Project Updates

The attic is finally insulated! What a disgusting, dirty, dusty job! In some ways I hate a job like insulating because the savings aren't immediately evident. In fact, we had to lay out a little cash for supplies! Patience is a frugal virtue, though. I have to remind myself, changing our oil burner last year, to a more efficient model, resulted in a savings of about $240 during the heating season despite the increase in heating oil prices. The rewards of frugal living are often best viewed over the long haul.

The curtain projects continue, mainly because I'm making these last curtains into draw drapes. (In defense of my apparent insanity, the rod was already there!) Its actually not as difficult as it sounds, I'm just double and triple checking my math along the way to make sure I don't royally mess up. I've started by sewing a large rectangle of my curtain fabric. Then I've taking the fabric that I'm lining the curtain with, in this case an old barney blanket, and cut it to the size I need for it to lie flat against the window. Then I've marked the blanket at the points where the drapery hooks will attach and where the pleats will be. This is where it gets tricky and time consuming, but I'm getting there.

Here's a picture of the first panel of the curtain.

My Vegan Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

I got a couple of questions about the whole wheat bread recipe that I've had really good success with. Its a variation on the 100% whole wheat bread recipe from The Cornell Bread Book. The recipes in that book are easily veganized. The main change needed is the omission of dry milk and subbing in either soy powder or soy flower.

I use an old fashioned bread bucket to mix my bread but I don't see why this wouldn't work with other mixers. The batter is loose enough that hand mixing with a spoon wouldn't be impossible if you chose to go that route.

Place 3 cups warm water and 1 cup of raisins in a blender and puree until the raisins are just little pieces. Pour into mixing bowl and add:

2 pkgs dry yeast (this equals 4 1/2 tsp of dry yeast if you buy it in bulk)
2 Tbs. blackstrap molasses
2 Tbs. canola oil
1 Tbs. salt
4 Tbs. flaxseed meal

Let stand until little eruptions begin to form as the yeast becomes active. When the entire surface has "erupted" add the following:

1 1/4 cup soy flour
5 cups whole wheat flour

Mix until well blended. Let rise until dough has doubled, about an hour. Turn onto board and shape into three loaves. Place in oiled bread pan. Let rise until dough doubles and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower oven to 350 degrees and continue baking for 45 minutes. Cool on rack.

Menu for a Productive Saturday

The Chinese food last night was a big hit. I ended up doing things a little differently. I marinated cubed tofu in the tamari for about 15 minutes and then placed the tofu on a greased baking sheet. I cooked it in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, while I chopped and stir fried the veggies. I poured the tamari from marinating into the veggies and then added the baked tofu and mixed in the rice. I think baking the tofu really added a special flavor.

We've got a busy day ahead of us, we're finally insulating the attic over our bedroom. While Jim heads up the insulating job, I'll be working a lining the remaining unlined curtains. We're starting the day with a hearty breakfast of pancakes, potato scramble and Clementines. Lunch will be a quick grab, leftovers or sandwiches, so we don't lose a lot of time.

Dinner will be Red Lentil Loaf and a variety of roasted veggie sticks (carrots, turnips, and potato). You can either spray the cut veggies with olive oil or put about a tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl, cover and toss the veggies to coat. My kids love these with ketchup and they are so much healthier than conventional French Fries. Sweet potato fries are also really delicious if you have sweet potatoes on hand. I'm still thinking about what dessert to make.

We'll also spend a little time adding some additional mulch around the currant bushes to protect them from what promises to be a cold Adirondack winter. Fortunately for this frugal gardener, Mother Nature has dropped an abundance of leaves and pine needles for us to use.

Vegan Barely Fried Rice

My daughter, Tasha, was kind enough to chop up the greens yesterday. What a relief to have that done. Fried Rice is super easy to make, although the version I make is really more honestly called Vegan Barely Fried Rice. I usually use just plain old brown rice but basmati rice would work nicely too. Honestly, any rice except arborio rice (think risotto) would work well.

Cook the rice, per package instructions. While that's cooking, you get to be creative. Chop up some onions, mince some garlic and then poke around your fridge to see what else you have in there. Chop up any veggies you like or use frozen veggies. I've used bok choy, napa cabbage, regular cabbage, peas, carrots, broccoli, anything I feel like. Try to organize your vegetables by the time they take to cook to your liking. (Personally, I'm a tender crisp kind of a gal.)

Root around in the fridge a little more to come up with some tofu, tempeh or leftover beans. If the fridge has nothing to offer, open a can of beans from the cupboard.

When the rice is cooked, spray the bottom of your frying pan or wok with canola oil and add a few drops of sesame oil, toasted sesame oil is even better. (The sesame oil adds a nice flavor but it has more polyunsaturated fats and a bit more saturated fat than canola oil. It also has a lower smoke point. By mixing the oils you get the flavor without as much of the other stuff.) Heat the pan and toss in your onions and other long cooking veggies, like carrots. Next add the garlic, remember to keep stirring. Toss in any veggies that need a little less cooking, adding quick cooking veggies last. Toss in tofu, tempeh or beans and stir to avoid sticking. If things do begin to stick add a little water to the pan.

Pour in 1/4 cup tamari (remember I'm cooking for 6 hungry people, so this is a huge stir fry. You may want to use less tamari.) Add in rice and stir to mix evenly with tamari vegetable mixture. For a sweeter taste, add a tablespoon of brown sugar to the tamari before adding it. Serve and enjoy. This is one of the simplest recipes that my kids like the most.

I Forgot!

Oops, I forgot about making Chinese food and ended up making vegan Baked Mac & "Cheese" with collards and brussel sprouts. I made two pans of it which will take care of dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. My kids love brussel sprouts which amuses people to no end. I'll shred the greens tonight so I remember to make the Chinese Food Friday night. Then I'll share the recipe, I promise!

I just took the book No Need to Knead out of the library. I'm curious to see what it has to say. The gist of the book is the bread recipes in it have a looser batter than most bread batters, hence there is no need to knead the bread. I'll let you know what I discover. Right now, I'm really happy with the whole wheat bread recipe that I use. Interestingly enough, its a pretty loose batter as well.

We've had two fabulous free finds in the last few days. A car stereo lying around in my parents garage collecting dust was a perfect fit for Jim's broken car stereo. My parents also had a ceiling fan that they removed a long time ago collecting dust. Jim just put it up this afternoon to replace our broken one. My parents were going to throw both of these things out! Thank goodness we happened to mention the broken radio and fan during a visit.

Jim's getting ready to give homemade winemaking a try. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Chick Peas

I love chick peas! Today as part of my preschool nutrition program we made hummus and served it with pretzels. For tonight's dinner we'll be mashing up some of those chick peas, adding a little vegan mayo, garlic powder and lemon juice and serving the whole concoction on toast. We'll have leftover vegetable soup on the side.

The last regular CSA pick up was pretty big. I'm going to try to use the greens in this batch first to avoid a total glut of greens in the freezer. I'll be planning my meals for the rest of the week around the greens. Tomorrow night will probably be some type of Chinese food, probably Vegan Fried Rice. That will allow me to use quite a bit of the greens as well as some of the chick peas. I'll share my recipe tomorrow morning.

When Leftovers Go Missing

Last night, when I went to make the casserole for dinner, I discovered the leftover lentils had already been eaten. Instead I made a quick potato leek soup in the pressure cooker. Actually it was onion, I finished the leeks a few days ago. Instead of adding soymilk, I used the leftover gravy from our Tofurky. It really gave it a rich creamy texture.

I pureed some steamed greens along with some tomato and garlic and used this to top the feeble bit of leftover pasta that remained in the fridge. Finally I made a batch of Stedda Egg Salad (as in Instead of Egg Salad) from The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond, which we served on whole wheat toast. It's tofu and a mix of spices like cumin, curry, tumeric plus a few others. The pureed greens were tolerated but everyone loved the potato soup and the Stedda Egg Salad. My teenage daughters even took it for lunch today, that's the true mark of success.

I've begun the day by getting a batch of vegetable soup into the slow cooker. That cleaned out the last of the greens, carrots and parsnips from the fridge. This will become the base for the next few days meals.

Book Updates & Freezer Organization

I've just about finished reading Don't Eat this Book by Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me). Its definitely worth a read. I did finish reading The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond. She had some very interesting recipes including one for sunflower seed "milk". I recommend taking it out of the library and mining it for recipes that you find interesting but I don't think you need to buy it.

Today I'll be making a casserole with the veggies and leftover lentils in the fridge. Tomorrow is our last regular CSA pick up of the season. (There is a final, special Thanksgiving pickup the Saturday before Thanksgiving.) Next week my cooking will shift from what's in the fridge to what's in the freezer. I'm double checking my inventory sheet to make sure its all up to date. This will help me plan meals that will give us a variety of veggies. Hopefully it will also help us avoid being stuck with only greens for the month of May (CSA pickups begin in late May or early June.)

Making Do With Food On Hand

We ran out of soymilk yesterday but I didn't notice until I began making pancakes this morning. There was no way in the world I was running out to the store. Instead I took the water I had saved from cooking pasta and threw it in the blender with some sunflower seeds and some flax seeds. I blended the whole thing together and used it in place of the soymilk in our favorite pancake recipe. The result was some delicious pancakes with quite a bit of holding power.

I also took the leftover peanut noodles, which had gotten rather dry, mixed them with some leftover veggies, some water and a bit of oatmeal to bind it all together. This mix became some rather yummy patties that tasted like a cross between a hashbrown and a veggie breakfast sausage. I had planned to make a smoothie but due to the lack of soymilk, made an apple juice slushie (apple juice and ice cubes blended together) instead. The best part everyone enjoyed the meal.

We spent the afternoon chopping and stacking wood from trees we had to have taken down earlier this year. This was our first foray into wood splitting but Jim seems to be a natural. The kids and I gathered up the small pieces and the bark to use as kindling.

Affluenza

I finished reading Affluenza and I really enjoyed it. It confirmed a lot of things that I suspected like the increase in home sizes over the years. The average size of a first home in the 1950's was 750 square feet and the average today is 2300 square feet, despite the number of kids we have decreasing over the years. Hmmm, I grew up in a 1,000 square foot ranch with my 4 siblings and both parents. (I'm one of four sisters and we only had one bathroom!) I don't remember feeling particularly crowded or deprived (although since I only have one brother, that bum got his own room while the girls shared!)

The biggest point the book drove home is the utter lack of satisfaction peoples feel despite the accumulation of material things. Its very good food for thought as we get into this holiday season. I don't think its a must own book but definitely a worthwhile read from the library.

On today's agenda, some cleaning and a lot of organizing. We really lose control over the household neatness during the week. Laundry gets washed but never put away, papers are brought home but left on counters, lunch containers lose their lids (within the house!!), shoes are everywhere, you get the idea.

On the food front, I'll be steaming some more greens to freeze, although freezer space is very limited right now. I've never been so thrilled to run out of space before!

Thanksgiving, A Practice Run

Last night I decided to make some Tofurky. Our coop food order had come in Tuesday so everyone saw the Tofurky come in and was itching to have some. Its like this every year around this time. I've played around with making it in the slow cooker quite a bit and here's my favorite recipe. Its a variation of the basic recipe on the Tofurky box.

Thanksgiving Tofurky Feast

2 Tofurky Roasts (frozen is ok)
1 small onion
potatoes
carrots
parsnips
beets
any other root veggies you enjoy

Grease the sides and bottom of your cooker and turn on to high. Slice onion thinly and spread over the bottom. Cut potatoes & beets into quarters, cut carrots & parsnips into coins. Add any other root veggies you like but try to keep the size fairly uniform to allow for even cooking. Place veggies on top of onions in cooker, being sure to leave enough room for the Tofurky roasts. Remove plastic covering (if frozen, let sit in hot water for a minute to assist with this) and place Tofurky on top of veggies. You can fill in around the Tofurky with any remaining veggies.

Combine:
1/4 cup apple juice or apple cider
2 Tbs tamari
2 Tbs maple syrup or other sweetener
1/2 cup water

Pour this mixture over Tofurky, place lid on and cook 3-4 hours on high or about 8 hours on low. I have tried cooking this with the gravy in the cooker but the Tofurky disintigrates a bit so I prefer to cook my gravy seperately.

I also steamed some brussel sprouts and baked some potatoes to go with it. Everyone was thrilled. I mashed together the leftover Tofurky, root veggies and potatoes with some leftover gravy this morning and used it as a sandwich filling. So far the reports have been postive!

On tonight's menu, Peanut Noodles. The reason is quite simple. I just bought 30 pounds of organic peanut butter stock from our food coop and I need to make a big batch of peanut butter in my Vitamix. Since the Peanut Noodle recipe calls for a certain amount of water, I can use the water I rinse the Vitamix out with and thereby minimize my left behind peanut butter!

Homemade Margarine

I'm really enjoying reading Morgan Spurlock's book. He's got a very witty way of getting dry, factual information across.

Today I gave making my own margarine a try. Someone had posted a recipe on one of the lists I belong to and it was too intriguing to pass up. It was actually quite good and based on the prices of the two main ingredients, it cost about $2.25 less than our current margarine. Here's the recipe:

Homemade Margarine
Place 1/2 cup plain soymilk into blender and begin to process on highest setting. While processing, through the hole in the lid, pour in the cup of oil slowly. Continue blending until the hole in the center fills in. Turn off blender and add a tiny bit of tumeric for color, a few drops of lemon juice for freshness I believe, salt to taste (we used about 1/2 tsp of salt.) Blend briefly on low to combine. Pour into airtight container and store in fridge.

We tried this on baked potatoes and it was a big hit. It is not as firm as regular margarine but just as tasty.

My Trip to the Library

Yesterday I hit the library because some books I had requested were in. I brought home Affluenza (the book based on the documentary, I was inspired to check this out after reading Barbara's blog), Don't Eat this Book by Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me), and The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond. I also got a few craft books for my daughters to check out.

There's a quirky librarian there, who's on the same page with me regarding frugality. He always gives a little critique of what I take out. His comment yesterday was, "Affluenza? I hear there's an epidemic but if they're counting on me to go out and spend this holiday they're going to be very dissapointed." Here, here!

The Slow Cooker Keeps Saving Us Money

It's been a rough go the last few days. We've been really busy and I've been relying heavily on the slow cooker to help us avoid ordering take out. It hasn't been anything fancy but here's an example of how the slow cooker helped me get through Tuesday, which is by far our most hectic night.

Last night before bed, about 10:30pm, I put frozen lentil soup into the slow cooker on high. This morning at 6:30am, the soup was hot and ready to go into everyone's insulated lunch containers. As soon as I finish blogging, I'll be chopping up the remaining cabbage, carrots and collards from last weeks CSA pickup to add to the broth that's left from the lentil soup. This will be served as a vegetable soup along with tofu "steaks" for tonights dinner. A quick simple supper is a big help since Jim has to go to the CSA tonight and I have to teach my vegetarian nutrition class.

Here's a quick way to use green peppers and tomatoes that are getting a bit soft. Slice the peppers into strips, removing the seeds and the white stuff. Dice some tomatoes that may also be headind past their prime. Finally, thinly slice some onions into rings. Put a drizzle of olive oil into a skillet, toss everything in and cook until the onions are soft. By the time the onions are soft, everything will be soft but that's ok. Serve over toast with a shake of garlic powder on top. Jim and the kids loved this.

We Planted the Currant Bushes

What a weekend it has been! I spent almost the whole day at the gym helping at the Open House on Saturday. We did exercise demos every half hour, by the time I left at 2:45 I had almost no voice and was pooped.

I had warned Jim when we ordered the currant bushes, they would arrive at the most inconvenient time and need to be planted ASAP. True to my prediction, they arrived in Thursday evening's mail. Because of their untimely arrival, I barely got to change my clothes after my time at the gym before we loaded the whole family into the car for a quick overnight trip to the north to plant the currants. What seems like a great idea at one moment sometimes seems like an idiot's idea the next!

Thanks goodness for the time change, we really needed that extra hour Sunday morning. I had put a potato scramble in the slow cooker Saturday evening before bed to make the morning go smoother. We also had a ton of leftover apple pancakes, which I popped into the oven before I got in the shower Sunday morning. In less than 30 minutes we had a hot breakfast, rounded out with orange juice and coffee (thanks to Jim for getting the coffee brewing!)

While at breakfasts we made our plan of attack for planting the bushes. We had to be on the road by 1:30 at the latest or risk missing a family birthday party at my parents' house. Since the family birthday party was my own, we really couldn't be late. We broke the task of planting into parts. I marked the holes, Jim dug the holes, the boys brought over the bare root bushes to the holes, I planted the bushes, Leen followed with a small layer of worm castings, Tash and the boys filled the holes with water, and Jim covered the holes with a final layer of mulch. In less than two hours, we had planted 20 currant bushes!

We closed up and were on the road by 1:30 on the nose. My only complaint is that the bushes are not guaranteed for fall planting but that must have been in really tiny print because I never saw it on the website. Grrrr!! Despite this, I'm hopeful, most everything I read suggested fall planting to be a better choice for currants than spring planting. I'll let you know.

When the Fruit Flies Come for a Visit

I noticed the first fruit fly the other day. One fruit fly mean more are on the way and since the one we had was hanging out by our apples, it was obviously time to use or lose the apples. I got them cut and into a pot simmering ASAP. I added cinnamon, allspice and cloves in the same proportions Barbara mentioned in her Crockpot Apple Butter recipe (I had a lot more than 8-10 apples in there). I let it all cook until it was soft but not long enough to make it apple butter. I ran it through the blender, set aside some as applesauce and designated the rest to be used in baking.

The rest of our week, including Saturday, promise to be hectic so I made several batches of Apple Maple Muffins. Okay, truth is I made 8 dozen of them! Bear in mind, some went to my continuing ed class, we have company coming tonight and the muffins will be served with coffee, and of course the hungry mob will eat them for breakfast and snacks the rest of the week.

The Many Faces of Split Pea Soup

The split pea soup that began as lunches on Monday made some interesting transformations since then. For dinner Monday night, I pureed the leftovers, added some leftover roasted veggies from Sunday's dinner and served it with millet. It wasn't bad, although everyone seemed to like it more than I did.

Since I badly misjudged and made a huge amount of millet, I mixed it with the leftover soup, added about 1/4 cup of peanut butter, a squirt or two of Braggs, and enough uncooked oatmeal to firm it up enough to shape it all into a loaf. I used a pizza pan, although in retrospect, I'm really not sure why.

I popped that into the oven at 400 degrees while I put together a barbeque sauce. Here's the recipe I used:
1 cup ketchup
1/2 Tbs garlic powder
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
1 tsp mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar (you could probably use less)

I whisked it all together and simmered it for 10-15 minutes. I poured half of it over the loaf and popped the loaf back in the oven for about another 40 minutes. The remaining barbeque sauce I put on the table so people could add more at serving time. This was a big hit, although I plan to use less vinegar in the sauce next time.

Frugal Compromise

I ordered the Tofurky. The mere mention that I was considering not ordering it resulted in agitation. Its actually a good example of a frugal compromise. The Tofurky was on sale and although not a true bargain, the satisfaction it gives makes it worth the price. I am going to play around with some other "roast" type recipes to bring to my parents and I'll save the Tofurky for us.

I dropped off the sewing machine at the repair shop last night. The repairs it needs seem to be minor, although he'll call if he finds anything else. This is another example of a frugal compromise. Repairing the machine and giving it a tune up will cost about $80, but its money well spent because in the long run it saves me time and money.

Being frugal doesn't mean never spending a penny, it simply means all the pennies you spend are spent wisely!

Curtains, Gluten Roasts & Tofurky

I'm a feeb with the sewing machine. Thankfully, my 13 year old is a whiz with it. While I pinned the fleece to the curtains, she threaded the machine, set up bobbins and did a good portion of the sewing. Things were going well until the machine started making a hideous noise and a black plastic thingy began to shred. That slowed us down a bit. The sewing machine is a beautiful old Graybar and needs/deserves the TLC only a trained technician can give. Fortunately, there is a sewing machine repair shop in the same mall as my gym. I'll be stopping in this morning to get some info on repair costs.

We switched over to the other sewing machine. Actually, Leen switched over to the other machine, I panicked and began hand sewing because the curtains we were working on were for the French Doors that face the street. I was afraid that once the sun went down we'd be putting on a side show for the whole neighborhood. Two broken needles later, the sewing machine was making a tiny zig zag stitch and I was just too tired to figure out why. I'm sure in the light of day it will be obvious. At the end of the day, the curtains for those windows were done. They look nice and they did keep the room noticeably warmer.

My oldest daughter hates sewing. She prefers to cook. So, with a little oversight from me, she made a delicious gluten roast with roasted veggies and gravy for dinner. She also managed to get 6 loaves of bread made for the week. Everyone pitching in made all the projects go a lot smoother.

Before bed, I put some frozen split pea soup into the slow cooker to put with lunches today. That really helped this morning.

Jacqueline's comment about the Tofurky and the success of the gluten roast last night got my wheels turning. I'm really thinking about skipping the Tofurky this Thanksgiving. We go to my parents every year and I'm not certain if its the best vegan taste experience to share with the family. I've got a few hours before I have to place the order to decide.

Food Coop Orders

I have to finalize my food cooperative order today and get it to our coordinator. If you're wondering how I put together my order, here's a peek into my thought process. First I go through the price list, all 200 pages of it to see what's on sale. I write down any sale item that we might want. Generally speaking, I avoid prepackaged mixes. I also check our inventory of staples to see what we are low on.

Comparing the sales and the staple needs gives me a basic list of items, then I bring it to the table. I mean the dinner table of course. I try to let everyone have some input, within reason. For example, if two things they like are on sale but we are only able to budget for one, which would they prefer?

Keeping to this method I am usually able to keep our food order cost under $250/month buying mainly organic foods. About once a year we wind up with two food orders from the same pricelist. Our current pricelist is the one this occurs with. I'm pretty pleased because this pricelist has quite a few things on sale that I'd be happy to stock up on, like kidney beans, black eyed peas and Tofurky (my kids love Tofurky!)