REALLY Easy Spicy Lentils

Protein packed lentils and vegetables with a spicy chilli kick!

Serves about 2

• 1/2 thinly diced onion
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 1 diced tomato
• 1 cup lentils
• 2-3 diced chilli peppers (this is medium/hot)
• salt, oil, and veg bouillon to taste

1. Cook onions on medium heat in about a tablespoon of oil until clear.
2. Add bell pepper until coated in oil.
3. Add diced tomato, salt, and 1/4 cube of vegetable bouillon
4. Finally, add your lentils.

The Cheap Vegan Pantry: What You Need and What Must Go

So you decided to start eating healthy and maybe even vegan but you’re worried about staying on track. One way to guarantee you won’t slip up is to clean out those temptation items and restock the pantry.

So first determine a goal

The Cheap Vegan Goal: The goal of this blog is to provide ways for people to eat healthy and vegan on a low budget. The posts I write tend to be focused on eating whole (non processed) foods affordably while getting the daily recommended nutrients. This pantry guide will reflect that.

What Can Stay

When you’re going through your pantry look at each item and ask yourself these questions:

1. Are all ingredients vegan? (list of non-vegan ingredients here)
   
2. Do I know what each of these ingredients are?
3. Could I find all of these ingredients in nature?
4. Are there less than 10g of sugar in a suggested serving of this food?
5. Is this an unprocessed whole food?
6. Is this caffeine free?
7. Can I cook normally without this food?*

If your answer to all these questions is “yes” then it’s 100% good to go.

If you had to answer “no” to 1 or more of these questions, you need to evaluate if that item is worth keeping. Being truly conscious of what your eating is the first step to eating healthier. Knowing that you don’t know the last 20 items in the oreo’s ingredients list might help you think twice before eating one again.

**If you answered “no” to 3/6 of the questions and you answered “yes” to number 7, chuck it. It’s not like you can never eat those foods again, but keeping them out of your house will help you cut down.

Also Note: Some items such as sugar for baking are a little different. You might want to get rid of white sugar and switch to raw sugar or agave, but you might not find it necessary to eliminate all sugar from your life.

That brings us to alterations. Taking our favorite staples and upgrading them.

• White pasta -> Whole Wheat Pasta or Ezekiel  Pasta
• White Flour -> Whole Wheat Flour or Buckwheat Flour
• White Sugar -> Agave Nectar, Raw Sugar, Unsweetened Apple Sauce
• White Rice/Cous Cous -> Brown Rice, Quinoa Seeds
• Vegetable Oil -> Extra Virgin Olive Oil (salad) Virgin Olive Oil (sautee) Canola Oil (high heat)
• Table Salt -> Sea Salt

I’m not going to mislead you, some of these ingredients are slightly more expensive than their less-healthy counterparts, but the extra $1 is worth your health. These are the basic building blocks of all of your meals, save money on the perishable stuff you have to buy weekly.

Now that you’ve tossed and exchanged, here are some cheap vegan basics:

Must Have Shopping List!

1. Nutritional Yeast - A great source of vitamin B12, a great unique flavor, great for satisfying those cheesy cravings.
2. Cashews and Walnuts - Nuts are a great source of protein and cashews are in a lot of vegan recipes, especially raw vegans. Walnuts are a vegan source of Omega 3s and are great in salads and stir fry. Having some nuts to throw in to a meal is always a good choice, not to mention a quick fix when you want a snack.
3. Brown Rice
4. Whole Wheat Pasta
5. Quinoa - Learn more about quinoa here.
6. Beans - Beans are a great source of protein, fiber, and iron. Stock up on a variety of beans/legumes so you can see what works for you and keep what you like. If you’re not a big fan of beans learn to like them by using some Cheap Vegan tricks found here.
7. Whole Wheat Flour
8. Herbs and Spices - Here are the basic must haves: Basil*, Cilantro*, Oregano*, Thyme*, Cumin, Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper/Crushed Red Pepper, Chilli Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder (**spices are expensive, growing an herb garden with these plants will definitely save you money and add class your meals)
9. (Extra) Virgin Olive Oil - Oil is expensive. Buy a giant bottle of Olive Oil at BJs or Costco and then refill an olive oil drizzler to cut down on waste and save money.
10. Unsweetened Apple Sauce - Use as a sweetener or an egg replacer in baking.
11. Granola - Can be used as a snack, breakfast, or even dessert. Granola is a great staple to keeping you full and is a nice replacement for a sweet treat.
12. Vegetable Bouillon Cubes - Great flavor booster.
13. Ener-G Egg Replacer - Great for baking, pancakes, and an emergency thickener.
14. Corn Starch - A must have thickener for all types of sauces and soups.
15. B-12 Vegetarian Supplement - B12 is very important for vegans to keep track of since you can only find it in animal food sources. Many cereals and drinks are fortified with B-12 but it’s good to take a vegan daily vitamin to be sure you’re getting enough.
16. Onions and Garlic
17. Oat Meal - Use in baking or for breakfast.
18. Potatoes - Preferably small red, purple, or other colorful potatoes.
19. Sea Salt
20. Hot Sauce - If all else fails during your kitchen experiments, it’s always nice to have some Cholula on hand to spice up a meal.

Next Step: Buying Food to Match Your New Basics

While you’re at the grocery store keep the same questions in mind. If you would have thrown it out when you renovated your pantry, don’t buy it now! Eventually you’ll learn what works for you. And always…

• Buy store brands to save money.
• Try to buy unprocessed whole foods. You’ll find that cooking with only whole foods is surprisingly cheaper than buying processed or pre-made food.
• If you’re budget is truly tight, don’t waste money on fake meats and other processed vegan foods. They’re usually more expensive. Try making your own home made.
• Shop often to ensure you are getting fresh foods and not throwing away your wasted food and money! Always remember, it’s worth your time to eat well.

Cheap, Raw, Healthy Homemade Ice Cream!!?

I scream, you scream, we all scream when we have ice cream cravings. Ice cream is definitely on the top 5 list for most missed non-vegan foods. Luckily for us, there is a great alternative!

It’s called a Banana whip, and you can make it for under 50 cents at home.

You’ll need a food processor or juicer, 2-3 frozen bananas, and whatever toppings you like.

1. Freeze bananas in a tupperware or a ziplock freezer bag.
2. Put bananas through food processor or juicer until the consistency of soft serve. Some juicers will come out perfect on the first go, others you’ll need to put it through twice.
3. done.
4. You can also add different frozen fruits to create new flavors and add variety to your whips.

The nice thing about banana whips is they’re 100% raw and they don’t take much effort.  The banana flavor is very mild after freezing and is great for kids. You can eat banana whips as an in between meal snack or even add granola and peanut butter and have ice cream for breakfast!

If you don’t have a food processor, enjoy frozen bananas on their own or with melted dark chocolate and nuts.

Best Sources of Iron and Protein Without Resorting to Tofu

There’s nothing “wrong” with tofu, but the flavorless white jello can get old from time to time, especially if you haven’t mastered cooking it properly. The thought of having tofu at every meal can even be enough to scare a person out of trying to go veg. Many people think that tofu is the only way for vegetarians to get enough protein and iron. Luckily for us, there are other foods that provide enough of iron and protein to get to your recommended daily value.

First see how much protein you need a day by checking out this article on how to get enough protein. You might be surprised to know that most Americans eat over 50% of their recommended daily value. People need about 10-30mg of iron a day depending on their gender, if they’re pregnant, and other factors. Now that you know how much iron and protein you really need, you will be able to better plan out your meals using these delicious non-soy ingredients.

Cashews
 3.5oz of Cashews contains 6.2 mg of iron and 15 g of protein. Cashews can be pureed in to a sauce like a faux-alfredo or mac and cheese. You can also include them in a stir fry, cereal, or baked goods.

Blackstrap Molasses
If you’re already baking with cashews, incorporate Blackstrap molasses to your recipe for an extra boost of iron. Now I wasn’t too sure what to do with Blackstap molasses when I read that for every 2 Tbsp there are 7.2mg of iron. So I found a webpage with a few recipes to get us started. You can see it here.
Molasses is great for ginger bread cookies, biscuits, even baked beans!

Beans
Speaking of baked beans, beans contain over 40g of protein in 1 cup and about 3.5mg of iron! (even without molasses)
Beans are my main go-to protein substitute. There are dozens of ways to prepare beans and can be used at breakfast, lunch, dinner, as a main course or a side dish.
Don’t like beans? Check out this article from the Cheap Vegan archive on how to sneak beans into your meals without noticing.

Thyme and Rosemary
Both Thyme and Rosemary are great seasonings for preparing beans AND contain a bit of iron. There are 124mg of iron in 3.5oz of ground thyme and 30mg in rosemary.

(A quick note in defense of tofu: Tofu is a great source of protein and iron. Because it is relatively flavorless, you can make it taste like just about anything you want. So to help you out, coming soon to Cheap Vegan: Recipes To Help You Tolerate Tofu)