I Need Help! Quickly... Call the Tofu Titans!
Lent is coming up in a few days, and this year I'll be going a bit "hardcore" in my ol' sacrificial garb. I'm giving up the usual sweets (which I tend to define fairly broadly), but I've also decided to go vegan for the duration. It certainly gets me contemplative, and maybe I'll lose a bit of weight.
I've gone vegan in the past during Lent, but last time was . . . well, I won't say "disaster," but it was rough. (Basically, I forgot that Lent fell during the GAMA Trade Show, so I found myself in Vegas living out of a hotel and trying desperately to eat vegan on the road. Low point? That'd be the $12 buffet where I was able to eat the breadsticks and marinara sauce, and nothing else.)
The missus supports me on this, but she certainly isn't joining me . . . which means I'll be on my own for most of my meals.
So I'm putting out a call to the usual suspects (i.e. "you," dear readers) for any recommendations for vegan fare, including recipes or other ideas.
Some notes:
I've gone vegan in the past during Lent, but last time was . . . well, I won't say "disaster," but it was rough. (Basically, I forgot that Lent fell during the GAMA Trade Show, so I found myself in Vegas living out of a hotel and trying desperately to eat vegan on the road. Low point? That'd be the $12 buffet where I was able to eat the breadsticks and marinara sauce, and nothing else.)
The missus supports me on this, but she certainly isn't joining me . . . which means I'll be on my own for most of my meals.
So I'm putting out a call to the usual suspects (i.e. "you," dear readers) for any recommendations for vegan fare, including recipes or other ideas.
Some notes:
- I don't have a lot of time. Ideally recipes would call for 15-30 minutes of prep time; shorter is great (obviously). I can do longer, but, if so, then . . .
- It's good if there are leftovers. I don't mind making big batches of stuff and eating off it for a number of days.
- I'm not a huge fan of spicy food. Thus many Indian dishes -- popular among vegans -- are probably too hot for me. I love Mexican food, but I'm the wuss for whom Taco Bell's "Mild" sauce was made.
- I need to balance convenience and health. Since a secondary goal for me is to eat healthier and maybe lose some weight, I'd rather not load up on heavily processed vegetarian frozen food (although some -- like soy crumbles -- can be useful to accent an existing dish). Besides . . .
- We're cheap. Sure, I might be able to buy vegan T.V. dinners for $5 a serving, but that's way too expensive for our household. Ours is a gamer-based economy.
- Spaghetti and marinara sauce -- Regular jar of cheese-free Prego, maybe some extra tomatoes, and pasta.
- Vegan soup -- Take a couple of cans of regular vegetarian vegetable soup, a bag of frozen veggies, and any other fresh veggies I like (and are on sale), and dump 'em in a slow cooker at the beginning of the day. (I think I have a good vegan split-pea soup recipe around here, but that'll take some time to dig up, and it's involved enough that it's a weekend cooking project.)
- Loaded baked potatoes -- Caramelized garlic and onions, broccoli, vegan spread.
- Chips and salsa Sans that yummy, yummy cheese.
- Cereal and soy milk This is probably my default "I came up with no better ways to keep myself nourished today" idea.