Meat Free Monday: Slow Cooker Snobby Joe

Tags

dinner, lentil, meat free, recipes, slow cooker, snobby joe, vegan, vegetarian

A few years ago, I discovered a love for lentils. I discovered my lentil love when I attempted a lentil sloppy joe recipe. Aside from not having any meat in it, it really tasted like those delicious and oh so messy joes from the middle school cafeteria. Only these were lean and healthy (but just as, if not more, messy).

I’ve made this recipe before but to save time, I decided to use the slow cooker. It worked out really well!

Ingredients (serves 6-8 ppl)

1 cup of dry lentils (+ 4 cups of water to boil)

1 bell pepper, diced

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup of tomato paste

1 tsp mustard

3 tablespoons of maple syrup

3 tablespoons of chili powder

1 tsp salt

Optional: kaiser rolls

1. Prepare all the ingredients the night before and set in the fridge. In the morning, set the slow cooker on low and allow to cook for 8-10 hrs or 5 hrs on high. (the night before trick is helpful as the soaking of the lentils allows them to be tender and fully cooked at the end of the 10 hrs)

When ready to serve, lightly toast a kaiser roll and place a cup of snobby joe mix onto roll.

I served with oven fries.

These were great. They were quite messy as one would imagine. They were also really flavorful. I might have been a tad sneaky by not telling BR these were meatless. But he loves lentils and loved this dish. The lentils are very filling so a little bit goes a long way. I ate the leftovers chili style with bread for dipping and sopping.

This freezes well too!

Vegan Fare at Wild Ginger

Tags

healthy, lunch, Restaurant Review, vegan

My good friend Arlenys, whom I had the pleasure of going to college with and now have as a coworker, invited me to lunch the other day. She’s starting to be more adventurous in the foodie world and wanted to take me to a restaurant that she loved and I had never heard of. The real kicker here was that the restaurant is vegan. Arlenys and I are Hispanic. Meat is a regular item at our dinner table. So, for Arlenys to rave about a vegan restaurant, well, it had to be good, right?

Wild Ginger in SoHo is a comfortable walking distance away from my office. The no frills signage is misleading as what awaits behind the doors at Wild Ginger will impress just about any meat eater.

To start, Wild Ginger is a quaint and cozy place.  There are about 12 tables inside but if you get a seat, grab a menu and have at it. I was a little unsure about a few things on the menu but the staff are really friendly and will make suggestions if you aren’t sure. I personally thought the lunch specials looked amazing.

We decided to start with some Seitan skewers which were amazing. The texture is very familiar, kind of like lean sandwich meat. The sauce was awesome too!

For my entrée I ordered the grilled tofu with mixed veggies. it came with the choice of brown coconut rice and regular brown rice. I chose the coconut rice- good lord was it good! Each entrée also came with a miso soup to start, a slice of steamed kombuca and a spring roll.

The price is right for lunch entrees here and the portions are excellent. Our meal total was $24. For 2 entrees and an appetizer, that’s a steal.

For affordable, healthy, tasty vegan fare, I know I will be back at Wild Ginger (ESPECIALLY) since its close to the office!

Vegan Cinnamon Swirl pie

Tags

breakfast, chick peas, cinnamon, dessert, vegan

It all started when I was catching up on my Google reader and noticed there was a guest blogger posting. It wasn’t just an ordinary blog post.

No.

This post featured a photo that made my heart stop.

A stack of chocolate pancakes with melty chocolate syrup being poured on top of them. The kicker?

Vegan.

Freaking VEGAN!

My thoughts? How can anything this GORGEOUS be vegan? How can anything VEGAN sound so damn delicious?

Simply put. Because Chocolate Covered Katie says so.

That image alone sucked me into chocolate covered katie’s world of decadent desserts that were 100% vegan.

And just as I was about to put myself out of my misery, I saw it. The Cinnamon swirl pie. Everything about the pie was inviting. The cinnamonny color, the texture it promised in the photo, the swirls… it was all there.

But I sat and thought about the dessert for two weeks. TWO. LONG. WEEKS. Because could I really pull this off? Could I really make a vegan dessert?

I mean, yes I could… but would it be as delicious as it looked?

Im not judging my vegan friends- no! I admire you guys. For your creativity and passion. I was just really afraid of hating this… but one fateful Sunday evening, I pulled out my ingredients from katie’s blog and did it.

Not what I normally expect when baking…. applesauce, oats, chick peas

*blink*

OMG CHICK PEAS???

Mind. Blown.

All I needed to make this dessert was pulverized chick peas.

Okay, Katie. You’re the expert. So I let my food processor do its thing. And gave it a whiff. Did not love the smell. So, I added more cinnamon. and a dash more sugar. It still smelled a little like a sweet hummus but after a taste of the “dough” it wasn’t bad at all.

I liked the consistency. Like Oatmeal cookie dough batter.

I put it in a pie dish and baked.

The end resulted in what looked like a typical dessert! WePA!

I let the dessert cool for quite a bit before digging in. When roomie came home, I made her try a piece.

Holy. Balls.

guys, all jokes aside, this was EFFING AMAZING! With some homemade icing on top, this baby rocked my socks off. All the cinnamon sugar flavor in a dessert that was textured like that of a rich fudgy brownie.

yes, it was that good.

I sliced up my pie and gave it out to friends for breakfast. This baby is PACKED with protein and fiber. For 8 honkin slices, this baby packs in about 350 calories per slice but will keep you satisfied for hours!

So, will I become vegan? Not quite.

But will I make this again?

Ask the 4 cans of chick peas that I just bought. ::wink::