since apparently no one enjoys bagel porn, here is a nice wholesome tray of roasted veggies! and, for those of us whose hands went numb on the three-block walk to work today, roasting anything makes your apartment nice and warm. (i mixed these up with some israeli couscous and am counting down the minutes until it is a reasonable time to heat it up for lunch.)

Please don't make me post about my 7-11 dinners guys

So one of my students has been complaining to me about his public health class. One of the things he got up in arms about was the 'myth' that you can't eat well on a low budget, since fast food and crackers are inexpensive. Thinking about how expensive vegetables etc. are I was like, what are you talking about, vegetables are very expensive. Then he informed me that, just the evening prior he had bought a pound of kale for a dollar.

This exchange happened a couple of weeks ago and I've been thinking about it a lot since then, and I realized I could probably save a lot of money by cleaning up my at home eating habits. So today I am going to begin a new wave of inexpensive, yet wholesome home dining. I'm still working out a plan, so if you have any suggestions please share. Here's what I've come up with so far:
oatmeal + banana for breakfast every morning (under $1)
Frequent lunches: potatoes and onions (under $1)
beans and rice (under $1)
Dinners:
Simple pasta ($3)
Kale + Onion +Tempeh salad ($3-5)
Ramen (almost zero)

on sunday night, after mwr had been researching what one should put in one's body for the majority of the day, we made a healthy meal.



this is the recipe that we used.

after a long period of wanting to try quinoa, we finally did it. unfortunately, we did not follow the recipe exactly and i think the flavor really suffered. three things we neglected to do:

1) cook the quinoa in broth instead of water. (bushwick hates vegetable broth)
2) add the beans until the very, very end. i think this was a bigger mistake than we realized; there was no time for the flavors to mix together.
3) cook the vegetables for the suggested cooking time. we would be really bad at hell's kitchen because we failed to have everything ready when it was supposed to be ready. i think with this recipe, it's really important to not overcook the onions and peppers so that they still have bite after you bake them.

luckily some salt, pepper, and hot sauce did the trick.

while the stuffed bell peppers were baking, we had also made a delicious side of collard greens with garlic and onions. this was my favorite part of the meal.



mmm, healthy dinner!

vegan update: it's been nine days and, despite the fact that i have probably accidentally cheated a couple of times, i am really enjoying it. by having to think about my meals more than i was before, i am able to make infinitely better decisions. yay!