I hate cooking.
It’s true. I hate it. I do know how to cook and when I do cook it tastes okay… I just don’t like doing it. (I think that “lazy” is the word of the day in my home.)
But, with my plastic-free challenge looming, I need to get my act together and stop relying on pre-packaged frozen food. I’m asking for a vegan cookbook called Veganomicon for Christmas. While I’m not technically vegan, I don’t eat meat and can’t eat dairy.
Lucky for me, I live just a few minutes’ walk from Granville Island Market, a huge year-round market with lots of local produce, grains, nuts, seeds, meats, fish, etc etc. My goal is to create a weekly menu once a week and get the groceries I’ll need from Granville. It’s easy to shop there because I can avoid plastic stickers on produce (since there are none) and any grains/etc are in bulk.
Still, I’m nervous that I’ll end up cheating on my plastic resolution because of laziness and my hatred towards cooking! The fact that I hate my kitchen (one of those teeny galley kinds) and live by (and therefor cook for just) myself probably doesn’t help matters.
Any tips on making this any easier on me??
The Amazing Adventures of Plastic-Free Girl 
Just checking out your posts, well you know i love to cook and i would love to share some tricks with you or some of my masterpieces. I like to keep it simple, but i’m finding on my new vegetarian diet that i cant get enough veggies. I make great stirfrys, salads and pasta dishes. You know in the new year i’m thinking of trying a raw diet.
Ya, Paiger! That would be rad! I’d love some help. Oh, and I’ve been doing more research on the raw diet that I’ll share with you when I see you over the holidays…
I make my own yogurt/cheese and sour cream from powdered milk but I know that you can’t have dairy so I looked this up for you. You can do the same from soy. Enjoy. I refuse to buy any special equipment and found that letting the mason jars sit tucked up in towels on a heating pad set at low works great. I did invest in a candy thermometer to make sure that the heated milk got to the right temperature and I tuck it in next to the jars in the towels to ensure they stay at about 100degrees for the culturing time.
http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/4318169.htm#homemadesoymilk
Ohh, great idea on the heating pad! I’d have to buy one of those… I’ve also seen recipes for making your own soy yoghurt out of the “pulp” that’s left after making soy milk, so maybe I’ll look into it some more and try it out! Thanks for the reminder!
Hey Stephanie,
‘ this is Noah’s dad. We love to see that you have a blog with great content. We both LOVE Veganomicon (and almost everything else from post-punk kitchen!
(Is there any chance you can send us your’s and Rika’s email addresses?)
Thank you! Happy Holidays!
Oliver & Diane
Hi! I didn’t know anyone from school knew about my blog, but I guess it shouldn’t surprise me since you’re friends with Ria and Darius. 🙂 Thanks for the comment – I’m not much of a writer, but I’m hoping people will take something from what I’m doing.
I’d actually meant to ask you guys if you’d tried the Veganomicon cookbook. The Post-Punk Kitchen website is pretty great, too; I didn’t realize the Vegan Cupcakes cookbook is from them! I already have it and love it!
I’ll email you with my private email address.