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!

Vegan MoFo ~ Retro Recipe

Today is Retro Recipe Day during Vegan MoFo and I had no idea what I was going to do until I did it!

I figured it would be a neat idea to go back to the Great Depression era for this one.  I remember doing a bean dish years and years ago for another blog and for the life of me can't find a photo of it.

I thought this was a great idea because a lot of people assume vegetarian and vegan meals are expensive (which couldn't be farther from the truth if you do it right) but since I am trying to pump my bank account up again I thought I would use as much from my pantry/cupboard as possible without having to go to the grocery store!  It was a success with this dish!  I worked off of what I had on hand so it technically didn't cost me anything (new).  This idea was very LOOSELY based on a number of posts I found online including an older lady by the name of Clara who (I'm told) released a Great Depression Recipe Cookbook.

She suggests cooking a potato, add salt and pepper, a can of peas, an onion, and combine...then add some tomato sauce and you're DONE.  This in itself could be a vegan recipe, too!

But...For MY recipe this is what I did...1/4 C corn that was frozen and a small very sweet onion until soft in a frying pan or cast iron skillet.  Then I took 2 Potato Patties I had in the freezer and added them to the cast iron skillet until light brown, cubed them up and added 1/4 C diced tomatoes and mixed well.  I had some noodles on hand and threw this mixture on top of the noodles and there you have it!  It's savory, sweet, juicy, full of flavor, oil free, vegan, and I only used items that I already had on hand.  If you are wondering what you see that is GREEN on top in the photo...it's Cayenne flavored Kelp Sprinkle.