I like peas & rice.

Whenever I have peas & rice, I smile.

My corny brain thinks of Schoolhouse Rock! and Conjunction Junction where they use the conjunction to form the phrase 'peas & rice'. You remember, the two hobos are sitting in the train yard and they are around a fire having polite tea. I feel like that at times, sans politeness.

This past month was actually a fairly good month in how I managed my food. I had left over, or in economics terms, surplus. And not just of the crappy shit either.

Produce and leafy greens!

I decided to bake the 3 pounds of bananas (nanners for short) I have sitting there. I wanted to use them before they went bad. Well, One loaf I forgot to add baking soda and lets just say slime load is not appetizing at all.

Nanner Bread *(my alterations)

2 cups flour*

1 cups sugar*

3/4 teaspoon baking soda*

3/4 teaspoon of baking powder*

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed bananas (3 Bananas)

1/2 cup vegetable Oil

'egg' mix: 2tbl canola oil, 2tbl flax seed, 2 tbl corn starch, 4 tbl boiling water (enough for 2 'eggs')*

1/3 cup soy-buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix flour, vegan sugar, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Mix bananas, oil, and buttermilk in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the banana mixture with the large bowl containing dry ingredients, and stir well. Add the Ener-G Egg Replacer in now, and stir well again. (Optional: add 1/2 cup pecans).

Pour into a greased 9x5 inch bread pan.

Bake in 325 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

The next loaves I added baking powder to the recipe because I didn't want nanners to settle at the bottom of the loaf and make it all heavy. The powder reduced that tremendously.

I also made some bread. I haven't bought bread in 3 years. The recipe I use allows for two loaves. I just freeze one and partake of the fresh loaf for the week. Yum.

7/13/2010 Food for Less: total $10.44

7/14/2010 99¢ Store: total $17.20

7/17/2010 Trader Joes: cash total $29.46

7/19/2010 Food 4 Less: total $15.86

7/24/2010 Rite Aid: cash total $7

I had a craving for cotton candy. Shoot me.

7/24/2010 Food 4 Less: total $5.99

This was also a month of quiche.

Spinach quiche to be exact. I put everything in this, peas, carrots, onions, spices, lots of pepper, but the key is making sure its dry. I add about half a cup of whole wheat flour to dry up everything pretty good. I also pre bake the crust I use for about 10 minutes before I pour all the goodness in the dish. I get 4 good meals from this puppy.

The crust recipe I got from Vegweb.

Basic Pie Crust

1 cup flour

1/2 cup Earth Balance

1/4 cup water

Directions:

Cut the margarine into the flour until crumbly.

Stir in water until dough sticks together.

Roll out on floured surface.

Next month I think Im going to try and get a bit more creative, if I can.