Adventures in homemade greenness

I promised that this was going to be the year when I got better at homemade greenness. And I fully intend to follow through on that promise.  There are so many areas where I waste money and resources buying premade stuff - cleaning products, facial care products and food. 

The first thing I decided to tackle was food. Specifically, seitan. If you don't know, one of the easiest things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is to eat less meat. You don't have to go completely vegetarian - there are campaigns out there such as Meatless Monday which provide inspiration to go vegetarian one day a week. I am already a vegetarian, but I confess to being a bit of a processed-food vegetarian. So, on to seitan. Seitan is a protein made of wheat gluten (so, if you're gluten intolerant, obviously this isn't for you). It is also known as "wheat meat".  It's low in calories and fat, and super high in protein (for something vegetarian). But alas, it is expensive if you buy it ready made - $3.99 for 2.5 servings at Whole Foods. If you've never tried it before, I suggest buying one of those packets and giving it a go in a stir fry. They are usually sold in chiller cabinets with the fresh tofus and meat substitutes. Don't be afraid to flavor it up with soy sauce, hot sauce, whatever, and even let it go slightly crisp with the cooking. Delicious.

As I have an awesome cookbook called Veganomicon, which promised me that homemade seitan was easy to make, I decided to try my hand at making it. You have to buy vital wheat gluten flour and nutritional yeast, but otherwise the remaining ingredients should be readily available and may be things you already have.  I think I spent about $8-9 at Whole Foods for enough organic vital wheat gluten flour and nutritional yeast to make 8-10 batches of seitan. The recipe I used was similar to this one except I didn't put any flavorings in it other than 1/4 cup of soy sauce, and it only used 1 cup of flour, cooking up in 8 cups of broth/water. Instead of the flavorings, it has 1 tblspn olive oil. Each batch makes 3 servings.

The book authors were right  - it was super easy. And yummy. I even made the vegetable broth myself, from all the wilting vegetables that were cluttering up the fridge and making me feel guilty. Using homemade broth did make it a two-day process, but now I also have 8 individually frozen cups of broth, that I can use in other recipes, and it keeps the sodium content down.

I think I count this as a success! The pic is today's lunch, which was a seitan stir fry.

Review: Kashi Garden Vegetable Pasta

I've reviewed a Kashi frozen meal before so I thought I may as well do another one. But I'll just reiterate my reasons for liking them - although these food items are not organic, which is a shame, they are not chock-full of chemicals and preservatives, are easily available and are relatively cheap for a prepared meal. They are retailing at $3.59 at most places that I shop at.

I've had the Kashi pesto primavera pasta (or whatever it's called), and despite my general love for all things pasta-related, and especially pesto, there's something about it that just isn't quite right. No such problems with the garden vegetable pasta, which I really like. First of all, it's vegan, getting its protein from the mixed whole-grain pasta, and beans. So many prepared pasta dishes rely on cheese to do the job, that this makes for a very welcome change. I'm always on the lookout for easy vegan meals, and this fits the bill nicely.

The sauce is a rich tomato-based sauce with just the faintest hint of a spicy kick. And by "faintest hint" I really mean it is super mild, but I think with beans, tomato and pasta you need a bit of a kick otherwise it is all too bland, and this is just enough to give a nice little boost to the flavor. There aren't quite as many veggies as the picture on the box would imply, but those that are there are well chosen and survive the freezing and nuking process well.

This seems to be a great addition to the Kashi line. I think I'll be buying it regularly!

Four stars.

Review: Kashi Ranchero Beans

I did have something to review today after all!

Strictly, I suppose, a frozen meal is neither green nor frugal. We should all be making our own organic meals, preferably from vegetables that we grew ourselves. But then again, I've never pretended that this blog is about being uber-green. It's more about buying smarter products to make your life greener as you either learn about taking the green life one step further or decide that light green is just far enough, thanks.

So, this is what I'd call a "light green" product. It isn't organic, but I wish it was. It is a frozen meal, yes, but it isn't chock-a-block full of unpronounceable preservatives. Kashi as a whole are a reputable company, I think, who do seem to care about the environment. They've reduced their packaging, as an example. They seem to care about producing healthy food. All in all, I think it's a fair choice for those times when you just don't have the time or energy to make something yourself. And, more to the frugal side of my nature, the Kashi meals are a lot cheaper than Amy's Kitchen or similar products. And they are easily found in most supermarkets, which is not true of many other products. I picked this up at my local Publix for $3.59, when most of the Amy's meals were retailing at $5.69 or so. That difference sure adds up over time.

Kashi has had a small selection of frozen meals for a while, and they've just expanded them, adding two new vegetarian options. Sorry, I don't know how many non-vegetarian ones they've added as I don't pay that much attention to non-vegetarian items. But the first of the new meals that I've tried is the Ranchero Beans, which is vegan. It's a southwest-themed meal, with roast corn, pinto beans, and red peppers in a chipotle sauce. The base is Kashi's usual 7-grain pilaf.

The bean mixture has a nice kick to it, but not so much that it is painful or in any way overbearing. It may not be enough if you're a true spice lover, but for the average Joe or Jane, I think they got the level of spice just about right. This is unlike the Black Bean Mango meal, which I do like but I find a bit too spicy on occasion. I have to admit, there's also something about the Kashi pilaf blend that I don't quite dig - perhaps the texture of the wheat berries - but I am getting more used to it as time goes by. I wouldn't say this is my favorite frozen meal but I liked it, and it's going to go straight into the rotation as something I will buy regularly for quick lunches at work, because it was tasty, seemed healthy and more importantly, fits into the budget.

3 stars.

Review: 365 Organic Black Tea

Most organic teas seem to run in the range of $4.99 and up for 16 or 20 bags, and as lovely as the tea may be, it is hardly what I'd call frugal. So when I saw that Whole Foods has some organic teas at $3.99 for 80 bags under their own "365 Organic" label, I knew I had to snap some up to try it. The range includes black tea, green tea and a pomegranate/cranberry green tea. It also had a decaffeinated green tea with some other flavorings, but that was $3.99 for 40 bags so it was twice the price, and therefore didn't get a second glance from me.

Inside, the 80 bags are portioned out into 8 sachets of 10 teabags each. While this doesn't please the plastic-hating part of me, because it means more plastic has been used in the packaging, it does please the tea-loving part of me because it keeps the teabags fresher for longer.

The tea itself was very nicely refreshing and definitely not stale, so I know the packaging had the desired effect. It isn't a strong tea, but has a pleasant flavor (sorry, my tea vocabulary is not up to snuff so I can't describe it very well). The black tea is a standard English-style blend, and it has a fresh, almost fruity tang to it (somewhat reminiscent of a perfectly brewed cup of PG Tips, and definitely better than Lipton). It's no lapsang souchong or bohea, either of which would have me swooning with ecstasy over finding an organic tea for this price, but it is a wonderfully smooth cup of regular, everyday tea that will give you a great pick-me-up. And at slightly less than 10 cents a cup (or 5 cents if you use a pot and eke at least two cups out of one bag as I do), it seems like a veritable bargain compared to the other organic teas out there. It is going straight onto my "must-have" list as a regular staple item.

Four and a half stars. It's only lacking a half star due to my predilection for more robust, smokier-flavored teas. Which isn't its fault, really, as it is perfectly fine for what it claims to be - a standard black tea blend. OK, maybe 4 and three-quarters stars.

Update: I'm bumping this up to 5 stars. It has really grown on me, and is now my go-to tea. WTG Whole Foods!

Review: Guayaki Yerba Mate - Mate Chocolatte Tea

A couple of my friends are ga-ga over this Mate Chocolatté tea. After all, it's organic, it's robustly flavored and it gives you a nice kick of energy.

But I just can't get into it. I'm not quite sure what it's trying to be. Is it trying to be a coffee substitute? A hot chocolate substitute? Or a drink with its own personality? It smells like Mate tea with a hint of cinnamon and cocoa. And if you haven't smelled Mate tea and want me to describe it further, I would say there's an undertone of bark, soil and damp leaves. It's an earthy, vegetal smell. The taste is more chocolatey when you take that first sip. It's like a diluted (very diluted) hot chocolate with some cumin and cinnamon thrown in for good measure. Not that there's any cumin in it, but that's the impression that comes to mind. It's certainly not a sweet hot chocolate, but a spicy one, with an earthy aftertaste. The ingredients are Yerba Mate leaf, cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, stevia and clove.

I suppose if you were just giving up coffee or coke, or even hot chocolate, and wanted something to make you feel like you're kind of getting a hit of your favorite beverage while being healthier than the thing you just gave up, this is probably something to go for. If you're more of a tea drinker to start with, like I am, it may not entirely hit the spot. I feel like it's trying to be too many things to too many people rather than being itself.

Sorry girls, I don't love it. It is apparently at Whole Foods for $4.99 (I didn't buy it), but for that price for 16 bags of tea, it's got to be swoon-worthy for me. And this isn't.

Two stars.