Cheap Eats: Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

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

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

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

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

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

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

Money-Saving Smartphone Apps

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!