A Very Veggie Christmas Box

December 14, 2010 4:58 PM

A great giftbox for a financially struggling vegetarian.

A friend of ours is going through a lot right now, including some pretty hard financial times. Math has been done and it's been determined that a lot of money is being wasted on eating out because she has trouble figuring out how to cook for one person, and she's very busy (school, work, and she does lots of other volunteer work that is relevant to her school work). So, long story short, we want to put together a box of stuff for her to help her with this problem (we're not overstepping, she's asked for advice/help/etc on this and other issues). She will have access to a real kitchen and regular cooking tools. She will be cooking for herself, and will probably share with her roommate (who will kick in on food costs).

She's expressed a desire for this vegetarian cook book. Things I've thought of putting in the box are as follows:

1) Selection of dried beans
2) Selection of pasta
3) Canned tomatoes and pasta sauce
4) Couscous, Bulgar wheat, quinoa, rice
5) A few favorite recipes of ours that are vegetarian

. . . and there I run out of good ideas.

Other things might include really good vegetarian recipes that can be made in a crock pot, soups, or casseroles that she can take to work or to her evening gigs. Cost isn't a huge concern, but we want to keep it reasonable.

Thank you in advance. It is really important to me to figure out a way to show her we care and provide her with the means to feed herself healthfully as she makes a new beginning in the new year.

posted by Medieval Maven to food & drink (34 answers total)

Various spices she could use would be a nice touch. She may not have spices on hand and/or may not want to spend the money on them.

When I was a vegetarian I was particularly fond of poultry seasoning, the kind that comes in a cheerful little yellow box with a turkey on it. (Sorry, can't remember the brand.)
posted by corey flood at 5:04 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Would she like root veggies? They keep well and hit the spot this time of year - easy to make too, just cut, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and any additional spices/herbs that you like and bake at 375ish for 40ish minutes.
posted by cestmoi15 at 5:08 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

every poor vegetarian should be introduced to TVP.

also: to go from eating out too much to dried beans is probably too big of a leap. think of things that can be made i less than an hour that'll store well.

on the storage front -buy her some leftover storage solution, like tupperware.

as a vegetarian my cheap staples are chili, pasta and marinara, and stir fry. i find the most expensive part of this is the sauces and such - getting a basket of stir fry sauces (black bean, hoisin, soy, and a good sweet & sour are in my fridge now - read ingredients, they like to hide fish sauce) would be a great gift for me. likewise to something like good pesto and a block of parm. for the chili, head to the mexican section of the grocery store - there should be some jalapeno sauces and green salsas and things like that.
posted by nadawi at 5:08 PM on December 14, 2010 [6 favorites]

Dried herbs and spices would be a nice touch - things that make meals taste special will make her enjoy eating the food she's cooked and keep her on the "cook for yourself" track!

Have you considered buying her a slow cooker (crockpot)? If she's got a busy lifestyle, that could be something that makes it easier for her. If she's anything like me, sometimes the last thing you want to do when you get home from a busy day is cook - but if she knows she's coming home to a meal that's ready and waiting for her, that reduces the temptation to eat out instead.

Sounds silly, but freezer bags / tupperware containers could also be useful - encouraging her to cook in bulk, meaning that she'll always have something in the freezer ready to heat up when she gets home.
posted by finding.perdita at 5:17 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not a vegetarian, but in my experience good tools make cooking at home much more pleasurable. A really good chopping knife, maybe? Maybe a small cutting board and a good vegetable peeler.
posted by Evangeline at 5:18 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]

If she's already finding it hard to make time to cook, she's probably going to hate struggle with dried beans. Canned ones are just SO much more convenient when you're crunched for time and they don't break the bank, especially if you stick with generic and stock up when they go on sale. Otherwise, I'd suggest chipping in for a pressure cooker if it's within your budget. It would make the cooking time for beans and long-cooking grains so much faster.
posted by joan_holloway at 5:22 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Nutritional yeast. I'm eating this exact product (same brand) as we speak, and it's delicious — like parmesan cheese in flake form, except it's not cheese. It's fortified with vitamin B12, which is often the trickiest nutrient for vegetarians to get enough of (though you can also get it from vegetarian-but-not-vegan foods like eggs).
posted by John Cohen at 5:23 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I agree you should add flavorings if her kitchen isn't already well-stocked. My go-to spices are cumin, coriander, and curry powder and those can definitely be expensive to buy. Olive oil for pasta and salads. Canola oil for cooking might be helpful. Vinegar and soy sauce and lemon juice. Maybe even onions and garlic since they would store well.

On days when I have no time at all, I'll grab a sandwich with peanut butter, or with cashew butter or almond butter for a treat. You could buy her a couple jars of different nut butters.

Is there anything that she really likes that she would miss eating out? Maybe you could get her the ingredients to make a simple version of whatever that dish is. My determination to do my own cooking is always higher when I don't feel deprived. Having a can of delicious cocoa powder and some good coffee to make a morning mocha really helps me not go to the expensive-but-delicious cafe.

This is a lovely present idea!
posted by zahava at 5:24 PM on December 14, 2010

With the canned tomatoes and pasta sauce I would include a few jars of curry. Curry is delicious, vegetarian friendly and pretty darn easy. If you have the funds, a slow cooker or crock pot could be an amazing addition to her life.

I agree with nadawi, I think dried beans are too big of a leap from where she is now. Canned beans are so much easier.
posted by kate blank at 5:25 PM on December 14, 2010

What about a little herb garden gift set -- maybe something like this?

Also, would she be interested in a few more gourmet-ish items? I'm thinking stuff like marinated artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, fancy olives, etc.
posted by scody at 5:28 PM on December 14, 2010

Not sure if this is too much for a gift, but a simple, inexpensive rice cooker (which can also be used as a steamer) would also be an excellent addition to her cooking supplies - particularly for a vegetarian.
posted by moxiequz at 5:31 PM on December 14, 2010

A great tool would be to include the recipes as part of a recipe index/recipe box that she can easily add to as she discovers new recipes. Also, a subscription to a vegetarian cooking magazine might give her inspiration!
posted by bq at 5:32 PM on December 14, 2010

I second the idea of including some esoteric-ish spices. I tend to be reticent to buy the less common ones, but would love to be given some to play around with.
posted by threeants at 5:55 PM on December 14, 2010

A lunchbox! A surprisingly big chunk of my money tends to go to stuff like plastic wrap, foil, ziplock baggies, those half disposable tupperware thingies... You say she wants to take food with her to work, so some kind of bento or compartmentalized lunchbox that she can wash and reuse will be very handy. Get one with an insulated thermos for her various crockpot things. The size of the lunchbox containers will really help her learn to gauge how much food is right for one meal and one person, too.
posted by Mizu at 6:01 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

* Quick oatmeal in bulk, and the "recipe" included on a notecard or something. 1 part oats, 2 parts water or milk, a dash of salt. Microwave 2 minutes. Add delicious things like raisins, chopped walnuts, blueberries, honey, cinnamon, whatevs!

* Find a bulk source for soy protein powder. Here in Washington you can buy it at Winco Foods for $4/lb. It can be added to just about anything to boost the protein content.

I use it in smoothies: a blob of vanilla nonfat yogurt, some frozen fruit, a banana, and a scoop of protein powder. Blender until smooth.
posted by ErikaB at 6:06 PM on December 14, 2010

Gift Certificate to Penzeys. Then, she can order the spices she desires from an excellent purveyor.
posted by spinifex23 at 6:38 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

On your Amazon link, you can peek inside that book. Pick out a recipe and buy the spices/ingredients to make it.
posted by CathyG at 6:40 PM on December 14, 2010

Spice mixtures from Penzeys are a great idea.

How about a slow cooker (e.g. "Crock Pot") and a vegetarian slow-cooker cookbook? That makes the dried beans more practical and fun (especially when you add fresh spices).

Rancho Gordo has some lovely heirloom beans available, gift boxes too!

Fresh veggies are tricky but important. They can't really be given as a gift -- maybe a generous gift card for a local grocery store like Whole Foods which has great veggies?

Also, having a bunch of one-serving storage containers (like five or ten) can be great inspiration for actually making a huge batch of yummy stuff in the slow cooker on the weekend, then packaging it for later. Getting the last two servings of something from the bottom of a huge container is depressing - it tends to turn gray after a while. Having two or three servings individually packed in the refrigerator, and a bunch more in the freezer that can be thawed in a day, is very helpful - plus you can freeze servings from different big batches and achieve variety by thawing one thing one day, another thing another day.

Good luck!
posted by amtho at 6:48 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Depending on where she lives, you could consider getting her a trial subscription to a CSA box.
posted by aniola at 6:58 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

If you're helping her get the whole "cook in bulk" thing down, you might also invest in some decent tupperware type things like Mizu mentions so that she could, for example, make a veggie lasagna and then bundle it up into eight containers and toss it in the freezer/fridge. I agree that dried beans seem like less of a present and they're also probably the least expensive thing in a veggie pantry. You might want to invest in a few things where spending a little more might make a difference like good olive oil, spices [as others have said] and maybe some nice pre-packaged stuff for days when she's feeling lazy [I just had some corn fritters from a box today and they were good, there are also good freeze dried refried beans, humus, chili and falafel mixes]. If she's used to eating out a lot, it may be a jump to the dried beans and TVP, I'd suggest easing her in with soup mixes and good breads and cheeses that can be eaten without a ton of cooking and then work on larger cook-and-save meals.
posted by jessamyn at 7:03 PM on December 14, 2010

mmm...vegetarian cooking magazines are a great idea for this person.

also, what about a sprout bag? or a full-on kit?

soy or hemp protein powder

some green food

curry pastes and jarred sauces

did you mention your budget?
posted by lakersfan1222 at 7:31 PM on December 14, 2010

two things that can really help make a meal more satisfying for a vegetarian, but are also sort of splurges if you don't have much money are nuts and dry porcini.

If she's very busy and doesn't have a crockpot, lentils are probably a better choice than beans.
posted by juliapangolin at 7:33 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I want to seriously second nadawi on the dried bean front.

You can have an entire kitchen full of beans, but it gets you nowhere when you are stressed, busy, and overworked - and can't bring yourself to fathom cooking a pot of 'em for an hour. And let's not get into soaking them overnight.

Seriously: canned black, pinto, garbanzo, and white beans are a gift from above.
posted by vivid postcard at 7:44 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

1) Selection of dried beans
2) Selection of pasta
3) Canned tomatoes and pasta sauce
4) Couscous, Bulgar wheat, quinoa, rice

A lot of these things are extremely, outrageously cheap at the supermarket.

From your list, I'd consider some really amazing imported pasta said friend wouldn't otherwise splurge on, with high quality tomatoes (San Marzano, probably), and the quinoa - which is probably the only straight-up expensive thing on that list.

Spices are a great idea, also maybe some really fantastic oils, vinegars, and other condiments. This is the part of many vegetarian recipes that is expensive and can make more exotic foods daunting to experiment with.

If you did want to provide basic staples, a subscription to a CSA for a season would be a great gift. In my experience in the New York area, they run about $400 for a full share which lasts from May or June through November. This would provide more vegetables than one person could reasonably eat without putting things up for winter and throwing dinner parties and otherwise spreading the wealth.
posted by Sara C. at 8:49 PM on December 14, 2010

I'm thirding the no-dried-beans thing.

What about things that add a ton of flavor without much effort? Olives, capers, preserved lemons, maybe a jar of onion jam. A spice grinder and some whole spices. Jars of roasted red peppers, hummus, or eggplant spread. Tapenade. Pesto. Chili sauces. Curry sauce or powder. Jars of marinated mushrooms or artichoke hearts.

Find an easy, quick recipe for each ingredient (not, note, a recipe that uses all the ingredients, but a dozen recipes that cover a dozen ingredients) and write it out on a card, then stick it in the recipe box. (Actually, feel free to memail me if you need vegetarian recipes that involve any of the above ingredients. I have a ton.)

Consider, too, things that would make her life easier but aren't interesting--what about mixes for quickbreads, or packets of flavored oatmeal? Maybe soup mixes where all she has to do is dump it in the crockpot, add water, and then ignore it all day?

Also, it might be nice to stick in some random frozen stuff--frozen vegetarian enchiladas, single-serving tupperwares of vegetarian chili, frozen eggplant parmesan, frozen delicious snack foods. Going from barely cooking to cooking nightly is a really, really hard transition to make for some people, and having things that she can just microwave for a few minutes and eat might really help her stay out of restaurants and in her living room.
posted by MeghanC at 9:20 PM on December 14, 2010

Oils! Big bottles of canola and olive.
posted by gomichild at 9:58 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

If she hasn't cooked much before, boxed mixes might be easier at first. Falafel is good. I make it into coin shaped patties and cook it in the oven. You can eat it over a couple days. It's probably more expensive than scratch but still cheaper than eating out.

Frozen veggies are easy to add to soups, rice and pasta. The quality of generics really depends on the store. Kroger is my go to for this. I checked your profile and it looks like there are Krogers in GA. They have diced veggies mixes like multicolored peppers and onions or a couple kinds of mirepoix. It's nice to be able to jump dump pre-cut onions, carrots and celery into a pot when you want to healthify whatever you're cooking a bit. They also have flaked spinach which looks really lovely in soups and is much easier to use than trying to chop off a bit off a frozen block from a box.
posted by stray thoughts at 10:30 PM on December 14, 2010

I'm adding my vote to things that can make vegetarian dishes more flavorful, condiments, pickles/relishes/chutneys, spices, etc. It's stuff that's kind of expensive that she might not be able to get on her own budget.

I also agree about the beans thing. If she works a lot or is stressed, and is used to eating out a lot, having to soak and cook dried beans will likely never happen. Canned is the way to go. But I think your other ideas about dried pasta and couscous, tomatoes, etc. are great.

This is a really lovely present idea. Hell, I'm not even a vegetarian (although I try to keep my meat eating to a minimum) and I'd love a gift like this. I'm sure she'll really appreciate it.
posted by katyggls at 12:07 AM on December 15, 2010

As a fairly new vegetarian, what I've found has helped keep me inspired the most is my weekly CSA delivery (I did a quick check, there are some in the location in your profile, not sure if it's the same city as the giftee though). Getting a weekly supply of fresh veggies and knowing I have to find a way to use them up is great, I've also been introduced to vegetables I never would have picked up in the store.
A CSA subscription could be a little expensive, but I think it would be the most useful; even a short-term subscription could get her in the habit of cooking at home. Most of the other things on your list are staple that can be found on sale weekly in most supermarkets.
posted by Laura in Canada at 5:00 AM on December 15, 2010

Miso packets! I will admit they're more like tea than a meal for me, but what a luxury!

Also, no to pasta or dry beans. But definitely yes on herbs that appear I'm the book you're giving. Maybe a gift certificate/card to a grocery for things she'll need fresh - dairy if she eats it?
posted by bilabial at 5:26 AM on December 15, 2010

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I don't want to get into a ton of details, but her level of general not-having-money-ness is pretty pronounced, so stockpiling pasta and other stuff will actually ensure that when she gets very low on money there is always something for her to cook and eat.

I'm going to research the CSA option for her area. The major super awesome farmer's market in her area doesn't seem to do gift cards (which is a total shame).
posted by Medieval Maven at 6:31 AM on December 15, 2010

Instead of stocking a pantry and giving her a cookbook, consider making "meal packets" with some staples and some fripperies, including enough of one key (pricier or harder to find) ingredient that she can repeat the meal by simply getting more of the bulky heavy cheap staple. You could specific recipes out of the cookbook or just go with standards like pasta, risotto, lentil stew, chili:
- a jar of sauce, a box of pasta, a knob of parmesan, and a grater
- a bag of lentils, a can of tomato, a box of curry powder
- a box of arborio, a big bag of dried mushrooms, and a big packet of spices
- a can of tomato, 2 cans of beans, a bag of TVP, and a jar of chili powder
- boxes of falafel and hummus mix, big jar of olive oil, bag of pita

For someone who's not in a cooking mode, having things broken up into named sets will be less overwhelming than "looks like I have a lot of pasta, beans, and rice, now what?"
posted by aimedwander at 9:02 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

One idea is to buy a nice(ish) set of containers and give the foods in those, rather then, say a bag of beans. That way the packaging is useful too.
posted by d4nj450n at 10:49 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

As an insanely busy vegetarian myself, I can't favorite aimedwander's idea enough. Dividing your gift into meal kits will prevent your friend from feeling overwhelmed (e.g., seeing cooking as yet another task for which she needs a body of knowledge that she doesn't have time to acquire).
posted by chicainthecity at 12:16 PM on December 15, 2010