An Introduction to Our Kitchen and Our Favorite Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Okay.  Okay.  I know that some of you are readers of other blogs that are high in cooking content right now and the last thing you really care about is another recipe.  I get it.  The thing is, I had this post all set to go up this morning, and since we’re trying to roll out a lot of new changes in a short period of time around here, I thought, “what the hell, we don’t share that many readers.”  I could be wrong, it’s happened once before.

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We have a few friends out there in the cyberspace who are interested in what our kitchen is like.  I don’t mean what our cabinets look like or what kind of counter top we have, but what we eat and how we shop, store food, and prepare meals.  I’m a little baffled by this since it all seems pretty normal to me, but there have been requests and I am woman for the people.  In response we’ve created this corner of our blog to share some of our methods, recipes, ideas, inspiration, and complete failures (of which there are many).  Each kitchen post will be categorized under “Cook” to make them easy to find if you’re looking for something specific, or easy to browse if you aren’t.

A few points that might head off some confusion:

1. Our kitchen is vegan.  Which means that we eat plants and things that come from plants and that’s about it.  I don’t buy milk, cheese, butter, eggs, or meat.  It’s a choice that we make for health reasons, to avoid putting all the nasty that comes along with animals and their products into our bodies, and not for animal rights or environmental reasons.  So, don’t ask me if we still wear leather.  (we do)

2. When I say “vegan” what I really mean is “mostly vegan”.  Mostly because we still use some non-vegan things, like honey, and occasionally I find that a box of Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies has made it’s way into the cabinet.  But, I love Cheddar Bunnies and the kid would eat nothing but Cheddar Bunnies if he were allowed, so sometimes we compromise.  Our compromises never include meat, however.

3. I generally make our meals from scratch.  There are, of course, exceptions to this too.  While we don’t buy packaged meals I do use some frozen veggies and frozen out of season fruits, as well as canned beans.  We also buy our breads instead of making them, and had you ever seem my attempts at bread making you’d know why.  Cooking the way we do takes time, but it’s worth it.  Our non-traditional diet means that the drive-thru window and the freezer aisle aren’t exactly options for us, but what we lose in convenience we make up for in health.

4. Almost none of the normal products used for cooking are vegan, so there will be an occasional “plug” for a vegan version or option.  These will always be things that I use and like.

5. I’m an obsessive label reader.  Grocery shopping with me takes FOREVER.  Don’t be surprised if you read something about how we all went to the grocery store and Cody and Cheeks had to go to the car for a nap while I was in the cracker aisle.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I think I can continue.

This recipe for spaghetti sauce is the first vegan recipe that made our favorites list.  It’s a combination of my old spaghetti sauce recipe (that had ground beef in it) and one that I found in Quick Fix Vegetarian.  It’s easy, filling, and delicious and we love it with steamed or sauteed veggies and some bread.  I reduce (or eliminate) the red pepper flakes because Cheeks won’t eat it if it’s too spicy, but it’s great even without the kick.

Easy-Pleasy Lentil Spaghetti

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15oz can lentils, drained and rinsed (or 1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked dried lentils if you don’t like canned lentils)
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can diced tomato or 1 or 2 fresh tomatoes, diced (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic, cooking until onion is translucent.  Stir in the lentils, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes, heat through and simmer for up to 1 hour.
While you’re whipping up that simpleness put a pot of water on to boil, add a splash of olive oil, and boil up some spaghetti noodles.  You can mix it all up in a bowl to serve family style or dish it out individually, either way sprinkle some minced parsley on top.  Yum.