Brown Rice Salad with an Asian Flair

I’ll be honest. I almost didn’t blog this recipe. Even though it was go-back-for-seconds-and-thirds delicious and ridiculously easy to throw together.

The reason? I was naughty. I used a store-bought flavored soy sauce with sugar and preservatives.

But before you relegate me to the dog house of real food blogs, allow me to explain. Because my husband and I are still traveling (sans income), sticking to our budget is extremely important. For the most part, we have been eating with our hosts in New Zealand. But now that we are staying in a hostel for a month while the owners are on holiday, we had to visit the grocery store.

I have to say, all that menu planning and price calculating was something I haven’t done in quite a while! Not that I’m complaining, since I obviously love to cook (and save money).

But imagine if you will that all you have in your kitchen is a limited spice rack, a bag of oats, and some fruit. Imagine having to start from scratch and build your pantry. But only for a month. After our month here, we’ll be back on the road working for our meals and accommodation.

So when menu planning, I garnered on as many vegetable and bean based dishes as I could. Stir fried veggies with brown rice or quinoa is a cheap, yet healthy, way to go. But when I searched the shelves for Bragg’s liquid aminos, I was shocked to find that the tiny bottle cost upwards of $12. Not exactly in our budget.

So the $5 bottle of Kikkoman Lime & Lemongrass Soy Sauce was looking pretty good. It might be full of sugar and preservatives, but one thing it didn’t have was natural flavoring (aka: MSG).

That being said, you could easily substitute Bragg’s liquid aminos, splash of lime juice, & a sprinkle of stevia for a similar effect.

And so, the nutrient-packed, economical version of my Brown Rice Salad:

Brown Rice Salad with an Asian Flair

Ingredients:

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

Now how easy was that?

The husband and I managed to eat the entire bowl for dinner the other night. Definitely a keeper in my book–especially with all those raw veggies!

What is your biggest budget concern when shopping for healthy food?

This post is linked to Homestead Barn Hop, Monday Mania, Mouthwatering Monday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday