Frugal veganmoma

I just finished the start of one of my frugal veganmomma moves. We tend to be a pretty frugal family, with the exception of food. We spend a lot on food, but figure it is worth it. It is not, however, worth it when I let stuff rot and waste things that I could have used. So here is what I did:

• (this has nothing to do with letting things rot, but it is a big money saver since we consume a lot of beans) Made a big batch of black beans this morning. Used a bit to make bean burgers for dinner (so good and have 5 extra patties for a quick snack or lunch), and froze the rest in 2 cups servings.
• squeezed the last of my lemons from my aunt/uncle's tree and froze the juice. It is ready to go for a lemon garlic pasta night!
• chopped celery and froze it also in 2 cup servings.
• chopped the rest of the carrots that were getting old and froze them.
• chopped the rest of the chili peppers from my aunt/uncle's garden and froze them too.
• also made a big pot of brown rice last night so that I'm not tempted to go buy those little frozen bags of it at trader joes which are so convenient when I forget to make the rice ahead of time.
• last night made a double batch of "snobby joes". Didn't freeze the leftovers because I figured we'd eat them up for lunches.
  

I think that is all for now, but I feel good getting started on this project, and am really hoping to cook more large batches of things so that we actually have leftovers, reduce the amount of spoiled produce in my house, and just get back into a groove of cooking. October was kind of a wake up call for me where I completely struggled through MoFo. November has started off quite well in the food department. I hope I can keep it up since it actually is making things easier on me.

Here is a picture of my second plate of dinner tonight (oops). I made the burgers based on Vive Le Vegan's "celebrity adzuki bean and rice cakes". I used black beans though, hoisin instead of BBQ, carrots for celery, and baked them rather than pan frying. They were a big hit, Rowan ate his entire patty. I didn't give one to Athena because she is still recovering from the stomach flu just gave her the baked potato), she'll be the real tester. Chris said, "they taste like those Amy's burgers!" We served these with baked potatoes and a green salad with hemp seeds, pepitas, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing.