Cashew Dill Dip, Coin Update, Pain Update, Vegan Grocery Hauls, Veganized Great Depression Cooking, & Tomato Cakes

I'm really trying to make the most of this crappy weather that we have been experiencing but it's difficult.  Especially when my parents are soaking up the sun in St. Lucia for about a week.  Lucky Stinkers!

I've been testing new recipes, doing research on several topics, and making mini goals for myself.

Yesterday I made this Cashew Dill Dip.  It's made up of 2 C Cashews, 2 C Water, 4 T Lemon Juice, 1 Small Onion, 6 Cloves Garlic, Dill and Black Sea Salt to taste.

Today I had some HAPPY MAIL - about 30 coins from all over the world.  I was VERY excited to add these to my collection.  I'm up to 98 countries now!

I've been trying to tackle ongoing pain issues that seem to mirror Fibromyalgia.  I've upped my intake of Spirulina & Chlorella and hope to up my Vitamin C, B, D, & Magnesium mostly thru foods. 

Today I did 2 mini budget hauls.  This first one was at my local herbs store.  It was unplanned but these items caught my eye because they were on the discount shelf (except for the Hemp Hearts which I needed).  Those were over $8.  Other than that the rest of what you see here was roughly $10.  As an afterthought - I don't think I have ever tried the Kamut Spirals, Spinach Spaghetti, or those Simply Organic flavors before.  The last couple of times I bought Hemp Hearts online they were about $6 so I know they can be found cheaper but since I was already there and it is a small business and locally owned business I thought I would splurge a bit.

As for this other grocery haul - it was 'sort of' planned.  What I mean by that is - I watched The Vegan Zombie's video on Vegan Shopping at Dollar Tree and thought I would see what I could find at ours. I found 2 soups that were clearly marked vegan, Gnocchi, Soy Milk, Bread, Olive Oil, Chickpeas, Black Beans, Sweet Corn, Saltines, and Diced Tomatoes.  The Diced Tomatoes were 2 for $1 and the Corn was 79 cents...other than that the rest was $1 each.  That bought my total to $12.79.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I have been doing a lot of research.  I like to call it 'personal enrichment' or throw it in the 'more you know' category.  Regardless...check this out!  One of the many things I have been researching lately is Great Depression Cooking.  I have looked into that topic in the past before but the spark was re-lit the past couple of days.  This also falls into 'Eating on a Budget' that I like to do as much as possible.  What you see here are Tomato Cakes.

Tomato Cakes are made up of 2 ingredients.  Canned, Diced Tomatoes and Saltine Crackers.  All I did was crumble up about 30 Saltines and mixed them in with 1 can of diced tomatoes.  I then made patties out of them and pan-fried them with a little oil.  If you want you can kick it up a notch and use Basil infused oil for a twist.  These turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.  I topped them with leftover Cashew Dill Dip.  I will be making these again and soon!  They cost $2 or less for an entire batch.  I easily made 10 patties out of these ingredients!

Mixing Leftovers & A New Mug!

Here's one of 3 new mugs I bought over the weekend!  It's from a local vendor that I couldn't find online anywhere but HAD to post this bit of pottery!  LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  I will save the other 2 mugs for a later date.

As for my Food Challenge for this week - I didn't spend any additional money yesterday on food and used leftovers and added it to something I had a little bit left of in my pantry...pasta!  It turned out tasty!  It was a bunch of stuff thrown together that is for sure!  I ate it for dinner last night and the rest today for lunch!

I used the leftover black beans, and leftover cauliflower rice, carrots, and peas from the night before and added it to elbow mac.  I used - all to taste - Vegan Mayo, Dijon Mustard, and Garlic...YUM!

This is a different take on a Vegan Macaroni Salad.

Also a good way to get in more veggies for the day!

I was pleasantly surprised!

Budget Blabbing & Babies!

Before I get to my semi-daily updates on what I ate and how much it cost I thought I would share 2 more photos of Trinity.  My sister was gifted a Baby Photo Shoot from her Co-Workers and these are the first ones I have seen from that session.

OMG I can't get over her!

In other family-related news that I haven't mentioned YET while I share these photos...my cousin and her husband traveled up from Tennessee last week.  They stayed for a week over at my parents house.  It was WONDERFUL to see them.  I was able to spend a little time with them while they were in town.

While they were here we were able to take a tour of Southern Tier Brewery.  That was really neat!  We got to see all the machinery and ins and outs of everything!

This past weekend my parents and I were part of a committee that helped put on a craft show at the fairgrounds.  Also on the grounds this past weekend was a car show, BBQ, and Horse Show.  Of course I didn't grab anything at the BBQ but I did stock up on some convenience items last week to put in the camper freezer to have on hand...and good thing, too!

The event went really well!  I'm super excited that my parents were in the committee, too!  Next major event is Fair Week which is always in the beginning of August.  If you have been around my blog for a while you know that I always share photos after that week is complete.

Oh!  Another UPDATE...I was voted in as a board member with the Secretary position of our local League of Women Voters - so that's exciting!

And FINALLY...my semi-daily food update!  So after blogging yesterday I noticed I had 2 gift cards in my purse that had about $5 each left on them.  I wanted to get my dinner stuff for the next few days and hubby needed bread and a few things for the house.  With everything I only spent $1.24 out of pocket.


What I ended up buying for food was Black Beans for $1, Chickpeas for $1, Corn with Onions and Spicy Peppers for $1 (all of these items were canned), then I found a frozen bag of Cauliflower Rice with Carrots, Green Onions, and Peas for $1.79, and a package of Tortilla Wrap/Burritos for $2.29.  So that was really only $7.08 for the day but I got it at no cost to me because of the gift cards I used.  But for sake of argument we will look at it as a 'charge' for the day and week.  So far I have spent $14.58 on food this week.  BUT...with what I bought yesterday that should take care of me for 2 to 3 days I'm thinking.

I have been doing a lot of research on other people and their vegan food challenges.  Yesterday I found a girl online who posted about her food journey for the week.  When she added everything up she spent $21.88 for 10 days of meals!  I thought - HOW WONDERFUL - so for the heck of it - I went thru her list and put what my local prices were and came up with the total of $52.77 and that included me already having 5 items in my pantry and deleting 3 other items!  So with NOT having to purchase 8 items from her list my total was between 2 and 3 times higher than hers!  Oye!

I have been out of cashews for a month, I'm totally out of Nutritional Yeast at the moment, I have NO fresh produce either.  I currently only have French Fries and Frozen Artichokes in my Freezer, and with what I got yesterday I have some leftovers but only have 1 unopened can of chickpeas and the Mexi-Corn for canned items.  This will certainly be interesting!  If I buy a 1 pound bag of Nutritional Yeast it's $19 here.  If I buy 14 to 16 ounces of Cashews the cheapest price in my town is $12.99.  If I buy only those two items the total would be $31.99.  I guess THIS is what happens when you eat out of your pantry and take it down to nothing, eh!?  

What Does THAT Have To Do With The Price Of Rice?

One of the things I say fairly often is "What does THAT have to do with the price of rice".  Lately I seemed to be taking that pretty literal as I am trying to figure out some more Budget Friendly Vegan Solutions for Meal Time.  I've done many of these mini blog posts throughout the years and I have seen a lot of veggie buddies doing VLOGS about $30 or $25 a week on a Budget when it comes to food shopping.  I would like to do more of that ASAP!

I was reading several articles about food prices lately.  The most recent was an article from May 2017 that said 2 person adult house hold with no kids spends anywhere between $400-$800 each month on food/groceries.  In a similar article on debt solutions it said to take the $400-$800 figure and try and only spend $125 on food each month per person.  So that's $250.  Which is only $150 less that the low end of each of those articles.  However, if you are able to save $150 per month right there that money could be used for something else, I suppose.  I guess it's the little steps, eh?

At this point in my post I should confess and say this entire post will just be one big BLAB.  I would like to see if I can challenge myself to do that but I'm horrible at planning because of everything else going on.  I think I will start with the weekly challenge. This blog will be a nice way to keep me accountable.  

Since it's already TUESDAY and our weekends are impossible to plan I can tell you that I already spent $7.50 on a HUGE salad yesterday.  That leaves me with $17.50.  Time will tell if I am able to start this week or next.  But I guess the first step is the thought - yeah - it's the thought that counts - right?  (insert frustrated laugh here)

(clears throat...nice segue, eh!?) I have been easily frustrated lately.  I need to jump back into meditation again.  Today I did some thinking - does that count?

Long story short - be on the lookout for more 'off the wall' vegan foods while eating on a budget and eating from your pantry.  I'll leave you with a photo of my darling niece TRINITY...

I Spent Under $3 on Groceries This Week!

This blog post title might be a little misleading but it's TRUE.  Let me explain.

I'm still working on consuming my MASSIVE Haul from about 4 weekends ago where I shopped at Target and the Whole Foods Co-Op in Erie as well as Trader Joe's in Woodmere, OH, and a little bit of bargains found at my local Aldi Store AND Tops Market.

This week I only bought 2 items and those items were 1 Avocado and a package of Tortilla Wraps.  I bought both at Aldi and spent under $3.

I ended up spending more on the Avocado than I wanted to but I was CRAVING one and for the first time EVER I ate 1 Avocado over a 2 day period.

My mother must have bought a bunch of Halo/Cuties last week because she pawned off 4 of them to me.  They came in HANDY because I had all 4 of them for breakfast today.  Freebies!  Gotta LOVE them!

I have been pondering the $30 Vegan Shopping Challenge for a while now.  I know I will do it at some point.  I would like to commit to doing it within the next week or two but it might be unfair because I still have things to eat from my previous shopping trips.  Perhaps I will try and do it and just make a note on what new items I buy.  I'm not sure if I will do a video or not because my area is really weird about that.  Not sure if I could pull off a video at my local Aldi's!  But you never know!  I'll blog about it at the very least!