Meatless Meat

My friend Michelle recently gave me a hard time about meatless meat but you know what? I like it. Well, let me clarify - I like some of it. Morningstar Farms corndogs, Smart BBQ, Quorn "chick'n" Tenders, Boca Lasagna, all total yum. Lightlife makes some SmartDeli meat that is ... suitable in a pinch. Tofurkey Italian sausage? Fake hotdogs? I'll just say "blech" and that about sums it up. I think the Tofurkey Italian Sausages were even rejected as fish bait, to be completely honest with you. Just think about that for a second... Nasty.

Meatless meat has been a satisfying and simple way to modify some of my favorite foods and recipes to become meatless, while retaining a great deal of the texture and flavor I enjoy in my predominently carnivorous life. One of my favorite tricks is to take Cincinnati-Style Chili Seasoning and make Cincinnati-Style Chili using Morningstar Farms Crumbles instead of ground beef. Given the nature of the seasoning and the teeny-tiny crumbles of beef typical of Cincinnati-Style Chili, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. But let me tell you about how meatless meat ROCKED MY WORLD recently.

My step-mother often prepares a dish called "Windsor Egg Casserole" which I've written about in the past. Every trip I've ever taken to North Carolina has included Windsor at some point. It's one of those dishes that you prepare for guests and everyone asks for the recipe. It's scruptious, it's decadent, and it contains two cups of diced ham. This past weekend, I decided I needed to have some Windsor (seeing as how I was in NC and it's practically a tradition now) but just leaving out the meat would quite likely result in something soupy and generally unappetizing. But I had a plan. Instead of ham, I used Morningstar Farm sausage patties, cooked and then crumbled up. I used a full package of 8 patties and let me tell you something. It was something straight from heaven and I am so not kidding you. I am actually tempted to make Windsor like this from NOW ON. That (!) is how amazing this was.

So while Michelle may disagree, I'm not in any hurry to ban meatless meat from my diet at this point. In fact, I recently discovered another interesting blog called "Adventures in Fake Meat" of which I plan to become a follower and a student. Perhaps I will share my new Windsor recipe with the author. We shall see.