I'm not sure whether I like this or the PB&J cottage cheese bowl better. They're both very good. I think it probably largely depends on what sort of mood I'm in. If I'm really craving peanut butter, then some chopped pecans aren't going to cut it. On the other hand, if I'm craving something with a bit of crunch, then between the nuts and the crisp apples, this bowl has got me covered!

The original recipe only called for half and apple, but I like it with a whole apple in. I also replaced the walnuts with pecans. I think either would be fine, but I tend to like pecans better in general so that's what I went with here. They're not quite as budget-friendly as walnuts, but you're also not using very many of them, so it's not a huge difference overall.

Apple Pie Cottage Cheese Bowl

Slightly adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cottage cheese (fat-free for calorie-counters)
• 1 apple, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. chopped pecans
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup (or "no sugar added" syrup)
• pinch (~1/16 tsp.) ground cinnamon

Directions

• Combine all ingredients.
• Stir, mix, enjoy!

I think this is my favourite of the cottage cheese bowl variations so far. I liked the savoury one with the tomatoes and cucumbers, but I liked this one even better. In fact, it's the only one that I've ended up having two days in a row so far!

The peanut butter is fairly calorically dense, but if you pair it with a low-sugar jam, it actually makes a reasonably healthy (and low-Point) breakfast. The original recipe calls for 1/4 c. of rolled oats, but I had a little bit of chocolate granola left, so I had it with that instead and quite liked it. I might try it with plain oats at some point, but I'm really liking the granola with it so far!

PB&J Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl

Slightly adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cottage cheese (fat-free to keep the calorie/Points count low)
• 1 Tbsp. jam (preferably a low-sugar or reduced-calorie variety)
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp. granola

Directions

1. Combine everything in a bowl.
2. Mix, eat, enjoy!

I've been continuing to work my way through the cottage cheese breakfast bowl ideas from Budget Bytes. I've don't some of them with yogurt instead of cottage cheese, but I still want to try all the flavours. This is the only savoury option in the list. And it's pretty good. Especially with some furikake on top. It's still, I think, not a favourite for me; it's not something I see myself coming back to over and over again. But it was pretty good (if not amazing) and it was reasonably filling and didn't cost any Points, so it's got that going for it.

Savoury Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl

Slightly adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cottage cheese (fat-free for the WW crowd)
• 6 slices cucumber, quartered
• 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 hard-boiled egg, quartered
• 1/2 Tbsp. furikake

Directions

1. Top cottage cheese with cucumber, tomatoes, and egg.
2. Garnish with furikake.

This was meant to be yet another cottage cheese breakfast bowl from Budget Bytes, but I decided that I'd rather do it with yogurt again. If doing it with cottage cheese, I think I'd be tempted to add a little lemon zest and/or juice. I think the lemon and bluberry would be a great combo! Or, if you wanted to go another way with it, you could try replacing the bluberries with cherries and maybe adding a little almond extract to the yogurt. Maybe even try replacing the slivered almonds with a little almond butter. I think that would be an excellent mix of flavours.

Blueberry-Almond Breakfast Bowl

Slightly adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Greek yogurt or cottage cheese (fat-free if you're counting calories)
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. almond extract (optional
• 1 Tbsp. no sugar added syrup or 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 1/4 c. blueberries (or cherries)
• 2 Tbsp. slivered almonds (or 1 Tbsp. almond butter)
• 1/4 tsp. lemon zest (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the yogurt, vanilla, almond extract (if using), and syrup and mix well.
2. Top with berries, almonds, and lemon zest (if using) and serve.

I've been continuing to experiment with the cottage cheese breakfast bowl recipes on the Budget Bytes blog. Today I tried the "tropical" breakfast bowl. It was alright. Probably not something I'd go out of my way for, but decent. I added a little syrup to it to kick up the sweetness a notch. I think it might be good with some of the tropical fruit blend I have in the freezer. I feel like the mango and dragonfruit might be a nice addition. (Not as budget-friendly as just using plain pineapple, of course, but that's fine for my purposes.)

Tropical Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl

Adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cottage cheese (fat-free for the calorie-conscious)
• 1/2 c. pineapple¹ or thawed frozen "tropical fruit blend"²
• 1 Tbsp. unsweetened shredded dried coconut³
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. no sugar added syrup, maple syrup, or honey (optional)

Directions

1. Combine everything in a bowl and eat.

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¹ The original recipe called for drained canned pineapple tidbits. I used chopped fresh pineapple because they had some on mark-down at the grocery store. I think either is fine. Use whichever you prefer. ^Back
2 My tropical fruit blend contains pineapple, mango, dragonfruit, and coconut. Feel free to use something similar if you have it available. Or make your own tropical mix. ^Back
3 If your fruit blend already includes coconut, feel free to omit the dried coconut here. You could also try it with sweetened dried coconut (which is what I suspect Beth used). I don't routinely keep that on hand though, so I just went with unsweetened for mine. ^Back

This was meant to be a cottage cheese breakfast bowl but, after giving it some thought, I decided that I would probably like it better as a Greek yogurt breakfast bowl, so I swapped out the cheese for yogurt.

The original recipe called for 1/2 c. of the cottage cheese mixture to be topped with 1 Tbsp. of peanut butter and 1/4 c. of granola. Looking at the 1/2 c. of yogurt sitting in my bowl, I felt like those proportions were a bit off. So I doubled the yogurt, but left the topping quantities the same (although I did add a few strawberries because I thought they'd be nice with it).

The original recipe also called for sweetening the cheese mixture with a small amount of brown sugar. I did this for the first quantity of yogurt, but then didn't want to add any additional sugar when I increased the yogurt, so I opted to switch to a "no sugar added" syrup instead. If you're not counting calories, feel free to go with the sugar. If you are, then you can shave a few by using something like the diet syrup I used or a monk-fruit or stevia-based sweetener.

You could also shave some calories/fat buy replacing the peanut butter with peanut butter powder (defatted peanut flour). You still get the peanut flavour and the protein, but without the oil. However, I find that peanut flour often tends to give smoothies a somewhat gritty texture, so just be aware of that. Also, sometimes I just want to treat enjoy the luxuriousness of real, full-fat, freshly ground, delicious peanut butter. So that's what I went for today.

I've included a couple variants of this recipe below. Make whichever one suits you depending on what your goals are or what you have on hand.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Breakfast Bowl

Adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1-2 tsp. cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3-4 strawberries, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1/4 c. granola

Directions

1. Add the cocoa, sugar, and vanilla to the yogurt and mix to combine.
2. Top with strawberries, peanut butter, and granola.

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Variations

Lower-Calorie Version

Ingredients

• 1 c. fat-free plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. cocoa powder
• 1-2 Tbsp. no sugar added syrup or a low-calorie sweetener of your choice
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3-4 strawberries, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter powder (defatted peanut flour)
• 3 Tbsp. granola

Another backlog recipe, so not much of a writeup, sorry!

White Beans with Mushrooms and Marinara

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 30mL oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 480mL marinara sauce
• 2 445mL tins of white (butter) beans
• 2.5mL dried basil
• red pepper flakes, grated
  
• 113g mozzarella
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Heat the oil in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium heat.
3. Add the mushrooms and sauté until their moisture has released and cooked off. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
   
4. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Add the butter beans, marinara sauce, basil, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine and cook until heated through.
6. Top skillet with mozzarella. Bake until the cheese has melted; give it a few minutes under the broiler for extra browning if desired.
7. Serve with garlic bread.

This recipe is from a year ago, so I don't remember anything about it. It looks similar to our pasta with spinach, sundried tomatoes, and feta, so hopefully it's tasty.

The author mentions that pine nuts, while more expensive, would also go well in this.

Skillet Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Walnuts, and Feta

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• ⅓ C walnuts, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ frozen broccoli florets, coarsely chopped
• 2 C vegetable broth
• ⅓ C sundried tomatoes, sliced
  
• ½ lb farfalle
• zest and juice of 1 fresh lemon
  
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 60 g feta, diced
  

Directions

1. Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-low heat.
2. Add the walnuts and toast, stirring often, until toasty and starting to brown, 1-2 minutes. Remove from the skillet and buffer.
   
3. Increase heat to medium. Add the olive oil and minced garlic and sauté until garlic is fragrant, ~1 minute.
4. Add the broccoli and sauté until just thawed through. Remove and buffer with the walnuts.
   
5. Add the pasta, vegetable broth, tomatoes, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes, and stir to combine.
6. Increase heat to high and cover. Allow the broth to come to a boil, then stir briefly, re-cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender and most of the broth has been absorbed.
7. Stir the broccoli and walnuts back in, and top with feta and lemon zest.

I tend to be very dubious about artichoke, but this recipe turned out ok; the artichoke didn't really add much to it but didn't detract either. I did note that it came out much saucier than expected, and had to choose between leaving it over-sauced or overcooking the noodles; adding a bit less liquid next time might be prudent.

You can also sautee the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the pot before adding the liquids. I'm not sure how this will affect the taste.

One-Pot Spinach & Artichoke Pasta

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 8 oz (225g) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 13 oz (370g) artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
• 5 C (1250mL) vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• 12 oz (340g) fettucini, linguine, or similar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• black pepper
• 4 oz (113g) fresh or frozen spinach
• 100g feta, diced or crumbled

Directions

1. Combine mushrooms, onion, garlic, artichoke, broth, oil, red pepper flakes, pasta, organo, thyme, and pepper in a large pot.
2. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes or until pasta is mostly cooked.
4. Remove lid and stir in spinach. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until pasta is cooked, spinach is warmed through and sauce has thickened.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in feta.

This calls for 15oz (440mL) tins of beans. We mostly had 500-600mL tins and just scaled it up. This resulted in almost too much to fit in the pot, but it did turn out tasty and the Kidlet has been eating it with enthusiasm. For the purposes of this writeup, I went with the original proportions, but it appears to be a very forgiving recipe.

symbol and I both found that topping it with sriracha and a small amount of cider vinegar gives it some much-needed presence.

One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 15oz tinned pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned diced tomatoes
• 15oz tomato sauce (if you have a surplus of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce, dial back the other one accordingly)
• 1 C frozen corn kernels
• 2 C vegetable broth
• 2 C uncooked short pasta (macaroni, rotini, etc)
• 2 C shredded sharp cheddar

Directions

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and onion and sautee until the onion softens and turns translucent.
3. Add the flour and chili powder. Continue to cook, stirring, until the onion is well coated, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the beans, tomatoes, corn, and vegetable broth. Deglaze.
5. Stir in the pasta, raise heat to medium high, cover, and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10-20 minutes (depending on pasta shape), until pasta is cooked to desired tenderness.
7. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar. Serve.

I've recently rediscovered Budget Bytes. I'd perused a few vegetarian recipes on the blog before, but I hadn't really given it a thorough examination. After going through it in some detail, I now have dozens of recipes bookmarked! I'm pretty excited to try them.

If I'm being completely honest, this recipe didn't excite me all that much. But I had coconut milk that needed to be used up and I had a bunch of bananas in the fridge, so it was something that I knew I could throw together quickly and easily. The resulting oatmeal is tasty. The coconut comes through well and the banana gives it a mellow sweetness without being cloying. The main problem TF and I both had with it is that it's not actually very filling. I'd be tempted to add an extra egg and a scoop of protein powder next time to see if bumping up the protein helps a bit. Serving it topped with yogurt, skyr, Nutella, and/or nut butter would probably also help.

Banana-Coconut Baked Oatmeal

Adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/3 c. unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 c. protein powder (chocolate, vanilla, or unflavoured)
• 1 (400mL) can lite coconut milk
• 3 c. rolled oats

Directions

1. Whisk eggs into bananas.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, and sea salt and mix well.
3. Whisk in coconut, protein powder, and coconut milk.
4. Stir in oats with a spatula.
5. Pour mixture into a greased 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.

Jook/Congee

I've been in a big breakfast rut lately. The problem is that I like lots of variety but also minimum effort. I'm not a morning person and I'm way too groggy first thing in the morning to actually do much in the way of cooking. This presents something of a problem.

Lately, I've been craving congee -- or jook, depending on where you're from -- for breakfast. I like the idea of something warm and savoury and comforting that isn't eggs. (Nothing against eggs, I just don't normally feel like actually cooking them for breakfast.) I flipped through a few different recipes before settling on what I was going to do for this batch.

My first stop was Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking where I took a look at her recipe for bak jook or "white congee" and suggested accompaniments. This is a simple porridge of short-grain and glutinous white rice and water. All the seasonings and condiments are added at the table. She suggests salted (duck) eggs, fried peanuts, and fried noodles.

Next, I took a look at a short YouTube video featuring a jook with "lots of vegetables". It suggested including green onions, garlic, ginger, jalapeños, chicken, cabbage, snow peas, green beans, soy sauce, and sesame oil in your jook. They also made their version with brown, rather than white rice and topped it with cilantro.

And last, but not least, I had a gander at Budget Byte$ InstantPot jook recipe. They included garlic, ginger, chicken, shiitake mushrooms, and salt in their jook, which used jasmine rice as its base. And for toppings, they went with green onions, cilantro, chopped peanuts, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Those three recipes gave me a pretty good base to work from to create my own custom congee tailored to my tastes. I ended up using short-grain brown rice as the base and using a mix of vegetable broth and water for the liquid component. I followed the suggestion of including some aromatics and mushrooms and added some green vegetables (based on what was on sale at the grocery store) right at the end of cooking. Condiment-wise, I went with fried onions, sesame seeds, fried noodles, light soy sauce, and Laoganma (spicy chili crisp). There would've been fried peanuts as well if I hadn't burned them. And hard-boiled eggs if I hadn't forgotten them.

InstantPot Jook

Adapted from Budget Byte$ (and a couple others)

Ingredients

• 1 c. short-grain brown rice
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2.5cm (1") knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 200-250g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 6-8 pieces dried black fungus, crumbled
• 2 c. vegetable broth
• 5 c. water
• 50g pea shoots (or other vegetable of choice)
• 170-200g snow peas (or other vegetable of choice), cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2-3 scallions, sliced

Condiments¹ (Optional)

• Laoganma (spicy chili crisp)
• sesame seeds (preferably toasted)
• chopped peanuts
• light soy sauce
• fried onions
• fried noodles
• boiled eggs (hard or soft)
• salted eggs²
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Measure rice into InstantPot.
2. Place garlic and ginger on top, along with fresh and dried mushrooms.
3. Add vegetable broth and water.
4. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
5. Leave on "keep warm" until ready to serve³.
6. About 5-10 minutes before serving, stir in the pea shoots, snow peas, and scallions.
7. Serve with whatever condiments you prefer.

This is an incredibly flexible recipe. Feel free to vary, increase, or reduce the inclusions based on what you find appealing or what's available and/or on sale.
Other inclusions that I think might go well:

• cabbage, shredded
• Brussels sprouts, quartered
• bok choy (especially Shanghai bok choy)
• gai lan
• broccolini
• carrots, grated
• sugar snap peas (mangetouts)
• tofu
• shiitake mushrooms (fresh or dried)
• dried black mushrooms⁴

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¹ I didn't end up using all of these condiments. This is just a list of suggestions and ideas. Feel free to mix-and-match as you see fit. ^Back
2 You can buy salted duck eggs but Eileen Yin-Fei Lo advises against this. She recommends making your own at home. I haven't tried this yet. I'll do a write-up if when I do. In the meantime, I'm happy with adding plain (unsalted) hard-boiled eggs to my congee. ^Back
3 You can cook your congee the night before and just leave it on "keep warm" overnight. ^Back
4 Not to be confused with "black fungus". Black mushrooms look like pretty typical mushrooms and rehydrate to a chewy texture. Black fungus, meanwhile, is a shelf fungus, if I remember correctly. Its form factor is more of a thin, crinkly sheet, black on top and white/cream on the underside. It rehyrates into slippery sheets that are normally julienned to make thin, jelly-tough, wobbly matchsticks. If I forget to rehydrate my black fungus ahead of time, I just crumble it and mix it into the liquid component of whatever I'm cooking. ^Back

I kind of spliced together a few different recipes for this. It's still basically the one posted on the Budget Byte$ blog, just with a few extra steps and a marinade thrown in. The extra steps and the idea of adding a liquid marinade as well as dry seasonings comes from the Easy Vegan. The marinade itself is my own concoction.

Barbecue Tofu Sandwiches

Adapted from The Easy Vegan and Budget Byte$

Ingredients

Tofu

• 350g extra firm tofu
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 tsp. mushroom ketchup
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp. ketchup
• 1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1 tsp. paprika (preferably smoked)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 20 grinds of black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch/cornflour
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil (optional)

Coleslaw

• 1/3 c. mayonnaise
• 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 10 grinds black pepper
• 250-350g coleslaw mix¹

Assembly

• 3-4 burger buns
• ~2 Tbsp. garlic butter
• 1/4-1/2 c. barbecue sauce²

Directions

Tofu

1. Freeze the tofu.
2. Thaw, drain, and cut into four thin slabs. (Cut the brick in half once vertically and once horizontally.)
3. Wrap the tofu slabs in a tea towel, place something heavy on top and press for at least half an hour. (Or just use a tofu press if you have one.)
4. Cut into bite-sized chunks and return to freezer.
5. Thaw the tofu chunks and press/pat dry with a tea towel.
6. In a small bowl combine light soy, mushroom ketchup, dark soy, tomato paste, ketchup, and liquid smoke and mix well.
7. Pour marinade over tofu and toss until all of the tofu has had a chance to absorb some.
8. Combine paprika, garlic powder, pepper, and salt and mix well.
9. Toss tofu with dry spice mix until evenly coated.
10. Toss with cornstarch, 1 tsp. at a time.
12. Heat oil over medium to medium-high heat (if using). Fry tofu in oil, turning only occasionally, until well browned and slightly crisp. Alternatively, bake in a 350°F (180°C) oven until outside is firm and lightly browned, flipping once.

Coleslaw

1. Combine mayo, honey, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper and mix well.
2. Add coleslaw mix and stir to coat.

Assembly

1. Cut the buns and spread them with garlic butter.
2. Toast.
3. Toss tofu with barbecue sauce.
4. Pile saucy tofu on toasted bun bottoms.
5. Spoon some coleslaw on top of the tofu.
6. Close the sandwich by placing the bun half on top.
7. Serve with extra coleslaw on the side.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

Tofu

• 350g extra firm tofu
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 tsp. mushroom ketchup
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp. ketchup
• 1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1 tsp. paprika (preferably smoked)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 20 grinds of black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch/cornflour
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil (optional)

Coleslaw

• 1/3 c. vegan mayonnaise
• 1/2 Tbsp. agave syrup
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 10 grinds black pepper
• 250-350g coleslaw mix¹

Assembly

• 3-4 burger buns
• ~2 Tbsp. garlic margarine or olive oil and fresh minced garlic
• 1/4-1/2 c. barbecue sauce²

If using oil and garlic for your buns: Brush the sliced buns with olive oil and sprinkle with minced garlic. Toast. Optionally sprinkle with fresh or lightly dried parsley.

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¹ Or make your own mix of shredded cabbage and carrots. I actually used broccoli slaw for mine because it was on sale for 50% off. ^Back
2 We didn't really have much in the way of barbecue sauce: just the dregs of an ancient bottle of HP sauce. I ended up sort of rolling my own sauce. I didn't measure anything, so I can't really give a recipe. It ended up being a mix of HP sauce, buffalo sauce, ketchup, hoisin sauce, roasted garlic paste, black pepper, hot paprika, liquid smoke, and Chinese 5-spice powder. I think a "real" BBQ sauce would've been better, but it did pretty well in a pinch. ^Back