Okay now on to my groceries. So as I was telling you before, I am getting back into my vegan cooking. Thus far I have done three recipes from the Betty Goes Vegan book that I was telling you about.
I know I said I was going to share with you the recipes that I tried and give you ratings as to how my family liked them. I plan on starting that tonight but I wanted to get comfortable with the food and cooking vegan again before I posted anything. Plus I needed to make sure that my family and I liked what I was making and since we're keeping score, I am three for three!
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So off to our local Whole Foods store! I'm here quite a bit, not just for grocery shopping but last minute trips and the occasional mom's morning escape that they have every month. I'm a regular. Although there are many specialty items that you need in order to make vegan recipes you can your "staples" at a regular grocery store. Things like fruits, vegetables, canned foods and frozen foods you can get anywhere. Eating healthy is in the "in thing" so a lot of grocery stores have a healthy section. But for those hard to find items I go to Whole Foods.
Oranges are a regular at my house and a favorite snack for my toddler. I can never pass these up.
One of the recipes in the Betty cookbook is Corned Beef with Cabbage and Potatoes. This was one of my all time favorite dishes to eat before I stopped eating meat. I'm really curious to see how this will come out.
If you know me then you know that I HAVE to have bananas. This fruit is a must for me during my long runs. I used to eat dates but I switched it up to bananas and I can tell the difference. The bananas give me that little extra push when I need it, plus they're super easy to eat and carry during a run.
Beans are another important part of my diet. I have garbanzo beans, black beans, kidney beans and these cannellini beans in my cupboard. As a kid I didn't really like beans all that much but now with so many different ways to make them, I really love eating all of the different kinds.
I don't know about you but I never heard of liquid smoke. Suddenly this ingredient was all over the Betty cookbook and though I skipped it for two of the three recipes I already did, I figured I should get it since it's listed everywhere.
Okay let me talk about this Himalayan sea salt. I heard of this salt from a cooking class I took at Whole Foods. People were praising it so much that you would've thought they were talking about gold and not salt. I immediately went to the shelf to check it out, and then I saw the price tag. $6 for 6 oz.! The sea salt that I normally buy is $2 for 10.5 oz. No salt could be that great that I would spend that amount of money on such a small amount. I passed it up back then but guess what popped up all over the Betty cookbook!? I told my wife that I would just use the regular sea salt that we had already been using but she suggested we try this new salt. It's in the cookbook and it must be there for a good reason so, why not? I hope this makes the food cook itself.
One thing that made me sad when I became a vegan was giving up cheese. As a kid I was a cheese lover! There was nothing that cheese couldn't go on. I even snacked on it by itself. But after trying vegan cheese years ago that tasted like a combination of cardboard and paste I thought I could never be a full vegan. Most of the recipes that I've made that call for a cheesy flavor will use butternut squash with some seasonings or straight up Nutritional Yeast. I would rather the butternut squash but the consistency is nothing like cheese. This brand was recommended in the Betty cookbook and since everything else I've tried has been a winner, I'm keeping my fingers crossed with this one too.
For any ground meat I normally get Boca crumbles cause I love the way they taste in anything that I make. However there were no Boca crumbles at the grocery store today so I had to go with an alternative. I've tried this brand, Beyond Meat, before but with chicken strips. The strips were excellent so I'm assuming that the crumble meat will be excellent as well.
There are a couple of recipes that I've done and plan on doing that call for these beefless tips. The Gardein brand is a regular in our freezer. My toddler loves the chicken tenders and my teenager loves the szechaun beef. I always keep packs of chicken or beef in the freezer for lunches or when I don't feel like cooking dinner. They're fast, easy to make and tasty. Win, win, win!
Doesn't she look like she had a great time grocery shopping with the entire family!? Her enthusiasm is pouring out through the screen and enveloping you right now.
So here is everything from the shopping trip. Obviously I didn't take pictures of every single item I bought cause that would've been way too much to handle.
I didn't include these in the separate pictures but I want to talk about the Food for Life bread. Rip Esselstyn, author of the Engine 2 Diet, recommends this brand in his book. You may recall I told you that this diet is very strict but there are some things that you can apply and adapt for you and your family. This bread is made from sprouted grains and is gluten-free, yeast-free and vegan friendly. Though the average slice is much smaller than white or wheat bread you really won't notice a difference taste wise (or at least I didn't). The cinnamon raisin is a favorite in our house so we are always stocked with that. We have also used the 7 sprouted grains and the Ezekiel 4:9. I highly recommend this bread for any vegan/vegetarian. Not only is it good for you but it tastes good too.
So there you have it! My grocery haul for my upcoming vegan recipes. I'm sure many of you are asking How much did all of that come out to? In total the bill was $220 which is high. Keep in mind that there were a lot of items I picked up that are special for this diet and new to my kitchen. I am a frugal shopper and like to find the cheapest item or the best value in the store. So once we get a hang of this I'm sure I can get that bill to go down.
Check back to see what I cooked up and how I would rate it.
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