The lazy… er… busy Vegan’s guide to quick dinners

As I write this (it’s 11pm Tuesday night, scheduling post for tomorrow) I am eating Nutolene out of the can with a butter knife as I got home hungry from work at 10pm and my cat got out for the 8th time in the last few days. Once I found her I realised I don’t really have any food in the house because tomorrow is pay day, and I wasted a good half  an hour on Facebook and looking at school photos of rappers to cheer myself up. I’m not sure how I got there because originally I had just clicked through from Facebook once I had discovered this song, which is amazing…

Anyway, even though tonight is a terrible example of what I have for dinner, to be fair I cooked a tofu, shiitake & vegetable stir fry and put it with brown rice to take for work dinner except I ate it for afternoon tea. I know that people sometimes think that it’s time-consuming to eat well but I am a prime example of how that statement is complete BS. Apart from my Mexican problem, which we discussed earlier, I pretty much cook dinner for myself every night. Here’s a few ideas for people who might be struggling, keeping in mind it’s the tail-end of winter here in Melbourne…

Tofu, mushroom & veg stir-fry on brown rice

Chop up some tofu and marinade – I use mushroom soy, mirin & sesame oil, then chop and cook vegetables or use frozen stir-fry mix, add fresh mushrooms – I use shiitake, add tofu & cook until vegetables are tender. I made a batch of brown rice at the start of the week and just heated it up as I needed it. Much quicker that way. Or try the microwave 90 sec sachets from the supermarket.

Spinach & facon in a tomato sauce on wholemeal & vegetable spirals

This was a bit leftovers – jar sauce with the addition of frozen chopped spinach, diced facon strips and I think some Cheezly mozzarella style as well. I use a combination of wholemeal and vegetable spirals for fibre & colour.

Shiitake & greens on udon

This can be a dry or soup dish with the addition of vegetable stock. I boiled dry udon, diced up vegetables and shiitake and cooked them lightly in sesame oil & mirin, then added the cooked udon. The red sprinkle is Nanami, Japanese mixed spice. Could also add tofu, tempeh, or any mock meat and even use frozen vegetable mix for this. I use vegetable stock when cooking the udon, then add the cooked vegetables & mushrooms to that.

Mac'n'veg'n'Cheezly

Possibly one of my favourite quick & easy comfort foods ever. Whilst cooking small pasta, make a white sauce using the traditional method but Nuttelex/Earth Balance instead of butter to melt; make a paste with the flour and add non-dairy milk to create a white sauce, season to taste. Then grate a heap of mozzarella-style Cheezly into it and add the cooked pasta an vegetables and heat through. Do not eat it straight out of the  saucepan (okay, do).

Leftover Cholent on macaroni

I made Cholent from Veganomicon and then just added a few extra vegies that were lying around and had it on top of macaroni. It was pretty baller. I’ll put the Cholent recipe up soon, I kinda forgot I made it.

Fried tempeh salad for two

My bestie G’s first foray into tempeh – she was not a fan, maybe when it’s marinated because I love the taste but I know it’s not for everyone. Bonus tempeh for me! Fried it, added it to spinach, cucumber, canned corn, red capsicum and kumatoes with a grainy roll. Dressed to taste. Quick & fresh! Another chapter in my “Forcing Friends To Eat…” series; Salad!

So I work two jobs, which means 6 days a week, plus I take 3 or more dance classes a week and try to fit in cardio, studying and a social life into the rest of those days. Just a little bit busy… Consequently, I often have dinners which consist of leftovers, or meals that are easy to put together. So long as I have a jar of pasta sauce, beans, rice/pasta and frozen vegetables I can eat a balanced meal. Making it a more interesting is where the problem lies. Noodle soups, stir-fries, pasta dishes, one-pot dishes and basic vegetable+protein+sauce combinations tend to get a lot of use. So does ye olde “pick up a burrito on the way home”, depending on my budget. I also eat dinner at work a couple of nights a week so leftovers and rice+whatever work well for dinner out of plastic containers.

These meals probably prove my ability to a) budget and b) eat balanced meals but don’t show c) that I’m actually quite a good cook! I want to save those photos for other posts but I’ll leave you with this quick dinner I made for when I had a friend over for dinner – we were planning to go and play pool afterward and I wanted to make lasagne so I would have leftovers but forgot I didn’t have my Pyrex dish after I moved house so it became this… free form lasagne, I guess. cooked the sheets in a wide shallow pan, roasted vegetables – capsicum, zucchini, eggplant, portobello & toasted pine nuts, heated a jar sauce, layered sheets, sauce, veg & topped with olive tapanade.

Free form roasted vegetable & portobello lasagne with olive tapenade & toasted pine nuts. Chyeah.

So just because you’re short on time, it doesn’t mean you have an excuse to eat crappy meals. I place fast food, microwave meals and most take-away in this category. Whilst I spent more time on my lunches, entertaining and weekend meals, I like to think that I put enough effort into refuelling my body all the other times as well. I’ll post some of my breakfasts and lunches later on in the month. Enjoy your day!

Do you have any other ideas for quick, balanced, Vegan evening meals?