Veganism – Veggie Shopping and Dinner
Leave a commentFebruary 27, 2018 by Zuri
Hi Folks! It’s been about 2 wks since starting my no meat, no dairy changes, and I have to say, I’m very happy. I’m learning how to cook, having never really learned much beyond baking up until this point. I have only had the urge to eat out once, and in response I went and ate a hummus veggie wrap at a local smoothie bar (so much better than Taco Bell!). It was a little pricey, but the way I see it, I still saved money on how much I would normally be spending in fast food and junk food garbage.
The vegetable/fruit supply has been getting a bit on the scarce side so I went to Sanwa Farmer’s Market for some veggies and fruits. I spent a total of about $27, and the breakdown is below.
- Portabello mushrooms – $2.79
- Blackberries – $1.89
- Dried Apricots – $2.79
- Bananas – $1.39
- 1 Red bell pepper – $1.23
- 1 Orange bell pepper – $.88
- 1 Yellow bell pepper – $.84
- 1 Bartlett Pear – $.89
- Butter lettuce – $1.99
- Tomato Medley (grape tomato size) – $2.99
- Crimini Mushrooms – $2.29
- Green Beans – $.92
- 2 Apple (Honey Crisp) – $1.56
There were a couple other things purchased for my partner, all totaled it came to $26.88.
With a portion of these veggies, and those I had purchased previously, I was able to cook this fantabulous meal!
I’m not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve been able to bake in the past, and cook things like boxed mac n cheese, but only the last few weeks have I been hunting down recipes and implementing them into my life by my own hand.
I really wanted pasta tonight, but I was kind of sick of tomato sauce. I was craving something creamy like an alfredo, but duh – dairy – so I had to find something else. I found a few recipes on Pinterest that had ideas for a basic avocado sauce. As I was making it though, there was a lot of “Hmm, gee, this might go nice…” so the sauce kind of evolved on it’s own.
Much like my partner, I didn’t really measure anything, choosing instead to eyeball the measurements in comparison to the size of the avocado I used (because a lot of the recipes use 2 avocados, and I only had 1. 2 would’ve been too much for just me anyways…). The ingredients I used were:
- Avocado
- Garlic (2 cloves)
- Olive Oil
- Unsweetened Almond Milk
- Vegetable Stock
- Salt
- Basil
Probably would’ve added pepper but we ran out. I ran that through the Food Processor (in hindsight, it should’ve been the blender) and made adjustments to the consistency – adding stock to make it smoother, etc.
While I was working on that, I greased a baking sheet and laid down all the vegetables: Yellow onion (sliced), mushrooms (sliced), brussels sprouts (quartered), orange bell pepper (1/2″ squares), tomatoes (grape sized medley, quartered). They cooked at 400F for 18 minutes – which is the temp and time I cook all my veggies at – and then were taken out.
Spaghetti was cooked as spaghetti gets cooked – 10 minutes. While the spaghetti drained, I warmed the sauce in the bottom of the pan, then combining the spaghetti and the vegetables with it. End scene.
Notes:
- Cook the garlic before it goes in the sauce. I got a chunk of raw garlic and – even though I love garlic – boy did it kill my tastebuds.
- Use a blender for the sauce, not a food processor. The processor blade was positioned in such a way that not only did it miss chunks of garlic, that it also missed some of the basil as well.
- Pasta was oversauced a touch. Let’s not do that next time?
- Maybe experiment with other herb combinations?
I consider the recipe a success, and apologize that I can’t give more details as I measured everything by eye. I hope you have a great week! Till next time!
