Sequestration Meal #475

 

A simple meal: Salad made from romaine, red onion, a bit of chopped tomato, bac'n bits, and croutons that is dressed in a creamy lemon dill dressing (recipe from Go Dairy Free using Vegenaise for the mayo); buttered (margarined?) whole wheat toast, and my first attempt at veganizing an old favorite--sausage and lentil casserole.

The casserole is from Eating Well Serves Two (2006) by Jim Romanoff. I used to make it often, but I hadn't at all since becoming vegan. Since I had some Impossible sausage, I decided to use that recipe to riff off and make this version. It's not as good yet as I remember, but it's getting there! Sausage, lentils, spinach, onions, and brown rice baked together in some veggie broth topped with some non-dairy cheese. A bit of flaky sea salt helped matters, but I think the main issue is that I wanted more sausage--instead of getting a bit every few bites, I wanted the sausage to be more a part of the dish. But that's no problem; I can definitely try that next time (and there will be a next time).

The original recipe used instant brown rice and canned lentils; here I used brown rice I'd cooked in my rice cooker, but did use canned lentils, too. But canned lentils are weirdly hard to find, and even more weirdly cost about three times what any other canned beans do if I do find them. So when I make my own version I expect it to be perhaps a bit more involved, and start out with dry lentils and dry rice, but that could be just another way to infuse more flavor.

I know this doesn't really look that exciting but it was good and it got some food in me, which is not always easy. Here's to having the strength to keep going, even when things are incredibly hard.