Stack-A-Dinner

On the weekend, a friend was mentioning that she really wanted to start making more whole food plant-based meals. The dilemma, she said, was the fact that she didn’t really know where to start and felt that it would take so much time and effort. This is a common concern and let’s face it we don’t all want, nor have the time, to pull off a complicated dinner every night!  I think most of us were generally brought up with meals that were centered around meat… Growing up, mine were generally one third meat, one third starch, and one third vegetables. It requires a shift in mindset to create a meal that is meatless. I think an easy way to start is to take old favorites and modify them to make them WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based).

As a child, my all-time favorite meal was a dish my mom called “Stack-A-Dinner”. It consisted of a layer each of rice, peas, ground meat, and grated cheese. Both my brother and I loved it when mom would make it.  As simple as it was, I remember even asking for it for my birthday parties. What can I say, I grew up in Saskatchewan – I lived a pretty sheltered life 😉 (Albeit an amazing one I would never trade in!)

I modified mom’s recipe by removing the ground beef and the cheese. Here is the recipe for my new, and improved “Stack-A-Dinner”. It’s loved by both my teenage daughters as well as my professional hockey player nephews! I hope your family loves it as much as ours does. I promise it is easy and perfect for these fall and winter days when you crave comfort food.

Stack-A-Dinner

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Serves: 6 Prep Time: 15 min Cooking Time: 45 min (rice) 45 min (rice)

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of Big Mountain Foods CauliCrumble Veggie Grounds (my personal favourite) or “Ground Round” by Gardein (Non GMO soy protein base), or a combination½ cup onion, diced1 clove garlic, diced8 ounces of tomato sauce¼ c water¼ cup organic ketchup6 drops of hot sauce½ t dried oregano¼ t fine Himalayan salt¼ t pepper1.5 cup frozen peas1.5 cup uncooked brown rice1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes or 1/2 cup grated vegan cheese such as Daiya (optional)

Instructions

1. Cook the brown rice according to the instructions.
2. In a frying pan, cook onions and garlic until slightly translucent. Add veggie meat mixture, tomato sauce, water, ketchup, hot sauce and spices. Cook on medium for 5-10 minutes.
3. Steam peas.
4. For each person, in a shallow bowl, layer; rice, peas,"meat"and "cheese". Serve hot! This is a very filling meal so it is nice served with a small salad, veggies for dipping, or steamed swiss chard so you get your greens!  

www.thevibrantveggie.com