I'm not some crazed advocate so I'm not going to bore you with the details of the hows and whys but I know a lot of people like to do a meatless meal once or twice a week so maybe on occasion, I'll share a meal that we particularly like.
For the most part, we don't eat a lot of meat substitutes. We mostly stick to a large variety of vegetables, grains and beans. When we do eat "meat-like" we don't really go for tofu based substances but those made with vegetable proteins and the like. I'm trying to be very responsible about this because it's my kids' health and I don't want to cause any deficiencies that will hurt their immunity or health. So far, we all seem to be holding up pretty well ;)
THIS meal though - yum. It looks like meat, it has the texture of meat and it tastes like meat. It's not vegan, it's not low sodium, it's not low fat. It's probably the LEAST healthy meal we eat but it's still better than the real thing in a lot of ways so I don't feel at all guilty working it into our meal plan every couple of weeks. It would work in any recipe you use meatballs in. Everyone loves it (except for Zack, who has been subsisting on a steady diet of sandwiches and yogurt and fruit for years anyway.)
(apologies for the less than stellar photo)
I've adapted this from a cooks.com recipe - a few changes that make them much better ;)
1.5 C italian bread crumbs
1.5 C almond meal/flour (I use bob's red mill - I buy it in bulk from amazon - much cheaper than the grocery store usually!)
1.5 c. grated colby cheese
1 chopped onion
1 t garlic powder
4-5 eggs
a couple of shakes of worcestire sauce
1 pkg. (1.5 oz) pot roast seasoning
Mix everything together and form into balls (I get about 35 1" balls) and brown in a pan before baking for 20 minutes at 350.
1.5 C almond meal/flour (I use bob's red mill - I buy it in bulk from amazon - much cheaper than the grocery store usually!)
1.5 c. grated colby cheese
1 chopped onion
1 t garlic powder
4-5 eggs
a couple of shakes of worcestire sauce
1 pkg. (1.5 oz) pot roast seasoning
Mix everything together and form into balls (I get about 35 1" balls) and brown in a pan before baking for 20 minutes at 350.
I make a simple gravy from onion soup mix, low sodium/low fat cream of mushroom soup and water to pour over them while they bake but like I said, you could easily substitute these into any other recipe that calls for meatballs.
those sound really good! we only eat meat once, maybe twice, a week now. there are so many tasty vegetarian recipes. we don't eat tofu or tvp either and are still totally satisfied. thanks for sharing the recipe. i wanna try these. have you read any of michael pollan's books?
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