Meet Nicole (Plus Get Her Savvy Eating on a Budget Tips!)

Posted by:Lindsay S. Nixon Category: Guests

I'm so very excited to introduce Nicole, the newest intern at Happy Herbivore. 

Nicole's handy work is cropping up everywhere already. She's reshooting some of the photos for blog recipes -- like this one for HH's 3-ingredient Butternut Squash Soup:

and she's the wizz behind all our new merch! Nicole has designed mugs, bumperstickers, buttons and other cool "Herbie" swag. Check it out!

and so you can get to know her a little bitter, Nicole wrote a blog post -- about how she makes eating healthy (and plant-based) work on a starving students budget! without further ado....

Hello and let me introduce myself! My name is Nicole Raphael and I am a happy herbivore from Omaha, Nebraska. 

I have only been vegan for a little over a year due to a class I took at my college called, “The Ethics of Food.” Once I decided to turn from vegetarian to vegan, I had to start learning about how I could work this out with my extremely low college student budget. 

When I first started my vegan cooking, I only bought and borrowed vegetarian books because I was honestly afraid of words like tofu, nutritional yeast, and non-dairy milk. And more importantly, I knew that they would cost more money.

However, now that I have found all three of those ingredients in many of the recipes inside The Happy Herbivore, they have opened my eyes to how versatile these items can be. When I’m not making Easy Macaroni and Cheese(p.  159)with my Nutritional Yeast, then I could be making Baked Tofu Parmesan (p. 138) with my favorite Mori-Nu Tofu! Happy Herbivore makes cooking fun, easy, and cheap for college students on a budget, especially because of the ingredients that go hand in hand!

So with that being said, many of my friends have looked at my cabinets and spice rack and said, “Oh my gosh, you have so many spices and ingredients this must cost you so much money!” When my friends say that to me, I have to reassure myself that I did just move into my new house last month. And because of that, it was necessary to have my first grocery trip count! Now when I go to the grocery store or farmer’s market for my bi-monthly supply, I can count on spending no more than $40-50 on myself! That sounds good to my work-study paychecks from my college! As a an experiment for myself, I wanted to see how much it would cost for me to just buy all the ingredients needed for my daily meals. 

Keep in mind that the more expensive ingredients like Nutritional Yeast, Pure Maple Syrup, and Veganaise last me a very long time because of the little portions that are needed in the Happy Herbivore and many other vegan recipes! And when it comes to my baking supplies, I don’t know one person, other than a baker, who goes through an entire jar of cocoa, nutmeg, or cloves within months! 

This is what a daily menu looks like for me: 

Breakfast

Cinnamon Banana Toast Crunch (p. 27) 2 Slices of Whole Wheat Bread-$ 1.99 1 Bananas- $0.79 ¼ cup of Pure Maple Syrup- $8.00 or ¼ Low Fat/Sugar-Free Syrup-$3.40 ¼ tsp vanilla extract- $2.50   Green Goddess Smoothie 2 Frozen Bananas- $1.74 Cocoa- $3.99 Water - Free Frozen Spinach- $1.49

Lunch:

“Tuna” Salad Sandwich (p. 113)1 Can of Chickpeas-$1.39 2 Celery Stalks- $0.89 Veganaise- $5.49 Onion Flakes- $0.99 Nutritional Yeast- $4.99 Apple Slices- $1.50 

Snack:
Tea-$2.99
Peanuts-$0.99

Dinner:

Fettuccini Alfredo (p. 163) 8 oz whole wheat pasta- $2.50 Mori Nu Tofu- $1.99 Non-dairy milk- $2.99 Garlic powder- $0.99 Onion powder-$0.99 Nutmeg- $3.99 Salt- $0.99 Pepper- $0.99 Cayenne Powder- $0.99 Nutritional Yeast- $4.99 Vegan Parmesan (optional)- $4.99 Chopped Parsley (optional)- $1.50 Bacon Bits Recipe- $12

Total for the day: about $75.53 

Yes, the prices may look scary, but if you were to look at any cookbook and buy all the ingredients at once, then it would cost about the same or more. And if a meat eater were to buy fresh meats every week to suffice their recipes, then I could bet it would be even more expensive. 

As a matter of fact, the only foods I had to buy at the store this week were tofu, non-dairy milk, bananas, spinach and bread! All the other ingredients were already on hand!

As a final point, Lindsay’s multipurpose cookbook also has a section where she lists off a “getting started” shopping list so it’s easier for the Herbies! It’s as if she’s setting us up for an inexpensive and delicious journey through her world of easy, low fat, and fat-free vegan recipes! What’s more to love!?

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