Vegan On The Cheap Peanut Penne And Three Bean Loaf

After my first meal planning shopping trip, I mentioned the grocery bills hadn’t been so pretty.  Hoping to live and learn, I decided to lighten up the meal expenses by pulling out my trusty Vegan on the Cheap.  I love how this cookbook’s dishes are priced out to be under $2 per serving, and many of them seem even cheaper because the recipes have a lot of ingredients I already have on hand. I’ve cooked around in this book quite a bit, and I’ve found there aren’t a lot of difficult to find ingredients.  In other words, the spices stay safely within your existing spice rack.  Sure, if you have to pick up a whole new bottle of garlic powder or black pepper it’s going to up the bill a little, but at least you know it isn’t going to sit around unused like those specialty shop spices you can’t even pronounce.

Months ago, I made Vegan on the Cheap‘s Comfort Loaf (page 154), and since we really enjoyed it, I thought I’d make it’s page-neighbor too, Three-Bean Loaf (page 155).  This vegan meatless loaf recipe is very simple to prepare and put together, as long as you have an hour before dinner for baking.  I have to admit though, we all agreed we much prefer the Comfort Loaf to this recipe.  The Three-Bean Loaf was just a little too bland and the texture wasn’t quite as nice.  Just a comparison between the two, but both recipes yield great results, sharing many common ingredients, and I’m sure it’s just personal taste.  Either way, priced at $1 per serving, these loaf recipes are a nice budget saver!

On the look out for another tasty budget saver from Vegan on the Cheap, I also added Penny-Wise Peanutty Pasta (page 122).  Penne in an incredibly quick creamy peanut sauce sounded pretty good to me!  This is one of those dishes you can just walk in the kitchen 20 minutes before dinner and have ready in no longer than it takes to boil a pot of water and cook the pasta.  The sauce is just whipped together in a food processor or blender while the pasta is cooking.  It all went so quick that I actually forgot to finish ours with peanuts and parsley, as the recipe instructed, but oh well.  I guess that made it even cheaper!  This one is quoted at $1.50 a serving and really is something nearly everyone will love.  It’s peanutty, gingery, and creamy with pasta, carrots and broccoli; what’s not to love?

What grocery-bill-friendly recipes do you love to make?  Feel free to leave a link!