My First Foray Into Bulk Cooking

Margaret wanted to know my tvp recipe. As in the past, I have to give credit to Ruthie's hubby, Russell for opening my eyes to the wonders of tasty tvp. Check out this link for my version of it. If I don't have broth available, water works fine as well.

Bulk cooking was an eye opening experience for me. The first challenge I encountered was putting together a series of recipes that my family enjoyed that lent themselves to bulk cooking and freezing. There was that inevitable moment where I wished someone had invaded my thoughts and put together a magical vegan once a month cooking book for me. I think I did ok in spite of this.

The first thing I did was to replenish my staples a bit. Out came my copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyzyn. I put together her recipes for seasoned salt and taco seasoning. These are two spice mixes that are handy to have around. Isn't it easier to through in premixed taco seasoning than diddling around with tiny spice bottles as you frantically try to get dinner on the table?

I next grabbed The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak and put together a double batch of her All Season Blend, which works well as a vegetable broth powder, and a quadruple batch of Instant Cheez-It dry sauce mix, which I've used both as a sauce and for grilled cheeze sandwiches (use less water for the grilled cheeze).

This prep work behind me, I moved on to the main event. Here's what I made:
6 loaves of cinnamon raison whole wheat bread
2 Red Lentil Loaves
2 batches of gravy to go with the lentil loaves
1 batch of White Beans, Tomatoes and Barley (this makes a huge amount, so no need to double.)
a quadruple batch of Isa's Homemade Seitan
4 loaves of pumpkin bread with walnuts
large batch of cooked chickpeas (unseasoned)
double batch of Dr Furhman's Almond Carob Fudge although I used cashew butter because I was out of almond butter.

Here's what I learned along the way. I need to know how many onions to cut, how much garlic to mince, how much (fill in the veggie of your choice) I need for all the recipes to make the whole process go smoother. I also need to have a flow of prep work into cooking so it doesn't take forever. Finally, I need the whole family more involved so I'm not alone in the kitchen talking to my wooden spoons so much of the day.