VeganMoFo

Don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly rolling in money lately, and my cheaper standards, like bread, soup, and sundry boiled dried goods, tend to get a bit monotonous after a while. So when I was reviewing MoFo posts from the last few days, I was particularly keen to find decidedly less spendy food and recipes for inspiration. Kelly at EasyVegan was clearly on the same wavelength, with a Monday Mashup of sixteen inexpensive food ideas harvested from Flickr.

Soup’s always a nice option for the financially strapped (especially since you can get away with using leftover veg even if it’s at something less than the peak of freshness, make a big pot, and stretch it out over a few days), and there have been quite a few cheap and easy soup ideas lately. Deb at Invisible Voices writes about the harvest moon soup (pictured to the right) made from the first cookbook she purchased. Our own Mo shares a recipe for tofu fried rice noodle soup. Kat, on A Bear’s Fare, has been making borscht. Brittany’s Veg Kitchen has a recipe for one of my favorites, butternut squash soup. And Kip at The Messy Vegetarian Cook has been making chili, which I suppose is in the general soup family.

Making bread at home saves some serious cash once you get the hang of it. I get all twitchy these days whenever I have to buy a loaf at the store. Amy at tahinitoo has been baking up some rye. Bonnie at Eating with the Rabbits shares a couple ideas for variations on wholewheat loaves, pictured here. And, on a bread-related note, Megan at Down Home Vegan made a variation of what’s also one of my inexpensive staples, a simple pizza crust topped with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

And finally, if the economy is really getting you down, you can always spend your last few pennies to drown your sorrow with a good beer. And Melissa at Ok, All Together Now! reminds us how to keep those libations vegan…

– H-Dog

At first, I thought of doing an autumnal theme for today’s roundup since we’re now in the thick of fall. And of course, when I think of fall, I think of the kiddies going back to school. And when I think of school, I think of learning stuff. So, in a weird stream-of-consciousness way, I arrived at today’s theme: “Stuff you may not have known before, and oh, some posts about autumn too.”

I mean, did you know that the UK has a National Apple Day? Or that Medieval Times will do a vegan option? Or what a kurtos is? Or that the morel is the Minnesota state mushroom?

Did you know that Sweet & Sara has two new flavors of vegan marshmallows? Or that cauliflower comes in an an orange variety? Or that it’s possible to make vegan baked goods from some store-bought mixes? Or that Vegan Essentials sells an accidentally vegan flavor of Doritos?

Do you know what vegan-friendly candies you can give away this Halloween? Or how to grow your own sprouts? Or how to tell the edible sweet variety of chestnut from the toxic horse chestnut? Also, special bonus knowledge for Americans: Yorkshire pudding, not a dessert; and Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on a different day.

I almost forgot the autumnal bits: Tahinitoo and the Gluttonous Vegan (from whence was swiped the cute pumpkin picture above) have both been doing awesome pretty stuff with pumpkins. Mmm, pumpkins…

– H-Dog

Even though ideological cousins of veganism have sprung up at various points in history and throughout the world, the contemporary vegan movement really got its start in the UK and spread most quickly from there to the anglophone bits of North America and Oceania. All of which makes it that much more exciting to see the geographic diversity of the participants in this year’s Vegan Month of Food. Ready for a whirlwind tour of international MoFo blog posts from the the last weekend or so? Here goes…

•Over in South Korea, Mipa of the blog Alien’s Day Out, posted about the various faux meats she discovered in her local grocery store.
•Bonnie, over on Eating with the Rabbits, reviewed the vegan gyros she found in the Netherlands.
•Beats, Rhymes, and Cookies, out of Italy, made a first attempt at vegan cinnamon rolls.
•Andrea in Mexico City whipped up rajas con crema, and Vegan en Mexico shared a recipe for pasta with balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard.
•Melanie in Austria posted an interview with Melisser of San Francisco’s Sugar Beat Sweets and The Urban Housewife blog.
•The Vegan Animal blog out of South Africa shared a recipe for tomato and green bean curry.
•Over in Germany, Mihl of Seitan is my Motor has started testing Caribbean yumminess for the author of the Vegan in the Sun blog.

Of course, there are a whole lot of other participants from around the world, but it’s not easy keeping up with all you MoFoers. And speaking of not keeping up, I don’t know how I missed this one from last week: Marie, over in the Philippines, posted last Wednesday on her blog How to Become a Vegan Domestic Goddess about a vegan version of a childhood favorite, mais con hielo, pictured above. Yes, polyglots, that’s corn with ice. And it sounds kinda fascinatingly awesome. If it weren’t so chilly here right now, I’d have to give it a try.

– H-Dog