Gluten Free and Vegan Sprouted Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry Soup (#Meatless Monday)

Vegan and free of gluten, nuts, and soy

What happens when you end up with an accidental overload of sprouted chickpeas, a bunch of sweet potatoes from the farmers market, and a few pinches of warming spices like turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, and curry?

A cheap, easy, comforting, fibre-packed, pot of soup! And one that happens to be naturally gluten free and vegan!

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #63

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or  a healthy living article? Well come join the party!


The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

Epic No Oats Granola Bar Fail

Do you know how hard it is to find a recipe for a granola bar without oats, nuts, coconut, dates, corn syrup or honey?!

Can you imagine what it might look like? Well it might look something like this. This big brown mushy, lumpy, crusty, ugly matter. 

I was trying for a vegan bar, sans the things I'm allergic to (oats, most nuts, dates...) Alas, it was an experiment gone wrong.  

Albeit a reasonably tasty one.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #62

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or  a healthy living article? Well come join the party!


The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

Cheap and Easy Gluten Free, Vegan Lentil and Vegetable Dinner (for #Meatless Monday)

Schlapped lentils and vegetable dinner
Free of gluten, wheat, eggs, soy, nuts, dairy, and soy

 

Cooked lentils are not particularly photogenic. Nor do they look gourmet when there is a big, brownish lump of them shlapped down on a plate. No, that's not a typo. "Shlap" is the type of noise that a thick mass of brown lentils makes when it if forcibly shlapped off a wooden spoon onto a plate.

But these lumpy little things are crazy cheap, pack a healthy punch and are quite versatile. They've been used around the world for millenia as a super cheap source of protein (30% of their calories come from protein), as well as iron, dietary fibre, vitamin B1 and folate. As a patriotic Canadian, I also find it really cool that Canada, by far, is the world's largest producer and exporter of lentils. [1] Go Saskatchewan!

Despite their appearance, lentils can also be remarkably tasty. My husband, who can be kind of picky, really likes this lentils and veggie dinner (and not just because it only requires one dish to clean up in the end). Not only that, but this simple cooked lentil and veggie dish costs less than $2 to make 4-6 servings of, and with a $2 bag of lentils you can get 2-3 batches of it.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday - night off

Hi folks,

Sorry to be a flake tonight, but I've got a migraine in the works and my fingers are tingling as I write this (one of the oh-so-pleasant warning signs of a doozy coming on). So unfortunately I'm going to have to flake out on tonight's party.

Please accept my apologies. I really ought to plan ahead and set these things on a schedule, but unfortunately I'm not nearly as organized as I'd like to be!!

Party on, good friends and see you soon.

My GF, Locavore-ish Weekly Meal Plan

This week I’m focusing on making large, one pot meals that can serve as lunches and cut back on cooking time, because I’m working on finishing up a couple of projects (exciting announcement to come soon!)

Vegan Mung Bean and Turmeric Curry (Anti-Inflammatory) & Meatless Monday

Free of gluten, dairy, shellfish, eggs, nuts, soy, and corn

Ever wonder what those little green beans in the Asian section at the supermarket are? Mung beans. Little green balls of anti-inflammatory, cooling goodness. Or so says traditional healing from the east.

This mung bean and turmeric curry is like an uber anti-inflammatory stew. And it's great on a few levels because it's healthy, super cheap, easy, made in one pot (easy clean up), and vegan, so it's perfect for Meatless Monday. Also, the curry flavour is super mild in this, so it's not hot or spicy, and is a great intro to curry for those who are hesitant to try it for the first time.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #61

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or  a healthy living article? Well come join the party!


The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

My GF, Locavore-ish Weekly Meal Plan

My adorable husband got up early this morning to make me a pot of tea and head off to an environmental studies conference (pertaining to his PhD research). I bundled up and trudged out with him, though, to hit up the farmers market. I’m glad I got up early, because the snow is really coming down now! 

This week I stocked up on root veggies like parsnips because I want to experiment with making Spiced Parsnip Scones and some sweet potato curry. I also have a few beets and may take another stab at making Gluten Free Beet Bread

Now let the meal planning begin!

Why I'm Joining Meatless Monday

Today I want to talk about something I haven't really explained or discussed much here on the blog. Meat. Or the lack thereof.

I want to talk about it because I know a lot of my readers are advocates of diets/lifestyles like Real Food, Paleo, and GAPS, or even Atkins. All of these ways of eating are pretty meat-heavy. Recently, I asked my readers on Facebook and Google+ if they would consider being a part-time Vegan, or cutting out meat. There was a lot of debate and a bit of confusion. I hope to clear some of that up a bit here.


So why am I talking about meat today? Well I've decided it's time for Poor and Gluten Free to join the Meatless Monday movement. Now don't worry, not much is going to change here, except that some of my posts will now be tagged as Meatless Monday.  And in today's post I'm going to explain why.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #60

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or  a healthy living article? Well come join the party!


The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway?