Three Sisters Dip

The Navajo tribe refers to three particular staple foods as the Three Sisters. These foods are beans, corn, and squash. All three of these items are available fresh, canned, and often frozen, and they're CHEAP. I mean really cheap. Pennies a serving cheap. I bought all of these ingredients (except the taco seasoning) at Aldi, which is where I do about 70% of my grocery shopping. I think the pumpkin may be seasonal, but you can get it year 'round at other places, or just replace it with mashed baked sweet potato. This recipe uses canned versions, because that's what I had on hand when I made it. You can cook up dried beans if you have the time, though.

Note: Aldi's taco seasoning is vegan, but it contains cocoa powder, to which I'm allergic. If you can have chocolate, though, you lucky bastards, dive right in. Aldi has good stuff!

1 Thb. canola oil (which is healthier than soybean oil by composition)
1 large onion, diced
2-10 cloves of garlic (ie, to taste), crushed and minced
1 28-oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can corn, drained
1 15-oz can pumpkin (or about 1 pound of baked sweet potato, for an Inca flair)
2 tsp. taco seasoning, or to taste

In a 2 qt. or large saucepan, heat the oil and saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and stir constantly until you can smell it. Immediately add the pinto beans and stir until well combined. Mash the beans roughly as you do. You want the dip to have a little texture.

Once the beans are heated through and at a slightly rougher consistency than you'd like in the finished product, stir in the corn and the taco seasoning. Finally, fold in the pumpkin. (If you use sweet potato, you might need to add a little water to get the right consistency.) Let sit over low heat until dip is heated through, stirring gently every minute or do. This is amazing with chips, in burritos, or as a taco filling.

Variations I'd like to try: adobo or molé verde in place of taco seasoning. You chocolate-eating jerks can try regular molé.

Serves lots. As there's only one of me, I'd divvy this into portions and eat it over a couple of days.

Enjoy!

An Introduction

My name is Susan, and I'm (mostly) vegan. I'm also dirt poor. Food stamps poor. Waiting for Disability 'cause I'm gimped poor. And completely politically incorrect.

I first went vegan about 13 years ago. In the first year, I dropped around 100 pounds, and I continued to lose about 50 more. My ex-husband (the asshole) eventually bullied me away from veganism after seven years. That was six years and about 70 pounds ago. I'm now trying it again for the sake of my health. One big difference: I'm dead broke.

So. In a culture that promotes a healthy lifestyle primarily to the affluent, and in which veganism is associated with expensive soy foods and hippie-dippy sprouts, how the fuck do you eat vegan on the government's dime? Pretty easily, actually. You just have to get down to basics and make an effort to actually cook. (Cooking while you're gimped and on chemo? There's the challenge.)

What this blog is: how to keep to a vegan (or vegetarian, or just healthy) diet on next to no cash, and (hopefully) yummy recipes that I've assembled in my kitchen à la Frankenstein's monster.

What this blog is not: a soapbox to damn anyone who dares wear leather shoes. (This blog is also not affiliated in any way with a MySpace group of a similar name. I only use MySpace to listen to music I can't afford to buy.)

What goes into my mouth is my business. What goes into yours is yours. These are just suggestions and recipes. And the occasional political incorrectness.