Under $30 A Week: Vegetarian Grocery List Plus Recipes Pt. 1

By Alexis Frankel on September 28, 2016

I feel obligated to confess something: I am not a vegetarian. Vegetarianism has shown to increase your lifespan, help you lose weight, and overall just make you a better person by not slaughtering tons of innocent animals. Even though all these reasons separately are valid enough to quit meat, I am not that great of a person. I love bacon. What can I say?

That being said, I think vegetarian food is absolutely delicious. I go days without eating meat just because the meals I can make without it are just as good as with it (sometimes even better). But that’s not all folks! It is stupid cheap.

If you go into a grocery store with 30 dollars, you can easily leave with a hefty, week-worth of vegetarian swag and some pocket change. Let me show you that eating ethically and healthily is more than just possible. Here are three vegetarian recipes to get you started.

Alexis Frankel

Fruity Yogurt Pops

•Vanilla yogurt

•½ a banana

•Raspberries

I love to make these yogurt pops because I love sleep. I am not a morning person, but I am a hungry person. If you make these the night before, you can go to your 8 a.m. class and focus on the material, rather than the chips Brad is eating next to you.

1. Spoon a little vanilla yogurt into the popsicle molds.

2. Thinly slice the banana and place a few of them on top of the yogurt.

3. Layer some yogurt on top and then a couple raspberries.

4. Continue this until you have filled the mold to the top. It is better to overfill it than the other way around.

5. Put the sticks in and leave it overnight, or until they freeze. You may have to run hot water over the plastic briefly to take them out.

Alexis Frankel 

Smack Yo Mama It’s So Sweet Potato Tacos

•Onion

•Tomato

•Canned black beans

•Canned corn

•Jalapeño

•1 sweet potato

•Corn tortillas

•Sour cream

•Lime

•Salt

•Pepper

•Butter or oil

•Goat cheese

•½ avocado

•Hot sauce (optional)

•Chili powder (optional)

You should not smack your mom, but these vegetarian tacos might make you want to. No more of mom’s experimental meatloaf for you! You might find this blasphemous, but these tacos are better off meatless. Offer your vegetarian date something a step up from pizza with the following recipe.

1. Poke a ton of holes in the sweet potato. Make sure there are no spuds on it.

2. Put it on a microwavable dish and put it in for 12-14 minutes depending on the size and flip it halfway through. You can also cook it in the oven.

3. While this cooks, slice the onion, tomato, and jalapeño thinly.

4. Put a pan on medium heat and then coat the bottom with butter or oil.

5. When the pan is hot, put the black beans and corn in. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and chili powder if you have some. Cook until hot, then set aside.

6. Clean out the pan, then set it on the heated stove again.

7. Make sure the pan is dry, then coat the bottom of the pan with a little more butter or oil. Wait until the pan is hot.

8. Take a corn tortilla and put in on the pan. Periodically check it until it is golden brown, then flip it.

9. Immediately put some got cheese on it and take it off when the other side is done.

10. Smash half an avocado and smash it with some salt, lime, and pepper. Put some chopped-up tomato and onion for impromptu guacamole.

11. Stuff it with the vegetables, sour cream and probably some Cholula Chipotle Hot Sauce (I am not sponsored, just obsessed). Cut up some lime wedges and squirt it on.

Alexis Frankel

Pink Drink Smoothie

•Raspberries

•3 tbs. vanilla yogurt

•1 banana

•Water

This one is cereal easy, so I am just going to provide some tips to get your smoothie extra smooth. You can literally put in any fruit you have on hand, so mix it up!

1. Cut up the banana thinly to avoid chunks in your budget blender.

2. Put the water in before the yogurt. The yogurt kind of acts as a seal if you do it the other way around.

3. Put in ice if you want it to be really refreshing and cold.

4. The more water you put in, the more juice-like it will be and vice versa with the yogurt.

Grocery List

Raspberries: $3.49

1 white bread loaf: $1.50

Goat cheese: $2.99

Tub of vanilla yogurt: $1.99

1 jalapeño pepper: $0.22

1 green bell pepper: $1.29

Small sour cream: $0.99

Avocado:$1.50

1 can of corn: $1.00

1 can of black beans: $1.00

Corn tortillas: $1.19

1 parsley pack: $1.00

4 bananas: $1.06

1 sweet potato: $1.19

1 onion: $0.80

3 tomatoes: $0.86

2 limes: $0.67

1 pack red radishes: $1.50

Half a dozen eggs: $0.60

1 pack of shredded sharp cheddar cheese: $2.50

Total: $27.34

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