Savvy Vegan

5 Tips to Beat What Ails You

2012-02-23T09:00:00.020-08:00

The Topic: Natural, inexpensive ways to feel better with Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: Lately, many VN staffers and my husband have been nursing colds, upset stomachs, terrible sinus infections, and sore throats. I don't like relying on conventional medicine to solve what ails me, mainly because growing up, my mom always gave me home remedies instead. When I found out that I was deadly allergic to aspirin, I sought out natural cures for headaches. Besides, who knows what chemicals and not-so animal-friendly ingredients are in over-the-counter medicines? So here are my tips for soothing some common illnesses. (I'm not a doctor so please don't take this as medical advice. Consult your physician if you have any serious health issues.)

1. Upset stomach. One word: ginger. This simple little root is a staple in my kitchen pantry. Not only can you use it when cooking, but it helps me when my stomach is upset. I grate about 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger into a hot mug of water and sip it. If the taste of ginger is too strong for you, you can add a little agave to sweeten it. Ginger is also great for treating colds, motion sickness, and nausea. I like Yogi Tea's Ginger Tea as well. Another option is peppermint oil. I use a drop or two in filtered water and drink it when my stomach isn't right. Peppermint oil is strong, so a little goes a long way.

2. Sore throat. I swear by Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat for sore throats. My husband has had a terrible sore throat for several days and had an important meeting where he had to talk the whole time, so I gave him mug after mug of this tea. One of the main herbs in the tea is slippery elm bark, which I recently learned from Spork Foods' Jenny Engel, is a natural remedy for sore throats.

3. Headaches. After discovering my severe allergy to aspirin, I turned to essential oils instead of meds. I bought a small in-room electric diffuser and use lavender, peppermint, and eucalyptus essential oils in rotation. I use lavender essential oil for headaches and alleviating stress. I mix peppermint oil with a little almond oil and rub it into my temples for immediate relief. You can also add a few drops of either oil in a hot shower for even more aromatherapy. But don't use peppermint oil straight out of the jar because it can cause a bad skin reaction. I use the brand Aura Cacia and you can find $1 off coupons here.

4. Allergies. I also suffer from terrible allergies (I am like the bubble boy from Seinfeld) and used to rely on antihistamines to cure stuffy noses and sneezing attacks, but now I put a few drops of eucalyptus oil in my diffuser before I go to sleep. It works like a charm. I also swear by the neti pot. Here's a video explaining how to use it. Maybe it looks a bit scary but it's totally worth it. Trust me, I had to spend 15 minutes convincing myself to use it. But my allergies are much, much better.

5. Restless sleep. When you're not getting enough sleep, it can really hurt your immune system. As someone who has trouble falling asleep, I found that this free Falling Asleep meditation podcast knocks me out in 15 minutes. The hosts, Jesse and Jane Stern, talk you through a visualization exercise that just works every time I use it. In fact, it's so good that I usually fall asleep halfway through.

The Final Word: Hopefully, you're feeling in tip-top shape, but when you're under-the-weather, try some simple cures to get back to normal. If you need even more tips, check out our Top 10 Detox Foods for other food-related treatments. I'd love to know if you have any tried-and-true home remedies, so please share in the comments.

Valentines So Cheap, They're Free!

2012-02-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Scoring super sweet points with your honey for zero dollars with Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: Yep. The day is here. Frankly, if you're just now thinking about how to celebrate Valentine's Day, it might be a tad late. But! There's always hope for a holiday miracle, right? Here are three ideas for super-last minute ways to woo your sweetie—and the best part is, they're all totally free! (Plus, let's say maybe you don't have the romance going on right now. These ideas work well for friends' birthdays, surprises to brighten a sibling's day, or any other time someone in your life needs a little pick-me-up—just leave the mushy stuff out of what you send to friends and family, or awkward results can ensue.)

1. Say it and save trees. You've probably already seen the cheeky, snappy offerings at someecards.com, but did you know that you can make your own? That's right! For the cost of the few moments it takes to choose a background color, image, and come up with some creative text, you can send your sweets a personalized, eco-friendly valentine, totally free of charge. You know what scores big points with everybody? Loving the environment!

2. Say it with pictures. Pinterest has pretty much taken over our lives here at the VNHQ, and we couldn't be happier about it. How does this apply to your love interest? Make the lucky so-and-so a board! Collect images of things that you know they'll adore. From unlikely animal friends to a collection of amazing vegan sandwiches, whatever your paramour prefers you can pull together a collection of awesome images that will brighten his/her day.

3. Say it with style. From our hometown, this written-in-the-sand proposal from last year is one of the most creative ways to pop the question we've ever seen. Sure, an actual artist was hired to do this, so this exact idea wasn't free, but recreating it on your own beach, with your own skills? That, friends, is as free as the air. And, as you probably tell your sweetie every day, "Sometimes all I need is the air that I breathe and to love you." If you live in a sand-free city, try mapping out your love. Another San Franciscan (what can we say, we're a mushy bunch!) rode his bike 27 miles with his GPS tracking the trip. The result? A map in the shape of a heart all around the city!

If you do have a buck or two lying around, check out our Valentine's Day VegNewsletter, which is packed with great recipe ideas, events, and discounts to ensure a fabulous night.

5 Vegan Drugstore Beauty Buys

2012-02-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Getting (and sitting) pretty with drugstore beauty and body essentials with Online Editor Anna Peraino

The Dish: I'm sure it's no surprise when the soaps, moisturizers, makeup, and cleansers that keep us looking good can wreak havoc on our wallets. With some of the world's most popular beauty buys topping off at $140 per ounce (Here's looking at you, La Mer), one might think that keeping our bods clean, healthy, and looking like 140-bucks-an-ounce will break the bank. Not so! Many inexpensive, vegan products are just waiting on the shelves of your local drugstore and often work just as well as the expensive stuff. Below are five of the VN editors' favorite drugstore buys that definitely don't cost an arm and a leg. (Disclaimer: I can't promise everything in them is all-natural or organic, but at least they're cheap and totally vegan, right?)

1. Rosebud Perfume Co. Smith's Rosebud Salve, $5.59* (0.8-oz. tin). Loved by fashion and beauty editors the world over, this lip balm is light, smooth, and works like a charm. And it's multipurpose to boot: The salve also treats rough cuticles, diaper rash, minor burns, and even blemishes. A tip from a Rosebud user: If you can find the tins of Strawberry Lip Balm, clear the shelves.

2. Alberto VO5 Hot Oil Weekly Intense Conditioning Treatment, $3.99 (two treatments). Whether it's constant blow-drying, winter weather, or bad genetics, sometimes your tresses need a little TLC. Enter: Alberto VO5. This stuff has been around for decades, and for good reason: It works. The oil gives the one-two punch of moisture and strength for your mop, all for two bucks a pop.

3. CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, $9.59 (12 fl. oz.). I read labels all the time that say "Dermatologist Recommended," and usually don't believe a word of it (truth in advertising!). My own personal dermatologist actually recommended this calming cleanser for my sensitive skin a few years ago, and I've never looked back. The fact that it's loads cheaper than any of that fancy stuff is just the icing on the cake.

4. Tom's of Maine Soap Daily Moisture Natural Beauty Bar Soap with Olive Oil and Vitamin E, $5.99 (two 4-oz. bars). All-natural and all-soothing, this sud-maker is sure to make your skin baby soft. And the more you use it, the better your skin gets. Plus, Tom's gives 10 percent of its profits to human and environmental causes. That's a lot for a bar of soap.

5. Alba Botanica Very Emollient Body Lotion, $10.49 (12 fl. oz.). Green tea, aloe, and chamomile combine to create one of the best lotions we've ever used. It's also hypo-allergenic and unscented, so those with sensitive skin can benefit from its über-moisturizing effects.

The Final Word: If you want to get more DIY with your beauty routine, this Lavender-Rosemary Scrub works wonders for a pittance. To simplify even further, try Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria's go-to scrub for soft and supple skin: mix two tablespoons of sugar with olive oil and scrub away! I also hear that dousing your hair in a can of flat beer is a great way to add shine and body post-shampoo. And everybody knows how cheap a can of PBR is.

* All prices from drugstore.com

Easy, Yummy, Cheap Cookies!

2012-01-31T06:12:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Homemade cookies that make amazing (and affordable!) gifts with Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: I love to bake, but rarely do much of it anymore. Having an entire cake or a couple dozen cookies around the house is, frankly, a recipe for disaster. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, most of the time.

The other night, I got a hankering for homemade chocolate chip cookies. We must have been talking about them at the office that day, or maybe it was an ad for vegan cookie dough I had seen. Whatever it was, I could not stop thinking about spoonfuls of fresh, chip-and-nut-filled dough (my weakness) and hot-out-of-the-oven cookies. I had to have them! So I pulled out Claire Gosse's 2010 cookbook Are you sure that's Vegan? and got baking.

When I find a great cookie recipe, I always want to share it. And this was no exception. Claire's Nutty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are sinfully delicious, and make a wonderful gift for co-workers, friend's birthdays, or anytime you want say "thanks" to someone special. Hey, anything you can do to get them out of the house, right? This recipe makes a ton of cookies, so each one ends up to cost just pennies. So for not much dough (the green kind), you can share great vegan desserts (always a crowd-pleaser) while saving money on something you would have bought from the store.

Nutty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I absolutely adore any cookie with oatmeal, chocolate chips, and nuts—and this recipe has them all. Since I am recipe-challenged and always have to change something, I added white chocolate chips (purchased at Food Fight! vegan grocery in Portland), slivered almonds, and extra vanilla. Yum.

What You Need:

2-1/2 cups oatmeal

1 cup vegan margarine

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Egg replacer for 2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
12 ounces chocolate chips
4 ounces grated dark chocolate

1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Blend oatmeal in blender to a fine powder.
2. Cream the margarine and both sugars. Add egg replacer and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and nuts.
3. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

The Final Word: Homemade cookies always make the day a little better, and these were no exception. Pick up a copy of Claire's Are you sure that's Vegan? for excellent renditions of everything from red velvet cupcakes and pineapple upside down cake to vanilla fudge and peanut butter cups. You won't be disappointed.

I am a sucker for raw cookie dough. I love it and eat by the spoonful! But then I don't feel so hot.

Stocking Your Vegan Pantry

2012-01-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Stocking your pantry with vegan essentials with Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: At the end of a long work day, cooking dinner is one of my favorite ways to relax. Lately, I've been really into making my own beans and seitan, and stocking up my pantry so that during the week most of the prep is already done. Here are my suggestions for keeping your vegan pantry ready to go for effortless weekday meals on the cheap.

Beans. I used to buy canned beans for convenience, but lately, I've been prepping my own beans. I personally love chickpeas and black beans, which are both so versatile in the kitchen. By buying dried beans in bulk, I can make cups and cups of beans versus one canned container. Soak your favorite beans overnight in two to three inches of water. Cook over low heat for an hour-and-a-half or longer, depending on the bean. Approximately one cup of dried beans will give you three cups cooked. If you have a copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction cookbook, she has a great chart of bean cooking times. And if you love chickpeas, you have to try her Chickpea Piccata.

Seitan. At first, I was intimidated to make my own seitan until I tried Robin Robertson's recipe for basic seitan from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It's so easy! Really. The main ingredient is vital wheat gluten, which you can find in the bulk section of a health food store or online from Bob's Red Mill. You can flavor it with anything you like. I stick to Robertson's simple additions of nutritional yeast and tamari for a juicy seitan "steak." I make about four pieces of seitan and freeze half for recipes to make later. Here's a basic homemade seitan recipe from Isa.

Tofu. I grew up eating plain tofu with a little bit of soy sauce on it so I love tofu in all forms. If you can get freshly made tofu, I urge you to buy it (such as local brands Hodo Soy and Tofu Yu)—the taste is entirely different. But if you can't, here are my tips for getting the most tofu for your buck. For vegan desserts such as Chocolate Mousse, buy silken tofu in Tetra Paks from a local Asian market. I bought 6 packs for 79 cents each since they have a long shelf life. For firm or extra-firm tofu, buy the packaged kind with two bricks of tofu in one pack so you can use one and save the other.

Rice and grains. I always buy a huge bag of brown rice from Ranch 99, my local Asian grocery store. And by huge, I mean, it looks like a bag of dog food. While I don't eat rice at every meal, a large bag can cost about $20 and last me at least six months. For grains such as quinoa or millet, I frequent the bulk bins. Quinoa is actually a seed, and this little powerhouse packs protein like nobody's business and magnesium, which helps alleviate headaches by relaxing blood vessels. This little tidbit is especially helpful for someone like me who is deadly allergic to aspirin, or anyone who suffers from migraines.

Nuts. The bulk bin is the best bet for stocking up on almonds, walnuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts. It's certainly not cheap to buy macadamia nuts ($17 a pound!), but for select recipes such as the Luscious Lasagna (Veganize It! November+December 2011), which calls for a macadamia-nut ricotta, the bulk bin is your friend. I've spent ample time buying nuts from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and here are my top choices. Buy pine nuts from Trader Joe's rather than in bulk at Whole Foods since it's at least a dollar or two cheaper. The pre-packaged almonds and walnuts from the Whole Foods generic brand are cheaper than the bulk bin prices. Lastly, store your nuts in the freezer so they can last longer. The oils from nuts can turn rancid if left on a cabinet shelf, so your freezer is your best bet for fresh nuts.

The Final Word: By making some of your own ingredients and stocking up on vegan essentials, you can save big on your final grocery bill. The time and effort to make your own beans or seitan may outweigh the convenience of already prepared goods, but sometimes a splatter of elbow grease and DIY pluck can help you enjoy your home cooking just a little more.

Cheap Eats: Spaghetti Squash Bolognese

2012-01-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

The Topic: How to cook an enviable, cheap and easy vegan version of spaghetti Bolognese using squash with Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack

The Dish: I'm not the best cook at the VegNews offices, or at my own apartment, for that matter. However, there are a few dishes that I've mastered and managed to replicate time and time again to excellent critical reception. One of my greatest crowd-pleasers of all time is a spaghetti squash version of Spaghetti Bolognese, which is not only more healthful, but more interesting—and in my opinion, tastier—than the traditional stuff. Better yet, it's virtually fool-proof. Here's the lowdown on how I make mouths water without fail.

Easy Spaghetti Squash Bolognese

Serves 2

What You Need:
1/4 cup water
1 medium-sized spaghetti squash, halved with seeds removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 to 5 crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup vegan ground crumbles
1-1/2 cups prepared vegan marinara sauce
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Salt, to taste
1/4 cup mozzarella-style vegan cheese (I use Daiya)

What You Do:
1. In a large microwave-safe bowl, add water. Invert one half of spaghetti squash on bowl, cut side down, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 8-1/2 minutes.
2. In a medium frying pan over medium heat, add olive oil, shallot, and garlic. Stir periodically until shallots and garlic are almost translucent, then add mushrooms and crumbles. Continue to stir periodically until crumbles and mushrooms darken slightly. Add marinara sauce, pepper, and salt, and allow to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring periodically.
3. Carefully remove plastic wrap from squash and flip over so that cut side is up, and allow to cool slightly. With a fork, comb sides of squash to extract noodle-like strands. Continue until all flesh has been separated into strands.
4. In a large saucepan, add spaghetti squash strands and cheese. Add sauce and mix well. Serve hot!

The Final Word: This dish is super hearty and much healthier than carb-loaded white pasta. And, even a culinary dunce can whip it up without incident. If you want to make a fancier rendition, try roasting the spaghetti squash halves in the oven topped with olive oil and freshly ground pepper, or replace jarred sauce with our Homemade Marinara or the filling from our Bolognese Lasagna. Spaghetti squash is so easy, tasty, and versatile, it's hard not to get hooked.

Budget Friendly (and Delicious!) Holiday Dip

2011-12-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Making a budget-friendly, super-simple, and super-good vegan hors d'oeuvre, fast, with Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: On the recent VegNews Vegan Yoga Retreat in Mexico, we left with more than just rejuvenated spirits, stretched-out bodies, and new-found friendships. With us came a recipe none of us were going to leave Mexico without. Each day at lunch and dinner, Executive Chef Hugo Gutiérrez started our meal with a pitcher of homemade agua fresca, a basket of baked tortilla chips, and a colorful vegetable-based dip that disappeared before we could say uno mas, por favor. All week long, we pondered what could possibly be in these smooth, vibrant dips—and waited patiently until the scheduled cooking class to learn the secret behind Chef Hugo's beloved appetizer.

To our surprise, these dips are an absolute cinch to make, and cost just pennies per serving. Perfect for last-minute company or a post-workday gathering with friends, you simply need fresh bread or vegetables to accompany the dip—and a bottle of Champagne or sparkling cider to wash it down. Salud!

Chef Hugo's Famous Vegan Dip

This simple-to-prepare dip takes on the color of the base vegetable you use. Want to really dazzle guests? Whip up a batch each of carrot, beet, and broccoli for a super-impressive orange, pink, and green combination.

Possible vegetable bases:

Beet, carrot, eggplant, tomatillo, broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, or bell pepper

What You Need:

2 cups desired vegetable, peeled and cut into large pieces
1 garlic clove, peeled
Juice of half a fresh lime
3/4 cup avocado oil or olive oil
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

What You Do:

Steam or boil vegetable until soft and brightly colored. Drain water.
When vegetables are still hot (very important), place in Vitamix or blender along with garlic and lime juice.
Blend until smooth, and slowly stream in oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The Final Word: This delicious dip is seriously that easy. Get creative and use whatever vegetables you have on hand, and try any combinations that pique your interest (red pepper-eggplant sounds superb). Happy holidays!

Cheap Eats: Easy Baked Tofu

2011-12-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Making the yummiest, easiest, cheapest tofu you'll ever eat with Assistant Editor Anna Peraino

The Dish: Savvy Vegan is almost two years old, and between posts about cheap and easy biscuits, soup, more soup, and peach pie, we've posted some really delicious, inexpensive recipes. While combing through our Cheap Eats one day looking for Abby's tortilla recipe (so good, y'all), I realized something quite disturbing: We don't have a recipe for baked tofu on here! Baked tofu! It's the vegan everyman's meal. The recipe you can whip up in three seconds. The vegan's infinitely more awesome baked chicken.

In order to right this wrong, I offer to you this incredibly simple and delicious baked tofu recipe. You'd think that working at a food-obsessed establishment such as VegNews would mean that I spend my evenings whipping up seitan Wellingtons and homemade ice cream with some two-cheese lasagna for dessert (what? I'm Italian), but alas, that's not my thing—we have Associate Editor Jennifer Chen and Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig for that. Most of my meals consist of the very baked tofu I am about to share with you. So, without further ado…

The Easiest Baked Tofu Ever

Serves 5

What You Need:
1 package extra-firm tofu
2-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
1 packet or 1 teaspoon stevia
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

What You Do:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Drain tofu and place on 2 paper towels
folded in half. Cover with another 2 paper towels folded in half and
gently press to remove excess moisture. Cut tofu into 1/2- to 1-inch
cubes.
2. In a glass baking dish, combine tofu with all other ingredients.
Gently toss to combine.
3. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until tofu seems firm to the touch and
marinade has dried in pan.

The Final Word: As I mentioned before, baked tofu is a vegan's bread and butter. The best thing about it is its versatility, and it will only get better as you hone your flavor profile (fancy culinary phrase: $0) and figure out what you like best. And we want to hear about it! Please post your favorite everyday baked tofu recipe in the comments below!

5 Simple, Healthy Vegan Treats for Your Pooch

2011-11-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Treating the special canine in your life with thrifty treats with Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: With their floppy ears and soulful eyes, it's easy to spoil your canine companion animal with expensive treats and toys. Especially during the holidays, pet stores are packed with giant stuffed candy canes and special stockings just for Fido. If you're anything like me, you want to shower your lovable companion animal with an endless amount of things that they truly don't need (like yet another stuffed toy with a squeaker) because you love them to bits. But truth be told, they don't need a sparkly sequin sweater or a four-foot-long stuffed Santa to chew. What they need is you.

When my husband and I adopted Buddy two years ago, our then-five-year-old yellow Labrador, he was a whopping 118 pounds. So we went to work fast on our version of the doggie Biggest Loser and helped him shed the excess weight. I'm proud to report he's a healthy 90 pounds and he loves to play fetch—this from a dog who at first wouldn't budge from the driveway for walks. So I wanted to share the yummy, inexpensive treats and toys that I give Buddy so that his appetite is full and his figure trim.

1. Carrots. Dogs love to chew. So I grab a bag of organic carrots from Trader Joe's (approximately 89 cents a bag), trim the ends, peel, and give it to Buddy as a snack. He loves to lay down with his carrot "bone" and slowly work on it. And by slowly I mean chomp it down in 10 seconds. For smaller pups, try baby carrots. Our occasional office dog, Miss Jazz (VN contributor Jesse Miner's companion animal), a small Chihuahua mix, loves to nosh on little carrots. The vitamin-A rich snacks are low in calories, but high on crunch factor.

2. Pumpkin. Once when Buddy had, um, problems going to the bathroom, Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria recommended giving him canned pumpkin to ease his stomach. It helped. So when Thanksgiving rolled around and canned pumpkin was everywhere, I bought a bunch of cans to supplement his kibble. Pumpkin is full of fiber so it's filling but lightly sweet. Bonus, if you have to give your companion animal any medication, you can slip it in the purée without him or her even noticing.

3. Green beans and spinach. Frozen foods are a perfect way to sneak healthy foods into your companion animal's diet. I buy giant frozen bags of green beans and spinach for Buddy. Just before dinner time, I microwave them, let them cool or rinse in cold water, and add them in with his kibble.

4. Peanut butter. While peanut butter shouldn't be an everyday treat, when my husband and I go out for a few hours, we stuff a Kong (a dog toy) with some kibble and then seal it closed with a smear of peanut butter. We put the Kong in the freezer and let the peanut butter harden, so it takes him longer to eat it up. It's a good option for dogs who have separation anxiety because they'll be too busy licking up peanut butter to notice you walking out the door. I use roughly one tablespoon of natural PB.

5. Hide & seek. Buddy will eat his food in one fell swoop if he could. So when I feed him, I parcel out his food so that he slows down his pace of eating. One game I found that works is hide and seek. I take a cup of his kibble and hide it all around the house. Not only is this completely free, Buddy has to walk around and find his food, so I sneak in a little exercise too. I also have a Kibble Nibble ball that I fill with his dry food, and he has to push the ball around to get the kibble out.

The Final Word: For the special furry friends in your life, it's easy to get carried away with the vast array of treats, toys, and goodies available for them. But by giving them simple, healthy rewards, you'll keep their waistline and your wallet trim. And remember, this holiday season, the best gift you can give to your companion animals is your time and a good scratch under the chin!

On the left, our first day with Buddy, at 118 pounds.

On the right, Buddy today at 90 pounds.

Top photo courtesy of Barking District Bakery

Save Big on Spices and Herbs

2011-11-22T02:00:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Getting the biggest bang for your buck when cooking with herbs and spices with Editorial Assistant Joni Sweet

The Dish: With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I (like many) have cooking on the mind. I can’t wait to heat up my kitchen and fill my apartment with seasonal aromas and that pleasant sizzle of my favorite dishes on the stove top. Trying out new spices and herbs is one of the most enticing parts of cooking—unfortunately, it’s often one of the most expensive parts as well. But between regularly whipping up exciting dishes like Korean bibimbap or Brazilian feijoada, I’ve learned a thing or two about keeping seasoning costs low.

Bigger is Better

First, adopt my favorite three-word principle: buy in bulk. Last year, Indian food was the name of the game for my kitchen, and I couldn’t believe the price of saffron—just a few vivid threads rivals the cost of my college education. On a whim, I decided to check out the bulk section of the grocery store and I found a whole box of American saffron (which works just as well) for less than $10. So began my love affair with buying in bulk. If you’re buying international spices, check your favorite grocery store’s ethnic aisles, where you’ll likely find huge bags of turmeric, cloves, chili powder, and more, for a lot less than the tiny jarred versions in the spice sections. Or, head to cultural neighborhood stores for a similar experience—independent mom-and-pop shops tend to stock an even greater variety of herbs and spices for all your cooking needs.

DIY

No, not do-it-yourself—in this case, dry-it-yourself! The best time to find cheap herbs is when they’re in season, so ask vendors at your local farmers’ market when you can expect to see your favorites. Once you’ve found the tasty treasures, use what you can that week—nothing beats the scent and flavor of fresh herbs. Then, dry the rest before they rot. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has created a great guide on how to dry herbs using materials you probably already have. Using a microwave, dehydrator, or even a paper bag will help preserve your herbs for the rest of the year. I bought a hearty stem of sage, my favorite herb, and dried it by hanging it upside-down for two weeks. Now I can incorporate this earthy herb into my meals for the rest of the year, without the cost of buying a jar of the dried stuff.

GIY

Growing-it-yourself doesn’t require much of a green thumb, or a stuffed wallet. In the springtime, plant seeds in a window box and wait for the magic to begin—basil and mint require minimal care, grow like crazy in the right conditions, and will save you a lot compared with buying packs at the grocery store with just a few leaves at a time. Fear not if you missed planting season, as many grocery and gardening stores stock potted herbs during most of the year. The prices for potted basil are not much higher than the cost of packs of the fresh leaves, so why not put your money towards something that will keep growing the green stuff? In addition to providing fresh herbs year-round, potted herbs also add a touch of green to your kitchen, which is essential during the upcoming grey months.

Learn to Substitute

Amateur cooks tend to focus on every individual ingredient of a recipe, whereas the pros know what to use to make the final dish delicious, regardless of what the recipe may call for. Instead of buying every last spice on a huge ingredients list (and racking up a hefty grocery bill), reconsider what’s already in your kitchen. This guide to substitutions is a great place to start for using herb alternatives, such as parsley instead of cilantro, or substituting basil in place of mint. The Cook’s Thesaurus also has a h andy guide for international spice substitutions. Bet you didn’t know you could use nutmeg instead of mace or allspice in place of clove! One final tip: If you don’t have a particular herb or spice that a recipe calls for, just leave it out—once you taste your home-cooked dish, you’ll forget that you omitted the coriander seeds (and your guests won’t even know!).

Cooking spicy, flavorful dishes doesn’t have to be expensive—by learning where to find the best prices, how to grow and preserve fresh herbs, and what works when substituting, using spices and herbs is as savvy as it is delicious.

5 Veg-Friendly Deal Sites

2011-11-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Becoming an online-coupon-user extraordinare with Assistant Editor Anna Peraino

The Dish: We are Savvy Vegans–we buy in bulk, we wait for sales, we DIY, and we are most definitely familiar with the coupon. With the onslaught of group-based coupons out there (Groupon, Living Social, Scout Mob, and roughly one bazillion others), it's never been easier to save 40 percent on a CSA basket or 65 percent on a haircut at a salon we'd otherwise never afford. But what happens with your daily coupon is to a steakhouse, or that salon uses products that are tested on animals? A major bummer, that's what. Luckily for us, many vegan- and vegetarian-friendly deal sites are popping up, saving us cash on cookbooks and dough on (vegetarian) dim sum. Make sure to subscribe to these five deal-givers to save on every aspect of your life (not to mention upcoming holiday gifts)!

1. Time to Veg Out. This just-launched deal site is pretty much the vegan version of Groupon. Featuring both nationwide and location-based deals (the site currently covers towns like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, with more cities to come), it's a great way to save. The site is still getting started, but we can't wait to see more.
2. Vegan Cuts. "Shop Vegan. Save Money. Save Animals." Is there anything better than that? Not really. Vegan Cuts helps you save on cookbooks, skincare, jewelry, purses, and basically everything else you'd ever need. (Tofu presses! Energy bars!)
3. Daily Gourmet. If you're obsessed with food, this is the deal site for you. While not 100-percent vegan, Daily Gourmet lets you choose what kind of deals you want to get in your inbox, including vegan, gluten-free, and kosher items (and nut-free, and soy-free…). The site's first offer was a dozen Cinnaholic buns. If that's not reason enough to sign up, I don't know what is.
4. Vegan Coupons. If you're on Facebook 24-7 like we are (side note: like us on FB!), you'll love getting Vegan Coupons on your news feed. Offering printable coupons on everything from cookbooks to loaves of bread, Vegan Coupons will help you out in all your spending endeavors. And don't forget to follow Vegan Coupons' sister site, Vegan Deals, on Twitter (not to mention VegNews on Twitter!).
5. Deals on Twitter. From free Rice Dream to natural foods discounts, Twitter is a great place to save serious cash. It's so effective, in fact, that we wrote a whole post about vegan coupons, tweeted. Click and save!

The Final Word: In this day and age, paying full price gets to be as infrequent as eating a bad slice of vegan pizza* and we couldn't be happier. Sign up, follow, and check these sites to save serious money and enjoy some really awesome vegan stuff. Do you know of other great money-saving coupon sites for vegans? Let us know in the comments!

*Just kidding. It is scientifically impossible to eat a bad slice of vegan pizza. Trust me. I'm a professional.

The Thriftiest Thanksgiving Feast

2011-11-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Vegan Thanksgiving on the cheap with Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack

The Dish: In all of its decadent, feast-filled glory, Thanksgiving brings us together with our loved ones every year for a tasty celebration of everything deserving of our gratitude. Unfortunately, our wallets are sometimes less giving than we’d like. Whether you’re celebrating with your family, pals, or just reruns of your favorite TV show, the holiday would not be complete without at least a few of its memorable culinary traditions. Here are a few of the top ways to stuff your belly without unstuffing your bank account.

Seitan-ic Rituals

The centerpiece of a vegan Thanksgiving meal is the savory entrée that serves as a cruelty-free stand-in for our friend, the turkey. While any number of substitutes will suffice and satisfy, the most traditional option is a roast. Store-bought roasts (from brands like Tofurky and Field Roast) may seem like the easiest and most convenient choice, but they can actually be expensive and difficult to acquire in certain areas, and may require an hour or more of cooking time. We’re here to talk thrifty, quick, and easy. Fear thee not—making your own seitan is far easier than you think, and on the plus, super-cheap. All you need is vital wheat gluten, vegetable broth or water, and whatever seasoning or spices you desire. No joke. Check out Selfish Vegan’s ridiculously simple guide to doing it yourself. Key phrase: “pennies per serving.” Once you’ve made your own seitan, you can use it in any number of ways. Seitan Pot Roast and Where’s the Beef Stew? Both sound centerpiece-worthy to me.

Studly Stuffing and Groovy Gravy

Whether to top your DIY seitan, smash into your mashed potatoes, or to scarf solo, stuffing and gravy are crucial elements of your frugal feast. You can amp up your recipes as much as you wish and your budget permits, but quick stuffing and gravy can be just as flavorful and enjoyable as their gourmet counterparts. Take VegWeb’s Thanksgiving Dressing, for example—a few sliced veggies, some cubed bread, and a few other inexpensive components make a worthy companion for your roast. Still sound too complicated? Quick Stuffing is as trouble-free as it gets—just mix premade stuffing bread cubes with dry vegetable soup mix and water or oil, and you’re good to go … almost. It still needs to be doused in delicious gravy. Mushroom Gravy uses our favorite fungi to bring heartiness and depth to your holiday mix, and is just a boil, sauté, and stir away. If you’re not one for ‘shrooms, try Super Easy Gravy and improvise on additions. Veggie ground beef? Red wine? Balsamic vinegar? Add a dash of any savories you desire to customize your creation. While it has a few more components than the aforementioned, I make Awesome Mushroom Gravy every year for my family’s spread—well, sort of. I follow the recipe as closely as possible, but experiment with replacements for anything that I don’t have on hand. Out of onion? I use garlic or shallots. When I don’t have Bragg’s Amino Acids, I sub in soy sauce. A little bit of improvisation can save a lot of time and money.

The Best of the Rest

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the two most highly anticipated dishes of Thanksgiving: potatoes and pie (mashed and pumpkin, respectively). As for mashed potatoes, they’re pretty much a wallet-friendly no-brainer, and I would suggest reading Mashed Potato Remix and whipping up whatever version you are drooling over the most avidly. Potatoes are cheap, and therefore rule. In the dessert category, I truly believe I have found the easiest-to-make, hardest-to-resist vegan pumpkin dessert ever—Easy Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. Premade vegan cream cheese, premade graham-cracker crust, pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice, canned pumpkin, sugar—bam, pow, and wow. I made this last year, and it is the best thing in the world and took roughly zero kilowatts of brainpower.

With one bag of groceries, you can prepare a Thanksgiving feast fit for a king. Don’t relinquish your holiday spirit just because you’re broke and lazy—march onward into the realm of royal roasts, magnificent mashed potatoes, and proper pies.

Cheap Eats: Every Night Soup

2011-11-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

The Topic: The soup you can eat every single night and never get sick of with VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: It's no secret that soup and I have sort of a thing. As someone who's forever freezing cold unless I happen to be in direct sunlight, there's nothing more satisfying than a huge bowl of piping hot soup for dinner. Bachelor Soup has long been a favorite of mine, and when I'm feeling homesick (OK, my parents live about 45 minutes away from me, but what can I say? I love them!), I bust out a vegan posole, one of my dad's signature dishes.

As trusty and tasty as these two staples are, there's a new soup in my life, and we are in love. I call it Every Night Soup, both because I eat it nearly every night, and because I'm really creative. Inspired by the ever-amazing Vietnamese pho, this totally inauthentic yet highly satisfying supper really hits the spot. The ingredients are things that I tend to always have stocked, and can easily be found for cheap. Plus, I recently discovered something amazing: frozen broccoli. Did you know that you can actually purchase broccoli and add it to meals without letting it sit in your fridge for too long and/or getting little tiny broccoli bits all over your kitchen when you chop it? True story!

Every Night Soup

Serves 2

What You Need:
6 cups water
1 tablespoon veggie bouillion
4 ounces dried rice noodles (I like the ones that are cut for Pad Thai best)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 cup cubed extra-firm tofu
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
1 teaspoon Sriracha
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1 heaping tablespoon miso

What You Do:

In a medium pot, bring water and bouillion to a boil. Add noodles, and cook for about 5 minutes until softened.
Add all remaining ingredients, except miso, and simmer another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and wait until soup is no longer bubbling to add miso. Serve hot!

The Final Word: No scallions? No problem. Feel like tossing in some other veggies? Go for it. This soup can be exactly the same every night, or you can mix it up to your heart's content. I've made it with and without miso, with varying amounts of hot sauce, and with tons of chopped garlic, depending on how I'm feeling and what I have on hand.

Want to Eat Cheap? Learn to Cook.

2011-10-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Rediscover cooking and eating at home (while saving money!) with VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: I recently read an astonishing statistic on how nearly half of Americans don't cook. Instead, people grab a bagel and coffee on the way to work, step out of the office for a sandwich or burger at lunch, and order in pizza or Chinese for dinner. And that doesn't include morning doughnuts at the staff meeting, the afternoon sugar fix, post-work drinks, and that bowl of ice cream at 10pm. Given the (sad) state of our health in this country, there's no question that high-fat and huge-portioned restaurant fare is contributing to our demise. I say it's time to take back our health and get cooking.

By preparing your own food at home, you can control the quality of ingredients (organic, local, GMO-free), the amount of salt and oil used (restaurants are notorious for using excessive amounts of salt and oil to flavor food), and the portions you consume (a one-serving plate of food at the local diner could serve an entire family in other countries). Think about how you feel after a home-cooked meal versus a typical restaurant meal. Whenever I go out, I overeat and feel full for hours. The food is always good, but I pay the price.

Thankfully, delicious (and budget-friendly) meals can be made at home. But if you don't know how to cook, where do you start? Do we all need to spend $50k on cooking school to learn basic cooking techniques that are no longer passed down in our families? Absolutely not. Here are four ways to become a stellar home chef in no time flat. Your culinary education begins now!

Use Recipes

I am the first one to admit that I rarely cook with recipes. I like to make healthy meals fast, and I don't have the patience to plan my meals or follow instructions. But recipes teach you how to cook. Find a cookbook you love (check out VegNews for recommendations), and force yourself to make one or two recipes a week. Then make them again. After a few times, you'll no longer need the recipe and will have an arsenal of balanced meals to make at home. And you'll have learned the #1 trick in cooking: technique. If you know the technique behind a particularly type of food (curries, pesto, stir-fry, soup, etc.), you are 75 percent there.

Watch Cooking Shows

Unfortunately, there aren't many vegan friendly cooking programs to help you master your culinary skills, but if you find yourself drawn to a particular food personality or their cuisine, watch them. Seeing a chef julienne carrots and zucchini for an Asian dish will stay with you longer than reading that same instruction in a cookbook recipe. And, once again, you'll pick up on technique and start to understand the broad strokes of cooking so that you can then customize whatever it is you're making. Check out our cooking videos on VegNews TV for excellent visual instruction!

Take a Cooking Class

This is the most hands-on way to learn how to cook, and vegetarian cooking classes are easier than ever to find. Whether it's a course on Thai cooking or how to prepare a 10-course vegan Thanksgiving feast, nothing beats real-life practice. You'll always go home with recipes, and you'll want to keep making them while they're fresh in your mind. Soon, these new dishes will be part of your at-home repertoire to dazzle everyone you cook for.

Read About Food

Often times, I find myself inspired by food articles and recipes I read and work those ideas into whatever it is I am making. Let's say I am editing the January+February 2012 issue of VegNews and salivate over Gena Hemshaw's raw pad Thai recipe (this may or may not have happened). That night I am craving Southeast Asian flavors and whip up a salad with fresh lime juice, chiles, garlic, and soy sauce. Think of cooking as a college degree, and read everything you can about it. Peruse magazines, books, blogs, or anything that inspires you to cook.

The Final Word: Cooking at home is a joyful, therapeutic experience, and you'll save a lot of money in the process. Whenever I encourage friends to do more cooking, I offer this advice: 1) It's not how you start, it's how you finish. There are no rules in cooking, so as long as you enjoy the flavor at the end, you've succeeded. 2) Cook like crazy. The more you practice, the better cook you'll become. 3) Stock your pantry. You'll be more inspired to cook if you're kitchen is filled with fresh produce, a variety of pastas and grains, and spices you love. Bon appetit!

Cheap Eats: Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

2011-10-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Baking up a fall-tastic breakfast with VN Assistant Editor Anna Peraino

The Dish: OK, let me break it down for you: I love fall. From crisp air that begs for sweaters, to football tailgates filled with screaming fans, to the beautiful colors of the leaves (so that doesn't really happen here in the Bay Area, but I remember the colors of North Carolina), there's really nothing that can beat this time of year. But perhaps moreso than the three things I just mentioned, I love the culinary changes autumn brings. Think the return of thick, belly-coating soups, hot cocoa, and apples everywhere. Oh, and did I mention pumpkins? Perhaps the best part of the season, this ever-delicious, ever-useful squash brings fall flavor to every meal. And I couldn't be happier.

As such, it's important for those of us who are pinching pennies to enjoy autumnal flavors morning, noon, and night without emptying our pocketbooks. Using four inexpensive ingredients (pumpkin included, of course!), you can start the sweater-weather days of October and November with the warming, tasty goodness of baked oatmeal. To save even more cash, buy your oatmeal in bulk, as you can usually get a pound for about a buck, which is roughly one dozen servings. One bite and you'll be hooked—trust me.

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

Serves 6

What You Need:
3 cups old-fashioned oats (you can use the quick-cooking kind, but your oatmeal will be way less tasty)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1-1/2 cups nondairy milk (I like to use vanilla soymilk to get a hint of vanilla and sweetness in there)
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice)

What You Do:
   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients.
   3. Into an 8 x 8 baking dish, pour mixture and let stand for 30 minutes to overnight.
   4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until milk has been absorbed and oatmeal looks gooey.

Chef's Tip: I like to add a little more sweetness to my baked oatmeal by topping it with maple syrup. Mixed nuts and dried fruit are also tasty (but unfortunately, pricey!) topping options.

The Final Word: Autumn only comes once a year (unless you time a trip to the southern hemisphere really well), so taking advantage of everything it has to offer in creative, money-saving ways is pretty much my MO. So if you see me spending a morning wearing a thrifted sweater, eating baked oatmeal, jumping into a pile of leaves (leaves are free!) while watching a college football game (cable, not so much), don't be surprised.

Culinary Adventures

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Refining your vegan culinary skills without breaking the bank with VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig

The Dish: This month, I will be celebrating my 10-year anniversary of being vegan. It feels like just yesterday when I made the decision to no longer eat animal products when I was a junior in high school, but when I really reflect on the last 10 years, I realize that my diet has changed since that time. For about the first five years of being vegan, I subsisted for the most part on convenient, pre-packaged food. This was mainly due to my being in school with little time on my hands, but since graduating, my culinary skills have definitely made a major leap in the right direction, and I'm happy to say that nearly 95 percent of the food in my fridge today is whole ingredients, and I cook a meal almost every night of the week. This has really taken a load off of my wallet, and I'm also much more fulfilled with my vegan lifestyle than I was during the first five years.

With my new love of cooking, I have dreamt of going to culinary school in order to perfect my skills in the kitchen, but I honestly don't see that happening—I can't just pull 25 grand from my back pocket, no matter how hard I wish. Luckily, I have figured out some great ways to hone my skills without spending too much. Here are three ways to become a super chef in your own kitchen, on the cheap:

1. Stock Up on Supplies and Staples

OK, this is more about preparation, but if you're not prepared, then there's no way that you will improve on your skills in the kitchen. I know it may seem like a daunting task to build your spice rack and to increase the amount of kitchen appliances that you own—I know, I've been there! To make it less daunting, I have followed the motto, "Steady goes it." I have been working on my spice collection for the past four years, and it is finally well-stocked. I have also done this with my appliances, acquiring some as Christmas and birthday gifts, and sometimes just saving up my money. And even though Williams Sonoma is a pretty sweet store, I would suggest you go somewhere else in order to save some dough. Even better, check out garage and yard sales, flea markets, and thrift stores—these could have some real treasures. And for spices and other staples? Repeat after me, "Buy in bulk."

2.Use Cookbooks as Your Guide

I have learned all my skills from my cookbooks, and just like with my staples and supplies, I have built my cookbook library steadily. OK, confession time, I am a cookbook fanatic, and in all honesty I have way too many. Seriously, they have literally taken over my small studio apartment, and I know my boyfriend is getting seriously annoyed with my cookbook-collecting ways. That being said, I won't give them up, because I have learned so much from them. However, you really just need a few to start with, and I would really suggest to get a more general vegan cookbook, which also contains a basic cooking skills section, such as Veganomicon or a 1,000 Vegan Recipes. If you don't have enough money to buy even a few cookbooks, then try the library.

3. Recipe Testing
This leads me to my next point—becoming a recipe tester! This is my newly discovered way of honing my culinary skills. I have been recipe testing for Robin Robertson for the last couple of months, and I have just started to recipe test for Joni Marie Newman's new cookbook. Excluding the great perks of recipe testing (being acknowledged, getting a free copy, and getting to know an awesome cookbook author), it's also a great way to learn new skills in the kitchen. Since becoming a tester, I have made a bouquet garni, and jam for my very first time. Unfortunately, the jam didn't turn out too well, but I was able to discuss the problem with the author, and received some good suggestions to succeed the next time I make an attempt. To become a recipe tester, check out various cookbook authors' blogs, as well as their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Final Word: You don't have to go to culinary school in order to perfect your skills in the kitchen. You just need to practice, practice, practice! Participate in local vegan potlucks, and occasionally cook for friends and/or family members. The ones closest to you are usually the toughest critics, and nothing will make you a better cook than constructive criticism. Finally, be sure to cook food the you want to eat. That way everything you cook will be a spectacular treat!

Animal Companionship on the Cheap

2011-10-04T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Inexpensive animal companionship for those with a jet-setting, busy lifestyle with Editorial Assistant Joni Sweet

The Dish: As part of the VegNews staff, you can probably guess that I’m an animal lover. Cats, dogs, birds, even mice, I love them all! Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to adopt an animal since I was a kid, due to college dorm-life and limited funds. Also, given the opportunity, I love to travel for months on end, which makes me hesitant to commit to animal adoption, as I’d hate to bring stress upon my furry friend to find him or her a new home. Lucky for people like me, organizations across the US are here to help connect people with limited time, money, and ability to commit long-term with animal friends who need us just as much as we need them.

Raise a Service Dog

Teaming up with a service-dog organization, such as Guide Dogs for the Blind or The Guide Dog Foundation For The Blind, is a great way to build a relationship with a puppy while doing good for mankind. Typically, volunteers provide loving homes for puppies when they are between seven and nine weeks old for roughly one year. Puppy-raisers then socialize, educate, and complete basic training for the dogs, which includes lessons in obedience, traveling, manners, and appropriate behavior in a variety of settings. These go-anywhere service dogs are required by law to have access to many places, such as city buses, supermarkets, and other everyday settings, meaning that opportunities to bond with the pup are endless. As an added bonus, the service-dog organizations often cover all or most of the associated expenses, so the dogs only demand your patience, time, and love.

Foster a Sheltered Animal

The ASPCA, as well as most local shelters, depends on volunteers to help prepare special animals for adoption. Generally, fostered animals include very young puppies and kittens, mothers with newborn litters, animals recovering from injury or illness, and those in need of socialization. The ASPCA provides training for volunteers and covers all medical expenses, food, and necessary supplies. Fostering generally lasts anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months, so while that period of time provides ample opportunity to love and care for an animal in need, it also makes it easy for those with a passion for travel to leave town after their foster friend finds a home.

Make a Career Out of It

If you're unable to welcome an animal into your home, head into theirs—and get paid for it —by becoming a pet sitter or dog walker. Animal lovers can apply to work for pet sitting businesses, such as Chicago Pet Sitters or Southern California's The Pet Staff, and spend nights and weekends indulging vacationers' dogs and cats with a few extra treats and lots of playtime. Also, in cities particularly, busy office-workers constantly need reliable dog-walkers to exercise their pups during the long workday. If you can't find an organization in your area that's hiring, consider placing a personal ad on Craigslist or the local paper and working independently. Both of these jobs will allow you to connect with fun, friendly animals and provide you with bonus pocket cash.

The Final Word: Hardly any lifestyle, no matter how restrictive, frugal, or busy, can put you completely off-limits for making a new furry friend if you’re willing to give your heart and time. There are many organizations which rely on help from dedicated animal lovers, and volunteers get to provide the best part—the belly rubs!

Vegan Traveling

2011-09-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Traveling vegan on a budget with Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: As I write this, VN Publisher Joseph Connelly and VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland are traversing thorough Thailand with 20 VegNews readers on VegNews first-ever Food Lover's Tour of Thailand. Now this may sound like bragging—I swear I'm not trying to make you feel bad—but I recently went to Kauai, Hawaii, for vacation with my hubby. It was my first real vacation in a long time, and while it was a celebration of our wedding anniversary, I still hate being too extravagant. A real splurge to me is the vacation itself and seeing as much of the beautiful island as possible. There are times to splurge (massages on the beach!) and times to save, so here are my tips for enjoying your vacation on a budget.

Peanut butter. I always like to carry a jar with peanut butter with me. This is leftover from my college days when I backpacked through Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. I usually pick up a jar wherever I am and paired with a loaf of bread, I have an emergency meal handy. A box of crackers or pretzels also works well.

Airport eats. If you ever get to travel to San Francisco International's Terminal 2, consider yourself very lucky. It's a vegan haven. You can get a fresh green juice from The Plant Café. There's a whole section of vegan and raw snacks at Napa Farms Market. And if you bring your own water bottle, you can fill up at the filtered water stations. But since most of us aren't traveling through SFO Terminal 2 (darn!), here's what I do when stuck at an airport. Search for the nearest Starbucks. Not every airport will have vegan-friendly eats, but every airport will have a Starbucks. Now, I love supporting my local coffee shops, but I can count on Starbucks to have vegan meals like fruit salad, oatmeal with dried fruits, and bagels. For more travel-friendly eats, check out our web article on that very topic.

Free travel advice. I usually peruse through Lonely Planet guides before I end up at my destination and I love the in-depth information, but I found two great free resources: friends and travel brochures! Before I left, I asked friends on Facebook what I should do while I'm in Kauai and I got a lot of great tips on places my guide book never even pointed out. And the airport was teeming with tons of free travel brochures. While most of them are advertisements, I grabbed a few dining and activity guides and was able to find several health food stores and places that specifically listed that they were "vegan friendly." I found Island Tacos though an ad, and tried cilanto-lime tofu tacos that still haunt my dreams.

Local health food stores. Like I mentioned, the travel brochures led me to several health food stores on the island. While not everything there is cheap, I was able to pick up dinner for two nights. The great thing about Hawaii is how culturally diverse it is—you can find Korean, Filipino, Japanese, and traditional Hawaiian foods. Health food stores are always guaranteed to have some vegan food. I sampled Korean scallion pancakes, chocolate silk tofu pie, and Vietnamese summer rolls from Papaya's Natural Foods. Compared to a fancy dinner out, my to-go meal was inexpensive.

Farmers' markets. I was surprised to find that Kauai has daily farmers' markets all around the island, so I made sure to hit one. I love fresh fruit and since Hawaii has so many fruits I can't have on the mainland, I went a little nuts. I got starfruit (three for $1), papaya ($1.50), pineapple ($4), Tahitian limes (four for $1), and a giant avocado ($1.50). I sampled a vegan coconut tapioca pudding made from a local bakery ($3) and a dark chocolate-covered banana topped with coconut shreds and nuts ($3.50). One thing I learned from a local farmer is that agricultural theft is a big problem for farmers, so when hitting a farmers' market she cautioned me to steer clear of anyone who doesn't have signage. The vendor may have stolen the fruits and veggies from a hard-working farmer for re-sell at the market.

The Final Word: If I've made you green with envy by now, my sincere apologies. But what I can offer is that you deserve to travel to awesome destinations (like the VegNews Vegan Yoga Retreat to Mexico). Create a savings account just for vacations and then travel to those must-hit countries and states on your bucket list. And when you do fly to a fancy destination that is a paradise through and through, it doesn't have to mean throwing frugality out the window.

Vegan Baking As Cheaply and Easily As Humanly Possible

2011-09-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Vegan baking for dunces on a budget with Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack

The Dish: As a child, nothing mystified me more than watching my mother mix together a baffling concoction of powders and liquids in a giant bowl, pop gobs of the resulting batter in the oven, and reveal fresh chocolate-chip cookies in just a few minutes. Baking never gets stale, and making cookies, cakes, and brownies at home is beyond satisfying. Even better, it’s often less expensive—and tastier—than going store-bought, as vegan pastries are often attached to unsavory price tags. Working from scratch doesn’t have to mean bank-busting trips to the grocery store, and many traditional baking mixes can be veganized as well. A tray of fresh-from-the-oven muffins, cookies, or cupcakes is guaranteed to result in many pleases and thank-yous from bystanders, and doesn’t require loads of time or moolah. Filling your kitchen with the irresistible aroma of impending sweets alone warrants the effort.

Six Ingredient Wonders

If you’re baking from scratch, pick a recipe with a short ingredients list to avoid stress and waste. Whether for a friend’s birthday, an office party, or just a Tuesday afternoon, homemade cookies are always crowd-pleasers, and there are many recipes that only require a few things that are probably already in your pantry. When my wallet is barren but my resolve to bake is high, I stick to the six-ingredient rule, which dictates that whatever I’m making requires only six or fewer ingredients. Although this may sound challenging, it is oddly doable. For example, Super Easy Thumbprint Cookies require only vegan butter, sugar, vanilla, jam, and two kinds of flours, plus about 15 minutes of your precious time. As a bonus, their colorful fillings feign fanciness, so they make a sweet gift with the added value of looking time-intensive. VegWeb’s Best and Easiest Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies also have a mere six components, and resemble the childhood classics to a T. If you can’t be bothered with oven time, No-Bake Cookies are a delicious alternative that are so simple, you could make them in your sleep. Sleepwalkers beware, you might awaken face-first in a batch of these chocolaty delights. If you’re feeling ambitious and willing to go just one element beyond the six-ingredient rule, give these seven-ingredient blueberry muffins a whirl. Who can resist a warm blueberry muffin, spread with jam, agave, or melted Earth Balance? No one. That’s who.

(You Can't) Beat Box (Mixes)

Have no fear if you don’t have a knack for getting crafty, or if your funds are so limited that multiple ingredients stretch your budget; there is no shame in the boxed-mix game. Vegan baked-good mixes are plentiful and inexpensive, such as Wholesome Chow’s cake mixes, which will set you back a mere $4.50 and come in gourmet flavors like lavender and chai spice, in addition to classic chocolate and vanilla. Just add oil, nondairy milk, and vinegar. Or, try Cherrybrook Kitchen’s cake, cookie, and brownie mixes, which call for only margarine, oil, and water to make delicious vegan, nut-free, kosher creations. Surprisingly, Duncan Hines also has several vegan mixes, such as their Classic Yellow Cake Mix. As an amazing bonus, several of their frostings are vegan too. They even sport a recipe for vegan chocolate cupcakes on their website, decadently topped with their pre-made chocolate or mocha icing.

Sub Smarts

Learning to get down with substitutions is another crucial aspect of vegan baking. While the box or recipe may call for eggs, milk, or butter, cruelty-free replacements are available for virtually every need. Soymilk and almond milk are obvious choices for ditching cow’s milk, and bananas and applesauce are well-known as being great for replacing eggs. PETA recently released an Ultimate Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet that makes swapping ingredients a breeze, as it offers specific suggestions based on purpose. Even better, easy proxies may already be lurking in your fridge or cupboard. Looking for leavening? Puréed tofu is here to help. Want a denser texture for cakes or cookies? Instant mashed potatoes are a surprising egg-free way to achieve it. Once you’ve gotten the hang of vegan replacements, baking mixes that call for dairy are no longer a problem.

The Final Word: Even if your bank account is sputtering and your baking talents are questionable, homemade or semi-homemade baked goods are not beyond your abilities or funds. Whether whipped up from scratch or out of a box, oven-fresh vegan cookies, brownies, cakes, and cupcakes are an easy and affordable way to treat yourself or your friends to a taste of cozy kitchen goodness.

Top 3 Vegan Money Sucks

2011-09-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Avoiding the three most-tempting money black holes with Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: Sometimes, it's not about knowing how to save money, per se, but instead about knowing how to not spend tons of money. Maybe the distinction between the two isn't totally clear. In the words of Inigo Montoya, "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." Saving money involves getting goods for cheaper than the sticker price, either by buying in bulk, using coupons (such as today's Living Social Deal for $20 of Whole Foods groceries for $10!), or doing something yourself (like making your own almond milk, instead of buying pre-made). But! You know that moment that tends to happen right around 7:48pm, when it's been a long day at work and you know that you should probably eat something for dinner, so you wander dazedly into the grocery store and fill your basket with frozen peas, a block of tofu, almond butter, and peaches, only to get home and discover that those ingredients don't actually make themselves into a meal and you've managed to spend $28 dollars? That, friends, is where not spending money comes in. Here are my top three money sucks to avoid!

1. The Grocery Store. Yes, you have to go there to buy groceries. Avoiding this one all together might be impossible, but planning ahead can save you big time. Do your best Virgo impression, make a list before you go, and stick to it. Even if you happen to discover that the store stocks an impulse-buy section with vegan chocolate peanut butter cups and whole-wheat fig bars—walk on by!

2. The Salad Bar. It's so shiny! As someone who is about as attracted to shiny things as your average raccoon, this is a problem for me. Salad bars gleam with pre-chopped potential, artfully arranged add-ons, and mountains of maybe. You know that you can purchse all the ingredients for a salad at a lower cost by simply buying the vegetables and chopping them yourself. If you do get sucked in by the salad bar's siren song, remember to stick with light, space-taking items like romaine lettuce and grated carrots, and avoid pre-made tofu dishes like the plague.

3. The Bar That Has Great Vegan Food. First off, let's take a moment to be grateful that there are bars that have vegan dining options! Yay! Even teetotalers can find themselves at the local watering hole because of the novelty of finding vegan hot wings or nachos. As someone who has, possibly on too many occasions, told myself that I'd just go to Millennium for a couple drinks and maybe an appetizer, I've discovered something incredible: When you're drunk and there's awesome vegan food all around you, you're going to eat it, regardless of what your intention was when you walked into the joint. This is especially true if, like me, you go in thinking that your low tolerance for alcohol will make for an unexpensive evening. Just imagine your (read: my) surprise when lo and behold, sometime around drink number 1.4, you're ravenous and have suddenly ordered all of the appetizers on the menu, and the bill has now jumped from a mere $20ish to a whopping $600ish. (Maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it's definitely how expensive the meal will seem.) How to avoid this pleasure trap? Either eat substantially before your evening out, or keep the food menu as far from your barstool as possible.

The Final Word: Money sucks are all around, but with a heightened awareness of their budget-busting powers, you can not only save money smartly, but also not spend money accidentally.

Awesome black hole image via NASA

Best. Almond Milk. Ever. (And cheap!)

2011-09-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Making delicious, frothy almond milk for pennies a glass with Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: Okay, I'll admit it. For years, I frowned upon making my own almond milk (and nut cheeses, and sprouts), thinking I was edging too close to hippie-ism for my comfort level. All I could think of was a mess of sprouted almonds fermenting in my kitchen, before being liquefied in a blender and then strained through multiple layers of cheese cloth that would take days to achieve the smooth, creamy consistency I had become accustomed to with store-bought versions. I mean, why bother with this catastrophe-in-the-making when I could pick up a quart of almond milk at Trader Joe's for just a few bucks, and save myself from converting my kitchen into a real-life science experiment? No thanks.

But then my life changed. It's no secret that VegNews Publisher Joseph Connelly is deeply fond of deep-green smoothies (colored with his algae/spirulina/pea shoot powder of the week), super foods (from goji berries to chia seeds), and, yes, nut milks made from scratch. So a few months ago when he offered up a glass of freshly made almond milk, something came over me, and I decided to try it. The glass of frothy milk looked pretty good, but how would it taste? Imagine my surprise when, after one sip, I was dumbfounded: It was amazing. It was like a cool, vanilla-flavored milkshake made sweet by Medjool dates and thick by a handful of ice cubes. Could something that I'd always imagined tasting like sour nuts in bad soaking water taste this good? How could I not know about this? Let's just say that I have been making (and drinking) my own almond milk ever since, and I am here to share with you Joseph's life-changing, universe-altering recipe for the most delicious beverage ever. And, at just 50 cents a glass, it's budget-friendly and ideal for the savvy vegan.

Joseph's Amazing Homemade Almond Milk

Whether whirled with frozen fruit into a smoothie or enjoyed solo anytime of day, I have no doubt that you, too, will fall for this fast, easy, and cheap alternative to store-bought non-dairy milk.

Makes 6 cups

What You Need:

3 cups filtered water, chilled

2 cups ice

1 cup raw organic almonds, soaked overnight

6 fresh Medjool dates

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

What You Do:

1. Into a Vitamix (which is the best appliance ever and worth every penny), place water and ice. Add almonds, dates, vanilla, and salt.

2. Blend on high-speed for one minute. Drink immediately, or refrigerate in a glass jar for up to two days.

Almond Milk Tips from Joseph:

*Prefer plain almond milk? Leave out the vanilla and salt (which I, personally, can't live without)

*Make a delicious hazelnut milk by substituting hazelnuts for the almonds

*If the Medjool dates aren't fresh, soak before using

The Final Word: What can I say. I pre-judged, and missed out on years of one of the tastiest vegan secrets ever. But I still refuse to turn my kitchen into a sprout garden. (For now!)

Thank you to Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body for the photo.

Money-Saving Smartphone Apps

2011-08-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Using your smartphone to save money (because goodness knows we’re spending enough on our smartphones) by Assistant Editor Anna Peraino

The Dish: We Americans like our smartphones. A lot. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, iPhones, Blackberrys, and their Andriod-based fellows have found their way into every facet of our lives, from waking us up in the morning to helping us find our way across town to joining us at the dinner table (and at the movies, and in the bathroom…). Smartphones are so essential to many, in fact, that a recent survey found that a third of Americans would rather give up sex for a week than their smartphone for the same seven days. Without getting all inappropriate on you, let’s just say they’re here to stay.

In that case, we might as well be as savvy about these suckers as possible, right? Sure, a smartphone in and of itself is a pretty pricey venture—data plans and text messaging on top of your monthly cell-phone bill costs a pretty penny to say the least—but it doesn’t look like Americans are giving up any time soon. And that’s where I come in folks—to let you know how to make your smartphone work for you a little bit more: the app. Everyone has their Words With Friends, their Angry Birds, their Twitter and Facebook apps, but there are thousands of free apps out there just waiting to help you save money. Check out nine of my favorite mobile apps for fitness, food, and more, and save some major money—or at least save a portion of your phone bill.

1. Bethere Deals: This GPS-based app shows deals around you, from 25 percent off coupons at a wine store to $100 off sunglasses. The pins, which will show up throughout your metro area, include deals that are active and those that are coming soon.

2. ShopKick: By “checking in” at stores like Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, and more, you can collect “kicks” that will unlock deals, gift cards, restaurant vouchers, and more. Not bad for simply walking inside and pressing a few buttons.

3. Coupon Sherpa: This app features coupons for more than 5,000 stores such as Gap and Office Depot, and products such as Dell and Febreeze. No smartphone? No worries. You can use Coupon Sherpa’s codes online, too!

4. Nike Training Club: It’s almost like you have your own personal trainer with this app (I named mine Stacey, so I could have someone to yell at when being forced to do pushups). Workouts, audio guidance, rewards, and tracking are included, as well as a thriving online community.

5. Fooducate Nutrition Scanner: This super handy app gives any food with a barcode a grade based on its nutrition content. It will also provide alternative products in case what you scanned turns out with a paltry “C+.” Don’t forget to check ingredients lists!

6. Lose It: If you’re looking to shed a few pounds, this award-winning app makes it easy to log meals and exercise, track your weight loss and view progress reports (in handy pie charts, no less!), and get support by sharing your experience with others.

7. ShopSavvy: Want to know if you can get that new food processor for less at another store? ShopSavvy is on it. Find the lowest price for that Cuisinart by simply scanning a barcode. The rest is magic (or so I like to believe).

8. GasBuddy: I’m not a big driver (honestly, I move my car on street-cleaning days only), but for those of you who get behind the wheel daily, this app will help you find the lowest price per gallon in your general area. Seriously GPS, what did we do before you? Oh right, we used paper maps and got lost more often.

9. Yoga Relax Free: If you want to warrior II it up or tree pose for a bit, this free app provides relaxing music and high-quality videos to go along with its postures. To be honest, this is not the app for you if you’re looking for an intense yoga workout, but for a chill-out session, it’s perfect.

The Final Word: Whatever way you slice it, smartphones are a big part of well, the world. And since we’re all savvy vegans here, our phones should be no exception. If you have any favorite money-saving apps, let us know about them in the comments!

Guest Post: Melody Polakow of Melomeals

2011-08-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: In light of the upcoming first annual Vida Vegan Conference, I asked vegan blogger Melody Polakow of Melomeals, to share some tips with us on vegan cooking on a budget.

The Dish: My name is Melody Polakow and I’m thrilled to be contributing to the Savvy Vegan Blog! I have been blogging at Melomeals since 2006. At the time I was married and cooking for my two teen sons, so I focused on big batch, frugal cooking from scratch for a family. I have since divorced, and in late 2008 I was laid off from my job as a vegan and raw foods chef. At the time I was sharing custody of my kids and money was so tight (my kids have since grown up and don’t live with me)—I only had $100 a month to spend on food! I realized that was around $3.33 a day, so the focus of my blog turned to creating healthy and delicious whole foods for $3.33 a day.

Fast forward to September 2010. I had been working several chef jobs while creating more photography and I realized that I was ready to take a huge leap into working for myself. Melody Polakow Photography and Chef Services was born! Since I am working for myself and times are tough, I am still spending $3.33 a day and having a ball sharing my recipes and ideas via Facebook and my blog.

The way I cook has evolved over time into a system of preparation that is basically the same whether you are cooking for one or a family of 10! I utilize a pressure cooker and cook two pounds of dried beans from scratch and two pounds of grains. I make three sauces to have on hand: salsa, marinara, and a nutritional yeast-based sauce. I also clean out the fridge at least once a week and make a big pot of soup I call a “filler soup” which is eaten for several meals or snacks and frozen into two cup portions. You can see my blog for these various recipes. Having these bases on hand allows me to create healthy and delicious whole-food meals in less than 30 minutes! Here’s one of my favorite veggie burger recipes.

Simple Bean Burger
Makes 12-15 burgers, depending on how big you make them!

Note: These burgers taste much better the next day

What You Need:

3 cups hot beans (reserve bean liquid)

2 cups old fashioned oats

2 tablespoons onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

3 tablespoons soy sauce
What You Do:
1. Mix everything together in a food processer. If you don’t have a food processor, mash really well with your hands!
2. Add reserved bean liquid as needed so the mixture isn’t too dry
3. Chill mixture for at least 4 hours
4. Form into patties; cook in a cast iron or non-stick skillet over medium to medium-low heat for about five minutes per side.

The Final Word: Thanks Melody for the tips, and highlighting your great blog, which shows that you can eat vegan on almost any budget. And for those readers and bloggers who will be attending the Vida Vegan Conference this year, we look forward to seeing you!

Savor the Savings at Farmers' Markets

2011-08-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Saving big at farmers’ markets with Editorial Assistant Joni Sweet

The Dish: With the local food movement well underway, farmers’ markets have been popping up all over the country, bringing fresh produce to the masses. Step into nearly any market and you can expect to see boxes of streaked and striped heirloom tomatoes, wooden bins overflowing with leafy greens, aromatic herbs, and even purple string beans! But as a savvy vegan, farmers’ markets can either be your best friend, or your worst enemy. Increased demand for local food has sent prices skyrocketing at some of the more gourmet markets, often making a bag of vegetables cost three times what you would pay in a supermarket. Yet, with the right tricks up your sleeve, you can saunter out of a farmers’ market with a canvas bag stuffed with a bounty of vibrant vegetables, knowing you’ve made even the most diligent coupon-clippers envious of your steal.

1. Choose Wisely

The first step toward savvy shopping requires careful consideration of which market to visit. While the larger, gourmet markets may offer a greater assortment of produce and artisan foods, don’t be surprised to see price tags that match the foodie scene. Instead, try visiting smaller markets that have built their reputations on offering fair prices and friendly service. In San Francisco alone, there are more than a dozen farmers’ markets, so depending on where you live, you may have to shop around. Try visiting the weekday markets, as they are often less crowded and expensive.

2. Timing is Everything

Think the best time arrive at the market is bright and early? Think again—while the early shoppers certainly do have an advantage in terms of variety, coming to the market as it’s shutting down is prime time for savings. Unlike at a supermarket, where it's difficult to discern how long the produce has been on the shelf, farmers have to load up the truck with whatever they don’t sell and lug it back at the end of the day, risking damage and rotting along the way. Vendors are much more likely to cut you a deal if it means they save time and energy by avoiding reloading the truck. Also, scope the stands for ‘seconds,’ over-ripe or slightly bruised, yet perfectly delicious, produce, often sold at half the price!

3. Savor the Season

While supermarkets have most Americans believing that strawberries grow all year round, farmers’ markets show visitors that each type of plant has its own specific growing season, with price tags that reflect the supply. If you make a point to ask about what’s in season, both your mouth and wallet will be pleased with the results. Toward the beginning or the end of a season, expect to pay top dollar for produce, especially berries. Focus on discovering ways of making a fruit or vegetable that you’ve never heard of (Chinese long beans or bitter melon, anyone?) taste great and avoid reverting back to the habit of buying the same produce week after week. One of the best resources of interesting recipes using foreign fruits or vegetables is the person growing them—don’t be afraid to ask questions!

4. Buy in Bulk

When buying more than 10 pounds of a particular item, say tomatoes, farmers can, and do, shave dollars off of the price per pound. To ensure your money goes a long way, formulate a plan for those tomatoes. Make a giant pot of spaghetti sauce to freeze and save (or in my case, eat atop spiral pasta every night until it's gone, because homemade sauce is delicious!), learn how to preserve via canning, or plan a tomato-themed menu for the entire week.

5. Knowledge and Flexibility

Overall, to have the best experience at a farmers’ market requires exercising flexibility and staying informed. Before making any purchases, orient yourself with the prices and selection by first strolling through the market. Maybe you went to the market hoping to find strawberries for a shortcake for Grandma’s birthday, but your favorite farmer ran out by the time you arrived. Be flexible and try raspberries or blueberries, instead. If you’re a proponent of organic produce, you surely have felt the pinch on your pocketbook when paying $5 or more per pound of organic bell peppers. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s guide on what produce should be bought organically, so you can limit your pesticide exposure while also maximizing savings.

The Final Word: Being a savvy, smart shopper requires little more than learning about seasonal availability, timing for buying, and speaking to your guides—the farmers—to save big at farmers’ markets. Just don’t forget to bring your reusable shopping bag!

5 Tips for Hosting a Budget-Friendly Dinner Party

2011-08-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

VN's signature Macaroni & Cheese

The Topic: Fabulously inexpensive dinner-party tips with VegNews Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: I love hosting friends and family for dinner. The best way to show off delicious vegan food is by cooking fantastic meals for the people I love, and it helps to answer the common question, "What does a vegan eat?" I recently hosted a dinner party for the VegNews staff and friends using only recipes from the magazine or VN.com (with one minor exception. More on that later). In total, I hosted 15 people for dinner and spent approximately $70, which breaks down to $4.67 per person. (Full disclosure: I used a large bag of Daiya cheddar cheese we had at VNHQ so I didn't buy that.) Here are my five tips for hosting the ultimate vegan budget dinner party.

1. Resourceful Recipes

When cooking for a large group, search for crowd-pleasing meals like VN's signature Macaroni & Cheese, patatas bravas, or Marinated Kale Salad. Why? You can easily double or triple these recipes without having to buy expensive ingredients. The patatas bravas I made were mostly potatoes, tomato paste, cayenne, and some vegan mayo. While the macaroni and cheese might look expensive, I nixed the breadcrumbs on top and the main cheese sauce is potatoes, carrots, shallots, onions, cashews, and vegan margarine. Simple ingredients equals big savings.

2. Stress-Free Planning

I used to get super stressed when I had people over. I cut out the anxiety by simply planning out when I was going to cook what and writing down a schedule. I first made the desserts because they would last the longest in the refrigerator and freezer. The items that needed to be served hot, like the grilled cheese sandwiches and the sauce for the patatas bravas, my husband and I made a few hours before the actual dinner.

3. DIY Ice Cream

Making your own ice cream is easy. Yes, an ice cream maker is an upfront cost. I have a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment that cost about $80, but just like a juicer, the investment is worth it. With your favorite non-dairy milk and some simple ingredients, you can make a quart of vegan ice cream that will taste just as great as any frozen pre-made pint.

4. BYOB

Ask your guests to bring the booze. After all, you're doing all the cooking. Plus, they can bring what they want to drink. Without having to buy alcohol, beer, or non-alcoholic drinks, you can keep your dinner-party costs down.

5. Use what you have.

Pull out all of your plates, silverware, glasses, and serving dishes. Who cares if it all matches? Everyone is looking at the food anyway. You save money by not buying paper plates and cups, while also keeping your party eco-friendly. I used to think it was easier to buy biodegradable plates than to handle all the dishwashing, but after attending a brunch party where the hostess had everything laid out down to silverware and cloth napkins, I decided to go the same route.

The Complete Menu

Appetizers

Pumpkin Cheddar Biscuits (September+October 2011)

Marinated Kale Salad with baked tofu and avocado

Grilled Cheese on sourdough (my husband's top-secret recipe)

Entreés

Beer-Battered Tempeh "Fish" with Tangy Tartar Sauce

(March+April 2011)

VN's signature Macaroni & Cheese

Patatas Bravas (November+December 2009)

Desserts

Coconut Cream Pie (May+June 2011)

Hot Chocolate Ice Cream (July+August 2011)

Pumpkin Spice Frozen Yogurt

The Final Word: With careful planning and a budget, dinner parties are a great way to entertain and subtly educate those you love about the food you love. Yes, veganism isn't only about the food, but with a kickass menu you can show those who think a cruelty-free diet means eating only hummus and pita that the world is our soy-oyster when it comes to awesome eats.

Stress-Free Vegan Cocktail Party

2011-08-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Hosting a vegan cocktail party on the cheap with VN Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack

The Dish: Don’t let limited funds get in the way of your urge to throw a swanky soirée. Cocktail parties are a great way to bring your friends together, and offer the pleasantry of social lubrication without the liability of an apocalyptic house-destroying kegger. Better yet, they’re effortless to veganize and make pocketbook-friendly. The next time you have reason to celebrate—moving into a new apartment, getting a promotion, spaying your cat—why not let the good times roll with some vegan hor d’oeuvres and libations? Here are some low-cost ways to party like it’s 1999, 2011-style.

Potent Potluck
Since the dawn of time (or at least since 16^th century England), potlucks have provided a great way to project the appearance of a gracious host when in actuality you can sit back and let your guests do most of the work. Attendees are generally happy to throw together a dish or two as long as you provide a venue, some tunes, and at least some of the booze.

Thrifty Thirst-Quenchers

Barnivore is a great resource for finding out which beer, wine, and liquor is vegan-friendly. Keep it simple with one or two specialty cocktails so that you don’t have to buy tons of ingredients.

Concoct easy, delicious homemade sangria and serve it in a giant crystal punch bowl (you can find them at thrift stores and they really dazzle). Sangria is super versatile and hard to mess up; you can use almost any variety of fruit and experiment with adding brandy, vodka, or white wine instead of red.
Mint juleps are perennial crowd-pleasers, especially in the summer, and require only a few modest components. Offer rum as well as bourbon and you’ve got yourself—and your thirsty guests—a mojito option.
Vegan White Russians are a stellar pick if you are perchance throwing a Big Lebowski party. Just don't get too riled up as the evening draws on—remember, aggression will not stand.

Apt Appetizers

You don’t need to slave over the stove for hours in order to produce tasty, satisfying bites.

Bruschetta is refreshing yet filling, and you probably already have at least half of the six ingredients for this recipe waiting in your pantry.
Everyone loves butternut squash. This is a scientific phenomenon, like gravity. How about whipping up Butternut Squash-White Bean Croquettes that cook in only 15 minutes?
(Vegan) cream cheese roll-ups are kindergarten-simple, but look and taste surprisingly sophisticated. I include cilantro to add some herbaceous goodness. Or, turn up the heat with Cream Cheese Wontons.
If you are truly, devastatingly broke or short on time, just go with store-bought guacamole, chips, hummus, and warm pita. These staples never disappoint.

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

Depending on the size of your party, you may want to indulge in some merry decorating and activities. Goodwill and Salvation Army are always overflowing with cheap crystal goblets if you want to create an air of prestige in your abode. If you have a working fireplace, throw an eco-friendly Duraflame log in for a romantic crackle. Music is also of great importance to achieve your desired ambiance. The Smiths’ Meat Is Murder or Moby’s Animal Rights are thematically appropriate options, or you can go with Andrew WK's Party Hard if you seek carnage.

The Final Word: Being a killer host or hostess doesn’t have to come with a high price tag. An hour or two of prep time and a few simple drinks and snacks are all you need to set your roof on fire (figuratively). Skip the bar scene and bring the fun to your own domain, without emptying your funds or your fridge.

Photo via Copykat.

Cheap Eats: Puffed Rice!

2011-07-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Finding new uses for favorite foods with Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: Growing up, our household did not have "sugar cereals." Anything sweeter than Raisin Bran was totally verboten, and my sister and I could just go ahead and forget anything that involved a cartoon character on the box. My mother referred to sugar affectionately as the "white death," which of course made me desperate to try every possible type of fiberless, over-sugared, candy-colored morning abomination possible. (I was definitely most enticed by Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, despite the fact that they're fictional.) So, in what could probably best be described as a non-stop bender of sugary breakfast bingeing that occurred once I had a driver's license, I ate a lot of cereal. This was not a particularly proud, nor nutritionally balanced, time in my life, but it did teach me the value of cereal.

Is it just for breakfast? Please. Eating cereal for breakfast is like riding a bike with training wheels. As my palate has matured somewhat past the CFSB point, the simple magic of puffed rice has me totally enchanted. Plus, you can find it just about everywhere, including gas stations, and it's cheap. Does it offer a ton of nutrition? No. Are there cartoon characters on the box? Yes. Can you find more-nutritious, less-cheap organic brands? Yes. But for the purposes of this post, all that really matters is the fantastic snap, crackle, and, oh yes, the pop that puffed rice provides. Here are my three favorite non-breakfast uses for this crunchtastic cereal.

Sushi! This definitely falls under the it's-so-crazy-it-just-might-work category, but go with me. This culinary genius credit goes to Joelle of Vegan Bachelor Soup fame, who a) is fun to make sushi with and b) puts crazy things in her rolls! Like puffed rice! And they are light and crunchy and surprising and wonderful and should be required at all sushi restaurants. One note of caution: eat your awesome sushi promptly, because if the cereal sits next to the avocado or spicy tofuna for too long, it gets soggy, not snappy.
Breading. Someone cleverer than I has likely thought of this already, but it bears repeating. You want something breading in the finest of crunchy coatings? Then here's what you're going to do: smash up some cereal, and bread away. It's a finer coat than panko, crispier than breadcrumbs, and works particularly well with recipes that involve baking the coated item.
Sandwiches. I know! Cereal in sandwiches? What's next, dogs marrying cats? Don't forget, friends, fortune favors the bold. The next time you're making a signature PB&J, put a layer of rice in between the PB and the J. Again, this isn't like adding superfood powder to your smoothie in terms of nutrition, but the sublime texture of something crunchy in the middle of an already-delectable sandwich totally can't be beat.

The Final Word: Whether or not your foray into the world of cereal experiementation is prompted by years of careful parenting, or simply because you happen to have access to puffed rice and want to do something slightly more interesting than pour coconut milk on it, thinking of your favorite staple foods in new ways can yield fantastic, inexpensive results. Snap!

How to Live (Well) Within Your Means

2011-07-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Living Simply (but Well) with VegNews Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: I've often said that the recent economic recession has a silver lining. Of course, I feel for those who can't find work, who have lost their health insurance, or are struggling in any way. It's a sad situation. But, America, we live way beyond our means, and maybe we need a kick in the pants to stop buying stuff that we don't need and we can't pay for. In many other countries, the idea of credit cards is completely foreign. Why would you buy something if you don't have the money right now to pay for it? Here in the US, we're a credit culture. We want to feel like we can buy anything we want, and since we can borrow money at a moment's notice, why not drop $15 on lunch, down a soy latte every morning, or sport a wardrobe that we really can't afford.

Years ago, right after college, I backpacked through Asia. I started my journey with a 25-pound backpack and thought I needed absolutely everything in that pack. But week after week, I realized how little I really needed. I shed articles of clothing (I could wash what I had every few days and be fine), my CD player (I gifted it to a guy in China who would enjoy it far more than me), and my collection of books (I could swap reads with other travelers and just carry one book at a time). After liberating myself from all of my stuff, I was able to travel the world with a four-pound backpack. It was amazing, and although living this simply certainly doesn't translate to real life, that feeling of freedom has stayed with me for the last 18 years.

So here's five ways I try to simplify my life so that I live within my means, joyfully.

Love Your Bottle

It makes me crazy to see people still buying plastic water bottles. This is 2011! Not only is plastic detrimental to the environment, in many places, tap water is just fine (thank you, Hetch Hetchy). If it's not, invest in a water filter/distiller/purifier so you can make your own pristine water. And buy an adorable (BPA-free) bottle that never leaves your side!

Love Your Leftovers

There was a time in my life that I shunned restaurant leftovers. Ugh, the hassle, and I felt it made me look desperate or something. But as an adult, I have embraced leftovers and never miss an opportunity to take home a doggy bag. Leftovers make a delicious brown-bag lunch the next day, and it cuts your meal cost in half (paid $10 for a Mexican platter? Get two meals out of it, and you've just cut your cost to $5).

Lose the Lattes

I have never been a coffee drinker, so maybe this is something I can't understand. But I don't understand! Have you done the math on these babies? It's crazy how much a latte habit adds up to. And the more we drink coffee/caffeine, the more we need it. Starbucks has made us a country of addicts, and they're making a killing. Full disclosure: I love a good soy chai latte, but I look at it as a treat and only indulge once a month or so.

Brown Bag It

This is a great way to save moola so you can splurge on something meaningful (but still within your means). A few months back, I penned an entire post on brown-bag lunch ideas, including my favorites: kale salad with baked tofu, baked potatoes with toppings, bagel sandwiches, homemade soup, and, yes, leftovers. With a little planning, you can enjoy healthful, delicious meals at the fraction of a cost of take-out. And is that really how you want to spend your money?

Know When to Splurge

So all of this being said, I am the first to admit that I love a good splurge (that I can afford, of course). A leisurely Friday night dinner with friends over good food, wine, and dessert at a great restaurant? I relish that. A weekend away at my favorite inn? When do we leave? That vintage 1920s table I have been eyeing at a local antique store (and I'll have forever)? Sold. But when you cut out all the extras that really don't enhance life that much, yet keep you perpetually in poverty, we miss the opportunities to do something meaningful that matters.

The Final Word: I know people who make $150k a year and cry poverty and those who make $25k and live like rockstars. Hopefully, the current economic crisis is providing a valuable lesson on cutting out some of the fat and learning to live rich with any income. It can be done.

Decorating on a Dime: Ribbon Wall Art

2011-07-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Sprucing up your pad for a pittance with VegNews Assistant Editor Anna Peraino

The Dish: Having a love of design and close to no money might seem like an issue (who can afford a $300 pendant lamp? Really?), but it’s really a blessing. An apartment consisting of blank walls and a mattress on the floor (been there) can turn into a unique and fabulous pad, as long as you put in the effort. Whether you’re a renter or the idea of painting your home sounds about as fun as visiting a butcher shop, livening up a big white wall can seem really daunting. I hear you. My roommates and I have been there. We can’t afford fancy art prints, but we feel like our days of hanging Led Zeppelin posters are behind us.

I came across this idea for a wall decoration while perusing weddinggawker (I can feel you judging me for spending time looking at pictures of random strangers’ weddings, and I’m totally fine with it.), and the roommates and I decided to replicate it for the big wall that our couch sits against. After one quick trip to our nearby Michael’s (Mecca for crafters and scrapbookers alike), we had everything we needed to recreate this cute ribbon wall decoration for the low, low price of $12. Here’s how to make your own!

Supplies:

A ball of twine

Craft glue

Ribbon (we went with four colors found in our living room rug to really tie the room together)

Push pins

Directions:

1. Cut ribbon into eight-inch pieces. If you want to get really fancy, you can cut out a triangle at the bottom of the pieces for some added snazziness.

2. Measure and cut a piece of twine to desired length.

3. Place a small amount of craft glue on the non-triangle end of the piece of ribbon. Wrap it around the twine and secure back onto the ribbon. Hold for about 15 seconds to set.

4. Repeat step 3 with other pieces of ribbon, alternating colors and making sure to equally space each piece of ribbon*. Additionally, be sure to face the ribbons forward so that the glued-up sides will sit against the wall.

5. Allow your ribbon-ed up twine to dry for at least an hour.

6. When glue is dried, install to wall by putting two push pins into your wall in desired location and stringing your ribbons between them.

7. Repeat as many times as you want.

8. Take a picture of your super awesome new wall art and post it on VegNews’ Facebook page so we can see!

*Or don’t! Do five blue piece all close together and then add a yellow polka dot one three feet away! This is America. It's a free country!

This decoration would also work with scraps of cloth from the fabric store, newspaper, tissue paper, different colors of twine or yarn … whatever you imagine, it can happen. Plus, despite the company's logo, all of Elmer's glue is vegan.

The Final Word: Making your home look freaking awesome can cost either a ton or next to nothing. All you really need is a little creativity, a couple of hours, and a craft store. Need more ideas? VN Associate Editor Jennifer Chen’s fabulous compendium of tips, websites, and stores to help you decorate your home for less tells you everything you need to know to up the fancy ante in your home. Good luck!

Homemade Vegan Birthday Cakes

2011-06-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Homemade vegan birthday cakes that taste great and are budget friendly

The Dish: It’s no secret that I love to bake. I’ve always enjoyed baking, and grew up spending hours in the kitchen making cookies, brownies, cakes, and bars any chance I got. When I went vegan 16 years ago, a whole new world of dessert-making opened up to me, and I learned everything I could about what to use in place of eggs, butter, and cream. I discovered that incredible baked goods can be made without the use of any animal products, and it’s the binder, the fat, and the liquid that’s necessary in the chemistry of baking—not the dairy products themselves. Plant-based alternatives work just as well, if not better, and my baking repertoire now includes everything from egg replacer and white vinegar to non-hydrogenated margarine and soy creamer.

Here at the VegNews offices, we celebrate a lot of birthdays. And what better way to fête someone’s special day than with a homemade, vegan cake in the birthday guy’s/gal’s favorite flavor? After a few years of ordering in cakes for staff birthdays, I realized that the quality would be much better if I made the cakes myself (nothing beats a freshly made cake), and, guess what? The cost to make a cake is at least half of what it costs to buy one from Whole Foods or a local bakery. Yes, it takes time, but if you enjoy baking, I promise the reward will be worth it. It’s a wonderful feeling to give something from the heart to someone you care about, and now I look forward to our VN birthday celebrations all year long.

So what recipes do I use for my cake-baking? I’ve found a few tried-and-true favorites that our staffers seem to love—and then I customize it for the particular person. For VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig and VN Editor-at-Large Laura Beck’s recent birthdays (just days apart), I made a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercrème filling and frosting, all topped with fresh strawberries (which had just come in season). For Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria’s June soirée, I whipped up a cocoa cake with vanilla buttercrème filling and frosting, and topped it with raspberries. And for Art Director Sutton Long’s upcoming celebration (Sutton, don't read this!), I am planning a triple-threat chocolate cake given her love for all-things chocolate. And the cost for each one? A very budget-friendly $12.

Lyndsay and Laura's vanilla cake with vanilla buttercrème filling and frosting, topped with fresh strawberries

Elizabeth's chocolate cake with vanilla buttercrème filling and frosting, topped with fresh raspberries

Here are some of my go-to cake and frosting recipes, all courtesy of the incredible vegan recipe resource, VegWeb.com:

Super Moist Chocolate Cake

Incredible Vegan Carrot Cake

Coconut Pecan Frosting

And here's my favorite vegan buttercrème recipe:

Colleen's Vegan Buttercrème

This filling/frosting is easy to make and easy to customize. Add 3/4 cup sifted cocoa powder or three 1-ounce melted squares of unsweetened chocolate for an out-of-this world chocolate version.

Frosts and fills one 9-inch cake

What You Need:

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I like Spectrum)

1/2 cup non-hydrogentated margarine (I like Earth Balance)

2 teaspoons vanilla or one scraped vanilla bean

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 to 4 tablespoons soy creamer

What You Do:

1. In a large bowl, cream together shortening and margarine. Alternatively, whip together in a food processor, but the frosting won't come out as light and fluffy. Add vanilla or vanilla bean until combined.

2. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, while beating at a medium speed. When all sugar is added in, add soy creamer one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. If need a slightly thicker frosting, chill for one hour before frosting your cake.

The Final Word: For a birthday to remember, bake up a customized cake that will be loved by all and is good for the pocketbook. The sky's the limit on how creative you can get, and don't forget the candles!

Good Herb(s)

2011-06-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Tasting tasty tastiness with VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: So you know how you can pretty much eat miso every night for dinner without fail because it's there and it's cheap, and it makes you feel good? I'm not here to criticize miso, or any other less-than-exhilarating diet mainstay, because they are staples for a darn fine reason. But I tell you what: even the brokest-as-a-joke-est among us craves the thrill of flavor. Sometimes, a simple soup, even one as tried-and-true as miso just isn't going to cut it. That, friends, is where things get herby.

Herbs are basically little flavor packets just waiting to get tossed into your boring dinner. And then guess what? Your dinner is no longer boring! It's definitely magic. Herbs will run you about $5 for a huge bunch at the farmers' market, and they make just about everything you can imagine taste terrific. Abby's Biscuits are stellar on their own, but with a little boost from fresh herbs, they're even better. So simple, and yet so freaking delicious. Tossing together a quick, weeknight salad? Great idea! Chiffonade some basil and you've turned your salad into something a gourmet would serve. (Not only for the basil, of course, you get extra points for "chiffonade.")

Want to shop closer to home? Skip the farmers' market and head straight for Trader Joe's, which sells a potted herb garden that can last you through many weeks of mighty fine meals. Or, try out a gardening class at your local Armstrong Garden Center. Not only are the classes free, but you're usually invited to take home the herb of your choice after learning how to not kill your plants immediately.

If, for some unfathomable reason, you aren't able to use all the herbs from your bounty, you should ask yourself two questions:

Really? Because once you get a taste of easy, dreamy Tempeh Sandwiches with fresh thyme, Foccacia Pizza with any herb that tickles your fancy, or even just a quick bruschetta of tomatoes, fresh basil, chopped garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, it seems likely that your stash will quickly disappear.
If, somehow, you've eaten every delicious thing under the sun and still find yourself rolling in rosemary, take heart. Abby's mom just so happens to have a perfectly wonderful Lavender-Rosemary Scrub waiting to make good use of your leftover herbs—especially if they happen to be rosemary and lavender.

The Final Word: Get ye some herbs. They're abundant this time of year, and there's just no good reason to suffer through a beige, bland dinner. Perk up your most hardscrabble meal with a fresh pop of herbs, and never resign yourself to tired standbys again. Tastiness achieved.

Life's Little Pleasures

2011-06-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Enjoying the vegan life with VN Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: Recently, a good friend and I were lamenting how busy we are so we decided that instead of working like mad every day, we'd try doing something fun every day, however small. Sure, in any given day, you have 8 million things to do. So here's my simple list of fun activities I'm incorporating so that my life isn't all about work (even though working at VegNews is the best job ever). I'm hoping to inspire you to make your own list of amazing, inexpensive things to do right this very minute, you busy bee.

1) Farmers' market dinner date. Instead of a fancy dinner out, I decided to shop my farmers' market for a special dinner with my husband. I grabbed rainbow Swiss chard ($1.50) and found a pasta vendor who had several vegan pastas, including a Meyer lemon pasta ($7). Since my hubby loves lemon, I thought this would make the perfect meal. Topped with roasted garlic, fresh lemon juice, and olive oil, this was a farm-fresh meal that he loved. Lesson learned: the best romantic dinners can cost you close to nothing at all.

2) DIY beer garden. Another simple date idea? Pick up some beers (or wine, if that's your pleasure) and create your own beer garden. Brendan and I love beer gardens—what's better than sipping a brew outdoors in the sunshine? We picked up a six-pack of Deschutes Twilight Summer Ale ($7.99), a bag of Kettle Tia chips ($3.99), and made our own backyard beer garden. We brought out lawn chairs and enjoyed our brews with our pup laying at our feet. Check out our summer guide to 7 Vegan Beers or barnivore.com for all things vegan alcoholic. Lesson learned: a backyard is a beer garden in disguise.

3) At-home manicure. I am too cheap to go get my nails done so I like doing them at home. But as I mentioned to my friend, I was even getting too busy to do that. Tonight it ends! No more excuses. Beauty Without Cruelty just debuted some new nail polishes and I have the Mermaid nail color at home ($16.95). Yes, it's pricier than drugstore nail polish, but it is free of nasty chemicals that most nail polishes contain. Lesson learned: Spend money on what counts—chemical- and cruelty-free beauty!

4) Get your Groupon. This weekend, I got two vegan cinnamon buns for free and vegan brunch for two for $15. How? Groupon, my friends. Cinnaholic had a $5 for $10 for cinnamon buns and Souley Vegan had a $10 for $25 offer. So how did I get free Cinnaholic buns? Groupon credits! I referred a friend to another offer they had and I got a $10 credit. VN Editor-at-Large Laura Beck got me started on my Groupon addiction. VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig recommends coupon sites Living Social and Daily Gourmet as well. On Daily Gourmet, you can specify that you only want vegan offers! Lesson learned: Save a little, get a lot.

5) Read magazines. It's no surprise that I love magazines. Some of my favorites include VegNews, Time, New York, and Bust, among many others. But I've let my subscriptions pile up to the point where I'm several weeks behind on the news. Again, no more excuses. So at our DIY beer garden, I grabbed a pile of magazines and caught up. Lesson learned: Use what you have.

The Final Word: I'll be the first to admit that when I'm busy, I'm more likely to stick to my routine of vegging out in front of the TV, but by challenging myself to do things I actually enjoy without spending wads of cash, I'm a lot happier. So make your own list of fun, creative things to do so that your to-do list isn't just full of errands.

Costco: Surprise Vegan Haven

2011-06-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Shopping at Costco, vegan style, with VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig

The Dish: After reading this post you may be saying to yourself, "Huh?" And I probably would have thought the same thing about a year ago, but hear me out. Getting a Costco membership is a great way to save money while stocking up on your basic staples. Luckily, I was gifted a membership last Christmas, which saved me $50, but I plan on renewing next year. Here are some vegan treasures that Costco has to offer.

1) Canned Goods. I understand that a lot of vegans prefer to cook their own beans, and use only fresh ingredients. I totally support this, and would do the same if I had the time, but at this point in my life, canned goods is where it's at! On my recent trip to Costco, I bought a big package of kidney beans, which included about 10 or so cans for a very reasonable price. I also picked up diced tomatoes and coconut milk, and now my pantry will be stocked with these items for at least the next several months. You can also find bulk packages of vegan soup from Amy's Kitchen—the package I bought included lentil and vegetable barley soups.

2) Nuts and Nut Butters. You will most likely find a better selection of nuts in the bulk section of your local grocery store, but I guarantee that the selection is not half bad. This is especially true when it comes to the more basic items, such as almonds. My parents bought me a huge bag of raw almonds from Costco last year, and I still haven't finished the package—they are nestled away in my freezer. You can also find a good selection of nut butters, including almond and peanut butter from varying brands. And I want to mention again that these butters come in huge containers—you'll be set for months!

3) Spices. As we all know, spices are really expensive, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the prices for the bulk spices at Costco. I nearly bought them all, but I restrained myself and bought two of the ones I use a lot, including chili powder and white pepper. Needless, to say, I won't need to purchase these spices again for about a year or so.

4) Miscellaneous. If any of you have ever stepped foot in a Costco, you'll understand that this list could go on for quite a while, so I'll stick to the ones I recently found at my local Costco. For wine lovers, there are big bottles of Yellow Tail wine, whose red wines are vegan. For snackers, there are big variety boxes of Clif Bars and big bags of trail mixes. I also purchased maple syrup, soy sauce, and soymilk—all in super-big quantities!

The Final Word: One thing to understand. When you shop at Costco, you will most likely be spending $100 to $200 on any given trip, but that is a full (and heavy) cart of goods that will last you several months, if not more. This type of shopping may not be for everyone, but it has worked very well for me so far. As a member, you also receive a book of coupons each month which will offer you even more savings. I would suggest trying it out for a year, if you are able to, and see for yourself! Costco is definitely a unique shopping experience.

Menu Planning

2011-06-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Save time, money, and your precious produce by VN Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: Going to the grocery store to me is like the proverbial candy shop. I could spend hours wandering Berkeley Bowl West, checking out new products and exploring the bulk bins. I would toss everything that interested in me in my cart (hello, shiittake mushrooms), rack up a hefty grocery bill, then get frustrated that I loaded up on quality organic produce and ended up throwing out mushy veggies or rotten fruit. I came across a handy menu-planning article in Real Simple that changed my life, and will change yours too!

1) Plan ahead. Using this simple checklist, in the menu column, I write down the recipes I want to make during the week. Then I list any ingredients that I'm missing under the appropriate column so when I'm grocery shopping, I know exactly what I need. While the meal planner does list meat, poultry, dairy, and fish, I simply use those columns for my proteins like tofu, tempeh, or beans, and list my non-dairy products in the dairy column. I usually plan over two weeks so that I don't have to shop every weekend. Bonus! Write down the cookbook and page number or website you got the recipe from directly under the day of the week and you'll never have to scramble for it when you're crazy starving after a long day at work.

2) Divvy up the work. Got roommates, a partner, or even able-bodied kids? Enlist them in your menu planning! In my household, my husband and I divide up our menu based on our schedules so that if I have a busy Tuesday night, he can tackle that dinner. We use our weekends to make our own seitan, cook beans, or bake up a big veggie lasagna. During the week, we pick simple 30-minute recipes and save the fancy ones for the weekend like this Seitan Bourguignon from the Martha Stewart vegan episode.

3) Grow your own herbs. Instead of buying a small $5 container of sage for Biscuits with Creamy Sage Gravy, I simply go to my backyard container garden and snip some fresh sage myself. I'm not the world's greatest gardener, but my mom is slowly teaching me how to be a better one. I have a simple herb garden of parsley, rosemary, tri-color sage, and Italian oregano growing in containers in my backyard. Rosemary and sage are pretty sturdy plants so if you're a newbie like me, you won't kill them instantly like I used to do with basil plants (sorry, basil!).

The Final Word: Spending some time planning out your meals will not only save you from throwing out valuable produce, it will save you the stress of the 7pm mad dash to figure out what you're making for dinner every night. And with all the money you're saving, you can even splurge on a nice meal out with your cooking partner.

Cheap Eats: Banana "Frozen Yogurt"

2011-05-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Quite possibly the cheapest, easiest dessert out there by VN Editorial Assistant Anna Peraino

The Dish: Summer is right around the corner, and that means many things: sun, sand, cookouts, watermelon-eating contests, sweating your face off walking to the mailbox, and of course, ice cream. One of the season's most beloved treats can also take a hefty crack at your wallet, with a teeny weeny carton of Coconut Bliss putting you back about $5. Seriously, I can take one of those down in 4.28 minutes. It's science. So how can a savvy vegan enjoy a cold, delicious ice-creamy treat this summer? I have one word for you: bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

Now that I've officially annoyed you by getting a Gwen Stefani song stuck in your head, let me get back into your good graces by telling you about this wonderful dessert. Did you know that by blending frozen bananas at a high speed you can make a soft, dreamy frozen yogurt-like dessert? No joke! All you need for this recipe is bananas, a food processor, and some fun mix-ins if you feel so inclined (I listed some of my favorites below). Plus, with bananas being one of the cheapest fruits out there (hello, one dime per fruit!), this dessert will keep that wallet of yours in very good shape. Not to mention it's swimsuit-friendly, since you're skipping out on all the fat and sugar found in traditional (albeit supremely delicious) ice cream.

Banana "Frozen Yogurt"

Serves 2 (or 1, if you're me)

What You Need:
2 or 3 bananas

What You Do:

1. Freeze bananas.
2. In a food processor, throw in frozen bananas and process for about 5 minutes, stopping periodically to scrape sides down. Once your bananas have a fluffy, frozen yogurt-like consistency, you're done!
3. Optional: While your bananas are transforming, throw in some peanut butter, chopped walnuts, cacao nibs, or rum. Or all of them. Or something else. Anything goes!
4. Enjoy your delicious, cheap, and healthy dessert! (Well, healthy unless you added all the mix-ins.)

The Final Word: Summer is a time for splashing and sunning, not for worrying about your bank account. Whip up this frozen treat next time you're jonesing for a dish of something cold and sugary but don't have the cash for the real dairy-free deal (which, if you're a normal person, is every day). Enjoy!

Budget Splurges

2011-05-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Living Simply but Fabulously with VegNews Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: I've never liked to buy stuff, unless I really need it. Having more stuff means more maintenance, more stress, and more money out the door. And then what happens? You forget about the stuff and it just clutters your space and your life. I say buy what you need, but buy quality. Then it lasts a long time and you don't need to think about replacing the (quality) stuff for years to come.

That said, I do have a few splurges that I like to partake in, but I've figured out a way to not have to spend a fortune when doing something nice for myself. Here's my list of must-have budget buys:

1) Massage. Being in a creative business with constant deadlines is stressful. Although I love it, sometimes I need a deep-tissue massage to feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Over the years I've received gift certificates from friends and family for fancy spa massages (charging upwards of $150 for a one-hour massage), but I've discovered even better massage at a third of the price. You might not be greeted with chilled mint lemonade and organic chocolate brownies (not vegan anyway!), but I can get an incredible massage at Jin Healing for Women (four locations in San Francisco) for less than $50. Chinese "Foot Spas" are all the rage in Northern California, and you can often get a one-hour body massage and foot soak for $25. Ask friends for recommendations or search Yelp for affordable spa services in your city, and never pay ridiculous massage prices again!

2) Movies. I love going to movies. It's a great way to relax and check out for a few hours, especially with a tub of 1,000-calorie popcorn (I digress). But the $10 ticket is just a hard price to swallow, so I try to hit matinees whenever possible to save a few bucks. And most independent theaters have five-ticket passes, so I always have one of those going for my favorite movie houses and pay only about $6 per flick.

3) Yoga. I am addicted to yoga, but do I really want to pay $20 a class at a fancy downtown studio? The answer is no. After a bit of research, I discovered a local yoga class with a wonderful instructor just minutes from my home. The studio (if you can call it that) is nothing fancy, but 90-minute classes are just $10 each and the small class sizes provide a really nice community atmosphere. And many studios offer weekly free or discounted classes taught by their junior teachers, so just ask around or search online for affordable options.

4) Lunch specials. Sure, nothing beats dining out with friends over an extravagant multi-course meal with wine and dessert. But I secretly have a thing for lunch specials at Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese restaurants. For around $6, you can enjoy a plate of your favorite entrée alongside steamed rice and a bowl of soup. And then you're full for the day! What's even better? Hit a matinee, then a lunch special, then a massage, and you really have it going on.

5) Antiques. I adore antiques. And buying vintage is good on the pocketbook and the planet, as you're not buying new. Plus, those 19th century French chairs have already lasted 100+ years, so you know they're not going to fall apart anytime soon. So where do you find good deals on vintage finds? Flea markets, estate sales, and antique stores—but always remember to bargain. Shop owners expect everyone to ask for at least 10 percent off and have marked up the prices accordingly, so be sure to take advantage of the built-in discount.

The Final Word: Living on a budget does not mean you have to sacrifice your quality of life. I enjoy the satisfaction of living within my means but splurging every once in a while on things that bring me joy without breaking the bank.

Hello, Tailor!

2011-05-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Saving money while staying stylish with VegNews Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: I am what you call short. At 5'3", most people tower over me, stepstools are a constant fixture in my kitchen for reaching the top-shelf goodies, and I can stand up straight in most airplanes right under the luggage compartment. I'm not bragging here, per se, but just try to restrain your envy when you learn that finding a pair of (non-capri!) pants that doesn't completely cover my feet is something that happens with the frequency of leap years.

What do my stubby legs have to do with saving money? So glad you asked! You see, when the vertically inept among us go looking for clothes, it can be a bit tricky. Pants are typically miles too long, skirts hit at awkward lengths, and don't even get me started on jackets. As is true for any Savvy Vegan, my first shopping stop is almost always a thrift store, which is great for the environment and my wallet, but tends to limit sizes further. But! There's good news: Tailors exist. And they can alter things.

This means that my pants need no longer be oddly rolled up inside themselves and stuck there with masking tape (which definitely happened more than it should have in high school). The gorgeous silk-free dress that is exactly what I was hoping to wear to an event, but happens to only be available in extra large? No problem! (This is precisely what happened with the dress I wore to the Genesis Awards this year!)

The Final Word: Finding a tailor in your area means that every $10 non-wool suit in your local thrift store is fair game, and the alterations are likely to cost less than buying a new item off the rack. Even if you're not of the diminuitive sort, the world of stylish vegan wear opens right up when you stop worrying about an errant hem.

Budget Vegan Books

2011-05-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Buying your favorite vegan books with VegNews Associate Editor Jennifer Chen.

The Dish: Whenever I go to a bookstore, I head straight to the cookbook section and visually stuff myself silly with the recipes I read in vegan cookbooks. I don't know about you, but suddenly I want to buy every single book in sight. Vegan desserts! Dinner party menus! A whole book about waffles! But if I shell out my entire paycheck for cookbooks, I won't have cash for the actual groceries to make said delicious recipes. What's a budget gal to do?

1. Make a list, check it twice. I keep a list on my iPhone of only the books I really want (as in, I will actually make the recipes at home). When I'm at my local used book shop, I can pull out my list and grab the books that I already know I want instead of going Supermarket Sweep-style and shoving the entire cooking section into a giant cart.

2. Half Price Veggie Books. This Amazon.com online shop has more than just cookbooks. From Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston, Moby's book about Teany, to The Face on Your Plate, you can find top reads for 50 percent or more off.

3. Power of Powell's Books. If you've ever been to this bibliophile heaven, you understand the power of Powell's Books. The place is packed with new, used, and out-of-print editions of every book you could ever think of. Seriously. If you don't live in Portland, just hop online and sign up for the monthly newsletter and get offers for free shipping, sale prices, and exclusive deals. Even better, you can sell your books to them and they pay for the shipping!

4. Get used, get thrifty. My best scores have always come from my local bookstores or Out of the Closet thrift shops. I scored a hardcover copy of The Kind Diet for a friend's birthday for $15, snagged a copy of 1,000 Vegan Recipes for $13, and even found The Conscious Cook for $16. Go local, scour, and save.

5. Make your own cookbook. The best holiday gift I ever got was from my friend Diana. She made me a vegan cookbook by handwriting some of our favorite vegan recipes in a nice notebook. She pasted other recipes and left me room to add in my own favorites. Having her Italian mother's recipe for marinara sauce? Check. Having fun little notes in the margins from my friend? Priceless.

The Final Word: You can easily satisfy your love for books and saving cash. And with the extra dough from selling your books, you can whip up two fancy cupcake recipes from your gently used copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Fun and Cheap Fitness Tips

2011-04-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Tips for getting fit on a tight budget with VegNews Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig.

The Dish: I've always been really active, but lately I've been in a rut. Sure, I bike to and from work each day, and just by living in a bustling city without a car, I walk a lot more than your average American, but honestly it's not enough. I love to eat! And unfortunately, my eating has completely taken over my fitness regimen. So I'm writing this post not only for you fellow readers, but for myself as well, because I have a lot of fitness knowledge under my belt—I just need to get back on the wagon. Here are some tips to get fit, and save on the dough, because we all know it's easy to throw away a ton of money on gym memberships.

1. Running/Walking. This is the cheapest way to get fit, hands down! All you need is a good pair of running shoes, and you're set. And a good pair of running shoes certainly doesn't have to break the bank. Yes, there are $100-plus shoes that you could buy, but you can get the same quality shoes for way less. Now that's not to say that you can get a good pair for $10—a good, top-notch pair of shoes is something you don't want to skimp on—but you could definitely find a good pair ranging between $40 and $60 if you look hard enough. Shoe stores have sales every day. And again, that's all you need! So save up for a pair, and hit the road. You can easily map a running route anywhere in the US on the USA Track & Field website, which will give you the exact mileage of your run. And if you need a little extra motivation to get started, I suggest that you sign up for a race in the not-too-distant-future, and start training. You can find cheap races on Active.com, and training guides on the Runner's World website. Now, hit the pavement!

2. At Home. If you have the proper motivation, you could get super-fit at home for really cheap. You could pimp yourself out with a bunch of fancy equipment, yes, but you don't need to. I suggest that you at least get a set of cheap hand weights, but those aren't really necessary either—it's called body weight, people! All you need to do to get in shape is to do a basic strength routine two to three times weekly, including but not limited to push ups, triceps dips, squats, lunges, and crunches—the list goes on. Don't forget to do some jumping jacks in between to get some much-needed cardio. If you don't know how to do these moves, just Google them and you soon will learn—that's my promise to you. If you're able to spend a little more money, then try out a subscription to a fitness magazine. I enjoy Women's Health and Health, but there are many. You could also purchase a few cheap exercise DVDs—I recently purchased the Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 from Amazon, and once I get tired of it, I plan on selling it back. If you have the luxury of having On Demand on your TV or Netflix Instant Watch, there are plenty of free exercise videos on both (not including the monthly fees for both services). Very simple!

3. Gyms—without the expensive memberships. I'll admit, I've been really tempted to join a gym recently, but something keeps me from doing it—I'm guessing it's the money drain and the crowds. If you're really interested in checking out a gym though, then do it the cheap way! There are many coupons for gym classes on such sites as Groupon, and I bet that most gyms will give you a free trial if you ask. You may like it well enough and decide to shell out the dough, but don't forget to negotiate—many people pay a lower amount than the stated gym membership cost. You just need to ask! And don't forget about your local YMCA and community recreational centers—these are usually much cheaper than other gyms.

The Final Word: I truly believe humans are made to be active. I may have written about being a couch potato, but there's only so much sitting you can do before you get antsy. I'm feeling that itch, and I plan to get moving! I hope these tips help you a bit on the fitness front, and in saving money.

Saving and Going Green

2011-04-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Simple ways to save money in the long run while saving the planet with VegNews Editorial Assistant Alexandra Chang.

The Dish: Living in the city as an independent lady has definitely put a dent in my savings account. Rent, electricity, gas, water, and garbage bills are just the beginning of the financial responsibilities. From keeping the home filled with necessities like toilet paper to staying hydrated without buying endless bottles of water, I’ve become increasingly more aware of both the financial and environmental benefits of making simple lifestyle changes. In honor of Earth Day this week, here are some of my easy eco-friendly tips for keeping more money in your bank account.

1. Reuse Water Bottles. I used to buy water whenever I went out and even though it’s only a dollar or two a pop, it added up quickly. I started reusing my old plastic water bottles, which was nice, but even nicer was getting my own Camelbak Groove canteen. For $18, it comes with an internal water filter that lasts up to 300 uses, after which you can just buy another filter for around $4. Another great filtering bottle is the Hydros Bottle ($30); a dollar from every purchase goes toward a water infrastructure project. Both options are easy to fill up in any old sink without having to worry about tap water contaminants.

2. Join a CSA. While it may seem a bit costly at first, in the long run, you'll be saving time and money on food. Plus, it's a great way to support local farmers and benefit from tasty organic produce. Living in the Bay Area means plenty of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) options, including Farm Fresh to You and Eating with the Seasons. I currently have a small box of produce delivered to my home each week for $100 a month. There's so much per box that I hardly buy any other produce, and seeing it come to my door helps me be inspired to cook new dishes and eat out less. To find a CSA near you, go to the Local Harvest site and type in your zip code.

3. Take Shorter Showers. While my housemate (ahem, boyfriend), has yet to cut down much on his shower time, it is important to remember that water isn’t an endless and free resource. Each minute in a shower requires 2.5 gallons, so cutting back a few minutes each day can save a lot! Another way to reduce water usage is to let the yellow mellow. After living in a Berkeley cooperative for a year in college, I started to adopt the motto (though it’s far more pleasant to do when living with just one roommate than in a house of 17).

4. Embrace the Cup. The DivaCup that is. Or the Mooncup. Both are small, reusable silicone cups used as alternatives to tampons and pads during menstruation. At $20 to $35 each, the DivaCup lasts up to a few years, while the MoonCup has a lifetime of up to 10 years. I’ve tried both and love them equally as much, because what’s not to love about never having to spend another dollar on boxes of tampons and pads and contributing less to landfill waste?

5. Turn off the Lights. My parents always reminded me to turn off the lights before leaving a room, but it never quite stuck until I had to start paying my own PG&E bill. Not only is it pointless to have the bathroom lights on when nobody’s in there, it’s wasteful in terms of energy and money. Using Energy Star florescent bulbs also reduces costs, and they last much longer than standard bulbs.

The Final Word: Nothing feels better than saving money while knowing you are using fewer environmental resources and contributing less waste to the world. It’s a win-win situation for everybody! For more energy-saving tips, visit the US Department of Energy’s website, and for more ideas on going green, check out VN’s 10 Tips for Going Green.

Lasting Leftovers

2011-04-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Making leftovers last longer than this past winter with VegNews Editorial Assistant Anna Peraino

The Dish: When you're a savvy vegan, your main expenditures are shelter and food (unless you live under a bridge, in which case, pull yourself together, man!). Since I don't know how to save money on rent (I live in San Francisco, after all), here are five helpful tips for making your grub last.

1. Cook big. Want to save time and money? Look to your Pyrex dish, my friend. Casseroles, soups, and pasta dishes can be made in bulk for cheap and can last a week if rationed responsibly. Check out our recipe roundup and make a pot of chili tonight (cans of beans + cans of tomatoes + spices = delicious money saver).

2. Bring back leftovers. Wasting food = money down the drain. Am I right? This goes for all food scenarios: groceries, potlucks, food festivals, and most importantly, restaurants. If you're going to shell out your hard-earned dough, you better make the most of it. How? It's simple. First, if you have enough self-control to save half of your meal for tomorrow's lunch, do it (and by the way, kudos to you). It's like having your dinner at half off! Second, get creative. Don't want the baguette that comes with your salad? Take it home and turn it into tomorrow's PB&J.

3. Ask for more. You want to know what's expensive? Salad dressing. But guess what? You can get it for free (legally)! Next time you order a salad, ask for extra dressing on the side, then take it to-go. It'll save you serious dough and you'll get to eat something that tastes like it came from a resturant (because it did). This method works for sauces as well. And bread baskets. And those little packets of jelly you get at diners. Just try to keep it classy, OK?

4. Grains all day. A bulk bag of brown rice will save your bank account, for serious. Cook a huge batch of the stuff Sunday night (four cups, plus. Dream big, people.), and use it throughout the week. Lunches and dinners can consist of stir-fries, casseroles, and rice salad, and breakfasts? Throw cooked brown rice in a pot on low-medium heat with non-dairy milk, cinnamon, sweetener, and raisins for 15 miniutes and Bam! Delicious porridge! Don't forget rice pudding for dessert.

5. Plan ahead. I don't know about you, but I usually walk into the grocery store with five items in mind and walk out with a $50 receipt. The easiest way to avoid the grocery-store money suck? Make a list. That way, you'll be less likely to splurge on that bag of Oreos (though I wouldn't blame you).

The Final Word: With a little creativity, you can make your grocery bill stretch farther than the line at the grand opening of a new Baby Gap. Just kidding. Baby Gaps are so 2002.

Brown Baggin' on the Cheap

2011-04-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Tips for making brown-bag lunches on the cheap

The Dish: We know we have it good. The VegNews offices are located within a few blocks of four vegan restaurants, plus dozens of vegetarian and veg-friendly eateries offering up delicious plant-based fare. But what's a vegan trying to watch her budget (and her waistline) to do? Brown bag it.

Yes, it's glamorous to run out during lunch to pick up a sandwich, sushi, or burrito and not have to think about shopping, prepping, or cleaning up. But I enjoy packing lunch for myself, especially knowing that I am not spending money on food that I could make in my own kitchen (okay, not always true). Plus, restaurant food is ridden with oil, salt, and sugar, and the portion sizes send me into an afternoon coma. Here are my top five brown-bag meals that keep both my body and my bank account healthy.

1. Kale Salad

It's no secret that we're a bunch of kale lovers around here, but when a marinated kale salad costs upwards of $10 at a local vegan restaurant, I'll make my own. Buy a bunch of kale ($1.75), marinade it in an olive oil-lemon juice vinaigrette (50¢), and top with half of an avocado (75¢). Voilà—a delicious, nutritious meal for $3.

2. Bagel with Avocado, Sprouts, and Cucumbers

A toasted bagel loaded with fresh veggies makes for a hearty lunch to fuel an afternoon of editing. Buy a bagel (75¢), spread on fresh avocado (75¢), and top with sliced cucumbers (20¢) and sprouts (25¢). That bagel sandwich that costs $4 at a nearby café set you back just $1.95. Life is good.

3. Baked Potato with Toppings

If your office has a toaster oven or microwave, you can bake up a potato before lunch for a tasty midday meal. I love a baked Yukon Gold potato (50¢) topped with a slathering of vegan mayo (20¢), shredded lettuce (25¢), and chopped cherry tomatoes (40¢). Heaven for $1.35? Yes.

4. Soup

During the cold-weather months (that would be nearly all of them in San Francisco), I love to make a big pot of soup on a Sunday afternoon and then eat soup for lunch during the week. Think smoky black bean, curried sweet potato, coconut butternut squash, and African peanut. If an entire pot of soup costs $5 in ingredients to make, a bowlful amounts to just pennies. In my opinion, soup is the most underrated food on the planet. It's downright delectable, cheap, and filling.

5. Leftovers

Less ambitious and sexy than any of the above, packing leftovers from the previous night's dinner is actually a great habit to get into. Just make a little more dinner than usual, pack leftovers into a Tupperware/tiffin/lunchbox, and bam! Lunch is done. It takes a lot less time to make 25 percent more dinner than to create a new meal from scratch.

The Final Word: Whether you're new to packing your own lunch or are a seasoned brown bagger, bringing your lunch helps you save cash while keeping you healthy. My go-to meals are ideal for those who are time-starved, but I love the thought of fancy-pants bento boxes and gourmet lunch boxes. Enjoy the process, and happy eating!

Cheap Eats: Vegan Bachelor Soup

2011-03-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Eating on the cheap with Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: Virgil once wrote,"Fortune favors the brave," and he could not have been more right—especially when it comes to dining inexpensively (which, I'm sure, is exactly what he had in mind at the time). Should fear rob you not only of delicious meals, but also of your cold, hard cash? Heck no! Go boldly into your kitchen, like you've never gone before! (Really, if anyone comes to mind when you think of Virgil, it's Shatner.)

I was richly rewarded by inquiring once about what my friend Joelle was eating. Joelle is something of a culinary genius, and is the embodiment of fearlessness in the kitchen. She'll put spirulina on anything. She'll whip up seitan in five minutes flat. Sometimes she'll get a little extra crazy and create something truly magical, and sometimes—very rarely—she'll wind up with a dud. But, that's the cost this culinary adventurer pays for all her stellar successes. So, she was once dining on a bowl of soup that looked, well, sort of like what you'd expect to find floating along the coast during a red tide. When I asked her what it was, she said, "Bachelor soup. It's my specialty." The "bachelor" part comes from the fact that this dreamy dish takes all of three minutes to make, and can be eaten straight from the pot while standing over the stove, like a barbarous bachelor. She was generous enough to share some with me, and ever since, I've been hopelessly hooked. I could eat this garnly looking soup day and night for the rest of my life.

Joelle's Bachelor Soup

Serves 1

What You Need:
6 cups water
1/2 tablespoon Tom Yum paste
1/2 cup frozen rice cakes
1/8 cup dried seaweed (we like wakame)
8 ounces tofu (or 1/2 asceptic package)
1/2 cup vegetable stock

What You Do:

In a medium pot over medium-high heat, bring water to a boil. Add Tom Yum paste and rice cakes, and boil for 1 minute.
Reduce heat to medium. Add seaweed, tofu, and vegetable stock, and simmer for 2 minutes, or until seaweed is soft. Serve in a bowl, if you must.

The Final Word: The seaweed is easily the most expensive item in this soup, and that can be lessened by buying in bulk from your local health-food store. Check the "ethnic" section of any major grocery store to find Tom Yum paste, or head to your local Asian grocery. Be bold. Enjoy this awesome, cheap soup. See if luck doesn't find you.

Decorating on a Dime

2011-03-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Topic: Decorating your home without spending all of your hard-earned money by VegNews Associate Editor Jennifer Chen.

The Dish: I recently helped my wonderful yet woefully style-challenged friend decorate her new home. She and her husband are on a tight budget—$200 to redo their living room and bedroom—so she asked me to come over and lend my design skills. Now, I'm not a decorator, but I am known amongst my friends for designing on a dime. If you walk into my house and admire my turquoise blue distressed coffee table, I'll happily share that I got it from a flea market for less than a $100. While the stereotype might exist that vegans live in yurts or hippie communes, I know that our community has some serious style. Here are some ways to decorate your humble abode without distressing your wallet.

1. Score good deals. My favorite websites to hit first? Craigslist and Freecycle.org. On Craigslist, towards the end of the month (when everyone is moving out and wants to get rid of their furniture ASAP), search through the furniture sections. If there's a catalogue item from Crate & Barrel I'm eyeing, I'll try to find the same exact piece on Craigslist by entering "Crate & Barrel coffee table" as a search term. You can easily score IKEA items the same way. I love shopping this way because not only are you recycling an item, you can also get it for half the price. My tip: If you like an item, ask for pictures so you know what the condition is of the piece you're buying, and have a game plan for how you're going to transport it home. Search for your local Freecycle group and signup for the Yahoo group to join. Everything under the sun is on the list. For both sites, reply quickly if you want something or else some other lucky person will score your deal.

2. Coupons. I am the queen of coupons, and something I learned about the ubiquitous Bed, Bath, & Beyond (BBB) coupons that I get in the mail is that they never expire. Seriously. I found this out at while checking out at a BBB and the cashier asked me if I had my stack of coupons. I did not, but now I do. So save those 20 percent off coupons for your big purchases like new bed spreads, curtains, or kitchenware.

3. Gather three objects you love. I stole this idea from Style Network's show Dress My Nest with Thom Filicia because I think it's genius. What Filicia does for each of his style-challenged couples is ask them to give him three objects that they love. He takes the objects—framed photos, dresses, souvenirs—and creates their style from their own personal objects. So that's what I did with my friend. Her wedding invitations had a nice red Asian theme and a photography book she picked out as one of her objects had beautiful black-and-white portraits. So when I saw a $25 table lamp with a red, white, and black flowered lampshade at Target, I snagged it immediately. It's so much easier to shop when you know what you're looking for instead of just grabbing random furniture pieces you like (and racking up a huge bill). Bonus tip: Target has some amazingly cute designs for cheap. And if you grab items out of season, you'll land some hot deals like red-and-white place mats for $1.33 each.

4. Flea markets. Haggling might not be your thing, but even a gentle, "Can you do better?" will often help lower a price on a piece. Even better, try this tactic just before the flea market closes. Vendors don't want to haul all of their wares back so bargain-bidding is easier. One of my favorite flea markets is the Melrose Trading Post in Los Angeles. When you find a great flea market and your favorite vendors, visit their stalls often. I scored so many deals at the Melrose Trading Post from a furniture guy who makes the most adorable vintage-looking furniture pieces (like my writing desk that was originally a sewing machine table). I visited him so much that every time I did, I got better prices. Vendors want you to keep coming back so tell them how much you love their pieces, bring friends (which is the best word-of-mouth for them), and gently ask what they can do for their best customer (that's you!).

5. Design blogs and magazines. Design magazines like Blueprint and Domino were my go-to mags for design ideas but in the wake of those publications' closure, a whole slew of drool-worthy design blogs have popped up. (Check out these mags for great ideas: ReadyMade, Anthology, and Dwell.) While you don't have to go and buy a suggested $1,000 bed frame, you can collect great ideas and styles (try the free website Evernote.com to store your ideas on the go). Here are some of my favorites, along with some picks from the VN staff (VN Editorial Assistant Anna Peraino was particularly exited to share her fave design blogs.): Apartment Therapy, Craft, Design Sponge, Craft Gawker, and California Home + Design's blog.

The Final Word: It may take extra effort to find the truly great decorating finds out there, but once you do, you can happily brag to your friends just how little you spent. You don't have to redecorate an entire room, but finding key pieces will help bring your whole place together. With a good eye on deals, you too can dress your nest for less!

Cheap Groceries at Ethnic Markets

2011-03-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Filling up your grocery bags at ethnic markets (and saving tons of money while at it) by VegNews Editorial Assistant Alexandra Chang.

The Dish: It’s true that buying groceries and eating in is cheaper than going out, but there’s also a significant price difference between buying groceries at Whole Foods or Safeway and getting the same veg-friendly products at an ethnic market. Here in San Francisco, ethnic market tends to mean any of the dozens of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, and Indian markets throughout the city. But even if you’re not in a metropolis, there’s probably at least one ethnic grocer near where you live. Though they might be a bit intimidating at first, the rewards are completely worth it.

1. Basics First: For grains, noodles, and beans, these markets have the best deals by far. I grew up eating rice at every dinner, and have fond memories of lugging bags bigger than my torso into the trunk of the car. My family of five went through a 50-pound bag in a few months, but now I can hardly get through five pounds in that time. For $30 at any Asian market, 50-pounds—around 250 uncooked cups—lasts forever for one person. You’ll also find packs of eight single-serving shaped rounds of dried noodles for 99-cents. And beans? The prices at Mexican grocers are insanely affordable.

2. Milk and Meat Replacements: Every Asian market has at least a few brands and varieties of tofu. Larger grocery stores like 99 Ranch have more than a dozen. Silken, extra-firm, baked, seasoned, or fried, because it’s such a cultural staple, tofu goes for cheap. You can even afford to experiment with different types—I love extra-firm and baked tofu—in your favorite recipes. Non-dairy milk is also plentiful, ranging from unsweetened rice to chocolate soy, all for at least one-third less than natural foods markets.

3. Spice up a Meal: I went to a big chain grocery market recently (as a last resort for some Earth Balance) and saw tiny containers of spices priced at $8.99. Granted they were organic and fancily packaged, there is no reason for a savvy vegan to purchase such items when just as satisfying spices reside in the aisles of any ethnic market at one-eighth the cost or less. The same goes for premade sauces—soy, black bean, vegetarian BBQ, and all. It’s simple and cheap to achieve the layered taste of a great Indian curry or prepare a delicious Chinese stir-fry.

4. Produce Galore: Though you may not be able to afford kale from natural food stores or farmers’ markets on a daily basis, you will be able to stuff your cart full at ethnic markets. At my favorite neighborhood produce joint, kale is only 99-cents per bunch. Usually steep-priced special veggies are also discounted, in particular those associated with the culture’s cuisine. Baby bok choy, Chinese broccoli, edamame, and various mushrooms are cheaper in Asian grocers, while Mexican grocers’ tend to have lower prices on peppers, olives, and avocados.

5. Surprise Treats: Ethnic markets aren’t only for your everyday staples; they’re a place to explore the variety of veg-friendly food items you’ve never tried or even seen before. Ever heard of basil seed drink or sweet sesame-filled rice balls? Or thought about adding pickled radishes and kimchi to your next meal? What might be considered specialty items at the standard grocery store are so common to certain cultures that they’re cheaper than buying a can of soda at Walgreens. Treat your taste buds to new flavors, without hurting your wallet.

The Final Word: Seeing the total amount at the checkout stand of ethnic markets never fails to surprise, in the best of ways. So if you’re on a budget and looking for regular grocery items or wanting to cook up a fantastic meal from another culture, then add ethnic markets—may they be Asian, Mexican, Indian, or other—to your grocery shopping rounds.

Now Swap it Out

2011-02-28T14:59:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Scoring sweaters, skillets, and more at a swap party by VegNews Editorial Assistant Anna Peraino

The Dish: When money is so tight you can’t even afford regularly priced kale (and yes, I speak from personal experience), the last thing on your shopping list is an immersion blender or a new sweater. While the occasional Goodwill or eBay purchase can get you some things on the cheap, you still have to shell out dough. Enter: the swap party, where you can score FREE stuff sans dumpster diving (gross) or stealing (illegal). Hosting a swap party is easy, cheap, and fun to do—read on to find out how.

1. Find stuff to offer up. The classic swap party is for clothing. If that's the way you want to go, gather gently used clothes, shoes, and accessories you don’t want and put them in a bag. “But I love all my clothes, Anna!” No, you don’t. Stop lying to yourself, okay? You haven’t worn that high-waist black and white polka-dot pencil skirt in two years, so throw it in a bag. (But seriously, I’m looking for one. Let me know.) I challenge you to expand your swap-party horizons past your closet! DVDs, kitchen items, lamps, and old boyfriends work too.

2. Add friends. Involve others who have similar bags containing similar items by sending an invite to friends announcing your party. Possible cheap avenues include, but are not limited to: evites, emails, Facebook invites, carrier pigeons, smoke signals, and yelling.

3. Pick a swap site. Meet at a large location (say, your living room). Each swap participant should section off a part of the room to set up their goods, so that each of you can walk to the others' "store.” Set up a full-length mirror as well (if your party includes clothes), so that you and your friends can ogle at each other ("That looks so much better on you!”) Set up clothing lines or tables to display items; if you’re cramped for space, neat piles work too. Other organizational options include sorting by room, style, color, or type of thing.

4. Craft a swap strategy. Order, people. Without a solid swap strategy, you and your guests will end up brawling over blender attachments as pairs of jeans fly across the room. One possible strategy is to use tokens—one token for each item a guest brings. Another option is to take turns: draw straws to determine the order, and then let one person go at a time, limiting the number of items you can pick up per turn. The rest of you can nosh and sip while you wait. Speaking of which...

5. Provide cheap (and yummy!) snacks. What’s a party without food and bubbly, right? Serve small bites that friends can pop in their mouths while examining martini shakers. Why not serve White Bean Bruschetta, Cashew Coconut Date Cookies, Green Tea Cakes, or have your guests bring their favorite bites? And might I suggest some Champagne to go with that? I’m a sucker for bubbles. I’m an even bigger sucker for four-dollar bottles of bubbles. Plus, after a glass or two, everything will look great on you.

The Final Word: After an afternoon spent with friends, food, and fabulous finds, you will walk away with a slammin’ new cocktail dress or serving bowl, good memories, and a happy stomach. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is as true today as it was whenever that phrase was created (I’m picturing horse-drawn buggies), so plan, swap, and enjoy your new finds!

City Living, On the Cheap

2011-02-26T15:27:00.001-08:00

The Topic: City Living, On the Cheap by VegNews Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: There's a big rumor going around that's time to debunk once and for all: Living in a city is impossibly expensive. Yes, places like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle have some of the highest rents in the world (hello, $2k matchbox, rat-infested studio in NYC), but once you're in, you're golden. That means that if you can make rent each month, there are myriad ways to live cheaply in today's most desirable metropolises. Here's how, without resorting to a diet of boiled beans and rice for the rest of your (urban) life.

1. Eat at Ethnic Eateries. In smaller towns, there is often one token Thai restaurant, one Mexican place, and maybe an Indian eatery. When there's no competition, prices go up, so you end up paying a lot more than you should for a veggie meal. But in the city, competition is fierce, keeping the prices down at some of our favorite veg destinations. Think Vietnamese sandwiches for $4, veggie burritos and falafels for $5, and Thai lunch specials for $6. And given the ample portion sizes expected in the city, these dishes can easily be spread out over two meals. Lunch and dinner for just $2.50 a pop? I like that.

2. Free Entertainment is Everywhere. Having lived in a city for most of my adult life, I am often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of weekend activities that present themselves every Friday. We're talking multiple concerts, multiple walking tours, multiple lectures, plus hundreds of activities you never even hear about. Included in this lengthy list is lots of free activities. In San Francisco, I love summer concerts at Stern Grove, book signings at my local book shop, and roaming the aisles of our year-round farmers' markets. There are also plenty of museums that are either always free or offer free admission at least once a month.

3. No Need for Gyms. Besides the fact that I can't stand gyms, there really is no need to pay for a fancy gym membership in a large city. Urban parks provide miles of trails for walking, hiking, and bicycle riding; the local Y or high school offers cheap swimming passes; and free yoga classes exist in nearly every city, especially in the summer (don't miss Saturday morning yoga at Chicago's Millennium Park).

4. Huge Library Network. The bigger the city, the often better the library system—which provides absolutely free books and DVDs for your reading/viewing pleasure. Growing up, I loved my small-town library, but that hard-to-find book you just have to have will exist somewhere in the vast network of urban libraries. And with new state-of-the-art of lending systems, you can request and renew books online so to avoid those pesky late fees!

5. Living Car Free. Hands down, being able to ditch the car (and insurance and gasoline and parking and maintenance) is one of my favorite things about living in a city. This amounts to huge cost savings, even with a monthly bus or train pass along with the occasional cab fare and rental car charges. Because public transportation is often good in urban areas, there's just no need to have a car—and you'll get some free exercise while walking or biking to your favorite veg restaurant for that scrumptious lunch special.

The Final Word: I admit: Rent doesn't come cheap in some of today's hottest veg-friendly cities. But if you're yearning to live (or better manage your budget) in Seattle, Boston, or New York , and don't know how you're going to swing it, take it from me. It can be done, without sacrificing your quality of life.

Greens for Less (Green)

2011-02-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Standout Salads by VegNews Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: It's very clear—my love for salad is here to stay. I could (and often do) nosh a big pile of greens for two meals every day, and nothing makes me happier than seeing a big, beautiful kale salad as a part of any meal. But you know what I don't particularly love? Making salad. As a kid, my family cooked dinner together just about every night, and somehow the task of making salad almost always fell to me. Woe, the injustice! How I longed to sauté, to scramble, to, well, anything but make salad! Clearly, my burgeoning culinary talents were squandered. But, on the bright side, I now make a pretty decent salad, which can't always be said of my other kitchen experiments. Plus, buying restaurant salads (like the one pictured above from Herbivore) can be insanely expensive. So, how's a gal to eat gargantuan amounts of veggies every single day while saving money and not spending her entire life chopping broccoli? Simple. Here are my time-tested salad-making methods:

1. Buy in Bulk. Duh. I like to fill my cart once a week or so with a couple kinds of kale, pre-washed spinach (hint: buying the spinach with its stems means you have to spend time chopping, washing, and you usually pay by the pound, which means you're literally throwing money away!), red and green cabbages, and romaine. Is cabbage usually the cheapest of these? Yes. Does it also fill you up and add awesome crunchiness to your salads? Hell yes.

2. It Slices! It Dices! So, the greens are probably not what take you the most time, salad prep-wise. With a handy food processor equipped with a shredding disc, carrots and beautiful red and golden beets are done in no time.

3. Go Big. Find yourself a huge freaking bowl. Like, a really, really, really big one. Really. Big. I like a simple stainless steel bowl (check out your local restaurant supply store for super cheap options!) that's really wide, fairly flat, and ideally about the size of my torso. I'm on the short side, but who's counting? This enormosity is now your salad bowl. Put all your prepared veggies (in addition to those mentioned, I like green onions, hearts of palm, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, and sometimes cubed tofu) in said bowl. Now, the most crucial step...

4. Stay Naked! You know what dressing your whole salad does? Freaking ruins it, that's what! Leave your week's worth of salad in the huge bowl undressed, and it'll stay fresh through the week. Dress it the first night you make it, and you now have a huge pile of slimy pre-compost. Throughout the week, serve yourself a plateful, and just dress that. Voilà! Soggy spinach is a thing of the past.

The Final Word: Here's hoping you find yourself with tons more time, a happily full stomach, and a slightly more full wallet. Just think, if you started a company that you only worked on in the time you saved by not having to make salad every night, someday you could be totally rich! Or, you could just sauté something to go with your salad.

Budget Vegan Valentine's Day

2011-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

The Topic: Celebrating Valentine's Day without breaking the bank by VegNews Associate Editor Jennifer Chen

The Dish: While there are fabulous Prix Fixe Valentine's Day dinners at restaurants like Millennium, $75 per person is a bit steep for me. Sometimes Valentine's Day can be more about dropping serious cash on candy, cards, fancy dinners, and flowers, and you forget that it's really about spending time with the person you like. So here are my tips for romancing your partner with special gifts that cost only one or two pretty pennies, not millions.

1. DIY Dinner. Instead of an expensive dinner out, my husband and I are cooking for each other. He's going to make me one of my favorite meals—he makes a mean seitan marsala—and I'm whipping up Candle Café's chocolate mousse pie for dessert. Add some candlesticks and a glass of Framboise and it's a way more personal meal than any five-star chef could create.

2. Love Letters. The art of handwriting a note or a letter means so much more now than the 10,000 emails we read every day. Pick up a simple notebook at your local art supply store and spend the week writing love letters to your significant other. Each day, write about how you fell in love with them, favorite dates, or even a love poem. For a little inspiration, Pablo Neruda's collection of 100 Love Sonnets is so wonderfully romantic. And how much did your own love sonnets cost you? $2.99.

3. Handmade cards. One of the best Valentine's Day cards I ever got from my husband is a drawing he did of our yellow lab and our tuxedo three-legged cat holding a heart in their paws. Ridiculously cute and I loved it more than any $5 puffy-heart-fancy-cursive-generic Valentine's Day card. Draw something that means something to the both of you. Handwrite the note. Get creative. It only costs a sheet of paper and your time.

4. Free flower delivery. Who doesn't enjoy getting flowers? It's sweet and it makes your office desk look pretty. But instead of paying someone $15-plus to drop off flowers to your sweetie, do it yourself. If it's possible, pick up a pretty bouquet from a corner market (red roses are so overpriced that day, so go for something like pink Gerber daisies, which last longer anyway) and hand-deliver them to your significant other's office. Bonus points for getting to see your sweetie mid-workday? Check. Are you a better surprise than some random delivery guy? Definitely.

5. Mixed CD. Maybe I'm old school, but a mixed CD with your partner's favorite songs or just great love songs (try Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, or Sade) is a great way to share music you love with the person you love. Draw a great cover, handwrite the songs that are on the CD, and hand it to them before your romantic DIY dinner.

The Final Word: Valentine's Day is about celebrating the person you love and not about how much money you spend on said person. Ultimately, putting some thought and care and a little bit of elbow grease into the day will be much more rewarding than a dinner that costs more than a quick weekend getaway (hint: take said getaway the weekend after V-Day, when the crowds have died down). Enjoy the day!