Sloppy Sams

Tonight’s omni friendly meal is something that I found at Allrecipes.com this summer, it’s called Sloppy Sams. Basically it’s just a “sloppy joes” variation that you see all over the place. These recipes either use tofu, tempeh or TVP most commonly; however this one uses lentils. It doesn’t specify the type, so I just use regular brown lentils, but even red lentils would be fine. Just don’t cook what ever lentil you use so long that they break down, since in this dish the lentils are the meat replacer. It also has chili powder, which I used to just leave out; but now use smoked paprika in its place. This is another recipe that makes a ton of food, but if you need to feed an army and do it quickly, again this is the recipe for you. Since the lentils take 30 minutes to cook, if you start the sauce when they are half-way done, the whole thing won’t take you much longer the 45 minutes max. Tonight we had it with corn, since this is one of the few vegetables that my T.B. will eat willingly and I also had some Harvard Beets.

Harvard Beets are basically just sweet & sour beets. The recipe I used is from Vegweb.com, but again recipes for it can be found all over the web. It is just sliced beets (buy them that way in a jar, it saves you lots of trouble), a sweetener, an acid and some cornstarch. The liquid from the beets is mixed with the other ingredients till thickened and the sliced beets are added in and heated till warm. I never really liked beets till I had them this way, and may never eat them any other way again. If my mom could see me eating these, she would probably not believe it; since I was a picky eater as a child and would never eat beets.

That is all for today. I am still working on the tutorial for the Burmese Tofu, but hopefully should be able to get it up tomorrow.