Sloppy Joes

      Years ago, when I was just starting out in the Mom Cooking world, I was always on the lookout for ways to sneak more veggies into Punky's diet.  Bell peppers were a particular sticking point for me.  I love peppers and put them in darn near everything and Punky insisted that she hated them though she had had next to no experience with them since MacGvyer wasn't big on peppers.

      I know from my background in Anthropology that human tastes change and develop according to exposure.  When a person tries an unfamiliar food a number of times in most cases, that person will develop a taste for that food and begin to like it.  That is why pediatricians recommend having a child try any veggie at least 15 times before giving up on it (the accepted threshold for number of tastes required to develop an affinity for a particular food had always been 14).  Recent research has even indicated that the more new and different foods a person tries, the more quickly one adapts a taste for them.  I am a prime example of this.  I will try any really nutritious food over a few times, even if I don't like it, and it typically only takes me a few tries to develop a taste.  Similarly, after years of living with my cooking experimental ways, Punky is also much more willing, and even excited, to try new things and often takes a liking to them very quickly.

      So I was on a mission to encorporate peppers into as many meals as I could, but they had to be hidden.  Just like MacGvyer and I, Punky can be very bullheaded when she wants to be, and at the time she was only 4.  I don't care what anyone says; there is no reasoning with a 4 year old.

      I don't remember how I found out that Sloppy Joes had peppers in them, but I do know I was surprised as heck to find it out.  I guess I had never watched my mom make them growing up.  I was chatting with NotDonna about my discovery, and she already knew (heck, she may have been the one who told me).  She said that her mom, MMom, had a great sloppy joe recipe, so I called her up to get it (or maybe NotDonna called?  Either way, I got MMom's Sloppy Joe Recipe).

      I was thrilled to find out that not only did it include peppers, they were basically the main componant.  And, ultimately, this was the recipe that won Punky over on peppers.  To this day, she loves my Sloppy Joes.

      After getting Happy Herbivore, my favorite cookbook, I tried making these with Tempah instead of ground up animals, and I was thrilled with the results.  It is almost impossible to even tell the difference, and Tempah is sooooo good for you.  If anyone is trying this recipe, I implore you to try it with the Tempah.  Its so much better for you, and the result is amazing.  If you've never heard of tempah, it is a soybean product but one with a completely different texture and nutritional profile than tofu.  It's very nutritious and good for your digestion.  And, as I said, it works perfectly in this recipe.  There is also a sauce recipe in Happy Herbivore, but I perfer the recipe I got from MMom, below.

Basic Ingredients:
Two 8oz pkgs Tempah (which you can find in most any grocery store)
One Medium Onion
2 large or 3 smallish bell peppers, at least one red
Garlic
Organic Ketchup (without high fructose corn syrup - important),
Yellow Mustard
Worshtershire and/or Soy sauce
Pepper, to taste
Optional: TBLSp brown sugar

      Add enough water to a pot to submerge the tempah.  Add a couple of shakes of soy sauce and bring to a boil.  Boil the tempah for 10 minutes.  In the meantime:

      Finely dice the onions and set aside for at least 5 minutes to maximize nutritional potential.  Finely dice bell peppers.  Lightly sautee the peppers and onion with the garlic (adjust according to your own taste).  You can either sautee in a little water or a bit of grapeseed oil.

      If you're "hiding" the veggies, puree the onions and peppers in a food processor or blender and return to the pan.  Otherwise, just leave them in the pan and go on the the next step.  I haven't had to puree the peppers into the sauce for years.

      Next, add the ketchup.  You can adjust the amount per your taste, but you'll need a lot of ketchup since it's the base of the sauce.  That is also why it's important to get a ketchup without HFCS in it (most organic ketchups are HFCS free), you're using a lot of it and that much HFCS is gross and makes the sauce way too sweet.  I would say you're going to want to start with at least a cup of ketchup.

      Stir in a couple tablespoons of yellow mustard and a couple dashes of soy and/or worchestershire sauce.  Cook on medium/low heat, stirring continually, adjusting ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, garlic, and black pepper as necessary to taste.  Add a tablespoon of brown sugar or a dash of cinamon if desired.

      Once the sauce is heated through and at the taste you want, leave it on just enough heat to keep it warm.  After boiling for 10 minutes, drain the tempah and grate it into the desired texture, usually about the size of rice grains, maybe a little bigger.  If you're grating by hand, run the tempah under some cold water to keep from burning yourself.

      Stir the grated tempah into the sauce, "slop" onto some whole wheat buns, and enjoy!

      Please let me know if you try this recipe!  It is definitely a favorite in our house.  Heck, I just made it last night.

Mexican Cabbage and Individual Apple Crisps

Tonight, we had mexican cabbage, a recipe from Happy Herbivore, using up a bunch of the leftover green and purple cabbage in a simple, delicious, vegan recipe packed with nutrients.

And since everyone ate all they were served, we got to have individual Apple Crisps for dessert.  These are really easy to make, just core some organic apples, but leave the bottom in so it's like a cup.  Coat the inside with cinnamon. At the same time, soak 1/2 cup of steel cut oats (I use the 5 minute kind) in water for 10 minutes or so and preheat the oven to 350.

Mix together the oats, drained, with1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup brown sugar or a substitute, and 1/3 cup butter substitute.  The mixture will be rough and crumbly.

Fill the apples with the mixture and bake for 35 minutes or until the apples are soft and the crisp is crisp.

These are excellent with Stonyfield Farms humane vanilla ice cream.

Meal Plan: May 15th

Back in May, I started making Weekly Meal plans to streamline our shopping and maximize our visits to the local Farmer's Markets.  While I make no promises, I am going to try to post more of our meal plans here.  Starting next week ;-) 

For now, here is my post from the very first meal plan, May 15th, 2011:

Many times over the last few years I have contemplated it.  It’s definitely a good idea.  It would cut down on shopping trips and save me 30 minutes of rummaging in the cupboards waiting for inspiration to strike.  I’ve even tried it once or twice, but it was never really wholehearted.

Well, recently one of my new favorite blogs, Manager to Mom, recently took the Weekly Meal Planning Plunge, and has inspired me to give it another go.

Now, I’ve been doing pretty darned good for a number of months on the dinners.  I’m rather freaking brilliant at creating something delicious out of really random odds and ends in our kitchen.  If you follow my Twitter feed, which you totally should, SINCE everyone who knows anything follows my Twitter feed -à you already know that I’m quite into the #whatsfordinner tag.  I enjoy coming up with nutritious, ethical meals, and I enjoy sharing what I come up with.  But by the third or fourth day in any given week that I find myself staring, vexed, at a box of brown rice and an artichoke, my creativity and my patience start to run rather thin.

And I hate mid-week grocery jaunts.  I’m not a quick shopper, so the nights I have to pop to the store for green peppers or whatever, dinner is always late, and I hate that.  Eating relaxed family dinners around the table is important to me, and I hat when they’re rushed because bedtime is looming.

So this week, I’m making a plan.  I’m picking out five dinners, running through the recipes, getting all the ingredients at once, and we’ll see how it goes.  I typically only plan two meals ahead, so this will definitely be a change.  I am NOT planning each particular day (as in Monday we’ll have this and so on) because moods change and I never know for certain how much time I’ll have on a given night.  But I will have five recipes, and all required ingredients, handy and ready to go this week.  So here goes:

1)  We’ll start with some Salsa Bean tacos to use up a few leftovers we have lingering in the fridge.  The idea is based on the “Wizard Rollups” recipe from my very favorite cookbook The Happy Herbivore.  We have beans and leftover salsa, which are the main ingredients.  We also have some left over taco tempeh and homemade guac (if it’s still good), so all we really need for these are whole wheat tortillas and maybe some spinach, peppers, and tomatoes (might be able to get the peppers and tomatoes from the garden, yay!).

2.)  Red Lentil Dal – I have been wanting to make this for a while but haven’t been able to find red lentils, then this weekend I checked out a new natural foods store here in town and found them!  So we need an onion, garlic (pretty sure we still have some), we have all the spices, vegetable broth (we pretty much always have this, but I always buy more anyway because we use it so often), diced tomato, tomato paste (I often skip the tomato paste in recipes because they never require a whole can and I hate throwing out the rest, but I really want to make this recipe right, so we’ll see), and we MAY need coriander.  Pretty sure we’ve still got plenty of brown rice, and if not I’ll just serve it with whole wheat cous cous or quinoa since we have lots of both.

3.)  Black Bean Burgers – I try not to use too much soy meat.  I love some once in a while, and I swear by veggie “chicken” nuggets and meatless balls, but all in all I like to keep a variety in our diet, which means not simply replacing meat with “not meat.”So I’m really looking forward to trying these burgers.  Not so sure what MacGyver and Punky will think of them since they’re both big texture people.  We always have lots of black beans on hand, but I usually pick up more at every shopping trip so we don’t run out, fresh cilantro – might leave this out or sub parsley, neither MacGyver nor I like cilantro much; we have fresh oregano in the garden and the other spices in the cupboard; I think we have breadcrumbs; Whole wheat buns (without HFCS!!).

4.)  5 Spice Harmony Bowl – MacGyver and Punky loved this dish the last time I made it, and it is soooo super simple.  This time I think I’m going to make it with 3 colored quinoa instead of brown rice just because the quinoa is so pretty in an already pretty dish.  Got the spices last time I made this dish; will need a couple sweet potatoes and some greens (collard, turnip, kale – which we have in the garden!, etc.) – might wait until the Farmer’s Market for this one.  And more veggie broth.  See why I always buy it?

5.)  Salad – Punky is a big salad kid and we have tons of Chinese lettuce and veggies popping in the garden, so all I’ll need to get is some organic spinach and/or organic mixed greens and any veggies not in the garden.  I’m thinking chickpeas for the top.  Maybe I’ll make some teriyaki chickpeas, Punky and MacGyver are wild for those.

Recipes 2 – 4 as well as the teriyaki chickpeas for recipe 5 all come from The Happy Herbivore.  I seriously, seriously love this book.  Check out the website and try out one of her recipes today!

What’s on your menu this week?