I was lucky enough to get some ‘work from home’ days last week, and took advantage of the time saved by not commuting to get our freezer restocked with some of our staples. I had time to soak all my beans & legumes, so I made: a batch of slow cooker baked beans (with cannelini beans), a double batch of chickpea cutlets, and a huge batch of lentil walnut burgers.
I also made a batch of Terry Hope Romero’s red steamed seitan (from Viva Vegan), and used it in our fave Moosewood sweet potato roti, and some Millennium vegan paella. This week I stayed on a roll, and made a batch of slow-cooker spicy blackbeans for tacos.
Stocking the freezer up with all these goodies means we have the basics for a ‘fast food’ dinners on nights when we get home late from work. We ran out of our ‘processed’ alternative ingredient, Sanitarium veggie sausages, this week, and bought a couple of them at full price. Usually we stock up when they’re on sale, but we rarely go to Coles or Woolies anymore, and we keep missing the markdown. MrB remarked that they now cost $20 a kilo, so they’re not exactly a budget item (though we will still keep a pack or two on hand for times when we’re invited to friend’s BBQs).
The dried legumes I buy in bulk cost more like $3 a kilo, and I get at least 4 serves from 250 grams of dried beans. Even when we’re using tins, we get around 250 grams of drained cooked legumes for 89 cents, and we get 2 servings from that. I do like the odd bit of commercial fake meat or fake cheese, but I’m certainly very motivated to keep making my own. No mystery ingredients, no packaging to throw away, I know exactly how much fat and sugar I’ve added, and my fast food’s so much cheaper.
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Ms Betterhome 