Vegan on a Budget: Gardening and Gleaning

One of the best ways to cut your food bill is to grow your own fruits and vegetables. There are many great resources on the web and at the library about backyard gardening and small space/container gardening. Unfortunately, some of us don't even have a balcony to grow tomatoes on. That's where gleaning comes in. Talk your neighbors, friends, family and co-workers and let them know you'd be happy to help them out with their over abundance of X fruit or vegetable. Anyone who has a garden usually has one crop that they can't keep up with and are more than happy to share the wealth with you. Even if you have your own garden, why not trade some of your extra tomatoes with your neighbor who has an abundance of zucchini? Or maybe you could talk to your friend with that big backyard but no time and work out a deal where you garden on their land and share the bounty? Either way you go, you're saving money and participating in the local community!

Home Gardening links:

You Grow Girl
Anarchy in the Garden, formerly known as Victory Home and Garden
Your Small Kitchen Garden
Small Green Garden
Food Not Lawns Inland Northwest

My First 7vs7 Challenge!

The people over at Spokane Food Blog are organizing a challenge between local bloggers. The contestants will commit to eating only food that is grown or raised (but in my case only grown!) within a 100 mile radius for five days. That means no coffee, salt, olive oil, chocolate, tea or even tofu! I'm in, but I'll be honest, I'm scared. No tofu? No quinoa? No sugar?! I have a few ideas in mind, but this is going to be tough. Thankfuly, this area has a lot to offer agriculturally. It's time to do some research and probably cancel my produce box from Fresh Abundance for that week. It would be terrible if I lost because of a pluot from California!

A list of the other participants can be found on SFB.

My New Project

I've been thinking a lot about food lately. More than usual - but maybe that's a good thing. With the releases of movies like Food, Inc. and various authors like Mark Bittman talking openly, albeit not comprehensively, about our current food crisis, it seems almost everyone is reconsidering their relationship to the industrial food chain. Including me. Like everyone else, I've also been thinking about money and budgeting lately. Specifically, how my spending habits impact my community, my bank account and my family's health.

I know that a vegan diet is the healthiest way my family can eat. But how healthy is a Gardenburger? What impact does that processed vegan cheez have on the environment and our community? Am I really getting the most out of the money I spend on food? When presented with the idea, a lot of people will say that they can't go vegan or vegetarian because it costs too much. By offering simple tips such as avoiding processed foods at the grocery store, I hope to dispel that myth in a series of posts about eating Vegan on a Budget. I'll cover topics ranging from local shopping to making your own tofu and non dairy milks. I will keep a focus on eating local, seasonal whole foods, local shopping and above all, creativity and thriftiness. This will be a regular series for the foreseeable future and you should see the first related post within the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I'm going to see Food, Inc. at the end of the week. I'm very excited to see the movie that's been getting so much attention lately and even more excited to start discussing it!

Midnight Baker

It's hot! With temperatures at or nearing 100° for weeks now and no A/C in my apartment, the only time to bake is late at night to early morning. My best friend had a bridal shower on Saturday and one of my co-workers had a baby shower today. I volunteered to bake cupcakes for both events. For the bridal shower, I used the basic chocolate cupcake recipe and buttercream frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (VCTOW). I added blue food coloring, because blue is her wedding color. I wasn't happy with the finished product though. I felt like I was molesting a smurf when I ate the frosting. No good.

For the baby shower, I made gluten free cupcakes using Pamela's Chocolate Cake Mix and topped them off with the chocolate buttercream frosting (I used Dutched cocoa, yum!) from VCTOW. My son loves this mix and you'd never know it's gluten free. The cupcakes came out really moist and fudgy. My new manager is gluten intolerant and she really appreciated the cupcakes. As a vegan, I know how it feels to be surrounded by all kinds of food at various gatherings and not be able/willing to eat it. I always like to share something that everyone can eat, no matter their dietary restrictions. Food should bring us together, not separate us!

It looks like I'll be doing even more baking in the near future. The Spokane Vegans have been asked to do bake sales for two different benefits this month. We're still working out the details, but they should be great community events. I'll share the info once we have the details down.

Potato Salad with Tempeh

I made this potato salad for July's vegan potluck. Apparently, it was a hit! Head over to the Spokane Food Blog to check out the recipe and be on the look out for a growing alliance between the Spokane Vegans and Taste Everything Once.

Vegan Cupcakes at the Rocket Market!

Before today, I hadn't been up to the Rocket Market on 43rd in a long time. But I saw an ad in the Inlander on Thursday advertising vegan cupcakes. How could I not go? I had two cupcakes and an Americano for breakfast. The cupcakes were so tasty! I tried the Raspberry Grand Teton and Peanut Butter and Jelly. The ganache was rich and decadent and the peanut butter frosting wasn't overly sweet and actually tasted like peanut butter. This was a wonderful breakfast, if not terribly healthy. I was also pleased to find a considerable variety of vegan deli items available. I think I'll be making the trek up to the Market more often now!

You should definitely go get some of those cupcakes! Did I mention how good they are?

Review: Lazy Bones Barbecue

Vegan Barbecue in Spokane? Oh, yes! I've been hearing a lot about Lazy Bones the past few months. At first I just ignored the place, but then a friend told me they have vegan offerings. In addition to the usual fare, they serve Small Planet tofu. They cook all vegetarian items on a separate grill, so you needn't worry about your bean curd hangin' out in pork juices (gross!). The veg*n menu also offers a nice variety of vegan sides, like mac-n-cheese.

After much anticipation, we finally made a visit to the Upper South Hill restaurant today. The atmosphere is very casual, but inviting, with counter service. My son and I both ordered the Tofu Plate; he chose a side of vegan mac-n-cheese and I ordered the sweet potato fries and a bottle of Fat Tire (which according to Barnivore.com, is vegan). The north side of the building is lined with garage doors. Since it was a lovely afternoon, the doors were open and we decided to dine on the patio.

I suspect they cook the tofu to order, as it took a little while for our meals to arrive. But it was worth the wait. The Tofu Plate came with two slabs of tofu (with a dry rub and BBQ sauce slathered on top), a side of vinegar slaw, a slice of grilled bread with olive oil and a choice of side. The tofu was perfectly cooked and seasoned with a slightly sweet and spicy flavor. The slaw had a lot of flavor and was great when combined with the tofu. My sweet potato fries were delicious, but had maybe a touch too much salt. My son loved the vegan mac-n-cheese. I haven't found a recipe yet that he likes, but he loved this stuff. I thought it was pretty good myself, although it is definitely not mac-n-cheese. The sauce was more like an alfredo than the traditional yellow cheese. And with a lot of visible oil, it is not a healthy side dish.

All in all, the meal was wonderful. We'll be going back soon to try more of the menu items. The Lentil Apple Salad, Grilled Veggie Kebab and BBQ Tofu Slab Sandwich especially caught my interest. My only regret is that I didn't have my camera with me. Oh well, next time!

**Update: The in-store menu does not jive with the online version. If you go, you'll want to spend some time getting yourself familiar with the menu before ordering.