$3.33 a day: Indian Food and Raw Cashew Cheesesticks

Indian Spiced Cabbage and Caramelized Onions

First of all, I want to than everyone for their support yesterday. I am still in shock a bit about Mark's layoff. We knew it was a very real possibility, but I was in denial. It will be very interesting to see what the future holds for our family. Even though Mark and I are getting a divorce, we are good friends and our first priority is our children.

Onto the food! The above dish is highly spiced and so good. I used whole black mustard, cumin and coriander seeds which I toasted in a T of dark sesame oil. I chopped up a bunch of ginger and added it to the spices along with a huge sweet onion, pinch of salt and red pepper flakes. I allowed the onions to caramelize and added the cabbage, red pepper and cilantro after they were good and brown. Dark soy sauce, siracha and lime juice finished the dish off. It is actually what we are having for dinner tonight along with the curried potatoes and peas and some dahl(click for recipe) from the freezer.

Curried Potatoes and Peas

If we have any leftovers, I will mix them together sans the dhal and use them as filling for samosas later in the week. Cold samosas pack well in a lunch box and my kids love them. I will bake the samosas the same day I bake bread to save energy.

Freshly Squeezed Grapefruit Juice

I had two grapefruits that had seen better days, but they were perfect for juice. This hit the spot this morning! I will definitely look for old grapefruits and other citrus on the bargain table.

Raw Flatbread/Tortillas

I turned pulled out the dehydrator yesterday to make a bunch of flatbreads. I have a 4 tray and I made 1 large pizza crust, 4 tortilla shells and 4 large pieces of bread. My older son and I are going to have a big raw pizza later in the week. It's also nice to use these in place of bread for hummus and to top with avocado and greens.

Raw Mozzarella Sticks and Kale Chips

Oh boy were these good! I used my cashew cheese and just rolled in in raw 'parmesan' which I make out of sesame seeds, walnuts, nutritional yeast and spices. They dehydrated for around 4 hours or so and the cheese was warm and gooey! The kale was dipped in some of my balsamic flax vinaigrette and topped with raw parm. The dipping sauce was a marinara made from sun dried tomatoes.

Raw Vegan Goodness!

I initially got this idea from the Ebook, Frugal Raw. It is a great cookbook and you should go buy it!

I have had so many emails over the past year asking me for recipes, so I've decided to get them all together and write my own Ebook. I need the focus and frankly, I need the money too! I started writing down outline today and expect to be finished within 6 weeks at the most! I have been flirting with the cookbook thing forever, but to really measure everything I cook is challenging because my brain doesn't work that way! I just throw things together figure it out as I go along..

The challenge will be creating, testing and writing all of these recipes while sticking to $3.33 a day!

Vegan for $3.33 a Day is going to be the name of it!

Total spent this month: $34.80
Total Banked in Bulk Food Fund: $10.20
Left to spend this week: $0.00