Rich Vegetable Stock

Another success! I made yummy vegetable stock a few weeks ago. It made so much I gave 1/3 to my grandmother, 1/3 to my Mom, and 1/3 I froze into ice cubes.

Megan’s Vegetable Stock

Vegetables:

• 2-3 T vegetable oil
• 2 large carrots – cleaned, peeled and chopped into 2-in segments
• 2-3 large celery stalks (with leaves, if you want) – cleaned and chopped into 3-in segments
• 1 small head of garlic – peel off skin and pull out 6-8 garlic cloves. Cut cloves in half (don’t crush or dice).
• 1 large white onion – peel off skin and cut into 6 large pieces. With your hands pull the segments apart.
• 3 heaping T of tomato paste
• Potatoes – scrubbed clean. I used 6 small white potatoes quartered with skin on.
• 10-14 cups hot water
• Approx 1 ½ T salt & ½ T black pepper
• 1 T lemon juice

Directions:

1.      Clean vegetables. Cut into segments as described above.

2.      In a really big pot with a lid, heat up 2-3 T of vegetable oil over medium-medium high heat. Add carrots, celery, onions, and garlic. Fry until carrots start to brown and onions and celery start to turn translucent. Approx. 10 minutes.

3.      Add tomato paste, stir until it coats vegetables. Approx. 2 minutes.

4.      Add hot water until the water level is 2 inches below top. Make sure to scrape the bottom and stir well.

5.      Add potatoes, 1 T salt, ½ T pepper, and 1 T lemon juice. Stir.

6.      Bring to boiling. Turn heat down as low as possible.

7.      Watch continuously. Stir every 3-5 minutes and scrape the bottom.

8.      After 30 minutes, test it. Add additional salt, if desired. I also added 1/3 stick of butter at this point (I like butter, but you don’t have to).

9.      Cook 5 more minutes. Turn heat off and move to back burner. Cover. Every 10-15 minutes, stir, until cool.

10.  Separate out the vegetables using a colander and ladle. Be careful. The vegetable broth will stain plastic and make sure little kids/dogs aren’t around (you don’t want to be spilling 8-10 cups of stock!). You can eat the vegetables, but I didn’t. I pulled them out, let them cool, and stuck them in a Ziploc bag for my gram.

11.  Make sure to let it cool to room temp before putting it in the fridge. It will be opaque and reddy-orange. You can dilute it down with hot water if desired.

Fine, Call Me a Vegan

I’m most definitely not a vegan. Do you know how darn near impossible that is? You would basically be eating raw tofu and vegetables and you would have to make your own bread.

Seriously.

Take your favorite cereal and look at the ingredients. Do you see gelatin? Yes? Not vegan.

How about your favorite yogurt. Do you see gelatin? Yes? Not vegan.

How about Poptarts? Yes? Not vegan.

How about Morningstar Farms vegetarian substitutes? Are they specifically listed as “Vegan”? If not, they aren’t.

Getting to a point…I promise.

I get too mad trying to clarify what a vegetarian IS and ISN’T. It’s even worse for what a vegan IS and ISN’T.

So, I’m not getting mad anymore and I’m tired of correcting people.

It’s bad enough trying to defend my beliefs to people on why I don’t eat meat, that I’m not going to starve to death (that should have happened 9 years ago), or if, say, I eat chicken and fish (NOT vegetarian).

As long as you know I don’t eat meat, it’s ok to call me a vegan. Just don’t expect that batch of oatmeal raisin cookies to NOT have a cup of butter in them (most deceptively “healthy” cookie ever, lol).

*Note: Disregard the comment about the yogurt…in and of itself it’s not vegan. Duh.

Vegetarian Sloppy Joe’s

I have just finished eating one of my favorite meals EVER. However, it had been 10 years since I had it because that’s how long I’ve been a vegetarian.

Let me just preface this recipe with a little history. I became a vegetarian because of the cruel ways the animals are raised, kept, and slaughtered. When I feed Clint chicken or eggs I really try to find companies that are free-range and vegetarian fed.

I have spent the better part of a decade finding yummy meat-substitutes that TASTE LIKE meat and I can COOK WITH. I’m only now starting to get good at reproducing my Mom’s recipes.

Vegetarian Sloppy Joe’s

Ingredients:

1 bag Morningstar Farms “beef” crumbles

2 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp Heinz red wine vinegar

1 tsp salt and pepper, to taste

1 large can Contandina tomato puree

1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Cut Morningstar Farms bag open and microwave up to 2 minutes to defrost crumbles.

2. Brown crumbles in butter approximately 3-5 minutes. Once browned add onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper, and red wine vinegar. Mix well and cook 1-2 more minutes.

3. Add tomato puree. Stir until mixed well. It will look “soupy” at this point. Heat until it starts to bubble. Turn down to low and put a lid on the pot slightly askew (to let the water boil off, but preventing your stovetop getting covered in red spots).

4. Keep an eye on it, stirring every 2-3 minutes. After 10 minutes, add brown sugar. Cook another 10 minutes.

5. Taste test it. I added another 2 tbsp brown sugar at this point. Now, the tomato should have thickened to look almost like a stew. Turn the heat down as low as possible. Cook another 5 minutes and viola!

6. Spoon over hamburger buns and enjoy. Tater tops go good as as a side.

**Note: These brands are the ones I prefer to use. Morningstar Farms crumbles look and have the best “meat” texture that I have found. I’m not getting paid to endorse them, but I would gladly accept coupons! (Hint hint Kellog’s company.)