Vegans in Poverty - Cheap Tricks!

[colonyofcells]

I have bought fresh organic masa dough from the farmers market before a few times. I just cut them into smaller pieces and boiled them as a soup like dumpling soup. I am super lazy and just cutting up the fresh organic masa dough seemed like the easiest way to cook it. For corn tortillas, I usually also boil them as soups (After dropping the corn tortillas into the boiling soup and they turn soft, I cut them with my spoon). Many costco branches sell Mi Rancho organic corn tortillas. Costco also sells the non organic corn tortillas.

[Bougainvillea]

I have bought fresh organic masa dough from the farmers market before a few times. I just cut them into smaller pieces and boiled them as a soup like dumpling soup. I am super lazy and just cutting up the fresh organic masa dough seemed like the easiest way to cook it. For corn tortillas, I usually also boil them as soups (After dropping the corn tortillas into the boiling soup and they turn soft, I cut them with my spoon). Many costco branches sell Mi Rancho organic corn tortillas. Costco also sells the non organic corn tortillas.

This is brilliant! I don't mind mixing the dough at all. And I still have some of the Bob's Red Mill masa flour, since they didn't want me to ship it back. I love the flavor, but the texture didn't work for tortillas. I'm going to try making some corn dumplings with it. I love this idea! I have some Mexican soup mix in my cupboard that I got at the food bank that I haven't tried yet. I will cook it up and try the masa dumpling idea in it.

Thanks! I admit I miss tamales - I just love corn flour anything, really. I'm too lazy to try making my own vegan tamales without any fat in them. So, this dumpling idea may assuage that craving. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Nean]

Thanks for all the hints. I am home having a sick day and very much enjoying my first attempt at congee/ juk. (1 cup rice, 2 eating spoons of mushroom granules, 7 cups water, 1 garlic clove, tiny bit of ginger and 3 green onions into the Instant Pot on the porridge setting) added just enough sweet chili sauce for a mild nose clearing heat. The only comforting rice based dish in my past was rice pudding. The savoryness of the congee is nice.

Mushroom granules are an Asian market find. More mushroom than salt but still I do use it as a special salt rather than as a food.

[colonyofcells]

Dole has dried portobello mushroom powder that has vitamin d and is also sold under different brand names altho can be hard to find on the internet.

[AlwaysAgnes]

Thanks for all the hints. I am home having a sick day and very much enjoying my first attempt at congee/ juk. (1 cup rice, 2 eating spoons of mushroom granules, 7 cups water, 1 garlic clove, tiny bit of ginger and 3 green onions into the Instant Pot on the porridge setting) added just enough sweet chili sauce for a mild nose clearing heat. The only comforting rice based dish in my past was rice pudding. The savoryness of the congee is nice.

Mushroom granules are an Asian market find. More mushroom than salt but still I do use it as a special salt rather than as a food.

This is the mushroom seasoning I bought at the Asian market. The shelf life is 3 years.
https://www.shopsavvy.com/products/9103 ... 41948&r=rp
It's from Po Lo Ku Trading. It contains mushroom powder, salt, mushroom extract, vitamin B (I can't read the tiny number 3 or 9 maybe?), and calcium. 1 Tbsp has 177 mg sodium. That's a relatively small amount of sodium. Table salt has 590 mg sodium in 1/4 tsp. One can also make their own mushroom powder by grinding up dried mushrooms, but you might have to use more because the mushroom extract flavor wouldn't be there.

[Bougainvillea]

Thanks for all the hints. I am home having a sick day and very much enjoying my first attempt at congee/ juk. (1 cup rice, 2 eating spoons of mushroom granules, 7 cups water, 1 garlic clove, tiny bit of ginger and 3 green onions into the Instant Pot on the porridge setting) added just enough sweet chili sauce for a mild nose clearing heat. The only comforting rice based dish in my past was rice pudding. The savoryness of the congee is nice.

Mushroom granules are an Asian market find. More mushroom than salt but still I do use it as a special salt rather than as a food.

This is the mushroom seasoning I bought at the Asian market. The shelf life is 3 years.
https://www.shopsavvy.com/products/9103 ... 41948&r=rp
It's from Po Lo Ku Trading. It contains mushroom powder, salt, mushroom extract, vitamin B (I can't read the tiny number 3 or 9 maybe?), and calcium. 1 Tbsp has 177 mg sodium. That's a relatively small amount of sodium. Table salt has 590 mg sodium in 1/4 tsp. One can also make their own mushroom powder by grinding up dried mushrooms, but you might have to use more because the mushroom extract flavor wouldn't be there.

Thanks for sharing the picture, so I can go looking for it at my local Ranch 99 market. Or is it 99 Ranch? I forget. Asian market. I love going in there, but feel like I need a tour guide anywhere other than the produce department lol.

[AlwaysAgnes]

Thanks for sharing the picture, so I can go looking for it at my local Ranch 99 market. Or is it 99 Ranch? I forget. Asian market. I love going in there, but feel like I need a tour guide anywhere other than the produce department lol.

99 Ranch Market. I think there used to be one of those in Phoenix at the Chinese cultural center. I haven't been over that way in ages, so I'm not sure what's there now. If you like Korean foods, Maangchi recently did a series of videos on shopping at a Korean grocery.

https://www.maangchi.com/blog/korean-gr ... alkthrough

Here's a video someone did at the Lee Lee's store in Peoria, AZ where I like to shop. It's where I got the mushroom seasoning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAme6IzwaRw

[soulnurturer]

I didn't read this whole thread so if someone else already suggested this, sorry.

You can re-grow vegetables from kitchen scraps: https://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpo ... hen-scraps

You can grow delicious nutritious microgreens in soil outdoors or indoors (peas, fava beans, etc):
https://youtu.be/CcNxeBzyeI0
You don't need fancy "special" sprouting seeds, just buy a bag of dried peas, fava beans, whatever is edible raw (not kidney beans etc), sprout the seeds plant them in a bit of soil and grow - they keep regrowing.

[Bougainvillea]

Thanks for sharing the picture, so I can go looking for it at my local Ranch 99 market. Or is it 99 Ranch? I forget. Asian market. I love going in there, but feel like I need a tour guide anywhere other than the produce department lol.

99 Ranch Market. I think there used to be one of those in Phoenix at the Chinese cultural center. I haven't been over that way in ages, so I'm not sure what's there now. If you like Korean foods, Maangchi recently did a series of videos on shopping at a Korean grocery.

https://www.maangchi.com/blog/korean-gr ... alkthrough

Here's a video someone did at the Lee Lee's store in Peoria, AZ where I like to shop. It's where I got the mushroom seasoning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAme6IzwaRw

I'm so excited to check these out later this afternoon. Thanks!

[Bougainvillea]

I didn't read this whole thread so if someone else already suggested this, sorry.

You can re-grow vegetables from kitchen scraps: https://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpo ... hen-scraps

You can grow delicious nutritious microgreens in soil outdoors or indoors (peas, fava beans, etc):
https://youtu.be/CcNxeBzyeI0
You don't need fancy "special" sprouting seeds, just buy a bag of dried peas, fava beans, whatever is edible raw (not kidney beans etc), sprout the seeds plant them in a bit of soil and grow - they keep regrowing.

Nobody suggested this yet. I love this idea - thank you! I finally even have a balcony where I could grow them. Although, I did grow tomatoes and basil in an apartment a few years ago with a grow light on top of a dresser. They did great. So, if I got another grow light I could even grow them inside.

[colonyofcells]

I heard mung beans sprout very fast.

[AlwaysAgnes]

Here's some ideas for growing greens/microgreens:
https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/how-to ... /7987.html
http://www.balconybloomer.com/blog/diff ... en-yields/

If you have a balcony, you could probably grow quite a bit of greens in seed flats.

I have a 4x4 raised bed right now that's full of greens, half turnip and half kale. I think you could grow both of those in seed flats.

If you google it, you can find a lot of info for balcony gardens.

http://balconygardenweb.com/

[eshqua]

So many great ideas! I’m really appreciating this topic.

My cheap tirick: I buy pinto beans at the Dollar Store - $1 for 1.5 lb. Such a good deal. I then make Mary McDougall’s smashed beans just about every week since it’s such an easy, tasty, economical dish:

https://youtu.be/swqYBYhkEbc

Sometimes I make these in my instant pot using it as a pressure cooker but now usually use the slow cooker function. I use these “refried” beans for make your own burrito or taco meals for guests - one of my “go to” meals for company. When I have leftovers of the toppings, diced/chopped tomatoes, jalapeño, onion, cilantro, peppers, I use them to make Mexican soup, using refried beans as a thickener in the broth. I usually add black beans too, also bought at the Dollar Store but not quite as good a deal, $1 for 1 lb.

I use refried/smashed beans for:
Bean burritos
Mexican soup
Mix with smoked paprika “cheese” for a dip
Bean enchiladas
Mexican pizza
Mexican lasagna
Taco pie

[eshqua]

Another tip: Kwik Trip convenience stores (maybe located only in Midwest?) sell bananas, onions and potatoes for usually .38/lb. When we travel to our lake home, I stop at a Kwik Trip to buy these foods. Once in a while .29/lb so a great deal! I wonder if other convenience stores have some very good deals on basic produce. I would never have thought to buy produce at a a convenience store but in the last year or 2, have discovered the good deals at Kwik Trip.

[colonyofcells]

Costco organic sweet potato is $10 for 10 lbs. I prefer smaller pieces to get more skin and the bag I got had 17 pieces. Comes with a guide to types of sweet potato:
1. diane / garnet : red skin / orange flesh
2. covington / beauregard: orange skin / orange flesh
3. o'henry / golden sweet: yellow skin / white flesh
4. kotobuki / murasaki: purple skin / white flesh (this seems to be just the japan white flesh or yellow flesh sweet potato bec the japan murasaki imo actually has white skin and purple flesh).
5. stokes purple: purple skin / purple flesh
Wild chanterelle is in season and being sold in costco again altho they are a bit expensive. Wild chanterelle and wild morel have natural vitamin d.