Thursday, October 11, 2012

Vegan MoFo 2012, Dinner: Courtesy of a 9-Year Old and the First Lady

Hello, is anyone else freezing?  I sure am, and I was either going to have to make myself a hot, hearty meal or settle for hot chocolate for dinner.  Then I remembered that I had a sloppy joe recipe I'd been meaning to try and all of the ingredients on hand; I impressed even myself.


You may have heard that the First Lady, Michelle Obama, has a Let's Move initiative: "America's Move to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids.  A while ago she conducted The Healthy Lunchtime Challege that "invited families to create an original lunchtime recipe that is healthy, affordable and delicious, and follows the nutritional guidelines of MyPlate [ignore the circle]".  There was a winner chosen from each state, and a Kids' State Dinner was held to celebrate. 


I kind of lost track of the whole thing, but thankfully Vegansaurus was on the case to remind us that something wonderful happened.  While many of the submissions were veg in nature, Alexea Wagner, age 9, won for Nevada with "Vegan Sloppy Joes and Kale Salad."  Way to represent veganism, Alexea; say it loud and say it proud!  So, um, yeah; I didn't make the kale salad...but the sloppy joes were great! 

I did, accidentally, cook the onions with the tempeh instead of after- solely because I can't read directions.


But the only thing I purposefully changed about the recipe was that I cooked it for an extra 15 minutes at the end so that more of the liquid would cook away.


Super simple and really yummy; this made a really great meal.  I will say that it yields an amount more suited to 2-3 adults than 4 as indicated, but maybe Alexea was counting on VM, the supposed tempeh-hater who returned the portion I sent home with her after tasting it and claiming- yet again, that she doesn't like tempeh (she does).

foodfeud, this is on a bialy just for you!
Find the whole cookbook here; Alexea's recipe is on p. 44.

9 comments:

  1. Abby,

    This Sloppy Joes recipe looks great! You got me thinking, should I have Joes for dinner tonight? Hmm… I’ve tried, The Post Punk Kitchen’s Sloppy Joes recipe a few times, and I highly recommend it. It’s fun, fast, simple and tasty.

    http://www.theppk.com/2009/11/snobby-joes/

    PS, hot chocolate is NEVER dinner!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum! So nourishing looking in this start of fall........the mornings are so cool now. Love it, but the house is already cold!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love when vegan recipes win mainstream events. Of course it was a healthy event, but still.

    Did you steam the tempeh first for VM? Sometimes people who don't like tempeh like it better if it's steamed before cooking because steaming takes away any bitterness.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andrea,
    I usually do steam the tempeh, but this recipe didn't call for it. However, it was sweet and delicious; she was just being difficult!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yay, Alexea! Good job! (And good job to you, too, for recreating it.) I will say that tempeh is my least favorite soy product, but I will eat it. I've never seen tempeh sloppy joes, so I bet it's a good one. And I didn't know about the steaming tempeh trick.

    ReplyDelete
  6. michelle obama 2012! tempeh joes 2012! That debate left me feeling crazy so I just vote for dinner...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was also very Much wondering about yr bun! So did you dump it all on top of one? Or try to cut that flimsy thing in half?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jenny, I LOVE tempeh! Try a great recipe or 2, just to be sure.

    foodfeud, Right? At least Joe represented... I ALWAYS cut my bialy in half (perilous but necessary) and then dig out the dough. Old habits...

    ReplyDelete
  9. I just shared this with my vegan meetup group! Great recipe! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

Have you got something to say? It would be so nice to hear from you!
(I know captchas suck, but not as much as spam.)