Seva Inspired Burritos!

There’s this fantastic vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor, MI called Seva. When I was living in that area and was a vegetarian, I ate there as often as my pocketbook would let me. While I loved pretty much everything on their menu, mMy favorite dish was their black bean & yam burritos. When I moved away from my beloved Seva, I missed their food, even though I was no longer vegetarian. I especially missed those burritos, and so decided to experiment and see if I could create something like them.

I need to get pictures of these, but the camera never seems to be around when I’m whipping them up. Last week, I made them with the Buford Middle School cooking club kids, and they adored them (even those who gave me “yuck face” when they first heard what we were making). They ate them all–no leftovers!  These are hearty enough, and flavorful enough, to satisfy even died-in-the-wool meat eaters!

They’re also frugal (especially if you make your own beans from dried), and healthy.  This recipe serves roughly 4, depending on who’s eating. I usually double it when cooking for us, because the leftovers are just as tasty as the first serving.

With Fresh Salsa

SALSA

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cans canned tomatoes with juice
• Canned or fresh jalapeño peppers, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 lime, juice of
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
• Fresh herbs of your choice (cilantro, basil, oregano, etc.), cleaned and chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a blender of food processor, and blend to desired consistency.

Black Bean Filling:
Ingredients:

• 3 tbs. Olive Oil
• 1 medium-size red onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 2 chilies in adobo sauce, diced.
• 1/2 cup water or broth
• Spices to taste: oregano, basil, pepper, cinnamon.

Directions: In large frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally. Lower heat to medium. Add remaining ingredients, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Using a fork or potato masher, mash about half the beans.

Yam Filling:

Ingredients

• 2 medium yams, peeled and chopped
• spices to taste: chili powder, garlic, cumin

Directions: In large sauce pan, cover yams with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower heat to medium-high to prevent boil-over, and cook yams until tender. Drain, and mash well with potato masher. Add spices to taste.

To make burritos you will need:

• Salsa
• Black bean filling
• Yam filling
• tortillas

Directions:In large frying pan, heat tortilla shells over medium heat for 1-3 minutes, until they are easy to roll without cracking. Lay flat, and add 2-3 tbs. each of salsa and fillings. Roll into a burrito, tucking ends in to prevent ingredients from spilling out. Serve immediately, or freeze for later use.

Keeping It Low

There’s a lot of advice on how to keep your food budget low: buy in bulk, watch for sales, use coupons, etc. Most of it is fine advice, and I do use some of it; but, I also don’t use a lot of it. So, how do I keep our food budget low while eating really great, sustainable foods if it’s not intensive couponing and vigilant watch on sale papers? Here’s what I do, what I don’t do, and why.

What I Do:

1. We don’t eat meat like Americans. As a country, we eat far, far too much meat.  So, instead Thadd and I elect to do vegetarian meals several nights a week, and rarely eat whole cuts of anything. We use meat in a dish, not as a dish. I take that savings and put it into buying local, sustainable meats; or, short of that (usually if I can’t get it for some reason), I’ll opt for organic. When you eat a lot less of it, it becomes reasonable to purchase.

2. We recognize the difference in food as sustenance, and food as indulgence.

Sustenance (albeit yummy sustenance), Kale & Grapefruit Quinoa salad with veggie frittata:

Indulgence, roasted orange-cranberry sauce with port:

This means that we eat a lot of meals that aren’t our “favorites,” but are just fine, filling, and fairly tasty. Too many people have come to believe that everything they eat must be their favorite food. Since our bodies are designed to like high-calorie foods the most (hey, years ago we needed all those calories!), this means expensive and crappy food is topping the American “wish list” right now.  I am not saying we eat tasteless goo or anything, but we do often eat simple, inexpensive meals because they’re healthy and it’s in our budget.

3. We buy frozen veggies. Fresh vegetable are nice, but when we can’t get veggies locally (and we can’t necessarily put up everything to survive on all winter, though someday we hope to do so), we often buy frozen. They’re typically cheaper–organic frozen is often less expensive than non-organic fresh–and they’re usually healthier. Frozen fruits and vegetables are typically picked when ripe and flash frozen, so they have more nutrients than their fresh, green-picked counterparts. Since frozen rarely cooks up like fresh, these often get used as part of entrees, instead of just as sides. If I am making miso chicken, I’ll  toss in a bunch of frozen spinach at the end, for example.

4. We eat soups and casseroles a few times a week.

If it’s soup, there’s usually some form of bread on the side, but not always.  I’ve had people say “oh, but my husband/wife/children won’t eat those! It’s meat and potatoes every night–so how can *I* save money?” Um..you can’t. Not if you still want to eat healthy. Look, here’s the truth, which I’ve said before hundreds of times here: people are spoiled and they need to get over it. A few mealtimes roll around and what’s on the table is a soup or casserole or go hungry, and the household will get the idea. Refusing to eat healthy, well-prepared, and flavorful foods just because they’d rather be eating something else is childish. I’d rather be a millionaire, but I can’t stop working just because I’d rather not. If it’s a spouse, well, I’m not going there–that’ll have to be figured out between the couple. If it’s the kids, then it’s time to pony up to the Parent Table and put your foot down.

5. Legumes are a main ingredient several times a week.

Beans, split peas, lentils…all great sources of lean protein that you can prepare a hundred different ways. And, even the organics are fairly inexpensive.

6. No processed or convenience  foods. Processed foods are expensive (even if they look cheap, just look at their cost-per-pound–it’s always higher than whole foods), and lack nutrients.

7. Meal planning. I harp on this here, I know, but it really is probably the #1 thing we do to keep our budget low. Eating spur-of-the-moment, as most people do, is a recipe for disaster. Good, fast, cheap: pick two (saying courtesy of Thadd, who I believe got it from the military folks he worked with). If you want good, healthy food fast, you’re going to pay through the nose for convenience food. If you want cheap food fast, you’re going to pay the price by eating empty calories. So, the other option is good and cheap, which means it’s not fast. Planning for this is the only way to make it work.

8. Shop at my local Amish & Mennonite stores. They have the best prices and quality of grains, spices, cheese, and a lot of the produce we use fresh. Spices are often 1/2 to 1/3 what they are at Kroger or FoodLion, and they have just as large a selection of organic spices. Same thing with grains. Plus, they’re local, and that puts dollars back into our community (and, they’re great people, who are happy to do special orders, etc.).

9. Shop with a list (which was made using our meal plan). Stick to that list.

10. We keep a pantry stocked with basics. This lets us throw something together on the night that nothing went right, and to purchase items either in bulk or when we caught them on sale at the store.

11. Eat leftovers.

We do this a lot. In fact, we do this almost every day, and it’s actually part of our meal plan. We make sure to cook enough several days a week for us to eat lunch from, so no buying lunch out.

12. Make your own beverages. If you just have to have that specialty coffee or tea, make it at home. Shop craigslist or FreeCycle if it requires special equipment.

13. Keep snacks readily available.

We keep nuts, yogurt, some veggies & hummus, and the like on hand to munch on. This keeps us from doing something dumb, like ordering pizza, if we get home late and need to wait for dinner.

14. I use my slow cooker several times a week.

There are few things in life more useful for saving us time and money than our slow cookers. I have a few cookbooks (though I want more), am a regular visiter at A Year of Slow Cooking, and often just throw stuff for soup in and call it good.  I love coming home to a good-smelling house and a yummy dinner.

15. Choose foods that will keep us fuller, longer.

Whole grains and protein are they key. In the morning, we usually eat fermented oats or steel-cut oats from the slow cooker. Sometimes, we do eggs and homemade toast. We don’t do pop-tarts, freezer waffles, or the like. Not only are those foods far more expensive than our options, but both of us would be hungry within an hour.

16. Store foods when they’re in-season.

Drying, freezing, canning. ‘Nuf said.

What I Don’t Do:

1. Use coupons. About 95% of the foods we eat never have coupons. The other 5% have them so rarely that buying a paper to get them isn’t worth it. If I happen to get a store coupon for something like $1/off fresh produce, I’ll obviously use it; but, generally the things that have coupons in my area are unhealthy and expensive.

2. Shop a bazillion stores to save 5 cents. Stores here are fairly far apart, so unless I happen to be going somewhere else in that direction, driving to more than 1 store rarely pays for itself in actual money saved, not to mention I don’t have hours upon hours to drive.  Since we get all our meat, eggs, and milk from farms, there’s rarely enough price difference to warrant driving around. I do shop at a local health food store (which is also where I pick up our milk share and chickens), and the Mennonite market, in addition to Kroger. The health food store I shop at not only because I am already there, but because in this very culture-deprived town, it’s the only place I can get a lot of the ingredients I use (red lentils, etc.). The Mennonite store is a stock-up for me, when I need grains, spices, and cheese (which we freeze).

3. Buy things because “they’re on sale,” and I “might need them later.” If it’s not on my list or on the “stock up” list (we keep one of these, and have a certain amount each week we spend to do this), I don’t buy it.

4. Keep a garden. I’d love to do this, and I think anyone who can, should. We did do some herbs and greens this year, but we just don’t have a reasonable place to put indoor pots (by which I mean, a place we can keep them that my cats won’t eat them). Since we live in a rental that has really poor soil and very limited sun, and we don’t want to invest a pile of cash in doing what it would take to set up a box garden since we’ll likely only be where we are a short-ish period of time, we do without the savings. The time it would take us to recoup our outlay means we probably wouldn’t, so for us, it’s not a great option.

What do you do to eat healthy on a budget?

 

 

 

Related Articles

• 10 Winter Dinners from the Slow Cooker Recipe Roundup (thekitchn.com)
• Chef Eric Akis gives slow cooker recipes a contemporary tweak (canada.com)
• Karen Kelly: Changing the Food Landscape, One Person at a Time: Part One (huffingtonpost.com)
• In Praise of Frozen Vegetables (theatlantic.com)

Illustrated Astyk

Okay, so I’ve had no communication with Sharon Astyk about illustrating her book or anything, but I really liked the alliteration of the title.  She didn’t have any photos in her book, (which I actually prefer, since it’s not supposed to be a photo book), so I thought I’d take some photos while I worked.  And, I mentioned I’d be doing some more blogs about preservation, which this is.

Ms. Astyk talks about a lot of things in her book, and I highly recommend it. She’s witty, pragmatic,  and straightforward.  One of the things she talks about is salting as a form of preservation, and the various pros and cons of the method. With a background in food history, I’ve seen salting through a different lens, but the pros and cons remain similar through most of history.

There are many forms of salting, from soaking things in brine to just rubbing foods liberally with salt and hoping for the best. What works depends on a lot of things, including climate and the foods itself. In some cases, salting is intended to limit bacterial growth to “good bacteria,” as is the case with lacto-fermenting and the process of making certain types of fish sauce (this is not a process you want to hear about, trust me). In other instances, it’s to dry the food out and make it uninhabitable for any kind of bacteria, as with salt pork and dried fish.

This recipe, which I’m not going to give in detail because I want you to go buy Ms. Astyk’s book so she can keep writing books, is for preserved lemons. It’s closest, I think, to salting to prevent any bacterial growth, and is what I suppose I’d consider a brine (though Lord’s Sauce is supposed to do the same thing with a salt and vinegar combo, and I don’t consider that a brine; so, this is a pretty arbitrary decision on my part).  It’s up for discussion if anyone’s interested, though that’s not the point. The point is, it looked yummy, and I wanted to try it even though lemons aren’t local to us.

It’s pretty simple, really.  Start by cutting some lemons to the appropriate size:

Toss them with sea salt:

Weigh them down to press out the juices:

Layer with salt and alternating layers of bay leaf, peppercorns, and cinnamon:

And fill with appropriate amount of lemon juice:

Put on lid, shake a bit, and then turn every few days. In theory, that’s it. I am still at the turning phase, so I can’t tell you how these have turned out aside from the fact that they are very pretty. I’ll give you an update on them as soon as they’re ready to be tasted, in about 3 or 4 weeks.

Now that I’ve done this, and given that I’ve been thinking a lot more about the possibility of having no electricity at some point (seriously, I have no idea how we kept power last winter given the snow, and we’re kind of prone to hurricane throwoffs here, too), I am considering tossing together a batch of Lord’s Sauce, or at least making sure I’ve got everything on hand and a printed copy, in case I need to preserve meat without canning or refrigeration. I’m hoping to post this here, too, once I get the permission of Chef Channon (my mentor and friend), who came up with the recipe I’ll be using.

Related Articles

• Understanding Food Preservation (gomestic.com)

Warm Up Fall with Baked Oatmeal!

Baked Oatmeal, using leftover oatmeal

-3 cups leftover oatmeal

-1 cup milk

-1/2 c. honey or molasses

-1/2 c.  granola

-sliced apples, peaches, bannanas (slice lengthwise), or other fruit of your choice. Berries are also fine

-2 tbs. butter

Preheat oven to 350. Combine oatmeal, milk, and honey, stirring until combined. Pour into oiled or sprayed 9″ pan. Top with granola. Lay fruit gently on top of granola, then cut butter into small squares and sprinkle on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on how brown you want it. Serve with whole-grain toast.

Putting By

It’s that time of year again. Produce is starting to come in hot and heavy, and we’re gearing up for canning, freezing, and dehydrating. This year, we’ll even have vacuum-packed goods, since we found a FoodSaver for $3 at Goodwill! We’ve already canned some dill pickles and green beans, as well as frozen grated zucchini. More of all that will happen this week, along with (hopefully) dehydrating some melon and freezing corn-on-the-cob. Stay tuned for photos!

This year I am getting a lot of interest in preserving. Emails are arriving about how I store food almost daily, and my previous posts about preservation are drawing a lot of traffic.  It’s exciting to see people take an interest in their food, and while I realize it’s in large part the economy and having a family in the White House that is interested in healthy food and gardening, I am hoping it’s a trend that sticks. Once people taste the difference, one they see that you don’t need a pound of salt and HFCS in everything (and that food actually tastes better without it if it’s fresh!), maybe they’ll stick with it. Once they feel more energy, see their skin improve, and notice they’re not getting sick as often, maybe they’ll keep gardening, keep preserving food.

Those of you who can fun and interesting things, share your recipes with your friends. I’ll be sharing some here, too. Hot and sweet carrots, pickled jalapenos, aubergine, and more will be upcoming. Let’s keep the momentum going.

Food Photos!

I’d like to think you come here for my wit and food politics, but we all know you’re here for the food. Since I’ve been a bit light on food porn these last weeks, I’m going to throw a bunch at you today to catch up!

Above: You all know we eat from local sources as much as possible, and I just found a new source for amazing chicken: Davis Creek Farms. Their 100% pastured, free-range, better-than-organic chickens are slaughtered on the farm by the family, and they’re delicious. The bird above came trussed just as you see it–ready for roasting. His prices, which was about $3.40/lb for whole birds, are totally worth it for the flavor and the good farming practices. The carcass will, of course, go into stock later this week.  Below: These freshly-dug potatoes and carrots were roasted with Herbs de Provence for a wonderful side dish. Fresh potatoes have a richness that store-bought just can’t match, because store-bought potatoes are stored in warehouses just above freezing. These temperatures change the starches in the potatoes, rendering them less creamy and muting the flavor. The baby carrots tasted like carrots, not like sugar. Yum! The leftovers will be mixed with beets and beet greens in a homemade chicken stock base for a wonderful soup. The carrot tops will be used in pesto (thanks to the farm for this idea!).

Below: Falafel is hard to come by in this area, and we’ve been craving it. I finally had time to whip up a batch a few days ago:

Below: Summer brings cold fare to the table, in part because I tend to lose my appetite in the heat. For lunches, I’ve really gotten into savory smoothies, which are essentially gazpacho every day! They’re healthy, full of vitamins and fiber, and fill me up while cooling me down. I side them with some protein (usually an egg, cheese, and/or nuts), and it’s a light, filling lunch that is also full of what I need to keep up my active lifestyle.

Now that market season is here and our CSA has started, we’re looking forward to a lot of produce and a lot of new recipes. We’ll also be doing, as usual, a lot of preservation via canning, freezing, and drying. All this means lots of new pics, so if you’re just here for the food porn, you’ve got something to look forward to. If you’re here for the politics, don’t worry, that’s coming, too!

Healthy Eating Tip of the Day/Week/Whatever & What I’m Doing

One of my biggest “tricks” to staying healthy is to eat a really diverse diet. Science has proven that people who eat a wide variety of foods are generally much healthier than those who eat a limited diet for a few reasons: 1)  it provides a wider variety of vitamins, minerals, and micro-nutrients,  2) your metabolism is kept off balance, so your body works harder and burns more calories, and 3) your body, especially your tastebuds, feel more satisfied, so you eat less overall.

If you’re having a hard time getting in some diversity because of time, just make some small changes. Take a new fruit for lunch, or toss a different vegetable on the grill tonight.  Add some sharp cheese and red pepper to your salad.  Looking for bigger changes? Consider trying some different cuisines, like Indian, or switch to a vegetarian meal once or twice a week.

I want to add even more diversity to my diet, and get some more raw fruits and veggies in. I do fairly well with my daily veggie intake since I love them, but there are days like today when I’ll be working from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM, and eating a salad in the car is a recipe for disaster. So, next week (I’ve already been grocery shopping this week), I’ll be adding savory smoothies to the “superfood” smoothies I’m already doing. While the fruity ones keep my sweet tooth at bay, I don’t always want sweet.  I’d love to hear your recipes, and I’ll be sharing mine here as I experiment.

I also think these will work out well for me when it gets really hot out. I tend to not eat in the heat, and a savory smoothie might just be the perfect way for me to get in the foods I need!

Keeping It Up

I’ve been training a lot lately. There’s a few reasons for this: 1) I am teaching more classes at both gyms, including spin, weights, and P90X, and I have to train up for them, 2) there’s the All-Women’s 4-Days-4-States hike I’ll be doing (and kind of leading) in June, and 3) the warrior dash in September could possibly kick my bum if I’m not ready for it.

This only matters here because it means I have to work harder to keep my energy and nutrition up, including my electrolytes and antioxidants (being sick isn’t really an option right now). So, I’ve added smoothies to my daily diet. I’m trying for 2 a day, and they’re not all your average smoothies. Only rarely will there be any yogurt in them, because I am instead of focusing on variety and “superfoods,” like matcha, pomegranate, acai,  wheat grass, flax meal, etc. This morning’s matcha-melon was awesome, but I didn’t get pictures. I did, however, get last night’s pomegranate smoothie:

Above: the raw ingredients. Melon, mango, lime (which I zested), strawberries, and flax. Not shown are pomegranate juice and ice. To make things faster, I pre-prep fruits like melon and mango in batches, then store until I am ready to use. Below: ready to add the liquid and the ice.

Below: The Magic Bullet Blender. Yep, I laughed at it, too. My roommate has one, so I thought I’d give it a whirl, and as much fun as I made of it, it’s awesome for smoothies. It is fast, compact, blends really well, and cleans up in a flash, making it far preferable to a large blender if you’re doing one smoothie at a time like I am.

And finally, the finished product:

I’m always trying new combos, so you’ll probably see more here. I am hoping to pick up some almond butter soon, to do almond vanilla smoothies for the protein. Any favorite recipes out there?

What’s a Service Look Like, Anyway?

I keep meaning to get some pictures of the meals I make for clients posted here, so you can see what it might look like if I was cooking for you! Each client’s meals are made especially for them, so each week I may be cooking up to 20 totally unique meals, not including what we eat at home.

One of the reasons I haven’t gotten many photos of services is that I move pretty fast. Food safety means keeping things at specific temperatures, and I’m also usually doing 3-5 meals at once. Getting distracted could mean ruining an entire dinner. Also, though, it’s because I am just not comfortable taking my awesome-but-huge camera into my client’s homes sometimes. To remedy this, I am going to start carrying the little one we have. I’m still learning to work it, and the pics aren’t likely to be as good as those I’d get with my uber-camera; but, at least I’ll get them! I’ll save the Big Fella for the cooking I do for special occasions, or at home.

Above:  These meals feed two ladies for dinner, and I package leftovers for them (out-of-frame to right) as lunches. From front to back are tandoori-spiced whitefish with curried chickpea & vegetable salad, barbeque tempeh and vegetables over seasoned brown rice, and goat cheese & charred tomato burritos with black beans & rice. Below: Black & White chicken chili, which gets its name from the mixture of black and canellini beans used to make it. It will be served with moist, sweet cornbread full of golden corn kernels.

I had a bunch more photos, but it seems the camera just lost them. I have no idea why. Another mystery for me to figure out.

Frugal and Foodie

Thanksgiving is over, and it’s time to hop back on the frugal food wagon! As many of you know, there are now four adults to feed in the house. We share our gorgeous, huge new home with another  couple that we’ve known for years, and are keeping the budget down by also sharing food. Here’s the next two week’s dinners (some of it in pictures).

November 30th – December 6th

Monday: Venison Sausage and green lentil soup, with homemade bread. One of our favorite soups for winter meets my brother’s venison stash. We were given some ridiculous amount of venison this year (which is fantastic, since we love the stuff), including these fantastic sausages. They were tender and spicy, giving a deep, warm flavor to the soup. As I’ve mentioned before, lentils are a great source of lean protein, are high in fiber, and a very frugal-but-satisfying dinner. We used homemade stock for the broth, and then paired the soup with some of UC’s homemade ciabatta bread. The total cost for the four of us was less than $2.00. If we’d had to buy the sausage, it would have been about $4-5 total.

Tuesday- Creole catfish, with apple & onion hash, mixed vegetables, and salad. This is a bit of a splurge meal. I love apple & onion hash, and since we have apples coming out our ears, this was the perfect time to make this great side dish.

Wednesday-Thai Salmon patties and hot-and-sour sauce, with miso-peanut noodles (whole-wheat), and a veggie. Canned salmon is another great source of tasty, lean protein at a good price, and mixed with TVP it’s an even better price. I’ll whip up some miso-peanut sauce (with a touch of lime), and grab a veggie out of the freezer to round things out.

Thursday- Mexican pinto beans and brown rice. I’ll be using some of our (huge) store of dried beans for these. Coupled with the brown rice this is a great, spicy dinner with lots of vitamins, protein, and fiber. There will be a salad on the side for  more greens.

Friday: Shape-It-Up Meatloaf with whipped sweet potatoes and a vegetable. My most-requested recipe, currently, is this meatloaf. Low in fat and calories, high in flavor and nutrition. Made with lean meat, oats, TVP, spinach, black beans, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and spices, this meatloaf has converted even the most hard-core meat eaters! This looks better baked, and tastes better than it looks period; but:

Saturday-Salmon, mushroom, and vegetable polenta. We love creamy polenta in the winter. It’s hearty, and when you toss in loads of vegetables, canned salmon, and some smoked black sea salt it’s also tasty and healthy. We’ll be using some of the wild mushrooms we collected this year:

Sunday-Venison Chili with cheddar & sour cream cornbread. My special chili gets a twist with venison (thanks, Dan!). Pinto, white, and black beans (soaked and cooked) will make this stew fun and flavorful.

December 7th – 13th

Monday-Salmon and blue cheese pasta. We’ll be making homemade, whole-wheat pasta if all goes well, then topping it with salmon and vegetables in light blue-cheese, parmesan, and lemon sauce. It’ll look like this, but with the addition of salmon:

 

Tuesday-Spanish braised chicken thighs with brown rice and salad. This one-pot meal is reminiscent of paella! Deep, rich Spanish flavors, lots of chicken and vegetables, all cooked with brown rice in a wonderful sauce.

Wednesday-Sweet & Sour Tofu. Our favorite tofu from Twin Oaks Commune will sit amid peppers, broccoli, and other vegetables in this Asian dish.

Thursday-Venison Roast with root vegetables and salad. The leftover root vegetables will be used to make the stew you’ll see later on in the menu.

Friday-Whole wheat pizza night. UC is making whole-wheat crust, our friend Adam is making the sauce, and we’ll all top our pizzas with our favorites. Mine will be light on the cheese, heavy on the roasted broccoli, onions, and TVP. UC’s will be heavy on the cheese and pepperoni.

Saturday- Roasted root vegetable stew. This is another great winter soup. Roasted root vegetables are pureed into a creamy soup, served topped with parmesan cheese and olive oil:

Sunday-Kufta on pita, with the fixin’s and cucumber salad. This Middle Eastern vegetarian dish combines lentils and bulgar for a complete, lean protein:

Right now, we’re spending about $100/week to feed 4 adults.

What’s your meal plan this week?