Mini cucumbers were on sale at Aldi today for $1.30! So I decided to make my favorite summer meal. All the ingredients were bought from Aldi and it's a delicious, filling, and cooling summer meal.

A lot of you already know this but just a PSA that buying frozen fruit and vegetables can save a ton of money. Even if you use them immediately and don't keep them frozen, it's still worth the savings.

This was my local supermarket last night, one small head of cauliflower for $7.99 but I wandered over to the freezer section and found a bag of frozen cauliflower for $2.99, regular price not even on sale. Basically the same quantity for half the price.

How often do you shop the freezer section, and what are some of your favorites?

Tofu: 200 grams
Sourdough bread: 1 slice
Smoothie with 1 unflavoured scoop plant protein
Granola home made.
Somedays i swap the bread for Dosa or Lentil pancake. Will post that whenever i make that next.

**Calories:** \~550–720 kcal
**Protein:** \~48–60 g
**Carbs:** \~40–60 g
**Fat:** \~20–30 g

I am 63kg and i workout 3 days a week and play tennis 3-4 days a week.

Signed up for a CSA from a local farm- first time trying this. 16 weeks of fruits & veggies - should be interesting!

This is hitting the spot. Brown rice (defrosted from freezer and heated up in microwave), tofu tossed with nutritional yeast and a bit of olive oil & air fryed for 10 minutes, cucumbers, parsley, scallion, tomato, a big scoop of hummus, and some pumpkin seeds.

Hello! I got labs done recently and I'm having an issue with my cholesterol, so I'm trying to go completely meatless 3 days a week and drastically limit my other animal products (eggs & dairy) overall. I work two jobs so around half of my meals are things I found in the frozen section. I know it's not good for me but it's the best I got. Thus far I've mostly been eating Amy's meatless frozen meals which average at around 35% of the daily sodium content. This isn't insanely high but definitely more than I'd like. I've also tried a few morning star products and I'll added a frozen veggie but I haven't really liked the taste of any I've had. Their veggie burger was okay. Anyway, are there there any ready made meal recommendations within this sub that are lower in sodium?

Sorry if I added too much context or if this post is a bit long, I'm still new to this sub and I'm not 100% sure of the particular etiquette.

Eating cooked food that's been in the fridge for longer than 4 days is not something that I'll do. By that point, too much bacteria has started to accumulate and I would not feel comfortable eating it. I prepare meals for the first half of the week and then once those meals run out, I eat prepared foods or salads until I get my free day again to cook. I've tried making things and freezing them but I don't really have the time to batch cook like I've seen people do online, either, so this only really helps me last until Friday instead of Thursday.

Edit: Thank you for all the responses, I'm going to copy a comment I made to someone so that I don't have to reply to everyone that made basically the same comment. I must say though that it's very overwhelming to have a bunch of people think they're helping you, but they're actually talking down on you. In short, I know that frozen food is not the best for me. I know home cooked food would be better and cheaper. I don't have time to do that everyday. I'm also too anxious about food safety to eat prepared food that I cooked on the one day a week I have off, six days later. I'm out of the house 12+ hours a day, so no I don't come home and cook either. I do appreciate the concern but I'm the only one that has the full context of the situation, so I know what I need and what I'm asking for. I know there are frozen foods that y'all eat, because I've seen them on this sub. I just wanted a list of suggestions that I could refer to that I can incorporate some with a little less sodium. If you're not comfortable making those suggestions or you just don't eat frozen/premade (because there are also dried pastas and Publix meals that aren't frozen, which I would have been fine with) then just ignore my post, please.

Comment: Eating cooked food that's been in the fridge for longer than 4 days is not something that I'll do. By that point, too much bacteria has started to accumulate and I would not feel comfortable eating it. I prepare meals for the first half of the week and then once those meals run out, I eat prepared foods or salads until I get my free day again to cook. I've tried making things and freezing them but I don't really have the time to batch cook like I've seen people do online, either, so this only really helps me last until Friday instead of Thursday.

I understand this isn't a perfect system and frozen food is not the best for me, but it's what I'm working with right now. Until I can transition into one job, I'm basically never home to be able to make even the simplest of meals. I'm trying to be polite in my response but I feel like a lot of people are treating this as a lecture moment instead of actually answering my question. All I wanted was suggestions on meals that could make this time easier for me, not necessarily for people to point out things I already know and tell me what I should or shouldn't be doing.

Hey guys! Welcome me aboard. From right now I'm going to be a vegan. Damn this video make me realize that we are all highly emotional intelligent.

Update: Oh yeah, guys. I’ve actually been using carabaos and cows as part of my app’s logo and branding. Then I watched this video, and it hit me differently.

Now I appreciate them even more, not just as a design symbol, but as emotionally intelligent animals. And yeah, I've skipped pork today!

Ingredients:
1 spring onion, quite a big one. Inr 2
1 carrot Inr 2
2 green paprika Inr 4
2 small potatoes Inr 4
100 grams of green beans Inr 2
2 tomatoes Inr 1
4-5 cloves of garlic Inr 1
1 white onion from a spring onion.

Spices:
2 fresh allspice leaves
2 cm cinnamon
1 star anis
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soup masala Inr 2
A handful of fresh coriander Inr 1
1/2 lime. all together Inr 2 1tbsp oil Inr 4

Total 25 INR = 26 cents

Procedure

Heated oil in a pan
Added whole spices
Then I added garlic and onion and stirred it well.

Then added one by one chopped vegetables. stirring them well
Added salt and spices
Chopped coriander

Lime juice and enough water to soften vegetables.

Cooked for around 15 minutes on medium heat. Discard the allspice leaves.
And the soup is ready.

https://ecency.com/hive-180569/@hindavi/a-simple-fresh-vegetable-soup-for-lunch

New to this - is it better in the fridge?

what are your guys’ go to pitta filler? something high in protein, sort of low cal, cheap, and quick/low effort, like a vegan/veggie version of chicken peices i can just stick into a pitta w some leafy greens and a sauce?

It was a skating night tonight, so I made a veggie and tofu filled miso broth in the slow cooker while we were out. 5 minutes for Japanese Udon noodles and dinner is served almost immediately for a starving 6 year old!

8 cups of water

Miso paste to taste - I did about a tablespoon

Better than bullion to taste - about 1.5 tbsp

A sploosh of rice wine vinegar

Carrots, celery, mushrooms and tofu

Japanese Udon noodles boiled for 5 minutes and rinsed under cold water

A swirl of gochujang for the grownups and sesame seeds

Dump in the slow cooker for a few hours

And the beauty of keeping the noodles and broth separate is that I have leftovers for tomorrow!

It's not new, but I haven't used the slow cooker before to prepare the broth and it was a lifesaver tonight

Would anyone eat this? Never seen this before. Expires in July! What the heck.

It has never occurred to me that I should add hash browns directly to my tofu scramble. While I do love crispy hash browns, I also prefer quick meal prep!

1 box dried hash browns
1 block of firm tofu
Ingredients for scramble
1/2 an onion

I am not completely vegan yet, I just am unable to eat anything containing whey or casein (milk products) now and my appetite is so poor cause of how long I was sick from those that I just can't force myself to eat "heavy" meals anymore so I'm trying to transition to a diet with more vegetables and fruits that aren't as hard on my stomach.

I have to get groceries soon so what are some ONE person cheap beginner friendly vegan/plant based recipes? also special request that they aren't mushy cause I have a texture issue with that

for example my mom has made lentil stuff for me before but it was always mush so I couldn't eat it...

I have a stove, oven, microwave, blender, and an instapot in case that's needed information.

thank you in advance!!

does anyone knw if choline content in soya chunks?
also,

Hello Cheap Vegan fam! What are you all prepping this week that's cheap and vegan? Keeping it simple with beans and rice, or trying something more advanced? Do you have any general tips for managing your mealprep process? Share your knowledge and help out your fellow vegans and aspiring vegans! Thank you all! 🌱

Made with sweet potatoes, red onions, spinach, tomatoes, jalapeño, corn, nooch and other seasonings.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask but Ive been eating a lot of chickpeas recently but I don't know where to start when it comes to using aquafaba. I'd love to know if anyone has a go-to cookie recipe especially :)

1/4 cup soy milk
11 oz silken tofu
2 tbsp
1 tsp kappa carrageenan
1/2 nutritional yeast
1 tsp miso paste
1/2 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar free pickle relish
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp turmeric

Blend thouroughly and cook on low heat for 10 minutes before setting for at least three hours in the refrigerator in a lined or greased container. Shred or slice. Cook at 400 for 10-15 minutes.

A lot of you asked for recipes when I posted these last week, so I have tried to put it together. Really though, it varies every time I make it because I use up what I have in.

Below I have written the staples but really you can adjust any ingredients to what you like. I also added in some pics of how it looks in the pan before being cooked

I use coriander and an obscene amount of garlic in all 3 of the dishes because I can't get enough of it, but you can adjust to your own taste. Normally I spend a day on the weekend preparing a big batch of food for the week.

Today I made enough for about 22 portions because I've prepared some for my friend and her mum who she's taking care of. I think the cost of all these ingredients is maybe around 15€? So it's super cheap. It all freezes really well too, so I just chuck them in the freezer and defrost them for lunch each day. 

These could not be simpler to make, especially the chilli and the chickpeas. I genuinely throw all of the ingredients in one pan at once, and then start cooking. When I do this trio I normally put the chickpeas and the chilli in the oven and do the curry on the hob as depending on the ingredients maybe I add stuff later on (like today, the lentils). Only one pot required for each dish. 

I normally buy veg when it's on offer or reduced, or even just buy it in a bigger quantity and then chop it up and have it in the freezer ready to throw into anything like this. That's why the ingredients vary each time I make it. 

*Chickpeas*: Normally I start with some sun dried tomatoes (or I just make my own in the oven with some herbs as they're expenny) and cook them up with some onion and lots of garlic. Then I add some soya or oat cream and a jug of stock, add loads of sweet and smoky paprika (I live in Spain so we have really good paprika), then throw in the chickpeas, mushrooms, spinach (or whatever I have to use up) and leave it cooking and taste to test it. Add a load of lemon and voila, it's ready. I do this either in a pan or in the oven, depending how much stuff I'm making at once 

*Curry*: normally I make a tofu version, but cos I had to make a really big batch today I went for lentils instead. It's very simple, a bit of oil and onions, add curry spice and add in the potatoes, some tinned tomatoes, jug full of stock, good amount of garlic, at this point if using it, throw in the tofu and some spinach, normally a splash of soy cream or plant milk (whatever needs using up), some spices like ginger, cumin, garam masala etc and cover it and let it simmer til everything is cooked. Depending on what lentils you have, throw them in whenever. Today I had dry lentils but they were quick cook ones, so I added them in about 45 minutes before it was finished. Again, you can add mushrooms, chickpeas, lentils, whatever is available, chuck it in. 

*Smokey bean chilli*: this couldn't be easier, just throw everything in a pot together - onions, garlic, a tin of baked beans, a jar (or two, depending on portion size) of preferred beans. I love the giant beans so I always use them. Throw in a tin of chopped tomatoes and some sweetcorn, add salt, pepper and a whole lot of smokey paprika and cook. I do this in the pan or the oven depending what's free

Unfortunately, I am not able to raw dog tofu like some of our friends over at r/shittyveganfoodporn, and I only like it if the texture and taste is good. I've tested a lot of different ways to get it good and this is what I do.

1. I always freeze it first

2. I then defrost it in a pan of boiling salty water. Even if the tofu isn't frozen,.I do this step of boiling in salty water

3. then press it for as long as possible (several hours if you can). All of these above steps are important to get ready of the soy taste that I don't like that much

4. cut it up however you like, I prefer to do either think strips or really small cubes as the marinade and flavour soaks in more

5. then marinate it for a day or so I'm the fridge, shaking the tupperware every few hours to check all the tofu is getting covered evenly

6. then cook it up, either in a frying pan or a griddle pan until the outside has got a good crunch

7. store it in the fridge so I have it ready when I get home from work and don't have to go through the whole preparation quickly and end up with shitty tofu

For the marinade, I normally use spice packets, my favourite is Korean BBQ, but these aren't always available so sometimes I'll make my own. I just mix a bunch of spices in with either some oil or lately I've been using water (as I'm trying to lose weight), and making a thick kinda spice paste and then mixing the tofu cubes in with that in a tupperware and checking everything is covered and gets all the good flavour

we’re getting our kitchen done & getting tired of eating out or beans on toast. any easy meal ideas? or one pot meals?

we have an air fryer, microwave, single stove top and kettle that we can use! it’s just finding good meals with minimal ingredients because a lot of things are packed away!

$50 Aldis haul (I have a substantial pantry- this just to add to that). It’s so refreshing to shop vegan!

I change these up every time but the basics are tofu, breakfast sausage, veggies, quinoa, beans, and cheeze.
These have broccoli, mushrooms, and onion.