Delicious Vegan Dish of the Day:
Mom didn’t want to deal with a complicated dinner tonight. So we had some baked tofu and curry rice.
Money Matters:
Today we spent the following:
- $64.86 for a week’s worth of groceries at Whole Foods
Friday Tips for Living Vegan and Living Cheap – with kids!:
Once-a-week-cooking
Since the weather is so nice now I much prefer to spend my afternoons playing outside with the kids instead of cooking dinner. Now, cooking is rarely that onerous for me. Most dinners I make can come together in 45 minutes or less. But then there is clean-up, and it always takes longer when I’m watching a crawling baby or if LP is “helping.” So, for the past three weeks I’ve set aside three hours on Sunday where the G-man watches the kids and I cook up a frenzy for the week. So far it has made the rest of the week easier, especially in relations to dishes! So, here are a few of the meals I’ve made ahead with excellent results.
Stews, soups and chili: These are excellent stand-bys for making and saving. So many soups and chili taste even better after being re-heated! So far I’ve pre-made three-bean chili, pizza-style lentil soup and carrot-ginger soup. For each of these I made a double-batch. Half went in the fridge and half went in the freezer. Then we had two dinners ready to go, and only one pot to clean! I was able to do this all in one day by using my slow cooker for one soup and the stove for another.
Casseroles: I’m not a big casserole maker, but I did make a baked mac and cheese in advance, froze it, and then popped in in the oven later that week. Worked out great!
Pre-chopped veggies: When you eat as many veggies as we do, you end up doing a lot of chopping. By having time to tackle all the chopping and washing I have been able to save a lot of time during the rest of the week. I put all the veggies for a stir-fry in one container, the veggies for curry in another, and then it’s easy to throw dinner together later, and I don’t even have to wash a cutting board!
Last week I pre-made two rice dishes and stuck them in the fridge so that we could re-heat them during the week. That didn’t work so well – rice is definitely better freshly made. But by pre-chopping some onions and carrots a curried rice pilaf can come together super quick. That will be my plan next time. More updates on this process to follow as I continue to get into the once-a-week habit!
