The Small Things

One of my No Spend Month projects is to do some organizing. This weekend, I gathered up my most commonly used dry smoothie supplies into a basket. Flax and chia seeds, unsweetened coconut, protein powder and even the measuring cup live together in this basket so that I can easily move all these ingredients from the pantry to the blender.

Since I make a smoothie for breakfast most mornings, this promises to save me some effort every day. It will also go a long way toward keeping my pre-work routine organized and peaceful. Sometimes it’s the little things that really do matter.

Seven Ways To Eat Healthy On the Cheap (Advice From A Frugal Adventurer)

Think you can’t afford to eat healthy? Think again.

Healthy eating is no more expensive than the average American diet of fast and processed food if you are willing to cook, plan and adapt your menu to what’s readily available. Since going vegan, I have cut out most processed foods and actually spend less on groceries despite the assumptions of many that it is more costly.

This is important to me because money saved on the simple and mundane throughout the year helps to fund my adventures!

Here are a few tips for getting started!

1. Eat in Season – Eating in season is one of the most delicious ways you’ll ever save money. That’s because in season food is plentiful, cheap and delicious. For example, blueberries are as tasty as candy during their summer peak season. Zucchini is incredibly cheap and is great in stir fry, fritters and even in chocolate chip zucchini bread. Winter oranges are delicious, portable snacks for just a few cents per serving!
2. Focus on Frozen – The frozen food section is your friend. I never buy the cook-in-the- bag stuff because it’s more expensive and unnecessary if you want to use just small amounts at a time. There are certain things you will always find in my freezer including assorted fruit for breakfast smoothies and frozen pineapple which is as good as ice cream! Then there’s always frozen hashbrowns, broccoli, sweet corn, peas and other vegetables. Look at the labels and seek out the things that have nothing in them except what you want to buy. The ingredients list of frozen hashbrowns should just say potatoes and the corn should just contain corn. If there are sweeteners, preservatives or anything else, leave them in the store. 
3. Keep your shelves stocked – To accompany #2, there are a few other staples in my kitchen including rice and pasta in the pantry. In the fridge you’ll find marinara, salsa and barbeque sauce next to the mustard and salad dressings. These things keep for a while and are great condiments for all sorts of things.
4. Use What You Have and Rethink Leftovers- This is easy to do when the pantry is stocked. Also, learn to view leftovers as ingredients rather than something to be tolerated. On Sunday, I used bits and pieces of things to make a delicious lunch. A handful of leftover onions and peppers got sauteed with the end of a bag of frozen hashbrowns to make a base for a bowl. I added some canned black beans, leftover frozen corn, salsa from the fridge and some fresh spinach (that I keep for salads and smoothies) to make a big bowl of spicy goodness. It was delicious and took just a few minutes to throw together. Note that I kept the ingredients separate until making my bowl. Now there are containers of leftover beans, corn and the potatoes seasoned with onion and peppers in the fridge waiting for another meal. The potatoes will be repurposed as a side one night and the corn and beans will go into a salad.
5. Cook – There’s not way around it. If you want to eat healthy, you have to prepare your meals. Prepackaged meals are expensive and not especially good for you given all the  preservatives, artificial colors, sweeteners, etc. they contain. When you prepare your own meals, you take control over the ingredients and can often save money. That little bag of frozen mashed potatoes is $3 but you can buy a big bag of potatoes that will provide for many meals for about the same price. You can buy bags of frozen smoothie mixes that are packed with sugar or you can make your own with almond milk and frozen fruit for less money.
6. Batch Cook – And if you’re going to cook, you may as well make a little extra or save your leftovers for the freezer. For example, a double batch of homemade pancakes can be made healthfully and inexpensively. Freeze the extras to warm in the microwave as you need them. I love vegetable soup so leftovers get frozen in two serving containers – ready to reheat at a moment’s notice on a cold, winter night.
7. Cut Down On Expensive Stuff – This should go without saying but it never hurts to point out that there may be expensive items that you can reduce or eliminate. Meat, cheese and packaged snacks are expensive. Snack on seasonal fruits and veggies, use cheese sparingly and embrace meatless meals for a few meals a week.

There are tons of ways you can save money in the kitchen and make eating healthfully affordable. It’s hard and even intimidating to change your habits but you may find that a little planning and simple preparation will save you money. And if you’re not accustomed to cooking you may find that it’s a process you enjoy!

Are you a healthy eater? What do you do to cut expenses? Tell me in the comments!

 

Experimenting In the Kitchen

I always marveled at my Grandma’s ability to throw together ingredients without the use of a measuring cup or recipe and have a meal turn out great. Her cooking was meat heavy – bacon grease in the green beans, lots of fried foods, homemade chicken noodles and beautiful, scrumptious pies.

My eating style is much different now than it was when she was living but it seems I inherited her talent for instinctive cooking. It sounds arrogant to say that because she was as much better cook than I will ever be but I did at least inherit a fraction of that skill.

The problem is that I can never recreate a dish.

Ever.

Even my breakfast smoothie is different every day. The only thing I bother to measure is the almond milk and then just toss in random amounts of other ingredients. I made a great bean soup last week but I’ll never taste it again since I just diced carrots, celery and onion until it looked like I had enough and tossed in minced garlic until I panicked because it seemed like too much.

This is partly because I’m often adapting recipes to make them vegan so there’s a lot of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experimentation happening. Other than that, I have no good excuse but I have had some really good meals.

The other day, I made some maple peanut butter granola that was divine. I used oats, almond slivers and pecan pieces with a pinch of salt. Then melted peanut butter, agave nectar and pure maple syrup in the microwave and mixed it all together with those dry ingredients. When it just started to toast, I pulled it from the oven and added a small sprinkling of vegan chocolate chips and some golden raisins. Amounts? No clue. Temperature? I think it was 350 degrees. Time? Not sure. About fifteen minutes, maybe.

I let it rest on the cookie sheet for over an hour to finish roasting and then to cool for storage. That, I remember.

While the results were fabulous, I clearly won’t be writing a cookbook anytime soon. That’s ok. This, luckily, isn’t a cooking blog and I have fun in the kitchen so that’s all that really matters!

What meals can you cook without a recipe? We all have a collection of dishes that we toss together this way so tell me all about yours!

Pineapple Happiness

Little makes me happier than having a bowl of fresh pineapple to myself.

I’m not much of a gadget person but I wouldn’t trade my pineapple corer/slicer for anything. It cost about three dollars at Aldi a few years ago and has made cutting up pineapple so much quicker!

Look how pretty this sliced pineapple is and it happened in less than thirty seconds!