Butter Bean Soup with Ramen Seasoning

Since this is a blog about cheap eats, I would be remiss not to write at least once about the magic of ramen. It's the cheapest food in existence, and while I certainly don't recommend living off it, it's very versatile and can be used in unexpected ways. This recipe is a good example of what you can do with just the seasoning packet.

Ingredients:

2 cups water or vegetable broth

1 packet ramen seasoning (use less for less sodium)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can butter beans

1 tablespoon earth balance or olive oil

greens of your choice for garnish

Bring your water/broth to a boil. Add the oil, garlic, beans, and seasoning. Return to a boil. When the beans are cooked, pour the soup into a bowl, and garnish with sprig of greens. That's it, you're done!

Now, I'm going to make a quick side note over here. My favorite use for ramen seasoning is actually way too simple to dedicate a whole post to, so I'm going to use the space here to mention it. BASICALLY a cool thing you can do is take the whole seasoning packet, dump it into a container of vegan sour cream, mix it all up, and this results in a dip for chips and veggies! You're welcome. 

Greetings and a sandwich.

Hello there, I'm Natasha. I'm vegan, lazy, and close to broke. I started this blog in an attempt to motivate myself to cook more, rather than stuffing my face with chips, hummus, and Amy's lentil soup every night.

Last night, I crashed a vegetarian cooking class at BU in order to learn some new skills. It was a free class and I think they didn't care that I don't go there, but I'm pretty sure I was the only non-BU student in the room.
One of the things the instructor/chef told us was the ratio of oil to vinegar in a vinaigrette- it's 3:1. Armed with this new knowledge, I decided to incorporate a homemade vinaigrette into my first entry on here.

Avocado-Tomato-Tofu Sandwich with Apple Cider Vinaigrette

For the vinaigrette:

1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon whole-grain dijon mustard
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
6 teaspoons olive oil

For the sandwich:

2 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil
half a package of extra-firm tofu
half an avocado
1 tomato, sliced
2 slices of bread

The most important thing here is the vinaigrette. Mince the garlic, put it in a small bowl, and add a pinch of salt. Whisk in the apple cider vinegar and mustard, then slowly whisk in the olive oil, and then you're done.

Now, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Cut the tofu into thin slices and cook them for five minutes on each side (or until browned), then set aside when finished.
Toast the bread, as lightly or as dark as you'd like. I toasted mine pretty lightly. Drizzle the slices with the vinaigrette you just made.
In a bowl, mash the avocado with some salt, then spread the mashed avocado onto the bread. Put the tofu on top of the avocado, and then place the tomato slices on top. Add more vinagrette, and voila, you've got yourself a delicious sandwich.