It’s Time.

Posted on | February 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

it’s time to stop being so damn reluctant.

that’s right. i said it. and it feels good.

it’s time to stop being a reluctant vegetarian and time to start being…myself. time to stop hiding behind the lettuce. time to stop hiding behind a moniker. and time to start pulling together all of the pieces of my life.

so…what does that all mean?

sadly, it means that this blog will be shutting down. and by shutting down, i mean that there will no longer be new content posted here.

don’t worry, i haven’t gotten rid of it. i am just moving it to a new home. where you will continue to find the same great content that you’ve come to love.

i will continue to post all of our tasty meals, vegetarian and vegan friendly recipes, and nightshade and dairy free foods. the project: food budget will continue on as planned. i will also be posting about my health coaching business, perhaps a craft or two, and anything else that tickles my fancy. after all, this one is about me.

how will you ever find me?!

oh, it’s really not that hard. all you have to do is update your feed readers, links, and anything else that is connected with the reluctant vegetarian to my new site: emilylevenson.com.

that’s it.

i look forward to continuing the conversation. and continuing to grow and evolve with your support.

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: vegetarian

Project: Food Budget {Week 5}

Posted on | February 3, 2011 | 7 Comments

Goal: $75
Actual: $84.10

When I went to the store, I was excited to have left under budget for the first time ever. And then I realized that I had done a part of the shopping on a different day. Doh. I was hoping to be a little closer with the budget, but guess I wasn’t.

This week saw the purchase of some bigger items like raw honey, Earth Balance sticks, So Delicious coconut milk, and two packages of tempeh {we can’t get it at the regular grocery store}. It also saw the stopping at WholeFoods. Which, surprisingly, wasn’t any more expensive the Giant Eagle. In fact, most of the items we regularly buy are the same if not cheaper.

Menu for the week:

Lessons learned:

  1. For the items we buy, WholeFoods isn’t any more expensive than the regular old grocery store. And, in fact, a lot of the items we buy are cheaper.
  2. I enjoy shopping at WholeFoods.
  3. This week has seen an increase in eating out for both The Hubster and I. We have been working outside the home more, and therefore, not eating as much in the home.

Project: Food Budget

Read about how Project: Food Budget got started here. You can also follow along with my progress here.

I’m excited to report that I have even more company on my Project: Food Budget challenge. Please check out these wonderful blogs, and give them support as they take on this challenge.

Participating blogs:

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: project: food budget

Tuesdays with Mama: Risi e Bisi

Posted on | February 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

“I looooooooove Risi e Bisi!” he said as I placed the bowl of steaming rice and peas on the table in front of my husband. He is a huge fan of anything with rice, but when I make Risi e Bisi he is transported to culinary heaven. And as we say in our family, what’s not love about peas and rice?

This is one of those simple and delicious comfort foods that always gets a positive response in our house. The recipe I use is from The New Romagnoli’s Table cookbook by Margaret and G. Franco Romagnoli. The book is not so new anymore—it was first published in 1975 and I think is only available used. There are many absolutely scrumptious recipes in the book, many of which are vegetarian—so if you find a copy of the book, you have a real treasure.

The original recipe in the Romagnoli’s cookbook calls for prosciutto and chicken broth, which are the traditional ingredients in this classic Venetian dish. I have revised the recipe so it is suitable for a vegetarian and vegan diet (without the Parmesan).It is still delicious.

If there are any leftovers (I doubt it!) they can be reheated and used as a risotto-like side dish. Note: add more vegetable broth when reheating.

Vegetarian Risi e Bisi

Ingredients:

  • 1 small onion, minced
  • 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (or 1-2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan buttery spread sticks
  • 10 oz. frozen peas or 1 lb. fresh peas
  • 4 cups vegetable broth plus an additional 2-3 cups more
  • 1 cup rice (medium grain white rice or Arborio rice) I do not recommend brown rice for this recipe.
  • Salt, about 1 teaspoon (more or less to taste)
  • Pepper to taste
  • grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Directions:

  1. Put oil and butter in a big, heavy pot over medium heat and add the minced onion and parsley.
  2. Sauté until the onion is translucent and limp. Add the peas and sauté until everything is coated with oil and Earth Balance.
  3. Add 4 cups of the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
  4. Add the rice.
  5. Reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring frequently until the rice is tender.
  6. The soup is now very thick. Add more hot vegetable broth if you desire a thinner (and less traditional) soup. (I find that you need to add about 1-1/2 cups additional broth. It will still be quite thick.)
  7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Serve piping hot in bowls (with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, if desired).

Serves 4 as a main dish, 6 as a first course.

For your reference:
This recipe is vegetarian and vegan (without the cheese). It is also nightshade free, dairy free (without the cheese), wheat free, gluten free, soy free, cinnamon free, and contains no msg.

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: recipe, tuesdays with mama

Recipe: Homemade Bagels

Posted on | January 31, 2011 | 7 Comments

i’ve been saying that i wanted to learn how to make my own bagels for a long time. i have a love affair with the bagel that has spanned several decades. and am kind of surprised that it took me this long to try it out myself.

it was definitely worth the wait.

homemade bagels are fairly amazing. and surprisingly easy to make. had i known that they were that easy, i’m sure they would have been attempted much sooner.

as easy as they are, it takes about an hour from start to finish. so save these for a lazy morning, or a weekend. or any day where you have an hour to spare.

whole wheat bagels

ingredients:

  • 2 cups bread flour
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbs safflower oil
  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2 cups of warm water

directions:

  1. mix all the ingredients in a bowl. the dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it’s really stiff, or you can’t get all the dry flour incorporated.
  2. plop the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.
  3. cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.
  4. preheat oven to 425F
  5. take each of the dough balls and roll it into a little snake. when the snake is longer than the width of your two hands, wrap it around your dominant roiling hand. the dough rope should be wrapped so the overlapping ends are together at your palm, near the start of your fingers. take the two overlapping ends, and use your palm to press the ends together. once the dough is fused, you should have a perfectly circular bagel-to-be!
  6. let your bagels rest for 20 minutes.
  7. meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, and grease a large baking tray lightly.
  8. add as many at a time as you can to your boiling water without crowding them {our large pot fit 3-4 at a time}. boil for about 1 minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute.
  9. take them out a let dry for a minute and then place them on your oiled baking tray.
  10. repeat until all the bagels are boiled.
  11. add the tray to the oven, and after 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another ten minutes.
  12. let cool for at least 20 minutes before eating or toasting.

notes:

  1. it took a  few tries to get the boiling time right. i think the first few could have been boiled longer. it helps to watch the clock for that part.
  2. i got a little too bold at the end, and tried to fit 5 bagels at a time. it was pretty crowded, and made it hard to fish out of the water.
  3. homemade bagels toast a little differently than the store-bought variety, so just keep an eye on them until you know what to expect.

for your reference:
this recipe is vegetarian and vegan. it is also nightshade free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, cinnamon free, and contains no msg.

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: recipe, vegan, vegetarian

I Like My Smoothies…Green.

Posted on | January 28, 2011 | 12 Comments

those are five words i never ever thought i would utter in the same sentence.

i would buy kale, spinach, and bok choy in the hopes of weaving it into our daily foods. and in theory, the greens would excite me. they are nutrient dense, packed with tons of good things that our bodies need. and yet…when it came time to make a meal with the greens. i’d procrastinate.

when i finally cooked greens, i would do my best to stuff them into my mouth. or hide them under other foods. just so i could get a few bites in. but it never worked. and in the end, i would push the greens to the side and finish my meal.

i would do this dance every few month, thinking that it might have been the recipe. or the green. but it was always the same result: procrastination, nausea, waste.

i was beginning to think that it was a lost cause. until i tried a green smoothie at the whole foods nutrition meetup. it. was. delicious. so delicious, in fact, that kale made it back on the grocery list. and has already been whipped into the first of many green smoothies.

turns out, cooked greens and i don’t get along. throw in a leaf or two of kale into a smoothie, and it disappears with 5 minutes.

Green Smoothie

ingredients:

  • 2 leaves of kale, washed and chopped
  • 1 banana, sliced
  • handful of grapes
  • handful of blueberries
  • 1/4 of an apple
  • 1 cup hemp milk

directions:

  1. place all ingredients into a blender and mix until liquefied, about 3-5 minutes.  you will probably need to use something like the back end of a wooden spoon to push ingredients down. just be careful not to hit the blade!

notes:

  1. this recipe makes enough for 2.
  2. if it’s only you drinking the smoothie, i would recommend cutting the recipe in half. green smoothies don’t last more than a few hours.
  3. looking for additional information or instructions on making green smoothies, check out this blog post.
Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: recipe, vegan, vegetarian

Project: Food Budget {Week 4}

Posted on | January 27, 2011 | 5 Comments

goal: $75
actual: $82.02

menu for the week:

i was so excited about going shopping this week. i thought for sure that i would be under budget. and i was on track too. until the very. last. item.

what was that item, you ask? a beautiful, delicious, glorious bag of grapes. that happened to be a whopping $10.43. yep. you read that right. ten dollars. and forty-three cents. for one bag of grapes. holy eye-opener batman.

and to think, i sometimes buy two bags of grapes at a time. excuse me while i go pick myself up off the floor and snack on $3 worth of grapes.

lessons learned:

  1. bringing the hubster along added some extras to the shopping cart that weren’t on the list. or usual purchases. but, he rarely speaks up about wanting anything when it comes to food, that i am more than happy to oblige. within reason, of course.
  2. grapes are flippin’ expensive. and yet, i love them. i will definitely think twice about getting two bags at a time though.
  3. i was proud of myself for using up 90% of the coleslaw that we purchased for egg rolls. that’s way better than usual. hallelujah.
  4. i forgot to get an ingredient for one of our recipes. i’m used to just having it in the house. that was a first!
  5. when things are on sale that we use regularly, i feel like i need to stock up. a lot. {earth balance was still on sale, but we just don’t need it.}

project: food budget

read about how project: food budget got started here. you can also follow along with my progress here.

i’m excited to report that i have even more company on my project: food budget challenge. please check out these wonderful blogs, and give them support as they take on this challenge.

participating blogs:

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: project: food budget

Recipe: Vegetable Barley Soup

Posted on | January 26, 2011 | 2 Comments

we had a barley dish on our menu last week, but didn’t end up getting to it. apparently, we weren’t feeling it.

unfortunately, i had just bought a bag of barley. and it was sitting pretty, waiting for it’s turn to be used. so, it went back onto the menu in a different form: soup. fitting, considering it’s been colder-than-you-know-what in pittsburgh.

be warned, this soup is incredibly filling. it is also very bright and cheery. seriously. it is!

vegetable barley soup

ingredients:

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 leek, sliced and diced
  • 3/4 cup uncooked barley
  • 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 1 cup cabbage, chopped
  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
  • 3-4 stalks celery, chopped
  • 9 cups water
  • 2-3 tbs parsley
  • salt and pepper

directions:

  1. in a large pot, add oil, garlic and leeks and heat until transparent, approximately 3-4 minutes.
  2. add barley, carrots, cabbage, sweet potato, celery, water, and parsley. bring to a boil.
  3. reduce heat and simmer until barley is tender. {25-30 minutes}
  4. pull out some sweet potato chunks and carrots. puree until smooth. add back into soup and mix.
  5. add salt and pepper to taste.
  6. serve hot and enjoy!

for your reference: this recipe is vegetarian and vegan. it is also nightshade free, dairy free, wheat free, soy free, egg free, cinnamon free, and contains no msg.

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: recipe, vegan, vegetarian

Eat More, Waste Less

Posted on | January 25, 2011 | 8 Comments

one of my goals when i started project: food budget was to stop wasting food. i would buy fresh fruits and vegetables because i love them. and then watch them wither away as the week went on.

every few weeks we would clean out the refrigerator and throw out way piles of leftovers, wilted greens, and rotting fruit. and i would get sick. partly because of the wasted food. and partly because of the money that we were literally throwing in the trash.

things that have helped us to waste less:

  • planning a menu for the week.
    i used to plan meals for all 7 days of the week, but soon realized that we were really only eating about 4-5 of those meals. so, that’s all i plan for now. the rest of the nights? we usually have leftovers. or an item that wasn’t on the menu. or we eat out. by giving ourselves a little leeway, we end up wasting a lot less food.
  • make a grocery list based on the menu.
    this might seem a little obvious, but winging it at the grocery store leads to impulse purchasing, over purchasing, and poor planning when it comes to meals. it’s also likely to lead to multiple trips to the store and increased stress when it comes to time to think about dinner.
  • plan around specialty purchases or ingredients.
    when a recipe calls for an ingredient that you don’t use very often, make sure that it can be included in a few meals. we don’t normally have cabbage in the house, but when we make egg rolls, the cabbage ends up in soups, stir-fry’s, and as a side dish for the hubster’s lunches. otherwise, it ends up in the trash.
  • befriend your freezer.
    this is particularly sage advice when you have a lot of leftovers, fruit that is about to go bad, or other staples like buns that you don’t eat very often. our freezer houses a family of bananas {always 1-2 in each bunch that don’t get eaten}, buns, frozen veggies, cookies, and cut up fruit to be blended into smoothies {yum!}.
  • start a broth bag.
    we don’t do this as often as we should, but it’s great for vegetable scraps and peels that will make a great vegetable broth. we put onion ends, celery, leeks, carrot peels, and other scraps that you would otherwise throw out.
  • scour the internet.
    when i see that we have things that are about to go bad, i look to the internet to find new recipes. this week saw three lemons and two pints of blueberries that were going to spoil. the hubster was happy, since he got to indulge in blueberry-lemon scones. we have a huge bag of clementines. i won’t be able to eat them all, so will probably end up making a citrus vinaigrette or some muffins.
  • recycle your leftovers.
    we get tired of certain meals after the first night. so we recycle our leftovers and turn them into something new. leftover mashed potatoes usually end up as sweet potato pierogies. mexican bean salad is a great topping for baked potatoes. peach mango salsa got recycled into a chickpea quinoa dish.

what do you do to prevent food waste?

{image courtesy of EcoBlog and can be found here.}

Print FriendlyPrint Friendly
Category: general, project: food budget
keep looking »

Search

Project: Food Budget


Participating Blogs:

Subscribe to our feed

  • Food Intolerances and Allergies

  • Foodie Blogs

  • Local Eats

  • Veg*n

  • Veg*n Blogs

  • Veg*n Products

  • Veg*n Recipes

    • Admin