Making It Cheaper Journal Entry #2: Homemade Vegan Chick'n Pieces with Homemade Bouillon

 At my local market, vegan chick'n will cost you $4.99 for seven ounces, which is enough for about two-three servings, at about $2.50 to $1.67 per serving. 

Soy curls, on the other hand, will cost me about $6 per eight-ounce dehydrated bag including the shipping cost, so that's about 75 cents per one-ounce serving. Of course, one typically makes soy curls with broth to flavor them, and so I need to account for that. Two cups of broth made from a typical chick'n bouillon available to me in a local store is about 50 cents, and that will hydrate about half a bag. So let's say that brings the price up to close to 90 cents per serving--still coming out ahead.

But what if I also made the bouillon? And that's where the Plant Power Couple recipe for pan-fried soy curl chick'n pieces comes in.

This recipe includes olive oil, too, so I have to account for that, but it only adds about 30 cents to the whole recipe. I'm still coming out ahead of the Tofurky chick'n pieces. Plus, these are just better in my opinion--they have an amazing flavor!

The flavor comes, of course, from the homemade bouillon.

Nutritional yeast, the main ingredient here, has gotten pretty expensive in recent years, but this stuff adds protein and vitamins, which the bouillon cubes don't. Plus, it makes a thicker broth that adheres better to the soy curls. By my calculations, it will cost about 35 cents for the amount we use in the soy curls. This is cheaper than the bouillon, even if only a little.

Right now, we'll take it. This is relatively easy and a clear cost winner. Plus, this recipe truly is amazing. I prefer it to the ready made things. And despite what Butler Foods says is the serving size, I generally get a lot more servings out of a bag than they say--soy curls are very satisfying.

It seems like this would be something I could freeze, too, which could make meal prep easier. As it is, I made twice as much as I needed while planning for another recipe later on, and I think I'd better freeze it or I'll just end up grabbing soy curls every time I pass by my fridge.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I have already made these before and I knew I loved them, but I hadn't thought about the actual cost savings per serving before now.

The main thing? This is another thing that gives me a sense of control in the midst of everything going haywire. That's probably worth more than the money I've saved making soy curls.

In any case, if you were keeping track, I would estimate that rather than $1.67 for a serving of Tofurky, the cheapest chick'n pieces at my store (and assuming the smallest serving size), a serving of these delicious soy curl chick'n pieces, made with homemade bouillon and olive oil, is 93 cents. That's just a little more than half the cost.

And there you have it.