mama's vegan sloppy joes

mmm!

these are my absolute favorite thing in the world. usually i cook my own meals, breakfast lunch and dinner. So this is basically the only thing i let my mom make me, and i let her because it's so good.

she got the idea for the recipe in clean eating magazine, but the original magazine called for ground bison....whatever that is, or beef. so this recipe was swapped around for tempeh instead of meat, and agave nectar for honey. also for the sauce, it comes with a delicious marinara sauce, that you can put on other things beside the sloppy Joe's,

Mama's tempeh sloppy Joe's

•  1 tsp olive oil,
• 1 package of fermented soy, aka tempeh
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 3/4 tsp mustard powder
• 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
• 1 sweet red pepper chopped
• 1 medium green zucchini diced
• 1 medium yellow squash diced
• 1 and 1/2 cups of marinara sauce (recipe below)
• 1 tbsp agave nectar

in a large pan in medium heat, cook the tempeh and the cloves and garlic and tsp of oil and cook until browned, and add the Chile powder mustard and cayenne and set aside in a separate bowl.

 in the skillet and saute' the red pepper , squash and zucchini, and add the tempeh, garlic, and and onions and mix together for about 10 to 12 minutes again.

finally add the marinara sauce and 2 tbsps of water and cook until the sauce is hot and bubbling, serve on a bun and you're done!

Marinara sauce

• 5cups of canned, jarred diced or strained plum tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
• 2 celery ribs diced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 fresh sprigs of oregano with the stems removed
• 8 basil leaves
• 1/8 tsp Chile flakes (optional)
• 1 tbsp raw agave
• salt and pepper to taste

in a medium sauce pot heat oil over medium high heat add garlic ,onion, carrots, and celery and saute' until onion becomes translucent and vegetables become soft, add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, and the Chile flakes, and let it sit and cook till it comes to a boil, for 45 minutes.

once done, and well cooked either use and immersion blender, or a food processor, and puree until smooth, and finally add the agave nectar in.

i love this dish, i think its good to make on a Sunday night, so you'll have something to eat for the whole week. it is in fact very reminiscent of sloppy Joe's mainly because it's so hard to keep in sandwhich!

it really reminds me of school lunches when you were a kid and it was sloppy Joe day at lunch, which is basically the only day i ate what they were serving, besides pizza day of course. 

i went through many food phases as a kid though, starting from when i was in grade school, where i went from eating nothing, to only eating peanut butter sandwiches with really processed peanut butter and gooey white bread (ew) 

in middle school i lived off of rice krispy treats, chocolate clodhoppers, and whatever goody they made in the cafe that day, ranging from 2 brownies,  2 cookies, or 2 slices of cake. i would only ever buy a real lunch unless it was sloppy Joe day, or pizza day, from dominoes (i would buy three slices and two brownies....how was i not fat?)

I've really changed a lot since then, but how about you?

was there a lunch you ate during grade school that you would never eat today? what abut weird food habits?

I'd love to hear!