Thursday, October 1, 2009

Bulk Buying and Birthday Bites

I'm a little out of practice blogging daily so I'll be a bit lame on my first VeganMoFo and post some pictures I meant to post a while ago. I promise, I'll have better stuff for you in the coming days, but I don't want to set the bar too high right off the bat.Often people will say to me that they can't afford organic or even that they think it costs more just to eat vegan. Obviously, you don't have to eat organic to eat vegan, but many vegans also care about our environment and nutrition so we tend to also try to reach for organic when we can. One of the ways to eat organic in these tough economic times to buy in bulk. I am lucky to have a buying club and a local co-op in my area which both enable buying in bulk. Above is a picture of last month's haul; 25lbs. short brown rice, 20 lbs. garbanzo beans, 20 lbs. cashews, 20 lbs. white whole wheat flour, 17 lbs. black beans, 15 lbs. almonds, 5 lbs. raisins, 10 lbs. nutritional yeast, 8 lbs. whole wheat pasta, 5 lbs. shredded coconut, 1 lb. red lentils, 2 jars of blackstrap molasses, 1 case of soymilk, 2 sunbutter, 1.5 lbs date sugar, and 5 lbs. peanut butter. Some things like the nutritional yeast and beans will last about three or four months. The white whole wheat is about half gone since Rob's been baking bread and I've been making scones from Vegan Brunch (see tomorrow's post). I keep most of the food in one gallon glass jars which I put in our butler's pantry (items like lentils) or our chest freezer (items like nuts). This cost about $550 which is a big one time out of pocket expense, but it cuts our weekly shopping down to pretty much fresh produce. I won't be able to attend our monthly buying club for at least three months so this month was a larger order than usual.

I mentioned Josie's second birthday, but didn't say what we ate. I was going to ask the amazing Kris make one of her master pieces, but decided with loads of birthday parties in September that we'd have plenty of the wonderful and decadent cakes. We had a much smaller party than we usually do for the boys because at two, Josie is just as happy having a few little friends over and then taking a nap. It was nice to relax with a handful of her friends, their parents, my dad, my sister and her boyfriend, and some adult neighbors on the porch and snack on finger food.Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake from Veganomicon. Josie loved the bundt cake, as usual, but after playing with the number two candle all morning, she was a little upset when we lit it. She practiced singing "Happy Birthday" for weeks leading up to her birthday, but when the time came she was in tears due to number two candle. It was getting close to nap time so that probably had something to do with her sadness and she really did have a lovely time and is still talking about her birthday almost a month later.
Vegan Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs from Vegan Brunch. These make great appetizers. We had more yummy food, but this is all the pictures I thought to take.

6 comments:

B.A.D. said...

What a haul!! I am super jealous of your access to amazing organic bulked goods!

Where did you find those giant jars? Are they the standard container for dried beans? or were they acquired elsewhere?

Lisa -- Cravin' Veggies said...

Oh how I wish we had a co-op or buying club here...

I will have to stick to buying online, I guess. :(

That is one seriously big purchase though. Love the jars.

Unknown said...

Hi Linda--Came here looking for the recipe for the vegan tempeh sausage pastry thingmes. They were SO good. I've been avoiding tempeh for a few years because I overdid it one year and ate too much and got kinda grossed out by it. But now I'm back! Thanks!

Debra said...

The pastry puffs look so good. I buy in bulk also- I have to- have 7 kids.. They eat me out of house and home!

Julie Lynn said...

Wow! Wishing we had a co-op nearby too. Good for you. =D

VeganLinda said...

B.A.D, A friend of mine picks them up at a local Amish community store and they are just perfect for storing things!

Lisa, :-( Sorry you don't have a local buying club. You should check out if UNFI comes to your area. You might be able to start your own buying club.

Aviva, So glad you enjoyed the tempeh! If you follow the link, you'll find the recipe or I'm happy to loan out Vegan Brunch if you'd like to borrow it.

Debra, I can't imagine how much food seven kids would eat!! Three kids do quite enough damage on the old pocket book. :-)

Fayinagirl,

We are lucky. Our co-op was started many years ago as a small buying club and has grown to an amazing place, especially in the last couple years. It took a lot of community effort and support, but we are very proud of it!