Vegetarian Food My Kids Will Eat: Vegan Tacos

Since becoming a vegetarian, family meal times have been rather lacking around here. I love for all of us to sit down and eat together at least a few times a week, but when Chris and I are usually eating something different than the kids, we tend to let them eat first and feed ourselves later. My goal is to find more meals that everyone will eat so we can once again enjoy dining together. Besides grilled cheese sandwiches and pasta! It's too bad we didn't start this vegetarian stuff years ago, because then the little munchkins would have grown up with tofu and meat substitutes.

I hope to make this a regular feature on the blog. Maybe that will inspire and motivate me to find recipes and actually cook!

Fantastic World Foods

Today I'm going to start with something totally easy, and a kid-pleaser to boot. Chris found Fantastic World Foods Vegan Taco Filling at Meijer. I have yet to find it at Kroger, but I haven't looked all that hard because Chris keeps buying it from Meijer*. We have had this as a family a couple times, and the kids devour it. Well, Mathilda is a wild card but she barely eats anyway, so we won't count her.


This meal couldn't be simpler, seriously. It is a box mix, so essentially you add the contents of the box to boiling water, reduce heat, and simmer for 5-6 minutes. When it's done, it kind of resembles ground beef. From here you can make it your own and eat it as you would any normal taco. We spoon it onto soft flour or corn tortillas and add freshly shredded cheese and chopped lettuce, sour cream optional. Chris and I also add cooked black beans and chopped fresh tomato, but the kids aren't going that far yet. Obviously, because of our additions (cheese and sour cream), this is not a vegan* meal for us. But if vegan is your thing, you could easily use vegan substitutes and make this meal work.

There is a long list of ingredients, which I try to avoid, but most of these are spices and seasonings. It has a great mild taco flavor (not spicy). Also, in case allergies are an issue, please note that this taco filling may contain wheat and soy. Here is some more info you might be interested in:

• 100 calories and 1 gram of fat per 1/4 cup serving (0 g trans or saturated fat)
• Good source of iron (15% daily value) and protein (12 g)
• Kosher

Also of note, the box says that it contains approximately 4 servings, but all 6 of us ate this, some having seconds, and there was enough left for Chris and I to eat for lunch the next day.

And another thing. I don't believe that we are somehow morally obligated to supply our kids with a grocery list of ingredients for every meal we feed them. We don't lie to them, but we certainly didn't make it a big deal to them that they were about to eat a vegetarian meal, which for whatever reason, automatically renders a meal inedible in the mind of many kids. Once everyone was seated around the table and it was clear this dinner was a winner, we did mention it was vegetarian. We wanted them to realize that vegetarian food can taste good!

If you have any kid-friendly vegetarian dishes you'd like me test out on my family and feature on MichiGal, drop me a line or leave a comment!


*Chris and I kind of split the grocery shopping. He's a Meijer guy, I'm a Kroger gal.

** Vegan food excludes any animal products, including dairy.

Meatless Monday! #4 (Finally!)

We actually did our fourth week of Meatless Monday a couple weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to post about it. And then we haven't really been keeping up with it, though I'd like to. Actually tonight we had grilled cheese sandwiches and sweet potato fries, so indeed that does qualify as a Meatless Monday. Excuse my scattered brain.


Anyway, for our final Harmony Valley sponsored Meatless Monday we made something we make often that we call "taco bake", simply substituting the ground sirloin we normally use with Harmony Valley Vegetarian Hamburger Mix.


First I prepared the mix as directed on the package. Then I browned it in a skillet and added taco seasoning, exactly as if I were making taco meat. Using a round baking dish, I layered flour tortillas, the browned vegetarian hamburger mix, cheese, and fresh diced tomatoes. So I wound up with several layers of tortillas, with alternating layers of hamburger mix and cheese. I added the tomatoes to the hamburger mix layers. The top tortilla was covered in cheese. Then I baked it in a 350 degree oven until the cheese was nicely melted and just slightly browned. 

(apparently I forgot to take pictures, oops!)

The outcome was okay. The kids didn't even say one word about dinner tasting different. Chris and I tasted the difference for sure. I think I could get used to it, but maybe because it's a dish we make frequently and we're used to it tasting a certain way, the difference was way noticeable to us.

Here are the other Meatless Monday dinners we made using Harmony Valley vegetarian mixes:

• Pasta with vegetarian meatballs
• Pizza topped with vegetarian sausage
• Breakfast sandwiches made with vegetarian sausage

If you're interested in vegetarian cooking, the Harmon Valley website has several great recipe ideas. And thanks once again to Harmony Valley for giving me this opportunity to try vegetarian food and get hooked on the idea of at least one meatless dinner a week.

I was provided with complimentary Harmony Valley products for review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own.

Meatless Monday! Week 3

Thanks to the good people at Harmony Valley, I've been nudged to try something new - Meatless Monday. This is the third Monday in a row that I've used Harmony Valley vegetarian meat substitutes to prepare dinner. 


The first week, I made vegetarian meat balls with Harmony Valley Vegetarian Hamburger Mix and mixed with pasta. 


The second week, I made homemade pizza from scratch and topped it with browned and crumbled Harmony Valley Vegetarian Sausage Mix. 


This week, I made breakfast sandwiches for dinner. First I made some baking powder biscuits. These are very simple and quick. I use a recipe from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook.

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder (if using self-rising flour, omit)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
2. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or two knives.
3. Add milk and stir until soft dough forms (it will be sticky).
4. Drop by 12 spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 450 F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from the cookie sheet.

While these were baking, I formed the prepared Harmony Valley Vegetarian Sausage Mix into small patties and browned them for a few minutes over medium heat. When the biscuits were done, I made the eggs. I simply whisked together four eggs and a little milk, poured them into a non-stick skillet, and when the egg began to form around the edges I used my spatula to separate it into sections and flipped each section over as it was ready. The consistency is sort of that of a flat omelette. There is no method to my egg cooking, but the eggs come out well for sandwiches this way. I cut each biscuit in half horizontally, added a sausage patty, some egg, and some cheese.

Chris went out for the evening before dinner was ready, so he didn't get to try this. The kids seemed to like it. Connor had seconds and then finished Mathilda's. Nobody complained. No one noticed that they were not eating real sausage. I personally didn't love the flavor of the sausage, but it wasn't bad. I'm not sure if other spices can be added to it to alter the taste a little, but it would be worth playing around with it. Most importantly, I felt good feeding my kids a healthier breakfast sandwich. I would eat it again, it just didn't have any of that savory sausage flavor that I was looking for.

All in all, I've been pleasantly surprised by my adventures in meatless cooking. I'm especially pleased that my kids haven't complained or even seem to have noticed the absence of real meat. I wonder what I'll make next Monday...

Meatless Monday! Week 2

Last week I did my first Meatless Monday post, and today I'm back at it again. As I mentioned last week, Harmony Valley provided me with some of their vegetarian meat substitute products to sample and review. 


This week I used the Harmony Valley Vegetarian Sausage Mix and made a pizza from scratch for dinner. I used a recipe I love from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.






Italian-Style Pizza Dough

• 1 package of regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1/2 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin or regular olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in half of the flour, the oil, salt, and sugar. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and springy. Grease large bowl with shortening (I used spray). Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in warm place 20 minutes. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 48 hours. (If dough should double in size during refrigeration, gently push fist into dough to deflate.)

Move oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425 F. Grease cookie sheet or 12-inch pizza pan with oil. Press dough into a 12-inch circle on the pan. Press dough from center to edge so the edge is slightly thicker than center.

Then I brushed some olive oil onto the crust and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Next I lightly spread some natural canned pizza sauce onto the crust and topped with mozzarella cheese (a little less than a 2-cup pouch). I prepared the Vegetarian Sausage Mix as directed on the package, and then browned it in a non stick skillet. Lastly, I sprinkled the crumbled Vegetarian Sausage Mix on top of the cheese, and baked the pizza for about 20 minutes.

Once again, I didn't tell anyone they were embarking on a Meatless Monday meal. And no one noticed. Everyone gobbled it up. I told Chris later and he was really surprised. I think the Vegetarian Sausage Mix tasted more like real meat than the Vegetarian Hamburger Mix I used last week (I made meatballs with it). However, maybe it was just the particular recipes I used. The hamburger mix seemed to me to have a little bit of an after taste that I didn't notice with the sausage mix. 

I have quite a bit of the cooked sausage mix leftover, so I think I'll try adding some to egg frittatas this week. 

Thanks to Harmony Valley Foods for providing me with these samples and encouraging me to try something new!