade is so much tastier.  You can choose your own toppings and no worries about the cost of any additions.

Thursday Josh left work early sick.  Poor guy. He never gets sick and was miserable.  He had viral bronchitis.  I made a big pot of chickUN and dumplin’s vegetable soup.  Such goodness.  He said it hit the spot. The two little guys loved it too.  Our 2 year old ate a whole bowl full.

I almost forgot to mention. I made burgers Sunday night.  Veggie burgers of course.  Josh was feeling better and wanted a burger.  I served them with a side of roasted sweet potatoes.  We had some homemade buns in our freezer.  Mmm mmm.

How was your weekend?  How is the challenge/project going?  What have you been cooking?

Well I am off to make some soup.  Unfortunately I now caught the cold that has been running through my family.  Hope you have a lovely day.

peas and love….
Krys and the boys

When the going gets tough, the tough avoid temptation….

Ugh.  These past few days have been tough.  We have managed.  Our youngest son, we fondly call Little Bear has been sick with a wicked cold.  That means minimal sleep, a grumpy baby, and mum and dad who are to tired to want to cook. Did we go out to eat?  Did we order take away?  No way.  We were good.  Though it is very tempting to do so when you are exhausted. 

The other day I created a recipe for lentil chili.  Cheap, delicious, and makes a ton.  I just threw all the ingredients in the crockpot and went about my day.  We made frito pies.  Frito pies are a treat in the Southern United States.  It is corn chips, topped with chili, cheese, pickled jalapeno, and fresh onion.  In our case, we use a vegan cheese substitute since we are a vegan family.  We had two large containers of chili leftover that we put in the freezer. 

We were given some fresh arugula from a friend’s garden. I decided to use some of it over the weekend.  I made a swiss chard and mushroom quiche.  It is a favorite recipe creation around here.   The kids like it too.  For the arugula, I made an arugula pesto.  I mixed it with some white beans.  There was enough arugula to make a side salad for another meal and two small containers of pesto. I plan to use the pesto later on our pizza.

For our Friday night meal, I wanted to make something quick and tasty. I had roasted some eggplant earlier in the day.  So I cooked up some pasta, added some homemade marinara we had in the fridge, threw in some vegan pepperoni I had made earlier in the week, added the eggplant and some fresh spinach.  Tasty!

On weekends we make a sweet treat.  Usually we would go to the local co-op grocery and buy one of their amazing vegan cookies or cupcakes, but since we are doing this project, I opted to bake.  I love baking, so it wasn’t a stretch.  I decided to create a recipe for Rocky Road cookies.  I had some vegan marshmallows in the fridge.  Man oh man!  These were freaking awesome.  Needless to say, they were all gone by Monday. 

Well I am off to make some enchiladas for tonite’s dinner and a quinoa black bean dish for the little guys.  Hope you have a lovely week.  Keep me posted on how you are doing. 

peas and love….
Krys and the boys

Happy New Year!

It is a new year and the project is going well so far.  I have received several emails from people saying they are participating.  I am excited and looking forward to hearing how it goes.  For us, so far, so good.  I plan to do a weekly update, posting food, possible temptations, frustrations, etc.

For New Year’s Day I made a big feast for us.  I started the morning by making baked donut nuggets for my family.  Later that day, I made spicy collard greens, blackeyed peas with vegan sausage, cornbread, and mac & cheeze.  It was very tasty and apparently the food is supposed to be good luck.  Yippee!

Breakfast

New Year’s Day feast

Sunday night I made vegan sushi for us. It was so good and made a ton.

Monday we had the rest of the sushi for lunch and had New Year’s Day leftovers.  I am a firm believer in not wasting food.  It was all tasty even as leftovers.

Last night I made a soba noodle salad with a miso dressing.  Quite tasty and made a lot.  It will make for a tasty lunch today.

We have a cauliflower and some spinach in the fridge.  For tonite, I shall make a crispy cauliflower dish with garlicky greens on the side and maybe some type of grain.  Tomorrow will be a vegetable soup kind of day.   

This weekend we have a busy Saturday, so leftovers will probably feed us.  No going out to eat or ordering take away! 

Keep me posted on how you are doing. Good luck.  See you in a few days.

peas and love….

Krys

Less than 24 hours!!!!

 

Are you ready?  I am. I am kind of excited and nervous. This is a big challenge to take on and beat.  Last night I went to the grocery store in preparation for tomorrow’s New Year’s Day feast as well as my weekly grocery shopping.  For our feast, I am making blackeyed peas with a vegan sausage, mac & cheeze, cornbread, and spicy collard greens. 

We are laying low this evening for our New Year’s Eve celebration.  When you have kids, that is pretty much what you do and I am okay with that.  My guys are awesome.  For our NYE feast, I am making homemade pizza and chocolate avocado cupcakes for dessert.

I am looking forward to all the money saved by the end of 2011.  I have my spare change jar ready to be filled up with coins and the “mad money” jar.  That is spare bills left over from the grocery budget.  I set our budget at $80 a week.  Any money left goes into the “mad money” jar.  We are starting a CSA, so that will save us on vegetables.  CSAs are awesome.  I highly recommend them.  We will get a huge box of organic produce every two weeks.  It is local, fresh, and more than enough to feed us.  The cost averages out to $15 a week in produce.  The cost per box is $30.  I have gone to the store and compared.  Buying that many organic vegetables at the grocery store would cost nearly twice as much.  And you are supporting a local farmer and his family.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments on how you are doing with this challenge.  I will post weekly how we are doing, the ups and downs and all around.

Well, it is time to say “goodbye” to 2010 and say “hello” to 2011.  Time for new beginnings and to make and keep our resolutions.  I hope you each have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve.  See you in 2011. 

peas and love…..

Krys and the boys

Deliver me from pizza…

Well, The 365 Day Project starts in just 11 days. Wow!  Where has 2010 gone?  Hello 2011!  This post is dedicated to delivery.  What meal is most delivered you ask?  I assume it is pizza.  Pizza is delicious. I love love love pizza.  We have found only three places that make vegan pizza around here.  One is Whole Foods, Mellow Mushroom, and the other is Conan’s pizza.  I have heard Conan’s charges out the wazoo for Daiya cheese.  And only one of their crusts is vegan.  Mellow Mushroom  was okay.  They charge $5 for Daiya which is crazy since they barely use a cup of Daiya, the pizza is crazy expensive and the taste, meh.  Whole Foods knows their stuff.  The boys love their mini personal pizzas.  I prefer to make pizza at home.  I can pick whatever toppings, a bag of Daiya is enough for three pizzas and the boys love the homemade marinara I make.  Which has, mind you 5 roasted vegetables pureed into the sauce.  Yippee!  So, here is my photo dedication to homemade pizza that I have made in the past and why I prefer to make my own crust, as well as my own marinara.  Mmm pizza.

Roasted eggplant, roasted garlic, and spinach pizza.

Oyster mushroom, spicy red pepper, and fresh basil pizza.

BBQ ChickUN pizza:   BBQsauce, seitan, pineapple, roasted garlic, spinach, cilantro, jalapenos, and Daiya.  The best pizza ever!

Well I am off to do some holiday baking.  I was amazed the other day at the cost of holiday bread.  I recently veganized a panettone recipe (Italian Christmas Bread).  The cost of it in the store is an upwards of $10.  For that price, I could easily make three. 

Happy holidays.  See you in 2011.  Lets rock this challenge!

Coffee, tea, or moneeeeyyyyy?

(picture, courtesy of marylamb)

When I mentioned the beginning of this challenge, someone asked me, “What about coffee?”  Well, what about coffee?  I will tell you.  Coffee is great.  I love love love it.  But, coffee can be expensive, going out for coffee anyway.  I know people who stop by the coffee shop everyday.  So, if you average the cost, this is what you get:

gourmet coffee $5×5 days a week=$25, $25x52weeks=$1300.  Whoa!  Holy crap!  That’s a ton of cash in my book.  Hmm, where could I travel on that amount of money, somewhere nice I’m sure.

regular cup of jo $2-3×5 days a week=$10-$15, $10-$15x$52weeks=$520-$780.  Wowza!  Once again, that is a lot of cash saved.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my local coffee shop and love to stop in for a good cup of jo. But during this challenge, I shall refrain. 

It is amazing to see how money adds up so quickly.  A little spent here and a little spent there.  Geez, it goes quick and takes longer to earn.

I am looking forward to the end of this challenge.  We have decided that the money we save from the challenge, we plan to use on a roadtrip to the Joshua Tree National Park. 

Good luck!  See you in 2011.