Day 23 Or... The Attack of the Tempeh

You may remember that I purchased tempeh at the Happy Meadow.

I had no idea what made good tempeh, but weeks ago I bought Lightlife three grain tempeh. It's basically cultured organic soybeans with organic millet, organic brown rice, and organic barley.

The package claims that this particular tempeh is "a light mellow tempeh that would grace even an emperor's table." Sounds nice doesn't it? On the package, there's even a nice little symbol that tells me that this is tempeh certified vegan by the Vegan Awareness Foundation.

I was beyond unsure of what to make with the tempeh, but we ended up making barbecue tempeh sandwiches on a skillet. The cooking process was really quick and simple and there were actually very few ingredients required, which was also a plus.


And as things were finishing up, the apartment smelled fantastic, if for no other reason than the fact that the tempeh was smothered in BBQ sauce and cooking with some onions and peppers.

But how did it taste? To be honest, it was only so-so. I can't describe how much more I enjoyed tempeh than tofu. The tempeh had a firm texture that did a decent job in emulating meat. However, in some bites I could really taste the brown rice and barley in this tempeh and eating barbecued brown rice is about as tasty as it sounds. Still, tempeh was certainly worth a try. Isaiah, as you can see from the picture, really liked it.

I may even cook tempeh another way before this project is through.

Now I just have to convince Carolyn to shop at the Happy Meadow again.

- What did I eat on Day 23?

Breakfast. Quaker Honey Graham Ohs. Oh yes.

Lunch. My parents took us to Cracker Barrel and I could tell my dad was a little nervous about my food options there. When he first suggested it, I assumed I could simply order a four-vegetable plate and be fine. However, I'm glad I did a little research.

You see, a quick search led to the following statement that also appeared on their dinner menu in small print: "We want to make sure you know that some of our offerings, like Turnip Greens, Green Beans, Corn Muffins, Hashbrown Casserole and Pinto Beans, are made the old-fashioned way using meat seasonings and are not strictly vegetarian." It turns out I couldn't order green beans or hashbrowns without traces of meat in my vegetable plate. How strange.

So, I just had some very delicious blueberry pancakes. If there are traces of meat in their pancakes, please don't tell me; I don't want to know.

Dinner. I moderately enjoyed new recipe #10: Barbeque Tempeh sandwiches from allrecipes.com. Additionally, I steamed some green beans and I also made new recipe #11, a simple dish of roasted potatoes from Wayne Brachman's book "See Dad Cook."

23 days down. 17 to go.