good is dead

My apologies to my (very) small readership for the lack of updates.  The semester has just started and for the past two weeks so many people have been staying at our house that I haven’t been using the kitchen much.  I’ve also been a bit out of my head lately and haven’t been in any kind of mood for baking [gasp!].. but enough excuses.

One yummy thing I figured out how to make recently was vegetarian sausage and gravy over biscuits.  I had it for breakfast Sunday morning after a seriously detrimental night to my liver, and it was exactly what I needed to snap out of the haze for the day.  I’d been craving it after a spike of braising in my life.. I’ve been all over the place braising carrots and parsnips, broccoli and beans, tomatoes and onions.. you name it, i’ve braised it.  Sometimes after braising the vegetables (which I did in a little olive oil, veggie broth and sherry), I would use the liquid to make a white gravy to pour over them (adding milk and a little flour or corn starch).  

This was working out so well for me.. and the sausage gravy and biscuits had turned out so good.. that I decided to try a little lunchtime variation today.  I nixed the olive oil on this one because I plan on using a lot of it later in my dinner plans and this was still delish.

Vegetables and “Sausage” Gravy over Brown Rice

• 1/2 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1/4 cup green bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium carrot, chopped pretty smallish.. less than 1 inch segments
• 1 small tomato, seeded and diced
• 1 or 2 vegetarian “sausage” patties (I use Morningstar, of course)
• 1/2 – 1 cup vegetable broth
• a few tablespoons flour
• a few tablespoons milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• a few tablespoons grated parm
• 1 cup instant brown rice, cooked

Place vegetables (except tomatoes) in a large saute pan with a lid over medium high heat.  Pour in 1/2 cup vegetable broth and cover until carrots are soft (about 10-15 minutes if you cut them small enough), keep an eye on it as you might need to add more broth.  

While this is cooking, saute the sausage in a small pan until it’s cooked through (you can start them for about 20 seconds in the micro, if you like).  Let it cool and shred it up with a fork (I’m going to take this opportunity to praise Morningstar for these sausages as they are by far the most realistic looking and tasting fake meat product I’ve ever used, end plug).  Add the sausage and tomatoes to the cooked vegetables and, if necessary, add enough broth to make sure there is a scant 1/2 cup in the bottom of the pan.  

Add one or two tablespoons of milk (depending on how white you want your sauce) then, one tablespoon at a time, add the flour until the broth thickens to a gravy.  Add a little salt and crack a ton of black pepper into that guy. Turn the whole lot out over a bowl of rice and sprinkle some parm on top.  

Awesome-o.

Serves: 1
Ready in: 20 minutes 

By the by.. I also apologize for what will be a ridiculous influx of zucchini based dishes in the coming weeks.  The entire world has been pawning them off on me.. there’s even one on the counter right now because they just don’t all fit in my fridge.  

And speaking of grumpy-feel-better kind of food, I think a chocolate banana smoothie is calling my name.