Being Vegan Involves Math

That's right. Being vegan involves math...a lot of math actually. I hate math and really, I hate numbers in general. Maybe it's not so much that being a vegan requires math but being a vegan when your husband is being a caveman involves a lot of math.

What I've noticed is that every vegan recipe makes a TON of food. I'm serious. I made Alicia Silverstone's Moroccan Couscous and it made enough to feed a small army. (It was delicious by the way). I tried to eat it as a meal but it was just too much couscous. So I gave half of it to Lynette. At least her husband can eat it. Who knew my Monday morning would begin with trading couscous for nutritional yeast?

So where does the math come in? It comes in that I need to either half or quarter every recipe. What I do depends on how lazy I'm feeling. Still, I find that I have too much food and I can't finish it all in time. I think I'm going to have to stop being lazy and start quartering the recipes.

We went grocery shopping last night and again spent way too much money. Fresh produce is expensive! At the same time, we're still buying base ingredients that last a long time so that could be part of it. In addition to that we're buying a lot of nuts since that's one of the few things my husband can eat on this caveman plan. Nuts are expensive. They're also fattening and they contain protein. The grocery bill lead to a conversation about our food choices and this is what we concluded:

Eating healthy = higher grocery bills.

Don't let people tell you that eating healthy is cheaper than eating junk food. It's not. Fresh produce and the like are more expensive than the carbohydrate and salt laden instant foods many people fill their carts with. It's a trade off. If you want to eat healthy be prepared to spend money. And here we thought we'd be saving money by not eating out...go figure.

Our shopping trip did prove beneficial. In the search for rice milk at the super market, we came across almond milk. It was recommended by a friend as being just as good as rice milk. A quick read of the label and holy Hannah is almond milk filled with goodness! It's full of vitamins and minerals not found in regular milk, not to mention it's lower in fat and contains no saturated fat.

Here's an interesting article comparing almond milk to cow's milk. My husband talked me into buying both the original version and the vanilla. (This may also be why our grocery bill is so high). He's not a milk drinker but it turns out he loves almond milk! In fact, he loves it so much he wants to buy it from now on instead of soy milk and cow's milk. That it's healthier and more nutritious is a bonus too.

Did I mention that I may have squealed when my husband finally found the rice milk? I totally did. It's the little things.