Two Vegan Boys Weblog

Arthur loves to help me bake. If he sees me in the kitchen getting out the flour then he will drag a dining room chair to the counter and say, “I want to help.” He helped make my chunky monkey brownie recipe and some Hanukkah sugar cookies. As you can tell from the chocolate on his face, he really enjoys being a helper and licking the bowl.  By the way, Josh is Jewish, so we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas.

White beans with sage and corn muffins.

Tips for saving some money.  What are your’s?  I would love to hear.

-Make your own vegetable broth. The scraps you would normally throw in the compost, put in a freezer storage bag. Place in the freezer, once it is full, put it in a large stock pot with 10 cups of water. Boil, then simmer covered for about 2 hours, let cool. Pour into storage containers. Now you have 8-10 cups of homemade vegetable stock. Throw the boiled scraps in the compost pile. Just beware of using pepper leftovers, not unless you want hot stock.

-If a friend wants to meet for lunch. Suggest a picnic if weather permits. It saves dining out.

-Make your own sauces and dressings.

-Make your own mayo and sour cream.

-Make your own spice mixes.

-Make a weekly grocery budget and stick to it. Take cash only to the grocery store so you can’t go over your budget.

-Make a weekly menu.

-Start a dinner co-op.

-Buy in bulk.

-Shop the sales ad and make your menu according to what is on sale.

-Use a clothes line. It can drastically cut your electric.

-Wash your clothes in cold water.

-Make your own laundry soap.

-If you have a baby, use cloth diapers. They save money, are better for the environment and great for your baby.

-Take your lunch.

-Drink coffee at home instead of the coffee shop.

-Set aside a certain amount of money for entertainment.

-Eat out less.

-Save gas for your car, by carpooling, walking, riding a bike or taking the bus to work. A monthly bus pass is cheaper than weekly gas fill-up in your car.

-Host a potluck. You get to try a variety of food and you only made one dish.

-Use cloth napkins. Buying paper napkins, not only wastes money but also is not environmentally friendly.

-Shop at thrift stores. What you need just might be there. It is cheaper, helps a charity and you saved some cash.

-Make handmade gifts.

-Grow vegetables. Gardening is fun. And most places have a nice enough climate to produce a Spring, Summer and Fall garden.

-Can foods when possible. Then you can use them at a later date.

-Double recipes, such as soups or casseroles and freeze them to eat later.

-Make your own bread, buns, and rolls.

-Make your own burger patties.

-Trade with others. Example: If you bake and a friend has a garden, trade veggies for baked goods.

-Make your own cleaning products. It is cheaper and better on the environment.

-Make your own insect repellent.

-Wash dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher. It is a waste of money and water.

-Make your own granola. It is cheaper than buying it for $5 a pound and even more.

-Make your own desserts (cupcakes, pies, cookies, etc). Tastes much better than the store bought ones.

-Give gifts of food.

-Exercise outdoors or at home instead of going to a gym. There is no membership to workout at home or on the grass.

-Seek free activities in your city. (free yoga day, free museum day)

-If you go to a movie, go to a matinee.

-Take your own snacks to the movie theatre.

-Drink more water and less soda. Your wallet and kidneys will thank you.

-Make your own applesauce. Easy to make and smells so good simmering in the crockpot.

-Buy only produce that is on sale or discounted.

-Make your own baby food.

-Shop your local Asian Market. You can get tofu, rice vinegar, sesame oil, wonton wrappers, eggroll wrappers and other Asian cuisine items for cheap.

-Buy bags of potatoes. They are cheaper by the pound when bought in a bag.

-Dehydrate your own fruit and veggies.

-Make your own preserves.

-Check out books from your local library instead of buying them.

-Host a clothes swap.

-Make your own ice cream.

-Make your own seitan.

-Make your own soyrizo.

-Use dry beans for cooking, they are much cheaper than the canned ones.

-Make your own jerky (tofu jerky).

-Make your own granola bars.

 Pipecleaner monsters

Friday night was our usual pizza night which is the best. We got a freeze that night as well. When we woke up Saturday morning it was 22 Farenheit. Which is cold for us. Super cold. Knowing that we were expecting a freeze, Friday afternoon I picked all of the green tomatoes off of the plants in our garden. I was growing beefsteak tomatoes. Some were huge, seriously as big as a grapefruit or larger. I was at first discouraged by all of my green tomatoes because I didn’t want to cook with them. I am not a fan of green tomato chutney or fried green tomatoes or even pickled green tomatoes. Josh tried one fresh off the vine and said they weren’t so great. I was fortunate enough to discover a website called “The Crunchy Chicken“. It is an environmental blog. It had a way for green tomatoes to ripen. And it was simple. Place the tomatoes in a paper bag, put an apple in the bag with the green tomatoes, close it and check on it in a week or two. I did this and it worked. Yippee! After I harvested over 80 green tomatoes ranging from grapefruit size to golf ball size I put them in two cardboard boxes, threw in an apple and now I am waiting for them to turn red. I am excited that they did not go to waste. When they are ready, I plan to make marinara and salsa.

Speaking of dinner co-op, I am off to do some cooking for the meal I am making this week. Hope you have a lovely day.

How was your Thanksgiving? I was a bit under the weather, so I stayed home Thanksgiving Day while Josh and the boys went to our friend’s home. We did celebrate our own family Thanksgiving over the weekend. I made a ton of food. We also went to the children’s parade. The boys had fun seeing the floats and characters walking downtown. Afterwards, we had a picnic on the Capitol grounds. We brought Zeke. He did so well at the parade. He would let people pet him. On the Capitol grounds we had lunch and the boys and Zeke played. It was a beautiful day.

Arthur helping roll out the pie crust.

Arthur also helped me make the pies. We had pumpkin pie and chocolate pecan pie. Josh said that you would never know they were vegan. He loved them and so did the boys. So rich and delicious.

Sunday was my birthday. Josh took me out to lunch to celebrate and bought a vegan cookies and cream cake for me. It was terrific and delicious. He and the boys got me some wonderful gifts and we had such a great day. I love my family. By the way, thank you each for the lovely birthday wishes. It was also my 5 year cancer anniversary. It still makes me sad to know we lost our pregnancy, because I wonder what the baby would have looked like and how much fun Arthur and Adam would have had with their older sibling. When I was pregnant we nicknamed it Fife. For my Scottish friends, it is for the Kingdom of Fife where Joshua and I were married. I am thankful everyday for my beautiful boys Arthur and Adam and am so very blessed. I also know that they have an angel named Fife looking over them.We went to Whole Foods Sunday to grab a few things. We had parked underground because it was supposed to rain. Well, when we were leaving, there was a box of garbage near our car. In one of the boxes was a wilted airplane plant. It was limp and thrown away due to it looking not so desireable to leave on the showfloor of the floral department. Score! After some watering and hanging it outdoors, it is already starting to look great. Thanks Whole Foods.

…to me. I will be spending the day with my lovely family. I will update tomorrow. Hope you have a wonderful day.

Hi there. Last night I made chili. So good. I actually used the recipe from Scratch-sniff’s blog. She won second place in the Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-off. It was delicious. I did break a rule when it comes to making Texas chili. I added beans to mine. Hey, I like beans and I wanted some in mine. I served it with some sweet cornbread. Such goodness on a cool night.

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am glad we are not doing much for driving. I was reading an article that said Thanksgiving is the most dangerous road travel holiday. That is some crazy statistics. It is more dangerous than New Year’s Eve. I never would have guessed. Tonite I am making some homemade bread, mashed potatoes, gravy and I will be throwing the Tofurky in the oven tomorrow morning to take to our friend’s home. I think it will be fun.

I hope you each have a wonderful week and a very happy Thanksgiving day.

peas and love….
Krys and the boys

Last night I made a portabello mushroom pot pie. It had portabellos, button mushrooms, carrots, onion, celery, tvp, fresh sage, fresh thyme and a vegetable broth gravy. I made a funny face on the top crust for the boys. Arthur loved the pie. He said “what’s his name?” We told him it is “Paulie the pot pie”. He said “oooh, I want to try some.” Which of course we loved. We are fortunate that our boys we eat almost everything, but when I am not sure if they will, I try to do something fun with the dinner, whether it be making a silly face on a pot pie, or letting Arthur help with dinner, or using fun shaped pasta. Something to make it interesting. When Josh saw the pie he said it was awesome. The face and the taste. We are very silly in our home and since I love to cook, I try to make eating your vegetables fun.

Paulie the pot pie.

“Paulie” full of vegetables.

Yesterday morning I did my weekly baking. I made apricot bread and blueberry banana muffins. The apricot bread is a recipe from “How It All Vegan”. It is delicious. I love dried apricots. The muffin recipe is from “La Dolce Vegan”. Simple and tasty.

What are your Thanksgiving plans? We are going to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving. She has her hands full with three new children she adopted so myself and another friend are cooking her a big dinner. I will miss seeing my family but it is nice to help another person. I am cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner on “Black Friday” for Josh and the boys. While everyone is out going crazy shopping we will be indoors eating and watching movies and going to the playground if weather permits. Here is our menu for Thanksgiving:

tofurky
gravy
mashed potatoes
chipotle lime sweet potatoes
mockloaf
green bean casserole
biscuits
corn
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
cranberry sauce

Speaking of Tofurky. I went a little crazy with the Tofurky this year. I bought three. The local coop had them on sale for $8.99 which is the best price in town. Since Tofurky is once a year. I wanted to have one for Christmas as well. I am taking one to my friend’s home and there will most likely be leftoevers which is fine by me. I “heart” Tofurky.

I read an article last week on Yahoo news about clotheslines. The article said that some states have problems with people having clotheslines in their yard. So much that 5 states have actually banned having a clothesline. I thought this was not cool. Not cool at all. I think a person should be allowed to have a clothesline in their backyard. People who hang their clothes out to dry instead of using a dryer save an average of $83 a month on their electric bill. In the South it is so warm that the clothes will dry within an hour. And we do not get rain that often. I think that they should be allowed, but some politics seem to disagree.

Our dinner coop starts next week. I am super excited. There are 4 families involved so that means that we will get three vegan meals delivered to us each week. Terrific! We are doing a one month trial run to see how it works out and if anyone has any problems or needs to drop out of the coop. It is a great group of families so I hope it works. I am making the ancho chile lentil soup from V-con. I will be serving it with a salad and homemade baguettes. The meals the other mums have listed sound so tasty. And it is also nice to cut back on the grocery bill. Yippee!

Well I am off to make a big crockpot full of chili. It is chilly and rainy today. It will be a nice, warm and hearty meal to go with some cornbread.

Hope you have a lovely Tuesday.

peas and love….
Krys and the boys