This is one of those recipes.

A lot of you already know I’m dating again, and, as usual, this one’s an omnivore. (Bee tee dubs, there’s an upcoming vlog on vegan-omni relationships, so keep your eyes peeled for that.) Cooking for him obviously involves finding recipes that we’ll both enjoy. Fortunately for me, he’s pretty open-minded about the whole vegan thing, so getting him to try my cooking has been really easy. It helps that I started out with a fairly foolproof recipe. :)

Anyway, I made dinner for him on Saturday night, and I settled on the Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen blog. Susan’s recipes never disappoint, so I was less than surprised when this meal turned out to be fantastic.

I did tweak a couple of things for our dinner. For one, I left out the kalamata olives. This had little to do with whether or not I like olives (I do!) and more to do with how tight my budget was. The flavor did not seem to suffer any. The second tweak I made was substituting the kale for spinach, since he prefers spinach over kale. Then, I also switched out the vegan soy parmesan for vegan soy mozzarella. I had a very small amount of soy parm left, and I didn’t have the funds for a new can. I did, however, have a block of FYH mozz sitting in the fridge just waiting to be used. So I shredded that and sprinkled it between the layers of polenta and then over the top of the lasagna before it went into the oven. The cheese on the inside didn’t get quite as melty as I would have liked, but it really didn’t take away much from the dish.

The only change I would make in the future would be to add just a smidge more salt and pepper to the cheese sauce so it had a little bit more flavor. Other than that, this recipe is PERFECT. We both enjoyed it immensely, and his roommate even went back for seconds.

The meal cost a total of about $25. That seems a bit steep, but it’s really fairly reasonable for feeding three people with leftovers, which is what we were able to do with it. Not cheap, mind you, but not outlandish, either. And, like I said, totally worth it!

Not only is it tasty enough to please the omnis (I know this because I’ve tested it on a bunch), it’s also ridiculously easy to make and SUPER cheap. I think a normal-sized batch of this stuff costs me about $10 and can easily feed four adults.

As an added bonus, it also keeps well in the fridge for up to a week, and in the freezer for a couple of months. And it travels well for potlucks or lunches at work.

Ingredients

• 1 can* kidney beans (undrained)
• 1 can* black beans (drained)
• 2 cans* diced tomatoes (undrained, and I usually get the kind with green chilis)
• 1 pkg. cooked faux beef crumbles (I use Boca)
• 1 packet chili seasoning
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon (Just trust me on this.)

*Any time I say “can” in a recipe, please assume I mean a 16 oz. can unless I say otherwise. I’m bad about remembering to specify that.

The Instructions

1. Add all ingredients except crumbles into a large pot and begin to cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Cook crumbles in a lightly oiled skillet until they are browned and hot.
3. Dump crumbles into the pot with the bean mixture and stir well.
4. Bring mixture to a slow simmer and let cook for about 15-20 minutes to let the flavors marry. Or whatever it is flavors do when they’re alone together for a long time.
5. Serve and nom.

This tastes really good with a dollop of Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream and some chopped chives on top, as pictured. And it goes great with the PPK Cornbread recipe from this post, as well.

Could have been better: Uh… yeah, I’ve got nothing.

Could have been worse: This is seriously the best friggin’ chili in the world. I think that really sums it up.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

If I could give it 97 carrots, I would.

This time, I at least have a reasonable excuse. In May, in the span of two weeks, I was robbed at gunpoint, broke up with Greg, and then had one of my best friends unexpectedly die of a stroke at age 23. So it’s been kind of a crazy month for me, and I haven’t really been prioritizing the blog.

But now I’m back. :)

So, apparently breakfast is important or something?

I dunno. That’s what they tell me.

I’ve been trying to make an effort to eat better, and part of that is making an attempt to eat something, even something small, every morning before work. My mornings are a bit rushed, what with taking care of all the animals and trying to get myself showered and out the door by 7:00 AM, so I need something quick and easy.

Before I was a vegan, I would get a big box of Eggo waffles from the store and just pop one of those in the toaster right before I left. But alas, Eggos are decidedly UN-vegan, so that doesn’t work anymore.

Imagine my excitement when I happened across a box of Van’s All-Natural Waffles in the freezer area of the “hippie section” at my favorite local store!

First off, I adore any company that puts the word “VEGAN” in big letters somewhere on the packaging. Reading labels is such a pain in the butt, and it takes up more of my time than I’d like to admit when I go grocery shopping. So it was nice to be able to skip that routine with these waffles.

There are only six waffles to a box, but one box lasts me about a week, since I usually only eat one in the morning. The box cost me just under $4 with tax, so they’re about $0.60 per waffle, which is pretty damn cheap! And they taste FANTASTIC. I’ve had the blueberry and the Belgian-style multigrain varieties, and they were both great. I usually just eat mine plain, but the Belgian-style is also really yummy with some chunky peanut butter slathered on.

Add a glass of vanilla soymilk or a travel mug of coffee, and it’s the perfect hurried breakfast for the vegan-on-the-go.

Or just the lazy vegan, which is another category I also sometimes fall into. I won’t lie and say I haven’t fixed these for dinner, as well. :)

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

When I got mine, there wasn’t a whole lot available in the way of vegan-related applications, so I was constantly going, “Man, I wish they had an app that could do [insert handy task to benefit the vegan-on-the-go here]!” And then I would make a mental note to talk to one of my programming friends to start helping me build it so we could help make vegans’ lives easier and become filthy rich at the same time.

Of course, my mental notes typically get lost in the cobwebby abyss I call my brain, so none of that ever panned out and I’m still a cheapskate vegan trying to scrounge together enough change from in between the couch cushions for a block of tofu.

Fortunately for us, though, someone DID develop cool apps to help vegans find restaurants, foods, and products that are cruelty-free and locally available.

So, without further ado, here are my five favorite vegan iPhone apps.

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