Budget-Friendly Low Glycemic Foods

Though I won’t be going on some wild post-holiday detox, I’m getting back to the basics this week and eating vegetarian low glycemic foods to come down slowly from all that December sugar. The cool thing with this list is that these foods are triple threats. They’re healthy, inexpensive, and they are also pretty shelf stable, so food waste isn’t a concern. Better on the budget, too.

Add these 5 foods to your weekly grocery list. And consider trying some of the many recipes we have on this site. Back in the day, I posted recipes multiple times a week. More recently, those posts get around half the views of the other stuff I share -- but I think 2015 is the comeback of recipe blogging regardless. I love cooking and baking, and I can’t let pageviews always dictate my content.

Enjoy!

Oats

Oats -- in a variety of forms -- are my breakfast go-to. We have both rolled oats and steel-cut on hand, which we purchased at Aldi on the cheap. Oats contain a special sort of fiber that lowers bad cholesterol levels known as beta-glucan. Plus, they taste great and fill you up so you can get through your day.

• Easy Microwave Muffin
• Homemade Breakfast Muesli
• Chocolate Energy Chunk Cookies
• Half Dozen GF Chocolate Chippers

Lentils

Quick-cooking lentils are great in a pinch because they contain potassium, calcium, zinc, niacin, and vitamin K. And they're particularly rich in dietary fiber, lean protein, folate, and iron. Surprisingly, I don’t have a lot of recipes featuring lentils on this site -- so I’d like to change that! Usually we just toss them into soups.

• Lentil + Quinoa Burgers with baby kale pesto
• Stephen’s Healthy Lentil Bowl
• Split Pea Miso Soup (use lentils in place of split peas)
• Tarka Dhal (with lentils + sweet potatoes)

Chickpeas

There are tons of health benefits you gain from eating chickpeas. They’re high in both fiber and folate. They’re an excellent source of vegetarian protein. They taste delicious prepared in a variety of ways. Heck -- you can even use garbanzos in desserts! No, really. Check out that blondie recipe and tell me what you think.

• Garbanzo Bean Salad
• Stephen’s Garden Hummus
• Healthy Chickpea Blondies
• Chickpea Veggie Burgers
• Curried Chickpea Mash

Beans

Similarly, there’s a wide array of other beans that a packed full of goodness. In fact, each cup of beans contains 15 grams of both protein and fiber. A few months back, I gave you guys an entire week’s worth of dinner ideas that contain beans as their bulk. (Oh, yeah. You can also make some awesome black bean brownies to curb that sweet tooth!)

• Freezable Veggie Burgers
• Improved Pumpkin Chili 
• Black Bean Peanut Butter Brownies
• Black Bean Breakfast Smoothie

*** To cook beans, follow these detailed instructions.

Basically, you soak overnight, drain and rinse, then cook atop your stove for a few hours on low heat until you reach your desired texture. You save money on buying cans, as well as consume less sodium and harmful BPA from cans.

Sweet Potatoes

Despite their taste, sweet potatoes are actually lower on the glycemic index than regular potatoes. When I was working my desk job, I’d often bring a scrubbed sweet potato in for lunch. I’d pierce the skin with the tines of a fork and then place it on a microwave safe dish. Cook on high for 5-6 minutes and then top however you like.

• Baked Sweet Potato Fries
• Roasted Sweet Potato Stew
• Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers
• Broccoli + Sweet Potato Soup
• Sweet Potato Ravioli with Tofu Ricotta

What types of recipes would you like to see this year?

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Lentil + Quinoa Burgers // Baby Kale Pesto

I decided over the weekend that we had enough food in the fridge to skip grocery shopping this week.  I like to skip from time to time to save money and use up foods we might otherwise let go to waste. Surely I could come up with some tasty meals for us -- but (MISTAKE!) I didn't do much planning. As a result, we've had some horrible, unsatisfying dinners this week.

Like one night we were going to do breakfast for dinner. We both like our eggs over-easy and only 1 of the 4 eggs didn't break into a hot mess on the stove. And then one night I was grumpy and hadn't eaten well all day, so I made myself a pitiful grilled cheese with a bruised apple on the side. Another night, we got takeout and the takeout place forgot half our order.

Here's how I made up for it last night:

CURRIED LENTIL + QUINOA BURGERS
makes 10-12 generously sized burgers

What You'll Need . . . 

• 1 cup red lentils (uncooked) + 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup red quinoa (uncooked) + 3/4 cup water
• 1 can white beans (or any, really), drained + rinsed + mashed
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 1 small green pepper, chopped
• 2 large white mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup dry roasted almonds, pulsed into coarse flour
• 1/2 cup golden flax meal
• salt + pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon curry powder

Method . . .

1. Cook your red lentils (or any lentils) in the water until softened. Like 30-45 minutes or so. Do the same with the quinoa, but it only takes around 15 minutes. For both, simply put in the water and boil until water is absorbed. Then combine the two and set aside.
2. Smash your beans with a fork and set aside with your pot of lentils + quinoa.
3. Then in a large pot over medium-high heat, sauté your onion, pepper, and mushrooms with some olive oil. Long enough to soften and lightly brown them. The smaller you chop the veggies the better.
4. Let everything cool a bit until it's warm, but not too hot to handle. Then combine everything together by hand until well mixed.
5. Divide into 10-12 patties -- I used a 1/2 cup measure to scoop the to-be "burgers" into my palm and then shaped/flattened them.
6. Place on a plate or cookie sheet and put in your fridge for around an hour to set.
7. Then in a pan over medium-high heat, cook on each side in a little olive oil until golden brown and warmed the whole way through.
8. You may also follow the directions in my Freezer Veggie Burgers post to freeze some of this batch for later consumption.

// FIXINGS

• I topped each burger with a slice of cheese and let melt for a few minutes by covering the pan I fried in the burgers in with a lid.
• Sriracha. Enough said.
• I made my own buns (6 of them in all) in just 40 minutes by adapting this easy bun recipe -- instead of an egg, I used 1 tablespoon golden flax meal + 3 tablespoons hot water. Instead of regular flour, I used mostly whole wheat with a little white mixed in.
• I also topped with some homemade pesto, using a variation of our simple Spinach Pesto recipe, as I'll detail below.

// BABY KALE PESTO

Combine the following ingredients in your food processor until smooth.

• 2 (heaping) cups fresh baby kale
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• salt + pepper, to taste
• Water -- to achieve desired consistency

I plan to freeze some burgers for a future night when we're stuck wondering what to make. I love that this burger doesn't have flour in it to make up the bulk -- you get enough flour with the bun, right? And it's easily adaptable to whatever's on hand.

Like I said, we didn't shop this week, so I dug deep into our cupboard to mix these guys up. I'm sure they'd taste great with black beans, and any color quinoa or lentils under the rainbow. The taste and theme could be considerably changed by exchanging, say, curry for chipotle seasoning, etc.

Quite a redemption dinner!

// MORE SANDWICHES + BURGERS:

• Black Bean-Tempeh Burgers*
• Vegan Churchkey New Luther MEGA Sandwich*
• Black Bean-Spinach Burgers*
• Caprese Sandwich
• Moosewood Asparagus Melt
• The Ultimate Vegetarian Sandwich
• The Ultimate Stuffed Veggie Burger
• Open-Face Portabella Sandwich
• Vegan Sloppy Joes*
• Green Hummus Sandwich
• Apple-Cheese Bagel Sandwich
• Chickpea Burgers*
• Vegetarian Juicy Lucy
• Veggie Behemoth: The Lover Sandwich
• High Maintenance Melt
• Mayo-Less Egg Salad
• Black Bean Burgers*
• Fire-Grilled Camp Sandwich
• Gourmet Grilled Pizza
• Hummus Melts
• Seitan Dogs, Part I: The Dogs*
• Seitan Dogs, Part II: Toppings

* means VEGAN

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Stephen's Healthy Lentil Bowl

Stephen continues to make most of our dinners these days. His awesome Garbanzo Garlic Knots and Perfect Pizza Crust have earned him major respect in the kitchen.

He's always making something as healthy as possible, which both Baby A. and I appreciate tremendously. He was even able to sneak a ton of kale into this dish. Kale I was actually able to eat, despite my recent aversion!

STEPHEN'S HEALTHY LENTIL BOWL

What you'll need . . .

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 3 cups of shredded kale
• 1/2 teaspoon yellow curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup almond milk

Method . . .

1. Heat 3 cups of water on high and when it is boiling, toss in the lentils. Cook -- uncovered -- until soft (6 to 8 minutes -- they should be soft and still rather wet). Set aside.
   
2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a deep pan. Add the green onions. Saute until glassy.
3. Add coriander seeds. When they start to pop -- add the rest of the spices and stir until onions are coated.
4. Add garbanzo beans and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Add in the lentils. Stir. Cook for 5 minutes.
6. Stir in the kale and almond milk. (Stirring will also soften/mash the lentils.) Cook another 5 minutes.

Stephen served our lentil bowl with some browned Mission wraps. They were excellent for dunking. And -- overall -- the meal was satisfying and much healthier than most I've been able to get down these days.

WEEKEND STUFF:

We're slowly chipping away at the new decor in our living and dining areas. I was stuck on the couch most of the weekend dealing with some pregnancy issues, but we managed to get out and buy a new table runner that better matches the colorful rug we love so much.


One problem: The cats love the runner. And sleeping on our dining room table. Anyone know how to get them to break this bad habit? It didn't used to matter much, so we haven't exactly disciplined them. But we're using the table more and more.


Otherwise, we didn't do much, unfortunately. You can read all about it on (never home)maker, baby! Thankfully I'm feeling better now, but it was the longest weekend ever. And not in a good way.

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