Packing a Lunch without Making a Mess

In my last post about how to survive as a broke college vegan I mentioned saving money by stashing healthy snacks. But there are definitely some foods that travel better than others. Packing a college-style backpack lunch is all about strategy, and I´m here to tell you how to play the game.

1. Pack according to how long you´ll be out. I would usually back a 200 calorie snack for every 3 hours I would be out. If you know you´ll be missing lunch then pack food that´s a little more substantial than carrot sticks.
2. Avoid messes in advance. The best foods are the one´s that will stay pretty much in tact throughout your day. Foods like apples, carrot sticks, and almonds are a good choice.
   Foods to Avoid:
    -Plums and other soft skinned juicy fruits
    -Bananas (unless you´re eating on your walk) 
    -Foods with thin sauces
    -Excessive jelly 
    -Oily food (super gross) 
3. Don´t stink up the classroom. Garlic is one of the tastiest flavors but it´s best not to eat it in class. Offensive smells are the worst especially when you´re not the one enjoying them.
4. Heat sensitive foods are a bummer. Packing food that needs to either be hot or cold are difficult especially when you aren´t sure when you´ll be back home. Try packing foods that are good at room temperature.
5. Get a reusable sandwich bag. (Photo Above) I have a small and large snack taxi bag and I love them! They´re an $8 investment but well worth the money. You never have to buy plastic sandwich bags again, you can put them through the dishwasher or washing machine, and they are pretty good at keeping even messy foods from spilling all over your bag. Not to mention they´re good for the environment. The sandwich size bag can fit big foods too. Often times the sandwich bags leave enough room for 2 or 3 snacks so you can pack both your apple slices and your carrot sticks in 1 bag.
6. Re-use old bags. If you don´t have a snack taxi use old shopping bags for your lunch. Save old produce bags and use them as sandwich bags or use the paper bag from baguettes for sandwiches.
7. Bring necessary cutlery and napkins. Think ahead to what you´re going to need and how you will bring it back home. Maybe you brought a metal fork but now you have to carry it around for 8 hours without washing it. Try to think about inconveniences before they happen and work around them.
8. Dips can be tamed. Don´t think you can´t bring hummus just because it´s inconvenient. Packing a small teacup sized tupperware for dips like hummus, peanut butter, etc. is an easy way to bring those foods. Just be careful not to bring dips that are too watery or you could have a mess on your hands.
9. Bring quiet foods. How much do you hate the guy with potato chips in a quiet room? Don´t be that guy. Both your food and your containers make noise. Think ahead.
10. Pack the night before. You know you´ll be late if you have to make a whole lunch that morning. At least I know I will. Make sure to pack the night before to reduce stress.

The Best Greens for your Green: Cabbage

Here is the first of a new series of Cheap Vegan posts called “The Best Greens for your Green”. These posts will highlight cheap produce and explain their health benefits, so you can learn what produce will get you the most bang for your buck. Additionally, each post will have an easy recipe at the end so you can try it out if you’re not much of a cook.

Cabbage

• Price: 1 head = $1 - $2
• Expiration: about 2 - 3 weeks (if not longer)
• Servings: 1 head = 10 (1 cup) servings
  Bottom Line: costs about 10¢ - 20¢ a serving
  

Health
Cabbage is a member of the cruciferous vegetable family. Cruciferous vegetables usually resemble flowers and include cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, cress, bok choy, and similar leafy green vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables have been linked to cancer prevention, especially when steamed for a short period of time. Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage should be incorporated in to your diet about 4-5 times a week in 1-2 cup servings. Since cabbage cooks down so much, 1 to 2 cups is a very easy serving size to meet, and one head can make multiple servings.

Cabbage is also a good source of Vitamin C, making it a great choice for soups.
**Cabbage is also a cure for stomach ulcers! See response here.

Cooking
Cabbage sometimes has a bad reputation of being boiled, smelly, and boring. But when prepared well, cabbage can be a wonderful addition to a salad, stir-fry, or soup.

If you want to cook cabbage, slowly cooking it in a soup or lightly stir frying/steaming will give you a great flavor without the harsh boiled cabbage smell and taste. Cabbage is often used in Asian dishes like stir-fries and spring rolls and is also great for soups. Learn how to make easy homemade soups here and a recipe for a vegetable soup with cabbage here.

Raw cabbage is often used for salads and coleslaw. Coleslaw is an easy familiar way to eat cabbage, and luckily many coleslaw recipes don’t require mayo at all.
The recipe below is an easy way to make a cheap vegan slaw to go with any sandwich or to eat on it’s own as a snack.

Coleslaw Recipe

• 1 head thin sliced cabbage
• 1 or 2 thin sliced carrots
• 1/2 diced red pepper
• 1/2 small white onion, thinly sliced
• enough olive oil to lightly coat your veggies
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar or agave
• salt and pepper to taste

Prepare your vegetables. Mix ingredients together in a large bowl and leave to soak overnight. If you prefer, you can heat the non-vegetable ingredients first. That’s it.

Bubble and Squeakless Brunch Recipe

While the British aren’t well known for their culinary contributions, they do know how to make some cheap food, and this one is actually pretty good. In the photo above you can see our brunch from today: bubble and squeak with homemade baked beans and a tomato/onion salsa. (the coke in the background is definitely not mine…)
Typically you fry the cabbage and potato cakes in a pan of oil, this makes bubbling and squeaking sounds (where the name comes from), I chose to bake rather than fry for my version of this recipe hence where the cheap vegan name comes from.
This recipe was also traditionally made using the leftovers from a big roast the night before. Feel free to throw in some left overs you have in the fridge. Bubble and Squeak also commonly has peas, carrots, or brussel sprouts in them.

What you need:
Cabbage - $1 a head
Red Potatoes - $2 for bag of about 10
Tomatoes - $1.50 for 4 tomatoes
Red onions - $2 for a bag of about 8
Vegetable Bouillon - $3 for 8 large cubes (optional, you can use salt)
BBQ Sauce - about $2 depending on brand
(cheap trick, as for BBQ sauce at take away restaurants instead of buying your own)
**these prices are an estimated conversion from Euros
The ingredients used in this meal for 2 people only costs about $2 total!

Bubble and Squeakless
for 2 people
4 Red Potatoes (small/medium sized)
1/2 head of cabbage
1/4 large vegetable bouillon cube
1/4 onion (diced)
Splash of oil

1. Bake potatoes in oven until soft (you can also boil but this leeches nutrients out of the potato)
2. Chop 1/2 head lettuce into thin slices, be sure to wash off all the dirt. Put a small splash of oil in a frying pan and add onion and cabbage.
   (If you’re like me and only have 1 smaller sized pan just cabbage slowly, it will cook down)
3. Check on potatoes, when soft, mash and let cool.
4. When cabbage is a little bit softer and coated with a little oil and water from cooking, add 1/4 of bouillon cube, depending on the brand of bouillon you will either need to add water to melt cube or you can just crumble it on top.
5. Mix cabbage and potatoes together, once cool enough to touch, form in to multiple small cakes or 1 large cake about 1 inch thick and put them on greased baking sheet. Bake until brown.

Baked Beans

This isn’t your typical Bush’s baked beans (though you can just use a can if you prefer)

1. Once you have soaked and cooked your beans, just add a little BBQ sauce, a splash of pureed tomato (about 1/2 tomato), and some thyme if you have it, and bake in the oven. Include a some of the bean water for a nice creamy sauce.

Tomato/onion salsa

1. Dice 2 tomatoes and 1/4 of an onion and add them together. Add salt to taste.

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This is a great warm comforting food to make when you’re stuck in the house all day. It’s also made almost entirely whole food ingredients, making this a healthier choice for a big brunch.

Potatoes are bad for you?

Recently many people have put potatoes on the “do not eat list”. Low carb, high protein diets like Atkins have dieters cutting out carbs and eating more meat for quick weight loss. The Atkins fad has died down considerably, but it left a blemish on our starchy  friend’s good name.
While potatoes are a starchy carb it does not mean they are “bad”. When baked, potatoes are actually high in vitamin C (27% DV), potasium (26%DV), and fiber (15% DV). These and other compounds help against free radicals, heart disease, and cancer.
The real health problem regarding the potato isn’t lurking in the vegetable. It’s what we decide to add to the vegetable. A few buzzwords associated with potatoes are butter, sour cream, deep fried, and ketchup. These high fat/sugar “garnishes” are what give us that little jiggle when we walk, not the potato itself.
So here are a few tips to keep in mind when preparing your pots.

1. Leave the skin on. While the skin doesn’t actually contain any significant nutrients, the layer just under the skin has the highest concentration of vitamins. Peeling off the skin also peels off that rich layer right underneath. 
2. Bake/Microwave>Boiled. Baking or microwaving your potato is the best way to maintain the nutrients.
3. Less fries (sorry). Frying any food in oil immediately does more harm than good. Vegetables are especially porous and will soak up whatever you put them in. When you cook with oil, it not only fries the vegetable’s outer layer, it also soaks up the oil underneath, adding a considerable amount of fat.
   Try to consider french fries and potato chips as a occasional indulgence, not a regular side for lunch. Opt for the side salad instead and try to only treat yourself to fries once in a while.
4. Eat small, colorful potatoes. The smaller the potatoes, the more skin you’ll be eating. Colorful potatoes tend to have more nutrients than white potatoes. Try buying variety bags like the one pictured above.
5. Don’t eat green or sprouting potatoes. This is a sign that your potato may be carrying a toxin called solanine. Solanine develops when potatoes are exposed to sunlight. Not only can these potatoes taste bad, but they sometimes cause health problems like diarrhea and poisoning. Also avoid potatoes marked “prewashed” because this leaves potatoes more vulnerable to going bad. To avoid spoilage, store potatoes in a cool dark place. Do not put potatoes in the fridge, and keep them out of sunlight.

So go grab that variety bag of colorful potatoes and make yourself some Irish stew. They’re delicious, and best of all, they’re cheap. Happy St. Patty’s day!