Pantry Makeover Part II and Comfort Food

One unfortunate side effect of switching over to foods that you keep in the pantry rather than the freezer is that bugs tend to get into pantry foods.  I ended up with a pretty major bug problem awhile back, and decided that if I wanted to keep all of my healthy stuff bug-free, it would not be done in the plastic bags from the grocery store.  Buying in bulk is wonderful-if you have a place to keep all of it!

Plastic containers can get expensive, so I went Goodwill hunting (ba-dum, ching!) for some glass jars with lids.  After cleaning out every Goodwill and Savers on my side of town, I went to the other side of town and cleaned those out, too.  Glass jars were harder to find than I thought!  I never spent more than a dollar a jar, though, and some of those containers were big!  I then painted the outsides with a square of chalkboard paint to label what I had inside.  This arrangement ought to keep the bugs out pretty well!

This also makes for a more user-friendly and functional pantry.  I have beans and grains on the bottom shelf; nuts, seeds, and dried fruits on the middle shelf; and baking goods on the top shelf. It's much easier to find what I need now!  I also had a few tall, skinny jars leftover.  I'm using those to store my homemade almond milk and the leftover pulp (for making almond cheese) in the fridge.  

It was driving me nuts to keep all of my flour and sugar in the freezer, too.  Sure, it kept the bugs out, but it took up a lot of room and I wasn't able to use the cool blue canisters I found at a thrift store years ago when I got my first apartment.  The canisters look like something someone made in a  ceramics class and aren't really sealed.  A thin line of hot glue around the rim solved that problem, as the lids now stick pretty well.  I threw in some bay leaves for an extra layer of protection.

This weekend was the perfect time for fall comfort food.  I used the recipe for sticky cinnamon rolls from veganbaking.net to make these delicious cinnamon rolls, topped with raisins and walnuts, this afternoon:

I added some homemade pumpkin butter to the filling for some more flavor.  The pumpkin butter, along with my homemade nutella and a bag of tortillas, has been coming with me to school the last couple of days as I've been in too much of a hurry to pack a lunch.  Hey, assemble your own PB&J at lunch time isn't half bad!

Chili and cinnamon rolls (yes, they go together!) were always a fall staple in my house growing up.  It was our traditional Halloween meal.  Chili is the official state dish, after all!  I didn't get any pictures of the chili, but it is your basic chili without any meat.  Instead, I used pinto, black, lima, and garbanzo beans.  I also threw in some fresh Hatch green chiles.  Delicious.  

I needed the comfort food this weekend.  Rheumatoid arthritis is nothing if not unpredictable, and despite being on a very good treatment for the last five years, I occasionally have flares and have to be a hermit for a few days because I can't get down my stairs.  I've spent most of the last 24 hours in my pajamas covered in Icy Hot.  Thankfully, 22 years of living with RA has left me prepared and I have all of the necessary gadgets around to make sure I'm as comfy as possible while dealing with the pain.  Can you tell which knee is the swollen one?!?!?!?!

White Cat nicely sums up how I have spent most of my weekend thus far, and how I intend to spend the rest of it:

Pantry Makeover: Part I

Since the end of last school year, I have been cooking completely without animal products.  Yes, that's right, the dreaded V word: vegan.  Before I go any further, I feel I should give a disclaimer.  I am not a true vegan because I am not a full-time vegan. I still have a weakness for Chick-fil-a that I give in to about once every two weeks, and if I go to someone's house I will not turn down a dinner with meat in it.  It's hard (sometimes downright impossible) with my crazy schedule to always plan ahead for healthy meals, and fast food it is.  However, for my own health I've been trying to rid my house of animal products and processed foods.

Except honey.  I just can't go *that* far.

My motivation had less to do with the compassion side of things than it had to do with my own health.  Since becoming more aware of exactly what's going into my body, I have lost 40 pounds.  I also have rheumatoid arthritis and have discovered that my joints feel better and my medication seems more effective when I eat a natural, plant-based diet.

A good friend of mine saw my Facebook post last night about the dairy-free cheese sauce I'd made to go on my black bean enchiladas and asked for the recipe.  She has Crohn's disease and has a love-hate relationship with dairy.  We are disease cousins, as both of our diseases are autoimmune problems.

So, here are some dairy-free recipes I've been using, for the most part without soy.  Soy is great but it mimics estrogen and too much of it can be a bad thing!  I can't claim credit for these recipes, so I will post them with my own tweaks and give credit to the websites where I found them.

Vegan "Cheese"Sauce:


1/4 C cashews, soaked for a few hours and rinsed
1 1/4 C water
1/4 C oil
4T Nutritional Yeast (available at most health food stores, this is what gives the flavor, so don't leave it out!)
1 t salt
2T corn starch, OR 4T flour
1/4 c diced red bell pepper (for color and a little kick)

1. Put everything but the corn starch in a blender and blend on high for a minute or so.
2. Put in a saucepan and add corn starch/flour.  Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick.

inspiration from: Vegan Grandma


Almond Milk: I can't do any better than the recipe and instructional video from My New Roots.  So go watch that and enjoy.  As soon as I finish writing this, I'm off to make my second batch of almond milk.

Almond Cheese:


Leftover pulp from almond milk
1/4 c oil
1/4 c lemon juice
Salt to taste
Fresh dill to taste

1. Combine it all, preferably in a blender.
2.  If you want to, you can ferment this stuff, then drain off some of the liquid and press it into a more cream cheese-like texture.  Or you can just put it in the fridge and dip veggies and crackers into it.   I took it for lunch the other day with some crackers and veggies and it was fabulous.  It's also very filling.

My New Roots has some more recipes with almond pulp, as well as links, here.

Also try the raw tacos (with a dairy-free sour cream sauce), here.

While you're there, check out the other posts.  This blog has been a huge source of recipes and inspiration.  I love it because not all of the recipes use things that are obviously trying way too hard to be like meat.  Everything is made from natural, whole foods.

One challenge I have faced is keeping all of my food organized in my pantry and keeping it bug-free.  When you buy fresh ingredients in bulk at the health food store, they are in those little plastic produce bags and attract bugs.  Of course the bugs get into the plastic.

Tomorrow I'll post Part II, which is how I finally got all this stuff organized and into containers that were bug-proof.

Off to make almond milk!