Sequestration Meal #626

 

I wanted stuffed peppers, but I didn't want the oven on; also, I was feeling a bit low on energy. So this slow cooker stuffed pepper casserole from Plantfully Based was a perfect solution. Because this is a low spend month, I made my own TVP-based sausage to use in the dish, rather than adding prepared sausages.

Alongside the casserole, I had boiled "buttered" potatoes with chives and some steamed broccoli.

This time, the slow cooker recipe cooked the meal in time--a mixture of quinoa and short grain white rice is easier to convince to soften than the brown rice or barley I've made in the last few rounds of slow cooking. It did turn out far more liquidy than I would have liked, so I cooked it for a while with the lid off while I was prepping my veggies. I suspect that was because I had already rehydrated my TVP. I probably should have just put in the TVP with my Italian sausage seasonings, and it would have been perfect. But hey. It was a delicious meal, even if it looks a bit like sludge, and it required very little of my attention. The hardest part was probably chopping up the peppers.

If I had it to do again, I'd add the peas at the same time as I added the cheese, so they would stay a bit greener, but you live and you learn and you roll with it, right?

Because I was having a kind of "loose" main dish, though, I decided not to have mashed potatoes, which would be my usual accompaniment for stuffed peppers. Instead, I just boiled some Yukon gold potatoes, skins and all, tossed them with some vegan butter and salt, and served them with a generous sprinkling of chives from my kitchen window. That way, the meal had structural contrasts.

The chives, incidentally, are probably the very best herb plant I purchased this year. I have always previously tried to grow chives from seeds, and I get a little bit of chives that way but never really get the plant to thrive. But buying that chives plant has kept me in chives, as much as I have wanted, for months. That was a great $3 spent.

Broccoli is broccoli. It's easy and cheap and I enjoyed it.