The point of this post is definitely not to be like “Look What I Ate!” Trust me, I am aware that this is not 2007. But once in a while I get excited about something I’ve made out of whatever stuff I have lying around.
Plus I’m really excited about the little bowl I made today because it fits in with my MoFo theme this week in that it’s full of yummy and under-appreciated brown foods!
Allow me to introduce you to the Brown Bowl (with accents of green of course!):
You’ve got your quinoa, your steamed kale, tempeh sausage crumbles, and brown rice all in one! (Sorry the image is a little off-center…Wordpress and I are currently having a disagreement over photo-editing. And of course the rice looks white…sigh.)
Anyway, the bowl. It’s a super-yummy and healthy option for lunch or dinner! I suppose it doesn’t technically need a sauce but I like to have one. Here, I used straight-up sriracha but a tahini sauce would be amazing as well (specifically I’m thinking a sriracha-tahini sauce. Yeah, I’m obsessed.)
(And in this one everything is still off-center and looks yellow/orange. Grr.)
I used the recipe for Tempeh Sausage Crumbles from Vegan with a Vengeance (click for recipe). As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in the early stages of my tempeh appreciation. I’m loving this recipe as a cheap and versatile way to incorporate this protein- and iron-rich food into my diet. Seriously, a single serving of tempeh (1 cup) has 31 grams of protein. [Source: NutritionData.com] Compare to a serving of steak (3 oz., and who actually eats that little?) which has 23 grams of protein but is also served with an unattractive side of cholesterol [source].
My first go at the tempeh crumbles recipe made enough to feed me for something like 5 meals. Last week I packed it up with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes (left over from this recipe) and steamed kale.
I didn’t eat it in little perfect sections obviously. Here it is, all mixed up like 311:
Tempeh sausage crumbles…not just for brunch anymore!
A.Cook in the Making 
Here’s to brown foods! Although these days my meals are pretty colorful, I still clearly remember a dinner with friends back in the day, when I was so proud of the gorgeous “roast” I had prepared. My friend’s non-vegan husband said, “Everything you vegans make is brown.” That hurt. It wasn’t even true, and a roast is supposed to be brown. But still.
What a funny thing to say! Isn’t meat brown too??