Vegan Recipes and Plant Based Cooking

It's always curious and sorta irksome to discover the ingredients in certain foods. So many simple items contains way too many ingredients. Things you would never expect to be there and really don't have any business being there in the first place. Foods that should be vegan, but aren't. Breadcrumbs. Most brands contain milk. I've found store brands often do not. Not only that, but the store brands tend to have very few and very wholesome ingredients. Even if you're not vegan, simpler and less ingredients is usually better. Microwave popcorn. Also contains milk. At least most premium brands that I've scouted. What the heck milk is doing in popcorn I'm not sure. It's not like they use real butter. And even if they did, it's in the low fat variety as well. Again the store brand trumps them all with a distinct lack of extraneous ingredients and a nice short, simple list. Unfortunately the store brand 'lite' often isn't very light, with...

All prepared and junks food are not necessarily bad. In fact, some are pretty darn good for you. The trick is to know which ones. It's not hard to figure out. Just read the ingredients and nutritional info. Look for short ingredient lists that consist only of things you can pronounce. Look for low sodium and fat contents. And of course looks for flavors you know you'll enjoy and fair prices on the things you want to buy. Favorite healthy convenience foods I've discovered so far in no particular order. Seapoint Farms Edammame. Dry roasted soy beans are the snack that kicks all other snacks to the curb. Full of protein, a complete amino profile and lots of iron. They crunch like nuts, but have very little fat. They satisfy better than chips. They taste great, especially the wasabi flavor if you like heat. The small package is a fooler. A handful at a time is all it takes. There is at least a weeks worth of snacking inside that little pouch. Near East rice and couscous m...

Most people assume vegetarian and vegan diets cost more. Not true. They can actually save you a heap of money. There are the obvious savings of not buying meat. That stuff's expensive. What most people don't realize is that they don't need fancy specialty foods to live well on a meat-free lifestyle. Beans are the biggie. They will be your staple food. They are full of protein, iron and other good for you things. A can of beans in the most expensive area: 99 cents. Tofu is also pretty cheap. $2.49-$3.00 for a 14 ounce package. Nearly a pound of tofu. You also don't need to eat as much tofu as you might meat. You can easily get 6 servings out of the one package. Meat-eaters and would-be vegetarians often fear B12 and iron deficiency. While it's true that B12 is not available from any plant sources currently known to man, it is added to many meat-free foods. Soy milk is an obvious choice. You free yourself from a dairy dependency and gain B12 in one simple st...

An unbiased analysis of store brands vs. premium on common vegan and vegetarian foods. My mother is a brand snob. She wants the glass plus to clean her kitchen table. She wants planters nuts and Nabisco's Oreo cookies. In some cases the 'real' brand actually is superior. In others, not so much. Almonds. I've had blue diamond almonds. Raw, roasted, sea salted, almond milk. I've had a and p's America's choice almonds. I've had CVS pharmacy smoked almonds. The blue diamond do have a slightly fresher flavor. The sea salt dry roasted are really great. The CVS smoked are almost as good. The flavor is great. They are very crunchy. The smoke flavor is quite evident and tasty in my opinion. I just wish they came in lightly salted. And was a little annoyed that most of their almond flavors show milk as an ingredient. Even though I still eat milk, it's saddening when something as simple as an almond is perverted with unnecessary animal sourced ingredients. ...

I have a great fondness for Hormel canned vegetarian chili. Not only is it actually vegan, it tastes really good. I like to enhance it a bit, but they are all very simple additions. But what's even better than just the enhanced chili is when I combine it with some Annie's vegetarian boxed macaroni and cheese. They are a truly delicious culinary coupling if ever there was one. Annie's Mac and Cheese box is available in most major supermarkets and competitively priced against that other famous not vegetarian brand. If you can't find it there I got a dozen boxes on Amazon for $1.17 per box. Not bad at all. I just make that according to the direction. I like to blanch some frozen broccoli/cauliflower mix in with the cooking pasta for about 30 seconds. Then drain. Make cheese mix and then I add some frozen peas. Mix a little more, cover and let sit for 2 minutes. How I prepare the Hormel canned vegetarian chili is detailed here. I also had some left over Roasted P...

These crispy potato chips are simple and extra crunchy. They only have one ingredient. Potatoes. I like to put a little salt and pepper on them, but that's optional. This recipe does require a mandolin. Without one you'll never get thin enough and even slices. Even if you could it'd probably take all day. But if you have a mandolin this is a great use for it. Wash potatoes. I like to leave the skin on. It tastes great and is full of nutrition. Spray baking sheets or cookie sheets generously with nonstick spray. Potatoes will stick badly if you're not liberal with the spray. One large potato with fill up one standard sheet pan with one layer of slices. You can go with a two layer approach, but if you do, you'll need to remove the bottom layer after 20 minutes and then continue cooking the upper layer for 10 minutes longer. Alternatively you could work in batches. One layer at a time, but then refill the sheet pan with a new layer and return to the oven. Preheat oven...

I was in the A & P this afternoon and came upon a curious thing. There was a box of what looked like really delicious peanut butter cookies and the price sign indicated they were $6.49. They looked really yummy, but not that freaking good. Six and a half dollars for cookies?! That makes gasoline look cheap for goodness sake. Upon further inspection I learned that the box did not actually contain any cookies at all. It was in fact, a cookie mix $6.49 and you still want me to spend more adding an egg (egg substitute in my case) and oil and mixing and plopping and baking. Seriously? Now gas seems like it's almost free by comparison. Perhaps that was the plan all along. To trick us into thinking we're not paying waaay tooo muuuch for gas after we see this undone package of cookie mix for six and a half dollars. If so, kudos, your plan was a complete success. The funniest thing about this overpriced cookie mix was what was on the back. It had a prominent circular graphic th...