Cooking For One or Two - A Guide to Budget Meals and Stretching Your Money

When vegetarian food started becoming very popular in North America close to a decade ago, all kinds of prepackaged vegetarian burgers and entrees started popping up. I don't know about your city, but in the places I've lived in the past decade, I needed a small bank loan to buy some of these things. You'd think vegetarian food would be inexpensive - come on, there's only vegetables - but the prepackaged stuff isn't. Wondering why? Well, I can't offer you any specific references just yet, but meat is subsidized by all kinds of marketing boards. And the volume of meat sales helps keep the prices down. Vegetarian entrees and burgers and such are relatively new, have a smaller market, presumably spoil faster because they don't tend to have as many preservatives, and have "new-to-develop/ new-to-market" costs to cover.

So if you can't afford those packaged veggie burgers, I'm going to offer you a few alternatives, starting with this post. Alright, I know that this isn't the healthiest of veggie burgers, but if you want something relatively quick, it's easy to make and satisfying. If you are still eating meat and aren't sure you want to increase your veggie consumption/ decrease your meat consumption, this is a good starting point. I've made the following "veggie" burger for many people, including vegetarians, and had a very positive response.

Ingredients

• Potato patty, thawed or frozen. If you've ever had breakfast at a fast food place, these are those breakfast potato patties (aka Hash Browns) that most places serve.)
• Hamburger bun
• Cheese slice, cheddar or mozzarella
• Mayonnaise
• 1-2 tomato slices
• Lettuce - Boston, romaine, or whatever you like

Preparation

• Depending on your preference, prepare the potato patty as per instructions. You can use an oven, toaster oven, or microwave. If you do use a microwave, you'll probably want to fry it up a bit in a bit of butter or cooking oil, in a non-stick pan, to crisp it up a bit.
• Toast the hamburger bun when the patty is almost ready.
• Place a slice of cheese on the patty while it is still hot.
• Spread mayo or your favourite sauce on the bun.
• Layer on the lettuce and tomato, then the patty and cheese.

Presentation
Serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Serve with tomato juice or something similar.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://cookingforone-or-two.blogspot.com

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