Vegan Bulk Food Order and Bulk Kitchen Prep

Hi all!

It seems I took an impromptu little blog break, because…oh, what a month, WHAT A MONTH!

December has been one crazy month for our gang.  Crazy, I say!  We don’t celebrate Christmas at all, so there’s no Christmas Busy-ness here.  But overall it’s just a jam-packed month for our family — nearly half of our big brood had birthdays this month (that’s a lotta birthdays) which means we have been doing nothing but munching endless vegan birthday desserts lately.

And it’s been AWESOME.

I’ve also been decluttering like a madwoman, sprucing up our ‘nest’ for winter hibernation.  We’ve made numerous trips to Goodwill to drop off unwanted items and we’ve Freecycled several no-longer-wanted items too.  Love clearing the clutter out!

Our kitchen has been a hub of activity lately, too — every now and then, we like to spend a chunk of time in the kitchen, prepping and making bulk batches of food.  We spent a recent morning in the kitchen doing some major food prep — with many hands pitching in, the work goes by fast and we get a lot done.

We also make a BIG mess.  Where oh where is the Cleaning Fairy when I need her?

First we made homemade, no-sugar-added, organic jam:

We make this jam quite often.  It’s very easy to make, stores well in the fridge, and can be frozen for later use.  This jam is nothing but fruit — and unlike typical jam recipes, this jam has no pectin added.  I’ve mentioned before that we are a sugar-free family (we eat no granulated sugar, opting for alternative sweeteners instead), so this jam has no added sugar either. Just the fruit itself as a sweetener.  No pectin, no sugar, just one ingredient…so simple and easy!  This stores well in glass jars in the fridge, and though the fruit sweetens it naturally, you could easily add a sweetener if you prefer and it would not change the final outcome.

To make homemade sugar-free jam:

• we filled a pot with a trio of organic frozen berries:  raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries.
• we turned the burner on low and let the frozen berries thaw slowly
• once thawed, we used our Cuisinart hand blender to blend the berry mixture while in the pot (you could use a potato masher for this step)
• we thickened the berry mixture with some arrowroot
• let mixture cool and pour into glass jars
• That’s it!  Homemade sugar-free jam, easy-peasy.

Next up in our busy kitchen was to break down our large bulk items into smaller portions.  We are huge fans of bulk food shopping — we buy as much as possible in bulk to keep the grocery bill under control.  It’s very important to us to eat organic, but we must stay within the grocery budget when feeding our family, so this is where buying in bulk saves the day. We buy organic food in bulk and easily stick to our budget. Our grocery bill for seven (7) of us eating an organic whole foods vegan diet would be very spendy if we didn’t shop this way.  The price per pound drops considerably when we buy in such large bulk amounts.  And of course, bulk buying reduces packaging waste too.  Good for my wallet AND good for the earth.  Win-win.

We are part of a wholesale food co-op and place a monthly order through it.  Besides my food co-op, I order from a few different places and stock up so that I’m not placing orders very often.  I buy several bulk items from Amazon — they have an impressive selection of bulk organics in their Grocery Dept., and their Subscribe & Save program is fantastic for reduced prices.  Occasionally I order bulk organic items through Whole Foods also.  They apply a nice discount to the bulk orders. In-person, I usually only have to shop for fresh produce…oh, and hubby’s organic wine and beer    It’s nice to be able to scoot quickly through the produce section and be done with the shopping.  And since I’ve usually got 5 kids with me when I shop, I NEED to get in and out quickly or I can kiss my sanity goodbye.

We keep a very well stocked pantry in the kitchen, in addition to a large food storage area in the basement which consists of a chest freezer, second fridge, grain & bean storage bins, and second pantry.  Each month, before I place my bulk food order, I check to see what supplies we are running low on, and I add those items to my order.  It’s a great bulk system we have implemented, and it definitely keeps the beast of a grocery bill tamed. And with a family THIS size, that is a Very Good Thing.

If you have a place to store bulk purchases, I highly recommend bulk grocery buying!  Your grocery bill will thank you.  Our grocery bill was greatly reduced when we started buying organic food in bulk about 5 years ago.  I was shocked at how much we saved monthly.

Here is what I ordered this month.  Note: some of these items will last more than a month! My order varies from month to month.  Some months we have a huge order and some months we order very little — it depends what we’re out of at the time.

• 25 pound cases of organic raw cashews and organic raw almonds
• 20 pounds of organic frozen raspberries
• 25 pound sack of organic dried chickpeas
• 5-gallon bucket of Bubbies pickles
• 11 pound case of organic medjool dates
• 6 pound bucket of Red Star Nutritional Yeast
• 11 pound bag of organic ch-ch-ch-chia! seeds
• case of Ezekiel gluten-free tortillas
• case of Guiltless Gourmet no salt tortilla chips (for dippin’)
• 40 pound case of organic bananas (these were pre-ordered and then picked up from my local grocery store, not through my co-op)
• 10 pounds of organic raw pistachios
• 10 pounds of raw organic pecans
• 5 pounds of organic shelled hempseed
• 10 pounds of organic raw walnuts
• 5 pounds organic red lentils
• 5 pounds organic white sesame seeds
• 5 pounds raw organic macadamia nuts
• box of organic green tea (100 unbleached bags)
• foil bags of loose leaf teas and spices in 1-pound sizes, all organic:  black sesame seeds, curry powder, garlic powder, red raspberry leaf tea, onion powder, spirulina powder, ground ginger root, smoked paprika, rooibos tea.
• not pictured because the kids already hauled them downstairs and put them away are:  25 pound sack of black beans (not part of my co-op order, bought instead through Whole Foods), 8 pound tub of Nutiva Coconut Oil (not part of my co-op order, bought via Amazon), a case of ZICO Coconut Water (via Amazon — thanks to Earthmother for the yummy recommendation!), and a case of Amy’s organic dairy-free roasted vegetable pizzas which hubby takes to work for lunches on days when we have no leftovers for his lunch.

Some of the bulk items needed to be portioned and frozen.

left to right:  25 pound case of organic raw almonds, 40 pound case of organic bananas, 25 pound case of organic raw cashews

The organic bananas get peeled and packed into freezer bags and frozen for future use — smoothies, raw desserts, raw ice creams and puddings.

The organic nuts get portioned into Foodsaver bags, vacuum sealed, and frozen:

We even buy our Bubbies pickles in bulk!  Included in the bulk order was a 5 gallon bucket of pickles.  You should have heard the laughter from my fellow co-op members when they saw my big bucket o’ pickles.

FIVE GALLONS OF PICKLES….I’m going to invite all my pregnant friends over to satisfy their pickle cravings.

These are Bubbies pickles — it is the only pickle we eat, our Pickle of Choice! — and my goodness, they are FABULOUS. Crunchy, a little sour, so flavorful, no nasty additives.  Buying in bulk like this is WAY cheaper than buying the individual jars.  These get portioned into gallon jars and they store well in the fridge and will keep for months.

We portioned the 5 gallons of pickles into one-gallon glass jars and stashed them in our second fridge:

Next up — we set several items to soak, sprout, and ferment in the corner of the kitchen.  It’s a busy little corner:

• gallon jar of soaking organic french lentils, destined to become lentil soup
• the jar with the yellow lid contains soaking organic buckwheat groats, which will be drained, sprouted for a day or two, and then dehydrated into raw buckwheaties
• back corner is a jar of homemade organic raw kimchi, hubby’s creation.  This will ferment for several days.
• several cups of raw organic almonds are soaking for a batch of almond milk
• organic raw cashews soak in a jar, and will be turned into raw cashew-chia cream for the kids to dip fruit into
• the slow-cooker is filled with several cups of organic dried chickpeas, which soak for 24 hrs in filtered water before being rinsed, topped up with fresh filtered water, and slow cooked.  Destined to become a big batch of hummus.

The almonds made creamy dreamy almond milk:

organic almonds, organic medjool dates, filtered water

The soaked cashews became a delicious batch of Chia-Cashew Cream, which the kids LOVE dipping fresh fruit into.  I know it looks like an unappetizing blob, but it really is so very good…and it makes an AWESOME snack.

organic raw cashews (soaked 6 hrs.), organic chi-ch-ch-chia! seeds, raw agave, pure vanilla extract…blend & enjoy!

The raw kimchi is still fermenting away.  We made this recipe up and we’ve got fingers crossed that we have Kimchi Success!  We’ll test it in a day or two.  If it turns out, I’ll post my hubby’s recipe.

Close up of fermented goodness:

We made a few jars of raw almond butter:

nothing but organic raw almonds, placed in the food processor and ground til creamy

And we made some organic tahini:

nothing but lightly roasted organic sesame seeds, ground in the food processor until creamy

And then we cleaned up the under-the-stairs area where we store our organic gluten-free grains and dried beans.  We refilled some buckets and checked inventory to see what we were low on, making a note on our grocery list.

We store the bulk gluten free grains and dried beans in food safe BPA-free 5 gallon buckets, and seal them with Gamma Seal Lids.  That purple bin in the bottom right corner of the photo contains some items that need to be poured into buckets and sealed (dried split green peas, Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix, amaranth, red lentils, and kamut).

We buy our organic gluten free grains and our organic dried beans in large amounts (this is a 25 pound sack):

We pour them into the BPA-free 5 gallon buckets, seal them tightly with the gamma seal lids, and they store nicely this way. The gamma seal lids are tight-fitting and they keep out critters of all types — including the cheeky one in the picture:

WHEW!

That was a busy day in the kitchen!  It was a very productive session and we got a lot done.  I love making big bulk batches of items to have on hand for during the week.  Snacks and meal prep goes a lot easier and smoother (and quicker!) when we have things prepped and made up ahead of time.

Prepping large batches ahead of time simplifies my life and leaves me with lots of free time to do THIS:

This is our favorite winter activity — we stock up on a few new puzzles every winter (Ravensburger brand is our favorite) and we spend the cold winter evenings working together on puzzles… chatting, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company.  We all love this — we’re a bunch of puzzle-loving fools and we log a lot of hours around the puzzle-board.

Here’s a VERY blurry-but-cozy puzzle action shot of all my loved ones:

Best wishes to everyone — even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, I wish you and yours a happy holiday season!

And now, I’m off to eat a pickle.

CHOMP!