September Vegan Food Swap And Gardein In The Slow Cooker

I'm still here, and I'm sorry I haven't posted much recently.  In my last post I mentioned things were going to slow down a little, but so far they haven't.  I guess maybe I just need to get used to my new normal.  :)

I'll start this post with my delayed September Vegan Food  Swap reveal.  As you know, in August I joined a Vegan Food Swap hosted by Cat at The Verdant Life.  I am having so much fun sending and receiving vegan food items.  This month I was paired with a non blogger named Saniel.  Saniel sent me a box filled with goodies from Trader Joe's.

I love getting and trying new things.  The Nothing But Banana Flattened is a really fun take on dried bananas, they are literally flat, and definitely yummy.  The bag of almonds is actually filled with individual packs of raw almonds, which is really handy for grabbing on the go.  The Corn Pasta is a gluten free pasta, and a nice change up from traditional pasta.  Popcorn is one of my all time favorite snacks.  Last, but not least, the little individual packets of Artisana Nut Butters.  Last month, I got two individual Artisana raw cashew butters with berries and acai in them, which I loved.  This month, I got raw almond, raw cashew, and raw walnut butters.  I had never tried walnut butter before, but now that I have, it needs to be a staple in my kitchen.  :)  I'm hoping we have it locally and I've just missed it.  Otherwise, I'll have to figure out how to get my hands on some.  Thanks again Saniel for sending me the awesome goodies!  

This is a bad pic, but I wanted to share a recent success story I had with Gardein Beefless Tips in the slow cooker (this picture is before cooking, dark morning light and flash being funky).  I was actually a little leery about how Gardein would work in the slow cooker.  I was afraid it wouldn't hold up and might even disintegrate during the long cooking process.  Looking online didn't yield a lot of information, so I decided to just go for it and give it a try (worse case scenario, I'd have PB&J for dinner).  My fears were definitely unfounded.  If anything, I think the slow cooking process made them even more palatable for non vegan husband.  This dinner was so good!  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it again.  As a matter of fact, the night we had this for dinner, my mouth was still watering two hours later remembering it.

My camera was really not cooperating with me that day.  Here it is on top of some brown rice, before I devoured it and went back for seconds (I seriously ate way too much).  Here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Beefless Tips (adapted from this recipe)

Serves 2 (very generously, probably 3-4 normal servings)

This could easily be doubled, not sure if cooking time would have to be adjusted

1 bag of Gardein Beefless Tips (I took them right out of the freezer, and put them in frozen)

1 T.Earth Balance (I used the coconut spread)

1 small onion or 1/2 of a large onion, cut in chunks

1 sweet potato, cut in chunks (my sweet potato was ginormous, so I only used a little over 1/2 of it, but assuming a normal size sweet potato, I would use a whole one)

1 can of coconut milk

2 T. fresh lemon juice

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 t. grated fresh ginger

2 t. brown sugar (I think agave or molasses would be nice here too)

1 t. curry powder

1 t. cumin

1 t. crushed red pepper flakes (this made for a nice amount of heat, but not over the top, it did make my nose run while eating it, so adjust accordingly)

1/2 t. ground coriander

Turn crockpot on and put earth balance in it while getting the other ingredients ready.  If it melts before you are ready to put everything else in great, if not, don't worry about it (mine wasn't all the way melted).  Put everything in the crockpot (I started with the Beefless Tips and pretty much just went down the line from the onion on) and give it a good stir to mix everything together.  Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.

Serve over brown rice or quinoa.

I'm confident this will be making many repeat appearances on my table.  Yum!

I hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy some of the Vegan MoFo posts out there.  I haven't gotten to read as many as I would like, but I am enjoying reading the ones I can.  I didn't sign up to participate, but I'm planning on posting more this month than I did last month.  :)