Veganish Dot World

We did a lot of shopping this weekend! The weather was rainy and cold so getting out to a park or something wasn’t doable. But we GOTTA get the kid out of the house. He has to go bye-bye on the weekend. We tend to go to places that aren’t crowded, like Big Lots, Grocery Outlet, etc. So this Saturday we went a place called Bargain Hunt. They are kind of like a Big Lots. I found some goodies! I got a some Betty Crocker seasonings/salad starters, some Pacific unsweetened soymilk, my husband found his favorite flavors of Mio water enchancers and I’m sure some other things, but I didn’t document it. Then we went to Aldi and I got a big bag of brown basmati rice, microwave instant wild rice, some couscous, green lentil lasagna sheets, protein tortillas/wraps, kiwis and blueberries for my son the fruit-lover, some vegan ice cream (again for the kid!), some vegan chicken nuggets, some vegan chicken patties, tofu, and frozen berries along with a few bars of dark chocolate. Then on Sunday, we went to Ollie’s, again a place like a Bargain Hunt or Big Lots, and found some more Betty Crocker salad mixes, some Harvest Snaps, onion salt, and a big old thing of imitation bacon bits. I remembered I forgot to get potatoes at the one Aldi we went to on Saturday, so we stopped by the Aldi that was than 3 minutes from Ollie’s to get potatoes. That Aldi seemed to have a few more options so I got some vegan mozzarella sticks, some beautiful multi-colored pasta shells, asparagus, Bavarian pretzels, and my husband got some vegan smoky cheddar cheese dip (cashews so none for me 🙁 ) and pita crackers to go with it.

So tonight we are having the Betty Crocker sheet pan teriyaki dinner. I’m using tofu for the protein and onion, baby broccoli, carrots, asparagus, a green bell pepper, and zucchini for the veggies. This was really easy to assemble! If you used a bag of a vegetable medley from the produce section, it’s even less work. I think it was well worth the buck not having to worry about making my own sauces/seasonings. It said to use 3 tablespoons of oil in the spice mixture, but I opted to only use one and then added a bit of water. I’m sure it’ll still be great. I made some brown rice in the Instant Pot to go with it. There’s nothing not vegan that I can tell about these Betty Crocker mixes. There might be some non-vegan ones but all the ones I saw seem vegan! I always recommend checking out bargain stores from time to time because I often find purposely and accidentally vegan goodies for good deals.

ETA: Post-dinner me is here to tell you this was a pretty tasty meal. I don’t think it suffered from using less oil and adding a bit of water to thin out the powdered seasoning mix. It was also a hit with my 7 year old son. My husband added sriracha to his. If I wasn’t cooking for the kid, I’d probably have added some chili garlic sauce, sriracha or red chili flakes to the seasoning mix.