Winter Brings Out the Frugal Foodie in Me

Even though days have been white and temperatures have dropped below freezing for a while now, it didn’t hit me until this evening when I found myself cowering over my dinner in a near-fetal position while donning my big red winter coat for Heavy Duty Snow days: oh yes, Winter is here.  (Either that, or my house’s heater is incompetent.  A possibility which is not altogether unlikely at all.)

Still, whilst contemplating putting down the fork to fetch my large rainbow scarf, I nonetheless patted myself on the back for having the forethought not to schedule any evening classes this term.  Because if I had, boy would I be in major trouble.  I may just never make it to a single class all term.

After all, who wants to trudge through Antarctic conditions to go to school at ANY time of the day, let alone when it’s pitch black outside?  Who wants to be outside in the dark and cold when you can be inside in the bright (but still cold) eating warm spaghetti squash topped with easy winter gazpacho, served along side a massive kale-parsley cashew salad beast tossed in olive-oil and honey-lemon vinaigrette, plus a large bowl of umami-enticing, Asian-inspired black fungus and fresh shiitake mushrooms sautéed with deep-fried onions (yes, it’s true) and pea sprouts?

…s’what I thought.  Inside, my friends, INSIDE.

No, honestly, that was quite possibly one of the BEST meals I have had for WEEKS!  Sorry, but there really is something about warm-cooked food on a freezing cold day.  Especially when it involves black-fungus.  Mmm, black fungus.

Now for my soapbox of the day…

Eww, Aletheia eats black fungus!! (Did you know that black fungus is otherwise known as cloud ear fungus because of its resemblence to the human ear?! AHAHA! Are you vomiting yet?)  But alas, as much as I love the North American high raw vegan-istas and their valiant determination to eating “superfoods“, sometimes I can’t help but chuckle.  (Goji berries, my friends?  My Tibetan ancestors started cultivating those babies a looong time ago.  Young coconuts? My homies in the Chinatown started sipping on those things way before the word ‘vegan’ was even coined.)

But seriously -  why would I buy Goji berries from the health food store for over $40 a pound when I can buy them straight from the Asian cultivator sources for little more than $10 a pound?  Furthermore, it doesn’t tempt me at all to shell out $4.99 for possibly-moldy young coconuts at Zehrs when I can acquire a fresh, plump, white one at my local Chinese market for $1.97.   And nori sheets? Don’t even get me started on those.

So yes, yes I will eat black fungus.  You bet I will.  Disgustingly nutritious and delicious, it doesn’t get much better than that!

If I haven’t already convinced you yet, GO CHECK OUT YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD ASIAN SUPERMARKETS.  (I should probably have prefaced these comments by saying that I shop for those delicacies in Toronto, which, being known to be the ethnic eater’s haven, does boast a few clean Asian supermarkets (yes, good things are hard to come by).  So I may be luckier than you.  Especially if you live in, say, Oklahoma, or something.)

Okay, end of rambling.  Enough of my Azn pride gloating.  Now.  Since receiving a request from the superkind Audrey, I want to share with you my recipe for a little somethin’ somethin’ red, green and orange.

Easy Winter Gazpacho Soup

To blend:

2 small Roma tomatoes

1 large red pepper

½ cucumber

1 medium carrot

A few squirts of lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

To mix in afterwards:

1 avocado, diced

Chopped parsley (Due to an extreme case of parsley LOVE, I use more than I care to admit, but you may want to use 1/3 – 1/2 cup…I used probably a cup or two! )

And there you have it.  A delicious gazpacho soup that makes you forget that it’s still winter, after all.

Enjoy it any way you please.  Please.

Some Food for Thought:

Winter brings out the frugal foodie in me.  The price of kale goes up by nearly 50%, the price tag on romaine gives the impression that such food is only fit for kings, and I can no longer afford English cucumbers.  So what’s a veggie monster to do?

Well, as the title of this post suggests, I start getting frugal.  Here are just five examples of ways I cope with sky-rocketing produce prices during the snow season:

1. I eat the kale leaves but juice the stems (otherwise thrown out) instead of the leaves.
2. I then USE the juice pulp to make pulp patties (to be revealed soon!), Gena’s carrot falafel or juice pulp crackers.
3. I buy field cucumbers instead of seedless English (probably half the price, or more).
4. I buy more bananas (probably the most consistently cheap fruit around).
5. I eat and roast cauliflower leaves.

(Okay fine.  So I do number 5 all-year round, anyway.  So sue me! It’s delicious!  Especially tossed with a dash of turmeric, cumin, and coriander! YUM!)

Please forgive me if this post has made you realize how much you do not want to go back to being a poor college student.  So.  How do YOU frugalize during tight times? Winter or otherwise?