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Thread: How to make nice food every day

  1. #1

    Question How to make nice food every day

    How do you get the energy/time to make nice, healthy vegan food every day? i'm cooking for me and my boyfriend, and it's really important to me that i can serve a (somewhat) healthy meal every day. but when i get of work (i work in a kitchen where i cook organic vegan food from 9 am), i'm soo fucking tired, and i just DON'T wanna cook anymore. and if we had an oven, i could make a hell of a meal every day, since it's so easy, but it's always three pots and a pan and ten different veggies. sometimes i DO make a pesto-pasta, or just unfreeze something (i usually make enough chili or stuff like that to freeze a portion), but i really think it's important that my boyfriend gets a nutritious meal - and it's just perfect if he can get some for lunch too.

    so i was wondering: do any of you guys have some well-freezing recipes, that are high on nutrition, but low on time? or maybe just something that only requires ONE pot, so that i sould make two or three freezable dishes in the weekend, and then un-freeze'em on the though days? any help will be appreciated

    THANKS

  2. #2
    Goddess foxytina_69's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    you should look into getting a crockpot! all you do is throw the ingredients in, and leave it set. once you get home, itll be cooked and ready!

    heres a thread about it:

    http://veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5924

    in the search area, type in 'crock pot' and see the results:

    http://vegweb.com/index.php?action=search2

    and here are some 'quick and easy' vegan recipes:

    http://vegweb.com/index.php?board=153.0
    "you dont have to be tall to see the moon" - african proverb

  3. #3
    Abe Froman Risker's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    I often make pasta sauce (tomatoes, onion, garlic, peppers etc.) and make more than I need, I then jar the leftovers and use it at a later date as either a salsa for spicy food, a dip for crisps or as sauce for another batch of pasta.

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Quote Smoothie
    How do you get the energy/time to make nice, healthy vegan food every day? i'm cooking for me and my boyfriend, and it's really important to me that i can serve a (somewhat) healthy meal every day. but when i get of work (i work in a kitchen where i cook organic vegan food from 9 am), i'm soo fucking tired, and i just DON'T wanna cook anymore. and if we had an oven, i could make a hell of a meal every day, since it's so easy, but it's always three pots and a pan and ten different veggies. sometimes i DO make a pesto-pasta, or just unfreeze something (i usually make enough chili or stuff like that to freeze a portion), but i really think it's important that my boyfriend gets a nutritious meal - and it's just perfect if he can get some for lunch too.

    so i was wondering: do any of you guys have some well-freezing recipes, that are high on nutrition, but low on time? or maybe just something that only requires ONE pot, so that i sould make two or three freezable dishes in the weekend, and then un-freeze'em on the though days? any help will be appreciated

    THANKS
    Why don't you get him to cook for YOU, Smoothie?

    Marinades are good BTW, for tofu and tempeh - soy sauce, garlic, lemon juice and fresh ginger. I love eating tofu cold - that takes no cooking at all! Or chop up the tofu and add to cooked mushrooms, along with a bit of the ubiquitous soy sauce and turmeric. I do sympathise tho - the last few days I just can't get up any enthusiasm for food or cooking.

  5. #5
    vegan1969
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day


  6. #6
    ♥♥♥ Tigerlily's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Very simple! My mom cooks. :P
    Peace, love, and happiness.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    - stir fries
    - pasta dishes, one of my favorite is chopped tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and basil. Another one is a creamy sauce - coconut milk with vegetable broth, different types pf mushrooms and parsley.
    - cook lots of brown rice for the whole week, and always keep different cans of beans in your cupboard.
    - make a small salad to each meal, it's an easy way to get some additional vitamins.
    "Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends". ~ George Bernhard Shaw.

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    my husband and i share cooking. sometimes just me, sometimes just him, but usually it's a family affair.

    we have our days when we pop something premade into the oven, but we usually manage to actually cook.

    we find it's far easier to do when we've done prep at the weekends (which we haven't done in ages, and really need to get back in the habit of). pre-cook a load of beans, frozen in 1 or 2 cup sizes (easier to defrost just what you need).

    menu planning helps a lot, too. sit down on the weekend (or whatever your day off is) together and sort out what you'd like to eat. use vegweb or a cookbook. i find it is easier to stick to one cookbook per week.

    lots of luck!
    hannah, 28 (vegan), bryce, 28 (ovolacto), xylia born january 2005 (vegan)

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    It is as big problem. My view on life is if you don't have time to cook at least one decent meal every day then something in life needs to be changed. Me and John changed our jobs/lives when that happened and are living simpler, cheaper lives. Now we both refuse to commute, I have a local job and his is localish but he's looking for more local.
    I'm sick of this 24 hour lifestyle where we are all expected to work round the clock, long hours and have no time for each other. It totally sucks.
    We are not cogs in a corporate wheel, we are human being with needs!
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    Hemlock's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Smoothie, cook extra food at work and take it home in tupperware
    Silent but deadly :p

  11. #11
    vegan1969
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    I'm sure you've seen the vegan food pyramid but here it is anyway:http://www.nutrispeak.com/veganpyramid.htm

    As for cooking, I like to cook a lot on one day of the week and freeze portions to grab through out the week. I also prep my fresh veggies so I can grab them for a quick wrap.

  12. #12
    Cake Fairy Cherry's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Quote Hemlock
    Smoothie, cook extra food at work and take it home in tupperware
    Now there's a plan

    Chilli and curry are both good one pan freezing options. I used to always make a lentil or chickpea curry AND a spinach curry but these days I tend to just shove a load of spinach in with the main one to save on washing up

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Some people can't take things from work - the chef at my work isn't allowed to take leftovers home, even though it is a big waste if the children don't eat it.

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    AR Activist Roxy's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    So what happens to the left overs then?

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    The garbage bin gets to eat it

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    ♥♥♥ Tigerlily's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Yes, I think most restaurants do this. I think it's because they don't want to give the impression that they give away free food. Because everyone (all the workers) will want free left overs and the chef will make more food to give away.

    My dad's a manager at a restaurant, I'll ask him why exactly.
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    I think it has to do with liability. If someone takes food and gets sick, they can sue the restaurant. I remember hearing that a while back and I was really upset that such massive amounts of food go to waste. For those reasons, restaurants and catering services can't donate even unused leftovers to homeless shelters
    You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
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  18. #18

    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    well, the reason my boyfriend don't cook is that 1) i work from 9 am 'till 2.30 pm and he works from 7.30 am 'till AT LEAST 4 pm. usually it's more like 6-ish or 8-ish. so it would be really unfair to demand him to cook. (he do the dishes instead), and 2) he's an awful cook! i mean, i'm trying to learn him how to make some different dishes, by waiting to start the cooking 'till he gets home, and then telling him how to chop the veggies, in which order to put them in the pot, but he's really bad at it, and there must be a limit.. well, sometimes i get leftover foods from my work, but usually everything is eaten

    thanks for all the great advise

  19. #19
    Wishin986's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Quote DancingWillow
    I think it has to do with liability. If someone takes food and gets sick, they can sue the restaurant. I remember hearing that a while back and I was really upset that such massive amounts of food go to waste. For those reasons, restaurants and catering services can't donate even unused leftovers to homeless shelters
    The Good Samaritan Act was put into place so that restaurants could donate food to homeless shelters. However, theres a lot of regulations and its hard to find containers and drivers etc. The act is good though because it basically makes it pretty impossible to be sued for liability issues. As long as the food was given in good conscience and there was no harm intended if people get sick you arnt at fault. The annoying thing is that big corporations still site liability as the reason they wont do it when thats actually not an issue at all anymore.
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    This isn't a freeze meal (maybe it could be!) but something that I do which is really simple:
    1 can tomato soup plus any of the following:

    Spaghetti sauce or Seasoning
    Pasta or any type of grains
    Any type of beans but I like peas for flavor meshing
    Tofu, seitan, tempeh, tvp etc. You don't have to use much.
    Any type of vegetables including canned tomatoes
    I say no potatoes but that is just me, I don't like tomatoes and potatoes together in general. Then again when I was younger I used "mixed vegetables" which contain potatoes and lima beans.
    I call this spaghetti soup Which is silly because it doesn't have spaghettu and does necasarily have spaghetti sauce I also call it peas in a pod when I use shell pasta.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  21. #21
    AR Activist Roxy's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    All that food from restaurants and child cares going to waste!! Bloody hell - there are poor people starving to death in our own countries AND in 3rd world countries, and all these places and throwing away perfectly good food Stupid!

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    I get cross too. All this legal shit. People are horrible

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    We like rice salad.
    This can be cooked in advance and put in the fridge.
    Cook brown rice, add frozen peas and sweetcorn and any other frozen veggies you like near the end of the cooking time.
    Drain rice and veggies and put in a large bowl.
    Allow to cool.
    Mix in whatever salad veg you like such as chopped fresh tomatoes, herbs, cucumber, courgette, lettuce, basically whatever you fancy, plus some nuts and raisins, seeds, etc. Then mix in a dressing and some Engevita flakes. I use lemon juice, oil, cider vinegar and shoyu. This is really nice in hot weather and is quick and easy to prepare. Variations can include tofu, olives, mushrooms, and you can do the same by replacing the rice with quinoa, barley, millet, or cous cous.
    If you are at work during the day you can cook the rice and frozen veg the night before so all you have to do when you come home is do the fresh salad veggies and mix the dressing in.
    See my local diary ... http://herbwormwood.blogspot.com/

  24. #24
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Wow, now that sounds good!
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Quote Roxy
    All that food from restaurants and child cares going to waste!! Bloody hell - there are poor people starving to death in our own countries AND in 3rd world countries, and all these places and throwing away perfectly good food Stupid!
    Dumpster diving! Most of the food they throw away has been neatly packaged and wrapped and is perfectly suitable to eat A great (albeit illegal) way to save money on shopping :P

  26. #26

    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    yeah. dumpster diving is awesome

    today i got off work at 12 pm, so i went out and shopped, and went straight home. made two jars of vegan icecream - it's soo good, i can't believe i never did this before - and then i boiled some soybeans and some black beans that i soaked yesterday, and froze them in portions. soaked some kidneybeans and butter beans for tomorrow. then i did the dishes, did my laundry (my boyfriends clothes are always clean, but mine are always dirty - guess who's the lazy bastard here?), and started to grow my own soy yoghurt - it's hopefully gonna work out well this time. at last i cooked a really nice sour tomato soup - a huge portion, so i could freeze some for a busy day. i've been so productive today

  27. #27
    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    What have been your experiences with growing soyghurt? (haha, sorry) Do you use a yoghurt machine or do you have a different method? I would love to try this!
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  28. #28
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    In the Garden of Vegan, it says that you can add a certain culture or a bit of live soyghurt to soymilk with some cornstarch/thickener, warm your oven (lowest possible setting, then turn it off), mix it up in a jar, take off the lid, and leave it in the oven for 7-10 hours (ie. overnight). Voila!

    Never tried it myself, however.

  29. #29

    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    well, i tried to heat the soymilk until it was fingery hot, and then added t tablespoon of already made soy yoghurt - it went well the first time, but think the soymilk was too hot the second.

    now i'm trying to just put soymilk in a open jar and add a tablespoon of ready made soy yoghurt and just let it stay in the fridge for a couple of days. i'll let you know how well it workd, when it's done.

  30. #30

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Getting back to the original question of how to make nice food everyday - I make it my #1 priority. I go to work everyday in order to save for the future and in order to live life to the fullest today (since we need money to do so in our culture). I look at food similarly as being the only path to a healthy today and future, so I don't put the preparation of food in some stranger's hands but rather do it myself. I think that once you embrace how very important and vital food preparation is, then the rest follows more easily. I feel the same about exercise and taking time to talk to my spouse every day. (This of course means that I never have time to sit and watch television, although I do sit in front of this computer monitor ).

    I could give you my formula for fast and easy healthy foods, etc, etc. But I think truly changing your mindset is the only thing that works. I think it would be easy to attach some deep philosophical, spiritual and loving thoughts to food preparation and it's effect on your life (and relationships) but I won't bore you.
    Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

  31. #31

    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    yeah, i would do that if i weren't so grossed out after cooking from 9 am to 4 pm every day - i don't know, i love to cook, but sometimes it's just too much cooking ALL day, EVERY day..

  32. #32

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    You are really asking for freezable stuff.
    I do stew, chilli, curry and soups which freeze easy. I usually make extra and freeze at least 1 portion.
    There are a lot of recipes on the net.
    You can also cook brown rice in advance and freeze it.
    However I find I don't like much of this sort of thing during the summer, its too heavy. Pasta salad and potato salad work well made in advance and put in the fridge so you could make those at the weekend for Monday and Tuesday.
    By the way I rarely use my oven. I make most stuff on the stove in 1 pot. I find it easier than using the oven.
    See my local diary ... http://herbwormwood.blogspot.com/

  33. #33

    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    yeah, but it's pretty hard making cakes and cookies in a pot and bread for that matter. what's better than hot rolls from the oven on a sunday morning?.. *drool*

  34. #34

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    Ah, but cakes, cookies, muffins and bread freeze so well!!!
    Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

  35. #35
    treehugga's Avatar
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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    See the 'pie filling' thread in the recipe section.

    I make pies and triangles and freeze them and have them with a salad when we're too tired to cook.
    Or
    We have bruchetta with pane de casa bread and garlic rubbed on it when toasted then we pile it with cooked mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, baby spinich, pine nuts, red onion etc etc - healthy and quick.

    I try to double quantities and freeze some for later or use as a take to work meal.

  36. #36

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    Default Re: How to make nice food every day

    I find it hard to get a decent dinner together sometimes too, and I have two kids so they have to eat something! I'm often gone from the house from 8 am until 8 pm so sometimes we just have sandwiches for dinner. If I'm organized enough (doesn't happen often) I'll make stuff ahead of time and keep it in the fridge to reheat. Veggie chili, a curry dish, rice and beans...these work well. Pasta is always as easy standby. If I really don't feel like doing anything...subway is on the way home!

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