Rosey -- The Ultimate Kitchen Friend

My family jokingly calls me the Queen of Kitchen Appliances.  I just smile and ignore them, because I know the great things in my kitchen aren't mere appliances because they are my friends.

The Ultimate Kitchen Friend for a new vegan cook has to be a crockpot and the second would be the food processor and the third would be a stand mixer.  (Wow, what run-on sentence...lol)  Shhh!  Don't tell them I rank them because I don't want them to start fighting for my attention.

This is Rosey.

Rosey is my best kitchen friend so far.  She loves me so much that she cooks for me while I do other things -- like read blogs, cookbooks, teach school and yes, even while I sleep.  With such a wonderful friend a new vegan is bound to succeed.

Rosey cooks almost everything.  She can cook whole grains to perfection.  She can make a mean pot of chili or soup.  She cooks beans like nothing.  Homemade broth is breeze to her.  She cooks me oatmeal while I sleep.  She's just awesome.  She can even cook pasta with a little supervision.

With those basics if I add a little fruit or veggies and maybe some bread...I can have a meal ready in no time.

Here's how Rosey has helped me this week:

1. a huge pot of rice to go in the frig for meals
2. a huge pot of beans -- part for soup and the rest in the frig to add to meals
3. chili -- because I'm miserable with a cold and chili is awesome
4. vegetable broth -- because I hate to waste money by tossing veggie bits

Rosey is quite a frugal lady, too.  The pot of chili was enough for two meals and she used part of the beans she had cooked earlier.  Speaking of which, dry beans are way cheaper than canned beans and the salt content can be controlled.  The second meal of chili was great over a big bowl of rice.  By the way, rice is a pretty inexpensive grain and Rosey loves that!  She also loves that it is so versatile.

I'll be back tomorrow with the beginnings of a favorite cookbook list and perhaps a plan that will let me showcase a week or more of recipes from one of the books.  My goal is to work my way through them because I've promised my darling hubby that I could cook a years worth of vegan food and never repeat meals unless he asked.  So now I have to put my kitchen skills where my mouth is.  (No pun intended.)