a vegan grocery list from thriftway

A person with a dorm fridge and no stove, at DeKalb Thriftway, Norristown. The smartphone says you can make baked potatoes in the microwave.

10 small-to-medium Yukon Gold potatoes
1 lb. bagged spinach
a carton of grape tomatoes
1 lb. whole grain penne pasta
24 oz. Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara sauce
3 oranges
24 oz. apple sauce
1 quart soy milk
99-cent bag of barbecue potato chips

Total:  $21 and change

I have this trail mix with carob chips and giant raisins and sunflower seeds that is great sprinkled on a salad with Wishbone Robusto Italian dressing.

Microwave-baked potato with olive oil and seasonings.

Oatmeal, also with the trail mix.

Pasta and marinara with mushrooms.

Should have picked up some asparagus.

Food Snapshot: DeKalb Thriftway

DeKalb Thriftway. Rainy Thursday night. Had the day off and spent it cleaning and continuing to settle in. A lot has changed in this blog's lifetime. Kitchen appliances now consist of a coffee maker and a rice steamer. Employment is marginal. Food comes from DeKalb Thriftway, CVS, 88 No. 1 Chinese Kitchen, a gas station, a fancy-schmancy grocery/deli in Bridgeport, and on trips back to the old neighborhood, I suppose there will be things from the Clark Park Farmers' Market and Mariposa Co-op. I'll be shopping as a nonmember. I don't live there anymore.

Tonight in the rain at DeKalb Thriftway:

- Green onion bulbs, eight of them in a package, slightly wilted, for 79 cents.
- Broccoli
- Asparagus
- 3 bananas
- 3 oranges
- 1/2 gallon 8th Continent original soymilk

Total: $9.39

Running clean water through the rice steamer now to clean it up after the move. Then steaming vegetables. Borrowed Salad & Greens Seasoning, Basil, Black Pepper, and Coffee from my downstairs neighbor, the cute one.

Going to steam vegetables and couscous. Was going to buy my own coffee, but this mean man who works at the DeKalb Thriftway rudely told me to leave because the store was closing. I could have taken an extra moment to grab coffee and tea, but I didn't appreciate his tone. I'll go elsewhere, but I'll go back to the DeKalb Thriftway again. Most because it's there.

My rented room has two closets. One of my closets functions as a pantry. In my pantry are: CousCous, Thai Kitchen Garlic & Vegetable Noodles (1 pack), a box of Fantastic Foods falafel mix, what's left of a 1 lb. bag of trail mix from Nuts to You (across from my office), what's left of a bag of roasted green peas from Nuts to You, what's left of a bag of oat bran pretzels from Nuts to You, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds, cornmeal, what's left of a box of Oh's cereal ($1 for a 6 oz. box at CVS), instant cream of wheat, one packet of instant oatmeal, and a jar of peanuts.

On my countertop are two leftover Fortune Cookies from 88 Kitchen, the seasonings and coffee I mentioned, what's left of a bottle of Canada Dry seltzer water, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, and the three bananas and three oranges I bought tonight.

In my fridge are the soymilk, the asparagus, the broccoli, the green onion bulbs, what's left of a bag of spinach, what's left of a carton of white mushrooms, a small bottle of Italian dressing, and leftover soy sauce from 88 Kitchen.

What I would get from the co-op:

- rolled oats (bulk)
- tea
- more Thai Kitchen Garlic & Vegetable noodles

My favorite food discovery lately: Nuts to You. Right across the street from work, easy to visit, cheap, great selection, cheap, cheap! A pound of the most magical trail mix I've ever had for $2.29. It's soynuts (crunchy), carob chips, fat raisins, peanuts, pepitas (those little flat tear-shaped green things that remind me of pumpkin seeds only green and smaller), and sunflower seeds. I feel like a bird. A healthy, happy bird, living in winter.

I've been swallowing a tablespoon full of olive oil every day, because I remembered that I learned last winter that it keeps my skin from being dry. It does. It's amazing. Do it.

Kids in a Candy Store

We've joined Mariposa Food Co-op and have been dining on...

pasta with mushrooms, marinara, greens, and fake meatballs... three-bean chili... red dulce... seaweed ramen... veggie burgers... crunchy bean sprouts... beans & rice... raw green beans... sandwiches w/mushrooms, lettuce, onion, tomato... ravioli... nuts... pumpkin seeds... grapes... apples... sesame seed candy... carob chips... oatmeal... trail mix... cold cereal with oat milk... sunflower seeds... and various cookies, brownies, and cupcakes... washed down with coconut water.

Life is good.


Today at Clark Park Farmers' Market

one bunch kale
one bunch collard greens
one head green leaf lettuce
one head red leaf lettuce
one head broccoli
two portabella caps
red and white carrots

A loaf of Cracked Wheat bread from Metropolitan Bakery. Then shopping tonight at the co-op for many of the things mentioned above plus sage incense and a new toothbrush.

Return to Saturday

Finally! After a long, lonely three weeks, the Clark Park Farmers' Market is back.

Can I just say that I love January? I love January. It's like having a new thing. I know that nothing actually happened at midnight on December 31st, but it makes a difference to me. I like writing the "1." I like writing "2010." I like saying the word January. Everything seems shiny and exciting.

It is freezing cold today in Philadelphia. The RealFeel forecast said 9 degrees. High winds made walking home almost painful. It's the kind of cold you can feel in your eyes and teeth. My new boots kept my feet cozy and I was dressed warmly, but that cold could not be ignored. I didn't mind at all. It was refreshing, invigorating, and just thoroughly January.

Let's have a round of applause for the people who worked the farmers' market today. I could barely take the 20 minutes or so we were outside, they were out there all day. It was sparse, maybe five tables (and one of those all eggs and cheese, and another seemed to be only apple products), but it was enough for us.

Saturday Shopping List

at the farmers' market:

2 leeks
1 head of cauliflower
5 florets of broccoli
2 kohlrabi bulbs
1 pint white mushrooms
1 portobello mushroom cap
approximately a metric ton of curly kale
lots of purple carrots
about 2 pints of yukon gold potoatoes
5 yellow onions
a 23-oz. jar of applesauce
a jar of pickles
4 bulbs of garlic

at Milk & Honey:

a very large loaf of cracked-wheat bread
2 sesame seed bagels

at Fu-Wah Mini-Market:

a thing of vegan cream cheese

total: about $60

Kohlrabi bulbs (nutrition data for kohlrabi)

This will be my first experience with Kohlrabi, also known as German Turnips, and according to Wikipedia, popular in Kashmir. According to NutritionData.com, the protein content of these beauties looks pretty good. They are said to be sweet and crisp, able to be eaten raw or used for cooking.

I can't wait to make potato-leek soup, which will include carrots, cauliflower, onions, kale, broccoli, mushrooms and - why not - kohlrabi. I like to make my vegetable soups as hearty and nutritious as possible, so they fill me up. I'm a lazy eater, so I pack in the kale, broccoli, and cauliflower to load up on protein and calcium, and the mushrooms to help fill me up. Subtle variations in the types of vegetables and quantities of each one will give you a different soup each time and help keep things interesting.

Cookware, 23" of snow, and Potato Parsnip Soup

Well. Where should I begin?

We couldn't go to the farmers' market this weekend, on account of we had a blizzard. This is only an assumption, but I'm betting there was no Clark Park farmers' market this weekend. It was the second biggest snowstorm in Philadelphia's history. 23.2" of snow fell on the city starting around 1 a.m. Saturday and continuing through about 6 o'clock this morning.

Like all good citizens, we scurried out on Friday to gather in things we imagined we might need during the storm. Things like bread, potatoes, chocolate cookies, tofu, and wasabi peas.

We had a hunch there would be no farmers' market, but that was OK. We got potatoes, onions, and bread at a little store called Milk and Honey (ironic place for vegans to shop, but they do have good bread and limited fresh produce). At Fu-Wah, we got mushrooms and instant noodle soup. We still have good kale from last week. We still had some cauliflower and parsnips, and plenty of garlic.

One thing we forgot: Beer. So, we had to go out for that yesterday.

See what I mean? Probably no farmers' market.

Now, this is interesting. You know how, when I make blended soups (i.e. Indian Red Lentil or Potato-Leek), I always have to blend it in batches in my small blender (i.e. my smoothie maker)? And you know how I was saying I wanted to get an immersion blender?

So, on Friday, I went out onto the porch and there was a box addressed to me. It was a shipping box, like from Amazon, so no return address. I took it upstairs and opened it. It was a Cuisinart Immersion Blender. There was no name anywhere on it, on the packing slip or anything. I suspected my parents. Called my mom, she had no idea what I was talking about. Hmm. Must have been one of the sisters. So I was going to check, but I mentioned the gift on my other blog, and the sender claimed responsibility. Turns out to have been from a lovely friend named Jen, who knows the virtues of the immersion blender, because she also likes to make Indian Red Lentil Soup, and in fact, gave me a recipe for it a while back. (Remember?)

This blender is sweet. It comes with a chopper/mincer, and a whisk. This is it:



This is not the only recent addition to our kitchen.

*drumroll*

The old frying pan and saucepan are retired. After a long journey to Target on the 64 Bus on Wednesday, we are the very pleased owners of a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel saucepan with a glass lid (pictured above). I am thrilled with all of these new tools. Thrilled. Food tastes so much better cooked in cookware that doesn't interfere with it. This cast iron skillet is already the love of my life, and I expect us to get closer over the years.

OK, on to the soup. Using all of my new toys, I made the most delicious and filling soup this morning. It's a potato soup. I started with 12 small Yukon gold potatoes (very small, like golf balls). Cut them up and -- oh, also at Target we got two new, sharp knives, woohoo! -- put them in water in the stainless steel pan, to boil.

In the cast iron skillet, I poured a little olive oil and started heating the other ingredients for the soup: a yellow onion, two cloves of garlic, curly kale, cauliflower (about half of a smallish head), baby Portabella mushrooms (4-5), and the unexpected superstar of the soup... three parsnips. Parsnips taste like carrots, only stronger, with more bite. I had forgotten we had them, but I came across them and decided to add them, and I'm glad I did.

(kale, chopped, ready to add)

(everything together in the skillet - except the potatoes)

The potatoes had long since come to a boil and been turned down to simmer. When they were soft, I added the other ingredients, put the lid on it and let everything simmer together for a bit. For seasoning, I added salt, pepper, rosemary and parsley.

When I decided it was done... (I really don't know how long these things take... it's done when things seem soft enough and it tastes good... or however long it took me to feed the cats and make tea... if you need help timing it, you could call me and ask me to feed my cats and make tea, and I'll call you back when I'm done and you'll know it's time to take the soup off)... It was time to use my new toy. I didn't think to record this from the beginning, but here's how it works.

You want to be careful not to lift the blending part of the blender (the tip) above the surface (or even to the surface) of the soup. Submerge the tip of the blender and then turn it on, obviously. It's tricky because the blender pulls you more than you think it will. It seemed to keep suctioning to the bottom and I wasn't even supposed to really have it touching the bottom. Once, in trying to pull it up, I accidentally broke the surface, and the soup kind of exploded a little bit (no real damage done), and all the cats got interested and thought I was cooking something demonic on the stove. That's right, cats. That'll teach you.

I got the hang of immersion-blending after just a few moments, and it was super easy. After using the blender, you can remove the blending attachment (the other part is just the motor and you can attach the whisk or the chopper to it), and rinse it.



This soup was surprising and delicious. What made it surprising is that the strongest flavor was the parsnip. That's why I'm calling it potato parsnip soup. It gave the soup a crisp, fresh taste that perfectly offset the heavier, foodier, more wintry taste of potatoes.

We had it with slices of bread with Vegenaise, which we also stocked up on at Fu-Wah, in preparation for the blizzard.


The texture was airy and creamy and perfect. Much more inviting than a soup blended in a smoothie-maker. Because the soup contains kale and mushrooms, it's going to be a good source of protein and will fill you up. The kale and cauliflower and parsnips give you vitamin C, other vitamins, calcium, and other minerals.

Happy holidays, everyone!

If you have snow, enjoy it, and I hope something fun and useful turns up on your doorstep, too.

Autumn soup part II, and NaNoWriMo

I missed the farmers' market on Saturday because of the Praxis exams. Mark went and only spent about $30 again. (I know, right? How? It's shady, I'm telling you.) I don't have an exact list, but it was basically:

Saturday Shopping List

about 8 sweet potatoes

2 big red peppers

1 lb of red lentils

1 head of green leaf lettuce

a wonderful loaf of white bread

a purple cauliflower

a Roman cauliflower

a portabella cap

a bunch of maroon carrots

1 oz of Season All

...some other things. It's Wednesday now, and I wasn't there, anyway, so this is obviously not comprehensive. Plus, it's November, so all I know is I went to Fu-Wah and bought 8 packs of 3-minute noodle soup. It's Thai Kitchen. Only two varieties of that are vegan - Garlic Vegetable and Spring Onion - the rest have either shrimp essence or for some reason milk fat. Garlic Vegetable is my favorite and I saute garlic and onion to add to them. Quick dinner. I did take time to make a soup, because that saves tons of time later in the week. It's the Indian Lentil soup presented in the last post. I already blogged it, so I shouldn't blog it again, but anything to keep from writing, and also, I have brilliant new pictures and a legitimate piece of information: The soup was better the second time. Much better. And redder.

I added purple cauliflower to the mix. Used more sweet potato. Red onion instead of yellow. More red pepper. Now when you heat it up, you really smell the red pepper. And more lentils. Basically, I made a little bit bigger batch of soup and made it more dense.

Oh, and I found a white sweet potato. From the outside, it looked exactly like all the other sweet potatoes. I cut it open and it was snow white inside. I baked it and it tasted like cake. I swear to god, this sweet potato tasted like cake. It was unreal. I need more of them. I put this one in the soup (the half of it that I didn't eat straight out of the oven), but I need more of them just to eat. Look at this beautiful soup and its beautiful components.

In other food news, while I was at work yesterday, my baby rearranged the kitchen. In a good way. I leave you with this.

Saturday market: tomatillos, spices, red beans, and mud

It's like summer outside. Another rainy day at the farmer's market, but instead of last weekend's Nor'easter, today we have 70 degree weather, low clouds, and balmy air.

Last night, I decided to buy something today that I've never bought before, but I didn't know what. At the market, I decided to buy tomatillos. I used to order something at a Mexican restaurant that had tomatillo sauce. Where was that? I remember, it was the place at 40th and Sansom, where I used to eat when I worked at the salon. I would get the black bean burrito with tomatillo sauce. It seemed hot and cool at the same time. Like if you had a spicy cucumber. I hadn't even gone vegan yet then, but I always ordered vegan things from there. I was such a closet case. It's always so obvious in hindsight.

Saturday shopping list

1 lb small red beans (dry)
3 leeks
1 pint tomatillos
2 portabella caps
1/2 dozen tomatoes
2 butternut squash
2 large yellow onions
1 bunch curly kale
big bag of multi-color carrots
1 oz curry powder
1 oz fennel seeds
1 oz southern seasoning mix
1 oz lemon pepper
1 loaf multi-grain bread
1 loaf sourdough bread
1/2 dozen brownies

total at farmer's market: $52.21

We did great on money at the market today, especially considering that we bought all those spices and a half-dozen brownies, and it still was under $55. However, to the total grocery bill, we have to add about another $10. We had to go downtown for cat food and a vacuum cleaner anyway (apparently, they don't sell vacuum cleaners for under $80 anywhere in West Philly), so we used the opportunity to go to Trader Joe's.

@ TJ's

two 14-oz packages of Gimme Lean soy sausage
1 lb of firm tofu
1 dozen English muffins

total: I didn't save the receipt, but $10 and change

So, about $60, and we are stocked with what I feel is deluxe food. I feel completely spoiled right now. Mark is frying up a couple of soy sausage patties while I blog this up. Nothing like breakfast for dinner. When he's done, I'm going to make a side of curried potatoes before I fix a soy sausage sandwich for myself.

Featured on today's shopping list: Tomatillos. Tomatillos are a good source of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. Those are good for anybody, but they're really great things for vegans, and especially vegans with a high metabolism, because fatty acids burn slow on your metabolism fire. (Remember, carbs are like paper on the fire, and fats are like logs on the fire.)

Friday noodles

We're out of nearly everything. It's time for noodles. Picked these up at Fu-Wah this morning. You could use any type of light noodles. I cooked these with the stock packet that is provided with them, but it is very mild. The toppings are going to be the good part, anyway.

At first I underestimated the size of the portion and didn't saute enough portabella mushrooms, onion, and garlic to put on these. When I came to my senses, I increased the amount you see here by about three times. When it was done (about 3 minutes), I added the toppings, sprinkled on some oregano, and enjoyed with toast spread with a mixture of olive oil and crushed garlic.





The finished dish was surprisingly good. Nonetheless, tomorrow is Saturday, and I'll dream of grocery lists tonight. I want something different tomorrow. I'm going to do something we don't usually do. I don't know what yet. I want to buy something that's a different color or a weird shape or a stronger taste than anything we normally cook. I will, of course, report back.

Featured in this recipe: Portabella mushrooms. An excellent source of several good things, including protein, vitamin B6, potassium, and fiber.


(Source)

Celebration Weekend Continues: Puff Pastries

That went better than expected.

Remember the puff pastry sheets we bought at Fu-Wah for $1.39? Those are going to go a long way. I can't wait to put more things in them and crisp them up.

Here's what I did with them tonight.

Remember the Gimme Lean soy sausage I bought at Trader Joe's the other day? It was for this purpose. I fried up the soy sausage in olive oil with onion and portabella mushrooms, and the sweet little fennel seeds.

After sprinkling some flour on a plate, I laid out the puff pastry sheets and filled them with the mixture. Notice how thin each sheet is, compared to the whole block of pastry sheets. There are a ton of these things. $1.39 is going to go a long way, and that's how you afford things like brownies and really good olive oil and fresh-baked bread.

















Heat about a quarter inch of olive oil over a high gas flame, if you have one (high electric heat, I suppose, if you don't.) Or a campfire!

Drizzle all around the edges of the pastry sheets with olive oil, fold the sheet over into a triangle and press the oil-coated edges of the sheets together.

Sizzle in the oil for about 5 seconds per side.



The batch of filling shown above filled five pastry sheets. Arrange them on a plate and mix up a dipping sauce of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and ground rosemary.


These were delicious. We won't always have soy sausage, but you can also stuff them with yellow squash or patty pan squash, which cost about $1 a lb. and are pretty light on the scale.

Squash would be good with fennel, mushroom, onion, you could throw in some beans if you wanted it to be heartier.

You could do corn and tomatoes and dip it in black bean dip.

We have that quinoa.

I'm having racing thoughts about potatoes and the blender.

And then sweets. I have apples and peaches. You could also do pear. Berries. Oh my god. But nobody's had any berries for a long time, I guess they're out of season. Peaches, apples, pears are here now.

Oh, puff pastries for $1.39 from Fu-Wah. This is a good investment.