Tried and Tasted

Konichiwa!

This month's Tried & Tasted was honoring Fat Free Vegan. I love the food over at Fat Free Vegan. Even though I am not a vegan, I do like to include a couple of vegetarian or vegan meals into my meal plan each week. I do this for the health of myself and the Nerd, and for the health and well-being of the planet.

Animals, and by-products like dairy, contribute greatly to the greenhouse gas emissions (18% of all total G.H.G.E.) I know that it is important for us to cut down on our meat and animal product consumption. In my research on eating locally, and organically, to mitigate climate change I found an NPR podcast, Eating Right Can Save the Planet, in which Mark Bittman stated that if we "eat 10 meals a week containing meat...if you eat a couple of meals less of meat, each week, you’re doing yourself, and the planet,... you’re doing all of us a favor.” That's exactly what I believe. I already eat fewer than 10 meals each week that contain meat. I couldn't tell you how many, because that varies based on the leftovers we have.

I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to see that Fat Free Vegan was the Tried & Tasted blog of the month. I thought about trying out something new, but I thought it'd be better if I stuck with something I'd made in the past. I also had some ingredients that could use some tapping into that were suited for the recipe I chose.

My Tried & Tasted recipe for the month was Double Mushroom Miso Soup with Sesame Broccoli for Two. My version of this tasty, light, and healthy meal was actually a Triple Mushroom Miso Soup.

I used Hawaii island Hamakua Mushrooms in 3 varieties:

Alii Oyster (large)

(Alii means royal in Hawaiian)

Shimeji (small white)

Kea Hon Shimeji (small brown)

I used white miso paste, and homemade vegetable stock (I only had 3 cups, so I watered it down to 6 cups and added extra miso paste for more flavor). I didn't have any tofu, so I left it out and used all of the mushrooms. I also added extra wakame because I enjoy it.

Triple Mushroom Miso Soup

Over at Fat Free Vegan it was noted that the meal wasn't completely filling, so I cooked up some brown rice to go along with the broccoli. This was a really good idea as we were full, but not stuffed and completely satisfied. Brown rice is also a healthy whole grain, especially for gluten-free eaters. It was also a good idea as I only had one small head of broccoli left from the previous week's pizza.

Sesame Broccoli with Brown Rice

Together the miso soup, broccoli, and brown rice formed a delicious flavor balance and was texturally pleasing. I would definitely serve this meal again. The Nerd's verdict was, "Mmm miso." He also liked the broccoli. The only complaint he had was that we ran out of sake too soon.

Not Enough Sake Leftovers

I recommend that anyone who likes miso soup, mushrooms, and broccoli or all Japanese inspired food try this meal. I know I'll be making it again.

Triple Mushroom Miso Soup, Sesame Broccoli, Brown Rice

Sayonara!

Links related to Tried and Tasted:

Holy Cow! announcement of T and T

How to participate in T and T at Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen

Bulk Foods

Lemongrass, because pictures are pretty on blogs.

I'm struggling over here at the computer. I'm trying to come up with a bunch of great bulk food recipes for the freezer. Now, I know I have some, but I want some that are relatively inexpensive but I want them to taste good. I also need them to be gluten-free.

So far, I have on my pad of paper:

Bulk Cooking

Meal #1 Chili

That's all I have. I wrote down a basic chili base from Crockpot365, and I can always play with the ingredients based on what I can get my hands on. Instead of using canned beans, I'll use dry beans. I've discovered that 3 cups of dried black beans is equal to 5 cans of beans(minus water).

**EDIT**

I now have:

Meal #2 Shepherd's Pie

What's great about shepherd's pie is that it is another one of those base dishes, where the basics are meat and veggies topped with mashed potatoes. There's even a Crockpot version over at Crockpot365.

**EDIT**

We now have all of the meals, and we have all of the bulk ingredients we could buy for them:

Meal #3: Honey Lentil Crockpot Stew from Crockpot365 and Rice

Meal#4: Fried Rice

Meal #5: Rice Casseroles (Sausage, Chicken, Beef, TVP)

Meal #6: Thai Curry and Rice

Meal #7: Indian Curry and Rice

Meal #8: Teriyaki and Rice

Needless to say, we now have a ton of rice in our cellar.

We'd like to have food for 3 months in the freezers, pantries, and cellar. We'll cycle through it all over time, and replace things as we need to, in order to keep the food in good rotation. We don't want any food to spoil of course. This means that I will need to keep quite a good inventory system, but I've found some good things online. I'll let you know if I find something that I settle on as a good food system.

The Nerd and I took a trip to Costco today, and we also picked up a friend and her mother. Our friend's car died, and her mom had just arrived on a plane. They were so pleased to have a ride, even if it took us a little bit of time to get through the store.

At Costco we looked at what bulk foods are available for stocking the house. You all know that I prefer to buy local and/or organic, but there are a lot of things that I can't get here. My motto is to do what you can with what you have, and what you have available.

We only bought what we needed there today (toilet paper, local mushrooms, etc.), but we took down a lot of notes on prices, cost per pound, cost per unit, and so on. I will put this into a spreadsheet and figure out what to purchase, and how much it is going to cost us to create a stockpile of food.

I'll post last night's, and tonight's, dinner reviews and recipes tomorrow. Although, tonight's wasn't quite picture worthy as I was trying my hand at rolling sushi with just a bamboo mat. Not an extremely pretty or lovely sight.

What all do you put into your freezer for bulk foods? What are your favorite cheap eats?

Let's chat!