The monster 25th episode of the Vegan Freaks podcast is now available. Yours truly is along for the ride as their interview subject for the week. Take a listen and enjoy.
After yesterday’s post about working to avoid processed foods, I have a post on the other end of the spectrum: a post about the unhealthy, way overprocessed dinner we had last night. But I have a good excuse! I tried it so I could report back to you on how good (or bad) it was. I do it all for you, people!
I’ve heard a lot about Tofutti’s Pizza Pizzaz and when I saw it in our local Giant, I was anxious to try it out. It’s made with Tofutti’s own Better Than Mozzarella Cheese, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because Tofutti makes one of the less-funky tasting vegan cheese on the market but bad because of the partially hydrogenated oils. It ain’t health food is what I’m trying to say.
Tastewise, again, it was good and bad. Good because it’s what I was expecting. Bad because most people don’t have fond memories of the pizza they used to serve in elementary school. This may sound like a harsh criticism, but there are times when you’re in the mood for elementary school pizza, right? OK, maybe not. Just chalk it up to a junk food craving, if you wish.
This is another one of those good “transitional foods” that will help those just becoming vegetarian. Or, like Cookie Monster says now about cookies, it’s a good “sometimes” food. But you probably don’t want to make it a daily staple.
One of my goals for this year is to cut back significantly on pre-packaged, processed foods. It’s partially to save some money—that stuff can get really expensive—but also because it was becoming a bit too much of a crutch. Granted, around our house, we used less prepackaged stuff than the average American, but we were still eating too many packaged snacks and relying on frozen meals (Amy’s, usually) for lunches. Plus, I just want to cook more.
So far, we’ve done pretty well. We still keep some Amy’s on hand for lunches when time is really tight and once or twice a week we’ll take a shortcut with dinner, but for the most part, we’ve been cooking more, baking more, and generally enjoying our food more.
One of the great things about running this blog is that I’ve gotten some killer cookbooks to review. And, of course, you can’t review a cookbook without trying a lot of recipes in it. Those nagging reviews really help encourage me to try out new dishes frequently and devote a chunk of time after work for “kitchen time,” preparing dinner. Our dog looks on with hope in her eyes, “Please can I have some broccoli? How about carrots?” (Yes, she begs for veggies.) She appreciates us cooking more, too, since that means there’s more stuff we can put aside for her to have.
One of the things that had kept us from preparing as many meals as we would have liked before was the thought that, “Ugh… I’ve got to pick out a recipe. Do we even have the ingredients?” It can be frustrating and daunting to pick and prepare a recipe after coming home from a long day at work. So, to combat that issue we’ve started doing two things:
Those two things have made a pretty big difference. The one thing we’ve always done, and continue to do, is to make 4-6 servings even though there’s only two of us. That way, we’re both covered for lunch the next day.
Do you have any favorite tips for making sure you eat well even when you get home late from work and just want to crash on the couch?